What Is Revival? — Martyn Lloyd-Jones · Westminster Chapel

What's in this sermon

The shape of the argument

34 units across exposition, application, illustration, theological claim, and conclusion. The pastor's argument is built from these moving parts.

Pastoral correction · unit #32

"Promises that when revival comes, it will be undeniable—compelling the attention of both Church and world in ways human persuasion cannot. Sets up the contrast between current indifference and future astonishment."

Doctrinal loci· 12 surfaced

Pneumatology · 27 Ecclesiology · 10 Theology Proper · 7 Soteriology · 5 Hamartiology · 4 Providence / Sovereignty · 4 Doxology / Worship · 3 Anthropology · 2 Christology · 2 Pastoral Theology · 2 Sanctification · 2 Bibliology · 1

Bible citations· 14

Illustrations· 1

historical example · unit #24 — Quotes Jonathan Edwards's firsthand account of the 1735 Northampton revival to give concrete historical validation to the abstract definition. The extended quotation serves as authoritative illustration, demonstrating that the pattern described is not theoretical but documented.

Theological claims· 10

Revival is fundamentally passive—it is something God does to the Church, not something the Church does. unit #1
Revival is by nature a repetition or re-enactment of Pentecost, making Acts 2 the normative pattern. unit #3
In revival, people become conscious that God has suddenly descended and is present among them in palpable power. unit #5
The effect of the Spirit's descent is an awareness of divine presence and power that surpasses all prior Christian experience. unit #6
Revival is characterized by awe and holy fear rather than the lightness and organization of human-managed evangelistic campaigns. unit #11
The Spirit sovereignly controls the conviction process and may hold people under conviction for extended periods—hours, days, weeks, or months. unit #14
Revival produces a simultaneous mixture of terror and joy, conviction and praise—seemingly contradictory emotions coexisting under the Spirit's sovereign work. unit #22
Revival is God visiting His people, bringing heaven to earth through the Holy Spirit's presidency and giving abundant life without measure. unit #25
Revival is a miracle and a sovereign act of God that humans cannot produce, control, or even influence—God alone does it. unit #26
Revival is not only unproducible but also unexplainable by human reason—explicability is proof that something is not revival. unit #27

Quotations· 2

"He died for me" — Typical testimony (unit #16)

"This work soon made a glorious alteration in the town. So that in the spring and summer following, the town seemed to be full of the presence of God. It never was so full of love nor so full of joy and yet so full of distress as it was then. There were remarkable tokens of God's presence in almost every house. It was a time of joy in families on account of salvation being brought to them. Parents rejoicing over their children as newborn, husbands over their wives and wives over their husbands. The doings of God were then seen in His sanctuary. God's day was a delight and the congregation was alive in God's service. Everyone earnestly intent on the public worship. Every hearer eager to drink in the words of the minister as they came from his mouth. The assembly in general were from time to time in tears while the Word was preached. Some weeping with sorrow and distress, others with joy and love, others with pity and concern for the souls of their neighbors." — Jonathan Edwards (unit #24)

Read it

Full transcript

12,808 characters 34 units ~14 min reading time

0 · The opening provides a working definition of revival as unusual blessing in the Church directed first at believers, then establishes that this definition serves to distinguish revival from evangelistic campaigns—setting up the sermon's fundamental contrast

We can define it as a period of unusual blessing and activity in the life of the Christian Church. Revival means awakening, stimulating the life, bringing it to the surface again. It happens primarily in the Church of God, and amongst believing people, and it is only secondly something that affects those that are outside also. Now this is a most important point, because this definition helps us to differentiate, once and for all, between a revival and an evangelistic campaign.

1 · Establishes the fundamental theological distinction between human initiative (evangelistic campaigns) and divine initiative (revival) through a grammatical contrast: Church as subject/agent versus Church as object/recipient

An evangelistic campaign is the Church deciding to do something with respect to those who are outside. A revival is not the Church deciding to do something and doing it. It is something that is done to the Church, something that happens to the Church.

