Author: admin

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching.” – Acts 2:42

“Revival is a season of breakthroughs of God’s Kingdom in word, deed, and power that ushers in a new normal of Kingdom experience and fruitfulness.” This is the definition James Choung and Ryan Pfeiffer offer for revival in their book, Longing for Revival. When revival comes, there is first and foremost a breakthrough of the word of God. The words of the Bible become fresh, real, and powerful in the lives of people. The ideas of God, the thoughts of God, the story of God begins to shape and transform the interior lives and mental models of his people. 

For many people in our culture the Bible feels old, dusty, antiquated, outdated, and irrelevant…but when the Holy Spirit comes in revival, one of the key things the Spirit does is to illuminate and apply the scriptures to our hearts and lives. All of the sudden, the scriptures take on a fresh relevance and meaning. They even expose the idolatries and falsehoods that have captured our surrounding culture. 

Consider the revival under King Josiah, found in 2 Kings 22-23. By the year 624 BC, Israel had all but forgotten God. A long string of idolatrous kings and bad leaders had led the nation into apostasy. It had gotten so bad that there were literally idols in the Jerusalem Temple. It was as if Israel had become blind to its idolatry and injustice, numb to its brokenness like a frog dying in a pot of slowly boiling water. How had things become so bad? Israel had lost touch with God’s word. Losing touch with God’s word is like what is happening out West right now – there is a drought. As rain and snow fall from heaven and cause plants to grow, so is God’s word. (Isaiah 55). When we lose touch with God’s word, it brings spiritual drought. Whenever revival comes and human culture is renewed and refreshed by seasons of divine grace, it involves a recovery of something that has been lost…the word of God. 

Our own culture has lost touch with the word of God. In 2019 the American Bible Society in conjunction with the Barna Group reported that only 5% of American adults considered themselves to be Bible-centered (regular bible usage and church attendance). And millions of American Christians who hold a positive view of scripture are simply not regularly engaged with it in any meaningful way that might actually transform their lives. Like Josiah and Israel in his time, we have lost touch with God’s word. 

In 623 BC, during a building project, Josiah discovered the Book of the Law. It was found by temple workers in some dusty room in the temple during a routine maintenance project. This maintenance project turned into a full fledged revival when Josiah read the scroll of the book of the Lord. And then had the people read it and renew the broken covenant with Yahweh. Thus began a cleaning of God’s house. Idols were removed. The people of God understood their spiritual state. They saw how far they had fallen into apathy and apostasy and repented. A revival swept through Ancient Israel in this time. 

In the same way, in Acts 2 – the church centered herself on the word of God. They believers “devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teaching.” That is to say, the Old Testament, which was the written scripture of Jesus and the apostles, as well as the apostolic traditions and teachings (which eventually became the New Testament), became central in the revival of the early Church in Jerusalem after Pentecost. And they have been central in every period since then. We need them to become central today as well. 

Next Steps

1. Read through 2 Kings 22-23 and reflect on the recovery of the word of God.
2. Consider how you want to upgrade your own engagement with Scripture this year.

Prayer Prompts

 Let’s pray for God to stir up in us and in the whole church a hunger for the word. For the Holy Spirit to illumine the meaning of the Scriptures and apply them to our hearts.

Pray for the preaching of the word to be powerful and inspired in Sanctuary and in other churches this year.

Pray for God to activate theologians and teachers in the life of the church to teach the scriptures.

Pray for children and young people to meaningfully engage with the scriptures.

Pray for organizations like the Bible Project and YouVersion to help more and more people, including at Sanctuary, engage daily with the Scriptures. 

Pray for God to use scripture in our time to expose our own idolatries and falsehoods and reveal truth, calling us to repent and turn to Him. 

Make Room – Acts 1:12-14

If we want God to move in us and through us, we have to make room. We cannot produce revival in our strength. We cannot manifest the glory of God. But we can make room for God. The power and presence of God that brings Kingdom breakthroughs in and through us is a sheer gift from God, but gifts often take effort to receive. A child is a gift from God, and yet to receive a child into a family takes effort. Someone could buy you a brand new set of furniture and send it to your house for free. But nevertheless for this furniture to get into your house would require work. It would require clearing away the old furniture to make room for the new. For us to receive a fresh outpouring of God’s Spirit, for us to receive new wine…we need to make space and room in our hearts and lives to receive it. 

Ten days before Pentecost, Jesus ascended. He promised before he did so that he was going to give the disciples a gift. Power would come on them and they would be filled with the Holy Spirit. This is what they would need to fulfill the Great Commission. What did the disciples do in response to this word? They made room. In Acts 1, here is what happens:

12 Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the city. 13 When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. 14 They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

In the upper room, the disciples made room for God. One spiritual word for this act is consecration. They set aside time and space in their lives for God. The Holy Spirit is looking for a place to land – like Noah’s dove looking for dry land, like a helicopter looking for a landing pad. In the ten days preceding Pentecost, the disciples cleared a landing pad for the Holy Spirit with their upper room prayer gathering.

