Jonathan Evans

Revival: Purity

A spontaneous gift is sudden and unexpected to the recipient not to the giver. Revival is the sudden and unexpected outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It’s sudden and unexpected to the church and to the world, but not to God. 

 

INTO THE TEMPLE

 

Jesus enters Jerusalem and proceeds to enter the temple (Matthew 21:12-16). The temple was the heart of the city, the center of its life. For Israel the temple was the meeting-point with God. It symbolized God’s presence, his dwelling with them. God never intended to come and go. From the beginning in the garden of Eden to the end in the new heaven and new earth, the picture and the truth is that God desires, intends, and plans to dwell with man completely and permanently. To be in unbroken relationship.

 

Yet, every relationship we are in inevitably suffers decay over time and must be restored. 

 

When Jesus enters the temple he is by his actions declaring that the heart is sick, the center is twisted. It is because of this that he comes to heal, to purify, to restore. Revival is relational restoration to the church (relational reconciliation to the world). By its very name, Revival implies that something needs reviving; and reviving implies that something is dying. If the church of Jesus Christ is always consistently and fully devoted, obedient, and faithful in her relationship to Jesus Christ, there is no need ever of revival; but the Bible and history have shown that the church is not. God has repeatedly sent revival to his people.

 

OUT OF THE TEMPLE

 

By virtue of Jesus entering the temple, something must come out of the temple. He drives out “all who sold and bought”, perpetrator and victim alike. Jesus is going beyond corrupt practices. Where (the temple), not what (the trading), is at the root of what Jesus wants to get at. As Christians we often feel that our problem is our isolated acts of disobedience, but our problem is the deep aversion in our heart to God. We have an allergic reaction to God's sovereignty over our lives. It’s our attitude beneath our actions. We not only push against God, we push away from him.

 

A parent who lovingly disciplines their child quickly comes to learn that sometimes you discipline the act and sometimes you discipline the attitude. In fact, a parent will completely miss the heart of the discipline process if he thinks that it is only actions that need addressing.

 

In revival God intends to lovingly go after the attitudes beneath our actions; our moods and the way we are attuned to him and to the world, our way of being-in-Christ and being-in-the-world. Because before revival can come to the world, renewal must first come to the heart of the church. It is in this season that once again God restores to us a grand vision of himself, not of ourselves. We, the church, are obsessed with our own image. We’re not obsessed with the image of Jesus Christ, unless it reflects favorably upon us. God must come to demolish the idol of our image. It must become as dust before his glory.

 

A NEW TEMPLE

 

What Jesus has done in the temple, though, is not the extent or the fullness of what he wants to accomplish. What he is saying by what he is doing is that a new age is coming in him. Jesus hasn’t come to fix a system or to beautify a building. Jesus has come to replace the temple as the meeting-point with God: So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. (John 2:18-22)

 

Jesus has come to purify, to beautify, a people to meet and to dwell with God: What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.” (2 Corinthians 6:16-18)

 

Revival comes to restore the splendor of God’s holiness in his people, to return us to an original or earlier condition. The holiness of Jesus doesn’t fade, but it does fade in us. So the Holy Spirit comes and “touches up” what needs to be.

 

Revival comes to radiate the light of God’s glory from us to the world, to go out in a direct line from a central point. We are not that central point. Our lamp is the Lamb. (Revelation 21:23)

 

A PURE AND SPOTLESS BRIDE

 

We can’t cause revival, but we can (re)turn to the God who does, and in so doing turn from the things that infect, decay, clog, or obstruct. Jesus’ great joy is not to present to himself a sleek, slender, brilliant, charismatic, and famous bride. His great joy is to present to himself a pure and spotless bride (Ephesians 5:27), and in so doing to present himself to the world.    

The what and how of our defense

 

"Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect" (1 Peter 3:14).

 

Like a fault line in the earth, there's a break in the ground of our heart between what we believe and how we treat others. Sometimes under the stress of people disagreeing with us, correcting us or opposing us, pieces break free and the energy released can cause substantial damage to our heart and to theirs. Anger, malice, disrespect, criticism, ridicule can all reverberate from the epicenter in us.

 

As Christians, we honor Jesus not only in what we believe but in how we believe. It is not just that I believe, but that in believing my thoughts, intentions, actions, and words are now formed and shaped differently from the inside out both towards God and towards others. 

 

We are commanded by Jesus to make a defense of what we believe. But how we are commanded to make that defense is with gentleness and respect. If we honor Jesus (have reverence, trust in Him), we will not mistreat people; if we honor people (have respect, show humility), we will not misrepresent the gospel. Both message and manner joined together comprise the what and the how of a faithful and truthful witness. 

 

 If you have a reputation as a Christian of being harsh and smug, your manner has invalidated your message; your defense is ruined, inadmissible. On the other hand, if you have no reputation as a Christian, you have no defense to make; neither your manner nor your message are distinguishable. 

 

Jesus commands us to be prepared to make a defense with gentleness and respect.  Our preparation of the what of our message is important. But it is our preparation in the how of our messaging that will convince (1 Peter 2:13; 3:16; Matthew 5:16). It is in the heart that we honor and worship Jesus; it is in the heart that we honor and respect others. It is in and out of the heart's preparation that a good defense is made. 

 

What have you prepared your heart for? How are you preparing your heart for that?

