Let us have another word of prayer.
Lord, we are thankful for that exhortation in Isaiah, to behold Your God. And Lord, we are thankful that, as we have beheld You, we have seen You, and we have tasted You, and You are so good.
Lord, we are thankful, too, for Your living Word that You have given to us. As we come now and continue in Your presence, Lord, we are looking to You to speak to us. You have the words of life, and we are looking, Lord, to be encouraged and strengthened for the days that we are living in.
We are thankful for the call You have upon our lives to be that testimony of Jesus. We want to be those who are faithful in the generation in which we are living, Lord. We want to learn from those who have gone before us and stand on their shoulders, to be a bright light in the midst of darkness.
In Thy name we pray. Amen.
All right. Here we go.
This morning, as we continue in the series, there are a couple of verses I would like us to look at to start with. To me, these verses really capture the heart and essence of the one we will be considering today. They also capture the heart and essence of those who desire to live as the testimony of Jesus.
We have a way of making it complicated, but there is a simplicity and purity to it that the Lord is calling us to.
Both of these passages are from Paul. The first is from 2 Corinthians 5, and to me, this is Paul’s personal testimony of what controlled his life:
For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died;
and He died for all, that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.
When this verse speaks of the love of Christ, it is speaking of His love for us; it is not our love for Him. As we see, as we have been around the table of His great love, that love captures us. We make that transition from living for ourselves to living for Him and for His testimony.
Another place where Paul shares a personal testimony is Philippians 3:7-8. The whole section is a beautiful testimony, but I have picked out a couple of verses:
But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord,
for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ.
We see here in Paul how everything that he had in life—both his heritage and his service to the Lord—he was putting behind him and saying, “There is one thing I desire.”
As we look at this section in the eighteenth century, we are going to see ones who were captured and constrained by the love of Christ. They had one desire: to live for Him and to gain more of Christ.
During the eighteenth century, several major events took place. Today, we are going to look at the first two: Count Zinzendorf and the Moravians.
Lord willing, next time we can look at the awakening in England with Wesley and Whitefield, the Great Awakening in the United States, and what was called the Golden Age of Hymns.
Count Zinzendorf was born Count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf. As a child, he was called Lutz—L-U-T-Z—however that would be pronounced in German. He was born in Dresden, which was part of the Holy Roman Empire. He was born into a royal family and was a count by birth.
Less than six months after his birth, his father died of tuberculosis. His mother later remarried a military man who lived far away, so Zinzendorf went to live with his grandmother, Baroness von Gersdorf. She was a godly woman, and he was really raised by her.
His grandmother was obviously a wealthy person of social status, and various ones frequently visited her home. She was part of the Pietist movement. Quite often, Zinzendorf, at an early age, was exposed to godly servants of the Lord, missionaries, and August Hermann Francke of Halle, who had the university there that we looked at last time.
The stories tell that Zinzendorf, even at an early age, loved the Lord. He would write letters to Jesus and throw them out the window, knowing that Jesus would get them. I love that—as a child.
He was born in 1700, so it is always easy to remember his age as you look at the different periods of his life.
It was sometime during his childhood that he really did give his heart to the Lord. He had a heart for the Lord at a young age. Quite often, in his room, he would gather all of his dolls and toys together and preach to them. He would share the gospel with them.
One day, he was in the middle of his devotions, praying to the Lord and singing to the Lord, when a group of Swedish soldiers—mercenaries—invaded the castle to ransack it. They broke into his room, but they were so awestruck by the presence of God with this young child worshiping the Lord that they did not even confront him.
He just kept worshiping the Lord. They were so captivated that they turned around, stopped all their turmoil, and left. They had been in the presence of something that they knew was greater than themselves. That is so encouraging concerning a young person like that.
When he reached the age of ten, he was enrolled at Halle, at the university run by Francke. It was a Pietist school. As he was educated there, he became more and more devoted to the Lord. It was there that he really pledged his life to the Lord.
