Ground Zero of Revival - Desire

Let’s Have a Revival!

For those of us who have been raised in Pentecostal churches, the idea of revival brings many memories. First, it brings the remembrance of days, maybe even a week or more, of services that began on Sunday morning, continued late on Sunday night, then all Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and even Thursday nights. There was usually a special evangelist who was loud and bursting with stories!

The services were 3 parts – worship, preaching, and altar times. I remember summer revivals and even tent meetings as a kid. After marrying Cindy, her dad, Pastor Akers. held many revivals over the years – both in his church in Houma, Louisiana and in our church, especially in the 90’s. He even constructed a brush arbor one year for the services.

Revival can be a series of meetings, but true revival is the response to a sovereign touch from God. Recently, I have seen a lot of negative statements about the universal Church. Many of those statements come from church goers. It bothers me. Maybe it should, and that is the value of the criticism. In preparing this message I came across a statement written in 1891…yes, 1891:

Why is it that in the last decade of this nineteenth century the Church of Jesus Christ exhibits such deplorable weakness that our daily papers are crowded with advertisements of what is to be done and carried on in our churches week after week to draw the people in? Have we forgotten that there is a Holy Ghost, that we must insist upon walking upon crutches when we might fly?

Whatever our memories of revival are, it would be much better that we be revived than attend a meeting. Of course, that is what revivals were always supposed to be about…and, don’t get me wrong, many wonderful things certainly happened in those meetings and that is what you and I want to happen in our church today.

Revival Is Better Than an Event

I remember my cousins and I playing football in the backyard. I had the ball and was running down the sidelines for the score when Kevin, my cousin 2 years older, cut me down at the legs. I remember doing a somersault in the air and landing flat on my back. The wind was knocked out of me, and I laid on the ground gasping for air. Have you ever felt that way? I’m not just thinking about backyard football games. I’m thinking about life – physically, emotionally, and spiritually just breathless.

There is a story of a breathless family in 1 Kings. They have had the wind knocked out of their lives. Like all of the Bible, I think we can apply this old story to ours.

1 Kings 17:17–24 ESV

After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill. And his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. And she said to Elijah, “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!” And he said to her, “Give me your son.” And he took him from her arms and carried him up into the upper chamber where he lodged, and laid him on his own bed. And he cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?” Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, let this child’s life come into him again.” And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house and delivered him to his mother. And Elijah said, “See, your son lives.” And the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.”

Can you imagine the excitement of the family as Elijah walked down the stairs from the upper chamber with a living and breathing little boy? You know, this is what Christianity is all about…life. Revival.

So, let’s take a closer look!

Revival Brings Our Breath Back

A Very Real Question

Before we get to the really good stuff, we need to explore some dark things. Think about where this widow must have been.

1 Kings 17:18 ESV

And she said to Elijah, “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!”

There are 2 things that make me wonder. The first is her feeling that for some reason, Elijah is against her. So far, their relationship has been simple – she provided a room for him to stay when traveling and God performed a miracle through him that provided an endless stream of oil and flour. However, with the death of her son she feels that God is against her.

If we look closely, we’ll see that it wasn’t only the boy’s mother who had the question, it was the prophet Elijah as well.

1 Kings 17:20 ESV

And he cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?”

The second thought that I have is the issue of her sin causing the death of her son. We aren’t even told what this sin might be which suggests that the point of the passage has nothing to do with her past or present sin. One commentary suggests that “she had thus benefitted from Elijah’s presence, but now she judges that the cost was too high.”

Talk about having the wind knocked out! Life has way too many of these moments, but just because the wind is knocked out of you doesn’t mean you’re over, God isn’t finished yet. Revival is coming!

Time to surrender

Yes, revival is coming but we are not there yet. We must be willing to arrive at a place of surrender first.

1 Kings 17:19 ESV

And he said to her, “Give me your son.” And he took him from her arms and carried him up into the upper chamber where he lodged, and laid him on his own bed.

There is a short poem called “Steps to Revival”. We don’t know who the author was.

Steps to Revival

If all the sleeping folks will wake up,

and the lukewarm folks will fire up.

