Lord, Send a Revival, and let it begin in me.
Acts 19: 8 Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God. 9 But some of them became obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. So, Paul left them. He took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. 10 This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord.
11 God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.
13 Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” 14 Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. 15 One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” 16 Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.
17 When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. 18 Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed what they had done. 19 A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas.[c] 20 In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.
21 After all this had happened, Paul decided[d] to go to Jerusalem, passing through Macedonia and Achaia. “After I have been there,” he said, “I must visit Rome also.” 22 He sent two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia, while he stayed in the province of Asia a little longer.
We are looking today at Acts 19. This is the story of Paul’s return to Ephesus, and arguably the time of his most profitable Spiritual work. He was in Ephesus over 3 years, which is a lifetime for Paul. And out of his work there churches were established in several surrounding communities. As we read this chapter we see key signs that there is a real “revival” breaking out in the region. It tells us that, “10 This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord.” “All the Jews and Greeks heard…” In verse 17 it says, “17 When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor.” And as a result “many believed” and “the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.”
It was a revival in the region. And I don’t know about you, but when I read this account, I think, “Lord, send that to us.” Last week, Brenda gave me a copy of a news story. The headline of the story read, “Christianity could possibly become a minority religion in the US as early as 2045, PEW researchers said. The article postulated that based on the “surge” (their words, not mine) of adults leaving Christianity to become atheist, agnostic, or “nothing in particular,” those who number themselves as Christians will drop below %50 by 2045.
Of course, when I read the article, it saddened me, but it also made me think, “You guys are counting noses, you are not taking a couple of forces in account; God,
“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” Ephesians 3:20–21, NKJV
And the other power that they are not considering is revival. They forget that true Christianity began with one, then 12, then 120, and so on it went.
And so we sing, “Lord, Send a Revival” You remember that hymn.
Send a revival, O Christ, my Lord, Let it go over the land and sea. Send it according to Thy dear Word, And let it begin in me. Refrain: Lord, send a revival, Lord, send a revival, Lord, send a revival, And let it begin in me.
Send a revival among Thine own, Help us to turn from our sins away. Let us draw near to the Father’s throne, Revive us again, we pray.
Send a revival to those in sin, Help them, O Jesus, to turn to Thee. Let them the new life in Thee begin, Oh, give them the victory.
Send a revival in ev’ry heart, Draw the world nearer. O Lord to Thee. Let Thy salvation true joy impart, And let it begin in me.
Ps. 85:6-7 6 Will You not revive us again, That Your people may rejoice in You?
We talk about revival, but I am not sure that we know what we are asking the Lord for. What does revival look like? What are it’s component parts? How would a true revival effect my life and my world? Well, this chapter, chapter 19 in Acts, describes how a revival affected the region of Ephesus, and Asia Minor, so as we pray for revival for our church, and Wichita, there are several things we need to know that we are asking for.
True revival from God is rigorous, rewarding, rapturous, revolutionary, and riotous
prayer
I. True Revival from God is Rigorous.
1. Rigorous means Characterized by or adhering to strict standards or methods; exacting and thorough.
2. Harsh, severe, or demanding.
3. Very unpleasant or inclement.
If revival is rigorous; exacting, thorough, harsh, demanding, and very unpleasant that makes you rethink singing the song, “Lord send a revival” doesn’t it. Because real revival from God shakes up lives. It cleans up messes. It is the cleansing alcohol on the festering spiritual wound in people’s hearts. In other words, revival is painful.
Reminds me of the old joke about how our mother’s used to treat our scrapes and bruises. You’d come in with a big old scrape on your leg from a bicycle crash, your mother comes over and sprays some spray on it. The spray was made of some antiseptic mixed with fire. You’d say, “Mom, it burns!” Your mom would say, “That’s how you know it’s working.”
The handiwork of God will often burn. What do I mean? It is rigorous. It takes hard work. That’s not what we want. We want a sanitized revival where God just miraculously changes the dull black and white of Dorothy’s Kansas, into the technocolor of the Wizard of Oz. If we got what we wanted when we came to faith, life would be sunshine, roses, lollipops, and unicorns.
But real life change comes out of hard work.
Proverbs 12:11 Those who work their land will have abundant food, but those who chase fantasies have no sense.
Matthew 9:37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.
