Intro to John Wesley, Men's Bible Study

John Wesley: Inspired Beginnings

John Wesley (1703-1791)

In 1709 when John was five years old, the Wesley family’s home caught fire while they slept. His parents, Samuel and Susanna, managed to get John’s siblings out of the house, but John was trapped on the second floor. As the house weakened, a neighbor, standing on the shoulders of other men, pulled John from the window before the roof collapsed.

“a brand plucked from the fire.”

Child of, Samuel and Susanna Wesley

John was 15 of 19 children (charles the great hymn writer, was the 18th of 19th).

John was a replacement child as well. He was already only the second surviving son.

Very driven in his family.

Methodical parents:

Each child began school on his or her fifth birthday. School hours were from 9-12 and 2-5 with no interruptions. All the children learned the alphabet on the first day, apart from 2 of the girls who took a day and a half. No lesson was left until it was perfect. Before the close of morning school each child repeated what had been learned. Before work finished in the afternoon, the whole day’s work was repeated.

Susanna instilled in her children that to do anything, you must do it right. Seek the method and set out to live by that method.

I want to talk about a few important dates for John Wesley as a way to frame his life and then briefly talk about some influences if we have time:

Aldersgate, May 24, 1738

Some context though:

Wesley and his brother Charles were Oxford-trained, ordained clergymen in the Church of England. While at Oxford, they founded a small group of men who were derisively called by their peers the “Holy Club.” George Whitfield, prominent revivalist in England and later in the colonies. Around the same time they began to be called Methodists. Originally applied to an obscure ancient sect of physicians, it was the name that stuck; thus, Oxford Methodism was born. The sole design of these Methodists was, as Wesley put it, to be “downright Bible-Christians; taking the Bible, as interpreted by the primitive church [early church fathers] … for their whole and sole rule.”[i]

He was ordained and given a fellowship at Oxford.

Then a part of an association was commissioned to travel to Georgia to spread the gospel. Now, mind you, he notes that he goes to “save his own soul.” Although he was baptized as an infant, professed faith in Christ, ordained and preaching in the Church of England, he still was burdened that there was something missing.

On this ship, you can track his journal and experiences there. This was a long and dangerous voyage. I was surprised in my studies to see the religious activity that took place. Daily meetings, prayer, Holy communion, worship, preaching.

On January 25, 1736, the ship ran into very dangerous weather. Reports from the journal of the ship actually breaking apart and waves sweeping over the ship. The journal entry from that day is almost difficult to decipher because of the waves of the storm.

In worship there is ecstatic behavior from the English. Wailing and fear ceases them. But directly in their community as way of contrast are the German Moravians who are calm, peaceful, and resolved in their worship. This stuck with Wesley. He began to build relationships with the Moravians. It is believed that the first precursors of the band meetings are inspired in fellowship there.

Georgia is a disaster though. A failed love interest, failed mission. He does not convert a single soul, and he returns to England distraught.

He begins a relationship with Peter Bohler, Moravian, who further convinces him to preach faith until he has it.

What is amazing to him from Bohler and the Moravians is this belief in an inner transformation.

Church of England (Anglican): roughly and broadly, believed mental assent to propositional truth.

Aldersgate:

In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading [Martin] Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.

This isnt just some conversion or special moment, it now becomes so personal and real for him. There is a real and relative change.

The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church Wesley, John

Henceforth Welsey’s professed object was ‘to promote as far as I am able vital practical religion and by the grace of God to beget, preserve, and increase the life of God in the souls of men’, and the rest of his life was spent in evangelistic work.

Fetter Lane Watch Night, January 1, 1739

A lot of scholars have begun to unpack this second event as one that is perhaps even more significant than the aldersgate experience. Up to this point, he is preaching with boldness and courage but people kind of think he is crazy. You say you were not even Christian and yet you were ordained years before!

In the Fetter Lane society they were having a New Years watchnight service where they are praying and worshipping through the night. It is a vigil of sort and during that time, those gather there have a Charismatic or penecostal type experience.

Scott Kisker argues that this “is the key event that caused the fruit of his life.”

Manifestations of the Holy Spirit for the next season that were so profound that this stodgy C of E guy is struggling with.

Jan 1, 1739 New Years in London. 6 months after Wesley’s aldersgate experience. John, Charles and George Whitfield are praying together: suddenly the Holy Spirit comes on them mightily and they leave that prayer meeting changed people.

That very year: John Wesley began his field preaching career and England would never be the same

That very year: 50 of Charles Wesley’s hymns were published and he would write 6,000 more after that point

That very year: George Whitfield made his 1st voyage to America and his preaching in Philadelphia was such that it moved the whole city to the point that Benjamin Franklin wrote: “It seems as if the whole world is turning religious.”

Prophetic Preaching: A path chosen

Remember, he is a fellow at Oxford. He has this prestigious position where he is essentially a teacher/tutor at the school. Such a big deal that when his dad is writing to him during this time, Samuel talks about how bad things are in his life, “but at least my Jacky is a fellow at Lincoln College at Oxford.

Because of this position, he is on the rotation of preachers for the St. Mary’s Cathedral there. A historic place and prestigious opportunity. John has status and stability. He is a sought after preacher and asked to preach more than others.

