The Pleasure of Real Revival: 4 Indicators of the Holy Spirit

I gave my first sermon eight thousand miles from my house, by way of a translator, to a room stuffed with pastors twenty or thirty years older than me in Vijayawada, India. The textual content, I’ll always remember, was 1 Thessalonians 1:4–6. I used to be the rookie, the intern, on a workforce of extra veteran lecturers — and I used to be sweaty nervous.

The message acquired off to a rocky begin. I used to be going too lengthy with no break for translation, and I used to be clearly utilizing phrases the translator both didn’t know or couldn’t translate. After a number of lengthy minutes (which felt one thing like a benevolent wrestling match), the poor man needed to give up and ask an older, extra skilled brother to step in. The faucet out actually didn’t assist my younger nerves. Thankfully, I had run out of sweat by that time.

The second translator and I slowly discovered a rhythm collectively. His confidence and persistence gave me better peace and braveness, and, by God’s grace, I survived the message. And the brothers, I imagine, have been inspired of their religion and ministries. (As yet one more mercy, preaching a sermon again house in English all of a sudden felt far much less intimidating.)

I’ll keep in mind that day for a lot of causes, however as a lot as something, I’ll bear in mind their eyes. We had been advised for months main as much as the journey about all of the obstacles these males have been dealing with the place they served — intense opposition, even malice; little coaching or assist; false instructing even amongst Christians; grave poverty. Then we acquired to witness, firsthand, simply how onerous it was for some. And but their eyes advised a special story.

Smile of Real Revival

Standing in that pulpit so removed from house, I started to learn the sermon textual content: “For we all know, brothers beloved by God, that he has chosen you.” How might the apostle Paul presumably know that these folks had been chosen by God? He doesn’t depart us at nighttime:

We all know . . . that [God] has chosen you, as a result of our gospel got here to you not solely in phrase, but additionally in energy and within the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. (1 Thessalonians 1:4–5)

He feels assured of their election as a result of he’s seeing the indicators of true revival — of God coming with supernatural energy by his Spirit, by way of his phrase, to encourage honest conviction and heartfelt worship. However how might he see the Holy Spirit? How might he know that God himself was truly transferring on this church?

Paul says extra within the subsequent verse: “You turned imitators of us and of the Lord, for you obtained the phrase in a lot affliction, with the enjoyment of the Holy Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 1:6). He sounds the identical heat notice in Romans 14:17: “The dominion of God will not be a matter of consuming and ingesting however of righteousness and peace and pleasure within the Holy Spirit.” What gave Paul such confidence that the God over heaven and earth, with out starting or finish, who created all issues and can decide the entire world, had reached down and really chosen this little group to be his kids, his ambassadors, his future kings and queens of glory? Their extraordinary pleasure, particularly by way of hardship. This pleasure was like a solar rising over all of the darkish horizons round them, declaring that they now belonged — physique, soul, thoughts, and delight — to Jesus.

This pleasure wasn’t simply any pleasure, although. The apostle goes on to sketch one thing of a portrait of Spirit-filled pleasure for us — a pleasure that gladly submits, that stubbornly endures, that steadily spreads, and that eagerly waits.

1. This Pleasure Submits

First we study that this miraculous pleasure is beneath authority. “You obtained the phrase in a lot affliction, with the enjoyment of the Holy Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 1:6). This pleasure wasn’t a follow-your-heart pleasure, however a kneel-and-obey pleasure.

We truly get to look at the Thessalonian church obtain the phrase in Acts 17:1–5. When Paul got here to Thessalonica, he went with Silas into the synagogues and “reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was vital for the Christ to undergo and to rise from the useless, and saying, ‘This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ’” (Acts 17:2–3). In different phrases, he preached the Bible. And the way did the folks reply? “A few of them have been persuaded and joined Paul and Silas” (verse 4). They didn’t reject the phrase of God, or give lip service to it, however they obtained it. They have been persuaded by Scripture of their minds and hearts, and they also submitted themselves to no matter they discovered there.

