The Need for Revival
2 Chronicles 29-30
I am convinced that America needs revival now more than ever!
2 Chronicles 29:1-2 (NKJV)
1 Hezekiah became king when he was twenty-five years old, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abijah the daughter of Zechariah. 2 And he did what was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father David had done.
If we are going to talk about revival, I can’t think of a better example than the one we find in chapters 29 and 30 of 2 Chronicles.
Hezekiah is a pastor’s dream when it comes to talking about revival. His story is one of the best examples I have found in all of Scripture.
And there is a need for revival in the church of Jesus Christ.
I’m not talking about the coat and tie slick talking evangelist who comes to town and gets everyone all whooped up then leaves after fleecing the flock of their money either.
And I’m not talking about the taking care of all the needs in order to put bodies in the seats either!
I am talking about the need for people’s lives to be changed and souls to be saved with the pure Word of God!
You and I need revival!
We need to turn our backs on feel good religion and get back to what’s important.
Will you be the one?
WILL YOU BE THE ONE WHO DOES WHATS RIGHT IN THE EYES OF THE LORD?
Hezekiah was the one who turned it around for Judah.
In order for revival to happen, it only takes one person in order for it to take off.
2 Chronicles 29:3-6 (NKJV)
3 In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the LORD and repaired them. 4 Then he brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them in the East Square, 5 and said to them: "Hear me, Levites! Now sanctify yourselves, sanctify the house of the LORD God of your fathers, and carry out the rubbish from the holy place. 6 "For our fathers have trespassed and done evil in the eyes of the LORD our God; they have forsaken Him, have turned their faces away from the dwelling place of the LORD, and turned their backs on Him.
Hezekiah was a whole lot better than the king who was before him.
His father King Ahaz did evil in the sight of the Lord and basically made a mockery of the Lord’s temple.
And Israel paid the price for his idolatry.
He was responsible for leading an entire country down the wrong path. (Much like a certain president is doing now.)
Hezekiah wasn’t like his father.
He knew what needed to be done in order for the bleeding to stop.
Hezekiah knew that a knife wound wasn’t going to be healed with a band aid and a kiss on the forehead.
Hezekiah knew that the only way to get Judah right again was to make things right with the LORD.
Israel under poor leadership had turned its back on the Lord and paid a steep price for its disobedience and idolatry.
The house of worship had to be made clean again.
He called upon the Levites, who were responsible for the temple to get themselves consecrated to the Lord.
In other words, they needed to set themselves apart for service to the Lord and put their focus on Him only.
Once that was done, Hezekiah told them that they needed to take out the trash in the temple.
Apparently Ahaz had really trashed the temple and used it for junk storage.
The temple, just like any other building will be in need of repairs if it’s neglected.
Hezekiah recognized something some 700 years before Christ that we need to recognize today.
In order for Revival to come,
1st point
I. We must clean up the temple of the Lord.
Some of you may be thinking “well the church looks pretty clean to me.”
And for all intents and purposes, I would have to agree with you.
The cleanliness of this building is one of many things that Cheri and I found so attractive when we first came here.
But I’m not talking about the building.
1 Corinthians 6:19 says:
19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
We are all temples of the Holy Spirit and we could all use some house cleaning!
If you are holding anger and hatred in your heart, you need a spiritual house cleaning
If you are putting anything of the world ahead of your relationship with the Lord, you need a spiritual house cleaning
If you are sitting here today and your heart, mind or soul is focused elsewhere, you need a thorough cleaning of the temple of the Lord.
If you are doing everything you can to stop the church from moving the direction we are called to move, you really need a spiritual house cleaning!
The church in America isn’t having the positive influence on the world like it should because our own house is cluttered, untidy and downright dirty!
If we are going to see revival come to America, we need to take the lesson from Hezekiah and get to work cleaning up the temple.
The Lord Jesus Christ spoke of what we would do and so far we haven’t delivered even though the opportunities are everywhere.
He said in John 14:12:
12 "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.
So not only will our own personal house cleaning free up the Holy Spirit and get us out of the box, Jesus said we will not only do great things but we will do GREATER THINGS THAN HE DID!!!
Yet even though we know what we need to do, we sit here week in and week out and continue to make the church and Christianity nouns when she should desire to make them verbs.
Action words!
Hezekiah, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, chose to bring a heartbeat back to the temple.
After the temple was cleaned and the Levites were consecrated, he wanted to restore worship of Jehovah God in the temple.
Sacrifices were offered and everything was set.
Word from the king was sent out to everyone announcing that the king had a desire to observe the Passover and restore religious order to all of Israel.
2 Chronicles 30:10-13 (NKJV)
10 So the runners passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, as far as Zebulun; but they laughed at them and mocked them. 11 Nevertheless some from Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. 12 Also the hand of God was on Judah to give them singleness of heart to obey the command of the king and the leaders, at the word of the LORD. 13 Now many people, a very great assembly, gathered at Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the second month.
So he sent word all over Israel to get the people to come back to the Lord.
This was prior to e-mail and FOX NEWS so it was necessary to send out runners to get the word out.
And what you need to understand is that this wasn’t some leisurely jog from Bedford to Everett.
Zebulun was one of the farthest tribes away from Judah.
We are talking hundreds of miles that these runners ran and encouraged the people to come to Jerusalem for revival.
