He started out with many disciples. A lot of people began to follow Him as He stood up to preach and fulfill His ministry. But out of those many disciples, Jesus chose 12 who would come and live with Him and work with Him.

When they were ready He sent them out. Later on, Jesus gathered another group together; a larger group of 70, and He also sent them out.

Why? Because Jesus by Himself could not accomplish the task of preaching the good news, healing the sick, and preaching the Word. He was one person who could only do so much.

He needed others that He could train. And so He multiplied Himself firstly in the 12 and poured everything into them. He placed His anointing on them and sent them out.

He did it with the 70, but even that was not enough. And so just before He left this world, Jesus eventually multiplied Himself in the entire Body of Christ; the church of Jesus Christ.

On the day before He ascended, He gave what is known as the Great Commission which is given to every believer. He said in Matthew 28:19,

Because of this you should go out, and disciple all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit:

Jesus could not do this on His own. There was one thing He could do on His own and that was to die on the cross and pay the price. But for the actual work that Jesus needed to carry out, He needed others to do it with Him.

If you think you are such a good, strong leader that you can stand up and accomplish things by yourself, then you are better than Jesus.

Unfortunately, the leaders of this world tend to be strong driver temperaments who are used to doing things themselves.

They become impatient with others, and couldn't be bothered to train them or wait for them to catch up to them. They just go like a bull in a China shop and get things done. But you can only do so much as a single person.

The Apostle Paul started out that way, thinking he could conquer the whole Christian church all by himself. I think he still tried to do that afterward as an apostle.

However, he had to learn to work with others. He had to get in there and meet Peter, James, and all the other apostles and work with them.

He had to have at least one person with him, starting with Barnabas and later Silas. He could not do this task by himself.

Jesus and Prayer

What did Jesus do? After choosing His 12 disciples He spent time every day in prayer. He usually did this alone, but sometimes He did it in the presence of the disciples and He taught them how to pray.

That is where we get what is known as the Lord's Prayer. They watched Jesus praying and they said,

“Hey Lord, teach us to pray the way that you do.”

So Jesus gave them a pattern and said,

“This is the way.”

So what we call the Lord's Prayer is actually the Disciples' Prayer. We have done a bit of teaching on some of that which we are also going to make available.

Jesus preached everywhere. His task was to preach everywhere. When the Apostle Paul went out he did the same thing. He wore himself out saying,

“There are regions we haven't reached yet. There are places we haven't gone to yet.”

He had a missionary vision to reach the whole world. And whenever Paul did this, he traveled with a whole big band of people who were all experts in their own fields.

One of them was Luke the doctor. He had people who could write and record. He had a whole team, each of them with specialized abilities and they could work together and accomplish the task so much better.

It is the only way that the word of God could go out. It is the only way that the Great Commission could be fulfilled.

The Early Church

How did the early church work? Shortly after Pentecost, this is what they did. It says in Acts 2:42,

And they were continually studying the apostles' teachings, interacting socially together, eating meals together, and having times of prayer.

They met regularly. Fellowship with other people is very important. Even unbelievers know that, and social media is probably one of the most active things that take place on the Internet now that it has become a major thing that we use in our lives.

The important thing is that they became close to each other. They didn't just get together to be in a party environment, but they got to know one another very well.

When you sit and have a meal with somebody, it kind of breaks down barriers. You get to share with one another and you get to know one another better. It brings a kind of intimacy.

They followed the apostles' preaching. That means there had to be regular preaching and teaching of the Word. You don't just grow up knowing these things. They have to be taught to you.

The ministry of preaching and teaching is an essential part of our spiritual life. And no matter how much you know or how much you have grown, there are always new things to learn and there is always somebody that you can learn from.

So how can you be a loner in the work of God? How can you think that you can come to the place where you say,

“I know everything now and I am quite happy to teach everybody else. But me, I don't need anybody. I can do this thing all alone.”

No, you can't. The early disciples and the early church had regular times of prayer. Paul gave instructions to the church of Ephesus and he said this in Ephesians 6:18,

Praying at all [kairos] times with all kinds of prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and remaining alert in it with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

So how many kinds of prayer are there? Quite a few, and we have lots of teaching on that if you want to know more.

Paul gives quite a spread there of the kinds of things we should be doing when we come together to pray. But we don't have time, do we?

The Importance of Prayer

We need personal prayer as Jesus did. And we need group prayer where we stand together in agreement with others. We pray together and bring our petitions together to the Lord.

Well, sometimes we need to have a crisis before we wake up and realize how important it is.

The early church was no exception. They faced heavy persecution after healing had taken place. They wanted to arrest the apostles and throw them into prison, and they threatened them and sent them off.

They came together with all the other believers and shared it. And the Scripture says they united together as one in prayer. They cried out to God together.

They prayed with one heart and one mind. And as they prayed they quoted Scriptures in their prayer. They reminded God of His promises and of everything that He said He would do.

Did they ask God for boldness so that He could do what He wanted to do? No, so that they could do what God wanted them to do.

Stop praying for God to do the job. Start praying that you will get the courage and the boldness to get out there and do what He has told you to do.

Then they said, “Lord, we want your anointing. We want signs and wonders to be done in the name of Jesus. Oh Lord, move.”

The Scripture says that after praying like that for a while, something very dramatic took place. It says in Acts 4:31,

And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.

They went out and became so bold that they didn't care if they lost their lives while preaching the gospel. The early church survived because they did it together.

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