He and five other students formed what was called the Order of the Grain of Mustard Seed, because they wanted to fall into the ground and die. On the shield they designed was inscribed, “No man liveth unto himself.” They were there to live for Christ, and they called themselves slaves of virtue—bondslaves for Christ.
Their purpose was to devote themselves to the Lord, share the gospel, and care for other people.
In the days in which they were living, there was a great social divide between the haves and the have-nots. At a young age, Zinzendorf developed a heart to care for everyone. He saw many who were downtrodden and without provision. He saw people serving him while he had lavish meals and they sometimes went without.
He developed a heart for those who did not know the Lord and for those of lower socioeconomic status. You will see this impact him throughout his life.
He also learned to embrace all believers. While he was at Halle, because of his social status as a count, he ate dinner most every night at Francke’s table. The honored guests would be there: missionaries, servants of the Lord, and great preachers.
At this early age, he was exposed to the greatness of what Christ was doing, not only in his own life but around the world in many places. His eyes were opened to see beyond himself and to see what God was able to do through those whose lives were given to Him.
At the age of fifteen, Zinzendorf transferred to the University of Wittenberg for his formal studies. He ultimately became a lawyer. Wittenberg was a strict Lutheran university, and Zinzendorf was labeled a Pietist. The Pietists and the Lutherans did not like each other, and he was looked down upon. He suffered much for his beliefs, but praise God, he did not falter.
What he discovered at Wittenberg was this: if you focused your fellowship on Christ, you could be one with anybody. If you focused on particular beliefs, rituals, or ceremonies, you would always get into disputes. But if you focused your fellowship on Christ, you could have fellowship with anyone.
He learned this at a young age, and it impacted him for his whole life.
When he was about eighteen or nineteen, he wanted to arrange a meeting between the heads of the University of Wittenberg and the university in Halle in order to reconcile them. Someone stepped in and said, “You are kind of beyond your bounds for your age at this point. Just pray for that and let God work it out.” But you could see that this was his heart’s desire: to bring believers together.
Later, as he traveled through Europe, he met Catholics, Lutherans, and many others in one-on-one fellowship, continually trying to bring them together. He even came to the United States because Moravians were living in Pennsylvania. There were Quakers, Baptists, and Anabaptists there, and he said, “Why does everybody have to have their own names? Why do we not just come together in oneness?”
What he discovered was that you can bring individual believers together, but you cannot bring systems and organizations together.
Zinzendorf had a true ecumenical heart for bringing believers together, but his basis and foundation was Christ. When we refer to groups such as Quakers or Baptists, we know there are precious believers within each group. But a system that has developed after a generation or two can hinder the Lord from fully being all that He desires to be.
We are not speaking of individual believers; we are speaking of systems. Zinzendorf saw that you could not bring the systems together, but you could bring individual believers together. That governed his life.
After he graduated, the counts and royalty would take a grand tour of Europe, visiting cultural museums and sites. It was usually a year and a half or two years of touring. Zinzendorf did not want to do it; he wanted to go ahead and serve the Lord. But the Lord had something in it for him, so he submitted to those over him.
During his grand tour, he came to the Düsseldorf Museum and was captured by a painting, Ecce Homo. It was a picture of Christ with a crown of thorns. Below the painting was the inscription:
This have I suffered for you.
Now, what will you do for Me?
Zinzendorf confessed that he could not answer that question. He was awestruck. He said, “I have loved the Lord, but what have I really done for Him? How has His life been expressed through me?”
He stood captivated before that picture for hours. Finally, the museum guard told him they were closing and that he had to leave. He went back to his hotel room that night, fell on his knees before the Lord, and came to say, “Lord, I have one passion: ’tis He, and only He.”
This was where he fully surrendered his heart to the Lord in 1720.
He had an obligation to begin his service to the empire, serving as a lawyer in Dresden. During this period, he wrote the hymn “Jesus, Still Lead On,” because he did not want his heart to be pulled away from the Lord as he entered secular work for the empire. He was determined not to be captured by the world.