2 · Pivots from the passive nature of revival to its content by introducing Pentecost as the paradigm event

So then, what is it that happens? The best way of answering that question is to say that it is in a sense a repetition of the day of Pentecost.

3 · Establishes the biblical-theological pattern: revival inherently recalls Pentecost, making Acts 2 the canonical template for understanding all subsequent revivals

It is something happening to the Church, that inevitably and almost instinctively makes one look back and think again of what happened on the day of Pentecost as recorded in Acts 2.

4 · Defines revival's essence through three spatial/quantitative dimensions: the Spirit descending (directional), upon groups not individuals (corporate), and across varying scales from local to national (scope)

The essence of a revival is that the Holy Spirit comes down upon a number of people together, upon a whole church, upon a number of churches, districts, or perhaps a whole country. That is what is meant by revival. It is, if you like, a visitation of the Holy Spirit, or another term that has often been used is this--an outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

5 · Describes the phenomenology of revival from the recipients' perspective: suddenness, descent, divine presence

What the people are conscious of is that it is as if something has suddenly come down upon them. The Spirit of God has descended into their midst, God has come down and is amongst them. A baptism, an outpouring, a visitation.

6 · Establishes that revival produces unprecedented experiential knowledge—not new information but new intensity and reality of knowledge previously held

And the effect of that is that they immediately become aware of His presence and of His power in a manner that they have never known before.

7 · Clarifies the subjects (church members in familiar settings) and the shift (from routine to overwhelming divine presidency)

I am talking about Christian people, about church members gathered together as they have done so many times before. Suddenly they are aware of His presence, they are aware of the majesty and the awe of God. The Holy Spirit literally seems to be presiding over the meeting and taking charge of it, and manifesting His power and guiding them, and leading them, and directing them. That is the essence of revival.

8 · Pivots from definition to phenomenology, signaling a shift from essence to observable characteristics drawn from historical pattern

And what does that mean? Well, there are general characteristics which you will find in every revival that you can ever read about.

9 · Describes the cognitive transformation: familiar truths become luminous, clarity replaces fog, understanding deepens

The immediate effect is that the people present begin to have an awareness of spiritual things such as they have never had before. They have heard all these things before, they may have heard them a thousand times, but what they testify is this: "You know, the whole thing suddenly became clear to me. I was suddenly illuminated, things that I was so familiar with stood out in letters of gold, as it were. I understood. I saw it all in a way that I had never done in the whole of my life." The Holy Spirit enlightens the mind and the understanding. They begin not only to see these things clearly but to feel their power.

10 · Identifies the first and primary content of revival illumination: God's glory and holiness

What are these things of which they become so aware? First and foremost, the glory and the holiness of God. Have you ever noticed, as you read your Bibles, the effect on these people as they suddenly realized the presence of God? Like Job, they put their hands on their mouths or like Isaiah they say, "Woe is unto me! For I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips." They have just had a realization of the holi-ness and of the majesty and the glory of God. That always happens in a revival.

11 · Contrasts the atmosphere of evangelistic campaigns (human-managed, upbeat) with revival (God-dominated, weighty)

There can be a lot of laughing and lightness, and obvious organization in evangelistic campaigns. Not so in a revival, but rather awe, reverence, holy fear, the consciousness of God in His majesty, His glory, His holiness, His utter purity.

12 · Describes the sequential logic of revival conviction: awareness of God's holiness produces awareness of one's own sinfulness, unworthiness, and helplessness

And that, as we have seen, leads inevitably to a deep and terrible sense of sin, and an aweful feeling of guilt. It leads men and women to feel that they are vile and unclean and utterly unworthy and, above all, it leads them to realize their utter helplessness face to face with such a God. Or, like the publican depicted by our Lord in the parable, they are so conscious of all this that they cannot show their faces. They are far back near the door somewhere, beating their breasts and saying, "God, have mercy on me, a sinner."