And what’s really interesting is that many people laughed at them and mocked them.
After such a long time without the Passover being observed, it’s no wonder that there were some who doubted and mocked it.
Some from the 10 Northern tribes humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem.
While there will always be ridicule and mockery directed towards the worship of the Lord, verse 12 shouldn’t get lost in the shuffle.
12 Also the hand of God was on Judah to give them singleness of heart to obey the command of the king and the leaders, at the word of the LORD.
Every time we read that the hand of the Lord was with someone in the scriptures, something great was usually happening or about to happen.
This wasn’t just some stale church reunion in order to get old members to come back.
This wasn’t some church growth plan to get the offering up.
Revival of the Jewish religious system was taking place!
Things were turning from very bad, corrupt and immoral times to a time of renewal and a time of re-dedication of one’s faith.
It could have been easy for King Hezekiah to say “us four and no more.”
He was doing all the work!
He was the one who was pushing all the buttons to get things done.
2nd point
II. Revival must be available to everyone.
Every time that great revival took place in American history, it was more than just a local phenomenon.
In the 1800’s a man by the name of Charles Finney lead what came to be known as the 2nd Great Awakening in Rochester New York.
This awakening or revival had such a great impact on the people in and around Rochester that crime in that region was so low that police officers started meeting in barbershops and singing to have something to do.
So the first barbershop quartets were formed.
Back then, mules were used in the coal mines to move out coal. The revival had such an effect on the workers that the mules had to be trained all over again.
The mules were used to commands that included curse words and because so many of the miners were being saved, cursing was no longer heard.
In 1906 another great revival took place that was known as “the Azusa Street Revival” which took place in Los Angeles.
This revival was led by an African American preacher by the name of William J. Seymour and it went on for roughly 9 years with 1000’s of salvation decisions.
And we can never forget the revivals of Billy Graham.
In 1957, he led a revival in NY City that lasted for 110 days and led to 56,000 people making salvation decisions.
Prior to that, a revival in Los Angeles had similar results.
But that was then and this now. Revival must be brought to the people in Bedford and the surrounding areas.
Revival begins with one person telling another person about Jesus Christ.
He commanded us in Mark 16:15-16
15 And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 "He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.
We are to go and spread the good news to the end of the earth!
Revival should be available to everyone whether you like them or not.
And if it started in New York and Los Angeles, why not here?
Why not with you?
Everybody may not be ready in the eyes of the world. They weren’t ready in Jerusalem either.
2 Chronicles 30:18-20 (NKJV)
18 For a multitude of the people, many from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the Passover contrary to what was written. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, "May the good LORD provide atonement for everyone 19 who prepares his heart to seek God, the LORD God of his fathers, though he is not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary." 20 And the LORD listened to Hezekiah and healed the people.
The people who had come from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun weren’t clean because they had been living in areas of idolatry for years and didn’t have the availability or means to worship the true God.
Also since they had come such a great distance, Hezekiah didn’t want to wait another month to celebrate the Passover.
One thing I truly love about Hezekiah was that when it was time to go to the Lord, he went.
He didn’t have an attitude of “well we waited this long, what’s another month?”
His attitude was “WE HAVE TURNED OUR BACKS TO GOD FOR TOO LONG!
So in one of the greatest examples of loving God and loving others in the entire Bible, Hezekiah prayed for the people who were considered unclean.
And I love the prayer he lifted up too!
He saw that the people had their hearts in the right place.
They may not have followed the rules, but by golly they were clean in their hearts.
These people were ready to seek God’s face!
They were ready to worship the true and living God.
Hezekiah kind of gave me the impression that they hadn’t been following the Law for years, why nitpick over one detail.
And because he prayed from a humble and sincere heart, God answered his prayer and made the people clean.
So if we are going to have revival
3rd point
III. Pray for each other
No matter how you feel about that person who lives across the street and annoys you, pray for them.
Regardless of the sins of that family member who embarrasses you at every family function, pray for them
Pray for the people who are sitting next to you this morning
Pray for the person you work with that humiliated you in front of everybody
Pray for the people who are mean to you
Pray for the ones who treat you like dirt.
If we are going to see the Lord move, we must pray and then we have to get busy
And then we have to pray some more.
Pray for leadership, pray for your spouse and your children.
Pray for those that you know aren’t living the way they should that God would help them become clean.
And while praying, ask Him what you can do to help them get where they need to be.
Ask that not only can the relationship between them and God be healed but also the relationship between them and you.
When we genuinely seek God, He sees the desire of our hearts and then REVIVAL COMES!
Revival doesn’t come from packed churches or tent meetings. It comes to each individual heart.
What will it take for revival to come into your life?
For some of you it may be making a salvation decision
For some it may be taking out the trash of your life
For some it may be spreading the good news or spending more time in prayer.
As we close, I want to give you to opportunity to invite Jesus Christ into your heart as your personal savior
I want to give you the opportunity to enter into formal membership with this church body, enter into believer’s baptism or seek to re-dedicate yourself to the Lord.
I want to invite you to pray for someone and seek revival for them and you.
And as always I invite you to come for prayer needs
We also have cards up here you can fill out
Jesus calls us all. Some answer the call and some don’t.
He calls everyone publicly and when you step out in faith, you are taking the first step in professing a need for Jesus Christ in your life.
