Jesus is Here and He's Brought Favor

Introduction

Currently a revival is happening in Wilmore, Kentucky at Asbury University. This revival started on Feb 8 after a simple prayer by a chapel speaker who encouraged individuals to seek revival. Eleven days later, this revival is still ongoing. Thousands of people have visited that cozy chapel amidst cold winter days—awaiting their opportunity to enter a place where it is said, the Spirit of God is moving. With international attention and over 35 million views on social media, this revival is bringing attention to the name of Jesus Christ.

This isn’t the only time revival has taken place at Asbury University:

February 1905: A prayer meeting in a men's dormitory sparked a campus and city-wide revival.

February 1908: A two-week revival broke out in the school's chapel.

February 1921: A planned revival was extended for three extra days.

February 1950: A testimony from a student led to a nonstop 118-hour revival.

March 1958: A prayer meeting turned into a 63-hour revival.

Feb. 3, 1970: One of the most famous revivals in Asbury University history. Classes were canceled for a week during the 144 hours of nonstop religious service.

March 1992: An annual religious conference turned into a nonstop 127-hour prayer and worship gathering.

February 2006: A four-day revival was held.

Once, Gypsy Smith was once asked how to start a revival.

He answered: “Go home, lock yourself in your room, kneel down in the middle of your floor. Draw a chalk mark all around yourself and ask God to start the revival inside that chalk mark. When He has answered your prayer, the revival will be on.” (Tan, P. L. (1996). Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times (p. 1152). Bible Communications, Inc.)

Revival begins one person at time and is continued when those who are seeking personal revival unite with others of the same mind. Billy Graham said when revival and evangelism is not the same. “When revival comes, I expect to see two things which we have not seen yet. First, a new sense of the holiness of God on the part of Christians; and second, a new sense of the sinfulness of sin on the part of Christians.” (Tan, P. L. (1996). Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times (p. 1152). Bible Communications, Inc.)

Friends, I am praying for revival. Yet, the revival will not come outside of each one of us drawing a circle around ourselves and asking God to begin with us. This is what those individuals in our text did. They drew a circle around themselves and then extended that circle for others to join in and awaited the day when they would be revived.

The Coming of Favor: Luke 4:18-19

In our passage, we find a world that was terribly plagued by the work of Satan through the Roman Empire. Caesar was the proclaimed Savior of the Roman world. Meanwhile, 97% of the population was living in poverty, the aristocrats were over-taxing the lower-class, and the hope of the people of God was dwindling while they contemplated the value of faithfully living in covenant with the God who seemingly had disappeared.

I find it difficult to go along with a religion that will over-emphasize the hope of heaven, without caring for the one’s needs on earth. This is not the example Jesus gives us, and if He did not give us this example, where did we get it? Furthermore, why are we following it?

Right in this moment, Jesus shows up, in His home town. He shows up in a place where it would be difficult to do the things that He had been sent to do. Yet, He shows up anyway. It should be noted that these were terrible times. Yet, those who Jesus went to were not willing to accept Jesus.

A Nazareth Disciple or Capernaum Disciple?

In this text, we find a very clear warning. God often does things in ways we don’t expect. He will sometimes send food by a raven and deliverance in a prison, the Messiah in the form of a carpenter. And if we are not sensitive to the movings of God, we will miss the entire thing (Compare Nazareth to Capernaum).

Illustration: Beggars can’t be choosy.