Jesus, still lead on
Till our rest be won;
And although the way be cheerless,
We will follow calm and fearless.
Guide us by Thy hand
To our Fatherland.
He wrote this hymn in 1721. Originally, it had thirty-three stanzas, though only four are included in Christ in Song. It is now popular in ninety different languages.
Zinzendorf served as a lawyer in Dresden from 1721 to 1727, when he took a permanent leave of absence. During this period, he purchased the Berthelsdorf estate from his grandmother. It was a large estate that ultimately became Herrnhut. He married Dorothea, and it was at this time that he met Christian David.
In 1736, because he was so popular and people were jealous of him, he was banned from Saxony. What was meant for evil resulted in his traveling throughout Europe. He went to England, and others were coming to the Lord. In 1738, he visited the West Indies, where there were Moravian missionaries. In 1741, he came to America with his wife and daughter, Benigna.
Finally, the ban was lifted in 1747, and he was able to return to Herrnhut, where he died in 1760.
The thing that impressed me most about Zinzendorf was his passion for the Lord. He was captured in such a way, and he was captured at such a young age.
Sometimes we can feel limited by age. We may think that if we are old, we are of no use; if we are young, it is too early. But praise God, the Lord captured these ones.
We have touched on some of them already in church history. Perpetua was a sister martyred during the second century. Patrick went to Ireland and had a great mission there. Waldo was part of the Waldensian movement. Martin Luther posted the Ninety-Five Theses when he was thirty-four years old. Felix Manz was twenty-nine when he became the first Anabaptist martyr. Charles Spurgeon preached his first sermon at age sixteen.
C. T. Studd had a great career before him as a cricketer, but gave it all up to serve the Lord. Amy Carmichael, at the age of twenty, heard a message by Hudson Taylor, surrendered her life to the Lord, and went first to Japan and then to India. Watchman Nee was saved at age seventeen through a sister named Dora, and as soon as he was saved, he was captured by the Lord and followed and served Him.
It is encouraging to see those who have touched the Lord in a real way. There was much more for them to learn. They did not have full revelation of everything, and often they did not know what they were getting into. But they had that one thing that was necessary: they knew Him. That is what held them throughout their lives.
As we come to the Moravians, Christian David arrived from Poland in 1722 and met Zinzendorf. He told him about refugees in Poland. Christian David returned to Poland and brought back several families—about ten adults altogether.
This was the continuation of the story we touched on last time. In 1628, as the Moravian refugees were leaving Moravia, John Comenius prayed that the Lord would preserve this hidden seed, bring it forth afterward in growth, and cause it to bear much fruit.
What we are seeing through Christian David and the Moravians is the bringing forth and bearing of much fruit. It was actually Zinzendorf’s steward who named the place where they lived Herrnhut.
Zinzendorf had a large estate and was living in the manor house. A little distance away, there was a section where these families could live, and it was called Herrnhut. The name means “the Lord’s Watch,” or the Lord’s watchful care over us. These people had lived under persecution for years and years.
By 1725, about ninety refugees had arrived from Poland, including David Nitschmann. By 1726, the number had grown to more than three hundred people from many different backgrounds: Catholics, former Lutherans, Anabaptists, Waldensians, and others. They had come together because they were suffering much persecution.
Zinzendorf had such a heart for them that he opened his gates and allowed them to come in.
At first, everyone breathed a sigh of relief: “We are free.” But as they lived together, they discovered that they had many different beliefs, and they had a great deal of trouble. One preacher even called Zinzendorf “the Beast.” It was later discovered that this man was not really a heretic but was losing his mind, likely because of poisoning. Still, that public accusation from the pulpit caused them to consider that something was not right.
They developed what they called a voluntary brotherly agreement—ground rules for living together. It was essentially an agreement to let everyone have their beliefs, but to live peacefully together without arguing.
Later that year, Zinzendorf visited Zittau and found a copy of Comenius’s writings on the Unitas Fratrum, describing how believers were encouraged to live together in unity. He brought this back to Herrnhut and challenged them with this question:
Will we be a nest of sects or a united living congregation?
