Revival: The New Testament Expectation

Is There a New Testament Theology of Revival?

Bayes

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781498235273
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Is it right to pray for revival? Why are so many of the Scriptures used to support the idea of praying for revival taken from the Old Testament? Has the New Testament nothing to say on the subject? Isn't revival an Old Testament concept, completely fulfilled in the coming of Jesus Christ? These are genuine questions that some people raise, and this book seeks to address them. The author demonstrates that, even though "revival" is not a New Testament word, the reality to which the word points is definitely a New Testament theme. He also shows that it is impossible to divide the testaments, as the questions above imply, because the New Testament constantly draws Old Testament material into its own theology. Consequently, he concludes, prayer for revival today is clearly mandated by the New Testament.

1

A New Testament Theology of Revival?

The theme of revival has been brought forcibly to my attention lately. At the time of writing I have been involved for several years in a movement of prayer for revival amongst the Bible-believing churches of Yorkshire in the north of England. It started at the beginning of 2011, when the Yorkshire Reformed Ministers’ Fraternal issued a call to prayer addressed to the churches of Yorkshire. An invitation was given to a united prayer gathering, to be held in Leeds for two hours one Saturday morning in March of that year. The stated purpose was to cry out to God to revive our love for Jesus, and to pour out his Spirit so that the work of the gospel will advance in power across our region, in our nation as a whole, and throughout the entire world.

This came about as a result of a memorable meeting of the Fraternal in December, 2010. At that meeting it became apparent that the pastors were growing increasingly burdened by the obvious fact that we are living in dark and desperate days. The work of the gospel seems largely to have stagnated, and the tide of unbelief and immorality rushes in. One brother after another voiced this burden and frustration. And together we recognized that our only hope is in God, that we cannot turn the tide. Only an outpouring of the Holy Spirit will enable the gospel to advance with power, and the churches to grow.

The response to that initial gathering in March, 2011, was truly encouraging. About a hundred and twenty people gathered, representing over twenty different churches, from all over Yorkshire. This convinced us that we should continue to meet regularly to pray for revival, and an ongoing Concert of Prayer for revival is now underway. We have met at roughly quarterly intervals. Sometimes we meet at a venue to which people travel from all over the county. More often we meet in a network of smaller meetings at various venues around the county. The numbers participating have increased, and often about two hundred people, from over fifty congregations, have assembled to cry out to the Lord for the necessary visitation from on high.

What has been especially heartening is the fact that around the country a number of other people have been motivated by what has happened in Yorkshire to call the churches of their own areas to prayer. Since the beginning of 2012 further prayer meetings have been held in other parts of the country, deliberately timed to coincide with the gatherings in Yorkshire. Meetings have taken place, to our knowledge, from Devon in the south to Edinburgh in the north. People all over the country share the same burden to see the Lord at work in our midst in mighty power in this generation for the glory of his name.

However, after the first united gathering for prayer for revival in March 2011, I received an email from a brother minister who raised a few questions about the practice of holding a concert of prayer for revival. Amongst his comments was one which pointed out how so much of the biblical support for the idea of praying for revival is taken from the Old Testament. He wondered whether the New Testament would encourage prayer for revival, and, if so, how.

This struck me as a valid concern. It is indeed very often the Old Testament promises and prophecies which are used to undergird our longing and expectancy for revival. Is this because the New Testament has nothing to say on this theme? I found that hard to believe, so I set myself the task of trying to discover what basis there is in the New Testament for a theology of revival. This book is the result.

My approach was to travel through the books of the New Testament more or less in canonical order, and so gradually to build up a picture of what the New Testament says about this theme.

It is, of course, true that the word “revival” and its cognates are not found in the New Testament in relevant contexts.1 These terms do occur in the Old Testament, on twenty occasions in the New King James Version where the context is relevant to this subject.2 However, the Greek terms chosen by the Septuagint translators are not used in the New Testament in places where the context is relevant to the theme of revival.3 This meant that I could not simply do a word study. Rather, I had to look at passages where the theme of revival is implicit, even though the specific word may not be explicitly used.

Furthermore, the word “revival” suggests to some people a harking back to some mythical “good old days,” and wanting to see what has happened in the past replicated in our time. That is not the way in which the word has typically been used theologically. However, if the word becomes a stumbling-block, then it is better to find an alternative term. Since “revival” is not a New Testament word, we do not need to get hung up on the specific term. What we call what we are praying for is neither here nor there. It’s the reality that matters—and the reality which we long for is a mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit leading to the rekindling of love for Christ on the part of his people, and an explosion of gospel effectiveness with a visible impact on the nation and the world. Is this something which the New Testament gives us the right to expect?

I am now inviting you to accompany me on this voyage of discovery. The conclusion to which we shall gradually come is that there is a very clear and definite New Testament theology of revival, which must be set in the context of the Father’s promises to his Son, recorded in the Old Testament. The New Testament, it seems to me, encourages us to expect the steady, unfolding fulfillment of these promises in the course of this gospel age, such that, if ever we live through a period in any place, where gospel progress is not apparent, where the life of the church does not match up to the New Testament ideal, then we are compelled to see that as an aberration. At such times, and in such places, we ought to be crying out earnestly to God to revive his work in the midst of the years.

However, our danger is that we come to think that the current state of affairs is normal. We have lost our proper expectancy. We tend to explain away the promises in the light of our experience, instead of letting God’s promises shape our expectations and our prayers. We have become despondent, where we should be bursting with hope.

But all that is to anticipate. Let’s start our journey through the pages of the New Testament.

1. The word “revived” does appear at Rom 7:9, but it is talking about the reviving of sin.

2. Ezra 9:8–9; Pss 71:20; 80:18; 85:6; 119:25, 37, 40, 88, 107, 149, 154, 156, 159; 138:7; 143:11; Isa 57:15 (x2); Hos 14:7; Hab 3:2.

3. Four different Greek words are used, all of which are cognates of zōē, meaning “life.”

2

The Teaching on Revival in the Gospels

Matthew 1:1

To look for a New Testament theology of revival cannot mean that we ignore the Old Testament. The New Testament is deeply rooted in the Old. The Old Testament is the shadow of which the New is the reality. When the risen Lord was speaking to the pair on the road to Emmaus, “beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). The very first verse of the New Testament establishes this inextricable link with the Old Testament. It forces us immediately to find the promises of revival which the Old Testament holds out, and to set them in the context of the total purpose of God spanning both Testaments, and uniting all the separate eras of time and history in a single divine program. It is in the light of what God has done with the coming of Jesus Christ into the world that the full meaning of the Old Testament is finally illuminated. The New Testament thus pulls the Old Testament hope into its own theology of revival.

In the opening verse of the New Testament, Jesus Christ is described as “the son of David, the son of Abraham.” These two epithets take us into a wealth of Old Testament prophecy which is relevant to, and, indeed, foundational for, a New Testament theology of revival.4

Son of David

The phrase “son of David” takes up the promise which the Lord made to David in 1 Chronicles 17:11–14. The Lord promised that the throne of a son of David would be established for ever. Matthew 1:1 insists that it is in Jesus Christ that this promise finds its ultimate fulfillment.

Building on that first prophecy to David, there are many Old Testament passages which indicate what c...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Chapter 1: A New Testament Theology of Revival?
• Chapter 2: The Teaching on Revival in the Gospels
• Chapter 3: The Teaching on Revival in the Book of Acts
• Chapter 4: The Teaching on Revival in the New Testament Letters
• Chapter 5: The Teaching on Revival in the Book of Revelation
• Chapter 6: Conclusion
• Chapter 7: Postscript
• Bibliography