'The spirit of inquiry'

I read a fair amount of church history. And one of the things that amazes me is how effective was pulpit evangelism in days gone by. In other words, there have been seasons of history in which both the lost and the saved were quite ready to come along and listen to the preaching of the word of God. A capable evangelist could arrive in a city or town, with comparatively little notice (and with nothing like modern advertising or showmanship), and people would show up in droves to the meeting house, or the village green, or the tent set up in a vacant lot to hear the word of God preached. And again, the attendees would not just be the church folks, who had been urged for a few weeks prior to come along to the public meetings … but miners, and drunkards, and washer women, and businessmen, and housewives who had, as yet, no real connection to Christ or His church.

My great-great-grandfather, in the early part of last century, was able to plant several churches in Oklahoma by means of holding tent meetings which would attract all sorts of locals … many of whom evidently came to Christ and were ready to form local congregations. And I know, personally, a still-living preacher who was once able to preach to large crowds in tent meetings all over our own region of the country.

But today such widespread interest in gospel preaching is rarely seen. And the crowds that do gather for such meetings are, I suspect, much smaller than in days of old … and largely comprised of church folks who have been urged to come along and support the evangelist.

Why is that? Well, there are a number of factors, I am sure. The most obvious is that mankind, in every era, is born in sin and naturally averse to the things of God. But, in addition to that, the church’s own poor moral testimony in many places might be a second reason why preaching no longer attracts great crowds of the unchurched. Many people do not see us as God’s holy band any more. And so our message falls on deaf ears. A third reason is that our neighbors have, throughout the course of their lives, been systematically trained (in school, in the media, and in liberal churches) to discount the veracity of the Bible, and the ugliness of sin, and mankind’s desperate need for the new birth and for Christ. And so again, their ears are deaf to our supernatural message. And then a fourth reason it is hard to gather a crowd around a preacher is surely our modern entertainment culture. I have no doubt that the lack of televisions, smart phones, and the internet in days past gave people a little more natural interest in going to hear the evangelist on the town square. He may not have been there to entertain, but for the townsfolk there was an entertainment value in the whole affair nonetheless. And some who merely came to see a spectacle came away with a whole new way of seeing the world, because they were born again by the Spirit’s application of the word of God to their souls!

But people today do not need a tent meeting to help them pass the time. And why should they come and listen to all these things that have been ‘discounted by modern science’ anyway? And, well, ‘my church-going neighbors are really no different than I am.’ And, with all these obstacles, we are absolutely right to realize that we must earnestly give ourselves to personal evangelism; to sharing Christ as individuals with individuals into whose lives we have inroads. And, of course, this has always been one of the church’s chief means of proclaiming Christ.

And yet it has not, by any stretch, been the only means! There have been periods when pulpit evangelism was much more successful than it is today. And, in some cases at least, it was successful in places and periods in which the evangelists were faced with at least the first three of our modern obstacles! The Wesleys and Whitefield, for instance, preached with an evangelistic success probably not seen since the times of the apostles. And yet they lived in an era of religious formalism, dead churches, and skepticism about the necessity of the new birth. Their hearers, in other words, were not naturally in the evangelists’ constituency! England was in a very dark place, spiritually. And yet the crowds came in droves to hear Wesley, Whitefield, and many other lesser known evangelists as well.

And the question is: Why? What was it that created such a stir in times gone by? Why is it that a red and white striped tent, with gospel hymns emanating from under its awnings, could attract such a crowd to hear sermons about sin, and hell, and Jesus, and the cross? The answer is not to be found in any cultural or socio-economic studies … but simply in God. He stirred an interest in the hearts of the people in times gone by. People who had, a few weeks earlier, had little notion of, much less interest in, the things of God now found themselves standing on tip toes to get a sight of the preacher whose voice was wafting good news across the fields! And it was God who did that! Supernaturally!

In his biographical sketch of Adoniram Judson, John Piper describes how, after years of slow labor in Burma, thousands of people in South Asia suddenly began, in 1831, to be eager and desperate for the truth of the gospel. Some embarked, Judson reported, on a 2-3 months’ journey to his station in Burma, because they’d heard he had writings about hell, and they were desperate to know how to escape it. Others came from the interior of the country, asking for literature that would tell them about Jesus Christ. And these were not Christianized westerners who had grown up their whole lives with a church on every corner – but 19th century Asians who were hearing whispers, many for the first time in their lives, of the gospel … and who simply had to know more!

