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John Wesley
John Wesley (1703 - 1791). English Anglican clergyman, evangelist, and co-founder of Methodism, born in Epworth, Lincolnshire, to a rector’s family. Educated at Oxford, where he earned an M.A. in 1727, he was ordained in 1728 and led the Holy Club with brother Charles, emphasizing disciplined faith. After a failed mission to Georgia (1735-1737), he experienced a transformative conversion in 1738 at Aldersgate, London, feeling his “heart strangely warmed.” Wesley preached over 40,000 sermons, often outdoors, sparking the 18th-century Evangelical Revival, and traveled 250,000 miles on horseback across Britain and Ireland. He authored 400 works, including A Plain Account of Christian Perfection (1777), and edited The Christian’s Pattern. Founding Methodist societies, he trained 650 preachers and ordained ministers for America, influencing millions. Married to Mary Vazeille in 1751, their childless union strained, but his brother’s hymns enriched worship. A tireless advocate for the poor, he opened dispensaries and schools, and his 1787 sermon against slavery stirred abolitionism. Despite tensions with the Church of England, he never left it, shaping global Protestantism. His maxim, “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can,” inspired generations to active faith. Wesley’s journals and letters, still widely read, reveal a legacy of practical holiness and social reform
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Sermon Summary
John Wesley emphasizes the profound faith of Job, who, despite immense suffering and loss, declares, 'I know that my Redeemer lives.' He draws parallels between Job's trials and our own struggles, highlighting that faith can flourish even in the darkest times. Wesley encourages believers to cultivate a personal relationship with Jesus, our Redeemer, who not only lives but also intercedes for us. This faith is not just an exception but can be the norm in our lives, reminding us that the One who overcame death is with us in our trials. Ultimately, Wesley calls us to trust in God's promises and adjust our lives according to His teachings.
He Lives
I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. Job 19:25 One need look no further than Job in the Old Testament to see someone around whom floods rose and against whom winds raged. The Lord himself describes Job as a perfect and upright man who fears God and shuns evil (Job 1:8). Job loses first his children, then his wealth and finally his health. As he sits on a rubbish dump scratching his sores with bits of broken pot he experiences estrangement from his wife, his friends and his God. His wife wants him to dump his religion which she felt should have protected him from such calamity; his friends insist that the reason for his hardship must lie in something he has done and they bring him no comfort; and his God seems distant and uninvolved. This experience is not unique to Job- perhaps you can identify with it or know someone who does. How do we get to that place where from the midst of pain and suffering we can make a statement of faith like Job’s: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.”? Do you want to get to such a place, or are you at such a place? The good news is that every one of us can be in such a place in our faith walk. In fact such a faith can be the norm for us, not the exception and it begins with knowing Jesus the Redeemer as Jesus my Redeemer, a personal and intimate relationship. This relationship is based on and made possible by the fact that this Redeemer, who has become my redeemer, lives. He lives! This is our faith, that the One against whom the floods rose and the winds raged, the One who died is the One who lives; the One who seemed overcome was in fact the overcomer. The redeemer Job looked forward to in faith is the Redeemer we look back to in faith and the work He did in Job is the same work He longs to do in us. Believe that God’s promises are true and for you and commit yourself to adjusting your life as God speaks to you through His Son’s Sermon on the Mount. I know that my redeemer lives And ever prays for me; A token of his love he gives, A pledge of liberty. (Collection of Hymns Number 373)
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John Wesley (1703 - 1791). English Anglican clergyman, evangelist, and co-founder of Methodism, born in Epworth, Lincolnshire, to a rector’s family. Educated at Oxford, where he earned an M.A. in 1727, he was ordained in 1728 and led the Holy Club with brother Charles, emphasizing disciplined faith. After a failed mission to Georgia (1735-1737), he experienced a transformative conversion in 1738 at Aldersgate, London, feeling his “heart strangely warmed.” Wesley preached over 40,000 sermons, often outdoors, sparking the 18th-century Evangelical Revival, and traveled 250,000 miles on horseback across Britain and Ireland. He authored 400 works, including A Plain Account of Christian Perfection (1777), and edited The Christian’s Pattern. Founding Methodist societies, he trained 650 preachers and ordained ministers for America, influencing millions. Married to Mary Vazeille in 1751, their childless union strained, but his brother’s hymns enriched worship. A tireless advocate for the poor, he opened dispensaries and schools, and his 1787 sermon against slavery stirred abolitionism. Despite tensions with the Church of England, he never left it, shaping global Protestantism. His maxim, “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can,” inspired generations to active faith. Wesley’s journals and letters, still widely read, reveal a legacy of practical holiness and social reform