Wesley's Sermon 15: The Great Assize

[This is part of the Getting to Know John series on John Wesley's Sermons. Click here to see the other posts.]

Since I had no idea what the word "assize" meant before reading this sermon, I'll quickly put the definition out there: it was a court in each county in England that administered criminal and civil law. I have to mention the correct meaning so quickly to keep your mind from wandering into potential parodies of what a sermon with such a title could possibly be about. (Even though I've done so, I'm sure that friends of mine like Robert, Barry, or m.coy will will still be able to come up with some entertaining options.)

Needless to say, we wouldn't give this sermon this title today, but would probably name it "The Great Judgment." But then, regardless of the title, the likelihood of any of us writing this sermon in our time is pretty small. It focuses on God's judgment, "the day of the Lord," when after the general resurrection, Christ will sit in judgment over all people. This simply isn't a topic I've often (if ever) heard preached.

One thing about this sermon that catches my attention is that despite the teachings of Jesus and the rest of Scripture regarding the judgment, many of us (particularly us Protestants) have somehow come up with a doctrine like this: because of salvation by faith, there will be no judgment based on works.

But really? Did Jesus ever say anything to indicate that? Or, since I'm talking about my fellow Protestants, did Paul? Paul certainly says that in Christ we will not be condemned at this judgment, but he never indicates that the judgment itself won't happen. (See Scripture Plaques You Won't Find at the Christian Bookstore, #11). And what kind of interpretation is needed for teachings of Jesus like Matthew 25:31-46, for us to give up thinking what Wesley obviously thought, that we should always have in our mind that this kind of judgment awaits us?

Summary: Wesley gave this sermon to a crowd at the legal proceedings (assizes) on May 10, 1758. He begins by pointing out how judgments benefit society, and says that as helpful as those proceedings were, a much greater judgment was coming when Christ would judge the world. He then summarizes some of the prophecies of scripture about what signs would take place before "the day of the Lord," describes what the judgment itself will be like, and then discusses the revealing of the new creation after the judgment.

For further reading: You can download my ePub file of the original text of the sermon. (The sermon text is also available online here.) Or, just check out my outline of the sermon.

An accompanying Wesleyan hymn:

From the 1889 Methodist Hymnal: #55 by Charles Wesley

1 THOU Judge of quick and dead, Before whose bar severe, With holy joy, or guilty dread, We all shall soon appear; Our cautioned souls prepare For that tremendous day, And fill us now with watchful care, And stir us up to pray:

2 To pray, and wait the hour, That awful hour unknown, When, robed in majesty and power, Thou shalt from heaven come down The immortal Son of man, To judge the human race, With all thy Father's dazzling train, With all thy glorious grace.

3 To damp our earthly joys, To increase our gracious fears, For ever let the archangel's voice Be sounding in our ears; The solemn midnight cry, "Ye dead, the Judge is come, Arise, and meet him in the sky, And meet your instant doom!"

4 O may we thus be found Obedient to his word, Attentive to the trumpet's sound, And looking for our Lord! O may we thus ensure A lot among the blest; And watch a moment to secure An everlasting rest!

Wesley's Sermon 14: The Repentance of Believers

[This is part of the Getting to Know John series on John Wesley's Sermons. Click here to see the other posts.] Apparently in Wesley's day there were a lot of Christians who believed that once a person repented of their sin and came to faith in Christ, that their sin was completely wiped out and they would not ever need to repent again. Brother John provides a pretty convincing argument otherwise, pointing out a pretty thorough list of things that still rear their ugly heads even after we're assured that we are God's children; pride, self-will, idolatry, love of the world, desire to be praised by people, jealousy, envy, lust, selfishness, and helplessness are just some of the things he uses to make his point.

Then, after this long list of remaining effects of our sin and pointing out how utterly powerless we are to do anything about them, he makes that case that God can rid our lives of them, God wants to do so, and God wants to do it right now. 

