On Sunday, April 27, we will celebrate our United Methodist heritage. Many have commented to me that I had to become a Methodist preacher with the name John Wesley Taylor. It took me many years to appreciate the person whom I was named after. John Wesley was the founder of the Methodist Church. The first biography I read about John Wesley was entitled, Knight of the Burning Heart, the Story of John Wesley, written by Leslie F. Church. I learned that Wesley was born in England in 1703, the fifteenth child, and second surviving son of Susanna and Samuel Wesley. His father was the pastor of Epworth Church. He raised his children in an atmosphere of Puritan discipline.
When John Wesley was five years old , the Epworth Parsonage caught on fire in the night. All of the children were removed safely from the house, but when they were counted, John was missing. A farmer from nearby spotted little John looking out of an upstairs window amid the leaping flames. Several neighbors climbed on each other’s shoulders, ‘till the man on top was able to put his arms around the boy and pull him out of the flames to safety. Only moments after he was rescued, the entire house exploded in flames. Ever after, for the rest of his life, John Wesley referred to himself “as a brand plucked from the burning,” quoting Zechariah 3:2, which says, “Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?” (Zechariah 3:2). John Wesley was certain that he was saved by God for a reason.
As a young man, John and his brother Charles went to Oxford University. Influenced by the home schooling he received from his mother Susanna Wesley, John was a very serious young man. At Oxford he became the leader of a small group of serious Christian young men called the “Holy Club.” Some called this band of devote Christians, ‘Methodists’ because of their methodical spiritual practices and desire for personal and social holiness.
But it was not until several years later that John Wesley came under the influence of Martin Luther’s writings and experienced a true ‘born again’ conversion.
John and his brother Charles were sent by the Church of England as missionaries to Georgia, in the American colony. On board the ship, while sailing to America, he saw a group of German Moravians who were unafraid of a great storm that nearly destroyed the ship. John himself was terrified by the storm. But those German Christians sang songs and had no fear. This impressed him greatly.
John failed as a missionary in Georgia. During this time, he realized that he had never been truly converted. As he left Georgia for a return trip to England, he knew he had failed. He wrote in his journal, “I went to America to convert the Indians; but O! who shall convert me? Who shall deliver me from this heart of unbelief? O, who will deliver me from the fear of death?”
When he got back to London, John Wesley met Peter Bohler, a member of the group of German Moravians who had impressed him with their braveness during that storm at sea. Peter Bohler instructed him in how to experience conversion. The counseling of Bohler and his readings from Luther’s commentary on Galatians, which emphasized justification by faith in Christ alone, prepared him for true conversion.
“In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society [Bible study group] in Aldersgate, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while [Luther] was describing the change which God works in the heart though faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for my salvation; and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and had saved me from the law of sin and death.” This happened on May 24, 1738.
His brother Charles Wesley had been converted a few days earlier. Now they were ready to join together to lead the First Great Awakening in England, along with the great preacher George Whitefield, a friend of theirs from school days at Oxford.
John Wesley began preaching the new birth in various Anglican churches around the London area. Again and again, he was shut out of those churches for his strong preaching on the need of the new birth. The ministers were afraid of strong preaching on this subject. At last there was no church that would let him preach. It was then that his longtime friend George Whitefield persuaded him to speak outdoors in the open fields. He began preaching in the fields near Bristol in 1739. The First Great Awakening in England had begun. The fire of revival would sweep across the world during his long lifetime, due to the preaching of John and Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, Howell Harris and other Methodists.
During the following fifty years John Wesley rode 250,000 miles on the roads of England, Scotland and Ireland. He gave over 42,000 sermons, always preaching twice each day, and often three or four times daily, for fifty years. His tireless work changed British society and made evangelistic Christianity a life-giving force throughout the English-speaking world.
While riding from one preaching engagement to another, he was constantly reading and writing - on horseback! He published 233 books.
His desire to give poor people cheaper and plainer books led Wesley to become a prolific author of educational works, translations from Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, histories of Rome and England, Bible commentaries, and books of sermons. He compiled an English dictionary, published twenty-three collections of hymns, and recorded his preaching experiences in a daily Journal from 1735 to 1790. His journals make up 4 volumes, each about 500 pages long. His medical handbook went through 23 editions in his life time, and 9 after his death. He became a very rich man through the sale of his books - but he gave every cent that he made away to help spread the Gospel of Christ.
John Wesley was instrumental in the abolition of slavery, which he condemned often and wrote against. He also worked diligently for civil rights, and popular education.
At the age of 86 he was still preaching to huge gatherings of people two and three times a day, seven days a week. On October 7, 1790 he preached his last outdoor sermon in a churchyard in Kent. His last sermon was given in a house in the country village of Leatherhead on February 23, 1791. His last sermon text was,“Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near” (Isaiah 55:6).
A few days later, at 10:00 in the morning, on March 2, 1791 John Wesley spoke his final words, “Best of all, the Lord is with us.” Thousands of people walked by his open coffin in the City Road Chapel in London. John Whitehead preached from II Samuel 3:38 at his funeral, “Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel?”
John Wesley and his brother Charles worked tirelessly among the poor, though many of the “great” people of that day heard them preach as well. His brother Charles wrote over 5,000 hymns, many of which are still sung today.
The Methodist Episcopal Church in America officially began at the Baltimore Christmas Conference in 1784. Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke were the first bishops.
Circuit riders, many of whom were laymen, traveled by horseback to preach the gospel and establish churches until there was scarcely any crossroad community in the United States without a Methodist presence. The old saying goes that the first sound in the new frontier was the sound of the pioneer’s ax and the second sound was the ‘hello’ from the Methodist preacher.
I am proud that I am named after a man who loved the Lord with such passion. As we celebrate our 150 years as a church in Westborough, MA, it is important to learn of our Methodist roots. Let us all pray how the Lord can bring a revival to our area through our church. The message of the saving grace of Jesus is as profound today as when Wesley preached in the open fields of England. People are hungry for the Gospel and we are blessed to be prepared to share it it with them. As we look back and celebrate, let us be inspired to go forward with as much enthusiasm for the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the Methodists of old. Amen!
In Christian Love,
Pastor John
P.S. I recommend a wonderful, short video, by Rev. Steve Perry, entitled History of the United Methodist Church.
Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wesley
http://www.rlhymersjr.com/Online_Sermons/2006/022606PM_PluckedOut.html
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