REVIVAL!

The Spark Plug in an Engine

•     A car engine is massive, with many parts. Yet without the spark plug, it cannot run. One small spark ignites the fuel, and the entire system roars to life.

•     Point: Personal revival is the spark plug. It may seem small, but it ignites the church’s mission, worship, and witness

        Imagine a vast forest at night, cold and silent. One person strikes a single match. At first, it seems insignificant against the darkness. But that flame lights a torch, which lights another, until the entire forest glows with fire.

•     Point: Revival begins with one heart set ablaze. What feels small in isolation becomes unstoppable when others catch the flame.

Corporate revival is not a mysterious wave that descends from heaven—it is the multiplication of personal encounters with Jesus. When one heart is set ablaze, others are drawn to the fire, and the body becomes a living flame.

Luke 19:1–10 CSB

1 He entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 There was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. 3 He was trying to see who Jesus was, but he was not able because of the crowd, since he was a short man. 4 So running ahead, he climbed up a sycamore tree to see Jesus, since he was about to pass that way. 5 When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down because today it is necessary for me to stay at your house.” 6 So he quickly came down and welcomed him joyfully. 7 All who saw it began to complain, “He’s gone to stay with a sinful man.” 8 But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, I’ll give half of my possessions to the poor, Lord. And if I have extorted anything from anyone, I’ll pay back four times as much.” 9 “Today salvation has come to this house,” Jesus told him, “because he too is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.”

Jesus Visits Zacchaeus

19 He entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 There was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. 3 He was trying to see who Jesus was, but he was not able because of the crowd, since he was a short man. 4 So running ahead, he climbed up a sycamore tree to see Jesus, since he was about to pass that way. 5 When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down because today it is necessary for me to stay at your house.”

6 So he quickly came down and welcomed him joyfully. 7 All who saw it began to complain, “He’s gone to stay with a sinful man.”

8 But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, I’ll give half of my possessions to the poor, Lord. And if I have extorted anything from anyone, I’ll pay back four times as much.”

9 “Today salvation has come to this house,” Jesus told him, “because he too is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.”

Zacchaeus is a great example of laying down Pride and Dignity to get to Jesus.  A grown man who was wealthy, running ahead and climbing a tree so he could see Jesus! 

He climbed the tree like a little boy, without knowing he was fulfilling Jesus’ words that…Unless we become like children, we will not see the Kingdom of God! 

Church, it’s time we lay down our pride and dignity and step into a child-like faith so we can see Jesus! 

When we do these things what does Jesus do?  Did He walk on by and just wave at the short person who climbed a tree, desperate to see Him?  NO, He called Him by name! 

When we seek Jesus, when we lay down our pride, and don’t care how we look to others…because we know Jesus is the Answer to our problems…we know Jesus is the One who Sets The Captives Free and gives Sight To The Blind. 

So I’m sorry if I look a little crazy, but when we seek Jesus with our whole heart, He sees us and He calls us by our name.

He said Zacchaeus, I see you in that tree.  I see that you don’t care how you look to others just to get a glimpse of Me, and to show you how much I’ve been waiting for you to come to me, I’m going to call you by your name…Zacchaeus, Hurry Up And Come On Down Out Of That Tree! 

Church, Jesus is waiting to call us by name.  Jesus is telling Zacchaeus to come down from his high place and meet with Him.  Seeking Jesus with our whole heart is so important because Jesus isn’t just going to call your name and leave you where you’re sitting…He’s going to call you to move out of that place you’re in, and call you into an Intimate Setting With Him.

See as long as you’re in the tree and Jesus is looking up at you, you’re just seeing Jesus, but until you climb down the tree and allow Jesus to stay at your house, you’re not experiencing Jesus.  Jesus told Zacchaeus, “Today I must stay at your house.”

Church until Jesus is staying in your house, until you’re sharing a meal with Jesus and spending time with Jesus, you’re just a tax collector in a tree who saw Jesus…but when Jesus calls you by name to come out of your high place and allow Him to stay in your house, you are now Zacchaeus, son of the Most High God. 

Jesus doesn’t just want to convert us into a religion, He wants to transform us into a relationship!  He wants to revive us!  So we see that Zacchaeus received Jesus in the same way we have to receive Jesus, and then we will see the change Jesus makes in us. 