Were they simply going to be a collection of different sects trying to coexist peacefully, or were they going to be one living congregation for Christ?
Zinzendorf went from house to house, visiting the different people and fellowshipping with them concerning what the Lord was seeking to bring about.
On Wednesday evening, August 13, 1727, one of the brothers, John Roth, felt from the Lord that the entire community should come together for a special celebration of the Lord’s table and humble themselves before the Lord.
None of them came expecting that this meeting would turn them around. They simply came together as usual. But their hearts had been prepared through fellowship, and they came in such a good spirit that the Holy Spirit fell upon them. There was a great outpouring of the Spirit.
One member who was present wrote:
All the members of the flock were touched in a singular manner by the efficacy of the word of reconciliation through the blood of Christ, and were so convinced and affected that their hearts were set on fire with new faith and love toward the Savior, and likewise with love toward one another, which moved them so far that, on their own accord, they embraced one another in tears, grew together into a holy union among themselves, so rising again, as it were, out of the ashes of the ancient unity of the Moravian brethren, which was the Unitas Fratrum.
Before they came together, there had been enmity, strife, jealousy, and grudges. They had despised one another. But as the Spirit of the Lord fell upon them, there was genuine repentance. They saw Christ and all that He had done. The fact that they embraced one another in tears was significant, because before that they had been enemies.
Now they were brothers in Christ. Praise God for that.
Out of this unity came, in a very living way, a one-hundred-year prayer meeting. It was constrained by the love of Christ. Twenty-four brothers and sisters began it, covenanting to pray twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
Their prayers were mainly intercessory. They were not focused on themselves, but on the lost, on God’s work, and on His servants. This continued for one hundred years.
Different ones voluntarily came and went in prayer. Interestingly, I researched why the prayer meeting stopped after one hundred years, but I could not find a good reason. Some say the people no longer had a heart for it, but I do not know that. If anybody finds out, let me know.
One thing that caught my attention was that exactly one hundred years later, in 1827, Cronin, Groves, Bellett, and others gathered together to break bread in Dublin, Ireland. This was the origin of the Brethren movement. These were the first ones we meet in that movement.
The Moravians had been praying for all of God’s work and all of God’s servants. They had no idea what would come about, but the effectiveness of prayer is striking.
Herrnhut was not communal living; it was community living. Families had their own homes, and each family had its own unit. There were houses for single sisters, where the single sisters lived together, and for single brothers, where the single brothers lived together. Eventually, they also had an orphanage.
There was real care and concern for one another.
The Moravians loved hymns. Zinzendorf is said to have written more than two thousand hymns, and we have three attributed to him in our hymnbook.
One result of the prayer meeting came in 1731, when Zinzendorf met a converted slave from the West Indies in Copenhagen. Zinzendorf had gone there for a royal wedding, although he had not wanted to go. As a count in Saxony, he was required to attend. He submitted and was obedient.
He never wrote anything about the wedding, but while there, he met this converted slave, who encouraged him to send workers to the West Indies for the gospel’s sake.
Zinzendorf went back and shared the burden among the brethren. They prayed and did not act immediately. They prayed for a little over a year, asking whom they should send.
The first two missionaries sent out were Dober and Nitschmann. They intended to sell themselves as slaves in order to serve the slaves there, though they were unable to do that. Still, they went out as missionaries to help the slaves. Some slave owners opposed them, and they faced various troubles, but they faithfully brought the gospel into the West Indies.
In 1738, John Wesley was able to visit Herrnhut. As we will see next time, Wesley was deeply impacted through his experiences with the Moravians. Zinzendorf was not there at the time because he had been expelled from Saxony in 1736. Wesley wrote:
I was so impressed by this happy place, I would gladly have spent my life here. Oh, when shall this Christianity cover the earth as the waters cover the sea?
What a prayer, what a heart, and what a testimony.
