Peter and John were given the power to heal a lame man at Solomon’s Porch, which opened the way for Peter to preach the Gospel to those who witnessed the miracle (Acts 3). Peter’s preaching gave us the foundation for a three-point sermon that is as relevant today as it was then, based on three Rs: repentance, refreshing and restoration (vv19-21).
Jesus will return to complete the process of restoration foretold by the prophets. In the meantime, all mankind is called to repentance. We may also expect refreshing from the presence of the Lord (Acts 3:19). Such refreshing is surely what we have come to call revival - times when God wakes up his Church, revives her for service and brings new spiritual life and encouragement.
Praying for Revival
Whilst we believe it is a time when it would be useless to pray against the shaking the Lord is bringing to our nation, it is always the right time to seek revival/refreshment among the body of believers. Paradoxically, therefore, this could be a time for encouragement among Christians.
It is a good time to read again about revivals that have touched our nation in the past, so that we can build an expectation for revival in our churches against the volatile backdrop of today’s challenging national and international affairs. There are no formulas to offer here, and how the Lord leads us into the future is in his hands and according to his timing. But Peter encourages us to always expect times of refreshment.
It is good to read about revivals that have touched our nation in the past, to build an expectation for revival in the future.
Continuing to the Utmost
There is no such thing as a whole nation being revived as a single entity. God saves individuals, but who knows what God will do in and through individuals throughout Britain after the coming shaking? Despite the nation’s leaders having become poor shepherds, there are still many ‘ordinary people’ who retain a remnant of the Christian heritage of our nation and who may not be far from the Kingdom, despite all.
There was a wise woman from Tekoa at the time of King David, who brought a prophetic message to the king while his son Absalom was estranged. It is one of those wonderful passages of hope that resounds to us all these years later:
Like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered, so we must die. But that is not what God desires; rather, he devises ways so that a banished person does not remain banished from him. (2 Samuel 14:14)
Jesus’ attitude to sinners, time and again, reflected this. He rebuked those who were judgmental towards those who seemed too far gone in sin:
Jesus answered them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.’ (Luke 5:31-32)
Whatever is in store for this world, God will continue to the utmost to call sinners to repentance.
Whatever is in store for this world, God will continue to the utmost to call sinners to repentance.
God Has Not Finished
One of my favourite descriptions of the situation in Britain at the time of the Methodist Revival comes from the historian JR Green in his A Short History of the English People (Macmillan, 1874). He wrote of the depravity in Britain at the time when John and Charles Wesley and George Whitfield were being prepared by God.
It was a time when the clergy of the Church of England were the most lifeless in Europe, when prominent statesmen were largely unbelievers and immorality was rife among them. Marriage was no longer a solemn institution and infidelity was widespread. Poverty was immense in the country as a whole. There were no schools for the education of the children of the general population. Mob violence was commonplace in the towns, as was drunkenness and debauchery.
Yet, God had not finished with the people of Britain. Quoting from Green:
In spite of scenes such as this, England remained at heart religious. In the middle class the old Puritan spirit lived on unchanged, and it was from this class that a religious revival burst forth at the close of Walpole’s administration, which changed after a time the whole tone of English society. The Church was restored to life and activity. Religion carried to the hearts of the people a fresh spirit of moral zeal, while it purified our literature and our manners.
A new philanthropy reformed our prisons, infused clemency and wisdom into our penal laws, abolished the slave trade, and gave the first impulse to popular education. The revival began in a small knot of students, whose revolt against the religious deadness of the times showed itself in ascetic observances, an enthusiastic devotion, and a methodical regularity of life which gained the nickname of "Methodists". (p736)
What Green wrote of the condition of Britain in the 18th Century has clear echoes today.
It is encouraging to take a fresh look at other local revivals that have broken out at various times in our history. Again, I say, there is no formula, just hope that can be turned to prayer.
At the time of the Methodist revival, the established church was lifeless, immorality and drunkenness were widespread and violence was commonplace.
The Tide Returns
Several of these spiritual outpourings came to Wales, the 1904 one beginning in a chapel in Loughor when 26-year-old Evan Roberts held a meeting of young people and one young girl burst forth with an expression of her love for Jesus.
Once I sat for several hours by Loughor Estuary close to the chapel built by Evan Roberts from his own hard-earned money. I was talking with a local pastor for a long time on matters of revival. It was a lovely sunny day. We were so intent on our discussion that I did not look out over the estuary more than a few times.
The tide at Loughor goes right out, leaving the estuary dry, and then later comes in quite quickly. One time I looked, the estuary was dry. The next time I looked, some while later, the first distinct wave was tracking up the estuary, which my colleague and I watched pass us by. Then, the next time we looked the estuary was full, with the sunlight dancing on the ripples of the fresh water that had come in.
After we had finished our discussion I went back home and for a reason I cannot recall, I took a particular book off my bookshelf. It was Times of Refreshing by Selwyn Hughes. I flicked through it and spotted a short appendix, which I read. It was a description of exactly what I had just witnessed at Loughor estuary. Selwyn Hughes used the picture of a dry estuary filling as a metaphor for revival, from the time of the first wave coming in to the time when the reservoir is full. What a coincidence!
For reasons like this, I have never lost my hopes of a fresh outpouring in Britain whilst also being realistic about the shaking that would likely come first. There is no guarantee, but I still have a positive hope that turns to prayer.
I have never lost my hopes of a fresh outpouring in Britain whilst also being realistic about the shaking that would likely come first.
The Bigger Picture
Let me finish with another experience in Wales that is relevant to any revival of the Church in the last days. 25 years ago this year we began a work to re-discover what we then called the Jewish roots of the Christian faith. That has been another long journey. It began at Rosh Hashanah in 1992 when we went up a mountain overlooking Loughor Estuary. We blew the Shofar and sought to prophesy concerning the restoration of the Church to her original roots.
This year is the centenary of the Balfour Declaration of 1917. It is also 70 years since the UN agreed, in 1947, to the partitioning of ‘Palestine’ so the Jews could again have a homeland. History not only speaks of past localised revivals, but points to a very special revival within the context of the culmination of all prophetic history – the final revival of the Jewish people.
This week we also celebrate the partitioning of India and Pakistan, 70 years ago. This not only sought a solution for Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs to live at peace, but also marked the decline of the British Empire and a resurgence of Islam.
With all this in mind, whatever refreshing of the Church God may yet bring in Britain, and however this might impact national affairs, we must recognise the world-wide move of God into which our local affairs are set, as well as our position on the Bible’s prophetic timeline. Let us watch and pray for the bigger picture as well as for our local concerns.
