从天上赐下的复兴
复兴的定义
经文
使徒行传三11-26
11那人正在称为所罗门的廊下，拉着彼得、约翰；众百姓一齐跑到他们那里，很觉希奇。
12彼得看见，就对百姓说：以色列人哪，为甚么把这事当作希奇呢﹖为甚么定睛看我们，以为我们凭自己的能力和虔诚使这人行走呢？
13亚伯拉罕、以撒、雅各的神，就是我们列祖的神，已经荣耀了他的仆人（或作：儿子）耶稣；你们却把他交付彼拉多。彼拉多定意要释放他，你们竟在彼拉多面前弃绝了他。
14你们弃绝了那圣洁公义者，反求着释放一个凶手给你们。
15你们杀了那生命的主，神却叫他从死里复活了；我们都是为这事作见证。
16我们因信他的名，他的名便叫你们所看见所认识的这人健壮了；正是他所赐的信心，叫这人在你们众人面前全然好了。
17弟兄们，我晓得你们作这事是出于不知，你们的官长也是如此。
18但神曾藉众先知的口，预言基督将要受害，就这样应验了。
19所以，你们当悔改归正，使你们的罪得以涂抹，这样，那安舒的日子就必从主面前来到；
20主也必差遣所预定给你们的基督耶稣降临。
21天必留他，等到万物复兴的时候，就是神从创世以来、借着圣先知的口所说的。
22摩西曾说：主神要从你们弟兄中间给你们兴起一位先知像我，凡他向你们所说的，你们都要听从。
23凡不听从那先知的，必要从民中全然灭绝。
24从撒母耳以来的众先知，凡说预言的，也都说到这些日子。
25你们是先知的子孙，也承受神与你们祖宗所立的约，就是对亚伯拉罕说：地上万族都要因你的后裔得福。
26神既兴起他的仆人，（或作：儿子），就先差他到你们这里来，赐福给你们，叫你们各人回转，离开罪恶。
信息分享
从昨天开始，我们开始思想一个新的主题──从天上赐下的复兴。今天我们要先讨论一个重要的问题：复兴是甚么？可惜这个词并没有一个清晰的定义，因此每个使用它的人都个别地定义它的意思。还记得我第一次到访美国时（差不多40年前），有一位牧者问我能否在他教会几个星期后的「复兴」中讲道。我记得自己当时感到很震惊，因为他竟然有信心具体地预测复兴的日期；后来有一位朋友告诉我，在美国那个地区，「复兴」这个词所指的只是一连串特别的聚会。
在我们未来的讨论中，我将会使用这词的经典意思，就是形容神的能力突然可畏地临到祂的百姓。英国著名牧师潘顿（D.M. Panton）描述真正的属灵复兴是「神圣的生命闯进一个如同行尸走肉的生命中。」伊文思（Christmas Evans）是著名的威尔斯传道人，神数次使用他振兴威尔斯这个国家。他说：「复兴是神向那即将熄灭的余烬弯下腰，向它吹气，直到它猛烈地燃烧起来。」简单的说，复兴是「苏醒和生活」。
我认为复兴的最佳定义，没有比爱尔兰作家和诗人奥爱文（J. Edwin Orr）所提出的更好了，他在《英国第二次福音苏醒》（The Second Evangelical Awakening in Britain）这本书中写道：「我们经历『主同在的更新时刻』时，复兴便发生。」无论我们怎样看复兴，它都是生命最好的时刻，是生命完满、丰盛、涌流着神的恩典和能力的时刻。
「复兴是苏醒和生活」
进深研究
申十一1-17；耶三1-25；珥二23-27
1. 后者（春天）的雨象征甚么？
2. 为甚么神留着后者的雨？
祈祷
天父，复兴这事令人感到真实和永恒。求您唤醒我和教会，对「主同在的更新时刻」带着更深的渴慕。奉耶稣的名祈求，阿们。
Heaven-Sent Revival
Defining revival
Bible reading:
Acts 3:11-26
11 While the man held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon's Colonnade.
12 When Peter saw this, he said to them: "Fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?
13 The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go.
14 You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you.
15 You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this.
16 By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see.
17 "Now, fellow Israelites, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders.
18 But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer.
19 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,
20 and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus.
21 Heaven must receive him until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.
22 For Moses said, 'The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you.
23 Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from their people.'[a]
24 "Indeed, beginning with Samuel, all the prophets who have spoken have foretold these days.
25 And you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, 'Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.'[b]
26 When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways."
Message
Today we ask: What is revival? Unfortunately the word has no sharp edges and thus everyone who uses the word has to define what they mean by it. The first time I visited the United States (now nearly forty years ago), I was asked by a minister if I would preach at the "revival" his church would be having in a few weeks' time. I remember being overwhelmed by what I thought was his faith in predicting the exact date of a revival, until I was informed by a friend that in that part of America the term "revival" simply referred to a series of special meetings.
In these studies I am using the word in its classic sense to denote the sudden awesome flood of God's power upon a community of His people. D.M. Panton describes true spiritual revival as "an inrush of divine life into a body threatening to become a corpse". Christmas Evans, a famous Welsh preacher whom God used to stir the nation of Wales on several occasions, had this to say: "Revival is God bending down to the dying embers of a fire just about to go out and breathing into it until it bursts into flame." Quite simply, revival means "to wake up and live".
I know of no better definition of revival than that given by J. Edwin Orr who, in his book The Second Evangelical Awakening in Britain, wrote: "Revival takes place when we experience 'times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord'." Whichever way we look at it, revival is life at its best, life in all its fulness, life abundant, life overflowing with the grace and power of God.
"Revival means 'to wake up and live' "
Prayer
O Father, this matter of revival has the feel of the real and the eternal upon it. Awaken within me a deep desire for a "time of refreshing from the presence of the Lord" - personal as well as corporate. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
Further study
Deuteronomy 11:1-17
Jeremiah 3:1-25
Joel 2:23-27
1. What does the latter (spring) rain symbolise?
2. Why did God withhold the latter rain?
本文英文版权属 CWR 所有，承蒙允准刊载。
背景音乐版权属 赞美之泉音乐事工 所有，承蒙允准使用。