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Series Code: TIJ
Program Code: TIJ002112A
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00:28 Today we're exploring one of the great unknown stories of history 00:32 The man who saved England. He was the unlikeliest of heroes. 00:37 Small in stature, just 170 cm. or 5 foot 6 inches tall. 00:43 He never carried weapons and was a writer not a fighter, but he 00:50 saved England and without him the world we know today would 00:54 be a very different place. This is one of the largest squares in 00:58 the beautiful city of Paris. Its name is La Place de la Concorde, 01:03 which in French means the place of harmony. But few of the 01:09 thousands of tourists who come to visit can imagine the 01:13 unspeakable terror that was unleashed right here just over 01:17 200 years ago. Back then it was known by another name, the Place 01:24 de la Revolution. As the 18th century drew to a close, those 01:30 who ruled the nations of Europe were entirely dishonest and 01:34 unprincipled. Morality had reached a low point everywhere. 01:39 In France, this erupted into a bloody revolution in the streets 01:46 The people of France dramatically rejected all forms 01:50 of traditional, secular and religious authority. They wanted 01:54 to get rid of both the aristocracy and of all 01:59 Christian influence. A lawless and vicious mob mentality took 02:04 over and just one year in the period between 1793 and 1798 02:09 there were over 16,500 people killed in France. There was no 02:15 justice, only sham trials. It was here at this very spot that 02:21 the newly invented scientific method of execution, the 02:25 guillotine was set up. It was a popular form of entertainment 02:29 for the mob. Here the women of Paris would calmly watch while 02:35 head after head was lopped off. And the most famous heads to 02:40 roll were King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette. It was 02:46 called the reign of terror. But I want to share with you the 02:50 story of what happened across the channel in England because 02:53 there a significant percentage of the population wanted to 02:58 follow France but the majority didn't and England was saved. 03:03 And it was at least in part due to one man, an unsung hero, 03:10 John Wesley. Our story starts today in a much more peaceful 03:14 place in England. 03:18 ♪ ♪ 03:38 Here in the village of Epworth north of London it was here in 03:42 the old rectory that John Wesley was born and raised. He was the 03:46 15th of 19 children born to his mother Susannah and his father 03:51 Samuel who was the rector here at St. Andrews Anglican church. 03:56 Back in those days infant mortality was high. Parents 04:01 often had to have as many children as possible in the hope 04:05 that some would survive. As it was nine of John's brothers and 04:10 sisters never survived childhood leaving 10 mouths to feed. With 04:16 so many children the main thing John's parents worried about was 04:20 how to feed the family. To make things worse, Samuel was 04:25 hopeless at managing money. In fact soon after little John 04:29 Wesley was born, his father was imprisoned for several months 04:33 because of his debts. When John Wesley was five years old the 04:39 rectory caught fire one night and burned down. Samuel managed 04:44 to get his wife and children out but in the confusion no one 04:49 noticed that little John was still asleep in bed. Samuel 04:54 tried to go back into the house to save his child but the stairs 04:57 had collapsed in the blaze. All he could do in his distress was 05:01 kneel down and commit John's soul to God. By this time John 05:08 had woken up and incredible he climbed on a chest of drawers 05:13 and opened the latch on the window. The neighbors then 05:15 quickly formed a human ladder and plucked him from the window 05:19 just as the blazing roof of the house fell in. After that 05:24 experience Wesley always believed that he was a brand 05:30 plucked from the burning, from the fire. His mother came to 05:34 believe that John had been miraculously saved by God for 05:38 some great work. When the rectory was rebuilt, it was done 05:43 in brick since it had already burned down twice before. 05:46 So, this is the actual home that John Wesley grew up in. Susannah 05:53 tried to save money by teaching her children at home. So, it was 05:57 here that Susannah ran the Wesley family school. It ran six 06:02 days a week from nine to five, with a break for lunch. The 06:08 Bible was the only textbook and Susannah taught the children to 06:12 memorize large sections and sometimes entire books from it. 06:17 Susannah Wesley was an amazing woman and the most powerful 06:22 influence in John's life. Through his mother's example 06:25 John Wesley learned to trust God and he also learned what it 06:31 means to live a disciplined Christian life. On June 14, 1720 06:38 John began attending classes at Christchurch, one of the leading 06:43 colleges at Oxford University. Wesley came from a long line of 06:47 distinguished church ministers but he wasn't sure if that was 06:52 the right thing for him. This put him thinking about what he 06:57 needed to do to please God. Was it enough to believe in Jesus 07:01 or did Christians have to do good works to prove that they 07:05 were saved? He talked with many people about this and concluded 07:10 that he didn't know the answer. But despite his questions and 07:16 uncertainty by the time he graduated in 1724, John