I really like Paul Chilcote's closing paragraph in his prayer based on this sermon in [amazon_link id="0835809501" target="_blank" ]Praying in the Wesleyan Spirit[/amazon_link]:

When you accepted me as a part of your family through Christ, I felt as though I was born again. The change in my life was amazing. But I need to experience your life-changing love over and over again in order to grow into the fulness of your love. Amen.

Download and read my ePub file of the original text of the sermon by clicking here.

Or, just check out my outline of the sermon.

And a great Wesleyan hymn to go along with it:

Depth of Mercy Charles Wesley, 1740

Depth of mercy! Can there be mercy still reserved for me? Can my God his wrath forbear, me, the chief of sinners, spare?

I have long withstood his grace, long provoked him to his face, would not hearken to his calls, grieved him by a thousand falls.

I my Master have denied, I afresh have crucified, oft profaned his hallowed name, put him to an open shame.

There for me the Savior stands, shows his wounds and spreads his hands. God is love! I know, I feel; Jesus weeps and loves me still.

Now incline me to repent, let me now my sins lament, now my foul revolt deplore, weep, believe, and sin no more.

Getting to Know John

Theology scholar Paul Chilcote says that he's always believed that if people would read John Wesley's sermons, many lives would be changed, and I'm convinced that he's right. I've been a Methodist my entire life, but it was when I had a theology class where I finally had to John Wesley's sermons that my admiration for him and confidence in the reliability of my faith heritage began to increase dramatically. Therefore, in an effort to continue to get to know Mr. Wesley better myself and hopefully help some other people to do so, I'm beginning a series of posts on his sermons. The problem is that sermons in England in the 18th century don't have much in common with sermons today. There are absolutely no jokes. They're long. And the overwhelming consensus is that they're not very entertaining. (They're seriously boring unless you happen to enjoy reading old boring stuff, then they're great!) But the guidance contained in them is so good that we need to find some ways to get past these obstacles.

Chilcote has done a great job of this in his book, [amazon_link id="0835809501" target="_blank" ]Praying in the Wesleyan Spirit[/amazon_link], which takes each of Wesley's Standard Sermons and turns them into short prayers. This book is a great way to get better acquainted with what he believed and taught.

I also thought I'd throw my own hat in the ring and make my own attempt at making his sermons more accessible to us today. Wesley had many sermons, but 52 of them were designated the Standard Sermons, which served as the doctrinal standards for the early Methodists and continue to provide the basis for United Methodist theology today (well, at least they're supposed to). Since there are 52 of these, it's easy to work with one each week of the year, and because this is the 14th week of the year, I'll begin the series this week in the following post with Sermon 14: The Repentance of Believers.

Wesley's sermons are more like logical arguments than we're used to in sermons today. A positive aspect of that is that it makes them really easy to outline. (He usually says the points he's going to make in an introduction, then writes the rest of the sermon with numbered paragraphs.) So while I find it difficult to just sit and read through one of his sermons, if I can find the point of each numbered paragraph, I can really get into them.

So... here's what I'll do with each sermon:

  • I'll create and post an ePub file of the original sermon, which can be read in iBooks on iPhones, iPads, iPods, and maybe iSomeOtherStuff... and a host of other e-reading devices.
  • Since Wesley's sermons lend themselves so easily to being outlined, I'll post my own outline of the sermon in the blog post. If you're not up for reading the entire thing on the ePub file, the outline will help you get his point.
  • I'll also (hopefully) post a Wesleyan hymn whose text applies to the sermon.

