leader session 9--a fuse is lit

7/31/2019 Leader Session 9--A Fuse Is Lit

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Session 9:

A Fuse Is Lit

Leader PresentationAt this point, we have covered the main terrain of this

course. We have filled in the missing centuries. (The 20thcentury is, of course, a huge topic all its own. Dr. VinsonSynans bookon the 1900s is entitled The Century of theHoly Spirit,1 and others have written extensively as well.)

But let me, in this final session, take you across theridge into the 20th century.

EVAN ROBERTS (1878

1951) andthe WELSH REVIVALAcross the hills and

valleys of Wales there was agrowing hunger for spiritualrenewal. Prayer meetings

ecame more common.Attention eventually focusedon an unlikely leader: EvanJohn Roberts, a coal minersson with reddish hair, the

ninth of fourteen children.He had dropped out of

school at age 12 to work inthe mines like his father. Butdeep in his heart was ayearning for God. He wouldnt joke around with theothers his age; he showed no interest in girls. He muchpreferred to be praying and talking about spiritual things.

His local church encouraged him to study for the

Notes

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1Vinson Synan, The Century of the Holy Spirit(Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2001)


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Great Cloud of Witnesses Leaders Guide Session 9 Page 2 of 10

www.GreatCloudCourse.com 2012 Dean Merrill. All rights reserved.

ministry. He enrolled in a course but gave moreattention to leading youth meetings in various churches.They werent highly programmed or humorous events;they instead called young people to get down on theirknees and seek the Lord.

In November 1904, when Evan Roberts was 26 yearsold, He returned home to Loughor and began to hold

prayer meetings at his home church, Moriah [Chapel]. Onsuccessivenightsthesemeetingsdrew everlargercrowds,andwithin amatter of

weeks therevivalhad sweptacross[the county of] Glamorganshire with tremendous power.The most significant feature of the revival was itsconcentration on the gift of the Holy Spirit: the meetings,even when Evan Roberts was present, were conductedwith complete spontaneity. People were urged to pray,testify, confess, or sing as the Spirit moved them.2

Roberts usually was not even up in the pulpit. He

could be found more often bent down on the floor inprayer. In fact, that was a common plea of his: Bend us,O Lord! Bend us! As the revival picked up momentum,news reporters started showing up, as well as prominentclergy from London and elsewhere. Often the churchwould be so packed that they couldnt get inside; theywould be out on the sidewalk craning their necks over thecrowds to get a glimpse through the open door. WheresEvan Roberts? they would ask one another in vain.

Critics had their say, of course. They sneered that thisyoung man was far too young and unprepared to be

leading anything. One biographer tells about a momentof high drama when a man who belonged to a local circleof agnostics tried to interrupt Evanss exhortations. Hewanted to ask a question, he said, and he pushed forwardtowards the pulpit, but never got there. The Holy Spiritoverpowered the man; he collapsed and had to be helped;

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2R. Tudur Jones, Roberts, Evan John, in The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church (Grand

Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1978) p. 851


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he cried out for mercy and pardon. Soon there was a greatoutburst of joyful singing over a repentant rebel.3

DISCUSSIONWhat do you think Evan Roberts meant by

his unusual prayer Bend us, O Lord!? Whatwas he trying to say? How would you put this

in your own words?

The Welsh meetings were short-lived; by early 1906young Evan Roberts was feeling the pressure of publicexpectations, and some of his statements became erratic.Nevertheless, it is estimated that some 100,000 peoplegave themselves to Christ during this awakening. As oneAmerican visitor remarked, Some people think thisrevival is like the fizz of a bottle of pop. No! It is the fizz ofa fuse, and the dynamite is at the end of it.4

CHARLES PARHAM (1873 1928)That fuse was already sizzling in middle America,

where back in the fall of 1900 this former Methodistpreacher had started a small training institute in Topeka,Kansas, calledBethel BibleSchool. The40-somestudentsstudied and

also lived in anodd-looking15-room houseknown locallyas StonesFolly.

Right afterChristmas,Parham had toleave for athree-day

speakingengagement.He gave thestudents anassignment regarding the baptism of the Holy Spirit,

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3Brynmore Pierce Jones,An Instrument of Revival: The Complete Life of Evan Roberts (South Plainfield, N.J.:

Bridge, 1995) p. 464

Jones, p. 61


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which was (as weve already seen) widely preached aboutand desired throughout Christian circles. While Imaway, he said to the students, search to see if you canfind a Bible evidence of thisbaptism.

