Peter Brandon shares insights from John 20 and Acts 2, emphasizing the transformative power of the resurrection of Christ. He illustrates how Jesus' appearances changed sorrow into joy, barrenness into fruitfulness, and fear into peace, highlighting the importance of prayer in experiencing God's presence. Brandon encourages believers to recognize that nothing can keep out a resurrected Christ, who can penetrate even the closed doors of our hearts. He also reflects on the significance of the ninth hour of prayer, linking it to the power of the Holy Spirit and the unity of believers. Ultimately, he calls for a deeper commitment to prayer as a means to witness God's movement in the church.

I thought that the Lord would have me to share one or two thoughts from John chapter 20. John chapter 20 and we shall read from verse 19. And whilst we're finding the place, let me just give a little outline. There are 13 resurrection manifestations in the scripture. And every resurrection appearance has attached to it a profound spiritual lesson. If you look at it very carefully, you will find that all the resurrection appearances have a transforming effect. For instance, when Mary came to the sepulchre and eventually discovered that her Lord was no longer the gardener but the risen Christ, He changed sorrow into joy. The disciples were totally barren. They had caught nothing. On one word from that risen Saviour and He changed barrenness into fruitfulness. The two on the road to Emmaus changed spiritual darkness, changed fear, day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were and stood in the midst and said unto them, peace be unto you. So said He showed unto them His hands and His side. And they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus to them again, peace be unto you. As my Father hath sent me, even so receive ye the Holy Ghost. Sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them. A short narrative of this narrative. We find that it falls beautifully into four sections. We see the time of His appearance. You'll see the complications. First of all, that the same day Jesus said to Mary, seven devils, there was hardly a day that she met the Saviour and He transformed her. And now on the occasion of His resurrection He turns to her and says, Woman, the scripture that's figurative. Woman is the masterpiece, is the church of God. He's going to present the church to Himself without spot. The church will be. She comes out as still the bride. Married for more than 40 years. The signs of old age grip the body. Simply means inspected and they were all little boys. But in that day disqualify you. Is the idea of perfect immaculate beauty. Rejoice your heart. Closing in upon them. And rested and crucified. And see the paper headlines. Scared and frightened. Pressing in upon our spirits. That it's in the darkness the Lord comes. Now I do not want to be spectacular. But I want to say this with tremendous soon the darkness is going to be shattered by the manifestation of His presence in the sea. In our upper room a manifestation of the glory. And here we see the subtle. Not seen in the judgments that came because of the holy severity of God. Demonstration of power was not seen even in the time of Egypt. When He brought His judgments through the medium of praying. Was seen in the resurrection of Christ. Now from the dead He was called the first fruit of His resurrection. But more. You would hear a summary of human weakness and fear. Stand up in a prayer meeting and pray. But they can simply say thanks. Fear has been opened through the one said this to you. You see that handful of. You see nothing can keep out a resurrected Christ. He came through the grave. That was new. Of the sepulcher without the stone being rolled away. Because the rolling of the stone away from the sepulcher was not to let the Savior out. But to let the disciples in. Not saved. And there might be a wife. And your husband is not saved. And sometimes you look at those loved ones. And they are all bolted in. They have dragged down the shutters of their mind. They have closed the door of their heart. And they are determined never to be a Christian. And you begin to say well how can the Lord save them? Well praise God He can come through a closed door. Watch the movements of Saul in the last few chapters of the book of Acts. A shut in sinner. He was determined never to be a Christian. He was determined never to be a Christian. He was determined never to be a Christian. He was determined never to be a Christian. He was determined never to be a Christian. a living soul. Man's disobedience, many were made sinners. And thus the human race, known as the Adamic race, all fell because of the headship of man. On the human family, society called the church the saviour eternally. And very soon we're going to reign with one that was filled with the spirit. Would you mind if I pointed, not that I want to be rude, but to make this practical and personal. You lovely young men, supposing every one of you was filled with the spirit. Explosions. Lots of people already died. This is tinged with humour. Johnny's saying, what Johnny's saying, there was only one Thomas. But there's going to be thousands of people like him. 120 in the upper room when the 380. God speaks, be there. But the spirit, seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. Chapter 3, and we shall see, from his mother's womb was carried, whom they led to seeing Peter and John, expecting to receive something of them. Then Peter said, silver and gold have I none. His feet and ankle bones received strength. Up stood and walked and entered with them into the temple. Walking and people saw him walking and praising God. And they knew that it was he which sat for hours at the beautiful gate of the temple. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him, Lord Solomon. Greatly Peter saw it, he answered unto the priest, and why look ye as though by our own power of holiness we have made this man known to walk. And the Lord will bless to us the reading of that short portion of his words. This is the first recorded miracle in the book of the Acts. And quite frankly if you look at all the miracles that Dr. Luke records in the book of the Acts, every one is a constitutional case of healing. Not one is a psychological form of healing. And I suppose this man would be called a spastic. And therefore if the man lived today it would be the healing of a man who was a spastic. And that is supernatural. A spiritual lesson. That the miracles were first miracles. And I believe it's a lesson in opposition of the fellowship of Peter and John. Two people together just stop and search for the spiritual adjective. A course through clashes of the Peter's and John's. The introvert and the extrovert. We see these two people who are so different in temperament in local church activities. A course through this great