Presbyterian Church in Eureka | 5-15-2016
1906….. What thoughts come to mind when hearing the mention of that year? Yes, most people, particularly on the West Coast, will say: “The San Francisco earth quake of 1906”. It was the most devastating earthquake in California history measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale, destroying 80% of the City of San Francisco and taking 3000 lives, the second largest death toll of natural disasters in USA. It happened on April 18 1906. But there was another, even bigger earthquake, that same year less than 3 months earlier on January 31 1906 in Esmeraldas Ecuador, measuring 8.8, the strongest earth quake ever recorded in Ecuador.
Welcome to this Pentecost Sunday at the Presbyterian Church in Eureka.
Our message today is: The power of the Holy Spirit.
Last week it was a year ago, I started doing these sermons, some right here in Eureka, but mostly in Blue Lake. Since the beginning I have been taping these sermons on my cell phone and sending them out on a link to more than a 120 followers on what some call an internet ministry.
One of these listeners in Europe sent me an email last month and wrote: it is amazing at which speed you prepare and write these sermons.
I thought about this for a while and answered, Thank you very much but I certainly cannot take any of the credit, as it is the Holy Spirit that brings thoughts and ideas and put things in my path while preparing, particularly as Sunday draws near.
Here is an illustration; a month ago on April 16 a devastating 7.8 earthquake hit Muisne Ecuador only 55 miles from Esmeraldas the location of that 1906 quake. On the same day I met a nice young fellow and like the main character in John Bunyan book “Pilgrims Progress” this kid was named Christian.
He formerly grew up in Eureka but had since moved to Redding. He also recently had accepted Christ, and was full with the spirit, describing that he had been baptized that previous week in the Bethel Church in Redding.
He shared that on that particular weekend, church attendance was low, because many members of that congregation had left for the Azusa. I did not know what he meant with that. I knew of Azusa Pacific University in Los Angeles. But what Azusa was this guy talking about?
He described it as a spirit filled event in Southern California. I couldn’t help but find out more, what this was all about.
As it turns out the event was called “Azusa Now” and was held on April 9th to commemorate and celebrate the 110 year anniversary of the Azusa street revival of 1906.
The celebration was held in the Los Angeles Coliseum, the same place where Billy Graham drew a record attendance of 134,000 people in 1963.
So the question comes to mind: What is a revival? Revival is defined as “God pouring Himself out on His people.
So what happened at this 1906 Azusa street revival?
William Seymour, an African American minister from Louisiana, led a movement calling on the Holy Spirit in prayer meetings on 312 Azusa Street in Los Angeles, started on April 16 1906, and went on for days and nights. Church services were held on the first floor of this house where some of the benches were simply planks put on top of empty nail kegs. There was no elevated platform, as the ceiling was only eight feet high. Initially there was no pulpit.
Worship at 312 Azusa Street was frequent and spontaneous with services going almost around the clock. Among those attracted to the revival were not only members of the Holiness Movement, but also Baptists, Mennonites, Quakers, and Presbyterians
Two days after the revival had started at Azusa Street the ground started shaking as two earthquakes hit Los Angeles around noon time on April 18, the same day as the San Francisco earthquake.
In the book “THE TEN GREATEST REVIVALS EVER” by Elmer L. Towns and Douglas Porter they list the 1906 Azusa street revival in conjunction with 1904 revival beginning in Wales where over 100,000 people came to Christ.
The book also describes The First Great Awakening of 1727-1750, ironically I learned about this revival a few weeks ago driving back home after a long day during Mother’s Day rush.
In the midst of the Holiday It is pretty common to start before 5 in the morning and while driving home after 8.30 at night I turned the dial to KVIP radio and listened to RC Sprawl and his program “Legionnaire” ministries and they were talking about Jonathan Edwards and George White field and John Wesley as driving forces spreading the message of Jesus Christ led by the Holy Spirit during the Great awakening in England and USA.
The book lists The Second Great Awakening in 1780-1810
Hawaii and Jamaica saw The General Awakening 1830-1840
- L. Moody was instrumental in the revival called The Layman’s Revival of 1857-1861
Post World War II there was a Revival starting in the late 40’ with Billy Graham, according to the Billy Graham Evangelist Association website, more than 3.2 million people have responded to the invitation at Billy Graham Crusades to “accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior”. As of 2008, the estimated lifetime audience, including radio and television broadcasts, topped 2.2 billion.
Then there was The Baby Boomer Revival of the 60’s with The Jesus People, and The Prairie Revival,
The book also describes the pre reformation revival of the 1300‘s and The Reformation of 1517 with Martin Luther, John Calvin, Zwingli, Knox
But the foundation of all revivals took place in 32 AD on Pentecost.
Pentecost as a major festival day did not originate with the Christian church. It was a Jewish festival commemorating the giving of the Law, its occurrence fifty days after Passover corresponding with tradition that Moses received the Ten Commandments fifty days after the Exodus. The word Pentecost coming from the Greek Pentecoste of fiftieth day.
Now let’s go back 50 days earlier to that last night, in the upper room after the last supper, and the washing of the feet in which John’s Gospel describes a lengthy conversation where Jesus provides advice and inspiration to the disciples and this brings us to John 16 ;12-15 Please turn your bible to page ……… of your pew bible.
“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
A few months ago a good friend gave me a book written by Charles Stanley called “The wonderful spirit filled Life“. Stanley cites John 16;13 and he points out that the Holy spirit will guide us.
Jesus doesn’t promise that the spirit will control us or drive us, but he says it will guide us. The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of truth, he guides believers into the truth and according what is true. The Holy Spirit helps believers distinguish what is true and what is not. What is wise and what is foolish.
The Holy Spirit is God’s mouth piece; everything he communicates is directly from the father. He will not speak on his own initiative. God has chosen to communicate to his children through the Holy Spirit. When you think about it this makes perfect sense, after all where does the Holy Spirit reside? In you and in me, therefore it is the perfect means for communicating God’s will to believers.
Jesus foretelling what is about to happen 7 weeks later the has disciples confused, they honestly have a hard time grasping all the things Jesus it trying to tell before he is about to be imprisoned and crucified
The disciples have a hard time listening because they can’t stand to hear the bad news of things to come so Jesus said I have more to say but you can’t handle it. Does this sound familiar? Doesn’t that describe us as well?
We stop listening when we hear things we don’t want to hear. But in the process we miss the rest of the story, We miss the good news. We miss that when we trust in Jesus as our Lord and savior he WILL provide, and the Holy Spirit will come and will guide us. The truth is, the disciples didn’t get it, because they needed the Holy Spirit in order to understand the truth of what Jesus said and do so we also need the help of the power of the Holy Spirit.
Before the outpouring of the spirit, people were confused and disillusioned; Jesus had ascended 10 days earlier. Without the power of the spirit, people where wandering in spiritual darkness. This goes for conditions today.
Revivals are typically preceded by periods of spiritual darkness of spiritual depravity.
Are we in the midst of these periods as we speak? The case can be made that Western Europe even more so than the USA is already there.
I was talking to my brother about this a few weeks ago, and he pointed me to Hans Boutelier a Dutch researcher and director of the Verwey Jonker institute and professor at University of Amsterdam wrote a book called the “Secular Experiment” in which he describes how God has been removed from Western European culture. Religion has disappeared from society.
God has vanished in the hearts and minds of the majority of the Western European population. Boutelier in his book analyses the development of criminality and how a surveillance culture has become the almighty power. He asks; can the Secular experiment last? And what does Western Europe stand for any longer?
The facts are undisputable: according to a Eurobarometer poll taken in 2010 only 28% of people in Denmark, Holland and France believe there is a God. In Sweden that number is even lower at only 18%.
The statistics in America are still faring better, but declining nonetheless. According to the PEW research center, in 2014, 89% of Americans believe in God and 63% believe in God with absolute certainty, a decline from 71% in 2007.
Historically, revivals happen when Worldly things starting taking precedence over Godly ones. Typically a community of believers prays that the Holy Spirit would intercede and God heals the people and the land. When folks cannot hear or see, or are unwilling to do so, when society is mesmerized to accept things as truth that are not,
When political correctness supersedes common sense when the way of the World displaces the will of God, when people have spiritually fallen asleep, when we approach these conditions times are ripe for a revival. This happened in the times of Isaiah. He foretold the revival that was to come with the coming of the Messiah and the eventual outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
The bible says in Isaiah 35: Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution, he will come to save you. ”Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs.
Now fast forward to this week. The Congressional club in Washington DC was founded in 1908 and is comprised of spouses of members of congress, Supreme Court justices and cabinet members.
This week they held their annual “First ladies luncheon honoring Michele Obama in the ball room of Washington Hilton. This invitation only event has been held for 104 years raising money at 25,000.- per table for charitable causes.
This year American flower farmers donated the flowers for this event. And in return for this in kind donation where given a free table. I was invited to join other flower farmers to attend this special occasion. Not having much time available I took the red eye Wednesday night to Washington, arrived early in the morning, attended the luncheon and came right back home same day.
I would not have wanted to miss this event despite the time pressures. The event was memorable to say the least. This private event included the singing of the National Anthem, the honor guard and when the First Lady was introduced an elevated energy and liveliness filled the room.
For a moment it made me think about that upper room in Jerusalem when the Holy Spirit came down and the crowd was bewildered and amazed and perplexed.
The first lady gave an inspiring speech calling for a middle ground in a very polarized Washington and plea to those in attendance to encourage their spouses for a more conciliatory approach to the issues facing our Nation.
After the meal there was entertainment and a number of Grammy award winning musicians entered the stage, starting with Tasha Cobbs, who in her deep booming voice started singing: THERE IS POWER IN THE NAME OF JESUS, THERE IS POWER IN THE NAME OF JESUS BREAK EVERY CHAIN X3.
At this point the crowd just went ballistic, it was like the Holy Spirit entered the room and gave this Gospel singer from Georgia the incredible gift of expressing power in the name of Jesus, the power to break every chain.
The chains are breaking and the people are freed from whatever has held them down.
It was so moving it brought tears to my eyes. As I was sitting in the crowd, it suddenly made the 28 hour roundtrip worth every minute. Here is a crowd of 1500 singing along with this gospel song in the heart of our Nation’s Capital.
The power of the Holy Spirit that brought this room to tears and joy,
The same spirit that came down at the Azusa street revival in 1906,
The spirit of the Great Awakening,
The spirit that came down on the disciples on that Pentecost day, filling the room of the 120,
The spirit that came upon that fisherman called Peter. Who with the power of the Holy spirt was emboldened and empowered to give the most touching and convincing most powerful sermon of his life, and by that end of that first day 3000 people were saved.
For a moment consider where we are today?
Are conditions ripe for another Great Awakening, for a new revival?
We ask For the Holy Spirit to come and dwell among the people and heal our souls and lead us to the path of eternal life.
Amen
Podcast: Play in new window | Download