The Kind of Men God Uses in Revival

All right, if you have your Bibles with you, open them to Acts chapter seventeen. Acts Chapter seventeen. My final assignment. My final assignment is to address the issue of the man God uses in revival, the man God uses. In revival. And as I thought about this, it was really difficult to sort of pin it down, because there are many different types of men and women that God has used in revivals through the years and over the history. Of the Church. But as I thought about it biblically, there's one name that just kept coming up over and over again. And as the Apostle Paul, right, I mean, wherever he went there was either a revival or a riot, and often both. Right. You just can't think about this issue of revival and reformation without thinking about the life and the ministry and the work of the Apostle Paul. And here in Acts chapter seventeen we really get a flavor for it. Much of what I would say about the men God uses in revival would correspond with what I talked about last night as it relates to preaching and revival and the preachers those four things, right, serious, courageous, evangelistic, and faithful. So those are absolutely true as far as those characteristics go. But now what I want to look at is just a couple of the marks that we see in the life. Really two characteristics and then two implications of that acts chapter seventeen. Again, we don't have time to read and address everything here, but I think you'll see the patterns. The first one is that the men God uses in revival tend to be those men who are ready to go anywhere at any time to serve the Lord. They're ready to go anywhere at any time to serve the Lord. Look at verse one. Now, when they had passed through and Polis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonika. Now go to verse ten. The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Maria. Now go to verse sixteen. Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens. Now we could go on and on and on. Tracing the missionary journeys of Paul, and what we would see with him and with his companions over and over again is that they were willing to go anywhere, anytime to serve the Lord. Wherever there was an open door, wherever there was an opportunity, they were willing to go. Now let me hasten to say, I'm not arguing that this has to be international in its scope, although at times it is. But this principle still holds even when you start talking about it from a local perspective. For example, Yes, you have individuals historically, you have Calvin who was willing to go to Geneva. You do you have that? Yes, you have George Whitfield. All up and down the eastern the Eastern seaboard, and I am talking about. That, and I do mean that. But that same character, that same willingness to go anywhere and do anything when the lord opens up an opportunity was evident as my family and I were in the van stopping to get some food. You were about to, I think, drive down here from from from Jacksonville, and we go through the drive through and as often happens with us, when we go through the drive through, the nine of us, our stuff's not ready when we get to the second window. Right, So you know those lines you may have wondered, Right, they'll have like a line and it says one, and a line and it says two. And you go through the drive through and you're like, what are those four? Well, they're for us, and so we make our order and we get up to the window and they're like, your stuff's not ready yet. Can you go up to number one or can you go up to number two? And so we drive up, you know, to number one, and we look in the window and there's a guy there. I'm assuming it was a pastors, an older gentleman, had to be maybe in his fifties, and there were three college age young men with him, sitting down at the table. They had their bibles open, and they had their notebooks open, and they were obviously they were sitting there and they were doing Bible study. He's outside of the office, taking advantage of an opportunity. I don't know what the story was. I do know is that here's a guy who, for whatever reason, has been presented with an opportunity to invest his life and the ministry of the Word and these three college aged young men, and at least on that day, that was precisely what he was doing. That's what I mean. That's the same attitude that says, if you send me to Apollonia, or if you send me that that's AKA, or if you send me to Barria, or if you send me to Athens, if that's where the opportunity is. If there's a call to Macedonia, if that's where the opportunity is, yes, and amen, I will go. I'll go. Because I want to serve and I want to be where the Lord is at work. This is less common than you think. I wrote in expository Apologetics about my own experience back in twenty twelve, when our oldest son I was done with school and you know, doing life. He traveled with me for the last four and a half years, visit we owned school. For the last four and a half years of his education. He traveled with me full time. So everywhere that I went, Tray was in me. And now all of a sudden, Trey was done with school and he wasn't traveling with me anymore. And I missed it. And Trace started, you know, getting into this and that, and he got into martial arts and started doing this Brazilian jiu jitsu stuff. Had no idea what it was, but my boy was doing it and we could do it together. And I went and that's how I started doing Brazilian jiu jitsu. And I was like a duck who found water, right, But an amazing thing happened as I continued to train and eventually to compete. Through my academy, I developed relationships with people outside of the church. And if you're in pastoral ministry, you