Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Revival is a topic that is dear to my heart only because I have experienced it in my life.

I know what God can do to revive a church that is dead.

We just talked about dead Orthodoxy.

These are the churches that need revival.

They need life poured back into them.

Sometimes revival is needed because new growth is needed in the church.

Throughout history times of revival have often been proceeded by times of serious searching for God in prayer.

One such revival began by a prayer meeting on the island of Barvas in the Hebrides islands of Scotland.

According to testimony from people who lived at the time, the churches on the island were dead and dry.

They had a legalistic form of godliness but not power.

Religion was taught in the public schools even by lost teachers as a form of tradition, but the church was cold.

In 1949, two elderly women one blind and the other suffering from severe arthritis, Peggy and Christine Smith decided to begin praying two to three nights a week from 10 PM to 3 AM in the morning.

They believed God had given them a promise from Isaiah 44:3 “For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, And floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, And my blessing upon thine offspring:” and that God was going to bring revival.

After awhile of praying like this, they sent for their local minister and told him what they thought the Lord was going to do and asked him to get the local preachers together to pray at the same times with them for Revival.

Rev Mackay did just that.

He gathered the men of the church, preachers, leaders together to pray in an old bard.

Now they did this in an old barn in the middle of winter with no heating.

They continued doing this for weeks praying twice a week for five hours each time.

Finally a deacon got up and read Psalm 24:3-5 “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?

Or who shall stand in his holy place?

He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; Who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, Nor sworn deceitfully.

He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, And righteousness from the God of his salvation.”

He stood up and made a heart probing statement:

It seems to me to be so much humbug to be praying as we are praying, to be waiting as we are waiting, if we ourselves are not rightly related to God.”

He then prayed, “God, are my hands clean?

Is my heart pure?”

It was at that meeting that Revival broke out and not just in that barn, but all the country around it.

According to Duncan Campbell, the preacher God used in this revival: The church was crowded with people when the word of God was preached.

People were weeping over their sin making things right with one another publically.

People were on the sides of the streets on their knees confessing sin to God and getting right with Him.

Church services lasted into all hours of the night.

This revival continued in Barvas for five weeks before it began spreading to other parts of the island.

God does not promise widespread national, geographic revival like this, but He will renew the life of His people.

Revival can come to Harvest Hills Baptist Church.

Revival does not always mean the people have drifted into sin.

Sometimes it is just a renewal of God’s power and making God’s presence known in the believers as we see in our text today.

This church had not fallen into sin.

This isn’t that much longer after Pentecost and yet we see the Holy Spirit filling the people with renewed power for the mission He had given them.

I. Their Gathering

Acts 4:23 “And being let go, they went to their own company, and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them.”

After arrest and release of Peter and John from prison, the Apostles returned to bring a report of what the Lord had done.

Notice the first couple words of the text here they went to their own company.

Those who deny church membership need to read verses like this.

The apostles had a specific group of people that they felt they belonged to and they were a part of.

It is to this group that they came back and gave their report.

Notice also that it was this church that the apostles felt they could come to for spiritual support and encouragement.

They had a home with these people.

The word company is not in the Greek, rather the words are merely “their own.”

This is a commonly used idiom but it expresses that they viewed this group, their local church, as a “community of mutually supportive friends (Bock).”

Have you ever thought of the people of the church as your people?

Or even as your friends, or are we all just a group of people you see every now and then.

Is your life here or do you identify more with those outside the church?

When the apostles has a problem, they knew they had a group of people they could go back to for support.

In the context of Corporate Revival, these questions are important because if we are going to see Revival as a church, we must all be seeking it together.

When we are disconnected from the group we cut ourselves off from what the Lord is trying to do in the group.

Imagine if Revival broke out at HHBC next Sunday, but you weren’t here.

Imagine what it would have been like to be Thomas, when Jesus appeared to the disciples after the resurrection.

He for some reason was not there and because of that, he could not join in the joy, excitement and experience that the other disciples had seeing Christ again.

In fact, he was resistant to it all because he was not there.

We can be cut off from the group in multiple ways.

physically- You don’t even show up.

The bible is replete with teaching on the necessity of the community of believers for growth in our lives.

You cannot be everything God wants you to be without the Church.

but we are very individualistic people and so if I don’t feel like going to church today, I skip it.

After all can’t I just read the bible for myself.

You could but there is something more God wants to do in your life by being part of the group.

emotionally- feeling like part of the group takes time and as long term church members, we need to be doing more to make people feel like they belong here.

If you do not feel part of the group, you will not receive as much of the benefit of being in the group as you could.

You can become emotionally absent, by not participating in anything, by not trying to make friends Proverbs 18:24 “A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: And there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.”

(relationships are two ways).

You can be emotionally absent because you are just here out of habit.

You can be emotionally absent by walking in at the last minute and then leaving immediately when the service is over.

spiritually- maybe you struggle to feel like part of the group because you are on a different spiritual level than others.

Carnality will keep you out of church.

But here is the good news, you don’t have to remain a carnal, worldly, baby christian.

Churches are families.

It is natural to be a newborn christian, but it is not natural to be a 40 year old baby christian.

One thing that is true about families is that the mature ones (parents) help grow the immature ones.

Don’t let yourself become disassociated, disenfranchised, or cut off from the family life of the church.

God wants to do something in your life through this church.

And if HHBC is going to see revival, we must be seeking it together as a group.

II.

Their Prayer

A. The Nature of their prayer

Acts 4:24-30 “And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is: Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things?

The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.

For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.

And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus.”

Lifted up their voice to God with one accord- together as a group the church prayed to God with their voices.

There is a reason I have tried to place more emphasis on corporate prayer.

Corporate prayer is essential to the life of the church.

In the text, we see at least three benefits to corporate prayer:

Corporate prayer can encourage other believers- Peter and John came to these believers for support and they found it as they joined together to pray for one another.

It is nice to know other believers are praying for you, but it is even greater to know other believers are praying with you.

Periodically, I try to text people and let them know when I am praying for them to try and be an encouragement.

I don’t always tell people when I am praying for them because I pray for everyone of you every week, but sometimes the Lord impresses me to let you know.

Usually the response is something like, “how nice.”

But the spiritual, emotional, and even physical support can be so much greater when I kneel beside you and earnestly lift up your needs before God.

There is companionship, emotional uplifting, and sympathy when we pray together for the struggles we are going through.