Sermon two on praying for revival

     I’d like to continue where I left off last time, where I was talking about a phenomenon you see in the Bible and in church history called ‘revival’. 

If you remember I was saying that revival is a sudden coming down of the Spirit of God upon a church and a community. A revival is something that God does, in response to his people’s prayers where suddenly He makes his holy Presence very much felt in a church and a community. In revival there is a remarkable increase in the spiritual life of God’s people, and an awesome awareness of the presence of God, and in revival many unbelievers are converted.

Pentecost was the first true revival, where the Spirit of God suddenly fell upon the church in Jerusalem in response to their 10 days of prayer. At Pentecost the early Christians were filled with the Spirit, they got new spiritual life, God’s presence was seen and felt and many unbelievers were saved. 3000 souls were saved on that day. Pentecost was the beginning of the revival. It was the first day of it, but the revival in Jerusalem continued strongly.

In revival you can see more frequent physical healings and this happened soon after Pentecost. Peter and John were walking through Jerusalem and to the Temple and Peter saw a lame man sitting at the entrance to the Temple at the gate into the temple called the Beautiful Gate and he commanded the man to be healed in the name of Jesus and he man was! He jumped to his feet and walked! 

This drew a crowd to watch the newly healed man enjoy his new freedom. And Peter took the chance to preach to the crowd. And he explained that the healing was designed to glorify Jesus. And by the way a miraculous physical healing does glorify Jesus. People respect Jesus when they see him heal people. 

Then Peter preaches to the crowd and tells them change and turn from their sins and turn to God, he says- ‘so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord and that he may send the Christ.’ 

And so Peter is preaching that before the second coming of Christ, the Lord will send times of refreshing. 

A revival is just that- it’s a time of refreshing and just as Peter prophesied there would be times of refreshing coming from the Lord, from time to time in history, the Lord sends, such a season of refreshing, a revival, a downpour of blessing if you like from heaven. 

Scotland has seen many such seasons of refreshing where the Spirit of God has come down upon certain churches or certain towns or districts and suddenly the presence of God is really felt and people start getting right with God. It’s part of Scotland’s history. It’s part of our heritage. 

A few years ago we had the church historian Tom Lennie come and speak here. Tom wrote this book ‘Glory in the Glen’ which tells the story of the outpourings in different parts of Scotland between 1880 and 1940.

And on the back cover of the book Tom writes ‘No other nation on earth, has a richer, more colourful and more long standing heritage of evangelical awakenings than Scotland.’

So those of you have come to Scotland from other lands, you are connecting to this nation’s spiritual heritage, stepping into this inheritance of revival, all of us, we all can be part of the next chapter of Scotland’s revival history.

But we have not seen a big revival for over 70 years- there has been a 70 year gap- its been a desert, a dry desert. But I believe God wants to send one more great outpouring from heaven. 

Let me show you an image. This is the symbol for the United Free Church of Scotland, our denomination. It’s an image of a dove descending and behind the dove is a flame of fire. The symbol is only a few years old, maybe ten years old now:

And here is the old symbol that it replaced: 

What you are seeing is a dove flying over the water – it’s the dove of peace which Noah sent out from the ark. And the other image is the burning bush which Moses faced in the desert- the bush where the presence of God burned. 

The background to the symbol is that two big church denominations came together in 1900- the United Presbyterian church and the Free Church- to form the United Free Church and the symbols of the two denominations were brought together. The dove and the burning bush

Why am I telling you this?

Well in I think it was about 2010, I was speaking to Naomi a friend in Haddington. She was a new Christian who had just converted. Naomi was very young in the Christian faith and didn’t know very much but the Lord gave her visions. And in this vision she described to me, she said she saw a dove flying down into a tree and when the dove flew into the tree, the tree was set on fire and then she saw the word ‘hope’. 

Naomi didn’t know that the tree on fire and the flying dove were the symbols for our church denomination. The United Free Church. The vision I believe was saying that God is putting before us the hope of the dove of the Holy Spirit coming down and the fiery presence of God starting to burn in our midst. 

It’s the hope of revival! 

And so for quite a few years, I’ve been praying for that vision to come!

That the Lord would send his heavenly dove upon us. 

Last year I mentioned I was in Peterborough, England at a Healings Rooms Conference and someone called Ilke from Finland prayed for an ankle injury I had and as he was praying he said something like: ‘Revival is coming to Edinburgh and 100,000 will be saved.’ 

Back about 15 years ago maybe 2011, I was in a conference in New Life Christian Fellowship church in Broxburn and a visiting speaker from America called Brent Borthwick said that revival was coming again to Scotland and 1 million souls would be saved in it. 