problem. The clash between the extrovert and the introvert. I am quite sure even with theology an extrovert will see the minor point of theology in this way. An introvert will see it that way. And they will clash together. But how is it that two people so different in temperament a great text you will find blessing. In fact this may surprise you. Continuing steadfastly in prayer. Spirit of prayer. Acts 6 the apostles appoint deacons that they might give themselves up to prayer and to the ministry of God's work. Apostles come down and they lay their hands upon the Samaritan converts and when they do so in the spirit of prayer they receive the spirit of God. Acts 9 it says of Saul behold he is praying. Acts 10 Peter is praying. Cornelius is praying. Acts 12 Peter is in prison but the church is praying. Acts 13 the missionary enterprise began. You see by those simple observations that prayer is absolutely vital. To see a movement of the spirit of God be sure of this it will come through the prayers of God's people. If you want to tell the spirituality of any local church don't go to the worship meeting. At the same time as people pray for the dying souls of the lost be sure of this you are in a spiritual church. And let us pray that during this period God will teach us how to pray. Then you will notice it was the ninth hour and with this I'm going to close because it's a warm evening these particular verses are half way through you would all be suffering with dropsy so I'm not going to do that and you know what dropsy is? It's that nodding of the head that you get in a long exhausting meeting. But you will notice the time it was the ninth hour now please remember that. Now what was the ninth hour? Initially it was the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice. And that evening sacrifice was never a sin offering but a burnt offering. The ninth hour was that moment when the Lord Jesus was on the cross after experiencing three hours of darkness He cried with a loud voice My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? Now quite frankly that particular cry if it was not followed by another cry would put us evangelicals in deep water. Jesus uttered with a loud voice so that all could hear not a soft voice a loud voice He said with the same kind of apology It was dealt with to the satisfaction of God and we can say Hallelujah for that and exhausted it so that a Christian will pass perhaps through the article of death but he will never taste it. Why? Because he had tasted death for every man but more. Reconciliation so that Jew and Gentile that were always poles apart were united in the cross in one body. Reconciliation so that through his death there would come a moment in nature so that he would confide to God the sentence of eternal death for he by death destroyed him who had the power of death he than the devil. It's the hour of to use that term it's not a slogan we do love you in the Lord but many of our prayer meetings today are marked by boredom and depression and not victory. Now why? There is a time when we should be introspective if my people that are called by my name should humble themselves introspection when we have dealt with our sins God wants us to see ourselves in Christ wants us to appropriate Christ's children we come to him in the spirit of the victory of Calvary. This story in this country in fact I think I've only mentioned this on two occasions in my life as if this was publicly propagated. The invitation to give according to the invitation a lecture is the only moment, the place where they actually challenge the Protestants to theological debate and quite frankly it has been I don't think it is now but it was then the centre of a great political organisation so I went to my brethren in Victoria Hall and discussed the invitation and unanimously they said to me Peter your life is in jeopardy you must never go down the false road and discussed it with my wife and it seemed as though it was the will of the Lord for us to go. So I wrote three letters one to Andrew my elder boy the other to Philip and to my wife and I left them on the bed. Of course that was all unbelief on my part the British Army and eventually we came to this large building and when we got inside there was a gigantic bingo session. There must have been 500 people and the balls were going up and down and he was saying 55, 56 stuck in the bricks and all that business and they were ticking off the winners. So then I walked right the way down the front and I was shown in a small room and I suppose there would be 50 people. Now can I say this to the Lord's people don't imagine that revival will take place with masses of Christians coming together. Sometimes some of our greatest revivals begin with just a few people. Let's not get this idea that everything that's big is beautiful. Somehow I begin to feel that God wants a nucleus that will really go the whole way. Well these Roman Catholics and there were a few Protestants they had been in prayer for two and a half hours by the time I got it. And then I was asked by a particular man to give just imagining they had been there two and a half hours and now they were asking me to give an address and that was at half past nine or a quarter to ten at night. Protestants I went in with both feet and I spoke on the once and for all offering to sin. Heard so many Amen's even in an assembly. And when I sat down I felt rather inflated. And then one young man got up I believe he was a priest he said we heard God speaking to us. Let's claim this once and for all sacrifice. And beloved in the Lord the prayers were beautiful. At half past eleven another man, Ephesians 2 explained that through the cross not only had the sin barrier been removed but the social barrier had been broken down between Jew and Gentile and there was one body and furthermore he brought in the great thought of Josiah and Jehoshaphat that when Jehoshaphat in particular called forth the musicians to play that's when God brought the victory. And he pointed out that God brought victory through praise and the gist of his ministry was this that when we see the divine side of the cross and see what Christ has done before God then we can really enter into victory. Now all I want to say is this they knew something of the ninth hour of prayer and I believe I can say this for the glory of God when they had prayed the place was shaken. Now don't misunderstand me I am not saying for one moment that the Roman Catholic doctrines and dogma of the mass is right, it is wrong. Now I want to make that clear but I do want to say this to you that God is opening the eyes of hundreds of Roman Catholics and they are being converted and they are entering into truth perhaps in a greater way than I suppose. Let's pray and I want to say this to you from the depths of my inner being let's pray that we shall enter into the ninth hour of prayer.