Preachers...VISIT house to house

Tue 11 Jan 1774. I began at the east end of the town to visit the society from house to house. I know of no branch of the pastoral office which is of greater importance than this. But it is so grievous to flesh and blood that I can prevail on few, even of our preachers, to undertake it.

A Christmas Carol from the Wesley Brothers

Stupendous height of heavenly love,
Of pitying tenderness divine;
It brought the Saviour from above,
It caused the springing day to shine;
The Sun of Righteousness to appear,
And gild our gloomy hemisphere.

God did in Christ himself reveal,
To chase our darkness by his light,
Our sin and ignorance dispel,
Direct our wandering feet aright;
And bring our souls, with pardon blest,
To realms of everlasting rest.

Come then, O Lord, thy light impart,
The faith that bids our terrors cease;
Into thy love direct my heart,
Into thy way of perfect peace;
And cheer my soul, of death afraid,
And guide me through the dreadful shade.

Answer thy mercy's whole design,
My God incarnated for me;
My spirit make thy radiant shrine,
My light and full salvation be;
And through the darkened vale unknown
Conduct me to thy dazzling throne.

O that none of these may ‘draw back to perdition’

Mon 10 Jan 1743. I preached at five, at eight, and at three. In the intervals of preaching I spoke to all who desired it. Last night twenty-nine of them were joined together, Tuesday 11 about an hundred. O that none of these may ‘draw back to perdition’! Let these ‘believe, unto the saving of the soul’!
Wed. 12. I took my leave of them in the morning by showing the difference between the righteousness of the law and that of faith; and in the evening explained to a large congregation at Evesham, ‘So is everyone that is born of the Spirit.’

Prayer for First Sunday after the Epiphany: The Baptism of our Lord

Father in heaven, who at the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan proclaimed him your beloved Son and anointed him with the Holy Spirit: Grant that all who are baptized into his Name may keep the covenant they have made, and boldly confess him as Lord and Savior; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.
from DailyOffice

The Baptism of Jesus.

The Baptism of Jesus.

Matthew 3:13-17  

 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John.  But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”  Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.   As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.  And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” [NIV]

The baptism of Jesus is before us today.

O that all who heard might experience this salvation

Sun 9 Jan 1743: The hall [in Wednesbury] was filled again at five; and I proclaimed ‘the name of the Lord; . . . The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth’. At eight we met in the place where my brother preached, made, as it were, for the great congregation. It is a large hollow, scarcely a mile from the town, capable of containing four or five thousand people. They stood in a half circle one above another, and seemed all to receive with joy that great truth, ‘the kingdom of God is not meats and drinks, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.’
In the afternoon Mr. Egginton preached a plain, useful sermon. Almost the whole congregation then went down to the place, where abundance of people were already waiting for us; so that the hollow could not contain them, but was edged round with those who came from all parts. My subject was, ‘By grace ye are saved, through faith.’ O that all who heard might experience this salvation!

Questions and Meditation based on “The Baptism of Jesus”

These questions and meditation are based on the sermon The Baptism of Jesus. Read it here

1. What is your understanding regarding baptism? (e.g. who should be baptised, who should baptise, why baptise, when should baptism occur, how much water, etc)
2. Can you back up your understanding of baptism with the Scriptures?

Treat your servant as you would your brother

Saturday, January 1, 1763. A woman told me: ‘Sir, I employ several men. Now if one of my servants will not follow my direction, is it not right for me to discard him at once? Pray, do you apply this to Mr. Bell?’ I answered: ‘It is right to discard such a servant. But what would you do if he were your son?’

"The World will end on 28 February"

Fri 7 Jan 1763. I desired George Bell, with two or three of his friends, to meet me with one or two others. We took much pains to convince him of his mistakes, particularly that which he had lately adopted, ‘that the end of the world was to be on February the 28th’, which at first he had earnestly withstood. But we could make no impression upon him at all. He was as unmoved as a rock.

A poor dying backslider

[from earlier this week]Monday, January 3, 1757. I visited a poor dying backslider, full of good resolutions. But who can tell when these imply a real change of heart? And when they do not, when they spring from fear only, what will they avail before God?

