Modern Revivals, Part 3, "Preach The Gospel!!!"

"He said to them, 'Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.'" - Mark 16:15 NIV

The very first time we see preaching in the New Testament is in Matthew chapter 3. John the baptist was the 'Elijah to come' who was sent ahead of the Messiah to prepare the way for him. The very first recorded words of the baptist are found in Matthew 2:3:

"In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.' "

Similarly when Jesus Christ began preaching after his baptism and temptation in the wilderness, his message was the same

REPENT!! (Matthew 4:17)

True Revivals Have Always Been Driven By the Gospel Call To Repent.

There are two enormous revivals mentioned in scripture. The first and most massive one is the one that happened when Jonah went to Ninevah. He preached and the entire city repented. The book of Jonah records that Ninevah was a city of more than 120,000 people.

The driving force was the PREACHING of Jonah.

The second great revival, or awakening, was on the day of Pentecost when Peter preached. His sermon in Acts 2:14-36 can be summed up in one sentence;

"Jesus the Nazarene was the Lord's Christ and you murdered him."

Then it follows in verse 37:

"When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, 'Brothers, what shall we do?' "

Notice that there was no altar call and no sinners prayer. There was no strategy being employed to try and 'reach' the people. No praise band playing worship songs trying to bring the people into a mountain top experience. Though singing is mentioned in the New Testament, it is interesting how little the historical accounts actually talk about singing in the context of our worship services. 

The point is that Peter preached the simple, hard truth. He didn't sugarcoat the message. He preached it straight and the people responded from being convicted. It was AFTER the people responded to the message that Peter tells the people what they should do.

Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call." - Acts 2:38‭-‬39 NIV

 Apparently Peter wasn't finished because it says:

"With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, 'Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.' Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day." - Acts 2:40‭-‬41 NIV

The message of the early church was one of warning. As Martin Lloyd Jones said, "The gospel has one message to the unrepentant sinner; judgment!" Jesus himself warned about coming judgment using some tragedies that had occured possibly recently:

"Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, 'Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish." - Luke 13:1‭-‬5 NIV

It's the same warning. Judgment is waiting for the unrepentant sinner.

The next verse in chapter 2 shows something characteristic about the early church that the modern church has all but lost.

"They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." - Acts 2:42 NIV

The very fist thing on the list that they devoted themselves to was the apostles teaching. In other words -- DOCTRINE. The doctrines of the New Covenant were very important in the early church. As one reads through the New Testament epistles it is astonishing how much verbiage is spent correcting bad doctrines and warning against false teachers. In an age where doctrine is glossed over and in some cases ignored, is it any wonder that the average church goer cannot articulate the very basic doctrines of the Christian faith. 

The First Great Awakening

I already talked about the first Great Awakening in the first blog in this series so I won't spend too much time on it. 

These men were known for their sermons. Preaching the gospel was what drove the First Great Awakening.

One point of interest is that the actual revival only lasted a few years, from the late 1730's to the early 40's. But the effects of the revival lasted well into the next century. One reason for this is that many of those who were saved during the awakening became ministers of the gospel and continued in the work of the Great Commission. 

Another point of interest is that the 2 most well known preachers of the awakening, Jonathon Edwards and George Whitefield, preached for decades afterwards but were never able to duplicate the same type of revival. It was clearly the work of the Holy Spirit.

The Second Great Awakening

The Second Great Awakening occured roughly between 1796-1835, about a 40 year period of time. Like the first great awakening, the impacts of this awakening lasted way beyond the time of the actual revival itself. It was during this time that many things changed as far as ideas about how we evangelize and conduct our worship services.

The name most commonly associated with this awakening is Charles Grandison Finney. He introduced methods of evangelism in order to make it 'more effective.' He is regarded as a hero by many of the more well known contempory evangelists, which includes such names as Jerry Falwell and Billy Graham.

Finney is problematic because he rejected the doctrine of total depravity, original sin, and substitutionary atonement, among others. Consider this quote from his Systematic Theology: (Page 249)

"Sinners are under the necessity of first changing their hearts, or their choice of an end, before they can put forth any volition to secure any other than a selfish end. And this is plainly the everywhere assumed philosophy of the Bible. That uniformly represents the unregenerate as totally depraved and calls them to repent, to make themselves a new heart."

In other words, Finney believed that man, in his nature, had the capacity to choose the right way and change himself. This was the view espoused by the 5th century heretic, Pelagious. The problem with this view is as Martin Luther pointed out in his essay, The Bondage of The Will, the fact that nobody except Jesus Christ has ever emerged from the womb deciding to never sin proves that man cannot, in his own nature, choose good.