Scotland’s population is 5.6 million souls. So 1 million salvations out of 5.6 million is just under 18%

Edinburgh’s population is 540,000 souls. So 100,000 salvations out of 500,000 is 18.5%.

The two prophecies of revival, one for revival in Scotland and the other for revival in Edinburgh were prophesying the same thing. That about 18% of the population would be saved in the revival. The two independent prophecies given years apart match each other. God was confirming his prophetic word I believe.

These numbers are large numbers. If you think that only 6% of Scotland’s population goes to church regularly – for 18% to become Christian is a huge increase. Many new church buildings will need to be built. The empty ones will fill up again. 

This is why I want revival, because it saves souls. And there is nothing more important than people being born again. Jesus said ‘you must be born again to enter the Kingdom of Heaven’. A revival will see more souls saved, born again than hundred years with no revival. A revival is desperately needed. Scotland needs it. The people need it.

The dove of the Holy Spirit must come down, the fiery presence of God must begin to burn. It’s our only hope. We really do need another Pentecost as the hymn says.

Others have prophesied revival in this church. One man called Dougal Fraser was a member of this congregation for a year. We used to have midweek church prayer meetings every Wednesday here in the building which Dougal joined. And Dougal one week got one word ‘radical’. The next week at the Wednesday prayer meeting, he got another word ‘reformation’. The following week he got a third word ‘revival’. 

Radical, Reformation, Revival.

What was the Lord’s message? Well He was saying I think that if we reform radically as a church, we will get a revival. That’s the message. Well we have been re-forming! We don’t look quite like we did 10 years ago when that word was released. 

Do you remember last year April, Lora Beth Malloy the prophetess and her friend Peter came to this church and spoke to the HK circle service? When they first stepped onto the ground of the church, Peter said to her- ‘this place is preparing for revival’ and she felt it too. 

We have been prepared for revival. 

And then the word she brought to us in the Hong Kong Circle Service in April last year was, and she was speaking to the Hong Kongers in the HK Circle Service. She said; ‘I [the Lord] sent you here [to Scotland from Hong Kong] to be the ones who carry and steward revival’. 

And others have come to this church and also prophesied revival is coming to this church- two others that I can think of.

God has promised it to us. 

That’s what God wants to do, but as I said last time, revivals won’t happen unless people are praying. God may want to do it, but God’s people must be asking him for it. We must want it, and we must pray for it.

For the sake of all these souls, we must pray! For the land, for the city, for this church- revival.

Pray in your homes for it. God hears the prayers you make in your homes, on your own. Let us pray together also for it. 

There is something powerful about God’s people praying together. The Spirit fell at Pentecost when the people were together.

Right now we as a church have mid-week Zoom prayer meeting on Wednesdays at 7:30pm. That is attended by maybe four or five people. Everyone who comes is a native English speaker, so we pray in English. We pray for a few minutes here on a Sunday morning. But I think we need to find a way where we can pray more together. And pray for revival. Speak to me and the elders about how you think that could work. On a Sunday morning before or after or during the service. Or mid-week? I feel we need to pray together more- somehow!

Well after Peter healed the man and preached the gospel to the crowd, opposition come. And you know opposition does come, and often it comes in revival because there are people who don’t like it. Because of fear or jealousy. 

Peter and John were thrown into prison but many had heard the gospel and verse 4 says that the number of men in the church grew to about 5000. So on the morning of Pentecost the church was 120 people. By the evening of Pentecost it had grown to 3120 and now, several days or weeks later, the numbers had grown to 5000 men, which means if you add women and children maybe 12000 people in total. So the church grew in just a few weeks from 120 to 12,000. That’s hundred times increase- that is revival! 

No wonder the authorities, Ananias and Caiaphas, the High Priests and the Sadducees, no wonder they were not happy. They have crucified this Jesus who they saw as a criminal and now his followers are accusing them of having crucified their own Jewish Messiah, the Author of Life and are proclaiming that He has been raised from the dead. And thousands of people are believing the message. It doesn’t make them look very good!

When the next day Peter and John are dragged before the Sanhedrin, the very same people who had voted to have Jesus killed, Peter and John make the most impressive, logical and persuasive defence. 

The rulers saw the courage of Peter and John and they were amazed at the wisdom, the intelligence of their words. How could uneducated, ordinary men give that kind of reply?

Well it was the Holy Spirit who gave them the courage and the Holy Spirit gave them the wisdom. And it was Jesus who had taught them well. The rulers noted that they had been with Jesus.

The let them go with a warning to stop preaching about Jesus, but Peter and John were too popular to punish

But when Peter and John were released from prison- what did they do? 

They called a prayer meeting! And they got together with others from the church and prayed. 

And their request is not for God to stop the persecution. But instead they are praying for the courage to keep telling other people about Jesus despite the persecution. 

