At the time of the great Manning River revival of 1876 one observer wrote: 

The work began, where all genuine revivals should begin, with the church itself. At Pentecost the Holy Spirit came upon the infant Church, then followed the gathering in, under one sermon, of 3000 converts. It has ever been thus.

Christians who have lived through real revivals have nearly always recalled the events of Pentecost and the scenes of divine blessing that Luke describes in the Acts of the Apostles. It is as though the churches have returned to their roots in the days of the apostles.

In fact, Luke has given the whole Church, in Acts, a textbook of religious revivals. As James Stalker has put it:

The book of Acts can hardly be understood by a reader who has never lived through a revival, but every chapter contains notices and expressions which appeal to the experience of one who has.

Revivals began at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was given in a way that had never been known in the Old Testament. This was because Jesus had come into the world as the Messiah, had given himself a ransom for sin, and had been glorified in God’s presence. When Jesus was glorified he received the promised gift of the Holy Spirit from God the Father, and poured him out on the first Christians in Jerusalem (Acts 2:33).

Luke speaks of the Spirit being “poured out”, showing by this way of speaking that the presence of the Holy Spirit is not always the same, but that he can be present among Christians in greater or less measure. When the Spirit is present in his fullness then the church­es are strong and grow, but when the Spirit is relatively absent then they decline and have no influence.

Jonathan Edwards, the greatest of all the writers on revival, spoke of revivals as “seasons of special mercy” when the greatest things are done for carrying on the work of God in the world. That is why revivals are much to be desired and prayed for by Christians, especially in times of spiritual and moral darkness like our own.

A revival consists of two things — Christians have a new enjoyment of God, and many new converts join the church­es. Luke records this two-fold pattern of events again and again in Acts. For exam­ple, “And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they (i.e. the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee and Samaria) were multi­plied” (Acts 9:31). Again, “so the church­es were strengthened in the faith, and increased in number daily” (Acts 16:5).

Everything in revival times seems larg­er than life. Luke speaks of great num­bers, great joy, great fear, great power. The preaching of God’s Word meets with remarkable success, and there are remarkable conversions, like that of Saul of Tarsus.

Some Christians have objected that Pentecost was a unique occasion when Jesus Christ gave the Holy Spirit once for all, to the whole Church, for all time. So it is wrong, they say, to use Pentecost or Acts as a pattern for religious experi­ence today, or to pray for another out­pouring of the Holy Spirit. But this is only half the truth, and fails to under­stand the Scripture status of Acts. David Eby writes: “The tension between Acts as descriptive (“Here’s what happened”) and prescriptive (“Here’s what ought to happen today in your church and ministry”) is real and requires the employment of hermeneutic principles that are foundational to understanding and applying all of Scripture. Remedy comes by recognising the unique charac­ter of Acts (we’ll never have or need another Pentecost or apostolic band to launch the new Covenant church and write Scripture) along with acknowledge­ment of the timeless principles and prac­tices of ministry displayed in its story.” Pentecost signals the first of those sea­sons of special mercy that Christ has given to the Church from time to time.

In times of religious decline and the graying of the churches, there is a natur­al tendency on the part of Christian lead­ers, church planters and youth workers to turn to secular models and methods of leadership, structure and communica­tion, to learn how to get the Christian message across and to make the churches grow. This is the philosophy that lies behind most of the church growth movements, contemporary leadership semi­nars and other sociological strategies that are being offered as an answer to the alarming decline of Christianity in Australia.

In fact, most of these measures only change the surface of church life, and do not penetrate to the heart of the problem. Writing in The Presbyterian in 1872, Rev Colin McCulloch defined the problem like this:

It is not in intellectual power, nor in social influence, nor in political strategem, that the strength of the church is found. Our strength lies in the possession of the Divine Presence, and in that Presence being felt in the conversion of souls and in the nourishment of the faithful. In this lies the source of all pros­perity and power. With this Presence we can do everything; without this Presence, nothing.

The first questions Australian Christians should be asking are not about styles of worship, music, or leadership, but about the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in their midst — in living the Christian life, in praying and in preach­ing. McCulloch, in the same article, goes on:

We have abundance of preaching; but where is the power which renders this preaching the wisdom of God for the salvation of souls? Ministers preach and pray, but where are the fruits? Where are those who pass from death to life, and who become the strength of the church? The Gospel is the same as ever; the Divine promises are still the same as of old; but where are the effects which should attend the preaching of the Gospel?

It is these effects that are large­ly missing from Australian Christianity today.

Other Christian groups are emphasis­ing miracles, like physical healings and prophecies, as signs of true revival. Certainly, Luke records these sorts of events, but the apostles were usually the ones who performed the miracles, and there were only a few examples of gen­uine prophecy.

Praying and preaching were at the heart of the apostolic churches, rather than miracles or prophecies. For this rea­son Luke uses up most of Acts recording the prayers and sermons that shaped the life and work of the first Christians.

The apostles decided on these priori­ties very early (Acts 6:4), when they del­egated diaconal responsibilities to others. As a result, every local church became a centre of spiritual life in its own district, the power points being the praying of the people and the preaching/teaching min­istries of its leaders (Acts 2:42; 13:2f).

Luke indicates that before every new movement of the Holy Spirit the Christians met together for prayer, and focused on the spiritual needs of their sit­uation (Acts 1:14; 4:31; 13:2f). As a result, new culture-groups came within the outreach of the Gospel, and new churches sprang up in major urban cen­tres, like Jerusalem, Samaria, Antioch, and Ephesus. So in the long and varied history of the churches, revivals have been defining moments and movements that have triggered off new missions, out­reach, social and humanitarian agencies, lifted the standing of the churches, multiplied their membership and solved their financial woes.

What can Presbyterian Christians do about revival in Australia today? Here are a few suggestions:

1. They can restore the prayer circle on a weekly basis, specifically to pray for the spiritual needs of the congregation, and to seek initiatives from the Lord;
    
2. They can read, pray and study much in the Acts of the Apostles, breathing in its rich atmosphere of faith, love, and zeal;
    
3. Ministers can give priority to their preaching, teaching and praying min­istries, treating everything else as secondary, however necessary;
    
4. Ministers can preach about revivals, using the book of Acts as their textbook;
    
5. Elders and people can give a special place in their prayers to their minister, asking that he would know the fullness and power of the Holy Spirit, so as to lead them forward in the Lord’s ways;
    
6. They can offer urgent prayers for a great new work of the Holy Spirit in Australia, to revive the churches, to mul­tiply true Christians, and to cleanse the life of the community.

Luke teaches 21^st century Christians about leadership and ministry for every culture, climate and century. Of special importance is the fact that the Holy Spirit can come, over and above his normal presence in the churches, with unusual power. Luke teaches us to believe in and ask for these special seasons of mercy to the church.

Such times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord (Acts 3:19) are what Australia needs more than anything else, as the answer to church growth, at the threshold of a new millennium.