James Nisbet's Church Pulpit Commentary
Luke 1:10
THE CHURCH’S POWER
‘And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense.’
Both the parents of John, Zacharias and Elizabeth, were of the family of the Hebrew priesthood. For a long time the ministrations of this great sacerdotal order in the Temple service at Jerusalem had been distributed among twenty-four courses of priests, each course taking its turn for a week, and each having its own leader. At the time when the Evangelist’s narrative opens, Abia stood at the head of the eighth of these twenty-four courses, and Zacharias, the father of the Baptist, was officiating in his turn in that course.
Near the entrance of the Temple, outside what was properly the sanctuary, was the large altar of the daily sacrifice. Farther in toward the most holy place, very near to the veil of the covenant, stood another altar, with its crown of pure gold and its golden rings, on which one of the priests, chosen by lot, offered twice every day the sweet incense, which with its ascending smoke, in the beautiful language of John, is as ‘the prayers of saints.’ The fire which lighted this altar was always to be taken fresh from the outer altar, of the sacrifice for sin.
At the moment when the effectual work of propitiation and intercession was going forward within the Temple—what is seen without? The whole multitude of the people, bending in silent awe, seconding the priestly office and making it in some sense their own, joining their faith to the sacrifice, and lifting their hearts with the rising incense-cloud, are in supplication before God.
This can represent nothing else than the power of the united prayers of the Christian congregation, aiding and supporting the official work of the threefold ministry and the holy offices of the Church, in declaring Christ to the world.
The question thus brought before us, in its broadest form, is this: Are we using the devotional power of the Church in due proportion to its other powers?
I. The business of religion, therefore, is to bring offerings to Him and, in answer to our prayers, to take blessings from Him.—This is the first business of the Church. It sets open the channel of communion, where there is this incessant spiritual passing and repassing between the Infinite Heart of Love which is open there, and these hearts of ours, weak and struggling, uneasy and hungry, and sinning here. By this spiritual interchange our whole life opens a path into heaven, and the blessed life of heaven opens down upon us. So we stand, in this sacred and redeemed creation, always at a temple door. It is as if the scene at Jerusalem were reproduced in its Christian and everlasting reality. The whole multitude of the Church below is on its knees.
II. Every movement of religious life among us must get its power and direction from the Spirit of God.—Every contrivance of ecclesiastical or parochial wisdom, of energy, even of piety, is nothing but a making ready for this Spirit. The amount of spiritual product is exactly in proportion to the coming into all our organisations of that living Spirit of God. And the degree of that coming and power again, will be exactly in proportion to the fervency and the frequency of prayers that are offered by believers around it.
III. Look into the Bible records of the beginnings and growth of God’s kingdom on the earth. On every spot where that kingdom struck root we see a group of men bending in prayer.—From page to page, in the Acts of the Apostles, the disciples are shown to us together looking upward. The whole fiery heart of the Church of Christ was in instant communication with its ascended Head. And what followed? Why, that was the period when the Church grew before men’s eyes with such swiftness that a thousand converts were gathered in the time that it takes us to gather ten: in the short lifetime of a single generation the worship of Christ raised itself to power in the chief cities of three continents; the swords of all the Herods and Cæsars and their legions could not strike fast enough to cut down one Christian while twenty sprang up; hundreds were baptized in a day; the times of refreshing had come—the prediction was literally accomplished—the windows of heaven were opened, and the blessing was so poured out that there was not room enough to receive it.
IV. All along since the last of the twelve laid down his life, this rule has never had an exception.—The Church has been both strong and pure, victorious abroad and peaceful within itself, just according to its devotional spirit of supplication; according to its devotional nearness to Christ its Head. That means and carries with it its separation from worldly-mindedness and its indifference to the worldly standards of success. Men have not been seen running about, till they first went into their sanctuaries and their closets, with stronger and heartier cries for the Spirit. They were not looking to each other for help, but to God.
V. A lingering doubt casts up its faithless suggestion at these words: ‘Is not the Church constantly praying? Yet where is the fulfilment of the promise?’—The answer is found under another word, ‘ the prayer of faith.’ We may be sure that the measure of such prayer is, sooner or later, the measure of the blessing we receive. We very often mistake the strength of our desire for the strength of our faith.
VI. Can we look on any side of us now, and not confess that the great need of Christ’s body is this need of Him?—The power, we have seen, can come only from Him, and comes only as we pray for it. The Church seems to stand, with her holy mysteries, very much as the Temple stood that day—the ark of promise and the altar of incense and of the one eternal sacrifice all safe and sure within. But is the multitude praying as that multitude prayed? Is it that prayer of yearning, and earnest and living faith for new spiritual gifts, which will not be denied? Light the lamps of faith, then, and watch. Kindle the fire of incense and wait—not sleeping, but ‘watching unto prayer.’