13 · Expands the conviction theme: revival exposes the worthlessness of previous righteousness

The holiness of God, their own utter sinfulness and wretchedness, their own unworthiness; they realize they have never done anything good at all. Before, they thought they had done a great deal, now they see that it is nothing--useless. Like Paul they begin to talk about it as dung and filthy rags. In their utter helplessness and hopelessness, they prostrate themselves and cast themselves upon the love and mercy and compassion of God.

14 · Attributes the prolonged conviction to the Spirit's sovereign control and introduces temporal duration as evidence of the Spirit's dominance over the process

This is the convicting work of the Spirit who takes charge of the situation. People may be held in that state for some time--not only for hours but sometimes for days and weeks, and months. They may become almost desperate.

15 · Describes the transition from conviction to revelation of the cross

Then they are given a clear view of the love of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ and especially of His death upon the cross. At last they see it. Oh, they had always believed it theoretically, but it had never truly become real for them. They had honestly believed it, yes, but they had never felt its power, they had never known what it was to be melted by it, to be broken by it. They had never known what it was to weep with a sense of unworthiness and then of love and joy as they realized that "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

16 · Describes the shift from general truth to personal appropriation

Suddenly it all becomes real to them, and they are given to know that the Son of God has loved them and has given Himself for them. It becomes an individual and a personal matter: "He died for me, even my sins are forgiven," and peace comes into their hearts; joy enters into them and they are lost in love and in a sense of praise of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

17 · Describes the social transformation: the revived become consumed with spiritual conversation, seeking constant fellowship to talk about and praise God

This now becomes the one thing that absorbs them. If they meet anyone they talk about it at once; everybody is talking about it, it is the main topic of conversation, it is the thing that absorbs all their interest. They desire to be together now and to talk about these things and to praise God and to sing hymns to His glory.

18 · Describes the prayer culture of revival and the evangelistic impulse it generates

Then they begin to pray, and there they are, hour after hour, night after night, longing to finish work so they might get together with other people who have experienced this movement of the Spirit of God. And that, of course, in turn leads them to have a great concern about others who are outside and who do not know these things.

19 · Details the evangelistic pattern: family members first, then expanding circles

I am giving you a synopsis of what you read in the books. They begin to get a concern for the members of their own family--husband, wife, father, mother, children, brother, sister--who do not know that they are outside. They tell them about it; they feel they must. There is a constraint that is driving them. They talk about it to people, to friends and to everybody, and they begin to pray for them. Prayer is always a great feature of every revival, great prayer meetings, intercession hour after hour. They pray for these people by name and they plead, and they will not let God go, as it were. They are intent on this with a strange urgency.

20 · Describes the widening circle of revival's impact: testimony and visible life-change draw the unconverted into meetings where they experience the same conviction-to-joy pattern

And then, after a while, hearing of all this and seeing the change in those whom they have known for so long, these others who are outside begin to join the meetings and to say, "What is this?" So they come in, and they go through the same experience. And so it happens and thousands upon thousands are converted. Indeed, the whole neighborhood seems to be full of the Holy Spirit. He seems to be everywhere.

21 · Catalogs the spatial and temporal unpredictability of conversions during revival to demonstrate the Spirit's sovereign, uncontainable activity

People are not only converted in meetings, some are converted as they are walking to the meetings, before they have even got there. Some are converted at their work, in a coal-mine, on top of a mountain. Some are awakened in the middle of the night. They went to bed feeling as usual, but they are awakened with an aweful sense of sin, and they have to get up and pray and plead with God to have mercy. Nobody has spoken to them at that moment--it is the Spirit of God that is acting. He is dominating the whole area. He is filling the lives of all the people.

22 · Synthesizes the paradoxical affective profile of revival: simultaneous terror and joy, conviction and praise

That is what happens in revival and thus you get this curious, strange mixture, as it were, of great conviction of sin and great joy, a great sense of the terror of the Lord, and great thanksgiving and praise.

