The Ingredients of Revival

Intro

The Family Recipe

If you want to make that family classic dish, you have to not only have all the ingredients and put them together in the right way. You need to follow the recipe, and have some know-how to make it all work.

Revival is the same way. If you want to see real revival - an earth-shaking demonstration of God’s presence to reinvigorate his people and save the lost, you need to follow the recipe.

Now, good cooks know that some recipes require some experience - baking biscuits or bread for example requires knowing when the amount of flour is just right for the humidity level.

There is no “one-size-fits-all” recipe for revival. But with God’s guidance, I believe that Nehemiah 8-10 shows us the key ingredients we need to make the right conditions for a revival.

God’s Word

The first ingredient for revival we find is God’s Word. If you take a look at the ingredients list on a food package, you’ll notice that the first ingredient is the most used ingredient. What I mean is that there is more of that first ingredient than any other ingredient.

In other words, the single most influential ingredient for revival, whether it’s personal revival, or the revival of a church, community, or nation, the most influential ingredient is God’s Word.

And of course this is right: it was God speaking his word that created life and the universe in Genesis 1, so naturally that same word of that same God will be the means of reviving life.

Now that the people have a wall, they gather together at the Water Gate. It’s the first day of the seventh month, just a few days after that gate was hung. And why did they gather? To hear God’s Word:

Nehemiah 8:5–8 ESV

5 And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people, and as he opened it all the people stood. 6 And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. 7 Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, the Levites, helped the people to understand the Law, while the people remained in their places. 8 They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.

And the initial result of reading Scripture…sorrow. So much that Nehemiah and Ezra and the Levites have to correct the people from mourning:

Nehemiah 8:10 ESV

10 Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

Go back to that family recipe for a moment. Every ingredient has its purpose. The tomato sauce in that spaghetti is that base for all the flavor of the herbs and spices. In baking, the yeast is what makes the dough soft and light. The egg makes the oil and water combine well in that mayonnaise. Every ingredient has a specific purpose.

The purpose of God’s word is to bring the individual to the place of recognizing his need for God. The Word of God brings the sinner face-to-face with the holy, pure God. Hearing God’s Word should bring us to mourn over our sins. And that puts us right where we need to be for revival.

We’ve got the ingredient of God’s Word, but revival requires more. So the second ingredient is

Obedience

It’s one thing to hear the word of God, but unless we follow it, we will not experience revival. This ingredient may not be the first, but it is crucial. Can you imagine a fried chicken sandwich without breading? The breading ain’t the biggest thing on that sandwich, but it sure makes a difference! Obedience makes the revival possible. God will not revive those who refuse to do what he has commanded. We see the obedience in verse 13-18:

Nehemiah 8:13–18 ESV

13 On the second day the heads of fathers’ houses of all the people, with the priests and the Levites, came together to Ezra the scribe in order to study the words of the Law. 14 And they found it written in the Law that the Lord had commanded by Moses that the people of Israel should dwell in booths during the feast of the seventh month, 15 and that they should proclaim it and publish it in all their towns and in Jerusalem, “Go out to the hills and bring branches of olive, wild olive, myrtle, palm, and other leafy trees to make booths, as it is written.” 16 So the people went out and brought them and made booths for themselves, each on his roof, and in their courts and in the courts of the house of God, and in the square at the Water Gate and in the square at the Gate of Ephraim. 17 And all the assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and lived in the booths, for from the days of Jeshua the son of Nun to that day the people of Israel had not done so. And there was very great rejoicing. 18 And day by day, from the first day to the last day, he read from the Book of the Law of God. They kept the feast seven days, and on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly, according to the rule.

When the leaders saw they they had not been obedient, they made a determination to stop being disobedient and to do what God had commanded. They realized that they were just a couple of weeks away from the time for a feast - the feast of booths. Back in Leviticus 23, God commanded Israel to observe a feast staring on the 15th day of the seventh month. That was just under two weeks away.

That’s something that often happens. When we turn back toward God, there is often an immediate, simple act of obedience that we should take. It may not be easy - in fact it probably shouldn’t be easy. But that immediate chance to simply obey God’s Word proves enough to harden our resolve to follow him. It puts boots on God’s will and makes it happen. That’s why obedience is a vital ingredient for revival.

Confession

The third ingredient in our recipe of revival is confession.

Nehemiah 9:1–3 ESV

1 Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the people of Israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth, and with earth on their heads. 2 And the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. 3 And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day; for another quarter of it they made confession and worshiped the Lord their God.

So right after the end of the Feast of Booths, the Israelites gathered once again. This time, their focus was confession. They confessed God’s character and works throughout history:

God created the world (6)

God called Abram and brought him to the promised land (7-8)

God redeemed Israel from slavery in Egypt through miracles (9-11)

God led Israel through the wilderness and provided their needs (12-15)

But in spite of all this:

Nehemiah 9:16 ESV

16 “But they and our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments.

Even when they made a false god while Moses was on Mt. Sinai receiving the commandments from God, God still forgave them.

He continued to lead them (19)

He continued to feed them (20)

He continued to miraculously provide for them (21)

He gave them the promised land (21-25)

Nehemiah 9:26 ESV

26 “Nevertheless, they were disobedient and rebelled against you and cast your law behind their back and killed your prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back to you, and they committed great blasphemies.

Time after time, God is so good to Israel. But time after time, Israel rebels against God. This whole chapter recounts this ebb and flow of God’s faithfulness and Israel’s rebelliousness.

Nehemiah 9:28 ESV

28 But after they had rest they did evil again before you, and you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies, so that they had dominion over them. Yet when they turned and cried to you, you heard from heaven, and many times you delivered them according to your mercies.

Confession is the means whereby we admit our wrongs before God. This is the ingredient that is most distasteful to men, but in the end it makes the revival so great. Our confession puts us in the perfect place for the last ingredient: or, rather, method of revival.

Repentance

If God’s Word, Obedience, and Confession are ingredients for this recipe of revival, I do believe repentance is how it all comes together. Repentance is where we turn on the oven and bake the dish to perfection. Confession brings us on our knees before God, but repentance is the means by which we are exalted into the heavenly throne-room.

After listing the leaders who signed a covenant made by the people with God, we see the repentance of the people:

Nehemiah 10:28–29 ESV

28 “The rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple servants, and all who have separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the Law of God, their wives, their sons, their daughters, all who have knowledge and understanding, 29 join with their brothers, their nobles, and enter into a curse and an oath to walk in God’s Law that was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord and his rules and his statutes.

They covenant to do certain things:

We will not give our sons and daughters to foreigners in marriage (30)

We will remember both the Sabbath day and year (31)

We will provide taxes for the administration of the temple (32-34)

We will bring the tithes and firstfruits to God (35-39)

In other words, they will stop disregarding the Laws of God and start practicing them. They will repent by changing their behavior. To use the language I used a couple of weeks back, they will “right the wrongs.”

Do you really want revival? Do you really want God to do something incredible in your home, at your workplace, in your school, in your neighborhood, in our church? He cannot, no, he WILL NOT, until we repent. Until we stop doing wrong, confess it to him, and instead obey his commands, he will not bring revival.

Oh, but that sweet Spirit of revival: I can already smell its aroma wafting in the air. I can already smell those flavors combining together to make a meal that will satisfy our deepest hunger pangs. God has made you to live a life full of vitality, and his reviving Spirit can bring that life to reality in you. Repent of your sins. Confess them, and God’s constant goodness, and obey his commands. Dear sinner, God’s own special recipe for revival has been prepared by Jesus himself. Dinner is served. Will you come eat at his table?

Pray to invitation