2. This Pleasure Endures

Their glad obedience to the phrase of God was all of the extra lovely as a result of they suffered for his or her religion. “You obtained the phrase in a lot affliction, with the enjoyment of the Holy Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 1:6).

“The fullest pleasure within the universe is, for now, an incomplete pleasure — an anticipation of what’s going to be.”

Once more, we get to see how they suffered in Acts 17. Because the phrase started to take maintain, as they have been persuaded by what Paul taught them about Jesus, “the Jews have been jealous, and taking some depraved males of the rabble, they fashioned a mob, set the town in an uproar, and attacked the home of Jason, looking for to carry [Paul and Silas] out to the group” (Acts 17:5). The mob was so violent that the church rushed Paul and Silas out of city (verse 10). However many Christians stayed behind and withstood the mob.

And so they didn’t merely keep and preserve gathering, preserve preaching, preserve praying, preserve making disciples, however they endured a lot affliction with pleasure.

3. This Pleasure Spreads

When God does this sort of work, when he brings religious revival and exalts his Son within the hearts of a folks in such a dramatic and countercultural approach, information of that work inevitably spreads. Many times, that is how God presses his fame into the hard-to-reach, typically hostile corners of the world: by way of forgiven folks rejoicing by way of struggling.

You obtained the phrase in a lot affliction, with the enjoyment of the Holy Spirit, so that you just turned an instance to all of the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For not solely has the phrase of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, however your religion in God has gone forth in every single place, in order that we want not say something. (1 Thessalonians 1:6–8)

Phrases didn’t journey simply in these days. Wherever they went, they went slowly and at some vital value. However even then, the story of this church’s pleasure unfold far and huge past their area.

This implies, at one degree, that widespread revival is all of the extra potential when our circumstances flip bleak, when opposition heats up and the prices climb, due to the testimonies that spring up from such battlefields. The guide of Acts is an affidavit to how the phrase runs by way of struggling (see Acts 5:41–42; 6:7), bearing the fruit of pleasure wherever it’s planted.

4. This Pleasure Waits

What particular report was despatched out in every single place, although? “They themselves report . . . the way you turned to God from idols to serve the dwelling and true God, and to attend for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the useless, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to return” (1 Thessalonians 1:9–10). So, they’ve already discovered their treasure hidden within the discipline — they’ve discovered God their exceeding Pleasure, a pleasure robust sufficient to courageous the mob — and but they’re nonetheless ready for his or her full reward. The fullest pleasure within the universe is, for now, an incomplete pleasure — an anticipation of what’s going to be.

Ready is throughout this letter (see 1 Thessalonians 2:19; 3:13; 5:23). And what are they ready for? Paul paints an image of that coming day:

The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the useless in Christ will rise first. Then we who’re alive, who’re left, might be caught up along with them within the clouds to fulfill the Lord within the air, and so we are going to all the time be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16–17)

The happiest folks on earth are those that have their eyes set past this earth to the one who will someday carry heaven all the way down to earth.

Overwhelmed, Bruised, and Completely satisfied

I’ve many recollections from that journey to India. Taking a aircraft, prepare, and vehicle (actually) to get to the town the place we have been serving. The unbelievably heat hospitality in every single place we went, with superb dishes I’d by no means tried (and nonetheless love). Virtually all of our workforce getting severely sick in some unspecified time in the future in the course of the two weeks. What I bear in mind most, although, was how completely happy these embattled pastors have been. I bear in mind the brightness and heat of their eyes.

I met males who had been crushed for sharing Jesus, and nonetheless bore the cuts and bruises. That they had skilled hostility from each course — from Muslim zealots, from neighbors on their avenue, even from inside their very own houses. Jesus warned us, “I’ve come to set a person towards his father, and a daughter towards her mom. . . . And an individual’s enemies might be these of his personal family” (Matthew 10:35–36) — and he wasn’t mendacity. I noticed the scars.

But as these battered males advised their harrowing tales, their eyes sang with pleasure. It actually was the closest I’ve been to a 1 Thessalonians 1 church. They obtained the phrase in a lot affliction, with the enjoyment of the Holy Spirit, relishing the possibility to undergo for Jesus and eagerly ready for his return.