The Experience of Revival Isaiah 6.1-8

Revival Sermon - This is the manuscript version of the opening sermon for a revival meeting I was invited to lead.

Introduction:      When one looks at the history of great revivals such as the First Great Awakening (18^th century) and the Second Great Awakening (19^th century), despite some differences, the recurring theme you see in the first hand accounts is that those who experienced the revivals had an overwhelming sense of the presence of God.

                We say we want revival.  We pray for revival.  We schedule revival meetings.   We preach and hear sermons that say that the only hope for America is revival.  I believe God wants to send us revival.  Here is the riddle:  if we want revival and God wants to revive us, then why is revival not happening?  Since the problem cannot be an inability on the part of God to revive us, the issue must be on our end of the equation. 

                I believe the block to revival (despite our claims that we want revival) is that we do not fully understand what it is we are asking for when we seek revival.  We seek the excitement.  We seek the thrill of watching others repent and seeing our churches grow through baptisms.  We want to see others brought around to our way of thinking.  In other words, our quest for a revival experience is based in selfish desires.  Therefore, the revival experience we seek is not a genuine revival experience.

                What is the true revival experience?  It is being overwhelmed by the reality of the presence of God.  When that happens, there are certain responses that we will have that do not fit the pattern of what most people want to have happen to them in a revival.  The example of what happens when one becomes aware of the reality of the presence of God is Isaiah.

The Historical Context:  Isaiah 6 is the story of Isaiah’s call to the prophetic ministry.  It comes in the midst of one national crisis and on the threshold of a greater one.  It is the year of King Uzziah’s death.  Uzziah had been a good king but had suffered from leprosy for the closing years of his life.  The death of a leader is a trying time for any people.  In addition, the Assyrians are growing in power and expanding their empire.  In about 20 years, they will destroy the Kingdom of Israel and carry the ten northern tribes into exile.  The Assyrians will be laying siege to Jerusalem itself and only a miraculous deliverance by God will spare the Kingdom of Judah the same fate as their brothers in the north.  The destruction of the north will be an act of the judgment of God on them for their rebellion against him.  The near destruction of the south will be a warning of judgment to come if they continue to rebel against God.

                Isaiah’s commission will be to let the people know that Jerusalem will be spared though the hardships will be intense.  He is to call the people back to the ways of God.  The first five chapters of the book list God’s complaints against them and the sins of their nation.

The Vision:  Isaiah is confronted with the presence of the Lord.  In the temple, he sees God, seated on his throne surrounded by the seraphim.  The angels are singing a song of praise to God.  The sound of their voices shakes the very frame of the temple and the temple is filled with smoke.

This is not a vision of a kindly, grandfather God.  This is not a vision of a god who is a sugary sweet manifestation of emotional love.  This is the God of infinite glory and majesty.  Isaiah realizes he is in the presence of the very God of the universe.  Isaiah is overwhelmed by the holiness and majesty of God.

We serve a God who loves us and shows us great grace and mercy.  But make no mistake--our God is an awesome God who reigns over all of creation.  He is not to be taken lightly or trivialized.  This is C.S. Lewis’ point in the Chronicles of Narnia when he writes: “He is not a tame lion you know.”  We have too often focused on the love of God without the majesty and holiness of God.  The result is a caricature of God.  What is the response of Isaiah to the reality of the God of the universe?  If revival is becoming really aware of the presence of God, what happens?  What is our response?

An Overwhelming Sense of Our Sinfulness (vv. 5):  The song of the seraphim calls God holy.  In the presence of the “holy one of Israel,” Isaiah sees his own sinfulness and the sinfulness of his nation in bold clarity.  He cries out with a sense of doom that as a sinner he deserves to be destroyed by the holy God.