What happens when you have a huge crop in the field, but no workers? The crop rots, or is consumed by rodents and bugs.
Revival calls for hard work. And when we look at what happened around Ephesus, it was the power of God, yes, but Paul, and others with him, were working night and day.
1 Corinthians 15:9-10For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.
2 Corinthians 6:4-6 Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; 5 in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; 6 in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love;
1 Thessalonians 2:9 Surely you remember, brothers and sisters, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you.
So, those passages talk about Paul’s work in Corinth and Thessalonica, what about his work in this city; Ephesus?
Let’s look at it. Paul put his blood, sweat and tears into God’s work. Remember our story. Paul is now on his third missionary journey. He is revisiting the places where he has established churches before. And he is not just some traveling evangelist who pops into town, takes up and offering, then moves on to the next town. Paul preaches, and teaches, but he also continues with his secular employment, he’s a leatherworker. So, he works all day to make a living, and then he takes the gospel into homes in the evenings. He teaches in the synagogue. We find him teaching 5 hours a day, every day in a lecture hall. That’s what we find him doing here. Let’s read it.
8 Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God.
So, for 3 months Paul does what he has always done. He takes the gospel first to the Jews. But something unique happens here in Ephesus. He continues to go to the synagogue in order to persuade those who attend about Jesus. This is pretty remarkable. It’s remarkable because apparently there’s a crowd at the synagogue in Ephesus who continue wanting to hear him. For 3 months he’s going. Just think about this, if you started going on Sabbath, to “Congregation Emanu-EL” on north Woodlawn and telling people that they ought to fulfill their Judaism by coming all the way to Jesus as Messiah, how long do you think it would take you to get kicked out? Most of the time, Paul would have been kicked out of the synagogue by now. But for three months he keeps going. And they keep listening. But then, as always happens,
9 But some of them became obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way.
Finally, those who refused to believe begin opposing Paul and his message. And, I suppose, his synagogue visits turn into a shouting match. So, he quits going there. He loses his audience in the synagogue. Well, what does he do? It tells us,
So Paul left them. “He took the disciples with him“
There were some who believed. And they want to follow Jesus, and follow the gospel taught them by Paul. Well, where will they go? What will Paul do? He has no building to meet in.
This really bears out the first point I wanted to make today. These disciples wanted to learn, so they followed Paul. Paul was there to teach them. But revival has forced him out of his venue. He has no building, no piano, no audio-visual equipment, no holy hardware. No money. How can he start a church without those things? He can, and he will, because real revival is rigorous. It calls for hard work from it’s missionaries, and it’s converts. And if they are true, they will do the required work.
Well let’s see what happens.
So, Paul left them. He took the disciples with him and had “discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.”
He finds a place to meet.
Now this is fascinating. Paul finds a lecture hall to meet in. Apparently, it is owned or managed by a teacher named Tyrannus. Tyrannus means “Tyrant.” We don’t know whether his parents gave him that name, or possibly his students. So, Paul finds this lecture hall available. Well good, now that he has a proper building, that means his load will be lightened right?
There’s an ancient Greek manuscript that adds a note to this. The note says that Paul taught in this hall every day, from the 5th to the 10th hour. That’s from 11 to 4. 5 hours. Paul was teaching the Scripture, it says, for 5 hours a day, every day. And how long did that last? 3 months? No, it says that he did this every day for how long? 2 years, every day, 5 hours a day of teaching. That’s rigorous. You say, well then he went home for a nap right? No. There’s an interesting note about the culture of Ionian cities like Ephesus. In these cities they worked a split shift. They’d get up in the morning and work until 11. Then they would go home and nap until 4. Afternoon siesta. Then they would go back to work and work into the evening. They were sleeping through the heat of the day. They had no A.C. One ancient writer said that it was easier to find someone awake in Ephesus at 1 am, than at 1 pm. Well what does this tell us about Paul’s commitment to work hard?
So, what’s Paul doing? He’s not getting a nap. He still has to make a living. He’s doing his leatherworking to make a living. He gets up in the morning, and works until 11. Then he’s teaching during everyone’s normal nap time for five hours between 11 and 4. Now, that says a lot about Paul’s work ethic, but it also says a lot about his disciples. They got up in the morning and went to work to. Most of them were probably doing hard manual labor, then skipped their naps and came to the hall of Tyrannus to listen to a 5-hour sermon. Wow, sometimes I really feel like I’m pushing it if my sermon goes to 50 minutes. Oh, how glorious! What has happened to you people! What happened to me. Then they all went back to work.
