Introduction

Before we get started let me mention a few things. One with three thirty minute classes we are only going to be able to get to some of the material on revival.  There are some good books out there. The two that I got a lot of my information from were A God-Sized Vision by Collin Hansen and John Woodbridge and Pentecostal Outpourings by a number of reformed pastors or theologians. But there are other good books on revival from a reformed theological view including some by Martyn Lloyd-Jones. This morning I am going to say some introductory things on revival and discuss a biblical revival and also a historical revival. Next week Philip will be speaking on the First Great Awakening in New England. In the third class I will cover the 1857-58 revival that started among some businessmen in New York City and the prayer meetings they started as well as discuss the Jesus revival in the 1960’s and 70’s. 

Prayer 

Psalm 80: Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, awaken Your power, And come to save us! God, restore us And make Your face shine upon us, and we will be saved. Let Your hand be upon the man of Your right hand, Upon the son of man whom You made strong for Yourself.  Then we will not turn back from You; Revive us, and we will call upon Your name.  Lord God of armies, restore us; Make Your face shine upon us, and we will be saved. 

So why are we studying the topic of revival? Martyn Lloyd Jones wrote "A thirst for revival is rooted in a thirst for God and His glory.” And “there is no subject which is of greater importance to the Christian church at the present time as that of revival.” Revival is a fulfillment in part of the Great Commission (gospel preached to all the nations) In the Lord’s Prayer we are to pray for His Kingdom to come and His will to be done here on earth as in heavens.

In the heart of the believer is there any other desire that we could or should pray for than God’s kingdom coming in the earth. This includes very much that many people would turn to Christ as King and as Savior, believe upon him and enter his kingdom. There are many things we can pray for but this should be one of the primary prayers that we consistently pray for. May our hearts burn with a desire for a God glorifying revival in the church and society throughout the world.  

So what is revival?

“An outpouring of the Holy Spirit, brought about by the intercession of Christ, resulting in a new degree of life in the churches and a widespread movement of grace among the unconverted. It is an extraordinary communication of the Spirit of God, a superabundance of the Spirit’s operations, and enlargement of his manifest power.”  Ian Murry

Since the day of Pentecost people have by God’s grace been coming to Christ. In different times and seasons that may have happened more or less but conversions have always been happening. But in a revival there is as Ian Murray states a superabundance of the Spirit’s operations. In a You Tube video called “Why France is suddenly full of evangelical churches” they report (secular) that there is now an estimated one million evangelical believers in France. (1950- 50,000). (extraordinary) 

Now that’s only 3% of France’s population but as the report states there is a quiet revival going on. Glory to God! There have been other reports that this "quiet revival” is happening in other places of the world as well. 

“an unusual manifestation of the power of the grace of God in convincing and converting careless sinners and in quickening and increasing the faith and piety of believers.” (The Revival of Religion) 

(Now remember all conversions are supernatural and great works of God). In fact one of the things that can motivate you to pray for revival is to think about your own conversion… 

As we look at the history of revival both biblically and historically we see that at different times and seasons that God in his sovereignty has brought about revival in the church and in society. We are teaching on revival so that we can grow in our understanding of how God has been pleased to work in the past and be motivated to pray that he would bring about revival throughout the world. John Knox famously prayed ““Give me Scotland, or I die.” Psalm 2: Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.

In the history of the world revivals have shaped not only the church but also society at large. Think of where our country might be if we hadn’t had the first and second great awakenings as well as other revivals (bad straits). We are called to be salt and light to our culture to help preserve it and much preserving has come about through revivals. 

Revivals come about through the sovereign work of God but they happen in a fallen world and so we want to also make observations of past revivals and learn from them. They are a part of church history (we would be wise).. And we also want to be aware of what we can do to hasten revival. 2 Peter 3:12 tells us that we can wait for and hasten the day of God. Piper: Now, it’s clear that we don’t hasten it in an absolute sense. .. But from our standpoint, from our limited vantage point, we can hasten the day of the Lord in the sense that we remove any hindrances to it.  In a similar way there are things we can do to hasten revival.

Most or all of us would agree that we can’t bring anyone to salvation. That is a work of God alone. However the will of God is for Him to use us in the process. We are Calvinists but we are not hyper Calvinists. We don’t believe that we should just wait for God to save people but that we should participate in prayer and in sharing the gospel and in sending and supporting those to go and do the same. So in a similar way God can use us to bring about revival. We can be a means of grace that helps usher in God moving among us in “superabundant” ways.  

