John Wesley’s Aldersgate Experience
Journal entry: 24 May 1738
In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate-Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans.
About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed.
I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation: And an assurance was given me, that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.
I began to pray with all my might for those who had in a more especial manner despitefully used me and persecuted me. I then testified openly to all there, what I now first felt in my heart.
[Wesley, J. (1872) The Works of John Wesley. Third Edition. London: Wesleyan Methodist Book Room, p. 103]
Connect Group Dialogue
There is much packed into that one word: ‘unwillingly’. Briefly recall a few things that Wesley had gone through before his Aldersgate experience.
Now despite this, he hears God, and Holy Spirit is at work within him! He realised his assurance! Discuss how we, as Christ’s disciples, use the means of grace (spiritual disciplines) to open ourselves to God’s voice. i.e. Our means and experiences in hearing from God?
Wesley’s first response to his ‘Aha moment’ is to pray – especially for those who had wronged him. Discuss how well Matthew 5:44But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45so that you may be children of your Father in heaven;[1] is experienced and practiced today!
Next Wesley testifies, or witnesses. Discuss our lack, or abundance of witnessing in our everyday life. Has there been a ‘God moment’ in your life yesterday, or today that you can share? Or put another way: can you testify to having seen ‘God’s fingerprints’ in your life recently?
Read through Romans 8: 1-11, slowly and contemplate for a while thereon.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law—indeed it cannot, 8and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you. [2]
Closing prayer
God who continues to open hearts and minds, we confess that too often we have crowded out your voice, being too attentive to the many noises that bombard us. Break our hearts to hear your voice and to hear the hurts and cries of those around us. Empower us to be your faithful witnesses in our homes and in all the encounters we face. Amen.
[1] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (1989). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, p. Mt 5:43–45.
[2] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (1989). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, p. Ro 8:1–11.