Matthew 26:40-41 “And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, "So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."”

“All Scripture is...for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness.” (2 Timothy 3:16) Recently these past several weeks I have had a heavy heart and felt that I needed to address some issues that I see are afflicting the Church. Today is no different. I want to look at the Disciples during the High Priestly prayer, but I want to view this as a typology of the modern church.

The church has fallen asleep while Christ is before the Lord Almighty in prayer, supplication, and intercession. Christ drew us aside and asked us to pray with Him, but we were tired and uncomfortable and besides, prayer is such hard work - we can do it tomorrow after all. Then and there we fell asleep, our snores a counterpoint to Christ's passion and pain. When Christ returned and woke the church up, a mighty revival that swept through, but it had to start with us, the believers. We got to work praying and our Lord went off again to pray and intercede.

Slowly our eyes drooped again, and one by one, we nodded off again, despite the wonders that had happened. Again Christ came back and woke us up. Again we cleaned ourselves up, slapped ourselves in the face and challenged everything around us that made it easy to be comfortable and sleep. We pinched ourselves and sat on sharp rocks as we knelt to join our Lord in His night's work. Revival broke out again. Throughout America and Europe, Africa and Asia, unprecedented numbers of people were discovering the Joy of Jesus. Theology became the topic of choice among the nations, once again the things of God were more important that politics, riches, banks, social status and everything else that had slowly crept in.

We fell asleep again. When Christ wakes up His Church again, there will be a mighty revival again. I am convinced that those who lived through the events of the book of Acts - those thousands that saw the miracles of God, that heard the Apostles speaking in tongues, that we lived through the mighty happenings of that day – will look down and wish that they are living in our time. The Revival is coming, but only when the Church wakes up and sets aside the things of the world to join hands in prayer and supplication. This cycle of sloth and revival will continue on until “the hour is at hand” and there is no longer a need for Revival.

The disciples walked with Jesus, they saw his miracles, they learned that everything Jesus did and said had deep truth ingrained in it and when he spoke it was best to listen and obey. Today as believers we enjoy an unprecedented amount of materialistic success and wealth and we find ourselves debating silly issues like “how much of our wealth do we really need to give away?” or “what is the right balance between God's blessing us materialistically and the trials of the world that we face?” All the while we neglect the fact that the Apostles became paupers for Christ. We selectively forget that all those who we hold as heroes of the faith (even in modern times) have had to loose everything. Certainly God blessed them, but every physical manifestation of His blessing they turned back around and gave it all back to God. I speak of heroes such as Albert Schweitzer, Dwight L Moody, and even Elizabeth and Jim Elliot. They did not discuss questions such as “how much?” or “why” or “what?” They said “Where?”

I want revival in my life and in yours. Wakefulness starts with us. When God calls, it doesn't matter who else answers the call as long as you and I answer. Will you gladly go through the valley of the shadow? Too many people turn back when the going gets rough, but to change the world you must keep going. To change the world, we need to leave convenience behind and step up to the challenge. We will push onwards beyond anything we are able to do, and go further through the grace of God. Amen.