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052420 Sermon John Louk 2 Peter 1:1-4 The Almost Chris.an Series: It’s a Brave New World (Aldersgate Day) Easter 7 May 24, 2020 2 Peter 1:1-4 Today is Aldersgate Day. On this day in 1738, John Wesley Major Claim felt his heart “strangely warmed.” His brother Charles had his own Upon Our Lives: conversion just three days before John’s. Together their changed lives gave UnVl one has experienced rise to a worldwide movement. This is considered one of the 100 most personal, hearfelt assurance of salvaVon, one is only an important events in ChrisVan history and especially important for us in the “almost ChrisVan” Methodist tradiVon. Our scripture today was read by John that decisive day. He opened his Bible at about five in the morning and came across these words. ☩ Introduc1on We live in what’s becoming a brave new world. Even in the midst of all the change and danger, a world of possibility awaits. We embark on a new adventure, going forth into this brave new world as the visible community of Jesus, showing the world what it means to be the world that God intended in creaon. As ChrisVans, we share in the koinonia fellowship we’re invited into as a community, acVvely caring for one another. In the midst of the difficulVes we encounter, we keep eyes on Jesus. Our goal is to interject Jesus into the conversaVons around us in the world. We keep moving forward rather than living off the past. But do you ever wonder or struggle if you’re really a ChrisVan? This is the story of John Wesley and his struggle with being an “almost ChrisVan.” The Story John’s father, Samuel, was a clergyman in the Church of England in Epworth. Apparently he didn’t keep really good records. John was born on June 17, 1703 but no one can tell for sure whether he was the 13th or 14th Wesley child. His mother, Susanna, was much more exacVng in the guidance of her children. She was one of the strongest influences on John’s life. Samuel tended to sVr up trouble in the parish. One night in 1709, the rectory [parsonage the pastor lived in] caught fire and the family barely escaped. The last to be rescued was licle John. Later, biographers looked back on John’s close encounter with death as a sign of divine providence. They said he was “a brand plucked from the burning” (Amos 4:11, Zech. 3:2) for special work. The terrible fire was of suspicious origin, so at an early age the Wesley boys learned that religion can sVr dangerous passions and that church people are not above meanness. 1 ｜ Page John Louk 2 Peter 1:1-4 The Almost Chris.an Series: It’s a Brave New World (Aldersgate Day) Easter 7 May 24, 2020 When John was a student at Oxford, he had an early and intense desire to deepen his spiritual life. Greatly influenced by a book on spiritual discipline, William Law’s Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life. The author invited people to become serious about their religion, to develop certain habits and pracVces which would keep the mind more conVnually focused upon God. Such discipline was acracVve to the young Mr. Wesley who was troubled in spirit and searching for some means of reassurance of the state of his own soul. Wesley had a reputaVon for being a methodical person as far back as these student days at Oxford. He began an extensive program of self-examinaVon, spiritual pulse-taking, and self-reform. In 1732 Wesley gathered 5-6 Oxford friends who shared his commitment to highly disciplined ChrisVan living and formed what was called the Holy Club. He insisted that the members of the Holy Club be disciplined, methodical in their study, prayer, and good works. Wesley called these pracVces the Means of Grace (worship, reading scripture, receiving Holy Communion, prayer, ChrisVan conversaVon, and doing good). These are the primary ways in which we receive God’s grace. “Methodism” was a term of contempt by observers of the odd, systemaVc spiritual exercises and methods of his Holy Club. He realized something important, though. These Vme-honored tradiVons, spiritual disciplines weren’t enough. That became even more clear when he traveled to America on a missionary journey. Wesley went to Georgia, here in the United States, in 1735-1737 to minister to the colonists and NaVve Americans. It was a painful journey for himself as well as the colonists he went to serve. While he was there he courted Miss Sophy Hopkey. Nothing shocking occurred between them. It was said that, for recreaVon, when he really wanted to show her a good Vme, Wesley read Miss Hopkey edifying works on church history! Later she dropped him for another man and Wesley retaliated by barring her from receiving Holy Communion (he invoked a fine point of church discipline against her). The rough Georgia colonists turned against the rigid, high-church, fasVdious Mr. Wesley. Disheartened he headed back to England. While sVll off the coast of England on his way home from Georgia, Wesley wrote in his journal, “I went to America to convert others, but who shall convert me?” On the way back from his frustraVng missionary journey to Georgia, in 1738, the unhappy Mr. Wesley met the Moravians, a German pieVsVc sect which stressed the need for an inner, personal assurance of salvaVon. Their firm, assured faith reminded Wesley of how uncertain his own faith was. The quesVon that tormented Wesley was the quesVon of the rich young ruler for Jesus: (Luke 18:18), “What must I do to be saved?” He was sVll working on the assumpVon that an assurance of salvaVon, knowing he was a true ChrisVan, was mostly a macer of affirming correct beliefs and performing appropriate acVon. But he longed for the firm, assure faith of the Moravians. 2 ｜ Page John Louk 2 Peter 1:1-4 The Almost Chris.an Series: It’s a Brave New World (Aldersgate Day) Easter 7 May 24, 2020 Wesley’s personal assurance of salvaVon was to come a few months later in London in May 1738, just three days amer his brother Charles reported a “strange palpitaVon of the heart” on Pentecost which enlivened his faith. On this day, May 24th, 1738 he opened his Bible at about five in the morning and came across these words, "There are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, so that you may become parVcipants of the divine nature.” (2 Peter 1:4) That evening he reluctantly acended a prayer meeVng. This is the account John Wesley wrote in his journal of his life-changing, heartwarming experience: “In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading 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 salvaVon; 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.” —Journal of John Wesley May 24th, 1738 John now felt that he met the criteria for being a “true ChrisVan” which had been set by his Moravian friends. He was almost 35 years old. Amer this Aldersgate experience, Wesley realized, like the Moravians, that unVl one has experienced personal, hearfelt assurance of salvaVon, one is only an “almost ChrisVan.” Ending Are you an “almost ChrisVan” or a real ChrisVan? Have you had that inner, hearfelt experience of the saving grace of God? We can do all the right things. We can gather for worship each week. We can read scripture and pray and receive holy communion and have ChrisVan conversaVon with one another and do good in the world, caring for people. But if we haven’t had an Aldersgate experience like John Wesley where our hearts are strangely warmed, where the Holy Spirit has touched us and converted us, then maybe we’re just going through the moVons. Wesley knew that our pracVces, our habits in life are very important as disciples of Christ. Wesley never walked away from the great doctrines and creeds of the church; he never walked away from the means of grace, the habits we pracVce as ChrisVans, worship, reading scripture, receiving holy communion, ChrisVan conversaVon, fasVng, doing good. But it’s possible to do all these things and sVll be an “almost ChrisVan,” according to Wesley. Amer his Aldersgate experience, Wesley determined that to be a real ChrisVan you had to have an inner, hearfelt experience of the saving grace of God. Do you have that? Do you want that? Even now, cry out to God for your own heart warming experience. 3 ｜ Page .
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