And I say to you that, if God could create such hunger in the religious coldness of 18th century England, and among the spiritual vacuum of 19th century Asia, then God can create what Judson called 'the spirit of inquiry' in the spiritually blank 21st century west. God can make people put down their phones, and lay aside their skepticism, and come in droves to hear the preaching of the word of God. God can make it, as in times of old, so that we have to begin preaching the gospel on the front lawn because the crowds are too large to fit in the pews. And this should be our prayer!

Yes, let us keep sharing Christ as individuals with individuals. And let us rejoice when they come into the kingdom in ones and twos. But let us pray for an outpouring of the Spirit, and a spirit of inquiry and spiritual hunger such that the preachers of this land would be forced into the open air, and have their services requested at the town festivals and the county fairs, and have their churches full and their offices packed with people who simply must know more about heaven, and hell, and Jesus, and the new birth! God can stir up a spirit of inquiry once again, in spite of all the obstacles that we see. Let us pray that He would!

"Like the spring rain"

Part of a series of articles, entitled 20 years a Christian, recalling some of the important lessons I have learned in nearly two decades as a believer in Jesus.

One of the most valuable lessons I have learned in my nearly two decades as a Christian is the great need for (and hope of!) revival.  Not revival meetings ... but genuine, Holy Spirit-sent refreshing from on high. Because there are drought seasons in the Christian life. There are times – in the life of the individual believer, in the life of the local church, and sometimes in the broader Christian world – when the showers of the Holy Spirit seem few and far between, and when the fruit seems scarce and unripe, and when the ground all around seems hard to the gospel. Both history and experience tell us these times will come. Perhaps you are in the midst of one of them even now – maybe by means of your own sin and neglect; maybe because of Satan’s attack; or maybe for reasons you can’t quite pinpoint. But you know that you are dry. Or perhaps the ground around you seems hard, and dusty, and inhospitable to the words about Jesus that you have been trying to share. And maybe you’ve begun to simply punch the clock a little bit. You’ve lost your zeal, or your hope, or your dreams. And spiritually speaking, you are just going through the motions. And why not, really? No matter how often you read the Bible, or share Jesus, or come to Sunday meeting … very little seems to change. Maybe this is all there is. Just trust Jesus so that your sins are forgiven, and then muddle through life as best as you can.

I understand these feelings completely – the sighs, the resignation, the aridity of soul. I understand the desire to just stop caring so much, to stop trying so hard, and to just hunker down.  But such feelings also make me think of one of my favorite passages of Scripture: Hosea 6.1-3. The people of Israel and Judah had grieved the Lord, and brought down His discipline upon themselves because of their sin. And, as a result, they were “torn” and “wounded” (v.1), and in the midst of spiritual drought. And it may have seemed like hope was gone. They may have been tempted to just roll over and die. But Hosea exhorts them – even in the midst of their sin and drought – to “return to the LORD” and to believe in Him for healing and revival (vv.1-2). And then he makes this remarkable statement about the Lord’s faithfulness and refreshing (v.3):

“So let us know, let us press on to know the LORD.

His going forth is as certain as the dawn;

And He will come to us like the rain,

Like the spring rain watering the earth.”

What a promise! If His people would but seek Him, God would come “like the spring rain” to water their dry, cracked souls. He would water the ground again! He would cause the blossoms and the fruit to grow once more – if His people would “press on to know the LORD.”

And if He is willing to do so for those whose drought has been brought about by their own sin and idolatry (as in Hosea) … then surely He will also do so for those who are oppressed by the devil; or who are just spiritually exhausted; or who have been dried out by the hot winds of difficult circumstances. “He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth” (emphasis mine). If we will press on; if we will not roll over or quit; if we will not lose hope … but continue praying, continue fellowshipping with the people of God, and continue sowing the seed of the word (both on our own hearts, and on those of others), then we can be sure that the rain will eventually begin to fall (and the fruit begin to blossom) once more!

