Why can’t we just stay here?

I’m sure by now you know that Karie and I have been called to Spring City to Pastor that church.

Our family will be moving this summer after Elisabeth graduates.

However, the kids plan to stay here at Hopewell.

During these past few month, I have found myself asking the question, “Why go to Spring City?”

I’ve been at Hopewell for 17 years.

I have friends here and I have roots in this church.

I’m going from a church of 250 to a church of less 50 people.

That church has been through a rough season the past few years.

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I’m going from a very stable, secure position to one where I need God to move.

Have you ever notice that just about the time you start to get comfortable, the Holy Spirit says, “Hang on, we’re going to go for another ride!”

We prophecy and preach about revival, but revival means change. If you’re not willing to change, don’t pray for revival!

We pray and sing, “Lord, show us your glory!” But what happens when He does? Do we know what to do with that?

Lets read about how Jesus’ disciples reacted when He really did show them His glory and ask the question “What should we do when revival comes?”

mark 9:2-8

Mark 9:2–8 ESV

2 And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, 3 and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them. 4 And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. 5 And Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” 6 For he did not know what to say, for they were terrified. 7 And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.” 8 And suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them but Jesus only.

We have encountered God!

And He was transfigured before them, and His clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them.

Transfiguration: what is it?

Transfiguration is the stuff of science-fiction, where characters change into a different life-form right before your eyes.

Jesus is manifesting His Divine glory.

Just like Moses on Sinai, whose face shown after being in the presence of God

Jesus’ whole body was radiant with light.

Jesus was seen talking with Moses and Elijah.

Moses and Elijah represent the Law and the Prophets.

Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Covenant.

Luke says that they were talking about Jesus’ “departure,” literally His “exodus.”

Jesus, Moses and Elijah were discussing the plan of redemption; how Jesus would lead people out of slavery.

From that point on, Jesus knew that His purpose was to go to the cross. He tried to prepare His disciples, but they would only understand afterward.

I believe that at Hopewell we have had a remarkable encounter with God.

For a number of years at Hopewell we used the tagline, “A Place of His Presence.”

The idea is that everyone who comes through these doors would experience the real presence of Jesus Christ.

We have experienced the consistent presence of the Holy Spirit in our meeting and lives have been transformed, including ours.

We want people to encounter the supernatural power of the living Christ.

Jesus’ transfiguration was all about redemption.

The glory was preparing Him for the cross.

You can’t have the glory without first going to the cross.

Never separate the glory and the cross.

You can’t have the glory without first going to the cross.

You can’t bear the cross unless you encounter His glory.

It’s because of glory that Jesus endured and it’s His glory that helps us to endure.

That being said, most of us want the glory

Many people want the glory, but not the cross.

In 1989, when I was a student at Christ for The Nations, I experienced my first taste of revival. We had a revival that looked a lot like the Toronto revival, only it was about five years earlier. But before the laughter, there was a move of repentance.

We wept over our sin, some students were publicly confessing their sin. We cancelled classes for several days because the spirit of repentance was so strong, we could not go about business as usual.

It was in that context that the joy broke out and we spent days and nights worshipping and laying on our faces in the manifest presence of the Lord.

We are resisting the urge to camp out.

And Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.”

Papias was an Early Church Father and the Bishop of Hierapolis who wrote near the beginning of the second century that Mark was writing on behalf of Peter.

This is one of the passages that seems to indicate that Mark is writing in Peter’s voice.

He adds in verse 6, “For he did not know what to say, for they were terrified.”

In other words, Peter admits that it was a ‘bone-headed’ idea.

The word he uses literally means to be scared out of one’s wits or overwhelmed.

Peter’s fear (there are different kinds of fear) was a sense of awe at the glory of Christ.

He was literally “blown away” at the glory that was manifesting right in front of Him.

When you are in the glory you don’t want to move. Sometimes you can’t move!

His instinct was to think that they need to camp out.

Maybe he was thinking of Moses who was on the mountain for forty days?

Maybe he was thinking that this was like the Feast of Tabernacles?

Maybe he was like most of us when we are in the Presence of God, you just don’t want to move!

There is a tendency in revival to linger, but sometimes we do more than just linger.

Sometimes we try to duplicate what God is doing.

If it’s not happening, we try to make it happen.

We turn a move of God into a formula, a method of doing church, eventually it becomes a tradition.

We are doing what Peter suggested, building a structure to try to contain the glory.