So, was Paul done at 4? No, he had to make a living. So, he worked until evening. Then listen to what it says in chapter 20.
20 how I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house,
No, he wasn’t done. He finished his leatherwork, and then went out visiting from house to house in the evening. Later in verse 31 it says,
31 Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears.
There were times that he worked on into the night, because an opportunity came.
Does that make you feel ashamed? It does me. I have to say to you that too often I’ve believed the modern American lie; “I need to take care of yourself.” “I need some me time.” “I need some self-care.”
I’m not telling you to abuse yourself. But if you are like I am, compared to the 1st century, my “job” is cushy, so I come home from my cushy job, and now I need some cushy me time.
But true work of God is going to be rigorous. And we have no business singing “Lord, send a revival, if we refuse to go out into the fields and work. But the beauty of that work is that it comes with results. Listen to what was said about Paul.
II. Rewarding
This is a short point.
10 This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord.
All the Jews and Greeks of Asia heard the Word of the Lord. How did that happen without the World Wide Web? Look at 1st century Asia as an example of the results that happened from that work. Ephesus was a leading city in Asia and was one of the great churches in the New Testament. But how did it grow to be so great? Because Paul poured his life into that city. And not only that city, but this passage also says that all the whole province of Asia heard the Word of the Lord. Paul poured his life into Ephesus, and his disciples went out and poured their lives into Asia.
Remember the 7 churches in the book of Revelation? Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea? Those 7 churches numbered in the book of Revelation were on one postal route. Paul kept teaching, and the mail went out from Ephesus.
It’s likely that all of those churches were started in this 3-year time period. And it doesn’t even say that[BH1] Paul started them. He just kept pouring himself into Ephesus, night and day, making disciples, then those disciples went out and started churches in other cities.
The work of God will be rigorous but rewarding.
III. Rapturous
Rapturous means
1. The state of being transported by a lofty emotion; ecstasy.
2. An expression of ecstatic feeling.
3. The transporting of a person from one place to another, especially to heaven, by supernatural means.
We think of the rapture of the Church. That “catching away” of the Church to be with Christ, that will occur in the end.
But what that means in terms of revival is that God’s work will transport a person above and beyond this life. Real Spiritual Revival is heavenly and spiritual. It involves a real spiritual work that takes place in people’s hearts. It’s not just emotionalism, or people doing earthly “good” works like feeding the hungry, or clothing the poor. Jesus had a multitude show up when he had given them a free meal. But this is what He said to that crowd,
John 6: 26 Jesus answered them and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. 27 Do not labor for the food which perishes, butfor the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you,because God the Father has set His seal on Him.”
They didn’t accept Him. They wanted another free meal.
But the work of God will do more than satisfy earthly necessities. It transports a person to the heavenly plain. It does something for a person that only God can do. It is rapturous. Well, in the life of Paul, that meant the miraculous.
And some rapturous things happened in Paul’s ministry.
11 God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.
Now that’s amazing. Through the power of Christ, Paul was able to perform miracles. It says that people would take handkerchiefs and aprons that Paul had touched and carry them to a sick person they knew, and the sick would be healed, and evil spirits would be driven out.
And so we think, “Wow, will revival look like that for us?” Well, let’s return to a topic I’ve addressed before in the book of Acts. The miraculous things that happened in Acts were signs that the New Covenant had come. But God chooses the means to His ends. Since the 1st century, the miraculous, at least at the level it was in the 1st century, has waned. And even in the 1st century, the real rapturous events were the revivals of people’s souls. The spiritual work is the real miracle, the real healing.
And even when we look at Paul’s ministry, lest we get the wrong idea here, notice that Paul’s “miracle ministry” is summed up in only two verses. We read far more about Paul’s preaching, and teaching, than we do about any miracle he performed. Think about this, Jesus told His 12 disciples that they would do more miracles than even He did. But when we read the rest of the New Testament, how many of those miracles of the 12 disciples are actually described for us? Very few. And with Paul, we get the impression that Paul performed many miracles from these verses.
11 God did extraordinary miracles through Paul,
Paul says of himself in Romans
For I will not presume to speak about anything that Christ has not worked out by me …. through word and work, through the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit of God; so that in a circuit from Jerusalem to Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ (Romans 15:18 - 19).