Sometimes the showers we were praying for may not fall on the land until after we have left it in the hands of others. Sometimes it may not be until eternity that we see how God did indeed come “like the spring rain” to revive His people and His cause. But He will not fail to come. He will not fail to satisfy your soul if you will “press on to know” Him. He will not allow the seed of His word to lie dormant on the ground forever.

A few years ago our family watched a film about one of the great deserts of our planet – a vast stretch of ground which can go for months and months on end without seeing any significant rain. And, of course, the ground is barren, cracked, and almost completely devoid of plant life. Until one day the skies darken, and the heavens open, and the rain comes down in buckets, drenching the ground with a torrent of water. And soon the desert floor is covered, garden-like, with the lushest green plants!

But how can that be? Where did the seed come from, in such a barren place, to produce all that life? It came from the last downpour, and the last flourishing of plant life on the dessert floor! Those plants grew, and blossomed, and eventually wilted back to the earth … leaving their seeds lying dormant on the desert floor. And they laid there, and laid there, and laid there – seemingly pointlessly. Had they been planted by a farmer, he may have long since given up and moved on. But when God sends the great rains, everything is different! “He changes a wilderness into a pool of water and a dry land into springs” (Psalm 107.35).

And so it is in the Christian life. Often because of our own neglect; and sometimes because of factors beyond our control, the spiritual ground (inside and outside of the church) can seem almost like the floor of a dessert. Sometimes our own hearts may seem like a wilderness. But in my nearly twenty years of following Jesus, I have come to a place of hope that God will not leave the seeds lying dormant forever; that God delights in reviving His work "in the midst of the years" (Habakkuk 3.2).  If we will “press on” with our God, the rain will eventually come. God Himself “will come like the spring rain watering the earth.” The Holy Spirit will come in revival.  So “let us press on to know the LORD.”

The Treasure Chest of Church History

Part of a series of articles, entitled 20 years a Christian, recalling some of the important lessons I have learned in nearly two decades as a believer in Jesus.

I don’t remember exactly how it happened … but, some time during my final year of seminary, I came a across a collection of cassette tapes by a man called John Piper. Yes, the John Piper. Except that I didn’t know he was the John Piper at the time. I had heard of him as a speaker at Louie Giglio’s Passion conferences. But I didn’t know much about his books, or his powerful preaching, or his now-famous statement that ‘God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.’ My first real introduction to him was actually in the role of history teacher. For the tapes in my hands were a series of biographical messages that he had delivered at an annual pastor’s conference hosted by his church. I had heard of Spurgeon, Edwards, Luther, Calvin, and Augustine in my seminary classes. But somehow (and in spite of my being a history minor in my undergrad degree!) the value and joy of church history did not dawn on me until I started hearing it retold from the mouth of the preacher!

And that is what Piper did with those biographical messages – he preached! The lives of the great saints of God – Bunyan, Paton, Simeon, Brainerd, and Cowper – became, each one, like an hour-long sermon illustration, driving home for me all sorts of biblical truths, all through the lenses of real-life men who lived them out. And I fell in love – not so much with Dr. Piper, or with any particular one of the characters he brought before me – but with history itself; and especially with the history of Christ’s church! Soon I was on to other historians as well – Iain Murray especially, and later Michael Haykin and (with my kids) Douglas Bond – discovering one remarkable saint after another; learning the history of true, Holy Spirit revival; and marveling at how often our forebears trusted God through great trials and persecutions. And a whole host of new heroes, and hopes, and dreams, and even theological convictions began to blossom as new fruit in my heart!

I am undoubtedly a more sound, stable, mature, and fruitful Christian (and pastor) because of my now decade-plus love affair with church history and biography. For instance, I am so much better prepared to suffer (and to help others do so) for having observed how the men and women of old did so with such great “faith and patience.” I’m also much less enamored the latest Christian fads, having observed how the saints of old spread the gospel so successfully with nothing of the sort. The hymns, too, have become just a little richer for me, for having learned the stories of some of their authors. My theology has received many good doses of iron as well … by having discovered the much more robust and biblical theology of certain men of old. Furthermore, by learning from some of the more simple pastors of a bygone day, I have learned a great deal about being, not only a preacher, but a real shepherd of souls. And learning the history of revival has shaped my theology perhaps as much as anything else I’ve read outside the Bible.

