Pentecost - 2020

 Rev. Will B. Dunn wasn't too happy with his church's spiritual life. So, one Communion Sunday he announced, "We'll be having prune juice for Communion, today." Someone asked, "Why?" He replied, "If the Holy Spirit won't move you, the prune juice will!" In The Ten Greatest Revivals Ever: From Pentecost to the Present, Elmer Towns & Douglas Porter tell the stories. Pentecost started it.1 After Jesus' ascension to heaven, the disciples began meeting to pray. 10 days later, the Holy Spirit pours out on them. The church is born, & God lives with His people in a new way. All believers receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. All believers are priests. All believers can come near God. The Holy Spirit & our brother Jesus Christ are our only intermediaries with God the Father. The Great Awakening was the 1st revival to affect the USA. It started with Moravian Christians in Germany. One 1727 summer evening, they gathered for the Lord's Supper. The Holy Spirit came so powerfully that they started a 7 x 24 prayer meeting. It continued 7 x 24 for over 100 years. They sent 100s of missionaries around the world, including the American colonies. In 1784, revival broke out under the preaching of Jonathan Edwards. In a few short months, it spread across New England. In just 4 years, it spread across the colonies. It also spread to England. There, Charles & John Wesley caught the Spirit. The Great Awakening lasted 10 years in the American colonies, 50 years worldwide. 100,000s people came to know the Lord. By 1780-1800, American colonies were learning to self-govern. Methodist & Baptist churches were spreading rapidly. But deism began to erode Christianity. Believers in England, then other countries called for prayer. The 2nd Great Awakening started. In America, Methodist circuit-riding preachers spread it widely. Those preachers spoke so powerfully they became known as "holy knock-em-down preachers." Their reach? To the American Frontier & beyond. The 2nd Great Awakening continued until the War of 1812 interrupted it. Afterwards, from 1830-1840, people again called for prayer. The General Awakening started. Again, it started in New England. Anti-Christian attorney Charles Finney dramatically converted to Christianity. Before long, he preached so powerfully that he sparked revivals in over 1300 towns. It was Finney who introduced the altar call into worship. Once again, the Holy Spirit was on the move. In just 1 year, over 100,000 people came to know the Lord. Methodists also began to pray, experienced revival, & doubled their membership. In 1857, NY state's Dr. Walter Palmer & his wife Phoebe spoke at summer gatherings of rural church groups around Toronto. Crowds ranged from 5,000 weekdays to 20,000 on weekends. Since Dr. Palmer wasn't a good speaker, his wife, Phoebe, preached. At the end of an intense season, they sent their luggage ahead to Hamilton, Ontario & followed on a later coach. Their luggage got lost. The Palmers decided to spend the night in a Hamilton hotel, find their luggage, & continue home. But a local pastor heard they were in town, tracked them down, & asked them to preach in his church that night. They said, "yes." Only 50 - 60 came, but Phoebe noticed something. They were unusually attentive. She committed to speak again the next night. She told people to share their faith & invite unsaved coworkers. She thought it'd take a while to find their luggage. The next night, double that number came. The Hamilton Revival of 1857 had started. It swept the city. Even the mayor came, knelt before God, & experienced the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The Palmers stayed 6 weeks. It wasn't crowds of 20,000 that started the revival. It was 50-60 people meeting prayerfully on short notice after lost luggage. Revival spread to America. Newspapers picked up the story. USA pastors & lay people heard & started praying for God to do the same here. God answered with an even bigger & more powerful revival, "The Fulton Street Prayer Meeting." The Fulton Street church heard about Hamilton & handed out fliers. They invited people to a lunch time prayer meeting. When it started, no one came. 20 minutes in, a few showed up. Eventually there were 6. Undiscouraged, they kept praying & inviting. Within 6 months there were > 12,000 people meeting on their lunch break to pray. Lay people led it. They just came to pray & share stories of God's working in their lives. Calm & organized, the let people speak for up to 5 min. They could pray, sing, or share as they chose. By May of 1859, > 50 000 people came to faith in Christ. It carried over into Ireland, Jamaica, & then led to D.L. Moody's ministry. Some 21/2 million people came to hear Moody in England & Scotland alone. On his return to America, even more came to know Jesus under his powerful preaching. This all started lost luggage in Hamilton & 50-60 in prayer. Around 1900, some affected by the 1860s & 70s revival started calling people to pray for revival to come again. They did. All across the planet, people prayed for revival to happen. People didn't organize it. The Holy Spirit began to awaken prayer in God's people in diverse cultures & peoples all over the earth. Then it started: the 1904 Revival. In South Africa, Japan, Australia, & Wales. It spread through Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, then into Germany, France, & the other nations in Europe. It went to India, Africa, Latin America, Korea, Chili & Brazil. It even came to N America. Where? Most famously, the Azusa Street revival. It birthed the Pentecostal denomination, the fastest growing global denomination ( over 500M). The Azusa Street revival started in 1904. A black preacher, William Seymour, preached about experiencing the Holy Spirit & speaking in tongues, even though he hadn't yet done so. He learned his theology sitting outside a window of a white Bible school. He moved to LA & was invited to speak at a church. When he came back the next day the door was padlocked. He was sent away as a heretic. He moved to a house, preaching the same thing. Soon after, so many people attended that the weight collapsed the porch! They moved into an old run-down building on Azusa street. There, the revival really took off. The space was small & full of horse flies. It had no pulpit, altar, or piano. But it did have God. He showed up in power. People came. By 1906, daily services ran 7x 24. God's power was at work. Other pastors & religious leaders came to check it out & denounce it as fake. They came in fancy suits & ties. But they met God & ended up face down in the dirty floor, repenting. People around the world came & went out to serve. 100s of millions found Christ. Here's the point. Through the ages, God has done this before. He can do again. It all began in Acts 2, on the day of Pentecost. Revival still happens today, world-wide. It still happens in the USA. It can happen again, here. G. Campbell Morgan says, "Revival can't be organized. But we can set our sails to catch the wind from heaven when God chooses to blow upon His people once again." Do these stories stir us? Do they leave us crying out, "Again!"? If God could do it then, can't He do it now?? The real question is this: do we want Him to??? All it takes is 2 or more to start praying. 1 This sermon is indebted to Steven Simala Grant's "Again?!" at https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/again-pentecost-steven-simala-grant-sermon-on-revival-history-176663 --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ Pentecost 2022 - Acts 2:1-18, 21 Page 1 of 1