                The experience of revival is when, made painfully aware of the presence of God, we realize the perfect holiness of God and the depth of our sin.  We become painfully aware that what we deserve is judgment.  When compared to other humans, we can look pretty good.  When compared to the holy God, the amount of our evil is profound.  Revival is not when we see others come to terms with their sin; revival is when we become honest about our own sin.  It is when the people of God fall on their faces in repentance (see 2 Chron. 7.13-14).  When God sends the warning signs of judgment on a nation, his people should see him at work and be overcome by his holiness and majesty.  They should be sickened by the immensity of their sin and the sin around them.  They should repent and ask forgiveness.  Revival is not when great numbers of the lost come to Christ—that is the consequence of revival.  Revival is when those who already know God come to fully understand the holiness of God and their own unholiness, and repent.

                In the First Great Awakening, Jonathan Edwards preached the famous sermon “Sinners in the Hand of the Angry God.”  He spoke of human sin and depravity.  He warned of the dangers of the judgment of God and the eternal judgment of hell.  In those days, invitations were not given at the end of sermons.  No matter, people began screaming in terror and crying out “what shall I do.”  This is revival

                Some may say that we should focus on the love and grace of God.  They say we should focus on making people feel better about themselves.  Yet, Jesus spoke more about judgment than about heaven.  Jesus’ message is summarized by all four Gospels as “repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.”  It is the reality of sin and the destiny of judgment that makes grace and mercy meaningful.  One cannot know the glory of God’s forgiveness unless they first understand the enormity of their sin.  The Church, if is it to declare the good news of forgiveness of sin, must first declare the reality of the sin from which we need to be forgiven.  There is no good news without the bad news.

                But even here, Isaiah experiences the good news.  Having confessed his sinfulness, one of angels takes a coal from the altar where the sacrificial animals have been offered, and touches his lips.  His sins are forgiven and taken away.  The blood of the sacrificial animals would have dripped on this coal.  As scripture says, when we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins.  Though our sins be as scarlet, they shall be washed white as snow.  As far as the east is from the west, our sins shall be removed from us.  Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.  In just a few minutes, we shall hold the cup which represents s the blood of Christ poured out for the forgiveness of our sin.

The Call to Serve the King:  The great revivals of the past have also been marked by the sending out of workers into the harvest.  In the First Great Awakening, John Wesley and George Whitefield traveled the world proclaiming the Gospel.  A small group of Baptists in Virginia led by Shubal Stearns relocated to Sandy Creek, NC and began a small church.  Over 17 years, more than 125 ministers were sent out by Sandy Creek and her daughter churches.  These ministers went all over the southeast establishing the Baptist churches that were to become the Southern Baptist Convention

                During the great revivals of the British Isles and the Second Great Awakening emerged the modern missionary movement under Adoniram Judson, Luther Rice and William Carey.  A host of benevolent and religious movements began--including the Abolitionist Movement.  The result was the spread of evangelical Protestantism globally (which continues to spread) and the transformation of the young United States into a Christian society so dominated by the revival movement that even secular historians refer to it as the “Protestant Hegemony.”

                Why did it happen?  Because when people are confronted with the majesty of God, they understand he is Lord and Master of their lives.  They respond to the command to go and proclaim his word.  Isaiah, having been cleansed of his sin, hears the Lord say, “Whom shall I send?”  Isaiah volunteers.  Those who have encountered the presence of God feel a compulsion to go on his behalf.

                It is not coincidence that the Great Commission associates going into all the world with the promise “I am with you always.”  It is the presence of Christ and leads to the proclamation of Christ.  When Saul was overwhelmed by the presence of God on the road to Damascus, it is the beginning of his life of traveling to proclaim the resurrected Lord.  The word to the women at the tomb, when confronted with the resurrected Christ, was to go tell others.

                It is the evidence of scripture and of history, when people become aware of the reality of the presence of God; the response is confession of sin and commitment to service.  It requires us to see how our hands are dirty with sin, and then being cleansed of that dirt, it requires us to get our feet dirty going throughout the world doing the work of the Lord.  Revival is not entertaining spectacle.  Revival grabs us and turns us every which way but loose.

                Notice I keep saying that revival is the awareness or experience of the presence of God, not the presence of God.  God was already in the temple.  Isaiah just needed to be aware of the reality and what it meant.  We are the temple of the Holy Spirit.  The presence of God is within us from the moment of salvation.  Christ promised to be with us always.  We are in the hands of the Father from which no one can pluck us.