Zacchaeus being full of the Lord gave ½ his goods to the poor and said he would repay anyone he cheated 4Xs what he stole.  That’s the heart change that comes along with salvation.  Jesus said “Today Salvation has come to this house.”

Church, we have to get out of the tree, lay down our pride and get revived.

THE WOMAN AT THE WELL in John 4:4-42 is another story of Revival.  A woman gets the same type of personal revival and it leads to corporate revival.

John 4:4-42 Christian Standard Bible (CSB)```````

John 4:4–42 CSB

4 He had to travel through Samaria; 5 so he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the property that Jacob had given his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, worn out from his journey, sat down at the well. It was about noon. 7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. “Give me a drink,” Jesus said to her, 8 because his disciples had gone into town to buy food. 9 “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” she asked him. For Jews do not associate with Samaritans. 10 Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God, and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would ask him, and he would give you living water.” 11 “Sir,” said the woman, “you don’t even have a bucket, and the well is deep. So where do you get this ‘living water’? 12 You aren’t greater than our father Jacob, are you? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and livestock.” 13 Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. 14 But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again. In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up in him for eternal life.” 15 “Sir,” the woman said to him, “give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and come here to draw water.” 16 “Go call your husband,” he told her, “and come back here.” 17 “I don’t have a husband,” she answered. “You have correctly said, ‘I don’t have a husband,’ ” Jesus said. 18 “For you’ve had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 “Sir,” the woman replied, “I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 Jesus told her, “Believe me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews. 23 But an hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” 26 Jesus told her, “I, the one speaking to you, am he.” 27 Just then his disciples arrived, and they were amazed that he was talking with a woman. Yet no one said, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?” 28 Then the woman left her water jar, went into town, and told the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They left the town and made their way to him. 31 In the meantime the disciples kept urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But he said, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.” 33 The disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought him something to eat?” 34 “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work,” Jesus told them. 35 “Don’t you say, ‘There are still four more months, and then comes the harvest’? Listen to what I’m telling you: Open your eyes and look at the fields, because they are ready for harvest. 36 The reaper is already receiving pay and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together. 37 For in this case the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap what you didn’t labor for; others have labored, and you have benefited from their labor.” 39 Now many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of what the woman said when she testified, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 Many more believed because of what he said. 42 And they told the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you said, since we have heard for ourselves and know that this really is the Savior of the world.”

4 He had to travel through Samaria; 5 so he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the property[a] that Jacob had given his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, worn out from his journey, sat down at the well. It was about noon.[b]

7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water.

“Give me a drink,” Jesus said to her, 8 because his disciples had gone into town to buy food.

9 “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” she asked him. For Jews do not associate with[c] Samaritans.[d]

10 Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God, and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would ask him, and he would give you living water.”

11 “Sir,” said the woman, “you don’t even have a bucket, and the well is deep. So where do you get this ‘living water’? 12 You aren’t greater than our father Jacob, are you? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and livestock.”

13 Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. 14 But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again. In fact, the water I will give him will become a well[e] of water springing up in him for eternal life.”

15 “Sir,” the woman said to him, “give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and come here to draw water.”

16 “Go call your husband,” he told her, “and come back here.”

17 “I don’t have a husband,” she answered.

“You have correctly said, ‘I don’t have a husband,’” Jesus said. 18 “For you’ve had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”

19 “Sir,” the woman replied, “I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”

21 Jesus told her, “Believe me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews. 23 But an hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth.[f] Yes, the Father wants such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth.”

25 The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

26 Jesus told her, “I, the one speaking to you, am he.”

27 Just then his disciples arrived, and they were amazed that he was talking with a woman. Yet no one said, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

28 Then the woman left her water jar, went into town, and told the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They left the town and made their way to him.

31 In the meantime the disciples kept urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.”

32 But he said, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.”

33 The disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought him something to eat?”

34 “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work,” Jesus told them. 35 “Don’t you say, ‘There are still four more months, and then comes the harvest’? Listen to what I’m telling you: Open[g] your eyes and look at the fields, because they are ready[h] for harvest. 36 The reaper is already receiving pay and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together. 37 For in this case the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap what you didn’t labor for; others have labored, and you have benefited from[i] their labor.”