JW's Notes on Gospel reading for Sunday 9 January: Baptism of Jesus

 Matthew 3:13-17

Mat 3:15  It becometh us to fulfil all righteousness - It becometh every messenger of God to observe all his righteous ordinances. But the particular meaning of our Lord seems to be, that it becometh us to do (me to receive baptism, and you to administer it) in order to fulfil, that is, that I may fully perform every part of the righteous law of God, and the commission he hath given me.

Mat 3:16  And Jesus being baptized - Let our Lord's submitting to baptism teach us a holy exactness in the observance of those institutions which owe their obligation merely to a Divine command. Surely thus it becometh all his followers to fulfil all righteousness. Jesus had no sin to wash away. And yet he was baptized. And God owned his ordinance, so as to make it the season of pouring forth the Holy Spirit upon him. And where can we expect this sacred effusion, but in an humble attendance on Divine appointments? Lo, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God - St. Luke adds, in a bodily form - Probably in a glorious appearance of fire, perhaps in the shape of a dove, descending with a hovering motion, till it rested upon him. This was a visible token of those secret operations of the blessed Spirit, by which he was anointed in a peculiar manner; and abundantly fitted for his public work.

Mat 3:17  And lo, a voice - We have here a glorious manifestation of the ever - blessed Trinity: the Father speaking from heaven, the Son spoken to, the Holy Ghost descending upon him. In whom I delight - What an encomium is this! How poor to this are all other kinds of praise! To he the pleasure, the delight of God, this is praise indeed: this is true glory: this is the highest, the brightest light, that virtue can appear in.

Cold and Heartless People of Frederica

On Monday evening we left Darien, and on Wednesday 5 Jan 1736, came to Frederica. Most here were, as we expected, cold and heartless: we found not one who retained his first love. O send forth thy light and thy truth, that they may guide them! Let them not yet follow their own imaginations!
After having ‘beaten the air’ in this unhappy place for twenty days, on January 26, I took my final leave of Frederica. It was not any apprehension of my own danger (though my life had been threatened many times) but an utter despair of doing good there, which made me content with the thought of seeing it no more.
In my passage home, having procured a celebrated book, the Works of Nicholas Machiavelli, I set myself carefully to read and consider it. I began with a prejudice in his favour, having been informed he had often been misunderstood, and greatly misrepresented. I weighed the sentiments that were less common, transcribed the passages wherein they were contained, compared one passage with another, and endeavoured to form a cool, impartial judgment. And my cool judgment is, that if all the other doctrines of devils which have been committed to writing since letters were in the world were collected together in one volume, it would fall short of this; and that should a prince form himself by this book, so calmly recommending hypocrisy, treachery, lying, robbery, oppression, adultery, whoredom, and murder of all kinds, Domitian or Nero would be an angel of light compared to that man.

Prayer for Second Week after Christmas Day [from BCP]

O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

A Christmas Carol from the Wesley Brothers

Let earth and Heaven combine,

Angels and men agree,
To praise in songs divine
The incarnate Deity,
Our God contracted to a span,
Incomprehensibly made Man.

He laid His glory by,
He wrapped Him in our clay;
Unmarked by human eye,
The latent Godhead lay;
Infant of days He here became,
And bore the mild Immanuel’s Name.

See in that Infant’s face
The depths of deity,
And labor while ye gaze
To sound the mystery
In vain; ye angels gaze no more,
But fall, and silently adore.

Unsearchable the love
That hath the Savior brought;
The grace is far above
Of men or angels’ thought:
Suffice for us that God, we know,
Our God, is manifest below.

He deigns in flesh t’appear,
Widest extremes to join;
To bring our vileness near,
And make us all divine:
And we the life of God shall know,
For God is manifest below.

Made perfect first in love,
And sanctified by grace,
We shall from earth remove,
And see His glorious face:
His love shall then be fully showed,
And man shall all be lost in God.

JW goes begging for the Poor

Tue 4 Jan 1785: At this season, we usually distribute coals and bread among the poor of the society. But I now considered they wanted clothes as well as food. So on this and the four following days, I walked through the town and begged two hundred pounds in order to clothe them that wanted it most. But it was hard work, as most of the streets were filled with melting snow which often lay ankle deep, so that my feet were steeped in snow-water nearly from morning till evening. I held it out pretty well till Saturday evening, but I was laid up with a violent flux which increased every hour, till at six in the morning Dr. Whitehead called upon me. His first draught made me quite easy, and three or four more perfected the cure. If he lives some years, I expect he will be one of the most eminent physicians in Europe.
I supposed my journeys this winter had been over; but I could not decline one more.