Wesley 07:21 had decided that his future was in the church, and so he signed 07:26 up to study for a master's degree at Oxford to prepare for 07:31 ministry. In 1725, John was ordained as a minister of the 07:36 Church of England and he taught here at Lincoln College, one of 07:40 the smaller undergraduate colleges located in the very 07:44 heart of historic Oxford. Lincoln College is an 07:49 architectural gem and its ivy clad buildings ooze history. You 07:55 can just imagine the young John Wesley hurrying past the groomed 07:59 lawns and manicured gardens on his way to his class. John 08:04 Wesley became a fellow of Lincoln College. Today the 08:08 college keeps a Wesley room in his memory and there is a 08:12 commemorative plaque in the chapel quadrangle marking the 08:15 actual site of John Wesley's rooms. On the wall of a 08:19 residence building in one of the Lincoln College quads is a bust 08:23 of John Wesley and his name is etched on the glass doors of the 08:28 magnificent chapel to commemorate his time here. 08:33 By now his brother Charles was also studying at Oxford and 08:39 Charles started a club for people who wanted to live Godly 08:43 Christian lives and John quickly became the leader of the club. 08:46 Because of the low level of spirituality at Oxford at the 08:51 time John and Charles were ridiculed and the club was 08:54 mockingly called the Holiness Club. By today's Christian 09:00 standards I'd have to say that they were pretty over the top. 09:03 They would meet every day for three hours, fast two days a 09:08 week and pray every hour. John even developed a check list for 09:13 people to go through every day to examine their own behavior as 09:17 well as other members of the club so that they could keep 09:20 each other on the straight and narrow. Because they were so 09:25 methodical in their approach to religion people started to 09:28 mockingly call them Methodists. Secretly John didn't mind at 09:34 all. It's easy for us to judge John Wesley's approach to 09:38 Christianity as being way too strict and it probably was. But 09:43 you have to see it in the context of his time in society, 09:48 a time in which spirituality was in serious decline and in which 09:53 England looked to be following France into chaos. But what 09:57 happened next was to shake John to his core. John had been 10:04 invited to travel to the colony of Savannah, Georgia in North 10:09 America to serve as vicar in a church there. For John the idea 10:14 of being a missionary and converting all those Indians was 10:19 irresistible. He and his brother Charles traveled to the New 10:24 World on a ship together with another group of Christians 10:27 called Moravians who were originally from Bohemia, the 10:30 Czech Republic today. One night John and his fellow passengers 10:35 were all totally terrified in the middle of a fierce storm. 10:40 Mountainous waves were crashing over the ship. The mast had 10:44 broken off and the sails had been torn to pieces. But when 10:49 he went to check on his new Moravian friends John found that 10:54 they were peacefully singing hymns together and they told him 10:57 that they weren't at all afraid to die. John Wesley knew right 11:03 then that for all the strictness of his religion and all his good 11:07 works he had missed something, perhaps the most important thing 11:12 Although he was a pastor he hadn't discovered what true 11:16 faith was all about. This realization was to torment him 11:22 for the next few years. In Savannah in the New World, today 11:27 in the state of Georgia, John tried to impose his strict brand 11:31 of religion on his new church and of course he ended up with 11:36 no one liking him. Even worse his church didn't prosper at all 11:42 One of the rules that John had made for himself was that he 11:46 never marry so that he could focus strictly on his spiritual 11:51 duties. But while in Savannah he fell in love with a young 11:54 lady called Sophia. Day and night John was tormented by his 12:00 love for Sophia and his vow to never get married. Eventually 12:06 Sophia married another man and John was tremendously upset at 12:11 losing her. So much so that he publically embarrassed himself 12:15 and had to shamefully leave the colony at night. They've erected 12:20 a statue to John Wesley right in the heart of Savannah, Georgia 12:25 but two years after having arrived here John embarked on a 12:29 voyage back to England, a dismal failure, a broken man. During 12:34 the voyage back not only was he was he seasick, he was also 12:38 utterly depressed. He was doubting everything he'd 12:43 previously believed. He dreaded landing in England. How could he 12:48 face his family and friends? How could he continue as a Christian 12:52 minister when he didn't know what to believe himself. For 12:56 Wesley the journey to true faith wasn't easy. When he arrived 13:01 back in England he remembered the Moravian Christians who had 13:05 had such peace in the storm and he spent long days speaking with 13:10 them. When John's brother Charles accepted salvation by 13:15 grace alone purely as a gift from God, John was very upset at 13:21 him. But one event started to change John's mind. He was 13:26 sharing the gospel with a man in prison who had been sentenced to 13:29 hang the next day. John watched the man accept salvation through 13:34 Jesus and as he did that he himself suddenly realized the 13:39 truth about salvation. That prisoner didn't have any time at 13:44 