DTR on Revival Ch.1 "Precursors to Revival"

PK here: I offer the following sermon by my friend, the Reverend David Ryan, pastor at www.hopelandumc.org. Pastor David and I are simultaneously preaching a series based on Adam Hamilton's book "Revival". Here is what Pastor David has to say:

It’s great to be back!

Thank you for allowing me the time away this past week –

It was balm to my soul!

I got to spend time with a dear friend and his family

For some reason I slept really really well

I got to spend time in the Word of God

And I got to plan about where we might go in the Word

This year.

And where we are going to start

Is a look both at our History as United Methodists –

More specifically at the life and faith of one of our founders –

John Wesley – and the great revival that began through his ministry, and more importantly, how the scriptures can

Speak to us of our revival – a stirring of the Spirit

Right here, right now, in our time and place.

One of our Primary texts for today, comes to us

From the book of Revelation–

The last book of the bible.

I know that usually we think about the lessons from Revelation

To be about the end times – what lies before us yet, as the church

And much of Revelation does speak to that –

But it was also written to the contemporary churches

Of its day  to encourage them, as they faced persecution,

And also to talk with them about their own need for revival

The churches were located in what is now mostly Turkey.

Many of those churches – which started out really good

Had been losing their vitality.

The church in Laodicea had become “luke warm”.

The church in Ephesus was said to have lost it’s “first love”

These were good Christian folk –

We can identify with them.

They lead busy, productive lives –

But somewhere along the line they had ceased

Being spiritually vital.

They had grown lax.

What they used to be excited about they were no longer excited about.

They lost their passion.

The spirit of Christ tells them that the key

To getting back on track

The key to spiritual revival was

“to do the works you did at first”.

( Rev. 2:5)

We can identify with that can’t we?

It happened again and again in the Old Testament stories of Israel.

They would be faithful for a time,

But then bit by bit let things go

Till all of a sudden they found themselves very far from God.

Robert Robinson must have known what this was like –

He wrote the words to the hymn – “Come thou fount of every blessing” back in 1758 – one of the lines that

I love from that hymn, because I identify with it so much

Is “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it – prone to leave the God I love”.

I’ve just come off a time of retreat,

And so I feel great spiritually

I feel healthy, I feel fit, I am ready to take on

The tasks the Lord presents me with.

But its not always like that.

I’m not always living with the fruit of the spirit –

Showing forth in my life –

“Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness,

Gentleness and self-control”.

I really hate those times when it feels like I am going

Through the motions of faith, rather than really living in them.

John Wesley felt this too

He had all the religion he needed in his head.

He knew what to do…he knew what the church needed to be like…but that did not stack up with the reality he saw –

Both in his own life, and in the life of the church.

Ok…time for a history break.

We need to understand a little about what lead up to the time

Of John Wesley – and the world in which the Methodist movement was started.

I know this is coming to sound kind of complicated,

But I’ll try to help by providing a chart!

For some 200 years leading up to start of Methodism,

Europe was having a lot of religious conflict.

In 1517 Martin Luther had nailed his complaints against the church

To the door of the wittnburgh church, upset at various things

That were going on. He was told to recant them or be excommunicated….he chose to start his own movement –

And some folks followed him, forming the protestant church –

Before that there had only be the Roman Catholic Church.

That was in Germany

In England, King Henry 8^th had failed to produce

A male heir. He wanted his marriage annulled –

But was denied that – and so he severed ties

Between the English church and Rome –

By 1543 he had set up the Church of England –

And disbanded most of the monasteries and convents.

Even though it was a separate church, it still was very similar to the Roman Catholic church – but after Henry died,

His son Edward the Sixth guided the church to be more

Closely aligned with the Protestant church in other Countesy.

When Edward died, His half sister, Mary I came to the throne.

She restored the church of England to The Roman Catholic Church. Many of the Anglican Bishops and Protests leaders

Were put to death – many of them burned at the stake –

This is all pretty extreme stuff, isn’t it?

It’s not hard to image how the faithful  - or least those seeking to be faithful lost their way.

Mary – bloody mary , as she is remembered

Was followed by  Elizabeth I – who ruled for 45  years –

A good stable period – and Elizabeth returned the church in England

To its  protestant path. She sought a balance of sorts between

Protestant and Catholic practice and theology.

She  died in 1603 and

was followed by James, who was King of Scotland, England and Ireland -  who also sought a balance in the faith.

He is best known for supporting the translations of the scriptures

That we now call the King James Version.

At this same time, there were people who were not in favor

Of compromise with Roman Catholism and were known as the

Puritans.

James was succed by Charles 1 who was against the Puritans,

Promoted “high church” forms and married a Roman Catholic.

During his rule, the English Civil War broke out, and in

1649 he was executed.

Eventually things settled out, and the son of Charles 1, Charles 2

Was welcomed back as king.

He lead what was called “The Restoration”,

Using again the Book of Common Prayer, Articles of Religion, and so forth.

But not everyone agreed with this “restoration”.

Over 2,000 pastors were refused to comply –

And they were forceably removed from their chruchs.

So…after all this…after 200 years of religious conflict

People had sort of given up on the church.

They church lost its integrity, because leadership

Was always in flux.

First Roman Catholics, then Protestants, then back and forth, then comporomise, then extremestits…

The common man and woman sort of gave up.

Pushed religion to the side.

It was still a part of the culture, but not the center of peoples lives.

And a personal relationship with God…not even something

People talked about.

Its about the end of this time period

That John Wesley was born –

To Samuel and Susanna Wesley.