John Wesley preached the sermon “Scriptural Christianity” at St. Mary’s, Oxford University as the final sermon he preached before the university on August 24, 1744. In this sermon, Wesley bluntly confronts Oxford University with their failure to live according to the teaching of Scripture. When you read this sermon, you will likely not be surprised to find out that this was the last time Wesley was invited to preach at St. Mary’s.

Here is a quote where he confront the Oxford system, the city, and the congregation:

May it not be one of the consequences of this that so many of you are a generation of triflers; triflers with God, with one another, and with your own souls? For how few of you spend, from one week to another, a single hour in private prayer? How few have any thought of God in the general tenor of your conversation? Who of you is in any degree acquainted with the work of his Spirit? His supernatural work in the souls of men? Can you bear, unless now and then in a church, any talk of the Holy Ghost? Would you not take it for granted if one began such a conversation that it was either ‘hypocrisy’ or ‘enthusiasm’? In the name of the Lord God Almighty I ask, What religion are you of? Even the talk of Christianity ye cannot, will not, bear! O my brethren! What a Christian city is this? ‘It is time for thee, Lord, to lay to thine hand!’….

Lord, save, or we perish! Take us out of the mire, that we sink not! O help us against these enemies! For vain is the help of man. Unto thee all things are possible. According to the greatness of thy power, preserve thou those that are appointed to die. And preserve us in the manner that seemest thee good; not as we will, but as thou wilt! [IV. 10-11]

This was his launching point, choosing to forgo stability and status to follow where he believed God was calling him. “A generation of triflers” ....I have often thought I would be accused of trifling by JW on many occasions.

Eventually he would be shut out of pulpits across the country.

Critical Influences and Divisions

Moravian conflict

In the beginning of his own faith, Wesley’s soteriology was strongly influenced and then formed in divergence from several mentors and colleagues. First, justification by faith and the assurance of faith takes shape with Peter Bohler and the Moravians but eventually separates to emphasize an experiential difference in being justified by sins and receiving all that is promised in justification. Bohler believed a degree of doubt was indication of a lack of saving faith.[1]

[1]Richard P. Heitzenrater, Wesley and the People Called Methodists, 2nded. (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2013), 114-115

1. Any doubt was a sign that saving faith did not exist

2. They promoted passive waiting for the gift of salvation (Wesley went to Aldersgate)

Calvinism

Wesley’s doctrine of justification of faith was also shaped by the delineation from Calvinist teaching. He went to great lengths to hold together the free grace of God and the personal work of repentance that was enabled by that free grace.[1]

[1]Collins, The Theology of John Wesley, 160-164.

The first key concern had to do with the character of God. It is a mistake to think that Wesley’s rejection of unconditional election was rooted in an optimistic view of human nature, as opposed to a more robust Calvinist understanding of depravity.  Wesley agreed with the historic Calvinist position on total depravity.  As Randy Maddox writes,

“the fundamental difference between Wesley and his Calvinist opponents really lies more in their respective understandings of the nature of God than in their evaluation of the human situation.” (Responsible Grace, p. 55-56).

Wesley felt that the idea of absolute unconditional predestination by divine decree was inconsistent with God’s justice, as well as his love and goodness.

Wesley’s second key concern related to the character of the Christian life. Wesley worried about the pastoral effect of preaching a Calvinist approach to predestination, feeling that it would lead to antinomianism.  If salvation is unconditionally established by an eternal decree, why would any of us concern ourselves with obedience and discipleship?

Wesley felt the Calvinist approach undercut the pursuit of holiness, because the connection between God’s gift and our response is marginalized.  In his 1739 sermon, “Free Grace,” which ignited the first round of public controversy with Whitefield, Wesley wrote,

“So directly does this doctrine tend to shut the very gate of holiness in general, to hinder unholy men from ever approaching thereto, or striving to enter thereat.” Sermon 110 [number 128 in the older Jackson numbering], “Free Grace,” §11.

Church of England

Evangelicalism

What caused the split from the Church of England?

David Bebbington’s fourfold definition of evangelicalism is mostly accurate of this time and into modern experiences:

conversionism: the belief that lives need to be changed

activism: the expression of the gospel in effort

biblicism: a particular regard for the Bible

crucicentrism: a stress on the sacrifice of Christ on the cross

of the four though, conversionism really reigns supreme.

There was a growing group of Anglican colleagues that began to speak in this matter and take on these beliefs. Think about Aldersgate, Ryan Danker writes:

“These evangelical leaders found their identities in their religious experience and even defined themselves by telling stories of their conversions. The Aldersgate experience of May 24, 1738, then, was not only Wesley’s entrance into a larger spiritual movement but Wesley’s evangelical conversion. As an evangelical conversion, the question is not whether John Wesley was a Christian before or after. Such a question is not necessary to the historical enterprise. Within Anglicanism the quest of whether one was a Christian would have been directly related to baptism. Modern evangelicalism, mostly devoid of Anglicanism’s sacramental theology, has been perplexed by the nature of Wesley’s conversion in part because of an inability to place Wesley within the context of his Anglican heritage.”

The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church Wesley, John

At the time of his death there were 294 preachers and 71,668 members in Great Britain, 19 missionaries and 5,300 members on mission stations, and 198 preachers and 43,265 members in America.