Revive Us Again
Acts 2:1-13,41
If you ever want to know the truth about something, all you need to do is ask a child. You see, when we ask adults questions that do not have easy answers, they will usually hem and haw around the topic so as not to offend anyone. Children, however, will let you know exactly what is on their mind. There once was a little boy who had grown close to his pastor. Every Sunday after church, they would serve coffee in the fellowship hall together to the people of the congregation. The pastor viewed this as a perfect opportunity to teach this boy about service, fellowship, and evangelism, so he asked the boy, “Do you know why we serve coffee each week?” The boy thought for a bit, and then turned to the pastor and said, “I think it is probably to get people fully awake before they drive home.” This pastor learned a valuable lesson from this child that he would never had learned from an adult. He learned that his church services were boring.
I have to admit that I have sat through many boring church services in my life, and after awhile, you begin to accept boring as normal. It is like the two kids who sat next to each other in church. The younger brother was always antsy, and his older sister tried to get him to sit still. Finally, she said, “I wish you would calm down!” The boy looked at her and proclaimed, “I can’t. It’s just so boring.” Without missing a beat, the sister turned and said, “It’s supposed to be boring.”
When I think about the condition of God’s church, I can’t help but wonder if there is something missing. Is there something more that should be taking place in our services? Is boring the most we can hope for? I am glad that this is not the case. Church does not have to be boring and was never intended to be boring. In fact, as I said a few weeks ago, church was intended to be just the opposite. It was intended to be a place of revival. I’m not talking about the kind of revival where we set up a tent and call in a special speaker. I’m not talking about the kind of revival that we schedule on a calendar. I’m not talking about the kind of revival where the preacher calls down fire and brimstone and bangs his fist on the pulpit. I’m talking about the kind of revival that happens when we come face to face with the Spirit of God and our souls are renewed and set on fire by God. I’m talking about the revival that happens when we come clean before the manifest presence of our Almighty, Holy God.
This morning, we are going to have a bit of a history lesson about revival by taking a look at several revivals that have happened down through the years. We will start by looking at the first revival after Jesus departs, known as the Pentecost, and then we will take a look at other prominent revivals throughout history to see what we can learn from them. Let’s ask the Lord to bless our time.
The Revival at Pentecost
With revival being the topic, I can think of no better example to start with than the very first revival to hit after Jesus had ascended into heaven. Let’s take a look at what the Bible has to say about this revival in Acts chapter 2.
1When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. 5Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 7Utterly amazed, they asked: “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? 8Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? 9Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11(both Jews and converts to Judaism Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” 12Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?” 13Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.” 41Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
This morning, we are going to take a look at a number of revivals, but we are doing it for the purpose of learning from these revivals so we can use that knowledge to help set up our church to be able to receive revival. For each revival, I will be answering four questions.
1. What was the catalyst or how did it get started?
2. Who were the leaders involved?
3. What was God’s purpose for the revival?
4. What were the key components?
Let’s start by asking these questions of this account of Pentecost.
As I read this passage, I can’t help but come to the conclusion that the catalyst was the falling of the Holy Spirit. After all, these disciples were lowly and defeated just weeks earlier. Then, they were reunited with Jesus and promised the Holy Spirit after his departure. Then, when the Holy Spirit fell, great things started to happen. It is also easy to determine that the apostles were the leaders of this revival. Why was this happening? God’s purposes become clear when we look back to the Great Commission and earlier in the book of Acts. Jesus wanted the apostles to take the gospel to the world. Revival at Pentecost was God’s way of getting this off to a roaring start. As we look at the key components, there are a few things that come to mind. There was the preaching of Peter. There were the throngs of people gathered to hear the message. However, the thing that speaks the loudest was the speech of the disciples. They were speaking in other languages. This is amazing in and of itself, but it becomes even more amazing when you get a half dozen different people groups together that do not speak the language of the apostles and each one ends up hearing the gospel in their own native language. That is something that is hard to fathom and something only God can do.
The Great Awakening (New England)
In 1735, the first great revival hit the United States in the New England area. Known as the Great Awakening, this revival was a direct result of the hard preaching on sin and holiness by the preacher Jonathon Edwards. In Edwards view, many people had become lackadaisical in their faith and needed to return to God. As a direct result of the messages of Edwards and many others who took his messages to their own congregations, 50,000 people came to know the Lord for the first time and at least that many turned back to the Lord. That is especially astounding when you take into considerations that there were only 250,000 colonists living in the United States at the time, and the majority of those remaining were already practicing Christians. In describing the events of the revival, Edwards said he was struck by, “An extraordinary sense of the awful majesty, greatness and holiness of God, so as something to overwhelm soul and body.” He also went on to describe how the people had a longing after two things as a result of the revival. They longed to be more perfect in humility and adoration.
As we take a look at this revival, I can’t help but think that the catalyst was the preaching of Jonathon Edwards on sin and holiness. I am not alone in my thinking as many scholars of the Great Awakening agree with this. That, in turn, would make Jonathon Edwards the key leader in this revival. God’s purpose for this revival was to have those who had strayed in the faith to return their thoughts to God, and as a result of their repenting, many others came to know Christ as well. Since Edwards was the leader and was in attendance, we will take his word for it that humility and adoration were the key components of this revival.