all to do good works to prove that his faith was genuine. He 13:49 was being hung the next day. John realized the God's love was 13:54 great enough to save people without the need or dependence 13:58 on good works. However, John Wesley's true conversion 14:03 happened on the 25th of May 1738 while he attended a Moravian 14:10 meeting in Aldersgate Street in London. Today a plaque 14:13 commemorates this important event in Wesley's life. That day 14:19 part of Martin Luther's commentary on the book of Romans 14:22 was being read aloud and this is what Wesley wrote in his journal 14:27 for that day: 14:52 Finally, he had found lasting peace in his heart. Finally, he'd 14:58 found what true religion was all about. Finally he could face God 15:04 without fear and without depending on his own strict 15:07 works. This was the turning point in John Wesley's life. 15:11 Without this dramatic turnaround Wesley's name would have been 15:15 forgotten in the annals of history. John Wesley would 15:20 never have become the man who saved England. Now John had 15:26 finally realized his heart's desire to be a true Christian 15:31 and he felt compelled to tell others how to be saved by faith 15:35 too. He understood that true holiness, the right way of 15:40 living, could only come once he had truly accepted Jesus as his 15:45 Savior. Now all his good works were done, not to be saved, but 15:52 because he was saved. When he made it his mission in life 15:56 to tell others and the message he shared changed the heart of 16:02 England. From that time on Wesley began to travel across 16:06 Great Britain and Ireland on his horse sharing the good news 16:09 about Jesus and wherever he went he formed small Christian groups 16:14 These people were all called Methodists. During the early 16:22 part of his ministry Methodists were persecuted by the 16:28 established church. Sometimes they would even be attacked by 16:31 mobs and Wesley himself was barred from preaching in parish 16:37 churches. His friend, the evangelist George Whitfield, 16:40 had also been barred from preaching in churches and so he 16:44 started preaching in the open air. He suggested to Wesley that 16:48 he should do the same and that's exactly what he did. He began 16:52 taking every opportunity to preach outdoors wherever a crowd 16:58 gathered. More than once Wesley used his father's tombstone in 17:03 Epworth right here as a pulpit. Eventually the Methodists 17:08 started building places of worship which they called 17:12 chapels. A statue of John Wesley stands outside one of these 17:16 chapels called the Nuru Chapel in Bristol and for a period of 17:21 time this was one of Wesley's major bases. For 50 years 17:26 Wesley continued crisscrossing the country preaching wherever 17:31 he could and by the end of it he had become one of the most 17:35 popular and beloved men in all of England. During his lifetime 17:40 Wesley rode over 400,000 km. That's farther than all the way 17:47 to the moon and he preached more than 40,000 sermons. In 1778, 17:56 Wesley built this chapel here in City Road London. Even today 18:01 there's a thriving congregation here. Right next to the chapel 18:06 he built a house for himself, which you can visit today. 18:10 It was in this house that Wesley lived, studied and wrote, but 18:16 even more importantly it was from here that he directed the 18:20 vast movement that Methodism had now become and it's surprising 18:25 that despite Wesley's strictness in religions matters and despite 18:30 the culture of the time, he encouraged women to teach and 18:34 informally to preach. Wesley's vision of holy Christian living 18:39 went well beyond just the words. He thought that you couldn't say 18:44 you believed in Jesus and not be transformed in your personal 18:49 life. And more than that, true holiness also had to transform 18:54 our community and our society for good. Because of this 18:59 approach Methodists applied the biblical principles of kindness 19:03 and charity to the social problems of the day and as a 19:08 result they became key leaders of many of the pressing social 19:12 issues of the day. Wesley and his companions fought against 19:16 the alcoholism that was destroying the nation. They 19:21 dedicated themselves to feeding and educating the poor and 19:25 raising them up out of the gutter. Wesley fought against 19:30 the slave trade all his life and together with his companions he 19:37 campaigned against bribery and corruption. They fought against 19:40 cruelty to animals. They campaigned for prison reform and 19:44 to improve the conditions of factory workers. In short, there 19:48 was no area of English society that wasn't improved through the 19:53 influence and work of John Wesley and the movement that he 19:58 founded. As he lay dying, Wesley grasped the hands of his 20:06 friends who were with him, said farewell and as he did that he 20:09 repeated the words The best of all is God is with us. He died 20:15 in 1791 at the age of 87. This is Wesley's tomb at his chapel 20:21 on City Road London. He died poor because over the course of 20:28 his lifetime he'd given away everything that had come his way 20:32 to others in need. In fact, it's estimated that he gave away 20:37 30,000 pounds during his lifetime, an astronomical sum of 20:43 money back then. But Wesley's legacy could never be measured 20:47 by money. He left behind a nation that was far richer and 20:52 stronger than the country he'd been born into. He left behind 20:55 an England that when the tides of revolution battered it from 21:00 France had the spiritual and moral strength to resist. 