Under the influence of the Pietists, such as August Hermann Francke, Count Zinzendorf was instrumental in reviving the Moravian Church.
A little bit of history: Zinzendorf was brought up in a Pietist environment. When he was a little boy, he had such a love for God. He used to sit at the window of his castle, write some simple love letters to the Lord, and then throw them out of the window.
After he finished his education in school, as a nobleman he was to complete his education by traveling over Europe. So he traveled over Europe.
Young people at the time, when they came to Paris, lost their minds. But Count Zinzendorf cared nothing about it.
He visited a museum in Düsseldorf. He saw a picture: the head of Christ with a crown of thorns, and written underneath:
I do all this for you.
What hast thou done for Me?
There is a history to that picture; I cannot go into it. Zinzendorf stood before that picture, transfixed. He forgot the time until the custodian came and said, “You have to leave. We are going to close the museum.”
He went back to the hotel and gave himself completely to the Lord.
During that time, many who really wanted to return to the Scripture and to the simplicity of Christ were persecuted all over Europe—persecuted by the Roman Catholic Church, persecuted by Protestant churches, backed up by all these political powers and nations. They fled here and there, finding no place to go. Refugees, wanderers, they suffered greatly.
So Zinzendorf opened his estate and welcomed these refugees to come, giving them shelter and a place to live.
These people came from various parts of Europe, with various backgrounds. They all loved the Lord intensely, but they could not live with one another. They each held to their special truth or emphasis; they would die for it. So there was strife.
Zinzendorf felt that the Lord had given him the burden to help these people. He returned to his estate and tried to help them, to bring them together.
To make the story short, on May 13, 1727, for the first time all these people from various backgrounds gathered together to break bread as one people.
While they were breaking bread, as they partook of one bread and one cup, an anointing flowed through every person. With inexpressible joy and love, they were baptized into one Spirit at the Lord’s table.
They confessed to one another, embraced one another, and became one.
For over a hundred years, the members of the Moravian Church were involved in unceasing intercession. They had a twenty-four-hour watch of continuous prayer.
Some would pray, say, from nine to ten, and then others would come from ten to eleven, through the day and through the night. That continuous prayer went on for over one hundred years.
From 1732, they began to send out people to where the gospel was not preached, to the most difficult places. Some even sold themselves to be slaves in order to work among the slaves and preach the gospel to the slaves.
One out of every four was a missionary. They sent out more missionaries than all the missionaries sent out by all the other churches.
A few points are worth noting about their missionary strategy.
I think these strategies need to be followed.
There was this work in continental Europe, but then you find in England, in the eighteenth century, as well as in this country, the dominating feature of the eighteenth century: evangelical revival.
We will mention only one: the rise of Methodism through John Wesley, Charles Wesley, and George Whitefield.
You know, John and Charles Wesley were brought up in a very godly family. They crossed the sea to this country, to Georgia, trying to convert the heathen. Yet, after a few years, they returned.
Wesley said, “We went to convert the heathen, and we were not converted.”
But thank God, at a small meeting of the Moravian brethren, while the preface to Martin Luther’s exposition of the Book of Romans was being read, John Wesley’s heart was strangely warmed.
Now, you must remember that at that time people had to have a license to preach. If you did not have a license, you would be arrested. So, there you find, in that illegal meeting, the Moravian brethren reading the preface written by Martin Luther to the Book of Romans.
When John Wesley went there and heard that preface, he felt a warmth begin to rise up in his soul. Suddenly, he realized he was saved. He did believe; he was saved. That was the beginning.
Through John Wesley’s preaching, Charles Wesley’s preaching, and, of course, George Whitefield’s preaching, the work began to spread both in England and in America.
Through the preaching of John Wesley and others, a clearer understanding of salvation came into being. In their preaching, the sense of sin became more evident. In other words, people were convicted of their sins.
At the same time, they presented to the people a better hope: not only that sins could be forgiven, but that they could live a holy life.
God called us to live a holy life, and God has made provision for it. So, in other words, through John Wesley, sanctification by faith was recovered.
Not only justification by faith—we are sanctified by faith. John Wesley spoke of the perfect life. That is a tremendous recovery.