23 · Introduces the concept of 'divine disorder' and uses temporal suspension as evidence of the Spirit's control

Always in a revival there is what somebody once called a divine disorder. Some are groaning and agonizing under conviction, others praising God for the great salvation. And all this leads to crowded and prolonged meetings. Time seems to be forgotten. People seem to have entered into eternity. A meeting may start at six thirty in the evening, and it may not end until daybreak the next morning with nobody aware of the passing of the hours. They did not have to provide coffee once or twice halfway through. When the Holy Ghost organizes things, time, the body, and the needs of the flesh are all forgotten.

24 · Quotes Jonathan Edwards's firsthand account of the 1735 Northampton revival to give concrete historical validation to the abstract definition

A revival, then, really means days of heaven upon earth. Let me give you one of the greatest descriptions ever written of what is true of a town when there is such a revival or a visitation of the Spirit of God. It was written by the great and saintly Jonathan Edwards about the little town of Northampton in Massachusetts in 1735. This work soon made a glorious alteration in the town. So that in the spring and summer following, the town seemed to be full of the presence of God. It never was so full of love nor so full of joy and yet so full of distress as it was then. There were remarkable tokens of God's presence in almost every house. It was a time of joy in families on account of salvation being brought to them. Parents rejoicing over their children as newborn, husbands over their wives and wives over their husbands. The doings of God were then seen in His sanctuary. God's day was a delight and the congregation was alive in God's service. Everyone earnestly intent on the public worship. Every hearer eager to drink in the words of the minister as they came from his mouth. The assembly in general were from time to time in tears while the Word was preached. Some weeping with sorrow and distress, others with joy and love, others with pity and concern for the souls of their neighbors.

25 · Synthesizes the Edwards quotation into theological summary, using three metaphors: God visiting, heaven invading earth, and the Spirit presiding

This is God visiting His people. Days of heaven on earth, the presidency of the Holy Spirit in the Church, life abundant given to God's people without measure.

26 · Asserts the miraculous nature of revival, grounding it in divine sovereignty and independence from human agency

A revival is a miracle. It is the hand of the Lord, and it is mighty. It can only be explained as the direct action and intervention of God. Men can produce evangelistic campaigns, but they cannot and never have produced a revival. A revival, by definition, is the mighty act of God and it is a sovereign act of God. It is as independent as that. Man can do nothing. God, and God alone, does it.

27 · Adds epistemic humility to the sovereignty claim: revival is not only unproducible but also inexplicable by human categories

But not only can men not produce a revival, they cannot even explain it, and that again is most important. If you can explain what is happening in a church, apart from this sovereign act of God, it is not revival.

28 · Returns to Pentecost as the paradigm, using the crowd's bewildered question ('What is this?') to establish bewilderment as a mark of revival

A revival is something which, when it happens, leads people to say, as the townspeople said in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, "What is this? What is it?" It is something that comes like a tornado. It is almost like an overflowing tide; it is like a flood. Miraculous things happen, things that are beyond the explanation and the wit of men.

29 · Signals the final movement: a direct appeal to the primary text to close the argument

Finally, look at it as it is described in Acts 2.

30 · Exegetes Acts 2:1-2, emphasizing the suddenness, the heavenly origin, and the mighty wind

Here are the apostles meeting together for prayer in the upper room. They had been doing it for ten days. Suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing, mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. That is it. Not always the sound, but always the consciousness of the mighty wind of God. The Spirit of God descends upon preacher, prayers, praying people, those meeting in conference.

31 · Shifts into direct pastoral address, pressing the congregation with a series of probing questions about their belief, longing, and prayer life regarding revival

Do we know anything about that, my friends? Do we believe in God coming in and doing things that we not only cannot do, but cannot even understand, nor control, nor explain. Yea, I ask you, do you long to know such things? To see such things happening again today? Are you praying for such a visitation?

32 · Promises that when revival comes, it will be undeniable—compelling the attention of both Church and world in ways human persuasion cannot

For, believe me, when God hears our prayers and does this thing again, it will be such a phenomenon that not only will the Church be astounded and amazed, but even those who are outside will be compelled to listen and to pay attention, in a way that they are not doing at the present time, and in a way that men left to themselves can never persuade them to do.