                We do not need to pray for the presence of God—we have him with us every second.  What we need is an awareness of what that means.  It means that we are in the very presence of the King of the Universe.  We are in the presence of the living Lord.  We are in the presence of the Holy God.  We must understand that we are sinners in need of cleansing.  We must understand that we live in a nation of sinful people who need to return to God or face the possibility of his judgment.  We must understand that those who have experienced him as Savior must now respond to him as Lord, obeying his call to go and to serve.

                This is the result of revival.  Is that what we really want?  If it is, God will pull back the curtains of our eyes and reveal to us with clarity his presence and the result will be genuine revival.

The Warning of a Pastor

As Paul continues his farewell charge to the elders of Ephesus (Acts 20:17-38), the third aspect of the life and work of the pastor is a warning to be on guard against false teaching (vv. 28-31).  From its beginning the church has had to face the threat of false teaching.  It is the pastor’s responsibility, as the shepherd, to protect the flock from the wolves seeking to destroy the flock.

How does the pastor do this?  First, the pastor must be a student of scripture.  To recognize the counterfeit, one must be an expert in the authentic.  Pastors should be experts on the Word of God.  This requires time devoted daily to the thorough study of the Bible.  This protects the pastor from the unintentional error of teaching falsely himself and gives him the ability to recognize false teaching when confronted with it.  Congregations need to ensure the pastor has time each day to do Bible study as his primary job.  They need to insist that he does it.

This should include the study of theology and church history.  God has graced the church for two thousand years with great teachers.  Pastors need to be well-read and well-schooled in this rich mine of spiritual, biblical and theological understanding.  Pastors need be thinkers who can answer questions or know where to find the answers. 

As Paul says elsewhere, we are to study to show ourselves workmen…rightly dividing the word of truth.   The challenges faced by the church today demands that pastors devote themselves to providing deep answers and not spiritual clichés. 

Second, the pastor must teach.  Yes, pastors are to encourage but also to rebuke, to exhort, and to challenge (2 Timothy 3:16-4:5).  We must challenge our flock to deeper understandings of scripture so that they will be able to recognize false teaching when they encounter it.  Congregations need to appreciate pastors who teach deeply and not just praise those who encourage and entertain.

Third, the pastor must serve as a watchman.  He must know that anyone who is invited to speak in the church passes the test of orthodoxy.  He must make sure that lay teachers in the church’s programs are prepared theologically to teach.  Yes, we should teach them how to teach but we must make sure the content of the teaching is sound.   

Paul points out that the false teaching can come out of the church itself.  We have two types of teaching in the church in America today that runs the danger of degenerating into types of false teaching.  On one hand, we have those who have watered down the Gospel and the demands of righteous discipleship.  This approach compromises on sin and is moving increasingly in a direction of a sugar-coated God who will save all humans (universalism).  On the other hand, there is a growing emphasis on presenting God as the great genie who fixes all our problems, makes our lives great, grants us success, etc.  

Both extremes are rooted in a similar error—a focus on humanity instead of God.  The church, and its teaching, should be based on a goal to glorify God and not humanity.  Yes, God is there for us and we should be grateful for all he does.  However, we should follow the example of the Reformers who signed everything with the phrase “only the glory of God.”  In many of the religious, moral, and cultural debates around us today, too many who claim the name of Christ based their position and arguments on humanity and not on divinity.  

Pastors have an imperative from Christ to feed and protect the sheep by teaching the Word and keeping the focus on the glory of God.

The Commitment of the Pastor

The second aspect of the life and work of a pastor as exemplified by Paul in Acts 20.17-38 is the commitment of a pastor.  In verse 24 Paul writes, “However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.” (NIV)

Paul was willing to make any sacrifice necessary for the sake of the Kingdom of God and the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Paul is journeying towards Jerusalem to carry a love offering from the Gentile churches for the troubled church in Jerusalem.  He is repeatedly warned that his freedom and his life will be in danger in Jerusalem.

Paul’s commitment to the work of Christ is so strong that the risks involved do not deter him.  He will do what needs to be done in order to be obedient to God regardless of the personal risk.  This is a commitment demonstrated by Paul repeatedly as he faced persecution.

