Do We Need A Jesus Revolution?

The new movie entitled “The Jesus Revolution” about how God moved in the late 1960s and early 1970s  seems to be making a positive impact on people. I, for one, was moved by watching it with my wife Susan as we both got saved when this powerful movement was happening. The question will be will this film inspire people to seek a “Jesus Revolution” in their own lives?

I wanted to give my take on the movie because I gave my life to Christ at the end of 1969 when this spiritual revolution was just taking off. I can remember driving many times down to Costa Mesa, Ca., where it all started. This drive took about 8 hours one way from where I lived in Santa Cruz, Ca., but was well worth the time and money. In the midst of these services the focus was on the person of Jesus and his power to forgive your past and give you a brand new start in life. The Holy Spirit used powerful worship to draw people to this huge circus tent that pastor Chuck Smith put up on a vacant lot. The tent was far bigger than the movie was able to portray.

The major focus again was “Come To Jesus” and he will change your life! People were so hungry for a real encounter with God that distance or difficulties would not keep them away. People were finally understanding that Jesus is more than a historical figure, He was in fact alive and well and would change anyone coming to meet him. The idea of Jesus being the good shepherd was so real and tangible that people were being converted not just entertained. This is the evidence of a real revival versus just some good meetings.

John 10:7-9

So Jesus said to them again, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. “All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.

What the movie didn’t seem to portray well was the fact that there were many music bands playing during this revival. Remember this was going on a for a number of years before it started to spread across the country and rock bands were being converted to Jesus and thus they were leading worship out of their own encounters with Jesus.

Many of these band members had just gotten saved themselves, causing them to write fresh new songs about their own radical experiences with Jesus and in my view was more powerful than any regular preaching could ever produce. A person with an active testimony of God’s grace is so powerful to penetrate the hardest of hearts where preaching often falls on deaf ears.

The news of people having encounters with the living Christ was captivating people’s attention, even in the secular world, and people were driving across the country just to see if these stories were real or just hype. The unique thing about these gatherings was that they went on for hours and days. It wasn’t about one person or one band it was about everyone having a true and real  encounter with the living Christ. How often our church services seem to just talk about God and not about having a real encounter with him then and there. These services were different and they were redefining church for many people.

When I watched hundreds of people coming to be baptized in the film it reminded me of what it felt like to be a part of such a move of God. I remember the first experience of seeing people being baptized in the Pacific Ocean and how public it was. This caused a stir in many churches because baptism had become just for believers and not to impact the world through public testimony. Baptism was no longer just in a church service or in a building, it was out in the open for all to see.  These baptisms were life-changing and not just an emotional high as some people complained about. God was doing brand new things in young believers because they were giving open testimonies to the world around them.

Every great move of God will always have people complaining it’s just emotion and not truly about God and yet the evidence of changed lives during this time speaks loudly otherwise. For myself and others, it changed the whole purpose of our lives. Jesus became the center of our lives and not just a weekend focus. It changed us for the rest of our lives.

Another thing that the movie wasn’t able to make clear was the fact that it wasn’t just hippies coming to Christ because of their messed up lives, it was every age group and background in life being impacted. Yes, the young people who were defined as hippies, or surfers or drug addicts were coming to Jesus first because of their great need. They were the initial people God moved on, yet it expanded to include every walk of life and every type of person. Eventually this revival spread powerfully from the west coast to the east cost of America and beyond. When I was in Sweden in 1977 and again in 1979 I saw evidence of people hearing stories of this revival and the people there wanted the same thing.

Let me close but saying I’m glad such a film was made to educate everyone who sees it. Today, some 50 years later, many people don’t know there was a revival that shook America. I pray this film will affect the whole body of Christ so we can expect Jesus to become our passionate focus again. What God did in the past he can, and desires, to do again if people just get hungry for God. The only thing that keeps any of us from experiencing such an encounter with God is our lack of hunger and our lack of resolve to seek him.

Jeremiah 29:13

‘You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.’

Questions:

1) Do you need a “Spiritual Revolution” today? All it takes is an honest assessment of where your life is with Jesus and and then a sincere confession to God.

2) Are you in a healthy church that helps you to walk a “Jesus Lifestyle?” If not, seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance to a church family that believes in following hard after God and has the love of God being manifested.

May God move in our lives to quicken our souls to the life we were meant to live for God and not this world.

Pastor Dale