City-Wide Revival
Acts 8:1-8
8 And Saul approved of their killing him.
On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. 2 Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. 3 But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.
4 Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. 5 Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there. 6 When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said. 7 For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. 8 So there was great joy in that city.
When I was in Bible College I was a student of church history…and some of the most fascinating stories you can read are about the occurrences of Great City-wide Revivals!
Some of these revivals shook an entire city for God.
For example, over 200 years ago, there was a preacher named Charles Finney who conducted Revivals in the NE part of the US.
These were large crusades during a time of revivals in the United States.
If you could imagine and compare these Revivals/crusades with the Billy Graham crusades you would get a picture of what it was like.
On one occasion in Rochester, NY, over 100,000 came to Christ…the entire city was shaken for God!
I had the great honor of being a part of the Billy Graham Crusade that came to Columbus, Ohio back in the 1990’s.
We pastors met together and prayed and prayed that God would send a mighty moving of His Holy Spirit to the State of Ohio.
And I watched from the stands of the Old Columbus Clipper stadium when the Message was preached and the invitation given hundreds of people walking down to the field and repenting and receiving Christ into their hearts.
I watched prostitutes, gay people, alcoholics, sinners leave their seats and walk down to the field to receive Jesus into their hearts and lives.
Then there was the great Welsh Revival at the turn of the 20th C.
It all started in a small room with 16 teenagers after a Wednesday night service in a meeting in a small church…Holy Spirit spiritual fire fell on those 16 youth and historians of that day said it could only be compared to the day of Pentecost!
The young people were weeping and crying out to God to make a difference in their lives at 2 o’clock in the morning so they could make a difference in their world.
Their testimonies and witnessing spread to the adults who carried it throughout their city, and eventually throughout the country of Wales…and the ripple effect was felt around the world, even into the North Eastern states of America!
The Bible records the revival in the city of Nineveh—Jonah, at first was reluctant but then eagerly went after a 3 day stay at the “Fish Innerd Motel.” [speaking of having a revival in Wales [whales!]
Ask someone after the service …. Ha ha.
He went and Jonah preached a message of judgment and the Bible says the entire city repented, beginning with the king right down to the least of the people!
“By the decree of the king and his nobles:
Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. 8 But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. 9 Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”
10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.
We have a similar thing happening here in Acts 8.
The man, Philip, went to preach in the region of Samaria, and the entire city was moved heavenward in a great revival.
How about “The Great Decatur Revival of the year 2002?”
The Brownsville, Tx Revival where God came and worked miraculously.
We need that kind of revival that would shake our churches again!
People, listen to me, listen to the voice of Scripture that calls for us to come back to “The First Love.”
What am I talking about? What kind of revival am I talking about?
I’m not talking about one of these temporary, counterfeit revivals that touch only the emotions…
I’m not talking about a counterfeit revival where there is no moving of the Spirit that is faked by some actor Preacher.
I’m talking about a revival
where Christians genuinely get right with God,
where Believers again get hungry for what makes Jesus hungry.
Where lost people get saved in great numbers,
where marriages are restored,
alcoholics are delivered, and rebellious teens are brought to their knees,
where liars become truthful,
thieves are made honest,
prostitutes are made pure, adulterous men made faithful…
…an old-fashioned, soul-saving, sin-erasing, devil-chasing revival!
I don’t know where you are in this, but I would love to see that happen here in the Wellston Naz. Church.
Where liquor stores would have to close for lack of business/night clubs/drug dealers have to move elsewhere!
This really happened in the days of the ministry of Billy Sunday…where many were saved, tho’ not all, but all were affected!
And Acts 8 should make us hungry for it right here!
Let me show you 3 things in these verses about a City-Wide Revival:
1. The Man
Philip
v. 5 Ch. 6 tells us this Philip is one of the original 7 deacons.
By ch. 8 he’s an effective evangelist. [not the apostle Philip!]
Revival CAN start w/ just 1 person! [willing to pay the price/
hungry for God to do something awesome!]