Through the Moravians, this Christianity spread to many places. In 1740, they arrived in Pennsylvania, in Nazareth and Bethlehem, and established Moravian College. Moravian College was the sixth-oldest university in the United States, and it was the first college in the United States to admit both men and women.
Before that, Harvard, William and Mary, and the other early colleges admitted only men. Zinzendorf and the Moravians did not want anyone neglected because of religion, social status, or gender. It was revolutionary for them to do that.
By 1742, seventy missionaries had gone out from Herrnhut. There were only between five hundred and six hundred people there, yet seventy had gone out as voluntary missionaries. They truly went throughout the world: North America, South America, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Asia.
When the Moravians went out, they had a simple message. They were instructed:
Tell them of the Lamb of God, and tell them until you can tell them no more.
Their message was Christ: tell people of the Lamb of God, how He died for them, what He had done for them, and how He is victorious. Continue speaking of the Lamb of God.
They were also instructed to let people see their real lives and what sort of people they were. They were not to hide behind religiosity. They were to be self-supporting, earning their own wages in order to teach the dignity of labor. They were not to go out asking for money to support them.
This later impacted George Müller, Anthony Groves, and others.
Finally, they were instructed never to lord it over the brethren, but rather to humble themselves and earn respect through the power of the Holy Spirit. They were not to come in above people, but to come in below, humbling themselves before them.
The Moravians were one of those groups, like the Waldensians, in which there was such a reality of the testimony of Jesus that it carried on for several generations. Eventually, it became systematized, but the founding ones and those who continued for perhaps that one-hundred-year period were a living testimony of Christ because they had one desire: to follow the Lamb.
From 1743 to 1750 came what was called the sifting time. This did not happen in Herrnhut but in some other areas throughout Germany and England. Some went to extremes in both practice and belief.
But after the Lord’s sifting, He humbled them and showed them the error of their ways. They humbled themselves, were restored, and were actually strengthened.
They had become too experience-oriented and had gotten away from the Word of God. When you get away from the Word of God as your foundation in Christ, and simply go on experience, that can lead you in many different ways. But they were brought back to that foundation, saw its necessity, and were strengthened.
None of these groups were perfect. They all had flaws and weaknesses. But praise God, they were teachable and correctable. They learned and continued on.
Zinzendorf said:
I have but one passion, and it is He. It is He alone.
He also said:
The world is the field, and the field is the world. Henceforth, that country shall be my home where I can be most used in winning souls for Christ.
That was his home: where he could be most used in winning souls for Christ. He was not attached to this world or to a particular place; he was attached to Christ. That was his one passion.
He said:
I am destined to proclaim the message, unmindful of personal consequences to myself.
It cost him his reputation among many people. It cost him much of his fortune. But praise God, that one thing was necessary to him, and he pressed on.
He also said:
Preach the gospel, die, and be forgotten.
He was not trying to build a heritage for himself. Too many are trying to preserve their heritage and are worried more about the future than today. We are to live for Him today, die, and let Him take care of tomorrow.
Speaking of Christ’s death, Zinzendorf said:
These wounds were meant to purchase me.
These drops of blood were shed to obtain me.
I am not my own today.
I belong to Another.
These wounds were meant to purchase me. These drops of blood were shed to obtain me. I am not my own. I belong to Another.
We belong to Another, brothers and sisters. We have been purchased. We have been redeemed. Are we living like that? That is the challenge we have.
Speaking of missions, he said:
Missions, after all, is simply this: every heart with Christ is a missionary, and every heart without Christ is a mission field.
It is as simple as that. We may think we have to go here or there to be in a mission field, but any heart without Christ is a mission field. There was a simplicity in the way he sought to win people to Christ.
The Moravians had a motto based on victory:
Our Lamb has conquered; let us follow Him.
Praise God for the victory of the Lamb. Our Lamb has conquered; let us follow Him.
I wanted to focus today on Zinzendorf and the Moravians because they bring together beautiful pictures of the simplicity of Christ. There was one passion for Christ: “I have one passion. I have one desire.”