They did. They noticed in the Book of Acts that atleast three (and probably four) times, the infilling of theSpirit was accompanied by speaking in tongues (Acts 2:4;

10:44-46; 19:6; plus the case of 8:17-19, when somethinghappened that was visible enough to impress Simon thesorcerer). Upon Parhams return, they reported their

findings.He then called

for an all-nightprayer meeting onNew Years Eve.Sometime aftermidnight (thus onJanuary 1, 1901,

technically the firstday of the newcentury), a youngstudent namedAgnes Ozman askedhim to lay hands onher and pray that shemight receive thisbaptism. Parhamlater wrote:

Other students received a similar infilling in days tocomeand eventually, Parham as well. His school lastedonly one year, however, and he became an itinerantevangelist throughout Kansas and western Missouri. Bythe fall of 1905, he had opened another school in Houston,Texas: The Bible Training School, with about 25students.

A short, stocky man in his mid-30s wanted to enroll.

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Show this quotation.PowerPoint:I laid my hands upon her and prayed. Ihad scarcely repeated three dozen sentences when aglory fell upon her, a halo seemed to surround her headand face, and she began speaking the Chinese languageand was unable to speak English for three days. Whenshe tried to write in English to tell us her experience,she wrote in Chinese, copies of which we still have innewspapers printed at the time.


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He was poor, humble, and blind in one eye (due tosmallpox). He said hed done some preaching and wasordained by the Baptists. Parham was glad to accept him.There was only one problem: The man was blackson offormer slaves in Louisianaand Texas law decreed that nocoloreds were allowed to attend a white school.

But Charles Parham found a way around the racist

rule. He invited the would-be student to listen to hislectures by sitting out in the hall. The name of that eagerstudent was

WILLIAM J. SEYMOUR (1870 1922)Seymour gladly embraced the Bible teaching he heard,

at least in theory. When a black woman visiting from LosAngeles was baptized in the Spirit in a Parham meeting,she soon afterward invited Seymour to come out to herlittle group. He had no money for this, but Parham raisedan offering to pay his way. He headed west in February1906.

His first sermon in a smalllack Nazarene church in L.A. was

on Acts 2:4even though hehimself had not yet spoken intongues. The message did not goover well at all. When he returnedto preach in the evening service,he found that the pastor, awoman, had locked him out that

afternoon.Not knowing what else to do,

William Seymour found a room ina home at 214 Bonnie Brae Street,where he started home prayermeetings. On April 9, 1906, eightpeople (including Seymour) fell to the floor speaking intongues. This drew a crowd of blacks and whites, too.

One who was present was Emma Cotton, whoreported: People came from everywhere. By the nextmorning there was no getting near the house. As the

people came they would fall under the power, and thewhole city was stirred. The sick were healed and sinnerssaved just as they came in.

In fact, the front porch floor collapsed! They obviouslyneeded more space for the gatherings.

Soon they found an abandoned Methodist churchuilding at 312 Azusa Street. It measured only 40 x 60,ut it would have to do. It had most recently been a

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tenement house and a livery stable it was pretty much ashambles.

They set up planks of wood on top of empty nail kegsto seat maybe 30 people, arranged in a square. As theylooked around the neighborhood, they saw only atombstone shop, some stables, and a lumber yard. Well, atleast no one would complain about loud meetings. The

poor would feel right at home here.Revival broke out right away. Listen to eyewitness

Frank Bartleman:

Soon the meetings were running day and night.The place was packed out nightly. There were far

more white people than colored coming. The colorline was washed away in the blood[of Christ].

The Spirit was very sensitive, tender as a dove.We knew the moment we had grieved the Spirit, by anunkind thought or word. The Lord fought our battlesfor us in those days.

We had a tarrying room upstairs, for thoseespecially seeking God for the baptism, thoughmany got it in the main assembly room also. On thewall of the tarrying room was hung a placard with thewords, No talking above a whisper. We knew

nothing of jazzing them through at that time. TheSpirit wrought very deeply. An unquiet spirit, or athoughtless talker, was immediately reproved by theSpirit. We were on holy ground.5

Brother Seymour generally sat behind twoempty shoe boxes[actually, crates], one on top of the

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Show this quotation(abbreviated on slide).

5Frank Bartleman,Azusa Street(South Plainfield, N.J.: Bridge, 1980) pp. 54-55


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other. He usually kept his head inside the top oneduring the meeting, in prayer. There was no pridethere. The services ran almost continuously. Seekingsouls could be found under the power almost anyhour, night and day. The place was never closed orempty. The people came to meet God.6

A reporter from theLos Angeles Daily Times,however, was not nearly so impressed. His front-pagestory on April 18 ran as follows:

WEIRD BABEL OF TONGUESBreathing strange utterances and mouthing a

creed which it would seem no sane mortal couldunderstand, the newest sect has started in Los

Angeles.Meetings are held in a tumble-down shack on

Azusa Street, near San Pedro Street, and the devoteesof the weird doctrine practice the most fanatical rites,preach the wildest theories and work themselves intoa state of mad excitement in their peculiar zeal.Colored people and a sprinkling of whites composethe congregation, and night is made hideous in theneighborhood by the howlings of the worshippers,who spend hours swaying forth and back in a nerve-wracking attitude of prayer and supplication.

