Faith on Fire: Defending the Faith through a Wesleyan Lens

Wesleyan Apologetics

“True to the cross of Jesus, Christian persuasion has to be cross-shaped in its manner just as it is cross-centered in its message.” Os Guinness, fool’s Talk

“Christianity is essentially a reasonable religion. It is not a religion of enthusiasm, but of sober, rational piety.”- J.W. (The Principles of a Methodist Farther Explained)

“In all cases we must judge according to the evidence before us. To believe without evidence is not faith, but credulity.” J.W. (Sermon 70, The Case of Reason Impartially Considered)

Readings:

John 16:7–14 NRSV

Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned. “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

Romans 8:14–16 NRSV

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

Main Points

The Spirit was working before we spoke, and He is still working after we speak.

The Spirit is the Primary Evangelist: it’s not our persuasion but God’s action that changes hearts.

Biblical examples:

Ezekiel 36:25–27 “I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances.”

Ezra 1:1–4 “In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, in order that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of King Cyrus of Persia so that he sent a herald throughout all his kingdom, and also in a written edict declared: “Thus says King Cyrus of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem in Judah. Any of those among you who are of his people—may their God be with them!—are now permitted to go up to Jerusalem in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel—he is the God who is in Jerusalem; and let all survivors, in whatever place they reside, be assisted by the people of their place with silver and gold, with goods and with animals, besides freewill offerings for the house of God in Jerusalem.””

Acts 8:26–39 “Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a wilderness road.) So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.” So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this: “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away…”

Acts 9:1–6 “Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.””

The Spirit reveals Christ: All true apologetics leads not just to an idea, but to a person—Jesus Christ.

1 John 5:1–12 NRSV

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one that testifies, for the Spirit is the truth. There are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood, and these three agree. If we receive human testimony, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that he has testified to his Son. Those who believe in the Son of God have the testimony in their hearts. Those who do not believe in God have made him a liar by not believing in the testimony that God has given concerning his Son. And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life in Spirit that we are children of God,

The Holy Spirit goes out from the Father to the recipient that revelation takes place.

“No amount of mere reading the written Word (in the Bible) and no amount of listening to man's testimony will ever bring us to a living knowledge of Christ. It is only when the Holy Spirit Himself takes the written Word, or takes the testimony of our fellow man, and interprets it directly to our hearts that we really come to see and know Jesus as He is.” — R.A. Torrey

Why does it matter that the Spirit reveals Jesus as “a person”?

John 14, The Holy Spirit reveals the truth, the Truth is the Word of God made flesh in the 2nd person of the Trinity Jesus the Christ. The Holy Spirit affirms the historical claims made by the God/ Human that is Jesus. If it were not the case the Holy Spirit’s testimony would highlight merely a concept or an idea and invalidates the authority and claims of the historical Jesus. Jesus lived a fully human life. Jesus experienced temptation, hunger, and death which invites believers into a relationship to the God who understands the human predicament. Galatians 4:5 “in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.”

Hebrews 4:15 “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.”

When Jesus is face to face with Pontius Pilate in the Passion Narrative, it is interesting that he asks the question “What is truth?” when responding to Jesus’s statement that he came to “testify to the Truth”. Jesus is in fact the Truth, the Word made flesh standing in front of Pilate, and Pilate is completely ignorant.

Colossians 1:15–20 “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.”

The Spirit prepares and guides: Through prevenient grace, the Spirit softens hearts before we ever say a word.

Prevenient Grace: The grace of God at work in the hearts of all people that enables humanity to recognize and respond that there is a Supreme Creator of all things.

Romans 1:19–20 NRSV

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse;

Luke 12:11–12 NRSV

When they bring you before the synagogues, the rulers, and the authorities, do not worry about how you are to defend yourselves or what you are to say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that very hour what you ought to say.”

Wesleyan Tie-In:

Without the preparatory work of the Holy Spirit, no human effort could save a soul.

Apologetics goes wrong when it is merely a system of rhetorical style, or charismatic personality instead than reliant on the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.

Discussion Questions:

How does it change your confidence knowing the Spirit, not you, is the main evangelist? What are some signs that the Spirit is already working in someone's life? How should our prayer life change if we believe the Spirit convicts hearts? (Encourage real-life examples from their own conversations or evangelism experiences.)

The whole of the Trinity is involved in apologetics: “From the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit, is the world created, saved, and brought to its end”— Kathryn Tanner

Acts 1:8 NRSV

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

“The cross, a symbol of humility and suffering should shape the way we apologetics.”—Mark Allen

Apologetics is first and foremost a witness to the love of God in the world acting on our behalf.- Todd Christine

John 16:8 NRSV

And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment:

John Wesley quotes on reasonable faith that would fit into an apologetics sermon:

1. On faith and reason together:

"It is a fundamental principle with us that to renounce reason is to renounce religion, that religion and reason go hand in hand, and that all irrational religion is false religion." (John Wesley, "Letter to a Roman Catholic")

2. On Christianity as a reasonable faith:

"Christianity is essentially a reasonable religion. It is not a religion of enthusiasm, but of sober, rational piety." (John Wesley, "The Principles of a Methodist Farther Explained")

3. On the necessity of evidence for belief:

"In all cases we must judge according to the evidence before us. To believe without evidence is not faith, but credulity." (John Wesley, Sermon 70, "The Case of Reason Impartially Considered")

4. On the role of reason in understanding Scripture:

"Reason is the candle of the Lord which enlightens every man that cometh into the world. Without it, we could not know God, or His Word, or ourselves." (John Wesley, Sermon 70, "The Case of Reason Impartially Considered")

5. On reason as a divine gift:

"The God of reason gave you your reason for this very end, to employ it, not to extinguish it." (John Wesley, "Letter to a Roman Catholic")

Summary idea you could weave in: Wesley saw no conflict between a vibrant, living faith and a robust use of reason. For him, true Christianity was neither blind credulity nor cold rationalism but a harmonious relationship where reason leads us to recognize and trust the truth of God’s revelation.