Every other Wednesday, host Bob Kaylor and guests take a deep dive into the sermons and writings of John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement. This is great introduction to Wesley's sermons and writings for clergy and laity in the Methodist tribe as well as for those who are interested in learning more about this grace-filled and "methodical" theological tradition.
Dr. Bob Kaylor is Lead Pastor at Aldersgate Church in York, PA
bobkaylor.substack.com (https://bobkaylor.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast)
I’m really excited to bring you this new series of sermons on the Book of Genesis beginning January 5. The Book of Genesis is foundational to understanding the Bible, understanding who we are, and understanding who God is. We’ll be diving into the text each Sunday through Lent, but there’s so much to explore that it will be hard to confine it to the length of a weekly sermon. To supplement that teaching, I’m going to put together some additional teaching videos to fill in some of the gaps and add to your knowledge base. This first one looks at the basic question of who wrote Genesis and when.
This week’s sermon (January 5, 2025)
We celebrate Epiphany Sunday this week, which marks the visit of the Magi bearing gifts for the child Jesus, but we're also beginning a new sermon series titled "Origins: The Book of Genesis." What do Epiphany and the opening verses of Genesis have to do with one another? Well, the word "epiphany" means a "a manifestation of divinity," or a revelation of the divine, while "genesis" means "beginning." In effect, these two stories both reveal the character and nature of God as the one who comes to dwell with his people in his good creation. As the brightness of a star illuminated the way for the Magi, revealing to these Gentiles the true character of God in Israel's Messiah, so the opening verses of Genesis illumine the way to understanding God and God's purpose for his people and his creation. In this first sermon, we’ll explore how the opening verse of Genesis is the key to understanding not only the Book of Genesis, but to knowing God and knowing who we are in in relationship to him.
See you Sunday at Aldersgate Church (https://www.aldersgateyork.com)!
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bobkaylor.substack.com (https://bobkaylor.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)
6 Dec 2023
The Witness of Our Own Spirit (Sermon XII)
“Always let your conscience be your guide.” That’s the advice that Jiminy Cricket gives to Pinocchio in the little ditty he sings in the Disney movie. It’s advice that seems to ring true for a lot of people in a western culture where individual autonomy is the highest value. In that worldview, “conscience” is a construct of one’s own thoughts and opinions--how you feel about right and wrong is what matters. Another’s conscience about a particular moral choice might be different but, all things being equal, it’s your conscience so “you do you” as the kids say.
Such a worldview assumes that there’s no such thing as a universal standard of right and wrong. Christians, however, don’t subscribe to that worldview. We believe that God has established a way to live for the human beings he created in his image--a way that is embedded in us if we will acknowledge it. The very idea that there is such a thing as right and wrong is evidence of the image of God stamped on every human being. We Wesleyans would say its further evidence of God’s “prevenient grace”--that grace that goes before our understanding of God. When we become Christians, however, we see our conscience tuned and honed in a way that not only keeps us in the way God has made for us, the way of Christ, but also enables us to live joyful and abundant lives, assured that we are children of God.
The Christian conscience is the focus on John Wesley’s 1746 Sermon, “The Witness of Our Own Spirit,” and that’s our focus in this episode of Wednesdays with Wesley.
Read The Witness of Our Own Spirit (http://www.wordsofwesley.com/libtext.cfm?srm=12)
Add your questions and comments below and please leave a review on your favorite podcast platform. Wednesdays with Wesley is a free resource designed to reconnect the Wesleyan world to our theological roots.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bobkaylor.substack.com (https://bobkaylor.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)
8 Nov 2023
The Witness of the Spirit
Doctrines, experiences to try,
We to the sacred standard fly.
Assured the Spirit of our Lord
Can never contradict his Word.
What e’re his Spirit speaks in me
Must with the written word agree;
If not: I cast it all aside
As Satan’s voice, or nature’s pride.
This verse from a Charles Wesley hymn (973 in Volume 1 of Short Hymns) speaks to the witness of the Holy Spirit and the witness of Scripture and the way they are dependent upon each other. The Scriptures reveal the Word of God inspired by the Spirit of God, and yet the Spirit also enables us to interpret Scripture according to that Word. The Spirit and the Word do not contradict one another, and that’s especially true when it comes to the doctrine of assurance, which we’re continuing to explore in this episode of Wednesdays with Wesley.
Sermon X, The Witness of the Spirit, is actually part 1 of a two-part discourse in which John Wesley will expound on the ways in which we can discern the assuring word of the Spirit of God versus our own inner voice or, more insidiously, against the voice of Satan. That sort of discernment is vital, especially in an age where plenty of people are claiming that they are hearing “new things” from the Spirit of God that diverge from what God has revealed in the Scriptures.
Read The Witness of the Spirit (https://holyjoys.org/the-witness-of-the-spirit-discourse-1/)
Send your questions and comments to the host, Bob Kaylor, at revbkaylor@gmail.com.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bobkaylor.substack.com (https://bobkaylor.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)
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