The article went on to scorn Seymour as an oldcolored exhorter, blind in one eye who acted as major-domo of the company, causing colored mammys togurgle wordless talk in a frenzy of religious zeal.

Well believe it or not, thatvery day (April 18, 1906),

Show this newspaper.

6Bartleman, p. 58


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the West Coast was shaken by the great San Franciscoearthquake. People felt its tremors even in Los Angeles,and those at the Azusa Street Mission wondered if Godwasnt trying to get the worlds attention.

Perhaps just as amazing is that these daily meetingson Azusa Street went on nonstopfor 3 years! The

worlds hunger for the power of the Spirit was catapultedto a whole new level.

Heres a picture of the leadership team. As you cansee, it crossed both racial and gender lines.

Yes, there were some excesses in the meetings.Spiritists dropped by from time to time and tried to take

over. If Seymour happened to be upstairs at the moment,where he lived with a number of the other workers, hewould have to intervene. His footsteps would be heardcoming down the stairs when correction was needed.

But in time, the wheat was sorted from the chaff. ToWilliam Seymour, tongues was not the main thing thatmany critics tried to portray. One day he reproved themeeting by saying, in essence, I see too many folkscoming in here just seeking the tongues. When you go tothe shoe store to buy a pair of shoes, you dont say to theclerk, Id like to buy a pair of tongues. You buy the shoes,

and the tongues come with them!So dont go out of here talking about tongues; talkabout Jesus.

Charles Fox Parham, his mentor, eventually came tovisitAzusa Street and was displeased. He found it tooemotional. Sadly, he was also put off by the multi-racialnature of the congregation. His ministry seemed todecline thereafter.

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Other visitors, however, came with open hearts andminds to receive all that God might have for them. Theyincluded:

Ernest S. Williams and Stanley Frodshameventual leaders in the Assemblies of God

Charles H. Mason, who returned toMemphis and founded the Church of God in Christ(the fourth largest U.S. denomination today, largelyAfrican-American)

Gaston B. Cashwell, who took the messageback to North Carolina to form the Church of God(now headquartered in Cleveland, Tenn.)

William Durham, a Baptist who returned toChicago to articulate Spirit baptism at his NorthAvenue Mission

R. E. McAllister and A. H. Argue, whobecame founding fathers of the PentecostalAssemblies of Canada

T. B. Barratt, a Norwegian pastor whoreturned to greatly influence revival in northernEurope

William Seymour pastored the mission until his death1922. His widow then took his place, until she died in1936. The building was eventually razed, after theAssemblies of God turned down an offer to buy it, sayingthey were not interested in relics. Today, if you go tothat address, theres only a small plaque.7

The effect of the Azusa awakening is seen rather in the

spiritual quickening that has since infused many branchesof the church around the world. Granted, not everythinghas always been done in a fitting and orderly way, as theapostle Paul directed (1 Cor. 14:40). But his otherinstruction is just as relevant: Do not put out the Spiritsfire (1 Thess. 5:19).

What should we learn from Azusa Street? One studycommittee8 listed these five marks:

7This location312 Azusa Streetis less than a mile from downtown Los Angeles and not to be confused

with the suburb of Azusa, Calif., some 25 miles northeast, which is the home of the well-known Christian liberal-

arts school Azusa Pacific University.8

Assemblies of God Spiritual Life Committee report, 1991


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Now this may seem like an awkward point at whichto end our review of the Great Cloud of Witnesses.However, the fact is that the Spirits activity since the early1900s would require another whole course. Maybe it is

etter for us, at this point, to embrace what we havelearned so farand to seek the empowerment of the Spiritfor ourselves. After all, we all need itand continually. AsD. L. Moody said, were leaky vessels. We need the HolySpirit to fill us again and again.

To the leader: This session has deliberately been builtto be shorter. This allows you, at this point, to guide therest of the time into a season of prayer and waiting uponGod. Dont be in a rush. Invite the Holy Spirit to breatheupon your group and do whatever he wishes.

At the end of the meeting, theres one final Whispersof the Divine Wind for you to distribute.

Show this slide (abbreviated).PowerPoint:1. A great hunger for God2. A love across barriers of race and class3. A commitment to Gods Word

As William Seymour wrote in theSeptember 1907 issue ofTheApostolic

Faith newspaper: We are measuringeverything by the Word, every experiencemust measure up with the Bible. Somesay that is going too far[i.e., being toorestrictive], but if we have lived too closeto the Word, we will settle that with theLord when we meet Him in the air.

4. A dedication to evangelism and missions5. A commitment to restoring the New Testament

church

leader session 9--a fuse is lit

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