RUTH: Under the wings of God's sovereignty

“The Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!” Ruth 2:12 

There are some architectural structures that cannot be fully admired from a distance. At a distance we can only get a glimpse, but in proximity we can get a sense of the creativity and genius of the architect and the majesty and strength of the structure. It is when standing under some of these that we are given a proper perspective of what has been accomplished.

 

Similarly, as Christians, it is only when we come to stand beneath the sovereignty of God that we begin to understand and comprehend the immense majesty of God and His good and perfect will. It is only when looking up to God that we are given a proper perspective of our “size” - who we are and what we do in the light of who God is and what He is doing.

 

The book of Ruth helps give us such a perspective. It invites and draws us up close to the sovereignty of God. It beckons us to come rest and trust under the wings of God’s sovereignty. 

 

 

JUDGES

The first verse of the book of the Ruth tells us that the story of Ruth takes place in the time of the Judges. The last verse in the book of Judges tells us that during this time in the history of Israel, “everyone did what was right in their own eyes” (Judges 21:25). Here was a culture in a day where anything went, where the only standard for doing anything was whether or not it seemed or felt right to the individual. It was a land absent of the honor and worship of God.

But there was a household that was different, led by a man named Elimelech, which means “my God is king”. His wife is Naomi, and together they live in, but then leave, a land where “everyone did what was right in their own eyes” -- a land seemingly absent of God. Then, “my God is King” dies, followed by the death of Naomi’s two sons. (Ruth 1:1-5)

All around Naomi there is a lack of the extraordinary. There is an emptiness, a pain, a suffering, a doubt, a bitterness. There is an absence of God. Or is there?

God is always before all. He is always behind the scenes. When all appears to be lost; when all appears to be spinning out of control; when all seems dark; when all our prayers aren’t answered; when all the miracles we hope for don’t come; when all seems absent of God -- there, in the absence, is God. 

We are a headline culture. We read headlines, not stories. The headlines help determine whether or not we will read further. But God writes stories. God draws His headlines out from His stories. Some stories are short, some are long. Some are riveting, some are ordinary. Ruth is a story, an ordinary story with an extraordinary ending. God is never absent.

 

 

RUTH

Over time, Naomi returns to Bethlehem in Israel (Ruth 1:19). She travels from absence to absence, from emptiness to emptiness, except she has returned with God in disguise. 

In the land “absent” of God, where everyone did what was right in their own eyes, there was a story being written by the grace and mercy of God. The name of the story: Ruth. In contrast to a people pursuing their own desires, here was one who came to desire and to trust and take refuge in God. Like a small bird nestling up, close under the wing of the mother bird, Ruth stands underneath and looks up to God in the simplicity, yet immensity of His sovereignty. 

God is not absent after all -- neither in the land of Israel nor in the life of Naomi. God is in disguise, working in unsuspected and surprising ways. 

God is always doing something extraordinary through something ordinary. The ordinary things of life, like suffering and health, famine and plenty, diligence and work, relationship and reputation, purity and sex, loyalty and integrity, are all ways through which God works. Those routines of life that we so often feel “stuck in” are not without purpose. God is “up to something”, always! God orchestrates all things personal and universal, the universal through the personal. 

 

 

KINGS   

The story of Ruth played a critical role between the time periods of the judges and the kings -- between a time when “everyone did what was right in their own eyes” and Israel demanding a king for themselves so they could be like all the other nations (1 Samuel 8:5).

Decades after Ruth, we read in 1 Samuel 8:7 of God speaking to the judge and prophet Samuel regarding Israel’s demand for a king. God explicitly declares that Israel has rejected Him as king, but gives Samuel permission to agree to their request. God is not absent, even in the midst of His people’s rebellion. God is in disguise, even though He has been rejected.

In a short amount of time God will raise up a king named David. But David will not appear out of nowhere. David has long been in the mind and heart of God. “A son has been born to Naomi.” They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.” (Ruth 4:17) Through the ordinary lives of Ruth and Boaz, God had been doing something extraordinary. While Ruth and Boaz went about marriage and parenting, working and resting, getting up and going to bed -- living their ordinary lives -- God was doing something neither of them could ever have imagined. From them would come David, and from David would ultimately come Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God (Revelation 22:16).

God is always doing something tomorrow today, through faithful people and their actions. God always has a solution, an answer. There is always evidence of God and His work and will being done. Sometimes it is instant, sometimes it won’t appear until decades or even centuries later. God accomplishes the daily and the eternal, the eternal through the daily. 

 

 

A REDEEMER

In the end, Naomi saw the goodness and kindness of God towards her. What once was a land and a home and a heart where it appeared God was absent, in reality, was a place where God was sovereignly and lovingly present. “Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel!”  (Ruth 4:14).

As Christians, we must remember always that Jesus Christ is our great Redeemer. He lives! In His sovereignty, God precluded all things from hindering, and enabled all things to work towards, the death of Jesus Christ upon the cross (Acts 4:27). So long as we cling to that cross, so long as we look up to it, so long as we stand underneath it, so long as we live for it -- so long as we take refuge under the wings of God’s sovereignty -- we can rest and trust that nothing can, nor ever will, stop the desire of God from being accomplished in and through us.    

 

This post has been adapted from the sermon "Ruth: Under the wings of God's sovereignty"