1 person can realize it only takes a spark to get a fire started – to start a roaring blaze!
In the 1800s Gypsy Smith was a great revivalist.
When asked how to have revival he said, “go home, lock yourself in your room, draw a circle around yourself w/ chalk, and ask God to start a great revival w/in that circle!
When God has answered your prayer the revival will be underway!”
You I both know that Fire
spreads!/energizes!/purifies!
A further detail about the Welsh Revival—acc’d to historian Thomas Rayner,
it all started in that testimony meeting in a youth group…one little girl was so nervous she could barely speak, but she stood up and shared one sentence:
“O, I do love Jesus”…that’s when it all started, God gripped hearts and the rest is history!
It was just a little spark, but grew into a wildfire!
Do you believe it could happen today?
God is no respecter of persons…
He’s the same yesterday, today, forever, and I for one believe it can happen today!
Another great revival started in England, but spread to Scotland and Ireland under D.L. Moody.
Here’s how it started, acc’d to Moody’s son, who wrote his biography:
On vacation, he was preaching for a pastor named Lessey in London on a Sunday am.
He was to be there that night as well.
But the a.m. service was so cold, dry, and dead, and the people were so unresponsive, he dreaded going back that night!
But when he got there that night, it was packed w/ more people than they had in the morning,
The Holy Spirit’s presence was like electricity, all were excited…he preached and gave invitation to stand if you want to become a Christian, and dozens stood!
He thought they might have misunderstood, so he asked them to sit back down…said, if you’re really serious, then meet with me in the “inquiry room” after the service [dozens showed up with some lined up out in the hallway!]
Moody said the power of God was so strong he held over for 10 more days!
Over 400 got saved in that period!
Moody knew that kind of revival only happens in response to prayer, so he investigated…found out that behind the scenes, something had been going on.
An elderly woman there that morning went home to her invalid sister, and told her about Moody being there.
Her eyes lit up, for she had been praying that God would send Moody to England.
She said, “put lunch away, we’ll spend the rest of the afternoon in prayer and fasting,” And they did.
How did it start?
2 older ladies, 1 bed-ridden, said, we don’t need more organization or activities, we need the power of God on this place…let’s put away lunch!...and they paid the price in prayer!
Not only can revival begin with just one, it can be held back by just 1 as well!
F.B. Meyer talks about an unsuccessful revival meeting that drug on night after night with no results.
A Deacon came fwd. to say he knew why…he had a grudge against another deacon, and they hadn’t spoken in months…there was bad blood between them.
Meyer got the 2 together and led them in burying the hatchet…they made it public before the next service and revival broke out right then and there!
Don’t be the 1 that holds it back here just because you refuse to make something right, give up that bitterness, forgive as you’ve been forgiven…settle for less than “YOUR WAY”!
Don’t be the 1 weak link that keeps it from happening at this Nazarene Church in Wellston, Ohio because you refuse to repent of that immoral relationship, bad habit, pet sin!
Revival broke out in Samaria in Acts chapter 8 when one man, Philip, decided he wanted to be used by God.
2. The Message
v. 5b
That’s the kind of revival preaching we need…preach Christ!
Preaching social reform won’t bring revival…
Educational sermons are nice and helpful personally, but if the heart hasn’t been changed, it doesn’t matter what effect you’ve had on the mind!
Educate a thief and all you end up with is a smarter thief…now instead of a petty theft he knows how to embezzle from the company!
May you, with your Pastor ever commit to preaching Jesus Christ!
His virgin birth,
perfect life,
sacrificial death,
bodily resurrection…
and all His teachings in-between
including
all He had to say about sin, death, hell, judgment, as well as love, salvation, repentance and forgiveness!
May we ever preach Jesus, and what He said to Satan in the hour of temptation in the wilderness, as well as what he said to the disciples arguing about who was the greatest!
May we preach Jesus without apology, including all He said about money, both that which we give and that which we keep!
