Playing Church

On a family vacation years ago, I decided to have our own church service on Sunday morning. My five year-old son James was the preacher. His twin brother, Andrew, was the worship pastor. My wife Anne, my daughter Grace (one-and-a half), and I formed the congregation.

 

The living room was our sanctuary. An end table, the pulpit. A love seat and sofa, our pews. And a candy tray, the collection plate.

 

To start the service, Andrew led us in singing “Amazing Grace.” As he orchestrated the music, his arms waved frantically in the air—like a man fighting off a swarm of bees. Following our singing, James stood up behind the table, opened his Bible, and preached the story of the conversion of Zaccheus. Billy Graham could not have done a better job. At the close of the sermon, James gave an invitation for us to be saved. When none of us responded, he publicly called out Grace to come forward and be saved. Willing to do anything to please her older brother, Grace walked forward, knelt over the coffee table, and was “saved.” But as James was concluding the service, Andrew hopped back up—now standing directly in front of his brother—to lead us in another verse of “Amazing Grace.” No way was he going to let his brother have the last word.

 

So, we sang again. But before Andrew could dismiss the service, James stood back up—right in front of his brother—to preach another sermon. This jockeying for position went on for another six or seven rounds. Neither boy was willing to let his brother have the final word. Finally, when I realized that this “tag-team” ministry could go on indefinitely, I took over the pulpit and pronounced the benediction. I had to—Grace was getting too tired walking forward to continue any longer!

 

Playing church can be fun. It all depends on who’s playing it. With children, it can be lots of fun. It can be an enjoyable family experience. But with adults, playing church can be deadly. Sad to say, too many adults are doing just that—playing church. Unfortunately, they are not on vacation with their kids. They are in the house of the living God to worship the risen Christ.

 

I am all too familiar with this stage production. As a pastor, I have worked very closely with one church for the past thirteen years. Amid the true worshipers, I see the bit players. Why do adults go through the empty motions of such a masquerade? Because they don’t have the real thing.

 

That’s why the need of the hour is revival. We need the real thing—a spiritual awakening to sweep through our slumbering congregations and put us back on our knees before the living Lord.

 

 

The word revival means different things to different people. If you have lived in the South as I do, a revival means a week-long series of meetings by an evangelist wearing a three piece white suit. However, evangelism is not revival. That’s regeneration. Revival is a sovereign work of God in His own people, bringing back to full spiritual fervor the hearts of believers that are now dormant and dull.

 

J. I. Packer defines revival as “a visitation of God which brings to life Christians who have been sleeping and restores a deep sense of God’s near presence and holiness. All this ushers in a vivid sense of sin and a profound exercise of heart in repentance, praise, and love with an evangelistic overflow.”

 

Stephen Olford writes, “Revival is that strange, sovereign work of God in which He visits the people—restoring, reanimating, and releasing them into the fullness of His blessing. Such a divine intervention will issue in evangelism; though, in the first instance, it is a work of God in the church and among individual believers.”

 

Revival is a new humility. A new closeness to God. A new passion for Christ. A new love for God. A new desire for holiness. A new filling with the Holy Spirit. It cannot be coerced or manipulated. Revival is a supernatural work of God that restores to full health the spiritual life that is already present in the church. It is the renewing, purifying, replenishing work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church.

 

In reality, revival is a time of divine visitation. It is an invasion from heaven that manifests the presence and power of God in the church. It ushers in a renewed, conscious awareness of God’s awesome holiness that produces holiness in the church.

 

Probably the best definition of revival found anywhere in the Bible is contained in the letter to the church at Sardis . Let me refresh your memory. Jesus writes: “I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen the things which remain, which were about to die” (Revelation 3:1-2, NASB).

 

This church was dead! They were genuinely converted to Christ, but they had lost their spiritual passion and fervency for Christ. By outward appearances, they looked religious and sounded pious. But in reality, they were dead.

 

Jesus called them to wake up. That’s what revival is. It is a sleeping church—unconscious, unresponsive, unexcited—waking up to the presence of God and returning to full spiritual vitality.

 

How can we wake up? How can we have revival in the church and in our lives? Several themes run through the letters to the seven churches in Revelation that deserve our attention:

 

1. Proclamation. Revival begins with the preaching and teaching of the written Word of God to the church in the power of the Holy Spirit. Each of the seven letters begins with a call for the proclamation of God’s written Word (Revelation 2:1, 8, 12, 18; 3:1, 7, 14). If we are to have God’s life within the church revived, then God’s Word must invade our lives. That’s precisely what Psalm 119 tells us: “Revive me according to Thy word” (vv. 25, 154). It is the proclamation of the Word that prepares the way for revival.

 

2. Exaltation. In each of these seven letters, there is a self-description of Christ given by Jesus Himself. Before we see anything else, we must see Him. Each church’s greatest need is to see their Sovereign Lord. The life of the church can grow no higher than their knowledge of Jesus. We must be overwhelmed with Him and obsessed with His glory. A spiritual awakening occurs when we lift high our exalted Lord and see His majestic Lordship. It occurs when we grow in the personal knowledge of Christ (2 Peter 3:18) and behold His glory in greater and fuller ways. This is the church’s greatest need—to see the unrivaled, sovereign supremacy of Jesus Christ.

 

3. Continuation. Six of the seven letters feature a commendation by Christ to continue in holiness. Jesus encourages each church to continue faithfully in those areas in which they are on target. What is it that Jesus wants us to continue pursuing? A condensing of the seven letters reveals that Christ desires, first, service (Revelation 2:2a). Second, Jesus wants holiness in His churches (Revelation 3:4). Third, Jesus commends doctrinal integrity (Revelation 2:2b). Fourth, Jesus commends the churches for their faithful witness (Revelation 2:3, 10, 13; 3:8). Revival occurs when we continue in the path of obedience. That’s where the rubber meets the road.

 

4. Conviction. Five of the seven churches are rebuked for their sin. (The two churches that receive no rebuke— Smyrna and Philadelphia —are the two most persecuted churches. That tells us that persecution purifies the church.) Ephesus needed to deal with their diminishing love for Christ. They had left their first love (Revelation 2:4). Pergamum needed to confront their doctrinal compromise (2:14). Thyatira needed to address their moral compromise (2:20). Sardis needed to be purged of their spiritual deadness (3:1). And Laodicea needed to have their lukewarmness toward Christ changed (3:15-16).

 

Coldness toward Christ was the problem in Ephesus , Sardis , and Laodicea . Compromise toward His Word was the issue in Pergamum and Thyatira. Those are the two primary sins that must be exposed in the church.

 

5. Correction. How is sin cleansed and removed from a church? To each of the five churches rebuked for sin, Jesus offers one and the same solution: repent! (See Revelation 2:5, 16, 21; 3:3, 19.) Repentance means a change. It is a turning away from something, with deep sorrow, and beginning to move in a new direction. Repentance is a change of mind, a change of heart, and a change of will that completely changes a person’s life. Too often, Christians choose to sweep their sin under the carpet and fail to deal with it. In such cases where there is no repentance, the fires of revival are quenched.

 

Taken from Final Call, copyright © 1994, by Steven J. Lawson. Published by Crossway Books. Used by permission of the author.