In Acts 2, we read of an incredible event – the Holy Spirit descending upon the disciples as they gathered in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. In the King James Version, we read:
1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Verses 1 and 2, in particular, are revealing: the disciples were all with one accord, after which the mighty wind rushed in, signaling the arrival of the Holy Spirit.
What were they doing with one accord, or in harmony, which must have been the right thing to do, for it created an environment conducive for the Holy Spirit to descend upon them?
Acts 1:14 tells us that the disciples were praying and asking for something earnestly and humbly:
14 These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.
What exactly were they praying for? Were they praying for the Holy Spirit to come upon them? This seems unlikely since Jesus Christ already told them that the Holy Spirit would visit them, as we read in Act 1:4:
4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
One thing we can be sure about, given that John the Baptist emphasized repentance before the physical immersion in water (Matthew 3:2).
2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
The disciples were praying for forgiveness of sins, renewal and repentance, preparing themselves to be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
We showed in our book, via biblical mathematics, that the Lord’s Prayer indeed covers our justification and continual sanctification:
Theorem 6.5 The Lord’s Prayer, prayed daily at the (prescribed) times given in set D, presents our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.
Moreover, since the Lord’s Prayer is the only prayer taught to the disciples by Jesus Christ, we thus arrived at the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis: The disciples were incessantly earnestly praying the Lord’s Prayer with one accord on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1).
Now, the original Greek text of Acts 2:1 has 74 Greek letters, and that of Acts 2:2, 94 Greek letters. The sum is 168. Surprisingly, it is but the identifier of the Lord’s Prayer in the Gospel of Luke (using the Method of the Verse Identification developed in the book)!
Identifier of the Lord’s Prayer in Luke 11 is 168
|
Book |
Chapter | Verse | Sum |
|
42 |
11 | 2 |
55 |
|
42 |
11 | 3 | 56 |
| 42 | 11 | 4 |
57 |
|
168 |
There is no problem with incessant prayers and worship, for this is exactly what the 4 beasts and the 24 elders in Revelation 4:7-11 do:
8 And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,
“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
who was and is and is to come!”
9 And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
11 “Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created.”
It is surprising that the identifier of the two verses that contain praises to God in Revelation 4 (verses 8 and 11) is 159, since the 159th number in base 9 is 186, whose digits are a permutation of the numeral 168.
According to S. E. Jones, in his book The Biblical Meaning of Numbers from One to Forty, the number 9 represents “divine visitation, which is God’s judgment in the life of the believer(s) by which the Holy Spirit trains them in obedience” (page 9). S. E. Jones goes on to write (page 10):
Quote
It is the job of the Holy Spirit to help advise sinners who stand convicted by the law (Rom. 3:19) to find justification—that is, be pronounced not legally guilty. Jesus trained His disciples during His time of visitation. And then toward the end of His ministry, He spoke of “another Comforter” (John 14:16) that was yet to be given. The use of the term “another” indicates that Jesus Himself was a Comforter prior to the time when the Holy Spirit was given in Acts 2. In fact, at the beginning of His life, Simeon called Him “the consolation of Israel” (Luke 2:25). The word is paraklesis, the same word as the Comforter.
Unquote
The fact that the Lord’s Prayer may have the repetitive property of the praises in Revelation 4:8-11, and may therefore be the incessant prayer in one of the greatest stories in the Bible – the story of the baptism of the frightened disciples with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost – is beyond comprehension!
The Lord's Prayer: A Mathematician's Creed 