Sermon IV

“Scriptural Christianity,” by John Wesley, August 24, 1744

Text: “And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost” (Acts 4:31).

In this powerful sermon, Wesley is concerned with the practice of what he terms, “Scriptural Christianity.” Such is being filled with the Holy Spirit to such a level that the Love of God seems to flow naturally out of the heart towards the wider world and vanquishes all vices within one’s life. While the gifts of the Spirit are important, he is concerned with the fruit of the Spirit manifested overtly. He attempts to trek New Testament Christianity and lay it as a plumb line against the practice of his contemporaries. In so doing he discusses three inquiries and considers practical applications.

1. Individual Christianity.
   1. The Holy Spirit draws the individual to Christ, and he receives the spirit of adoption
   2. The Holy Spirit kneeds that divine conviction into the heart and mind
   3. The individual is enabled by the Spirit to worship in rejoicing in his Salvation, experiences full renewal of the soul (true holiness), and hope for Heaven
   4. Love of God floods the heart, “So that God was the desire of his eyes, and the joy of his heart; his portion in time and in eternity”
   5. This feeds into loving one’s neighbor, especially his enemies: “They have a peculiar place, both in his heart and in his prayers”
   6. Humility and faithfulness in love of neighbor
   7. Integrity in speech to neighbor
   8. Through the means of grace there is daily growth in grace and continual increase in strength and knowledge of God
   9. Not mere abstaining from evil, but, “His soul was athirst to do good”
   10. As Christianity on the rise, all individual Christians in one accord in unity
2. Christianity as spreading from individual to individual
   1. Salt and Light in influence of others
   2. Passion to bring the lost to Jesus
   3. Doing good to all and “warning them to flee from the wrath to come; now, now to escape the damnation of hell”
   4. Speaking to each person according to their situational need:
      1. Awaken the Sinner
      2. Reassure awakened sinner of “Advocate” and “Propitiation” in Christ
      3. Believers provoked to further good works and further abounding in holiness
   5. While Christianity grew, it attracted offenses within established society among the trade, social, and religious worlds
   6. As Christianity spread, so did persecution
   7. With increased persecution Christianity spread further: the blood of the martyrs spoke through the heathen
   8. As Christianity grew, so did corruption within
3. Christianity as spreading throughout the globe
   1. A Christian world in spite of Satan is inevitable, as foretold by the prophets
   2. Christian world to include all of Israel
   3. If that day is now dawning, then it is one of total righteousness, peace and justice rooted deep within the people along with the absence of war and oppression
   4. In addition to righteousness and justice, mercy is found, as God has vanquished malicious, revengeful, and envious. Everyone lives by Golden Rule
   5. Christians incapable of sin, because “only love and God are there” in the hearts of the people
   6. Everlasting happiness and light arise from such a people in such a day
4. Practical Application
   1. Where does this Christianity now exist? Is there a Christian country?
   2. Wesley plead with them to keep their hearts warm to him and his questions.
   3. He asks the audience if theirs is a Christian city, wherein the city officials are “filled with the Holy Ghost”
   4. Questions of Scriptural Christianity in being filled with Holy Spirit are essential to Christianity
   5. Questions public officials
   6. Questions educators
   7. Questions the aspiring clerics: “Let it not be said, that I speak here, as if all under your care were intended to be Clergymen. Not so: I only speak as if they were all intended to be Christians”
   8. Questions to the clergy:
      1. Are we taught of God, that we may be able to teach others also?
      2. Do we know God?
      3. Do we know Jesus Christ?
      4. Hath “God revealved his Son in us?”
      5. And hath he “made us able Ministers of the new covenant?
   9. Questions to the youth
5. Good conclusion:
   1. “Shall Christianity, then, be restored by young, unknown, inconsiderable men? I know not whether ye yourselves could suffer it. Would not some of you cry out, ‘Young man, in so doing thou reproachest us?’ But there is no danger of your being put to the proof; so hath iniquity overspread us like a flood. Whom, then shall God send,–the famine, the pestilence, (the last messengers of God to a guilty land,) or the sword, ‘the armies of the’ Romish ‘aliens,’–to reform us into our first love? Nay, ‘rather let us fall into thy hand, O Lord, and let us not fall into the hand of ‘man.’”

After studying this sermon, I am driven all the more to seek the infilling of the Holy Spirit everyday in my life.

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