“And”, in the words of the author of Hebrews (in his own review of the lessons of history, ch.11) “what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I” go on reciting for you all that church history and biography have to teach us. Better that you set out, yourself, on the same journey back in time on which the Lord has taken me these last dozen or so years. Start with some of the authors mentioned above. Or ask me for some book or listening recommendations. And start digging, for yourself, into the goldmine of the past. Joy, and perspective, and depth, and wonder, and fruit await you in the treasure chest of church history!

"Will You not Yourself revive us again?" (part 3)

For a third and final week we consider the text:

"Will You not Yourself revive us again?" (Psalm 85.6).

And again we say that the psalmist was desperate. God’s people had lost the joy of their salvation. Indeed, they seemed to have lost their first love. They no longer served the LORD with gladness. They had, in many ways, fallen asleep. And it is not out of the realm of possibility that some who read these lines will find themselves on exactly the same spiritual siesta. You know you aren’t what you once were … and that we, as a church, are not what we could be. And thus Psalm 85.6 should be valuable to you. It’s a simple cry that God would restore the joy, awaken the desires, and renew the zeal that we had when we first believed … and have sometimes had since.

So far, we’ve made three observations regarding the psalmist’s prayer:

1. The psalmist prayed for revival. His prayer was not that God would make the neighborhoods and the nations alive to Himself (necessary as that is) … but that God would awaken, or revive, those people who were already alive to God. “Revive us” was the prayer. ‘Revive Your own people. Restore us to what we once were … and should be.’ That was the psalmist’s prayer.

2. The psalmist prayed in faith. “Will You not … revive us”, he asked. ‘Won’t You revive us?’ Almost as if to say, ‘How could You not answer this prayer?’.

3. The psalmist prayed while looking back. “Will You not Yourself revive us again.” The psalmist was not asking God to do something he had never done before. No, no! Rather, he was remembering the mighty acts of God in days gone by … and praying: ‘Lord, do it again!’

Finally, let us note carefully that …

4. The psalmist simply prayed! Does that sound over-simple … especially since each of the previous three points began with the phrase ‘the psalmist prayed …’? Maybe it is obvious. But it bears repeating again and again: The psalmist simply prayed! He did not make fresh resolves, or promises, or speeches to the rest of the people urging them to make new resolves and promises! He did not, realizing that he and his people weren’t what they once were, immediately dive into a whirlwind of activity. He didn’t, in other words, think that the solution to spiritual slumber lay in something that he himself could accomplish.

No! This would have to be God’s work. That is why the psalmist prayed: “Will You not Yourself revive us again?”. He and his countryman didn’t need more religion, or activity, or services. They needed God! And so do we! We need an outpouring of the Spirit that would refresh us as the spring rain.

What does a farmer do when he needs rain? Does he think that plowing, and planting, and so on will bring the rain? Of course not! Surely he keeps doing these necessary things, so that when the rain comes, he will be ready. But he does not convince himself that, if he would just plow a little harder, or plant even more seeds, that this would bring the May showers. Not for a moment. So what does the farmer do during a drought? Well, if he’s smart, he keeps doing the few things he knows to do … and, most of all, he prays!

And so it must be with you and I. We need the Spirit in the worst way. But we won’t get Him simply by redoubling our efforts. No! We must pray harder, not do more. If and when the Spirit comes, He will do more with our plain and simple services and hymns and witnessing efforts than a million zealous men could do without Him. So keep reading. Keep worshiping. Keep witnessing. But above all … PRAY for the outpouring of the Spirit!

“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” (Luke 11.13).

"Will You not Yourself revive us again?" (part 2)

Last week we began revisiting a sermon from early May, based on the text:

"Will You not Yourself revive us again?" (Psalm 85.6).

The psalmist was desperate. God’s people were no longer what they should have been. Indeed, they were no longer what they once were. And it seemed that God had withdrawn His help from them; that He was chastening them for their spiritual drowsiness and sin. And so the psalmist cried out to God for revival – that God would make His glory dwell, once more, in the land. That God would wake His people up. That God would bring them to fresh repentance … and restore the joy of their salvation. And I submit to you, again, that we need to be praying this kind of prayer in our day.

