The Role of Preaching in Revival

Preaching and Revival

Over the last few weeks, we have been looking at the awesome topic of revival, and we’ve used the revival that took place in Beaufort in the 1800’s as our case study.  I hope that this study has built within you a hunger for God to once again bring revival to our community.  

What we have seen thus far in our study is that revival is a powerful outpouring of God’s Spirit in which the lukewarm are awakened, unbelievers are converted, and a whole community seems to be saturated with the awareness of the glory of God.  Surely, such a work is too great for the most gifted of men, or even the largest of churches, to manufacture.  No methodology, no man-made tactics, nothing mere men could ever do could cause the kind of outpouring of God that we see when revival comes to a community. 

And yet that doesn’t mean that God doesn’t use means to bring revival about.  The means by which God historically brings about revival is through the preaching of the Word.  After all, “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.  And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (Hebrews 4:12-13).  As the Word is faithfully opened and unashamedly preached, the Spirit accompanies it with great power.  Consider these words of Martin Luther as he reflected upon how God’s Word brought about the Protestant Reformation:

I simply taught, preached, wrote God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept… the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it. I did nothing; the Word did everything.

The Dutch Second Reformation of the 17th Century, the Great Awakenings in America, and more recently the Hebrides Revival in Scotland all line the walls of history with beautiful evidence that God uses the faithful preaching of the Word for awesome ends.  Charles Spurgeon is right: “The Word of God is like a lion. You don’t have to defend a lion. All you have to do is let the lion loose, and the lion will defend itself.”

The Preaching God Blesses

In 2 Timothy 4:1-2, the Apostle Paul is speaking to his son in the faith about what faithful preaching looks like: “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.”  In light of this definition, we see that biblical preaching must be Scripture-saturated, bold, tender, and personally applicable to the lives of the hearers.  

In preaching, we are not merely conveying information; we are exalting Christ through the life-changing power of the Gospel.  The power for preaching does not lie in the eloquence or charisma of the preacher, but in the living and active Word as it is faithfully proclaimed to the hearts and minds of the hearers. 

Martyn Lloyd Jones gives an excellent definition of faithful preaching: “The whole duty of the Christian minister is to preach the Word of God. He is to present the doctrine of the Scripture, to preach the theology of the Bible, to expound its teaching and to exhort its practice.”

Yet not all preaching is faithful.  In the Paul’s next words to Timothy, he warns that there is a counterfeit form of preaching that will always creep into and be embraced in churches, one that simultaneously flatters men and: “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (2 Timothy 4:3–4).  Such preaching may cause us to feel good about ourselves, but they won’t lead anyone to faith in Jesus Christ.  Sadly, the pitiful state of the church in America today bears witness that so much preaching reflects exactly what Paul warns against. 

Revival Preaching: A Case Study

Oftentimes when people visit First Scots for the first time, they will say something like this: “you preach like a Baptist.”  What they mean is Presbyterian preaching today is not synonymous with the bold proclamation of the Word of God; the perception is that we have left the hellfire and brimstone up to our Baptist brethren.  Today, Presbyterian preaching is rarely identified with bold, Scripture-saturated sermons, with calls to repentance, correction, and so on, but historically it was. 

If we rewind to a better time when the love of the world didn’t have such a grip on so many churches, we would find that historic Presbyterian preaching was powerful, saturated with Scripture, and overflowing with the passion of a heart that is resting in the Gospel.  An excellent case study in historic, faithful Presbyterian preaching is the ministry of Daniel Baker, whose preaching sparked the revival in Beaufort nearly 200 years ago.  

When the Rev. Daniel Baker came to preach a series of meetings in Beaufort back in 1831, the small coastal town had the privilege of experiencing what true Presbyterian preaching looked like.  Baker held to the strong conviction that the Holy Spirit alone could change hearts, and that God would typically work through the preaching of His Word.  When Baker arrived in Beaufort in 1831, he brought this approach of expounding the Scriptures and exhorting the people to turn from their sin to follow Christ.  The results were phenomenal: The churches were full, hearts were changed, and the culture of Beaufort was transformed. 

Who Was Daniel Baker?

Daniel Baker was born in 1791 in Liberty County, Georgia.  His mother died when Daniel was an infant, and he was only eight when his father died.  He and his four older siblings were raised by an aunt. 

Baker was raised in Midway Church where his father had been a deacon.  In the book Southern Presbyterian Worthies, John Miller Wells claims that Midway “probably sent out from its membership more ministers than any church in the United States.”  But it wasn’t at Midway that Baker would come to trust in Christ; it was when he was nineteen years old and lived in Savannah that he was converted through the ministry of Independent Presbyterian Church (yes, the same church that planted First Scots in Beaufort nearly 200 years later!). 

Though Baker had little formal education, he believed that the Lord was calling him to ministry.  In 1811, he enrolled at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia.  The next year, however, the War of 1812 affected Hampden-Sydney so greatly that Baker and other students transferred.  Baker arrived at Princeton in 1813, where God used his evangelistic efforts to convert a significant portion of the student body. 