And they are praying for miracles and signs and wonders to be performed through the name of Jesus, obviously so that more people will believe.

These are two good prayers for us. Boldness to witness and miracles to happen that point to Jesus. 

Jesus once said “Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe,” That is true today also for Britain. People in our communities will not believe unless they see signs and wonders. People need to see something, before they will become Christians. And it’s the churches’ job to provide signs and wonders through the name of Jesus.

After they prayed for boldness and signs and wonders, the place they were meeting was shaken. Like in an earthquake and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

Many of us are terrified, very nervous about telling people about Jesus. We just don’t do it, because we don’t know what to say, we think we will be rejected, we think we will look foolish, we think what we say won’t have an impact. 

We know we should be doing it. And we can feel guilty that we aren’t doing it. But we just think its too difficult. So we don’t.

Well look- the believers in the early church knew they needed help to share the good news about Jesus. They too were finding it scary and so that is why they asked God for help. Ask God for help to share the gospel. 

God really wants the gospel to go out, so people can believe in his Son. God rejoices when someone becomes a Christian. It’s his desire. But he needs people to share the gospel. He knows we need help to do and he is very willing to help us.

On Wednesday I was having a coffee in a café in Haddington with someone. And in the café I prayed, ‘Lord please help me share something about Jesus with one person in this café, before I leave.’ And after I prayed that prayer, I felt a bit nervous, because I didn’t know what God would do or ask me to do. Maybe he might push me to go up and speak to a stranger! I wasn’t too keen on that idea. But God answered that prayer in such a gentle but effective way.

Maybe 10 minutes after I prayed that prayer, a lady whose face I recognised came and sat down. She was a lady in her 70s who I recognised from my past growing up in the Catholic Church in Haddington. She recognised me, she knew my parents. I don’t think I have ever spoken to her before in my life, even though I recognised her and she me. We said ‘hello’ and we got chatting and before any time had passed she was telling me all her problems and her health problems and she kept on saying ‘no one cares’. She was in constant pain, but she said ‘no one cares.’ 

What an opportunity! The Lord just organised it all. So it was very easy for me to talk to her about our Healing Rooms in Haddington and how we believe Jesus still heals the sick and in the end I could write down the day and time of when it is open and I wrote it down on a card that I had been given the week before, which had a summary of the gospel on it! It was so easy!

Why was it easy? Because I had prayed and God had done the work, led the right woman, to the right place at the right time. 

If you pray Lord, ‘please send me someone today or this week for me to tell them about Jesus,’ that’s a prayer that the Lord will answer. 

God wants to fill you with his Holy Spirit. When you are full of the Holy Spirit, you will want to pray, you will find evangelism much easier, you will be refreshed, you will feel the Father closer, you will have more of the Holy Spirit.

Look at this teapot. Imagine it’s got water in it, imagine that water are what you have inside you, your own resources. You can pour out as you choose. You have a certain amount within you- strength, ideas, words, music, whatever. 

Now God wants to pour into you. He wants to fill you with His Spirit, which means that you will be able to pour out more. You will have more within you to pour out. 

But! If God is going to pour into you, you need to take the lid off! Try filling a teapot from the tap without taking the lid off and you are just going to get a mess. You won’t get filled.

Do you want God to fill you with his Holy Spirit? Well allow him, take your lid off. 

At the prayer meeting a few weeks ago, someone saw a picture and the rain of God was falling on the congregation, but some people had their umbrellas up! They were protecting themselves from God’s Spirit coming upon them. If that is you, allow God to reach you, don’t be scared, don’t stay dry, we all need a good soaking, put the umbrella away!

You know a Christian is someone who allows Jesus to do something for them. A Christian is not primarily someone who does something for Jesus, he is someone who allows Jesus to do something for them. 

Will you allow Jesus to pour his Holy Spirit into you?

On the day of Pentecost the early disciples were filled with the Spirit and now a few weeks later, these original disciples and other new disciples were filled once more with the Holy Spirit. 

We are not in revival yet. But even though revival has not yet come, we can still be filled with God’s Spirit- today, now! If we want to be. Let Jesus do that for you. 

Lets pray together:

Father we pray for you to give us what the early church had. A desire to pray for your Holy Spirit to come in power. 

We pray that the dove will come down upon this congregation and the fire of your presence will burn as it did on the day of Pentecost. Do it for us Father, please fulfil you promise. 

We ask that you will give us courage to share Jesus to those in our work places, in our homes, in cafes and in the streets We ask that you will stretch out your hand and heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of you holy servant Jesus here in Edinburgh, in Corstorphine. Come by your Holy Spirit, have compassion on the lost in our land and our city and send another revival like you have done so often before.

That Jesus will get honoured again.

Amen.