This commitment included other sacrifices.  In verses 33-35, Paul describes how he labored to provide financial support for himself and for his team of assistants in order to avoid being a burdened to the new Christian churches he founded.

A biblical pastor must be totally committed to the work of Christ.  A commitment that is willing to accept any sacrifice necessary for the work.  Around the world today, many of our Christian brothers and sisters experience persecution of varying degrees on a regular basis.  This is not widely reported in the mass media.  For those of us who are spared this, we should pray regularly for those suffering.  We should also learn from the example of their faith.

The church in America is in need of pastors who are willing to make any sacrifice, take any risk necessary for the sake of the Gospel.  We must not be concerned about cost in popularity or what people say about us.  When we take a stand for Christ and the teachings of God’s word, those who are still in spiritual darkness will be offended and will criticize.

The desire to be popular or to be successful has led some to neglect the preaching of the cross or taking stands on moral issues.  On a local scale, pastors struggle with the tension between saying what needs to be said and job security.  After all, they do have families to provide for.

A pastor must understand that the church might write the paycheck but they do not work for the church, they work for God.  Churches must also realize this.  This is not to say that pastors are always right (they are human so they cannot be).  This is not to say that they should be autocratic dictators over their churches (only Christ can be the Lord of the church).  Rather, we must all remember that we are citizens of the Kingdom of God and must obey the King, no matter the personal or professional cost.

Paul was willing to risk it all, to make whatever sacrifices called for, to fulfill the calling of the Lord.  How many of us have the same level of commitment?  We need pastors who have the same level of commitment and church members who are willing to support them in that commitment—come what may

The Role of a Pastor

As Paul ends his third missionary journey, he plans to go to Jerusalem to deliver a love offering from the Gentile churches to the church in Jerusalem (2 Corinthians 8-9) and then relocate his base of operations to Rome in order to establish the work of Christ in the western provinces of the Roman Empire (a plan he refers to in the Epistle to the Romans).  He is also aware that there is a real threat that he could be arrested and martyred in Jerusalem.

However it turns out, Paul is aware that he will not see the people of the church in Ephesus again.  In Acts 20.17-38, Paul meets with the elders of the church to tell them goodbye and to issue a charge to them to continue his work there.  Paul provides us with five aspects of the work of a biblical pastor in this charge: the role of the pastor, the commitment of a pastor, the warning of a pastor, the confidence of the pastor, and the strength of the pastor.  I will address each of these in a series of five posts.  I encourage you to read the entire passage in Acts 20 first, and then follow along with the references as you read my comments.

The first aspect is the proper role of the pastor (vv. 20-21). Paul had set the example during his work in Ephesus.  The work of the pastor involves two components.  The pastor is to boldly teach (20) and to boldly reach (21).  Paul did not shy away from declaring to believers what they needed to hear from the Word of God.  He said what needed to be said without regard to the reaction. The church is in dire need of pastors who will say what needs to be said without worrying about popularity or job security.  The church is in need of members who will let their pastors say what needs to be said without the threat of unemployment.

The pastor is to boldly reach.  He must be eager to share the Gospel of Christ with anyone and everyone.  The message of repentance Paul refers to is the message that all are sinners condemned before God and who need to turn from sin to God through the death of Christ.  Too much of our message today lacks the reality of sin, the certainty of God’s judgment, and the absolute necessity of the sacrificial death of Christ.  Too many are attempting to present a cross-less Christianity when there is no such thing.  True biblical Christianity is centered on the death and resurrection of Christ.  As Paul tells the Corinthians, he decided to know nothing among them other than Christ and him crucified.  Such a message is not popular today but that unpopularity only heightens the necessity of the message.

We call upon pastors to do many things in churches today.  All of these are worthwhile in their own right.  However, these other tasks must flow out from the two primary roles of a pastor:  to boldly teach the entire Word of God and to boldly reach the lost with the message of salvation.