And here are the sermons that are posted so far:

Methodists Who Don't Know It

Although I still often have to give some explanation of what Spiritual Formation is if someone asks what I studied in school, it has become a pretty popular buzz term in Christianity in recent years. I recently spoke with a seminary professor who said that one of his students' reasons for enrolling in his course on Spiritual Formation was because "it's the hottest thing out there." While that's an overstatement, it certainly has been popularized tremendously in recent years. Contrast that with the tradition of Christianity in which my roots are firmly planted: Methodism. There is absolutely nothing hip, buzzing, hot, or popularized about being a Methodist. Methodism in our country is on a remarkable rate of decline, and has been for decades. To illustrate this difference, compare the "cool factor" on what comes up on an image search for Spiritual Formation with what comes up for Methodism. Okay, so maybe neither page's "cool factor" is tremendously high, but the page on Methodism might actually score below zero. I believe neither that the faddishness of Spiritual Formation is all good, nor that the un-faddishness of Methodism is all bad. But the contrast is ironic, because Spiritual Formation and Methodism are the same thing. In fact, something about yourselves that will surprise many of you, which may have been true of you for many years, is that you're actually Methodists and haven't even known it. (Don't worry- I won't tell your pastors.) My problem in trying to convince people of this is that many things that get described by the terms Spiritual Formation and Methodist have little if any relation to what those things actually are. So let's define some terms:

First, Spiritual Formation. Two definitions I use are:

  • "The process by which those who love and trust Jesus Christ effectively take on his character" (Dallas Willard)
  • "The process of being conformed to the image of Christ for the sake of others" (Robert Mulholland)

These are both good definitions, which convey different nuances, but come out with the same kind of person: someone with an inward and outward life significantly like that of Jesus, and who systematically arranges his/her life toward that goal.

Now for Methodism. I have to make very clear that when I say Methodism and Spiritual Formation are the same thing, I am referring to what Methodism was in its beginnings, when it changed the face of England in the 1700's, and not necessarily referring to anything about someone who is a part of today's United Methodist Church or any of our cousins in the faith.

What it meant to be a Methodist in John Wesley's day was essentially that you agreed upon the goal (living a holy life) and you signed on to a kind of lifestyle that would be conducive to growing that holiness in you. Components of this lifestyle were prescribed simply in the General Rules: Do no harm, do good, and practice the means of grace (things like prayer, reflecting on the scripture, taking Communion, and participating in large and small group meetings with other Methodists shaping their lives in this way).

So the language and cool factor have certainly changed, but the kind of life offered has not. Today's Spiritual Formation movement is much more likely to use the term "Christlikeness" than early Methodism's "holiness," but the goal is the same. And, when they are at their best, the means of getting there are the same also: spiritual disciplines/means of grace practiced in community under the guidance of the Spirit of God and of others who love and trust Jesus as you do.

And here's the kicker: your theological background doesn't determine whether you're a Methodist or not, only that you shape your lives in these ways (i.e. by this method). Although Wesley certainly put effort into defining what he believed theologically, you didn't have to agree with him to be a Methodist. Just shape your life by the General Rules. Similarly, I have met very like-minded and like-hearted people in the Spiritual Formation movement from every Christian tradition I know of, because our goal and means of arriving there are the same.

(Neither Wesley nor I intend to say by this that the  theology is unimportant. The difference between his day and ours is that while you could be a Methodist and disagree with him on theological points, if you were going to be one of his Methodist preachers... you needed to be on the same page with him. Today, both agreeing with his theology and the way you arrange your life have almost become completely irrelevant in the process of becoming a Methodist pastor.)

So, do you know some folks who are Methodist and have had no idea? And if you aren't one already, regardless of what the name on the building of your church says, want to join me in being one?