Upon graduation, Baker elected not to go to seminary, but rather to teach at a girls’ school in Virginia.  He married his wife, Elizabeth, in 1816.  That same year he was ordained to the Presbyterian ministry in Winchester, and he accepted a call in Rockingham County, VA. 

He left Virginia in 1820 in order to pastor Second Church in Washington, DC.  This church had several prominent members, including John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson.  Despite its distinguished membership, the church struggled greatly, and Baker had to subsidize his income by working nearly forty more hours each week in the local land office. 

Nearly two decades after his conversion, Baker returned to Savannah in 1828 to pastor the very church that ministered so faithfully to him as a young man.  Baker’s influence at Independent Presbyterian Church of Savannah was great, and the church experienced a revival of its own.   All the while, Baker’s true passion was to serve as an evangelist, and invitations came from all over the East Coast.  He would eventually resign his pastorate at IPC and focus his full attention on preaching in small towns in the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, and Alabama. 

Dr. Baker Comes to Beaufort

As his reputation for Spirit-filled preaching grew, Baker was invited to speak in Beaufort by Rev. Joseph Rogers Walker of The Parish Church of St. Helena.  He had previously preached meetings in Pritchardville and other nearby towns, and his reputation for preaching powerful, gospel-centered sermons preceded him in Beaufort. 

As we have previously examined, this was a very timely blessing for the community of Beaufort.  At a time when political controversy had divided even family members, Beaufort was in need of healing.  That healing came in the form of the Gospel message, which led to reconciliation in nearly every aspect of community life. 

Preaching with Conviction

Dr. Baker was already known as a powerful preacher and evangelist in the 1830s.  While he did preach for the affections in his preaching, he did not rely on the methodology of manipulation that had become so common by the 19th century.  He simply preached the Gospel by helping people to see their need, as well as the glory of Christ who is able to save.  One contemporary of Baker’s testified that the constant theme of Dr. Baker’s preaching was the Apostle Paul’s “Christ and him crucified.”  In the words of one eyewitness:

There was none of the ranting in his speech of manner which we had expected. He spoke quietly, but with deep conviction. As I listened, a sense of the rightness of what he was telling me gave me a sense of excitement. It came to me as a glorious revelation that salvation through Jesus Christ was meant for me.

This was Baker’s approach to preaching: to appeal to hearts to consider not only the offer of Christ, but the reality of the eternity that awaits them:

And now, my dear friends, one and all remember, we must die: we cannot help it; and remember after death comes the judgment, and once lost, lost for ever. When Death’s laden scepter is laid upon your cold bosoms, no mistakes can be rectified any more; for, so soon as the breath leaves the body, the decree of an immutable God rolls over the shrouded form…Immortal man, take care! Great interests are at stake- see to it, that you be upon the safe side; for I repeat, once lost, you are lost for ever.

After calling his hearers to awareness of the grave danger of our souls apart from Christ, he then extended to them the magnificent love of Christ in the Gospel.  This was the heart of Baker’s message that he preached clearly and with great compassion for the people:

What does the Christian religion do? It sheds abroad a Savior’s love in the heart; gives the sweet assurance that our sins are forgiven for Jesus’ sake; that the eternal God is our Father; that Heaven is our home: and that, if the earthly house of this our tabernacle is dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal and on high.

The words of compassion were accompanied by a call for the people to believe:

On this day may be with you the day of decision, the birth-day of your precious souls! Oh come this day, and cast in your lot with the people of God, and let us all have one lot, one Jesus, one heaven, one home!

The Holy Spirit’s Work

Rev. Baker preached the power of Christ boldly, calling his hearers to repent and believe the Gospel (Mark 1:15).  And as all good preaching does, he not only displayed the people’s great need of the Savior, but the great Savior to meet their need.  Yet not all preaching produces such powerful results, and even other places that Baker preached did not have such a powerful outpouring.  How should we understand that?  

Indeed, as powerful as Baker’s preaching was, the Beaufort revival was undeniably the Lord’s doing (Psalm 118:23).  Long before Baker stepped foot in the pulpits of those two beautiful downtown churches, the Holy Spirit was preparing hearts (Ezekiel. 36:26).  The Lord used the foolishness of preaching, causing it to take root in hearts that were, by His grace, ready to receive it (Matthew 13:23).

While Baker was at the center of the revival, we must also recognize that such powerful outpourings of Gospel grace are ordinarily preceded by seasons of pleading in prayer (Ephesians 6:18).  What we typically see in revival is that God answers those prayers by sending a preacher to speak courageously about the dangers of sin (Ephesians 2:1-3) and our glorious Savior (Colossians 2:13-15).   

Jesus Christ: The Same Yesterday and Today 

The revival that swept through the streets of our beloved town, transforming hearts and renewing spirits, stands as a powerful testament to the enduring might and mercy of our Lord.  He raised up Daniel Baker, His humble servant, whose faithful proclamation of the Word pierced through the darkness, stirring souls to love for Jesus. 

Though Daniel Baker has long since gone to be with the Lord, our God remains unchanged.  The same Holy Spirit who moved with such awesome power in the hearts of men and women has not changed; He is more than able to revive us again.  As we yearn for revival in our own time, let us labor faithfully in prayer and proclamation, trusting that the same God who brought revival then is able and willing to do so again now!