Because of the meeting, I had permission from the authorities to speak overtime. But if anyone has to leave, feel free.
Now we come to the nineteenth century. We have two more centuries to go.
When it comes to the nineteenth century, it seems as if God is in a hurry in His work of recovery.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, we have what we today call the Brethren movement.
When this movement began, those people who assembled together called themselves simply brothers. They laid down all their other titles—reverend, or whatever—and simply called one another brother.
It began in 1828, in Dublin, Ireland, with a few brothers. The Lord opened their eyes to see that they should not belong to any denomination, because they were one with all believers.
For instance, Dr. Cronin, because of his health, moved to Dublin. He loved the Lord and saw the oneness of God’s people. So when he arrived in Dublin, he began to visit different churches.
He attended different churches to fellowship with them, and he was very glad. But after he went there for a while, he was asked to join their church as a member.
“Well,” he said, “I cannot join you as a member.”
Why? Because he was a member of the Body of Christ.
“Well, if you do not join as a member, you are not welcome.” So he went to another one, and the same thing happened. Finally, he had nowhere to go.
Sometimes on the Lord’s Day, he sat under a tree and read the Word and prayed. Nowhere to go. He wanted to have fellowship with all brothers and sisters, and he was refused fellowship.
Finally, God raised up a few of like kindred spirit. So they came together, and it began with breaking bread in simplicity.
Now, it is very interesting to find that in the work of recovery, very often it begins with the breaking of bread. Why? Because it brings us back to the Lord Himself and to the Body.
At the same time, God began to raise up many others. So it was definitely a move of the Lord.
Among them were people with great spiritual gifts, great teachers. Many truths that we know today were actually rediscovered by these brothers.
They saw the heavenly calling of the church. They saw the unity of the church. They saw the universal priesthood of believers.
It was through them that the second coming of our Lord was rediscovered.
There are keynotes among them: the distinctive and heavenly calling of the church, and the consequent need for separation from evil.
They met together simply and, in a sense, regained that simplicity and joy that the early church experienced: a return to the Word of God—not to what Rome says, not to what the church fathers say, but, “What says the Holy Spirit through the apostles and the prophets?”
The first paper published by the so-called Brethren movement was written in 1828 by John Nelson Darby, On the Nature and Unity of the Church of Christ.
Within twenty years, this movement spread far and wide.
But unfortunately, their strongest point became the cause of their fall. In 1848, splits began to come into their midst, and such splitting has been going on until today.
But anyway, we find that through these brethren much was recovered: prophetic truths, church truth, and the universal priesthood of believers. These things were all rediscovered by this Brethren movement.
In the latter part of the nineteenth century, the Keswick Convention was raised up by God to promote practical holiness, higher-life teaching, and the victorious life.
Many of the choice servants of God were involved in that work: Robert Pearsall Smith and his wife, Hannah Whitall Smith, who wrote The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life; Evan Hopkins; F. B. Meyer; Robert Wilson; H. C. G. Moule; Andrew Murray; and others.
They taught practical holiness, the higher Christian life, and the victorious life. To put it another way, they added something to what Wesley taught.
Wesley taught sanctification by faith, and these Keswick speakers told us that it is true: sanctification is by faith, but you need consecration. So they added consecration to sanctification by faith.
Through Andrew Murray, we came to see a clearer understanding of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Through Jessie Penn-Lewis, we came to understand the work of the cross.
Aside from these people, we also have others, such as G. H. Pember, Robert Govett, and D. M. Panton, through whom the truth of the kingdom was recovered.
You know, people talk about salvation, and by salvation they mean that today your sins are forgiven and, because of that, when you die, you go to heaven. That is it.
People do not know that between this age and eternity, there is the age to come. People do not know there is a kingdom age, and this truth was rediscovered by these people.
So quite a lot was recovered during the nineteenth century.
Now we come to the twentieth century. At the outset of the twentieth century, we have the Welsh Revival of 1904 and 1905.
The instrument used by God was a young man, Evan Roberts—again, a college student, a miner. He worked in a mine.
For eleven years, he had prayed for revival. For thirteen years, he had prayed for the fullness of the Spirit.
