The significance of the experience was not that it provided him with a new theology, but a new dynamic. From that moment he had a heart on fire with a message which he was compelled to proclaim.
As Skevington Wood remarks, 'No doubt many of his qualities already lay hidden within his personality, but it was only at the touch of the Spirit that they sprang to life'. If Wesley hoped following Aldersgate Street that the churches would welcome him with open arms he was mistaken.
Instead, one church door after another closed to him. Yet God was opening up a new way. In Whitefield invited him to take over the work he had begun in Bristol, preaching to crowds in the open-air. Wesley's Journal tells the immortal story: 'At four in the afternoon I submitted to be more vile and proclaimed in the highways the glad tidings of salvation'. At last he had found his mission. He had been liberated from the pulpit and given to a people eager to hear the word of life.
Luke Tyerman has calculated that of the sermons delivered between April and December , only eight were in churches. Open-air preaching was always difficult for him, but the evidence was clear. This was the way that ordinary people were to be reached with the gospel. The preacher had been moulded by the hand of God. The commitment to biblical truth he learned from his father, his mother's spiritual pragmatism, the dynamic imparted by the Aldersgate Street experience, the opportunity afforded by Whitefield's invitation; all now came together.
John Wesley's real preaching ministry was about to begin. For Wesley biblical authority was absolute. He was not ashamed to be identified as a biblical preacher. Indeed, this was the secret of his effectiveness. He confessed himself to be homo unius libri, a man of one book, and he boldly declared the truth irrespective of any offence it caused to his hearers.
However, it would be wrong to speak of Wesley as an expository preacher in the way we understand that phrase today. His printed sermons have a number of main points, each with sub-points, and each built on the one preceeding it in a systematic and logical way.
It is easy to understand that they were written by someone who had taught logic at Oxford! But did he preach in the same way that he wrote? It is difficult to believe that the crowds were so stirred by the contents of the published sermons! It is clear that Wesley did write his sermons.
Episode Interview with Christine Hides. Scott interviews author, psychologist, and third-degree black belt, Angela Schaffner. Scott and Angela explore self-awareness as a means to Chris. Episode Beyond Small Groups Part 2. Scott caught up with author and coach Scott Boren. He averaged 15 sermons a week, and as his Journal indicates, he preached more than 40, sermons in his career, traveling the length and breadth of England—altogether more than , miles—many times during an age when roads were often only muddy ruts.
A contemporary described him as "the last word … in neatness and dress" and "his eye was 'the brightest and most piercing that can be conceived. Preaching was not easy; crowds were often hostile, and once a bull was let loose in an audience he was addressing. Wesley, however, quickly learned the art of speaking and, despite opposition, his sermons began to have a marked effect.
Many were converted immediately, frequently exhibiting physical signs, such as fits or trances. From the beginning Wesley viewed his movement as one within the Church of England and not in opposition to it. As he gained converts around England, however, these men and women grouped themselves together in societies that Wesley envisioned as playing the same role in Anglicanism as the monastic orders do in the Roman Catholic Church.
He took a continual and rather authoritarian part in the life of these societies, visiting them periodically, settling disputes, and expelling the recalcitrant.
Yearly conferences of the whole movement presented him with the opportunity to establish policy. Under his leadership each society was broken down into a "class, " which dealt with matters of finance, and a "band, " which set standards of personal morality. In addition, Wesley wrote numerous theological works and edited 35 volumes of Christian literature for the edification of the societies.
A tireless and consummate organizer, he kept his movement prospering despite a variety of defections. Yet the continual opposition of the Anglican bishops, coupled with their refusal to ordain Methodist clergy, forced Wesley to move closer to actual separation toward the end of his life.
In he took out a deed of declaration, which secured the legal standing of the Methodist Society after his death. In the same year he reluctantly ordained two men to serve as "superintendents" for Methodists in North America.
But to return. But he cannot be sanctified without faith. But the moment he believes, with or without those fruits, yea, with more or less of this repentance, he is sanctified. It remains, that faith is the only condition which is immediately and proximately necessary to sanctification. Till we are thoroughly satisfied of this, there in no moving one step further.
For as long as love takes up the whole heart, what room is there for sin therein. It is a divine evidence and conviction, secondly, that what God hath promised He is able to perform. But if God speaks, it shall be done. It is, thirdly, a divine evidence and conviction that He is able and willing to do it now. And why not Is not a moment to Him the same as a thousand years He cannot want more time to accomplish whatever is His will.
And He cannot want or stay for any more worthiness or fitness in the persons He is pleased to honour. To this confidence, that God is both able and willing to sanctify us now, there needs to be added one thing more, —a divine evidence and conviction that He doeth it.
And so He generally does; a plain fact, of which there is evidence enough to satisfy any unprejudiced person. Thou therefore look for it every moment! For were you to be disappointed of your hope, still you lose nothing. But you shall not be disappointed of your hope: it will come, and will not tarry.
Look for it then every day, every hour, every moment! Why not this hour, this moment Certainly you may look for it now, if you believe it is by faith. And by this token you may surely know whether you seek it by faith or by works. If by works, you want something to be done first, before you are sanctified.
You think, I must first be or do thus or thus. Then you are seeking it by works unto this day. If you seek it by faith, you may expect it as you are; and expect it now. It is of importance to observe, that there is an inseparable connexion between these three points, —expect it by faith; expect it as you are; and expect it now!
To deny one of them, is to deny them all; to allow one, is to allow them all. Stay for nothing: why should you Christ is ready; and He is all you want. He is waiting for you: He is at the door! Let your inmost soul cry out,. But sup with me, and let the feast Be everlasting love. Facebook 0 Twitter 2 Mix Reddit 0 Email 2 shares. Monday 8 November
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