Biblical Revivals

The biblical revival I want to discuss is the one under King Josiah. He was the grandson of King Manasseh who was one of Judah’s most wicked kings. Therefore it should bring us encouragement that when the culture around it is at its “lowest” that revival can still come. Most of 2 Kings 23 and 2 Chronicles 34 and 35 tells the story of the reviving of Judah under King Josiah’s rule. Now biblical revivals could also be more described as reformations because they for the most part affected Israel  and not the Gentiles with the exception of the book of Jonah. During these revivals or reformations that happened under godly kings we do not know how many unbelieving Jews came to faith under the revivals of Judah. As well as foreigners and sojourners among them. 

We read in 2 Chronicles 34 that in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet a boy, he began to seek the God of David his father. Then in 2 Kings chapter 22 the book of the law is found in the temple. The king then has the book read to him. “When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes. and weeps before the Lord. He realizes how far he and Judah have fallen from the Lord and from being guided by his word. 

One of the earmarks of a revival is that the word of God is restored to its rightful place of authority. In 2 Chronicles 34: we read that the king went up to the house of the Lord, with all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the priests and the Levites, all the people both great and small. And he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant that had been found in the house of the Lord.

So we should pray regularly for the exaltation of Jesus Christ and His glorious gospel - and Christ centered preaching. We see this happening in the early church. 

Acts 6:7 And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly
Acts 12: 24 But the word of God increased and multiplied.
Acts 13:  And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. 49 And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region. (Antioch) 
Acts 19:10 This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks…  20 So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.

This is how revival happens. God does a surprising work and people begin to respond to the word of the Lord in extra-ordinary ways. So in many historical revivals people respond in a saving way to the preaching of the word of God. In extra-ordinary ways.

We also read that Josiah tore his clothes out of genuine repentance and then went and had the priests inquire of the Lord as to how he and the nation should respond. (That is God reviving a people) Acts 2: Brothers, what are we to do? Many (but not all) revivals are driven by one or more key leaders. This is seen here in Josiah’s life. He not only repents in prayer but then demonstrates this repentance and leadership by making drastic changes in the religious life of Israel. 

First he makes a covenant before the Lord, (II Kings 23:3) to walk after the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. (Catch the evidence of genuine revival) And all the people joined in the covenant.
 
Then the king in repentance made a number of radical changes. He deals radically with sinful practices of Judah: Baal worship was rampant. 2 Kings 23 Drastically. Decisively. 

One of the observations of those who have written about revival is that in a revival there is a return to the norm of biblical faith. It may seem radical but it’s often just a return to the biblical norms. In II Kings 23:21 the king commanded all the people, “Keep the Passover to the Lord your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.” 22 For no such Passover had been kept since the days of the judges who judged Israel, or during all the days of the kings of Israel or of the kings of Judah.

We also see the restoration of the temple and the centrality of biblical worship. In 2 Chronicles 34 he had the temple repaired and restored and the people gave freely and joyfully towards this. Then in chapter 35 we read of the restoration of God centered biblical worship. 

In a revival the church is restored and reformed. One of the encouraging things that we can glean from this reformation in Judah was how important it is in each local church to maintain the core tenets of the faith. Christ honoring worship, an insistence on conversion for church membership and the centrality of gospel centered preaching and the authority of Scripture. We must hold fast to those things They returned to them; we don’t want to leave them.  

It should encourage us that even in very dire times we can pray for revival. After Josiah tore his clothes in humility and godly sorrow we find out that a prophetess (pra fa tess) came and spoke to him. She basically said that judgment was still going to come to Judah but because of Josiah’s godly response it would not come in his lifetime. We can’t affect the rest of world history but we can influence through our prayers and lives and actions our generation and even the generation to come.

We should not give into a doomsday mentality, that the only outcome in the future is for the world to get worse and worse. (That may happen but in our lifetime we shouldn’t think that it is inevitable) We should have faith to pray that God is able to save and save many and to once again bring revival. In Iran in the last ten years it is estimated that the number of Christians have grown from 100,000 to 3 million. The testimony of scripture and church history gives us great hope to pray for revival. God can be called upon and sought and He can bring great awakening. We should be beseeching him for it. (to ask urgently and fervently)

In Luke 2 we read about Simeon: Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. Anna (given to prayer and fasting): And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. In every generation there are faithful people praying and looking for God to move in extraordinary ways and we can be part of them. 