know exactly what I'm getting ready to say. If you're not, you may be shocked by this. But men who are in pastoral ministry, who've been doing it for around five years, they don't have real friends outside of church. They may have people that they know, but real friendships, especially not with lost people. They may run into lost people at the store, they may run into lost people. You know, you're going door. To door witnessing, but real friendships with lost people. If you've been in pastoral ministry for five years, your lost friends are not your friends anymore. And oftentimes we never rubbed shoulders with people who don't go to church, who don't believe what we believe. And all of a sudden, I'm thrust into this world where I had those kind of relationships, and it was incredibly meaningful. It changed the way that I thought about my ministry. It changed the way that I thought about preaching. All of a sudden, I'm working through a text and I'm not just thinking, you know, earlier on the Doctor Nello's and Doctor Rascal both made reference to the fact of, you know, putting these notes in the margins, either in a lecture or in a sermon, because of the objections that were going to come. Well, you know, you get that when you're in a classroom and there are people who are objecting. But oftentimes, when all you do is preach at church the same people over and over again, all the objections that you think about when you're preparing a sermon are the ones coming from. Those sane people. But when you get outside of that box and put yourself out there in the world among people who don't automatically agree with what you're going to be saying and automatically believe what it is that you believe, it changes the way you think about a text and you start going, oh, I know, if Jim heard me say this, this would be his objection. And we also have opportunities for influence and for impact beyond the walls. A couple of things I'll come. In to you. Number one, if you can get engaged in hobbies or things of that nature that gets you involved with people, that's great. Here's another one. Is there a local Christian school that would have you come in and speak at their chapel. Do that? Do that? What would they have you come in and maybe teach a Bible class? Do that? Do that? By the way, maybe not even at your local Christian school. There may be a community college in your area that would have you come in and teach a class. Do you have another expertise or you can do that? Do that? Do that? Get on a campus somewhere where you can engage with young men and young women. For their benefit and for yours. Are there ways that you can get involved with civic organizations? Do that? Do that? Why? Because the Lord may just open up an opportunity and he may just use it. The men that God uses and revival are men who are ready and willing to go anywhere at anytime when the Lord opens up an opportunity. And again, this doesn't mean that you have to be the one to go to every place. That's not what I'm saying. It doesn't mean that you have to be the one jet setting that you have to be the one doing international this, that or the other. Listen, Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles. Amen Peter's travel that itenerary doesn't look like Paul's, but his ministry was no less significant. You follow, most men throughout history haven't had a travel itinerary that look like the Apostle Paul. But that's not what we're all called to. I mean, who has the time to go spend six months here and then eighteen months there and then again. I'm not saying that this is exactly what it has to look like, But what it has to look like is what are your gifts, your talents, your abilities, what are the desires that God has put on your heart? And what are the opportunities that arise that are suitable? And when those things intersect your gifts, your talents, your abilities, your desires and an opportunity, then be willing to go. Be willing. So that God perchants me usually and then when you go, what are you gonna do? Is the second characteristic? Remember two characteristic and then two implications. Number one, this readiness and willingness to go whenever the Lord provides an opportunity, and secondly, a commitment to bring the Gospel to bear in appropriate ways and each one of those opportunities. Look at the rest of verse one. They passed through and Phipolis and Apollonia. They came to the Tessalonaika, and there was a synagogue of the Jews. Now Paul's an apostle to the Gentiles, right, so that means that you know there's a synagogue of the Jews. He doesn't go there. He just says, hey, I got a guy. I'll give you his number, but can you point me in the direction of the gentiles no Verse two. And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, this, Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ. Now go down to verse ten. The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Maria, and when they arrived, they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonika. They received the Word with all eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Verse seventeen. I'll go to sixteen. First. Now, while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned, in the synagogues with the Jews and the devout persons, there's the same thing. And in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. You see the pattern. The pattern is, I'll go wherever the Lord opens the door. But when the Lord opens the door, what I'm going to do is I'm going to preach Christ wherever that door opens up, because that's all I got. I'm going to look for opportunities. I'm gonna look for open doors, and when I go through those open doors, I'm going to preach Christ. When