Reflections on the 4th of July

Though some of the "Founding Fathers" were deists influenced by the Enlightenment, they were also influenced by the culture in which they lived which was a culture dominated by a Christian worldview.  For example, this is what confuses some people about Thomas Jefferson.  When one reads his thoughts on religion, he was clearly not an orthodox Christian--he was  a thoroughgoing deist.  However, his language sounded Christian at times.  Why?  He was still operating with a cultural setting and paradigm that was Christian.  This Christian paradigm had been reinforced by the revivals that had swept the colonies in the decades before the Revolutionary War known as the First Great Awakening.  It would receive a booster shot of reinforcement from the Second Great Awakening, revival movements that covered all of American territory in the first half of the 1800s.

Much of the philosophy behind the American ideal came out of the Enlightenment but it was also rooted in this Christian paradigm.  Humans are equal because they are created equal.  Jefferson argued in the Declaration of Independence that the unalienable rights that characterize a human being are endowed by a creator.  The idea was that each individual was free to live his/her life and would be held responsible as an individual for that life--an idea rooted in the notion of the person being individually responsible before God.  It bears an aroma of the Protestant ideal of the
"Priesthood of the Believer," i.e., if I interact with God directly, than the ability of any authority--ecclesiastical or governmental--to interject itself into my life is limited.

Several of the founders, including some of the deists, wrote or stated in various ways that religion was an important part of this experiment that is America.  Without the ethics instilled in humans through avenues such as religion, the exercise of individual freedom could become selfish and democracy disintegrate into anarchy.  Without the concern for others nurtured by ethical systems such as religion, the free market capitalism could become contaminated by selfish greed and lead to economic chaos.

Much of what is going on in our society today reflects this possibility.  If the American ideal is, at least in part, rooted in the soil of the Christian worldview, then if you remove the plant from that soil, the plant cannot flourish.  Or, to use another metaphor, if we remove one of the cornerstones of a building, the building becomes structurally weak and can collapse.  As our society (including, sadly, much of the church) has moved into a Post-Christian worldview, the American ideal has lost one of the key foundations on which it is built.  Therefore, the building is wobbling.

For example, greed manifests itself among some in our society as a sense of entitlement--give me what I want regardless of whether I have earned it, deserve it, or really need it.  This has combined with a loss of personal responsibility to create a crack in the economy.  Likewise, greed manifested itself in Ponzi schemes and unethical business practices with a goal of acquiring wealth for wealth's sake.  It led Americans to spend far more than they earned in dangerous materialism and consumption running up tons of personal debt further weakening the economic strength of our families and our country.  Now that our chickens have come home to roost, everyone is blaming everyone else with hints of class warfare.  The reality is that we are all to blame:  we have pursued the freedoms of the American ideal without the ethics and Christian paradigm and the result is a path that could lead to chaos.

We have not moved form the American ideal, we have moved the American ideal from its moorings and are shocked to find it adrift on the sea.

My Theology Meets My Politics

This is more of a blog-ette than a blog:

I am asked by some why I am suspicious of big government, big business, big labor, etc.  It is because I take seriously the concept of human depravity--the belief in the sin nature and in human fallibility.  Therefore, if you give any institution great power--political, economic, military, etc.--the power will combine with the humanity of the leaders of the institution to create abuses.  It is absolute power corrupting absolutely.  Machiavellian? Yes.  Assumes the worst of human nature? Yes, guilty as charged.  However, I do think the evidence of human history is on my side.

Battling Satan Matthew 4.1-11

Temptation is a fact of life.  We face it from cradle to grave.  Some temptations are fleeting; some are struggles that rage constantly.  Some temptations we easily overcome; others attract us to thoughts and actions that greatly appeal to us.  These vary person to person and stage of life to stage of life.  Being tempted is not a sin; giving into temptation is.  Christ was tempted as we are but without sin (Hebs. 4.15).  Jesus was the Son of God but was also human and lived his human life in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Therefore, we should look to his battle with temptation for insight into how we can battle our own temptations.

A.       Times of Attack--While it is true that we face temptation daily, we must be aware that there are times when we are more likely to be attacked and when we are must vulnerable.