The Second Great Awakening

The handout you received is a listing of some of the biblical and historical revivals. This is far, far from being exhaustive. God in his mercy has worked in many times and in many ways throughout history to revive both Israel and the church as well as those outside of God’s people. Many of us may be aware of many of the “major” (well known) revivals throughout church history and I am going to discuss briefly one of them - the Second Great Awakening. But it was especially encouraging to me to read of many, many works of God reviving local congregations and the surrounding area before and after the Reformation. Revivals that you or I have probably never heard of. History is full of them. 

There are a number of reasons why I want to discuss the Second Great Awakening. One is that it lasted several decades, much longer than the First Great Awakening. Secondly it has mixed results. The Lord did many great works of regeneration in the hearts of folks both in the U.S, and abroad. However during this extensive revival certain revival “techniques” or philosophies were introduced. These proved to be controversial and open to the charge of producing false conversions. 

The general period of the Second Great Awakening was from the 1790s to the 1840s. It came, like many revivals, when our country was at a very low spiritual place. “Men of education and especially young men of the country thought it a mark of independence to scoff at the Bible and the professors of religion.” “Drunkenness and depravity defined the culture in many frontier towns. (God Sized Vision) 

At Yale, one of the leading universities at that time, it was described as being influenced greatly by the Enlightenment's anti-Christian philosophers. Wine and liquor were kept in many rooms, intemperance, profanity, gambling and licentiousness (lye-SEN-shuhs-nis) were common. Again it should encourage us to keep praying when we are discouraged by the spiritual climate of our culture. If the Lord can turn around the city of Nineveh in a day or two we can be encouraged to pray for revival.  

But during the Second Great Awakening a number of things happened that marked many revivals. One was that God’s Spirit was poured out in surprising and great ways. Remember Ian Murry’s “superabundance” of the Spirit’s operations? The larger Westminster Confession states that the Spirit is given to all Christians “ although not in all persons, nor at all times, in the same measure”

We see this both individually but also in how God pours out His Spirit at different times and in different measures. In a revival it’s apparent that the Spirit has been poured out in “surprising” and powerful ways. This is a clear mark of a revival. That may be evident in a single church or locality or like the Second Great Awakening it may be experienced over a large geographic area and over many years. 

 In the early 1800’s revival came to Yale and in 1802 one third of Yale’s student body professed new faith in Christ. Over the next ten plus years there came other revival “waves”at Yale. This does seem to be a pattern that often revival will come to an area over a number of years or movements of God’s Spirit. So when we hear of God doing great things in China, or France or Iran or elsewhere it should be a great encouragement to “join ourselves” to what God is doing and to pray that God would be pleased to continue to awaken many to Christ and for the work of the Lord to be a deep and lasting work. 

Maybe at the present time our area or nation is not experiencing what might be called a revival. But we can still rejoice when we hear of it happening in other areas and join ourselves to it in prayer. (France - China) This is not a small thing. (Some revivals have fizzled out) 

As I mentioned, the Second Great Awakening lasted over decades and was widespread. In Kentucky there was what became known as the Cane Ridge revival in the early 1800’s. (Events) At the Cane Ridge Communion, (Pastor Barton Stone - from Pentecostal Outpourings)

“Sometimes 20,000 people swirled about the grounds—watching, praying, preaching, weeping, groaning, falling. Though some stood at the edges and mocked, most left marveling at the wondrous hand of God. The Cane Ridge Communion quickly became one of the best-reported events in American history, and according to Vanderbilt historian Paul Conkin, “arguably ... the most important religious gathering in all of American history.” It ignited the explosion of evangelical religion, which soon reached into nearly every corner of American life. For decades the prayer of camp meetings and revivals across the land was “Lord, make it like Cane Ridge.”

The revival spread throughout the U.S and abroad. This included among Baptist congregations in New England and the mid-Atlantic area for over a decade. In Wilmington Delaware one minister wrote of the “glorious work of God in this place.” Through a variety of providences, attention to the preaching became so profound, prayer became so solemn and conviction became so deep that he was in constant dealings with the souls of men and women. 

In many (not all) revivals there were clearly reported manifestations of (supposedly-not denying or confirming) the Spirit coming on people including having the effect upon their bodies. There is some biblical precedence for this. But we must be careful with manifestations. They may come in God’s sovereignty but we should not focus a revival around them. If that happens then error and false teachers may arise. (Toronto Blessing; pre-occupation;  people’s obsessions ) 

Always focus on preaching Christ and him crucified. Edwards in his book Religious Affections emphasizes that in the end the true evidence of a revival is changed lives of those affected by the awakening (not dreams or visions or shaking). “Indeed if reform does not accompany revival the awakening will dissipate with fanaticism. Another evidence of genuine revival is a biblical response to the gospel. There would be godly sorrow over one’s  sins (and the terror of not being right with a Holy God) as well as the joy of one’s salvation and a great sense of the love of God. Pre and post conversion. 