But, if you go looking for a list of all Paul’s miracles in the Bible, though he apparently did many, you will only find about 8. And as much as some today want to stress miracles and healings as a centerpiece of Christian experience, these two verses in Acts seem to downplay their importance. This is all it says about the miracle ministry of Paul.
11 God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.
Really, could you give us some more details? So, when I say that God’s handiwork will be rapturous, I don’t mean that as Christians today, we will see these kinds of miraculous healings. Let me further clarify. I believe that miracles and healing were signs for the 1st century, particularly the Jews, that God was ushering in the New Covenant. And I get that belief from the study of Scripture. They were for signs to the 1st century. It was undeniable in the 1st century that something supernatural from God was happening. Jesus said about His own ministry,
John 10:25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me.
John 10:37 If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.”
But once that first generation of disciples was gone, the signs ceased. Why? Because then we had the Word of God. I could spend some time developing that argument further, but Scripture, history, and modern experience bear out the truth of that belief.
But in this time, the time of Paul, some phenomenal things were happening. Clothes that had touched Paul were taken to the sick or demon-possessed, and they were restored. Now, today, some have taken this as a directive to bless clothes, and papers, so the recipients of those items can get a healing, or financial relief.
But remember, Acts is not a doctrinal book, it is just telling us what happened. Do you know what was happening? Paul is working as a leatherworker. And the words here for handkerchiefs and aprons were the tools of a worker’s trade. The handkerchiefs were sweat rags, or sweat bands worn on the head while you worked. You wipe your brow with them. The aprons would be worn to cover and protect the clothes while you worked. And Ephesus was a very superstitious community. Well, when they knew about the power for healing, that seemed to accompany Paul, somebody decided to get ahold of his sweat clothes, and aprons. And they took them to the sick or demon-possessed, and they were miraculously restored.
It’s superstition. The power wasn’t in the clothe, or even Paul, it was in Christ. So why did God go ahead and heal them? Because there was real faith there. Remember the gospel story of the woman who had an issue of blood for 12 years who thought within herself, if I can just touch the hem of Jesus’ robe, I will be healed? It wasn’t the robe, it was the Lord that healed her.
But the point I want to make today is that if we are doing God’s work in the world, it will be set apart from normal work because it is powered by God Himself.
Do you want to know why I think our continual prayer for God to send a revival hasn’t happened? Because first, the hard work isn’t being done, and second, the work we are doing is trying to bring the physical, no the spiritual effects, of revival. What work are we doing? We are trying to get more butts in seats, pardon my French. Practically every church growth work I’ve read throughout my time as a preacher and pastor was about the atmosphere right for people to hear the gospel message. The message in those books was, “if you build it, they will come.” If you get the music right, the children’s department built, if you have the right event, if you rebrand your church correctly, if you preach a seeker sensitive message, then the people will come. And then we can kind of funnel the crowd down into a discipleship process that will lead them to becoming committed to Christ.
But the work that God did in Scripture worked in the opposite way. It was a rapturous calling. It was a calling to turn your back on sin, and to follow the crucified and resurrected Christ. It was a call to “take up your cross” and follow Christ. And those who did were spiritually transported into the heavenlies, by the Holy Spirit had their lives, priorities, dependencies, co-dependencies, hang-ups, hangovers, potty mouths and potty lives changed. And they went out as selfless, hard-working lights in a pitch black, depraved, perverted, and self-indulging world, and were used by God to bring revival to Asia Minor.
Revival comes when the message and work are rapturous.
To conclude, you may have noticed that there is a dichotomy here. These first two points seem to be contradictory. Revival is rigorous and rapturous. It involves our hard work, but it is God’s rapturous Spiritual work.
Philippians 2: 12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
Who is bringing revival? God or us? All I can say is that God chooses to bless both our hard work and our dependence on Him.
Charles Finney, the American revivalist, once said that he had gone out to preach the gospel, without having his heart right, without spending time in prayer, and his most eloquent sermons did nothing in the hearts of the hearers. Then he would go home and spend time getting his own heart right by spending time in prayer and repentance. Then going out, he encountered people and began to share the message of the gospel, and one sentence, or a few words seemed to penetrate hearts, and bring repentance and salvation.
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