1.       Right after great spiritual victories and experiences—Jesus was tempted after being baptized and proclaimed the Lamb of God publicly by John the Baptist.  He has just spent 40 days fasting and praying in preparation for his ministry.  When we have felt especially close to God or have seen/experienced great works of God, we have attacked the Kingdom of Satan.  Therefore, we should expect a counterattack.  Indeed, our spiritual pride might open the door of our defenses.  Christ is tempted to do great spiritual or divine acts.  “You are on a roll here spiritually; God is really working in your life—let’s take it to the next level.”  Christ understood the need to wait on the timing of God.

2.       When we are emotionally and/or physically weak—when we are going through great stress and anxiety; when we have a sense of a great need in our life, Satan will tempt us to not trust God or to take shortcuts.  The temptation was to make bread out of stone—could Jesus do it? Yes.  Then what was the temptation?  To not trust God to provide. The temptation was to focus on the needs of this kingdom instead of the Kingdom of God.  This same type of thinking is what led Abraham and Sarah to use a shortcut (Hagar) to acquire a son instead of trusting God’s plan—to devastating effect.

3.       When we are on the verge of a movement of God—Christ was about to launch his ministry.  Satan was aware that the battle for the future of the universe and eternity was about to begin.  Satan knew that God the Father through God the Son empowered by God the Holy Spirit was about to unleash the Kingdom of God into the world.  He is attempting a pre-emptive strike here.  When Satan senses that God is about to do something through an individual or a church, he will attack with temptation in hope of derailing or limiting the movement of God through that person or church.

B.       Our Weapons of Defense—How did Christ respond to the temptations?  What weapons of defense did he use?  It is important for us to know this because these can be our weapons as well.

1.       Scripture (v. 4)—Jesus responds to the temptation to meet his physical need on his own, apart from trusting God by declaring that the spiritual bread of the word of God is as necessary as physical bread.  By this, Jesus means listening and obeying the commands of God.  We already have those in the scriptures.  Note that Jesus responds by quoting scripture to each of the temptations. In Psalms 1.1-2, David tells us that the man who does not give into wicked advice and temptation delights in the law of the Lord and meditates in it constantly.  We will either listen to the voice of temptation or the voice of the Lord.  By dwelling in the Word of God, we can drown out the voice of Satan. Psalm 119.11 says “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.”  Paul tells us in Ephesians 6.17 that the armor of God includes “the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”  We are disciples.  The word “disciple” means a student.  We are to make disciples by teaching them to obey all that Christ taught.  We are to be students of the word.  Churches are to be schools of the word.  Pastors are to be teachers of the word.  Otherwise, we are all defenseless against temptation.  Why is there so much sin and disobedience in so many churches?  Because our people are not taught the scriptures.

2.       Submission (v. 7)—Satan challenges how much Jesus trusts God.  “You think you are the Son of God, you trust this God to keep his promises?  Prove it!  Threw yourself off this high pinnacle and let him rescue you.”  Jesus responded that you do not test God.  Testing and trusting are not the same thing.  Indeed, testing is lack of trust.  If I believed my students were doing all their work and knew everything, I would not give tests.  You give tests because you do not believe they know everything and you have to evaluate how much they know and how much they do not know.  Trusting God means to submit to whatever he does or does not do, when he chooses it to do it.  The call is to wait upon the Lord, not to force his hand.

3.       Service (v.10)—When tempted to accept a “better offer” from Satan, Jesus declares that we should only worship and serve God.  In scripture, worship and service are always connected.  We separate them—service is what we do outside of church, worship what we do in church.  However we cannot properly worship him who we do not obey and we cannot obey him whom we do not worship.  Paul tells us in Romans 12.1-2 that not being conformed to the world but being transformed combines worship and service when he uses the root our English word liturgy as the term translated as “acts of service.”  When we worship God through service and serve through worship, our focus is so squarely on him that is hard for Satan to distract us with temptation.

A life devoted to the Word of God, to trusting God, and to worshipful service of God is a life that can stand strongly against any temptation.  Note that after the temptation, the Father did provide what Christ needed (v. 11).  His patience in the Lord was justified.

Remember the promise of I Cor. 10.13 “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”