he's preaching there in Athens, it opens up an opportunity for him to go to the Areopagus and to preach there, and he does. He preaches Christ. But I want you to notice the difference. This is important. He knows his audience, He recognizes his audience. What happens when he's at Dessalonika. Look at it. And on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying this, Jesus whom I proclaim to you is the Christ. So there's exposition there. He's in the scriptures and this expedition. Then he goes to Berea. He's there in Berea, these Jews are more noble than those of Dessalonika. They were the Word with all eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so. So he's doing the same thing there that he did in Thesalonaika. But when he comes to the Areopogus, things are different. Look at verse twenty two. So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopogus, said, open your scroll to know there are no scrolls. They don't have the scriptures there, he said, Men of Athens, I perceived that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription to an unknown God, what therefore you worship as unknown? This I proclaim to you that God, who made the world and everything in it, being the Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, Since He himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet He is actually not far from each one of us and him we live and move and have our being, even as some of your own poets have said, for we are indeed His offspring being. Then God's offspring. We ought not to think that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, But now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because He has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man who has whom he is appointed. And for this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. Here's what's interesting. Among the Jews in the synagogue, he opens the scroll and and he does an exposition, and he's demonstrating to them from their text the message about the Lord Jesus Christ. These this text, the law and the prophets, This text is about Christ. It's about Christ. And then when he comes to the areopagus, what does he do, Well, they don't have a scroll, but but but but but they they do have a text that they're believing. They have the the text of God's revelation. And what he does is he preaches a very biblical sermon in this sense, he gives the biblical grand narrative creation, Fall, Redemption, consummation. He gives them the biblical grand narrative all the way down to the resurrection. He points his grand narrative at their particular sins. You ought to know better, these things ought not to be sold. This is not who God is. This is who God is. You're wrong, I'm right, and God is demonstrated that I'm right because of the resurrection. So here's what he doesn't do. He doesn't get his opportunity to go into right Like I mean, this is this is like the golden opportunity. Think about the most the most viewed podcast, the most viewed you know, this is this is Joe Rogan. Okay, he has the opportunity to go on Joe Rogan. And what many people would do if they had the opportunity to go on Joe Rogan is whatever was necessary to get invited back. Amen, that's not what he does. That's not what he does. He goes to this place and he immediately gets to the heart of the problem, the sin of their idolatry, and he immediately gets to the heart of the gospel sin redemption, even down to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, which philosophically, for many of the people hearing him, was immediately disqualifying in their minds. They're done, they're out. Not only have you offended my sensibilities, but now you're talking about ridiculous stuff like resurrection. We're done, We're out. He did not do what was necessary to get invited back. He did what was necessary to make the gospel clear. He took advantage of the opportunit unity that he had. He took his commitment to the message of the Gospel, and detailored it to the opportunity that he had. These are the two things. A willingness to go wherever the Lord provides an opportunity, and when we get there, a commitment to the clear message of the Gospel. These two things are essential because without them we don't see revival. Amen. If we don't have men who are willing to go and stand where there are opportunities, there will be no revival. And if we have men who go where there are opportunities but don't stand with the truth of the Gospel and call men to repentance and faith and preach Christ and him crucified and risen from the dead, then we don't have revival. We have to have both of those things. Well, those are the two characteristics. What about the two outcomes? Look at verse four, and some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women. By the way, don't miss this. Pauls the apostle to the gentiles. Right. What happens here is he goes in to the synagogue, and he goes into the synagogue regularly. He says, on three Sabbath days, he reasoned with them from the scriptures, on three Sabbath days, explaining and proving that it was necessary for Christ to suffer and derive from the dead. There's the resurrection again, and saying this, Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ. Three Sabbath days he's bringing this incredibly offensive message in the synagogue. It's offensive to Jews and to Greeks. Amen, it's an offense. It's a stumbling block. This whole thing about crucifixion and resurrection. It's a problem. And the result is some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas some of the Jews, but who's his audience, As did a great many of the devout Greeks. They got in on this too. So God uses his willingness to take this opportunity in the synagogue to further the ministry to which he is called with the Gentiles and not a few of the leading women. Stick that one in your hat for a minute. Go down to verse twelve. Now he's in Berea. He does the same thing with the Boreans, and they're examining the scriptures to see if these things are so. Look at verse twelve. Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men. Interesting, now we've got not just Greeks and also women, but we've got Greek women of high standing, maybe even most likely community leaders. So once again he goes into the Jewish synagogue, he's preaching in the Jewish synagogue, probably on multiple occasions. Like you before, people there believe. And also there are Greeks. The broader population is hearing this message, and women of high standing as well. Now go with me and look at verse thirty four, or look at verse thirty two. And when they heard the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, but others said, remember I said this whole thing about the resurrection. If he had been advised by his pr person and if you're a person came and said, listen, you're about to go on, Joe Rogan, I know that in these other places you've been talking about resurrection, and you know how controversial it's been. Right Well here at the Areopagus podcast that would be even more controversial, and they will mock thank you for it. So if you really want to have some clout with these people, maybe you leave that part off. And I guarantee you he knows this, and so what is he in with the resurrection? And he ended there because that's kind of what got them started talking about him in the first place. Go back to verse eighteen. Some of the Epicurean and historic philosophers also conversed with him and some said, what does this babbler wish to say? By the way, that's an insult, this babbler, this idle babler was to say. Others said, he seems to be a preacher of foreign deities, because he was speaking of Jesus and the resurrection. So even there he's talking about the resurrection, and they called him an idle babbler because he's talking about the resurrection. Then he goes and he talks about the resurrection again. Now verse thirty two. When they heard the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, but others said, we will hear you again about this. So Paul went out from their midst, but some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius there I forgot, and the woman named Demerius or Dameris, and others with them. In all three instances you had people who believed. And in all three instances, among these people who believed, you had Greeks and women. It's interesting that the women are mentioned three times here, and not just women, but women of high position in their community and in their society. There's discussion and. Debate as to why these women are mentioned here and what the significance of that is some of course, points to the fact that this is Luke who is writing, and Luke's gospel mentions women more than all of the other gospels. And here you have Luke, and he's mentioning the women here as well. But he doesn't just mention the women. He mentions women in high positions, women of significance in the community. Why because I think this goes back to that first point. He's a man who's committed to going wherever the Lord opens the door and gives an opportunity. And as he goes through these doors and takes advantage of these opportunities, the Lord uses those opportunities to open up other opportunities. Who is he He's the apostle to the gentiles. He's going to go to the synagogue because that's what he does. But he's there to bring the Gospel to the gentiles. And in going to the synagogue, he runs into individuals who are of significant position and status in the community who can open up other doors so that he can preach to others as well. And so his ministry is bearing fruit. His ministry is opening doors. He goes through doors and they open up other doors. We see this. This is how the Lord works. We don't just wake up one day and say, okay, revival. Now, this is how the Lord works. He opens up doors of opportunity, and men who were committed to taking advantage of those opportunities walk through those doors and walk through with a commitment to the message of the Gospel and to applying that message of the Gospel to every situation and every setting without compromise. And when they do it, there's fruit. There's fruit. Remember I said there were two. Not only is there fruit, look at verse five. But the Jews were jealous and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attack the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, these men who have turned the world upside. Down have come here. Also, I love it, Oh, would that be said of us? Who's that man? That's some of those men who've turned the world upside down? And now they're here verse seven. And Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decree of Caesar. Saying that there is another king, Jesus. Caesar is King, Caesar is Lord. That's the decree under Roman rule in the Roman Empire. Caesar is King, Caesar is Lord. How did the Christians respond, Jesus is Lord, Jesus is King. Verse eight. And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things. And when they had taken money at security from Jason and the rest, they let them go. Look at verse thirteen. Now we've moved to Berea. Why verse ten, the brothers immediately sent Paul in Silas by night to Berea. By the way, the opportunities that the Lord is opening up here, it's from them trying to run away from the trouble that they start. Just saying. I don't recommend that part, amen, but if he uses it verse