It is not enough simply to get busier. Nor is it enough for us to have our doctrine and church order straight. We need GOD. And we need Him, in the person of the Holy Spirit, to come in power and restore our joy, our diligence in spiritual things, our zeal for the scriptures, and our love for Jesus. We need Him to “revive us again” – nationally, congregationally, and individually.

That is what the psalmist asked. And we began, last week, making the first two of four observations about his prayer:

1. The psalmist prayed for revival. Not just greater effort by God’s people. Not just a season of emotional uplift. But a great awakening and restoration to what they once were … and should still have been.

2. The psalmist prayed in faith. “Will You not revive us”, he asked. ‘Won’t You revive us?’ Almost as if to say, ‘How could You not answer this prayer?’.

Now, this week, notice a third item (#4 will come next week):

3. The psalmist prayed while looking back. “Will You not Yourself revive us again.” The psalmist was not asking God to do something he had never done before. No, no! Rather, he was saying to God: ‘Do it again!’ He remembered (vv.1-3) how God had restored His people’s joy in the exodus from Egypt; how God had revived their spirits and their zeal in those ancient days. And he said to himself (and to his God): ‘If it happened then, then surely God can do it again!’

How important history is! Without it, we forget where we have come from. We forget the mighty deeds God has done in the past. Without a good knowledge of history, we fool ourselves into thinking that our day is actually quite a successful one. But when we read of the mighty works of God, and the mighty faith of His people in days gone by … we have cause, sometimes, to reevaluate. Maybe there have been better days, after all. Maybe we have lost some things through the years. Maybe we ought to be praying and repenting and longing for something better after all! And, once we have realized that there have been better days in Christian history … not only do we see the need for revival prayers, but we gain hope that God can and does answer them! For, if He did it then, He could do it now! If He did it in the Exodus from Egypt; if He did it in North America during the Great Awakening … He could visit [fill in the name of your town here] today!

Do you read church history? Specifically, do you read the stories of revival? More’s the pity if your understanding of God’s work has a two thousand year gap in it! But it’s not too late to set things right. If you really want to pray for revival … you will be helped tremendously if you read the stories of revival. Start with Brian Edwards’s Revival … and see if you aren’t moved to pray: “Will You not Yourself revive us again”!

"Will You not Yourself revive us again?"

Several weeks back I preached, from Psalm 85.6, on Revival. Not on a protracted series of evangelistic meetings … but on Revival, we might say, with a capital ‘R’.; on the idea that God’s people often become so spiritually drowsy that they need God Himself to come in extraordinary, startling ways … to re-break their hearts over their sins, to give them renewed joy in the gospel, to fill them afresh with the Holy Spirit, and to give them a renewed sense of purpose and holy desire. Not a phenomenon whereby one leaves the Sunday morning service with an emotional surge … but whereby one is completely floored, once again, with the goodness of God in the gospel, almost as though you have been reborn, all over again! It was that significant of a work of the Spirit that I was after in that sermon.

That was almost two months ago. And I still sense the need for that sort of extraordinary work of God … in myself, in our congregation, and in our city. I think, honestly, that this is where we stand right now – a bit too drowsy to be much good to one another, or to our neighborhood; a bit too distracted with things other than the glory and beauty of Jesus. So, for the next two weeks, by way of reminder (and maybe by way of introduction to those who read these lines online), I’d like review the four points of that sermon on Psalm 85.6.

The text, from Psalm 85.6, simply reads: "Will You not Yourself revive us again?"

And here are the first two items that we noticed:

1. The psalmist prayed for revival. That is to say that, the psalmist was not asking God to do something, primarily, among the lost people around him. Rather, he was praying for people who were already alive to God … but who had become spiritually drowsy. This was a prayer for revival, not simply ‘vival.’ That is, the psalmist was praying (and we should be too) that the Lord would renew the joy that he had when he first believed; that God would make His people what they once were in holiness and love; that God would make His glory to dwell in the land once again. The psalmist wasn’t asking for anything new or cutting edge. Just the God might ­renew what had become old and stale. And I ask you: Has your spiritual life become old and stale – your love for the Bible; your love for the fellowship; your love for the old, old story of Jesus and His love; your love of prayer? Do you love Jesus, His word, and His bride the way you did when you first believed? Or are you in need of revival?

