Acts 4:29–31 ‘And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.’
Gebed Zonder End
Sandwiched between an Italian restaurant and Tobacco Theater, just around the corner from the Nes and the Grimburgwal canal, sits a tiny alley called ‘Gebed Zonder End’ (Prayer Without End).
It’s barely 50 metres long, and it’s only just wide enough to fit a few small tables that sprawl out from the restaurant. It sits right in the heart of the city, you’ve probably even walked past it a few times and never known it’s there.
Despite its size, it speaks of a rich history in our city. Amsterdam was once a centre of catholic pilgrimage as faithful believers flocked here from across the continent having heard of the ‘Amsterdam Miracle’ in 1345.
Monasteries soon sprung up all across the young city, particularly along the Nes (now home to many Theaters’ including the aforementioned Tobacco).
As the Reformation hit Europe, Lutherans, Anabaptists and eventually Calvinists made their home in the city and power was slowly wrestled away from the Catholics and the Spanish rulers.
Amsterdam was already a city known for it’s tolerance and soon Jews and other persecuted groups gathered to the city, including the catholics who were allowed to worship in private.
The former catholic part of the city, with street names such as Gebed Zonder End and Bloed Straat (Blood of Christ street) soon became a predominantly Jewish area. That was until 1939 and the Second World War.
The number of Jews in the city went from a pre-war high of 100,000, to an estimated 10,000 just 6 years later. The decimated ‘Jewish district’ slowly became a home for the Red Light District. Though it has shrunk in size in recent years, Bloed Straat (opposite De Waag) is still the home to several brothels.
The devout, religious heart of our city, once committed to ‘Gebed Zonder End’… Is now following a completely different worship.
It might just now be a faint whisper in our city, but more than ever Amsterdam needs prayer without end.
Only by prayer
In Mark 9:28–29 Jesus disciples unsuccessfully pray for a demon possessed man. Following their failure, they asked Jesus:
“Why could we not cast it out?” And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.”
Both Tim Keller & Martyn Lloyd Jones quote these verses as a picture of mission in the modern, western world. The old methods of evangelism are largely ineffective when dealing with a post-christian, secular culture. The problems and objections to Christianity are too deep-rooted.
Our response is two-fold: Firstly, we need to keep learning about our city and the people in it, discovering how to effectively love, serve and reach them with the message of Jesus Christ.
Secondly, and most importantly, we MUST pray. Martyn Lloyd Jones puts it like this:
You must become aware of your need, of your impotence, of your helplessness. You must realise that you are confronted by something that is too deep for your methods to get rid of, or to deal with, and you need something that can go down beneath that evil power, and shatter it…and there is only one thing that can do that, and that is the power of God.
Peter & John
I wonder if Peter & John remembered this conversation with Jesus when they were standing before the Jerusalem chief priests and elders in Acts 4?
Carrying the rulers warnings and threats back to their young church. They knew that ‘only by prayer’ was now the answer. Faced with the sternest rebukes they had so far received, and only a few short months since their leader, Jesus, had been crucified, their response was not to cower, run or hire private protection. No, they held a prayer meeting.
When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God (Acts 4:23–24)
So, we must pray. Only by prayer will this church be planted.
The only thing that will change this city is an enduring and steadfast commitment to prayer — Gebed Zonder End.