Covenant Services

Sun 2 Jan 1785: A larger number of people were present this evening at the renewal of our covenant with God than was ever seen before on the occasion.

Sun Jan 2 1780: We had the largest congregation at the renewal of our covenant with God which ever met upon the occasion. And we were thoroughly convinced, that God was not departed from us. He never will, unless we first depart from him.

What star are you going to follow in 2011

What star are you going to follow in 2011

Epiphany 2010

Gospel Reading

Matt 2:1-12  1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi[a] from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”  3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:  6 “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’[b]”  7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”  9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route. [New International Version]

Today we have a look at what's out translation calls: the Magi. The Good News Version calls them “men from the East who studied the stars”; the King James Version calls them wise men;  and the New Living Translation calls than astrologers.

What exactly do we know about these men and what can we learn from them?

Well, Matthew is the only gospel writer to tell us anything about them, so everything there is to know about them is before us in our reading.

I think the first thing we can lift is that they were obviously forward looking. I say this because they could have stayed in the East studying the stars, studying everything that has been recorded in the past about new stars; they could have stayed where they were and come to some conclusions about this new star, or……. they could set out and decide to follow this star which seemed to be moving across the heavens in a way that the other stars didn't. They decided to follow the star and they had been doing so for quite some time; verse 16 which wasn't part of our reading tells us that this star had first appeared two years before. They have been journeying for two years! This is why Herod will later kill everyone two years or younger, but we're getting ahead of ourselves.

How many of these wise men, these Magi, were there? We have absolutely no idea….. Scripture doesn't tell us.

We do know that they eventually reached Jesus and his parents in Bethlehem, some time after his birth, certainly not on the night he was born, because Matthew points out in verse 11 that Mary and Joseph and Jesus were now living in a house (and were no longer in the stable). For this reason, and other good reasons that we can't go into now, many scholars believe that the star appeared on the night Jesus was born and that the wise men arrived two years later. As I said earlier, this far better explains why Herod would kill all the boys two years and younger.

We also know that this group of men from the East gave gifts to Jesus. As our reading says: “… they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.” Notice the picture that we have here….. opening their treasures. When they set out two years before they took sources for the trip. Gold to barter with on the way, spices to trade with and possibly to use in case any of them died on the journey.

Now they arrive and they recognise in Jesus a King and that they think to themselves……….Hmmmmm, what can we give to a king? Ahhhhh, let's open up our treasures and give them to him.

And then they went home, back to the east, and notice, they went back “by another road”.

What can we learn or lift from this story this Christmas season and as we look forward to 2011?

May I suggest three things?

Can I suggest, first of all, that from the moment we first hear about Jesus, or see some sign of him in the world,…….. and by signs I mean things as trivial perhaps as a cross somewhere, or a manger scene in a shop window, or a church, or perhaps something more grand like a miracle, or a vision……….. or perhaps just hearing a sermon, on the radio, on TV, or at a worship service like this if someone has dragged you along for whatever reason, against your will……… from that moment we are on a journey that has Christ at its centre.

I speak to believers and nonbelievers in this place this morning: you are on a journey, whether you know it or not, you are on a journey which has Jesus Christ at its centre.

We are either moving closer to him, or we are maintaining a set distance,(another word for a set distance would be keeping a safe distance….. being involved in the whole Jesus thing but not head over heels sold out to him), or we are moving away from him. Each one of us from the moment we hear of Jesus or “see his sign”…… each one of us consciously chooses one of those three. Every single one of us in this building right now has either made a conscious decision to move closer to Jesus, or to just keep things as they are, in other words to keep a safe distance, or we hear this story year after year after year and a total lack of interest in the story causes us in fact to put more and more distance between us and Jesus.

Such is the power of Jesus, and the name of Jesus, that there is absolutely no room for neutrality.

Those men saw the star and they couldn't ignore it, they couldn't pretend it wasn't there. It confronted them with a choice: follow it or pretend it isn't there. But as we all know, and this applies in many aspects of life, ignoring something or pretending it isn't there, never takes away the fact that it is there. Denial doesn’t work.

I think when Jesus later says that you and I as his followers are to be light and salt in the world, I think he means that our presence in the world as people who believe in and are living in the Kingdom of God, that presence is meant to be something that cannot be ignored by those around us. As someone has said: “We are sometimes the only gospel that other people read.”