Because he believed that man inherently has the capacity to make a decision and change himself, he believed that the gospel message should be to call people to make the decision to change. This led him to come up with methods of evangelism that are not seen in the New Testament nor church history until around the 1850's. He introduced the 'anxious bench' which was a precurser to the modern altar call. He pushed people to make a 'decision,' which eventually gave way to the modern invitation and 'sinner's prayer.' His ideas also bacame the foundation of 'church growth strategies.'

Now some may say, "OK, so he taught and believed things that are unscriptural and maybe he was in fact a full blown heretic. But that doesn't mean he didn't have some good ideas that we can incorporate in our methods today." It is true that you can learn from almost anybody but consider this; his methods came directly from his doctrinal beliefs. Contrast the first awakening. Those preachers understood that because of man's depraved nature and unless the Holy Spirit moved in ressurrection power to regenerate a person's heart they were not capable of receiving the message of the gospel. Therefore they simply preached the undiluted message of the cross.

WHAT YOU BELIEVE DOCTRINALLY DETERMINES HOW YOU DO MINISTRY!!

If you truly believe in the dapravity of human nature then you understand that conversion is something only God can accomplish. We are not responsible for the result, only responsible to preach the undiluted gospel.

If you believe, as Finney did, that conversion is simply an act of the will, then you will look for methods to try and obtain results even to the point of altering the message -- making it no message at all.

True and False Revivals: The Need To Discern and Verify 

In the book of 1 Kings chapter 18 we have the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal and the challenge to see which God was the one true God. When the one true God sent his fire to burn not only the offering but also the altar and dried up the water in the trench it says in verse 39:

When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, "The Lord—he is God! The Lord—he is God!"

This a picture of a massive revival. In verse 37 Elijah had prayed that God would show that he was God and "You are turning their hearts back again," and it appeared that it was happening. By the end of the day all 850 false prophets had been killed. It was a new day in Israel. BUT...

There was no revival.

When the smoke cleared, literally, it was business as usual and Elijah found himself running for his life. Even though Elijah finds out that 7,000 people had not bowed down to Baal there is no indication that a single person actually repented and returned to God. They had simply responded emotionally to a fantastic move of God and then went back to what they had been doing.

This same scenario plays out in the evangelistic crusade movement of today. There is a euphoric mountaintop experience. When the invitation is given to come and receive Christ a crowd comes forward, is led in a 'sinners prayer' and then welcomed into the family of God. The problem is there is no verification as to whether or not anything really happened or not. 

I have spoken to several foreign missionaries who have actually lived in these areas about the crusades and they have all said the same thing, "Thousands of people got saved at the crusade on Saturday night. Try to find any of them on Monday morning!" But by Monday morning the crusade has moved on to the next town. I remember someone once saying that over 6,000 people got saved at a crusade. A missionary responded that if 6,000 people truly got saved it would have a major impact on the city. At last report things were pretty much the same.

Revivals need to be verified. And that takes time to see what the actual fruits are.

Before There Can Be True Revival We Need A Reformation.

It is estimated that here in the United States about 63% of the people identify as Christian. That is an overwhelming majority. With such a majority, why are we having so little impact on our culture? 

As you look at the religious landscape one can tell very quickly that people's beliefs are all over the map.  Most people who identify as Christian can't even articulate the basic tenets of the faith. One wonders if they knew what the doctrines really are if they would still identify as Christian. The fact is most modern Christians today have gotten saved because they responded to an unbiblical gospel call. While I am sure that some have truly gotten saved, because God often saves in spite of our methods, we have to realize the very real possibility that many, if not most, professing Christians today simply are not truly saved. 

Very likely we have more goats than sheep in the fold.

Many are expressing that the solution is we who call ourselves Christians need to set aside our differences and come together in unity.

That is impossible!

The only kind of unity you can possibly have with people who believe all these different ideas is a very superficial unity. The unity would depend entirely on people agreeing not to discuss things (especially doctrine) -- just get along and love each other. But the moment a 'hot-button' topic comes up, and it will, everything will fall apart.

That is why I truly believe that without a reformation we will never have a true revival. By reformation I mean a 'reset.' 

A 'reset back to factory settings.'

If your cellphone or computer starts acting up because it has a lot of garbage app data or malware, there is a function you can use that will reset your device back to the factory settings. Basically it lets you start over.

That is what the church needs -- a reset.

We need to go back to the basic teachings of the apostles. Until we have that, any revival we can possibly have will be short lived at best, and completely false and deceptive at worst.

Yes, we need revival. But first we need a reformation.

Modern Revivals Part 2; When The Salt Ain't Salt

 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot." - Matthew 5:13 NIV

The chemical composition of table salt is sodium chloride. Because of it's simple elemental composition salt cannot actually lose it's flavor inherently. The only way salt can lose its flavor is if it becomes contaminated with another substance. This is what Jesus was warning against when he described his people as the salt of the earth. We lose our flavor when we allow ourselves to be contaminated by the world. Just like actual salt loses its usefulness when it becomes contaminated, we become useless when we become contaminated. 