So, consecration is when we set something aside for God. During this season in Sanctuary we are consecrating space and time for God. We are also called to be consecrated, or set apart, or holy for God. We consecrate ourselves through fasting, through prayer…and through repentance and stripping away extra baggage from our lives. Hebrews 12 says, “let us lay aside every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles, so that we can run the race marked out for us.” One of the invitations for us as a community as we fast is to lay aside unnecessary things that encumber us, and to lay aside patterns of sin. Doing this makes room in our hearts and lives for more of God’s presence and power. 

For many of us, there are some things taking up too much space in our lives. These things may be sinful, they may not be…but they are preventing us from receiving the more that God wants to give us. Let’s clear them away during First Seek. 

The disciples made room in Acts 1. Room for God to give them the gift of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. How is God inviting us to make room? 

NEXT STEPS, as you step into prayer and fasting:

1. Ask God to show you any patterns of besetting sin in your life that are keeping you in bondage? Where deep down you are longing for freedom. Confess this to a trusted brother or sister and ask them to pray for you.
2. Ask God to show you anything that is questionable that he wants you to put away to make more room for him in your life?
3. Ask God to show you anything that is taking up space in your heart and mind that rightly belongs to Jesus. 
4. Remember in all of this, that God’s primary attitude toward you is patience and love. He loves you so much and wants you to be free and to have room for more of him. It is his kindness that leads us to repentance.
5. Come to one of the Altar Gatherings coming up. We are meeting in our own “upper room” at the church offices to make room for God. Mark your calendar.
   1. Wednesday Sept 7 @ 7pm @ 12 Bassett St
   2. Tuesday Sept 13 @ 7pm @ 12 Bassett St
   3. Thursday Sept 15 @ 7pm @ 168 Lloyd Ave

Make Room – Acts 1:12-14

Whenever God moves in revival, it is always different than the way it happened before. Nobody gets into Narnia the same way twice.

That said, whenever God moves in revival, it is always the same as what happened before. In every time period, nation, culture, context, what we find in every revival is a repetition of the same things that have happened before.

Revival is a recovery of something that has been lost in the sands of time. Specifically, what we find in every revival is a repetition of what we see in the birth of the Church at Pentecost. 

In musical terms, revival is a remix. It is the same song…but played with a different arrangement, a new beat, a fresh feel, a fresh vibe. So as we pray for revival…we are praying for something that has, on the one hand, never happened before. Every revival is different and new. But on the other hand, we are praying for something that has happened many times. We are praying for God to take the same song he has been singing – the same song we will sing with him in the New Jerusalem – and to remix it with a fresh beat for our time and context. 

The revival that followed Jesus’ resurrection in the early church in Jerusalem after Pentecost gives us the structure and melody of the song. Even if we don’t know what the beat will feel like in our time, we know the song by looking at Acts 2. For the next several days, we will pray through what happened in the early Church and ask God to remix it in our time.

There are 7 elements of this paradigmatic revival.

1. “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching” – The scriptures came alive and the people received them, leading them to theological depth. 
2. “They devoted themselves to…the breaking of bread…they broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.” – The people experienced compelling and rich community life. 
3. “The devoted themselves to…prayer” – The disciples experienced an increased commitment to prayer and an an upgrade in their rhythms and patterns of prayer
4. “Everyone was filled with awe at the many signs and wonders performed by the apostles.” – The gospel was demonstrated and authenticated by miraculous works of the Holy Spirit, including the very same kinds of healing, deliverance, and prophecy that marked the ministry of Jesus. 
5. “Everyone was filled with awe…every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts” – In Tim Keller’s words, the early Church experienced anointed worship. Their worship was marked by awe at the manifest or felt presence of God. While God is always present, sometimes he graces our gatherings with his Royal Presence.
6. “The believers had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.” – Also in Keller’s words, the early Church demonstrated compassionate social concern. There was an awareness of needs in the community and a willingness to practice the kind of generosity that met needs and modeled God’s justice. This is a powerful witness to a watching world. 
7. “And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” – There was a culture of bold evangelism and proclamation of Jesus. Individual believers embraced their calling to share about Jesus with their friends and family and associates. The result was a movement where conversion was normal.

For prayer:

Where have you seen signs of these dynamics in your life or Sanctuary Church? Thank God for this and ask Him for more.

Which of these do you especially long to see more? Ask God to do it again in our time. As God to write a fresh remix of the song of Pentecost for Providence in 2022.