33 · Closes with a call to corporate intercession grounded in God's past faithfulness

This is what God can do. This is what God has done. Let us together decide to beseech Him, to plead with Him to do this again. Not that we may have the experience or the excitement, but that His mighty hand may be known and His great name may be glorified and magnified among the people.

Where this fits

More from Martyn Lloyd-Jones

The other sermons stewarded in this Martyn Lloyd-Jones set.

Faith on Trial: The Problem Stated

God is always good to His people—to such as are of a clean heart—and the Christian life consists in maintaining absolute confidence in God while having no confidence in the flesh, even when circumstances tempt us to doubt His goodness.

Psalm 73:1-3

The Parable of the Prodigal Son

God alone can provide a genuine new beginning for even the most desperate sinner, not through vague sentiment but through the active love demonstrated in Christ's atoning work that both erases the past and clothes the repentant with new standing as sons.

Luke 15:11-32

This sermon

What Is Revival?

Revival is the sovereign, miraculous outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Church that produces an overwhelming consciousness of God's presence, deep conviction of sin, transforming joy in Christ, and spontaneous spiritual awakening throughout entire communities in ways that human effort can neither produce nor explain.

Acts 2:1

Take it further

Discuss · apply

Small groups

6 discussion questions

What distinction does the sermon make between revival as something God does to the Church versus something the Church does? How does this di…

Daily readings

5-day reading plan

This week we meditate on how God's sovereign descent in revival—always His work, never ours—humbles us in awe, suspends us between terror and joy, and compels the world's attention in ways no human effort can match.

Family table

When God Shows Up

This prompt invites your family to imagine what it would feel like if God's presence became so real and undeniable that everyone around them…

Couples

Waiting for God's Wind

What did you hear about the difference between revival as God's sovereign work versus our human effort to produce spiritual life—and did tha…

Memorize

Acts 2:1-2

This verse captures the sovereign, miraculous nature of revival that Lloyd-Jones emphasizes throughout the sermon—the Spirit's descent is sudden, powerful, and entirely God's initiative, not human orchestration. Memorizing this passage anchors believers in the pattern of Pentecost as the normative model for understanding what revival truly is.

Daily readings · Monday–Friday

5-day reading plan

This week we meditate on how God's sovereign descent in revival—always His work, never ours—humbles us in awe, suspends us between terror and joy, and compels the world's attention in ways no human effort can match.

Monday Isaiah 6:5

When Isaiah beheld the Lord 'high and lifted up,' his response was not effort or strategy but immediate awareness of his own undone state: 'Woe is me! I am ruined.' Revival begins not with our preparation but with God's descent, which arrests us and strips away all confidence in human activity. In that moment of divine presence, the prophet became passive—a vessel awaiting God's cleansing touch rather than an agent of his own transformation.

Tuesday Acts 2

The disciples at Pentecost did not organize, strategize, or campaign to receive the Spirit; they waited in obedience to Christ's command, and then 'suddenly a sound like a mighty rushing wind filled the whole house.' Every genuine revival since has borne this Pentecostal character—the sovereign, sudden, miraculous outpouring that repeats the pattern established on that first day. We recognize revival not by our plans but by its resemblance to God's own blueprint in Acts 2.

Wednesday Luke 18:13

The tax collector 'would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, "God, have mercy on me, a sinner."' This is the posture revival produces—not confidence or polish, but brokenness and fear-filled humility before the holiness of God. In revival, the Spirit creates such overwhelming consciousness of divine presence and judgment that all human management, technique, and ease dissolve; we are left bowed, awed, and utterly dependent on His mercy.

Thursday Philippians 3

Paul counted all his former righteousness as 'dung' and 'filthy rags,' yet in that same breath poured out longing to 'gain Christ and be found in him.' Revival creates this paradox—the deepest conviction of sin and the most overwhelming joy in Christ existing at once, not resolved but held together by the Spirit's sovereign work. We weep at our corruption and exult in the cross simultaneously, because God's holiness and God's grace press upon us together.

