从天上赐下的复兴
使基督教蒙羞？
经文
帖撒罗尼迦前书五12-22
12弟兄们，我们劝你们敬重那在你们中间劳苦的人，就是在主里面治理你们、劝戒你们的。
13又因他们所作的工，用爱心格外尊重他们。你们也要彼此和睦。
14我们又劝弟兄们，要警戒不守规矩的人，勉励灰心的人，扶助软弱的人，也要向众人忍耐。
15你们要谨慎，无论是谁都不可以恶报恶；或是彼此相待，或是待众人，常要追求良善。
16要常常喜乐，
17不住的祷告，
18凡事谢恩；因为这是神在基督耶稣里向你们所定的旨意。
19不要销灭圣灵的感动；
20不要藐视先知的讲论。
21但要凡事察验，善美的要持守，
22各样的恶事要禁戒不作。
信息分享
今天我们所要研讨的另一个观点，就是有些人认为复兴是无关重要的问题。这些人指出：「宗教复兴只是群众歇斯底里的表现。」例如有一个对威尔斯大复兴的批评是这样说的：「威尔斯人是很容易被感动的，他们那火热的本性和对歌唱的喜爱，令他们很容易受感性和戏剧性的事情所影响。」当然，这话不是完全不对，但是不能只用情绪主义去解释1904年在威尔斯大复兴中所发生的事，例如当时的罪案率下降到一个令很多法庭都要关闭的程度，甚至有些酒吧也得结束营业。
普赖斯（Peter Price）是一个对威尔斯大复兴加以严厉批评的人，他认为这次复兴只是喧哗、吵闹、玩弄演技和模仿；而那些相信虔诚敬拜不应流露任何情感的人，对灵性复兴所引发的骚动也特别反感。不信奉新教派的牧者摩根（Thomas Morgan）在谈到当时循道公会的会友时说：「对所有真正和认真的基督徒来说，他们(循道公会会友)都是彻底的疯狂，落入灵的迷惑中，让基督教丢脸和蒙羞。」
其实那些因复兴能带来激烈的情绪反应而加以谴责的人，应该好好回想圣经记载一个人与神相遇的情景。虽然我们是有需要谴责过份的情绪反应，但是我们不能以自己的理性，以及因自己不接受圣经所描述的超自然能力，而消灭圣灵的感动。
「我们不能以自己的理性去消灭圣灵的感动」
进深研究
徒四13-22，五12-16，十四1-18
1. 统治者、长老和文士对初期的信徒有甚么反应？
2. 这有甚么影响？
祈祷
神啊，求您帮助我不要成为消灭圣灵感动的人；求您为我除掉任何拦阻我祷告、不让我相信更重要、更伟大的事情的意念，奉耶稣的名祈求，阿们。
Heaven-Sent Revival
A scandal to Christianity
Bible reading:
1 Thessalonians 5:12-22
12 Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you.
13 Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other.
14 And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone.
15 Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else.
16 Rejoice always,
17 pray continually,
18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
19 Do not quench the Spirit.
20 Do not treat prophecies with contempt
21 but test them all; hold on to what is good,
22 reject every kind of evil.
Message
Today we look at another argument advanced by those who think revival is an irrelevant issue. It is sometimes stated in this fashion: "A religious revival is nothing more than a manifestation of crowd hysteria" For example, one critic of the Welsh revivals says: "Welsh people are easily moved. Their fiery nature and love of singing makes them easy prey to the emotional and the melodramatic." There is some truth in those words of course, but it takes more than emotionalism to explain the fact that during the 1904 revival in Wales crime dropped to such a degree that many of the courts were closed and some of the public houses went out of business.
Peter Price, a strong critic of the Welsh revival, saw in it nothing more than tumult, noise, play acting and imitation. Those who believe that religious worship should not contain any show of emotion are offended by the ferment of spiritual revival. Thomas Morgan, a nonconformist minister writing about the Methodists of his day said: "It appears to all true and serious Christians that they [the Methodists] are stark mad and given to a spirit of delusion, to the great disgrace and scandal of Christianity."
But those who condemn revival for what they call its extremes of emotion would do well to reflect on those occasions in Scripture when men and women appear to be beside themselves in the presence of God. Whilst we must not hesitate to condemn all excess of emotion we must make equally sure that we do not quench the Spirit by our intellectualism and our unwillingness to accept the supernaturalism that is everywhere portrayed in the Scriptures.
"We must not quench the Spirit by our intellectualism"
Prayer
O God, help me not to be one who quenches Your Spirit. Whatever it may be that causes me to draw back from asking and believing for greater and bigger things, then root it out of me today. In Jesus' Name I ask it. Amen.
Further study
Acts 4:13-22; 5:12-16; 14:1-18
1. How did the rulers, elders and scribes react to the early disciples?
2. What effect did this have?
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