You cannot contain the glory of God.

Solomon confessed it when he built the Temple, that it could never contain the glory, it was a mere resting place.

2 Chronicles 6:18 ESV

18 “But will God indeed dwell with man on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built!

Like the manna that fell in the wilderness, you cannot keep it for another day. It’s has to be fresh, unless it’s the Sabbath.

Like the manna that fell in the wilderness, you cannot keep it for another day. It’s has to be fresh, unless it’s the Sabbath.

Like the cloud that hovered over the tabernacle, when it moves, you have to move with it. It doesn’t just stay in one place.

When revival came to the CFNI campus, nobody wanted to leave. Instead of moving back home after they graduated, students were finding excuses to stay in the area. Some of them got jobs at the school. I was nearly one of them, but I had submitted that decision to my church leadership and came home.

A year later the school closed. It was for financial reasons. They were no longer supported by the headquarters in Dallas. There had been a few bad investments and it all came to an end.

The word that God was speaking through some of the faculty and students was that they needed to scatter. Like the persecution that hit the church after Pentecost, this was intended to spread the Gospel, not to contain it.

We are letting God speak.

And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son; listen to Him.”

So out of the glory comes the voice of God.

Whenever you are in the Presence of God you can expect that God is doing something or saying something.

God is always moving, doing, speaking...

The question is whether or not we are moving with Him.

What is God doing? God is redeeming, restoring and bringing everything under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 1:9–10 ESV

9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

Ephesians 1:9 ESV

9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ

God’s Word to Peter and the other disciples was to listen to Jesus.

In other words, submit to Jesus - bring yourself under the Lordship of Christ.

The result of revival should be greater obedience, greater submission to Jesus.

When I was in Denmark in the early 90’s and the revival was happening in Toronto. God had me in that place to attest to what I had experienced previously. When holy laughter was breaking out in our meetings, the Danes would ask me, “have you ever seen anything like this before.” I could say, “Yes, I have. And my life has never been the same. It’s because of times like this that I am here, serving Jesus”

What is Jesus doing?

On this occasion it appears that Jesus was preparing to go to the cross.

Peter and the other disciples had no idea about the cross at this point.

Meanwhile… down at the bottom of the mountain....

Mark 9:14–18 ESV

14 And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and scribes arguing with them. 15 And immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him. 16 And he asked them, “What are you arguing about with them?” 17 And someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute. 18 And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.”

mark 9:

So while Peter, James and John are in the glory cloud with Jesus, the other disciples are wrestling to cast out a demon.

I think that is a picture of the church.

We have the American church (for example) enthralled in worship, wanting more of the glory and missionaries and inner city workers are at the foot of the mountain wrestling with the demons.

One thing I have learned from revival is that the closer you get to Jesus, the more you realize that Jesus’ heart is for the world!

A shift is happening. Jesus is sending.

For 18 years, the ministry of The Call filled stadiums with a message of prayer and fasting believing that America would turn back to Jesus. In 2011 the Lord spoke to the leaders of The Call through a group of YWAM (Youth With A Mission) missionaries that a shift was coming that would give birth to a new sending movement, as a beginning fulfillment to their years of prayer and fasting.

In 2016, at a stadium gathering in the LA Coliseum, the shift began as 70,000 people raised their shoes in response to a call to go anywhere for the gospel. This gathering, called Azusa Now, catalyzed a grassroots movement that began activating believers to evangelism and mobilizing missionaries all over the world.

Why can’t we just stay here?

We have seen some great times here at Hopewell.

We have encountered God, we have been in the glory.

There are more glorious times ahead. There is momentum!

It would be easy to want to camp out here, to stay in the glory.

But at this point in my life and ministry, Hopewell would be the safe option.

Jesus is calling us to something else.

Karie and I have a heart for the world. We are not looking to stay within the safe walls of the church. We would gladly go wherever Jesus sends us.

Right now He is sending us to another church that is struggling.

Who we are, our experience and connections, are the right fit to help Spring City get to where they need to go.

At the same time, Karie is starting to do member care with WEC.

I will still be doing some pastoral counseling here at Telford for the foreseeable future.

Our prayer for Hopewell.

I want you to have God encounters where you experience the glory.

But please don’t try to camp out or contain what God is doing.

Instead, look for God to do something through that experience that will take you to a new level.

He may literally take you to a new place where He wants to use your experience to ignite something in someone else.