All throughout the New Testament we are told things like, 'Do not love the world or the things of the world' (1 John 2:15); Keep ourselves from being polluted by the world (James 1:27); and many others.

Just like we as individual Christians lose our saltiness when we allow other worldly influences to shape and define us, the corporate church body also loses its saltiness when we allow the church to become contaminated by unbiblical philosophies AND... by allowing goats into the fold. Now it is true that we want unbelievers to come to our churches and hear the gospel and become Christians too. But our hope is that they will come into the church and become believers,... not remain unbelievers. However, if we are not holding close to the word and keeping ourselves from being polluted by the world we will lose our saltiness, and we will fill our sanctuaries with unconverted worldly people.

Doctrine divides, Jesus unifies. True or false?

This has become a driving philosphy in the modern church. We have learned, rightly so, that focusing on doctrine tends to turn people off. (The truth is unless someone is truly being regeneratied by the Holy Spirit, doctrine will turn them off.) Therefore much of the church today has the idea that we don't need to focus on the doctrines but just learn to love like Jesus did and people will come.

But is that what the early church taught?

Is turning people off by teaching the doctrines of the faith something we should be concerned about?

In Titus 2:1, the apostle Paul instructs us that we are to teach sound doctrine. In the modern western church doctrine has become a bad word and it seems that we are more focused on creating an atmosphere where we not only welcome all people but we are welcoming and striving to accomodate all viewpoints. 

It is the doctrines of the church that unifies the church.

But what about the idea that Jesus unifies?

The fact is, Jesus the Nazarene was one of the most divisive men who have ever walked the face of the earth. In Matthew 10:34-36 Jesus explained this was intentional:

“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn “ ‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law— a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’

In Luke 2:34-35, the man Simeon prophetically said this would be true about the Christ child:

'Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.” '

Jesus even went on to say that the world would hate his followers as well:

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you." - John 15:18-19

To those who think, "if we can just show people the real Jesus they would love him", remember, God DID show the the real Jesus to the world and they crucified him.

So to answer the question, does doctrine divide and Jesus unify:

You cannot separate Jesus Christ from the doctrines of the church.

They BOTH unify those who truly belong to him and they BOTH divide those who are his from those who are not.

The Danger of Striving to Be Relevant to the Modern Culture

I believe the worst thing that has been brought into the modern church are 'church growth strategies.' They are shaped by the social scientists of our day. These are ideas that are based solely on worldly philosophies. They are not found anywhere in scripture. Often they focus on things like style, formats, offering 'goodies' to attract newcomers. Trying to be 'relevent' to the culture is a major goal of church growth strategies. In doing so we are encouraged to adopt the styles of the prevelant modern trends so we can fit in. We have taken their advice to make the message more palatable to the average person in hopes that we might lure them into our fellowship. We talk about the 'benefits' of giving our lives over to Christ rather than talk about sin, judgment and the need to repent. 

Because the doctrines of the faith are not front and center we are letting the world impact the church rather than the church impacting the world.

Recently, one of the pastors at our church commented how the early New Testament church made such tremendous impact in the world. But today, in spite of there being a church on every corner, we are not making much of an impact at all. He cited Act 17:6 where it said they had 'turned the world upside down.' In our day it seems just the opposite; the world has turned the church upside down. Maybe it is because we have abandoned the teachings of Jesus Christ and the apostles and have relied on the worldy philosophies of the social scientists. 

One thing that seems to be coming more and more in vogue is the idea that outsiders don't want to come to a 'church.' So we try to make our fellowships as much unlike a 'church' as we can. Often our churches look more like rock concerts and amusement parks than church meetings. 

We should be mindful of what Charles Spurgeon said, "The time is coming when instead of pastors feeding sheep, the church will have clowns entertaining the goats." Those words were truly prophetic and it speaks of our time now. As Paul warned Timothy:

"For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear." - 2 Timothy 4:3 

The modern church does not want sound doctrine and we have been more than accommodating.

We must understand, if we need to use worldly means to get people to come to our church, we will have to continue to use worldly means to keep them there. And we will have a building full of worldly people -- goats -- keep them entertained.

The writers of the New Testament made no effort to be relevant to the society in which they lived. They understood that their job was to preach the gospel and make disciples. It is NOT our job to get people saved. That is the job that God accomplishes through regeneration, the new birth. The only thing God has ever promised to bless is the unaltered preaching of the gospel. 

"...so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it." - Isaiah 55:11

Part 3 will discuss what brings true revival.

Blessings.