If the dishonest folks will own up,

and the discouraged folks will cheer up,

If the quarrelsome will make up,

and the gossipers will shut up,

If depressed folks will look up,

and the cowardly will speak up,

Then it may well be that GOD will truly bless us.[1]

Have you found out, yet, that following Jesus demands surrender? To the rich man Jesus told him there was something else that he still needed to give up. To the woman caught in adultery He told her there were things she could no longer do. The idea of Christianity without surrender is not a biblical idea. There are times when we must give up the things that we think we love the most. The truth is, often these things are not breathing.

That is when the breath comes into us!

God Desires for Us to Revive

We are told that Elijah stretched himself out on the boy 3 times as he continued to pray. The prophet Elisha would do the same thing later on but with the details of the prophet placing mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands…yes – AWKWARD!

How are we supposed to understand that? Matthew Henry gives us an option:

He stretched himself upon the child, to affect himself with the case and to show how much he was affected with it and how desirous he was of the restoration of the child—he would if he could put life into him by his own breath and warmth; also to give a sign of what God would do by his power, and what he does by his grace, in raising dead souls to a spiritual life; the Holy Ghost comes upon them, overshadows them, and puts life into them.[2]

I think that helps. It reminds me of a series of actions that are associated with the Holy Spirit in the NT.

John 20:20–22 ESV

When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.

Acts 1:8 ESV

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

It is amazing to see God’s willingness to revive His people. In this case we see Elijah stretch himself on the boy 3 times. What a picture of the cross, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

1 Kings 17:22–23 ESV

And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house and delivered him to his mother. And Elijah said, “See, your son lives.”

Let’s imagine the joy that this woman felt!

Revive!

Ron Bishop, president of Score International asked this question in his prayer letter today. “Has anyone seen any signs of revival lately? That’s becoming as rare a question as the reality itself. We see no sign of revival. Does anyone even care? We are so consumed with EXPOSITORY PREACHING, EQUIPPING SAINTS, TEACHING but has anyone heard of anyone mentioning revival recently? We are SURVIVING, but there’s no revival, no mention of it, no prayer for it, and probably... no one has thought about it! Revival is a sovereign work of God. Few have experienced revival. Nevertheless, revival ought to be a movement of God that we seek.”[3]

Psalm 85:6 NIV

Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?

How do I wrap up a series on revival? I’m going to attempt it with the help of C.S. Lewis from the end of his book The Voyage of the Dawn Trader. We must reimagine the story of Aslan, Lucy, and Edmund in the world of Narnia. Lucy and Edmund are about to be sent back to our world. Lucy says

“Please, Aslan, . . . before we go, will you tell us when we can come back to Narnia again? Please. And oh, do, do, do make it soon.”

“Dearest,” said Aslan very gently, “you and your brother will never come back to Narnia.”

“Oh, Aslan!” said Edmund and Lucy both together in despairing voices.

“You are too old, children,” said Aslan, “and you must begin to come close to your own world now.”

“It isn’t Narnia, you know,” sobbed Lucy. “It’s you. We shan’t meet you there. And how can we live, never meeting you?”

“But you shall meet me, dear one,” said Aslan.

“Are — are you there too, Sir?” said Edmund.

“I am,” said Aslan. “But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name.” (247)

“The real reason earnest Christians long for revival is similar to the real reason Lucy longed to return to Narnia. Lucy longed to experience being close to Aslan; Christians long to experience being close to Jesus. It isn’t the manifestations of revival we most deeply long for, as wonderful as those manifestations might be. It’s the Source of revival we really want. We long for the Life that gives us life, sustains our life, and renews our life — that in Christ, by his Spirit, we might “be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:19). If Jesus were to ask us what it is about revival that we want, we might paraphrase Lucy in our reply: ‘It isn’t revival, you know. It’s you.’”[4]

[1]John Stott, The Preacher’s Notebook: The Collected Quotes, Illustrations, and Prayers of John Stott, ed. Mark Meynell (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2018). [2]Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: Complete and Unabridged in One Volume(Peabody: Hendrickson, 1994), 508. [3]Bishop, Ron. Qtd by Lou Nicoles in Family-Times.net. https://www.family-times.net/illustration/Revival/202476/. Accessed June 3, 2024. [4]https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/why-we-long-for-revival