21:04 Because 100 years after Wesley Europe broke out into a series 21:11 of bloody revolutions, terrorizing France, revolutions 21:16 broke out in Germany, in Poland, Italy and the Austrian Empire. 21:20 In fact, England was only one of very few countries that didn't 21:25 degenerate into violence and chaos. Why? Because John Wesley 21:31 had prepared the nation to withstand the forces of terror. 21:35 Because the influence of Wesley's spiritual revival had 21:39 transformed England into a very different society than that of 21:45 France. By calling people back to true religion, John Wesley is 21:51 the man who saved England. He almost certainly changed the 21:55 course of history and his call to personal and social holiness 21:59 still challenges Christians today. As we look around at our 22:05 society today we see more and more our rejection of the God 22:09 and the authority that underpinned our society in the 22:13 past. One wonders what the future holds. The story of John 22:18 Wesley is a great example of the principle the Bible teaches in 22:23 Proverbs chapter 29 and verse 18: 22:35 What this means is that where there is no knowledge of God's 22:39 word, when the Bible and its message are rejected, there are 22:44 no limits to the evil that people will do. That's what 22:47 happened in France and it almost happened in England. But the 22:52 message of John Wesley called people everywhere to recognize 22:56 their need of God in both their personal lives and throughout 23:00 their society. It was a practical religion that worked 23:05 to reform those areas of society where there was most moral 23:09 bankruptcy and suffering. The great religious revival in 23:14 England that followed the work of John Wesley is just one of 23:18 the many examples from history of what happens when people 23:21 rediscover the gospel, the good news of Jesus. What happened in 23:27 England as a result of John Wesley's work highlights the 23:30 power and importance of the Bible. It highlights the truth 23:35 of the promises of God's word and the importance of following 23:38 him. Notice what the Bible says in 2 Chronicles chapter 7 23:44 and verse 14: 24:02 This doesn't just apply to nations or even just to 24:06 churches. It also applies to us, to you and me, at a very 24:13 personal level. If you'd like to experience the power of God in 24:16 your life, if you'd like to experience a personal revival 24:20 in your own life, if you are ready to be humble before God 24:24 and seek him, then I'd like to invite you to commit your life 24:29 to him right now as we pray. 24:31 Dear Heavenly Father, you've promised that when we turn to 24:37 you, you will give us new strength and a new life. Thank 24:40 you for the story of John Wesley because we can see that you are 24:44 faithful and that your promises are true. What you did back then 24:48 please do for us today. It's difficult to do the things we 24:53 want to do and to change the things we need to change in our 24:57 lives. Please come into our lives and transform us. But not 25:02 only our life, but may our families and our communities 25:06 be transformed as well. We pray not just for ourselves but for 25:12 our nation also and we ask these blessings in Jesus' name, Amen. 25:19 For many years John Wesley battled with disappointment and 25:24 deep discouragement as he struggled to find out what it 25:29 meant to live life as a Christian. When he discovered 25:32 the secret not only was his whole life transformed but its 25:37 impact uplifted every area of the life of his nation. We have 25:42 a very special offer for you today and it's a free gift to 25:46 all our viewers. If you'd like to rediscover the gospel and its 25:50 power in your own life, then I'd like to offer you a powerful 25:54 combined booklet and Bible lesson package. The free Bible 25:58 lesson is What Must I Do to be Saved? and the bonus booklet is 26:04 The Best Insurance Policy in the World. This special package is 26:09 our gift to you and is absolutely free. There are no 26:13 costs or obligations whatsoever. In this package, you'll be able 26:18 to work through the step-by- step Bible lesson about what you 26:21 need to do to be saved. It'll be as if Wesley were teaching 26:25 you himself. So please, don't miss this wonderful opportunity 26:30 to receive the gift we have for you today. Here's the 26:35 information you need: Phone or text us at 0436333555 or visit 26:42 our website www.tij.tv to request today's free offer and 26:49 we'll send it to you totally free of charge and with no 26:52 obligation. So don't delay. Call or text 0436333555 in 27:00 Australia or 0204222042 in New Zealand or visit our website 27:06 www.tij.tv to request today's offer. Write to us at: 27:28 So don't delay, call or text 0436333555 in Australia or 27:35 0204222042 in New Zealand or visit our website to request 27:41 today's offer. Don't delay. Call or text us now. 27:47 Be sure to join us again next week when we will share another 27:50 of life's journeys together. Until then remember the 27:54 ultimate destination of life's journey. Now I saw a new heaven 27:59 and a new earth. And God will wipe away every tear from their 28:03 eyes. There shall be no more death nor sorrow nor crying. 28:07 There shall be no more pain for the former things have 28:11 passed away. 28:12 ♪ ♪ |
Revised 2021-03-10