Kenny shared concerning the one thing that is necessary. It always brings us back to Him. That is all it is, brothers and sisters. How are we going to be the testimony of Jesus today? As Christ is our passion.
When you have something as your passion, it directs your heart and directs your life. It does a transforming work within us. That is what He is after.
As I read Zinzendorf’s biography and look at his life, I feel that I have wasted so many years of my life. I pray that we would not waste whatever years we have left. We cannot do anything about the years behind us. We do not let them condemn us; that is under the blood. But we have today.
Today is the day of salvation. Today we can live for Him. Today we can be that testimony. That is what we are called to live for.
I appreciate Zinzendorf and the Moravians’ great burden for the unity of all believers. Nobody has to speak of all the divisions that are within the body of Christ today.
Sadly, Zinzendorf is often misrepresented today. Many ecumenical movements refer to him, but they approach unity totally differently from the way he did. They approach it from the outside: bring all these groups together and work it out. Zinzendorf approached it from the root and the foundation: bring everybody back to Christ.
That is it, brothers and sisters. The fellowship we have is in Christ. This table that we take every Lord’s Day is a testimony of the oneness of the body of Christ. There is one loaf; it is one body.
We are one with everyone who has ever believed in our Lord Jesus Christ, and we need to practice that as much as it is with us. We are to be at peace with all people. We cannot always control how people react to us, but as far as it is with us, we need to walk in oneness with every brother and sister because the blood of Christ purchased them just as much as it purchased us.
It is sad when we share the gospel and talk with unbelievers, because one of the greatest obstacles is the great divisions within the body of Christ. This disunity is a tragedy. May the Lord bring us into the experiential reality of being one with all believers.
The Moravians also saw the essential nature of prayer. You can begin with zeal. Most of us have probably said, “I am going to pray. I am going to read the Bible. I am going to do this,” and committed to it. You might make it a week, two weeks, or a month—but one hundred years?
We see that prayer was life to them. It was living, and the Lord used it.
There were believers back in Herrnhut praying every day, twenty-four hours a day, while dear ones volunteered to be missionaries all over the world. They had no idea what they were getting into or where they were going. Some had hardly even heard of the countries to which they were going. But they were captured, and they knew they had support back there—those who were praying for them.
As we gather on Wednesday nights, may we have a greater burden to see beyond ourselves and to see Christ’s heart and His burden for the testimony of Jesus in this day.
Obviously, the Moravians had a great burden for the lost and for missions. Thank the Lord that there are ones going out, but we also have opportunities daily. May the Lord open our eyes to see the mission field that He sets before us.
I appreciate their motto: “Our Lamb has conquered; let us follow Him.” In Revelation 14, the Lamb is before the throne of God, and those before the throne are worshiping Him. Who are they? Those who follow the Lamb wherever He goes.
That is the simplicity. They were not there based on their works. They were not there because they had great theology and could explain this or explain that. It was the simplicity of their lives: following the Lamb wherever He goes.
As we have that passion for Him, as we follow Him, as we are captured by Him, may we—and all brothers and sisters—be those who follow the Lamb wherever He goes, that we too may stand before the throne of God.
That is the living testimony of Jesus in this hour. That is what we are known by: His life seen and expressed in us and through His people. That brings glory to Him, and that is what we are jealous for.
Let us pray.
Lord, we are so thankful to be the redeemed of the Lord. In one sense, I see the passion in all of these dear ones who have gone before us, and if I look at myself, I feel so unworthy. But Lord, if I look at You, I see the possibilities. I see the opportunities. I see the open doors. I see the way, the truth, and the life.
That is what we want to have our eyes fixed upon, Lord—not all of our inadequacies or failures. As we see the blood of the Lamb that has cleansed us and purchased us, we do not belong to ourselves anymore. We are living for You. We are living for others. We are living for Your kingdom.
Would we give ourselves to You today, that You would be able to accomplish in us all the things that You desire to do in the day and time in which we are living.
In Thy name we pray. Amen.