What it Means to be a Methodist

It's a common expression to hear someone described as having "grown up in church." While we understand that normally means they've been involved in church from childhood, I can take it even farther. I literally grew up in church, not only for the reason stated above, but because before being a house, the house that I grew up in was Pioneer Memorial Methodist Church for about 15 years in the 50's and 60's. The community it existed to serve was made up of oil camp workers. The camp closed, leaving no one in the community, so the church closed as well. A few years later, my parents were married and eventually remodeled the church building into their house. They have now lived there 40 years, and it's the primary place where I "grew up in church." As an adult, it has come to hold a lot of meaning for me not only that I grew up in church, but that I grew up in a Methodist church, because my roots there are strong and deep, and surely I don't know the extent to which they have shaped me. I think it's accurate when I say to people that I've been a Methodist a lot longer than I've been alive: my great-grandparents started a Methodist church in their house before moving to this part of West Texas; my grandparents helped start the Methodist church that eventually became the home I was raised in; my parents helped start a new Methodist church in the late 80's. And I began my first staff position in a Methodist church fourteen years ago.Despite my deep roots in Methodism, it wasn't until adulthood and having already been on staff for some time in Methodist churches that I began to understand and treasure the immense value to be found in the "method," or the lifestyle, that originally came along with claiming to be a Methodist. Methodism was a very significant movement in the histories of England and the United States, and largely so because it was such a reliable guide for the development of people characterized by love for God and for one another.

I'm not going out on any limb to say that it no longer serves as such a reliable guide. Yet this is not because the original method of the Methodists has failed or been found lacking, but rather because the way it was intended to shape our lives has been left in our history rather than continuing to be emphasized as standards among us. In conversations with people at my church, the most common reasons that people give for being Methodist are things like, "I was born one," "I like it that we don't have all of the rules like other churches," or from many of the most honest folks, "Because I can be a Methodist and still drink."

Virtually nothing remains in Methodism in our culture today of the practical shape that it once gave to people's lives. Yet writing something like this doesn't accomplish anything good if I only use it to bash my church. Rather, the hope that I have for all of my Methodist family across the world is that we can recover the riches of our heritage and find the best ways to put them into practice in the 21st century.

A couple of years ago, I came across this quotation from Methodism's founder, John Wesley, while re-reading Paul Chilcote's book, Recapturing the Wesleys' Vision, and although the language is old, it is every bit as applicable today as it was when it was written in 1745:

"If you walk by this rule, continually endeavouring to know, and love, and resemble, and obey the great God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, as the God of love, of pardoning mercy; if from this principle of loving, obedient faith, you carefully abstain from all evil, and labour, as you have opportunity, to do good to all men, friends and enemies; if, lastly, you unite together to encourage and help each other in thus working out your salvation, and for that end watch over one another in love- you are they whom I mean by Methodists." (John Wesley, Advice to the People Called Methodists)

If we only had this single paragraph to learn what it means to be a Methodist, we would still have plenty to guide us more fully into "the life that is really life." Just in these few words from Wesley, we learn to:

  • Continually endeavor to know, love, and resemble, and obey God
  • Abstain from all evil
  • Do good to everyone with every opportunity
  • Watch over one another in love, helping and encouraging one another to work out our salvation

I want to be one whom Wesley meant by Methodist and live this way, and I deeply want to be part of a community of people committed to doing so as well.

Pray This

You re-create us in Christ, O God, to be holy, to be loving and generous, merciful, kind, and just in all our relationships in life.You re-create us in Christ, O God, so that we might be able to look you squarely in the face, to live with you and enjoy you forever. You re-create us in Christ, O God, simply because you want all of your children to be truly happy now. (Paul Chilcote, from "New Birth" in Praying in the Wesleyan Spirit) One of my favorite guides for praying with other people's words is to use this book by Paul Chilcote. In it, he takes each of John Wesley's 52 Standard Sermons and turns them into 2-3 page prayers. Wesley's sermons are brilliant, and Chilcote mentions in the introduction, if people were to read Wesley's sermons many lives would be changed (not to mention many Wesleyan churches!). But the problem is that you've got to have quite a bit of endurance for 18th century English built up to get through any of them. (Incase you're feeling adventurous, here's the text of the original New Birth sermon.) So, what he's done in this little book is great for anyone who wants to pray, particularly those of us in Wesleyan traditions, as it gives us a chance to dig into Wesley's sermons in a way that he would have been very pleased with: opening ourselves to God through prayer.