Friday John 3:16

The God who 'so loved the world that he gave his only Son' is the same God whose Spirit descends in revival, pouring out His love and life into the Church with unmeasured abundance. Revival is the tangible evidence that God has not withdrawn—He comes again to His people as He came at Pentecost, turning their hearts wholly toward Christ and scattering the gospel throughout entire communities through sheer divine power. We pray for revival not as a luxury but as a hunger for the living God's presence to visit us afresh.

Memory verse this week

Acts 2:1-2

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.

Why this verse: This verse captures the sovereign, miraculous nature of revival that Lloyd-Jones emphasizes throughout the sermon—the Spirit's descent is sudden, powerful, and entirely God's initiative, not human orchestration. Memorizing this passage anchors believers in the pattern of Pentecost as the normative model for understanding what revival truly is.

Sunday-evening family table

When God Shows Up

For the parent

This prompt invites your family to imagine what it would feel like if God's presence became so real and undeniable that everyone around them suddenly knew He was there. The goal is to help them grasp that revival isn't something we organize or produce—it's God stepping into our midst in a way we can't explain or control.

Imagine if, right now, God made His presence so real and powerful that everyone in our church—and then our whole neighborhood—suddenly felt it. They'd know without anyone telling them that God Himself had shown up. What do you think would happen? How would people act differently? What would change?

works for ages 7+ — younger children can engage with the concrete imagery; older kids and teens will naturally connect it to the idea of God's sovereign power

Small-group discussion

6 questions for your group this week

What distinction does the sermon make between revival as something God does to the Church versus something the Church does? How does this distinction change the way we think about spiritual awakening?

Acts 2:1-2

→ Can you think of ways we might unconsciously treat revival as a project we can organize or produce?
The sermon describes revival as characterized by an overwhelming consciousness of God's presence and palpable power. What does it mean for believers to become aware that God has 'suddenly descended' among them, and how would that awareness differ from our normal experience of God?
According to the sermon, revival produces a simultaneous mixture of terror and joy, conviction and praise. Why do you think the Spirit brings these seemingly contradictory emotions together rather than one or the other?

Isaiah 6:5; Luke 18:13

→ When have you experienced both deep conviction of sin and overwhelming joy in Christ at the same time, and what was that like?
The sermon identifies the Fallen Condition Focus as our tendency to organize spiritual awakening through human effort, campaigns, and programs. What does this reveal about our fundamental misunderstanding of God's sovereignty and the Church's actual dependence?
How does the gospel—Christ's finished work and substitutionary atonement—address our helplessness to produce revival and our deep need for the Spirit's sovereign intervention?

Philippians 3

→ If revival is something only God can do, how should that shape the way we pray and wait?
If the sermon claims that revival is unexplainable by human reason and that explicability is proof something is not revival, what would that mean for how we evaluate spiritual movements or seasons in our own church community?

Couples · three questions over coffee

Waiting for God's Wind

What did you hear about the difference between revival as God's sovereign work versus our human effort to produce spiritual life—and did that stir conviction or hope in your own heart?
As a couple, where might we be tempted to manufacture spiritual vitality or manage our faith life rather than waiting on God's Spirit to move among us—and how could that shift change the way we pray together?
What is one area of our marriage or our walk with Christ where we sense deep need for the Spirit's sovereign visitation, and how can we pray that petition for one another this week?

Where this was preached

About the preacher

Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Westminster Chapel · London
Read the Guild Hall profile · All three stewarded sermons

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# Westminster Chapel · London

Significant sermons by Martyn Lloyd-Jones, stewarded by Sermon Steward as a sample.

## Sermons
- [Faith on Trial: The Problem Stated (Psalm 73:1-3)](/SignificantSermons/mlj/sermons/faith-on-trial-the-problem-stated)
- [The Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32)](/SignificantSermons/mlj/sermons/the-parable-of-the-prodigal-son)
- [What Is Revival? (Acts 2:1)](/SignificantSermons/mlj/sermons/what-is-revival)

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