39 Now many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of what the woman said[j] when she testified, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 Many more believed because of what he said.[k] 42 And they told the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you said, since we have heard for ourselves and know that this really is the Savior of the world.”[l]

Church, this story is what happens when someone sees the light.  This story shows exactly how powerful one person being 100% sold out to the Lord can be.  She got Revived and On Fire and the people were drawn to her and the fire she had was enough to draw the people to the source of that fire.

Church, when you are On Fire for Jesus and your living out the gospel the way Christ intended us to,  you are the fire…the love…the peace…the joy and all the other things that come along with being a Fire-Filled Disciple of Christ. 

You will automatically draw people to you, which is actually drawing them to Jesus, because they aren’t drawn to me or you, they are Drawn To The Source Of That Fire and THAT SOURCE IS JESUS!

Just like this woman at the well.  This woman who was not counted, in those days, as a witness-worthy person… This woman who slept around… this woman who had to get her water in the heat of the day because others did not want to be around her…this same woman Met Jesus and was all the sudden Leading Others to the Source Of The Fire…to the Source of Living Water.

Jesus took a woman who was an outcast and used her to start a revival in this town.

Church, This Is Revival and it started with one person, a woman…women in those days were not counted…couldn’t be a witness in a court of law even if she saw a crime…a woman who couldn’t get water in the cool of the day because she was an outcast…

But all that did not matter because the fire Jesus Lit Inside Of Her was contagious and it was truth. 

It’s the same today with us.  When the fire of the Holy Spirit revives each one of us…and we combine the fire with the Word of God that is Truth…it is contagious and people are drawn to it.

If a woman in that day and time with that type of reputation can Lead A Whole Town To The Source Of The Water that is everlasting, then there is no limit to what a church full of respected members of society can do once it is filled with the source…which is Jesus.

The One, who in this story reveals Himself to a sinful woman by saying I AM HE. 

This story is such a great representation of personal revival and how it spreads through each one of us to a corporate revival!

Jesus begins revealing Himself to her from the get-go.  Then He calls her on her sins and they deal with her sins, and then once she confesses her sins, He tells her:

I am HE…

I am the MESSIAH… 

I am CHRIST… 

I am the ALPHA AND OMEGA…

I am the GREAT I AM…

AND, I LOVE YOU!

Jesus reveals Himself to sinners, but he takes the broken sinner and makes them a winner…and the Scripture says “The Woman then left her water pot, went into the city, and said to the men, ‘Come See A Man Who Told Me All The Things That I Ever Did’.  Could This Be The Christ?  Then they went out of the city and came to him!”

Church, that’s Personal Revival. 

Church, this revival is your Well Experience.  The Spirit of the Most High God is here revealing Himself to you.

Church, I don’t know what is in the way of your personal revival, but confess it to Jesus.  Sell out to Jesus and leave your water pot at the altar, because:

Once you get Full Of The Source

Once you get Full Of The Fire

Once you Tear Down The Dam and get a full flow of Everlasting Water flowing through veins…

You will leave and gather up a whole town to come get what you have, because people are drawn to the Spirit of God that is living in us and all the sudden your personal revival has become a corporate revival just like John 4:39-42!

So the Woman at the Well went into town and testified and they saw a realness to what she was saying and they believed her enough to get to Jesus.

Once they got to Jesus, they believed for themselves and Jesus stayed two days in Samaria.  It turned into a two-day revival that I am sure continued after Jesus left. 

This revival started from one woman getting revived and when we truly get That Redemption, That Refreshing, That Reviving, we will not be able to keep it to ourselves…

And that my friend is when

GOD DOES IT AGAIN

that is when TRUE REVIVAL BREAKS OUT

that is when GREAT AWAKENINGS happens

And I’m here to tell you its time.  I’m here to provoke you… to tell you IT STARTS HERE.

If we each personally get revived, that it surely won’t end here, because God said to call it the IT STARTS HERE revival, so only He knows where it’s going to end.

But church, Jesus already knows everything we’ve ever done.  He is just waiting for us to give it to Him, to turn from whatever is not right in your life so that He can revive you and just like we see in this story, He wants to use the redemption of one to reach a whole city.