He was born in a place called Epworth –

A small town about 150 miles north of London,

About 130 miles south of the Scottish border.

John’s father served as Pastor of St. Andrews church

For nearly 40 years.

Together, Samuel and Susanna had 19 survivig children –

Can you imagine that?

Undoubtedly, the children were influenced by their father’s

Preaching, but it was their mother who influenced them the most.

She would spend six hours of her day teaching the children

In her kitchen.

It is reported that she spent 1 hour a week individually, with each child, talking about faith, and teaching them lessons from

The scriptures.

On Sunday nights she lead devotions for the community in

Her kitchen, and soon more people were going to her kitchen

Instead of church services on Sunday mornings!

That of course, did not go over well – Samuel asked her to stop.

She refused. She said…only if you command me to stop will I stop – then it will be you who is guilty of stopping the word of God from being taught to hungry souls, and not me.

Wow. They did not stop!

Susannah never stopped influencing her children.

She would ask them regularly about their faith, their fears,

The hopes and dreams – and most importantly

The state of their souls.

Wesley later would ask the same of those he disciples

And asked his pastors and leaders to ask the same of each

Other and those in their congregations.

One time Charles Wesley, written of many of our hymns

Was asked to what did he attribute his faith to –

He did not hesitate, but said, my mother’s prayers.

I don’t think we would have the Methodist Church today

With out the prayers of Susanna Wesley.

We must never under estimate the power of a parents prayers.

They often lead to great things.

As parents, we should be following her lead.

Those of you who are parents here today,

I would encourage you to join me in praying regularly

For our children, and finding ways of passing on your faith to them.

Think of what Paul writes in 2 Timothy 1:5 –

Paul said, “I am reminded of your sincere faith –

The faith that first lived in your grandmother Lois,

And then your mother Eunice, and now lives in you”.

One of the best inheritance a child can have,

Is the inheritance of faith.

Yes, each person must come to faith themselves

But as parents, we can have a lot to do with that.

Let us never grow tired, let us never give up

On passing our faith to our children.

Ask them questions

Talk with them

Share with them

Pray for them

If John learned faith from his mother, he learned how to deal

With differences from his father and grandfathers.

Wesley had conflict in his own family.

His grandfathers were among those who refused to follow

The way of Restoration, they were “dissenters” and strongly influenced by the Puritans.

His parents were on the other side,

They embraced the book of common prayer, and sought

To let it guide their worship practices.

Because of these family conflicts,

Wesley adopted a posture that is called

The via media – the middle way.

He recognized that there was truth on both sides.

He was a cleric in the Anglican church,

And worshiped, usually , in high church fashion –

But he he also preached in the fields.

He opened preaching houses that were filled

With rousing hymn singing and very little liturgy.

One of his famous sermons is called the

“Catholic Spirit”

In that sermon he says

“Though we can’t think alike,

May we not love alike?

May we not be of one heart, though we are not of one opinon?

Without doubt, we may.”

Wesley encouraged those in the church

To listen to each other

To focus on what they shared in common.

To seek to build bridges rather than walls.

We continue to have struggle in our church today –

Among denominations, and even in our own United Methodist church.

We don’t all think a like,

And there is a lot of talk about these divisions and how we

Will deal with them.

When we get to talking about our opinions and views

Things can get quite heated – emotions can run high

We can start to be downright nasty to each other.

And the world looks at that and says..no thank you.

That’s not a community I want to be a part of.

Each side claims to be “biblically informed”…

Yet does not always live biblically or respond biblically.

Can we like Wesley, seek a middle way?

Can we live like the Apostle Paul calls us to live?

In Phillipians  2:3-5 Paul writes this:

“Do nothing from selfish ambitions or conceit,

But in humility, regard others as better than yourselves.

Let each of you look not to your own interests,

But to the interests of others.

Let the same mind  be in you that was in Christ Jesus”.

We are called to love each other –

Especially in the church!

Remember what else Paul wrote about love in 1 Corinthians –

“Love is patient,

love is kind,

love is not envious,

or arrogant

or rude.

 It does not insist on its own way.

It is not irritable or resentful;

it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things”

Oh that we might truly be the church –

The church whose members may not agree on all things

But in humility  love one another, listen to one another

And pray for one another, and together seek to find the

Right way.

Let us be faithful in our witness.

Let us never cease to pray – especially for our children

And those not yet in right relationship with God.

I think, just as the Lord spoke to the church in Ephesus

So he speaks to us today.

Get back to your first love.

Do the things you did at first.

Don’t get lost in all lesser things

Love God, Love one another, love those in the world around you.

Let it be real.

Let revival come again.

Don’t give up.

Wesley faced all kinds of struggles and hardships

One time his father Samuel owed money to a parishioner –

And that parishioner had him thrown into debtors prision…where

He had to stay 3 months.

Another time, the church parsonage was burned down

By people angry at his preaching.

But Samuel never gave up.

Each time he returned, and preached as he felt the Lord was leading him.

This must have encouraged Welsey.

Sometimes when he was preaching,

People would mock him.

He had rotten vegatables thrown at him

One time he was knocked down, and hit his head

On hard stone of a cross…

But he got up and kept on preaching.

There is always going to be hard things coming at us

In the church, in our lives.

But we must never give up on serving God

And doing the things God calls us to.

We pray for Revival in the church.

I pray it comes, and come it will.

Especially as we pray for one another,

As we show the world our love, and live out our love

In how we live together,

And as we stay with it, persevering.

These things lead to revival in Wesley’s day.

May they do so in our day as well.