Two important figures in the Second Great Awakening were Asahel Nettleton and Charles Finney. Nettleton is not that well known but some estimate that over 30,000 converts can be attributed to his preaching ministry in the 1810’s and 1820’s. He was a faithful reformed evangelist in New England and New York. He can be contrasted to Charles Finney who was a well known evangelist and revivalist who introduced certain revival “techniques” aimed at bringing people to Christ. Finney did not think that a revival was a surprising work of God and His Spirit but more so something that was primarily to be man driven. (Top down vs bottom up) 

From a Nine Marks article: First, we need good marketing. Second, we need protracted meetings to maximize the psychological pressure on sinners to make decisions for Christ. Third, we should press the individual sinner and address him directly from the pulpit, all in a meticulously directed drama. We should pressure the individual and invite him to a smaller decision, namely to come forward to the “anxious bench,” and continue to urge him there to make his final decision for Christ. Finally, we should create an emotionally charged atmosphere. In Finney’s words, “The evangelist must produce excitements sufficient to induce sinners to repentance.”

The Second Great Awakening had mixed results in terms of true conversions. This in part may be the result of these revivalistic techniques. However in any proclamation of the gospel you will find “mixed results”. Think of Jesus’ parable of the sower and the seed and his parable in Matthew 13 of the wheat and the tares. There will always be false conversions.

However we should learn from revivals that it is the clear preaching of the gospel message and the exhortations to respond biblically that God is pleased to use to bring others to Christ. We see this in Acts 2 (after Peter’s evangelistic and declarative gospel message): And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” 41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

We must always be faithful to trust in the means that He has established and trust that He will work through them according to His most wise and glorious will. We must always be on guard against manipulating others to respond to the gospel. I Corinthians 3: 5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. 9 For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building.

We have been called to be God’s fellow workers but we must always remember that God is the one who brings about the results - both in conversions and in Christian growth. There is a difference between exhorting and urging one to hear and respond to the word of the Lord and seeking to control the outcome by manipulative techniques.

Conclusion

In closing let me say that one of the main observations and applications for us is the need for prayer. There is much we could say about prayer and we have little time.  We should desire, first in our own life and then in the church and culture, a greater outpouring of the Spirit resulting in the reformation of the church and the conversion of many non-Christians. Whether it’s in our own prayer closet or in unity with other believers we should regularly be praying for revival. 

“O let us stir our hearts and all that is within us and strive mighty in prayer and preaching to revive the work of God and beg earnestly that God by a fresh and abundant effusion of this own Spirit would revive his own work among us.” Issac Watts 

Let us be thankful for all of God’s blessings upon us but let us not be content to live without this outpouring of the Spirit. 

In many historical revivals Christians in different churches prayed together either physically or in concert for revival.  As one theologian stated, “The Holy Spirit loves to answer petitions that are appended with many signatures. “The Scriptures give us clear reason to think that when once there comes to appear much of a spirit of prayer in the church of God for this mercy then it will soon be accomplished.” Jonathan Edwards. 

Daniel taught on the life of William Carey yesterday. A quote:

The most glorious works of grace that have ever taken place have been in answer to prayer; and it is in this way, we have the greatest reason to suppose, that the glorious outpouring of the Spirit, which we expect at last, will be bestowed" (William Carey, An Enquiry into the Obligation of Christians, 28).

He commended the practice of monthly meetings to be devoted to prayer "for the success of the gospel."

If it is not a part of your devotions, I encourage you to incorporate into them the habit of praying for revival, for an outpouring of the Spirit. Pray for the nations. Pray for specific nations. Pray with your family, with your homegroup with other Christians.   

Remember that persistence is a key element of prayer. Evan Roberts prayed for eleven years before revival came to the Welch. It’s possible that you may never see the answer to your prayers at least in your own church and vicinity. 

In Scripture it equates the prayers of the saints as golden bowls full of incense to the Lord. We do not know in the mystery of God’s providence when the Lord will respond to the prayers of his people for revival. Our focus is to be faithful in calling out to him in believing prayer. Let us not neglect this calling. In Isaiah 62 describes a prayerful disposition we should have:

For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not be quiet, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a burning torch … On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen; all the day and all the night they shall never be silent. You who put the Lord in remembrance, take no rest, and give him no rest  until he establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth. Isaiah 62:1, 6-7