“The same thing happened in Iconium when Paul and Barnabas went into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed” (Acts 14:1).

 Here, Luke the physician records for us a remarkable turn of events that occurred early on in Paul’s ministry – a revival some might say.  Every Christian, regardless of denominational background or pedigree, ought to yearn for a revival – that multitudes come to a saving belief in the risen Lord, Jesus Christ. 

Preying upon this naturally good inclination of us as Christians to see the kingdom of God grow and increase, a great multitude of ‘Christian’ books have been published, dealing exclusively with how one is able to grow a big, ‘healthy’ church. 

Unfortunately, most of these books are inspired more by the business world than by the Spirit-inspired Scriptures.  In today’s study, we will briefly explore what it was that brought about such a revival in the early church. 

Firstly, Luke tells us that “the same thing happened in Iconium.”  This automatically forces us to peruse the previous chapter, where we see Paul and Barnabas ministering the Word in Antioch of Pisidia.  

The “same thing” was simply this: Paul took the Bible and preached Christocentrically.  We are not told the passage that was read from the Hebrew Bible (13:15), but are told that Paul showed how Christ was the grand theme and great fulfillment of it all (13:16-47).  

The great neglect of Christ-centered preaching in our contemporary, Western 'churchianity' is a great vexation to my soul.  Most pulpits are man-centered, often offering a ‘lesson’ about how to be better people, cultivate healthy relationships, and live a ‘fulfilled’ life.  Paul would puke at most of the sermons being spewed out in ‘evangelical’ churches today. 

If a sermon does not preach Christ crucified, it is a not really a sermon.  It is a speech at best.  If we want people to get saved, is it not rational to preach about a Savior?  In a city that loved great orators and fluffy, ear-tickling rhetoric, Paul boldly told the Corinthians that he intentionally decided to know nothing among them, “except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2).  It is only Christ-centered preaching that evidences a demonstration of the Spirit’s power (2:3, NIV), and so to preach anything less would empty his sermons of their power. 

The first and great need in our country is a return to Christ-centered, Christ-saturated, and Christ-glorifying sermons.  There can be no salvation (Romans 1:16), and thus no revival without such.  

Polished, ear-tickling sermons have the ability to evoke the odd ‘that was a great sermon pastor’; however, only a sermon built and focused upon Christ will induce people to “keep begging” that these things be told them the next Sabbath (13:42).  It is only as God’s elect hear the message about Christ that they will “begin rejoicing and glorifying the Word of the Lord” (13:48).  Unfortunately, our churches are filled with cotton-candy believers who love (and therefore seek and hire) shepherds who “dress the wound of [God’s] people as though it were not serious” (Jeremiah 6:14; 8:11, NIV). 

Secondly, Luke tells us in Acts 13:52 that the disciples “were filled with the Holy Spirit.”  Really, this is inextricably bound up with our first point.  For until the Spirit has sway in the heart of His people, they will inevitably wander away from “the things of Christ” and begin to crave “the things of themselves” (cf. Philippians 2:21).  At the same time, as the Word is esteemed, and Christ cherished, the Spirit is no longer quenched or grieved, and begins to resume His ministry, namely glorifying Jesus Christ (cf. John 16:14).  The Word and the Spirit go together.  A neglect of either is devastatingly lethal to God’s people. 

So when Luke tells us in Acts 14:1 that Paul and Barnabas spoke in “such a way” (ou[twj) it seems logical to infer that the referent is also to their being filled with the Holy Spirit (13:52).  This entirely fits the broader context, as we see that the only reason people were responding to the gospel was because the Sovereign Spirit had appointed and set them apart for this very work (13:2, 4). 

Despite what most Christians are taught, it is absolutely impossible for any unbeliever to comprehend the gospel and thus respond appropriately without the regenerating and illuminating work of the Holy Spirit (cf. 1 Corinthians 2:6-14).  And so we are in desperate need of His filling presence and power to induce any change in this twisted and perverse generation.

How little we pray for the Spirit’s power to infiltrate our preaching or witnessing efforts!  Solomon tells us that all such labor done apart from God’s power is in all actuality in vanity (Psalm 127:1).  How impossible it is for us to raise the dead!  And yet how often we try – whether intentionally or unintentionally – to do it in our own strength!  

Only the Spirit can grant faith.  Only the Spirit can sanctify.  Thus, the other great void in our churches is a lack of true spiritual power.  Oh for a return to the powerful brooding work of the Spirit to resurrect the dead hearts of this wicked world! 

It is God, and God alone that is able to “bear witness to the word of His grace” (Acts 14:3).  This is the Spirit’s ministry in the new covenant.  No Spirit, no power.  No Spirit, no salvation.  No Spirit, no revival. 

Finally, when we look at Scripture, we see that Paul was only able to speak “in such a way” that a large number believed by prayer.  Prayer is a confession of our inability to do what only a sovereign God can do.  Prayer is the admission of our futility and weakness.  Prayer is the submission of our wills to God's.  Prayer is the empty hand asking to be filled by another.

At the end of many of Paul’s epistles to the churches, he asks for prayer as he continues on in laboring for the gospel.[1]  Prayer is how grace is appropriated to the believer's life.  Our churches today lack grace, not because God has run out or bestows it sparingly.  No, we lack grace because we lack prayer.  And we lack prayer because we lack a true, biblical neediness.  Because we have it all figured out, and need not another's help, we ask not.  And James tells us because we ask not, we have not (4:2b).  It's a vicious, ugly cycle, and our tires are embedded in age-old ruts that need to be ploughed out.

Oh that our midweek prayer services would be filled with believers earnestly pleading for the Spirit’s mighty working in our lives and churches!  Until we grasp 2 Chronicles 7:14, it is unlikely that revival will visit our churches and land.

And so, instead of buying the latest book on church growth methods, let us return to the Book.  Therein we will find prescribed for us God’s own methodology in the building up of Christ’s church.  

Summary: we need Christ-centered, Spirit-filled, prayer-drenched churches to equip their members to go out into the world.  Indeed, if this be so, “as many as were appointed to eternal life” will believe (Acts 13:48). 

 Pastor Ryan Case