thirteen. But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the Word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea, also they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowd. And then, of course verse thirty two we've already looked at. Now, when they heard the resurrection of the dead, some mocked he proclaimed, and he consistently proclaimed the Gospel. He consistently called people to repentance and faith. He consistently preached Christ and him crucified and resurrected from the dead, and some believed, some mocked, some gathered mobs to try to assault them, some random out of town. I think sometimes we get this romanticized view of revival. And here's what we think. We think, Lord, please send revival, because if the Lord sends revival, then there's going to be a passionate outpouring of the spirit of God. And when there's this passionate outpouring of the spirit of God, people are going to come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. When people come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the presence of God in our midst will be so powerful that people will be called to holiness and righteousness, and they will deepen their faith, and they will deepen their obedience. And as a result of this, people will come from miles around to be part of the revival that's going on, and in the newspapers will write articles about how wonderful it is that revival has come to our town, and then to see, that's what we think, but that's not the case. When revival comes, opposition comes with it. Why because our adversary of the devil still goes around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Why because our enemy still hates the Gospel. Why because the world still loves its sin and hates to be reminded of its sin. Why because they hated Jesus. They hated him so much that they put him to death. And we are preaching Christ and him crucified. And if they hated Jesus so much that they put him to death, what do you think is going to happen? If we preach Christ, and the preaching of Christ spreads abroad and it gets louder and louder and more and more prominent in the midst of a world that hates the Christ whom we preach, it will hate us all the more. They will hate us all the more. And not just the. World, the lukewarm among us, the lukewarm among us. Oh you're a holy roller, now, Oh well, you're going to become a monk. Now you're going to become a nun. Now you're going to become a priest. Now, Oh, you're better than all the rest of us, now, oh or we're just supposed to forget who you used to be, what you used to do. That opposition is absolutely a characteristic and a mark of those men, those women whom God uses in revival, and it makes all the sins in the world. So we put it together. We have men who are ready and willing to go wherever the Lord opens up a door of opportunity, even at great cost. Here, my Lord send me. And not only are they willing to go, but when they go, when they get there, when they show up, they show up ready to preach Christ and him crucified, to call men to repentance and faith, to preach this supernatural gospel of ours, including the fact that Christ was raised from the dead for our justification. They show up with that, regardless of where they are, regardless of how many people sit there and go, man, I hope he doesn't do all that stuff, you know. Ah, they do that. They do that because nothing matters more to them, and there's nothing that they believe in more than they believe in, and that they don't believe that influence pedaling will have the impact that the gospel can. They don't believe it. And as a result, there's fruit two kinds of fruit. One kind is the fruit of people's lives being impacted by their obedience and their ministry. People being redeemed, people being. Called out of darkness and into marvelous light, people turning from their sin and turning to Christ, lives being turned upside down. Amen, Hallelujah, Praise the Lord. The other fruit. Opposition, people who are warring against God and warring against the Gospel, will always war against you when you're standing for the God and the Gospel against which they fight. But we know how the story ends. Amen. The mobs didn't have the last word. The Gospel did, and the Gospel still does have the last word. And as we leave here, and this is our last address in this conference on Revival, my prayer is that God would raise up an army of revival minded believers. And as an army of revival minded believers, we take all these things that we've heard here. But from my perspective, these two things that we've gotten from last night and today. One is this commitment to preaching. That is. Serious and courageous and evangelistic and faithful. And the other. Is a willingness and a desire to be the kind of people who will go anywhere, anytime the Lord opens up a door of opportunity, and will show up with that same commitment of serious, courageous, evangelistic, faithful preaching of the message of the Cross to a lost, hurting, and dying world, believing all the while that God will bless it, that he will cause it to bear fruit, maybe even the fruit of revival. Let's pray. God, We cry out to you. From hearts that are hungry and thirsty for you, for revival in our own lives, for revival in our own times. Revive us, O, Lord, We pray not for our own sake, but for the sake of the Kingdom, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, that he might indeed have the fullness of the reward for which he died. Move in our midst Move for your glory, Pour out your spirit upon us, and bring revival to our land. This is our prayer and the earnest desire of our hearts, and we do ask it humbly in Christ's name and for his sake. Amenasasa