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 (18th
century) and the Second Great Awakening (19th 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment