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We HAVE a Revolution

by | Mar 26, 2023

Scripture: Acts 3:11-26

Introduction

  • Last week I called for a revolution. I said, “we need a revolution.” – but I was a little late
  • Yep, that’s right – it’s already happening and in a bigger way than the Jesus Revolution of the 1960’s which was pretty big, and it is growing fast.
  • PremierChristianity.com wrote in 2017: “The Jesus People Movement has been dubbed the last great American revival”
  • InsideHigherEd.com reported on February 20th, 2023:

A Christian revival movement at Asbury University has been going on for 11 days, and the university is now moving to schedule events related to it, Kentucky Today reported.

In addition, the revival is spreading to other Christian colleges. At Samford University, it has been going on for four days. Students also engaged in similar actions at Lee University and Cedarville University.

  • FaithWire.com reported on March 10th, 2023 the many other places that it has spread to:

Asbury University – Wilmore, KY
Rupp Arena – Lexington, KY
Western Kentucky University – Bowling Green, KY
Union College – Barbourville, KY
University of the Cumberlands – Williamsburg, KY
Eastern Kentucky University – Richmond, KY
Lee University – Cleveland, TN
Grace Christian Academy – Knoxville, TN
Samford University – Birmingham, AL
Cedarville University – Cedarville, OH
Ohio State – Columbus, OH
Indiana Wesleyan University – Maron, IN
Valley Forge College – Chester County, PA
Hannibal-LaGrange University – Hannibal, MO
Texas A&M Corpus Christi, TX
Baylor University – Waco, TX
Louisiana State University – Baton Rouge, LA
Oral Roberts University – OK
Youth event in Portland, OR
Regent University – Virginia Beach, VA

  • 20 different college campuses so far have experienced spiritual revivals.
  • And, on top of all these college campus revivals, In a recent Facebook post, evangelist Nick Hall reported his Pulse ministry has “booked the 86,000-seat football stadium at the University of Oklahoma for the largest student-led outreach I have ever heard of.”
  • Yes indeed the revolution has become and is a spiritual movement sent by God
  • Three things will define this movement represented by the word TRY:
  1. Truth
  2. Repentance
  3. Youth

1. Truth

  • If there is one thing that is going to come out of this latest awakening or revival, its truth.
  • In our Scripture passage today, Peter had just healed a lame beggar.
  • This got the attention of the crowd and many people were astonished and came running.
  • The natural thing for people to do is to look for a worldly answer to whatever they see.
  • In this case, it was a supernatural healing, so the inclination is to give Peter the credit.
  • Peter tells them right away that “hey it wasn’t me, or us, it was God.”
  • Unfortunately, we don’t do enough of that, religion and denominations like to take credit.
  • But I think Peter is my favorite Apostle because he just tells it like it is. In verse 12:

Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?

  • Peter told this group the harsh truth about who they were and what they had done.
  • Peter preached boldly and courageously and Peter preached the truth!!
  • This revolution that is starting up now is simple and it is the truth about Jesus Christ.
  • Listen to four truths that Peter testifies to the people gathered there:

He testifies to the truth of who Jesus is: “The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus.”

He testifies to the truth of how they framed Jesus: “You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go.”

He testifies to their refusal to show any grace: “You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you.”

Finally, he testifies to the resurrection of Jesus: “You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this.”

  • We, all of us you and me, as ministers of the Gospel, need to do this exact same thing with these exact same points.
  • We don’t need any more seeker-sensitive, entertainment venues, that call themselves churches.
  • We need to preach these same issues to the people of today because THEY NEED TO HEAR IT.
  • We all need to take a knee in the middle of our playing fields and turn to Almighty God.
  • We need to stop worrying about who we are going to offend and boldly proclaim Jesus Christ.
  • And we don’t need to go very far to do it because God has plopped a mission field right here in our parking lot.
  • Do you think the people Peter was talking to wanted to hear what he said? NO
  • Do you think the Holy Spirit is popping up all these revivals for their entertainment purpose. NO
  • God is ready to TRY again to reach us and TRY begins with TRUTH.

2. Repentance

  • Peter showed grace and understanding when he told the people in verse 17:

“I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders.”

  • Peter told these people that all this had to happen because “it is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer.”
  • Peter gives the crowd a way out of their trouble and the guilt of their sin in verse 19-20:

Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus.

  • To repent means to change; go in another direction; TRY something new!!!
  • God is now TRYing something new in this world with a new spiritual revolution.
  • Do you believe that the world is in trouble and needs to try something new? YES
  • Do you believe that God is sending a revolution to TRY and wake people up? YES
  • Verses 22 and 23 are a direct quote from our responsive reading from Deuteronomy.

The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you. Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from their people

  • God is TRYing to reach us; wake up and listen; REPENT it’s time for a change!!

3. Youth

  • Pay attention to who God is using to reach us with this new spiritual revolution.
  • It’s the “Y” in TRY; it’s the youth; it’s the people that I told you last week have statistically rejected traditional “church.”
  • God’s chosen people in this generation are the youth; the college students; just like 1968.
  • There have been three massive spiritual revolutions in America:
  1. The most recent was the Jesus Movement I told you about last week
  2. The next most recent was the Second Great Awakening from about 1795 to 1835.
  3. The first was the [First] Great Awakening between about 1720 and the 1740s
  • I believe we are at the beginning of what will be another Great Awakening
  • In the first Great Awakening, according to Brittanica.com:

The Great Awakening represented a reaction against the increasing secularization of society and against the corporate and materialistic nature of the principal churches of American society.

  • Well here we are again, 300 years later with: secularization of society and materialistic nature of churches.
  • The First Great Awakening helped stir the American Colonies towards a greater desire for religious freedom and freedom in general which led to the American Revolution.
  • The Second Great Awakening saw the beginning of the tent revival.
  • Brittanica.com writes: the Second Great Awakening led to the founding of numerous colleges and seminaries and to the organization of mission societies across the country.
  • The Second Great Awakening also spawned great social reform such as temperance, abolition, and women’s rights.
  • There have been other phases of awakening, but these two are the most significant.
  • As we discussed last week, it is the YOUTH in America who are the most disenfranchised by church and are rejecting church.
  • God is doing for these young people what church has failed to do.
  • The battle is raging across the denominations with judgment about issues like womens rights and homosexuality and this judgmentalism is turning young people away.
  • Jesus made it His life’s work to reach the marginalized, despised and discarded people.
  • No one is going to heaven because of their works or behavior.
  • The only rule is that you must choose Jesus; and He has already chosen you.
  • We’re not reaching the young people today because Baptist, and Southern Baptist Convention, and Southern Baptists Conservatives screams JUDGMENT.
  • Jesus said in John 3:17 that He did not come to JUDGE: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
  • We cannot help Jesus save the world if we build barriers that shut people out.
  • And the Christian church in America has been doing that as long as I’ve been alive.
  • God is reaching into American society through the Holy Spirit – right now.
  • The Holy Spirit is convicting people in their tracks, by the 1000’s to stop, drop, and roll.
  • And God is TRYing to reach our broken world NOW, through our YOUTH.