从天上赐下的复兴
过分约束
经文
哥林多后书三1-18
1我们岂是又举荐自己吗？岂像别人用人的荐信给你们或用你们的荐信给人吗？
2你们就是我们的荐信，写在我们的心里，被众人所知道所念诵的。
3你们明显是基督的信，借着我们修成的。不是用墨写的，乃是用永生神的灵写的；不是写在石版上，乃是写在心版上。
4我们因基督，所以在神面前才有这样的信心。
5并不是我们凭自己能承担甚么事；我们所能承担的，乃是出于神。
6他叫我们能承当这新约的执事，不是凭着字句，乃是凭着精意；因为那字句是叫人死，精意（或作：圣灵）是叫人活。
7那用字刻在石头上属死的职事尚且有荣光，甚至以色列人因摩西面上的荣光，不能定睛看他的脸；这荣光原是渐渐退去的，
8何况那属灵的职事岂不更有荣光吗？
9若是定罪的职事有荣光，那称义的职事荣光就越发大了。
10那从前有荣光的，因这极大的荣光就算不得有荣光了；
11若那废掉的有荣光，这长存的就更有荣光了。
12我们既有这样的盼望，就大胆讲说，
13不像摩西将帕子蒙在脸上，叫以色列人不能定睛看到那将废者的结局。
14但他们的心地刚硬，直到今日诵读旧约的时候，这帕子还没有揭去。这帕子在基督里已经废去了。
15然而直到今日，每逢诵读摩西书的时候，帕子还在他们心上。
16但他们的心几时归向主，帕子就几时除去了。
17主就是那灵；主的灵在那里，那里就得以自由。
18我们众人既然敞着脸得以看见主的荣光，好像从镜子里返照，就变成主的形状，荣上加荣，如同从主的灵变成的。
信息分享
今天我们要继续探讨把教会看为宗教机构的这种观点。正如我们说过，持有这种看法的人相信教会与会众是分别独立存在的。我们不难明白持有这种观点的人为甚么对复兴这个课题的兴趣不大，他们对激动或热情不感兴趣，所关心的只是秩序和稳定；他们不仅仅视复兴为无关重要的事，甚至把它看为混乱、有伤害性的事件，认为它干扰了崇拜的顺利进行，破坏已确立的礼节和仪式。
过去的复兴总是遭受那些视教会为机构的人的反对，因为圣灵的工作不能受人控制。对这些人来说，复兴的现象可说是相当混乱以及欠缺庄严，有人在讲员讲道时大声呼喊，或者在不合适时唱起诗歌。每当基督教保守派人士面对这些圣灵动工的场面时，就会认为这不符合教会既定的运作原则，而马上加以反对。
在中世纪，教会被视为一个机构的思想处于全盛的时期，在这时，圣灵尝试介入向祂的百姓显现，可惜如历史清楚的记载，当时的教会领袖相当抗拒这些来自圣灵的暗涌。结果，那些感受到圣灵触摸的人放弃了建制派的教会，聚集一起享受由圣灵带领的活动和敬拜。我不认为神不悦纳建制派的教会，只是当他们过份约束的时候，神就要离开了。
「圣灵的工作不受人控制」
进深研究
太九16-17；徒五12-42，八6；赛六十一10；彼前一8
1. 耶稣教导了甚么？
2. 复兴带来甚么？
祈祷
天父，求您帮助我对教会有正确的看法，因为我如何看教会，会影响我对所有事情的态度。求您帮助我懂得行走您的道路，哪怕那会与我的本性相违。阿们。
Heaven-Sent Revival
Too cramped for comfort
Bible reading:
2 Corinthians 3:1-18
1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you?
2 You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone.
3 You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
4 Such confidence we have through Christ before God.
5 Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.
6 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
7 Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was,
8 will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious?
9 If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness!
10 For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory.
11 And if what was transitory came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!
12 Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold.
13 We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away.
14 But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away.
15 Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts.
16 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate[a] the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
Message
We continue looking at the view of the Church as a religious or divine institution. Those who see the Church in this light believe (as we said) that the Church exists independently of the congregation. It is easy to see how anyone holding this view of the Church will have little interest in the subject of spiritual revival. They will be interested not in commotion or fervency, but in order and stability. They will not merely regard revival as irrelevant, but as downright messy, even injurious. It interferes with the smooth functioning of the services and cuts across the well-established forms and ceremonies.
The revivals of the past have always been opposed by those who have seen the Church as an institution, for the work of the Spirit cannot be brought under human control. A revival can be untidy and undignified, with people crying out in the midst of a sermon, or striking up a hymn at a seemingly inappropriate time. Whenever institutional Christianity has been faced with a movement of the Spirit that did not fit into its preconceived ideas of how the Church should function, it has immediately set its face against it.
During the Middle Ages, when the Church as an institution was at its strongest, the Spirit tried to break in and reveal Himself to His people, but as history clearly records, the leaders resisted these breezes from the Spirit. As a result, those who felt the Spirit's touch abandoned the institutional church and met together to enjoy Spirit-directed activity and worship. I do not think God despises institutional Christianity; it's just that sometimes it gets too cramped for comfort, and He has to move out.
"The Spirit's work cannot be brought under human control"
Prayer
O Father, help me to have a right view of the Church for I see that the way I look at this, and every, issue affects all my attitudes. And help me to take Your way, even though it cuts across my nature. Amen.
Further study
Matthew 9:16-17
Acts 5:12-42; 8:6
Isaiah 61:10
1 Peter 1:8
1. What did Jesus teach?
2. What does revival bring with it?
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