At a meeting of about twenty young people, when they were praying together, he said:
I fell on my knees, with my arms over the seat in front of me, and the tears freely flowed. I cried, “Bend me! Bend me! Bend me!” What was that? God commending His love, and I not seeing anything in it to commend. The Holy Spirit had come and melted my whole being by a revelation of the love of God at Calvary.
Then a mighty work of the Spirit of God swiftly overwhelmed. Lives were transformed. There was a mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Many lessons were learned. One of the results was a book, War on the Saints. It was a book written by Mrs. Jessie Penn-Lewis with Evan Roberts—Evan Roberts’ experiences and Jessie Penn-Lewis’ understanding of the truth.
During the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, many things happened, good and bad. So, in the book War on the Saints, they dealt with spiritual warfare and these things.
About the same time, in this country, we have the beginning of the Pentecostal movement. I will not go into details, because this belongs to this country. We should know it.
There was a manifestation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Then, in the sixties, we had a charismatic movement. It all has something to do with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
So I often say, a touch of that is very healthy.
Again, you find that lots were recovered in the early twentieth century. On the other hand, in the twenties, God raised up a very special vessel, Brother T. Austin-Sparks, to whom God gave much light.
In 1926, he wrote on resurrection. Our brother Watchman Nee said, “The world did not know what resurrection was. Resurrection was spoken about, but the world never knew what resurrection really was. It was not until Brother Sparks wrote and spoke on resurrection that you got its substance.”
Around the thirties, Brother Sparks began to speak on the Body, the Body of Christ. Our brother was greatly used by God to share with God’s people concerning the eternal purpose of God.
I remember a story told to me. Our brother mentioned Lady Paget the other night. Lady Paget was a very wealthy lady. She was all alone. She loved the Lord. She lived in her marble palace in Italy, but every year she returned to England to attend the Keswick Convention.
She was a friend of Jessie Penn-Lewis. One year she returned, and she told me that she felt life was meaningless.
One year, she returned to England and went to the Swanwick Conference led by Mrs. Penn-Lewis. She said she heard a young man speaking. The young man spoke on the eternal purpose of God.
That transformed her mind. She began to see that there is meaning to life.
Brothers and sisters, how important it is for us to see the eternal purpose of God. If you do not, life is meaningless, and you will live a life wasting your time.
May the Lord really open our eyes to see, in these days, the eternal purpose of God. It is practical. It is transforming.
Brother Sparks showed us the spiritual nature of the church and the supremacy of Christ.
Almost at the same time, a little later, in China, God apprehended another young man: Watchman Nee.
Our brother mentioned Margaret E. Barber—how she seemed to waste her life in that little village outside of Foochow. But it was through her and her fellow workers that they realized that, for the Lord to really have a testimony in China, He had to apprehend a group of young men.
They prayed, and in answer to their prayer there was a revival in Trinity College in Foochow. Many college students were saved. All the best students of each class were saved; all the worst students in each class were saved.
God apprehended a number of young people and set them on fire. To our dear brother Watchman Nee, He gave special spiritual understanding.
In a sense, what God revealed to our dear brother reinforced what God had given to Brother Sparks—maybe a little differently.
The emphasis of our dear Brother Sparks was on the spiritual principles of the universal church. We need to see that. Brother Watchman Nee showed us the practice of the church.
But anyway, we find that through these brothers, God recovered to us the supremacy of Christ and the oneness of the Body of Christ: what the church really is, its spiritual principles, and how the church is to live out as a testimony to the Lord on earth.
Are there any more truths to be recovered? Are there any more experiences to be restored? God knows.
But in our time, the recovery work of God seems to be reaching almost the end.
Now, brothers and sisters, the reason why we go through such history is not because we want to know history. It is because, through history, we see the hand of God.
We see that He has not forgotten His purpose. We see that He is steadily working toward His purpose. We see that He has not failed.
We see that He is going very soon to get what He has purposed even before the foundation of the world: that all things will be summed up in Christ, and the principalities and powers will be taught the wisdom of God through the church.
Shall we pray?
Dear Lord, we do see Thy hand working through history to bring forth that which Thou hast after. O Lord, how we praise and thank Thee for the rich heritage we have.
We pray that we may, in the very recovery will of God, move on with our spirit. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.