2. The psalmist prayed with faith. Notice how the psalmist phrased his request: “Will you not Yourself revive us again?” That is stronger than simply saying: ‘Will you revive us again?’ It is the difference between a wife saying: ‘Will you buy me some flowers?’ and saying ‘Will you not buy me some flowers? Won’t you at least get me a dozen roses? Is that asking too much?’ Do you see? When you begin a question with “will you not” – or (as we would say it): ‘won’t you’ – you are implying that you will be keenly disappointed if the answer is ‘no’. ‘Won’t you please go to church with me?’ ‘Won’t you just quit drinking?’ It almost has the force of: ‘I don’t see any good reason why you wouldn’t come to church … quit drinking … buy me flowers … “revive us again.” Do you see what the psalmist, then, is saying to God? ‘I don’t see any good reason why you wouldn’t answer my prayer. Your character and Your promises would almost seem to demand that you would revive Your people!’ The psalmist is praying with great confidence … with faith. He is practically insisting that God should answer, although he does so in humble way. And we need to pray this way about revival: ‘God, I can’t think of any good reason you wouldn’t revive us! No, we don’t deserve it. But Your faithfulness to Your promises trumps our sin. And Your zeal for Your Son’s glory would almost seem to demand it. So “will You not Yourself revive us again?”’

Would you be willing to pray that way?

No Playing in the Street!

‘Don’t ride your bike in the street.’ Those words of my mother still ring in my ears today. It was just too dangerous to leave me out there unsupervised. I didn’t like the rule. I wish I would have known Zechariah 8.5 back then: “The streets of the city will be filled with boys and girls playing in the streets.” Actually, maybe I don’t wish that! I don’t think my interpretation of it would have been all that great. Plus, I probably would have been in real danger of getting run over, just like mom said. And, more importantly, I might not ever have played in the street again if I’d have whipped out that verse in my usual smart-aleck tone!

So, if it’s not a zinger to pull out on your mother, what is Zechariah 8.5 about? Well, the book of Zechariah was written during a time of disarray in ancient Israel. Yes, the people had returned home from seventy years of exile in Babylon. But Jerusalem was still in ruins. The ancient walls were just a smattering of blocks and stones laying around the edge of town, looking more like a garden-edging than a fortification. Furthermore, the Temple had yet to be rebuilt. So sacrificial worship, the people’s daily reminder of their need for a Savior, had yet to be appropriately reinstituted. These were the big, obvious craters in the Jewish landscape.

There were other things missing, too. There weren’t many old people (8.4). Most of them must have died in exile or been physically incapable of making the return trip. Neither was there the familiar and healthy sound of playing children. The streets were just too dangerous for children. With the protective city walls down, the streets of Jerusalem were fair game for wild animals and for foreign agitators. More significantly, perhaps, the spiritual walls had been broken down. The people had left the Temple languishing—a sign of their spiritual apathy. They weren’t all that interested in getting the gospel message that the Temple and its sacrifices would have daily afforded them. And when a culture’s spiritual walls are broken, the streets are no place for children. Kidnappers, pedophiles, and uncaring travelers all posed a threat to playing children. So mother’s had to keep them close by their sides, not letting them play freely for fear of what might happen to them. Sound familiar?

Can anyone debate that modern American cities are much like ancient Israel? What responsible city mom feels comfortable turning her little ones into the front yard to play unobserved? Tobey and I sure don’t. Our rules are stricter than my parents' were! That is the one thing we lament about living in the city—we will likely never be able to allow Andrew and Julia to play outside in the yard unsupervised—and this isn’t even a ‘dangerous neighborhood’! So what is the solution? Neighborhood Watch? A privacy fence? More police and less crime? All of those may be stop-gap measures. But I believe the real answer lies in Zechariah 8.3: “Thus says the LORD, ‘I will return to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem.” And then “The streets of the city will be filled with boys and girls playing in the streets.” When we have a real spiritual awakening—when the LORD Jesus comes to Cincinnati—then all sorts of things will change, first of all lives! And what will be a happy (albeit minor) sign that lives are changing? The sound of “boys and girls playing in the streets!”