The wise men journeyed for two years…….. this reminds us that the journey to Christ (as opposed to the journey with Christ) can be a long one. It doesn't have to be, but some of us choose to wait a long time before making a commitment to Christ. Recent research in the West indicates that in the last five years most people who have become Christians have said that they belonged to the church before they believed…. can you see how this is a complete reversal of the pattern which used to be that people came to believe and then looked for a church to belong to! To you in a sense are still travelling towards Jesus rather than with Jesus, I must say this: please remember that there is a difference between Christ and Christians and more often than we Christians like to admit, we don't always practice what we preach. Please don't judge God's holy ideals by my inability to meet them. Please don't judge Christ by those of us who imperfectly bear his name. And please also stop using us as an excuse regarding why you have not yet become a Christian…… you know what I mean, people who say something like: if that is what a Christian is like I don't want to have anything to do with Christianity.

To those of us who are Christians let me say this: “let us try harder and harder, using the mighty power which He supplies, to live lives that lead others to Christ.

The wise men were led by a star to Bethlehem to Jesus.

The second thing that I want a lift from this story is from verse 11: “opening their treasures, they offered him gifts.”

Here I want to lift a challenge for us all:

Do you give to Jesus from that which you treasure, or from that which you do not treasure, in other words from that with which you can actually do without? Is your giving to Christ, sacrificial, that means, somewhat painful and difficult? The wise men still had to make the return trip, with all the expense that that entailed, yet they gave sacrificially from their treasures. Do you give to Jesus from that which you treasure?

Finally, let's have a look at verse 12: “they returned to their country by another route”.

There is good news and terrifying news in that verse.

The good news is that when you eventually come to Jesus, when you arrive at that place where you worship him, where you see him as king, where you give to him from your treasure, the good news is that he then sends you back to where you came from.

Generally, God doesn't call us to leave our work, our home, our neighborhood, our school, when we come to him. The Jesus who says “come” also says “go back”………. But when he says “go” (and this can be the scary/terrifying bit)  he often wants us to go back on a different road, a different route. Same destination, different road.

Why…..?

There are a number of reasons but one of the more important ones is that there is danger on the old road!

In Northern Ireland during the troubles, they used to say to people in authority, use a different route every day, it will help avoid danger.

One of the reasons that you and I fall into the same temptations is often because we walk the same road, Satan knows our route from our high point with Christ every day out into the world and so he just has to set the same traps in the same places for us to keep on falling in the same way.

Avoid the routes that have lead you into sin before, they are dangerous, even after you've come to Christ,……… these routes are dangerous! If you can, avoid them.

What does it mean for you for me to go back on a different road today?

The wise men:

They remind us of the constant choice we face of moving towards or away from Jesus……. what direction do you want to move in from now into the rest of this year?

                        They encourage us to give from our treasure (and of course we're not just talking about money, but about what we are giving to God from the treasury that is our gifting, our talent, our time, etc.)

                        They show us the importance of going back a different way, making an effort to avoid the danger of sin.

As you and I look forward into a new year, may we learn from them.

Prayer for the week of Epiphany from Methodist Order of Service Book (1975)

Eternal God, who by the shining of a star led the wise men to the worship of your Son: guide by your light the nations of the earth, that the whole world may behold your glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Questions and Personal Reflection based on “What star are you going to follow in 2011”

Questions and Personal Reflection based on “What star are you going to follow in 2011”

Read the sermon here.

1. Discuss the difference between some of the things you thought you knew about the Magi and the actual facts about them in Scripture.
2. Why did Herod have all the boys under two years of age killed?
3. What are your treasures? Do you give of them to God?
4. What are some of the signs of Jesus in the world (and the place where you live) today?
5. “Such is the power of Jesus, and the name of Jesus, that there is absolutely no room for neutrality.” True or False?
6. Comment on: “We are sometimes the only gospel that other people read.”  What does it mean to live the gospel? How can you live the gospel in 2011?
7. Is your giving sacrificial?
8. In the sermon, only one reason was explored regarding “going back by a different route.” What are some other reasons?
9. What star, what light, are you going to look to for guidance in 2011?

Amen to this

Sat Jan 1 1785: Whether this be the last or no, may it be the best year of my life!