May we preach over and over again the most powerful sermon the universe has ever known…6 hours long and preached atop a hill called Golgotha one Friday!
That’s the only preaching that saves souls, changes lives, brings repentance!
Revival isn’t brought because the Pastor or the Revivalist
thank God that’s not what it’s about!
Philip preached Christ,
No wonder revival is no where in sight!
Let’s covenant together to be that place that God uses to start the needed fire!
You know Daniel Webster [if not, look him up in the dictionary!].
He was a great politician, orator, scholar.
When he lived in Washington D.C., he attended a small country church faithfully.
One day his neice came to him and said, Uncle Daniel, why do you go to that little church?
There’s many large, fashionable churches in the city where you can hear a much better delivery!
He replied, “young lady, in the fancy churches, they preach to Daniel Webster the Statesman…but in my church, they preach to Daniel Webster the Sinner, and they tell me about Jesus!”
Thank God Webster knew the difference between oratory and preaching!
Ill.—heard about preacher coming down hard on subject of hell/elderly man had fallen asleep in the service/preacher called out facetious question: is there anybody that really wants to go to hell?/if you wanna go, stand up!/all elderly man heard was stand up!/looked around, saw no one else stood, said, preacher, don’t know what we’re voting on, but looks like you and me’s the only ones for it!
Let me read to you a discourse written by an anonymous writer: [I read after him all the time!]
“Noah’s message from the steps going up to the Ark was not, "Something good is going
to happen to you!"
Amos was not confronted by the high priest of Israel for proclaiming,"Confession is possession!"
Jeremiah was not put into the pit for preaching, "I’m O.K.,you’re O.K.!"
Daniel was not put into the lion’s den for telling people, "Possibility
thinking will move mountains!"
John the Baptist was not forced to preach in the wilderness and eventually beheaded because he preached, "Smile, God loves
you!"
The two prophets of the tribulation will not be killed for preaching, "God is in his heaven and all is right with the world!"
Instead, what was the message of all these men of God?
Simple, one word: "Repent!"
Here’s some quotes from some famous preachers who’ve actually seen city-wide revival:
W.A. Criswell—when asked what’s the secret to church growth and revival he said: “preach the Word, brothers, and God will give the increase!”
Charles Spurgeon—“I have no other secret than this: I have preached the gospel…not about the gospel, but I have preached the gospel, the full, free, glorious gospel of the living Christ…preach Christ, brethren, always and everywhere, preach Christ!”
v. 5 Philip is the man, preach Christ is the message. Look now at…
3. The Miracles
v. 6-8 Word “miracles” in v. 6 could be translated “signs.”
God allowed Philip to work miracles as a sign, to authenticate that what he was saying was true…
they didn’t have the NT yet like we have, and yet
God put His stamp of approval on Philip’s message thru these signs…
God proved Himself thru signs and wonders.
Here’s the point: Some awesome things happened in those days when God moved with power…just think about how it would be if, like in v. 7, we would see demons cast out and people healed!
Some may ask, why doesn’t God still perform these awesome outward demonstrations?
Because, those were minor compared to His greatest miracle…look further to the greatest miracle of chapter 8…
v. 12 they believed-got saved!
And they followed the Lord in baptism and being filled with the Holy Spirit and beyond!
Thank God that He still does choose to heal oftentimes, and for other miracles we still see from His hand, but realize, every sick person Jesus ever healed, died…eventually!
Physical healings are great and glorious, but temporary…the miracle of salvation: that’s forever!
Jesus said, one drink of living water and you’ll never thirst again/ “I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish”!
We need to pray for revival across our District and across our Denomination, and that it would spread to our city and our world!
God’s Word says that in the very Last Days that He would pour out His Holy Spirit upon those who would receive Him.
I personally believe that we are on the threshold of those Last Days being on us.
God wants us to experience a Mighty Revival here and now.
Invitation:
Would you like to see a Mighty Revival move in your life and the life of this church?