Kentucky/Cane Ridge Revival
The Kentucky/Cane Ridge Revival is often called the Second Great Awakening and it started in 1799 in a very innocent manner. Rev. James McGready was administering the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper in his Presbyterian church in Red River. Those who participated in the service had gone through the taking of the bread and wine, so Rev. McGready began to close the service. When dismissed, the congregation showed no disposition to leave. They instead stayed silently with the sound of weeping coming from many parts of the room. A famous church historian tells us what happened next. “Too agitated to preach, he (McGready) expressed his belief that there was one greater than he preaching and he exhorted the people to let the Lord God Omnipotent reign in their hearts, submit to him, and their soul should live.” Upon hearing this, many of the people broke their silence by renewing their vows to Christ with shouts of joy and adoration. After a period of this, many people just stayed to remain silent and sit in the presence of God to hear what He had to say. Many people, after leaving the services, went back to their own church to perform Communion and were met with the same results. The most prominent of these men was Barton Stone who led thousands of unbelievers to Christ as a result of the services in his church in Cane Ridge.
In the Great Awakening, preaching was the catalyst for the revival, but in the case of Kentucky, the minister was unable to speak. The catalyst was the sacrament of serving the Lord’s Supper or Communion. This was first done by Rev. James McGready and then adapted by Rev. Barton Stone. The purpose of this revival was for the people to experience reverence and awe by sitting in God’s presence, and the key component was the fact that people would sit for hours just to hear from God.
Hawaii’s Great Awakening
Believe it or not, the two largest churches in the United States in the late 1830’s were in the territory of Hawaii. Both of these churches came about under the pastorship of Titus Coan. Coan moved to Hawaii in 1836 as a missionary, and he took over a church of 26 members. In a matter of less than two years, the church had grown enough to split into two separate churches containing 8000 and 7000 members respectively. At the end of his ministry, Cohn had accepted 13,000 new members into his congregation. The revival was not kept just to this area however. Cohn traveled to all parts of every island in Hawaii to preach the gospel. Here, new converts were added to existing churches in that area. When asked about the success of Coan, historian Gaven Dawes said this. “Love was the driving force in his life; he loved his wife, he loved Christ, and he loved his work. He was love in action and had a personal magnetism of love that drew others sweetly and irresistibly to the love of God.”
As we look to find a catalyst, most of the research points to Coan being just that. He was the man of God that did what the Lord called him to do. Through his obedience, revival spread throughout Hawaii. That makes Titus Coan the primary leader and catalyst at the same time. God’s purpose for this revival was made known to Coan even before he went to Hawaii. It was to save the lost of Hawaii because many of them had never before heard the gospel. How was Coan to do this? It was to use his gift and the key component to this revival: unconditional love.
The Welsh Revival of 1904
Of all the revivals we will speak about, the Welsh Revival of 1904 is the most fascinating to me. This revival was brought about because of a past revival. People started thinking about the good old days in 1854 when the last revival had hit Wales and they desired to return to a church where revival was in the forefront. This revival also had an impact on a country like no other. Evan Roberts, a former miner and blacksmith with little theological background was at the center of this move of God. He had a heart to see souls saved, so he spoke many sermons with passion but not eloquence. As a result of this passion and not his style, dramatic conversions and confession of sin started to happen. People started singing songs of joy in the streets. The revival affected the entire community and country of Wales. It was reported that bars, dance halls, theaters, and soccer stadiums were empty because everyone was attending church. The courts and jails were completely empty because no one was committing any crimes, so the police came together to form a choir to sing at revival meetings so they would have something to do. There was a fervent excitement about eternal things and nothing else mattered. Because of this revival, there were over 150,000 new converts to Christianity.
Believe it or not the thing that started it all was a desire to return to tradition. They wanted things the way they were before – not because those days were more comfortable but because they were on fire for God then. Their leader was an uneducated many with little Bible knowledge named Evan Roberts. He latched on to God’s plan and purpose to restore the community in Wales, and revival in the entire country was the result. What were the key components? It was just the fact that Roberts showed obedience and faith toward God by doing what he was called to do.
Howard Payne University Revival
I could go on to talk about many other revivals such as Azusa Street in California or the Hebrides in Scotland or Brownstone in Florida, but I want to close this morning with the Howard Payne University Revival of the early nineties. This revival started when 2 college students stood up and confessed their sins to the fellow students of their campus ministry group. As a result of this, many other students started to confess as well and were made whole. Two days later this began to catch on at local churches and was soon spread to 25 college campuses nationwide as well as many churches. When the students would confess, people would start streaming down the aisles to pray at altars and restore their relationships with Christ. Local churches started holding daily three and one half hour services, and people from all over the country were coming to take part and experience the presence of God. Some services of prayer lasted all through the night, and tens of thousands of college students renewed their commitment to Christ.
It is fairly obvious that the catalyst of this revival was confession of sin. It was started by two college students who turned out to be the leaders of this entire revival. The purpose of these services was for people to restore their relationship with God, and when they did, things exploded. This makes the two key components openness and contagiousness.
Now, we have received tons of info about revivals of the past this morning. What can we learn from it? When we look at the catalysts, we can see that there are many different things that can cause a revival. It may be preaching, but it does not have to be. It may be a special service or a special leader. We can also see that each time there is a revival, there is a person who is instrumental in it. They may not be a pastor, a scholar, or a professional, but they are all obedient to God’s calling. God’s purposes for each one may be a little varied, but mostly he just desires to draw people unto himself. He wants to be close to us whether we have made a commitment to Him before or not. The key components may vary from time to time, but there are some that repeat from revival to revival. Next week we will take a look at what we can do to get ourselves in position to receive revival by looking at these commonalities. Let’s pray.
