A Brief Biography of John Wesley

A biographical sketch of John Wesley's life

When attempting to understand a biographical sketch of John Wesley's life, there are several aspects that must be mentioned: early life including his upbringing and the phenomenal impact his mother had on him, the Holy Club, his conversion including the events that led up to that defining moment, and finally, his ministry including his relationship with George Whitefield and the beginning of the Methodists.  

  John Wesley, born June 17, 1703, was the fifteenth of nineteen children born to Samuel and Susanna Wesley.   Samuel, John's father, while gifted and scholarly, was a rather pedestrian Anglican priest in the rectory of Epworth.   He was constantly in financial troubles, which, for a short time, caused him to be imprisoned.   Additionally, he was not on good terms with his parishioners and would retreat annually to London for Convocation, sometimes months at a time.   JC Ryle said of him, "he was a man of more book-learning and cleverness than good sense."  

On the other hand, Susanna, John's mother, is one of the greatest Christian mothers in history.   Her father was a well-known reader of Puritan theology and this significantly influenced her in the rearing of her children.   She took the responsibility of raising them as a sacred trust from God, saying in a letter to Samuel, "I cannot but look upon every soul you leave under my care as a talent committed to me under a trust by the great Lord of all the families both of heaven and earth."   She spoke of how she cared for her household and raised her children in a letter to John at his request.   In it, she detailed what she referred to as "principle rules I observed in educating my family." These included particulars on piety and devotion to the Lord, conquering a child's will, little tolerance for crying, keeping the children in order with a rigorous schedule, and a list of by-laws by which the household operated.   There can be no doubt that Susanna's personal devotion to the Lord had a significant impact on John's ministry.  

Although John's early life was somewhat quiet, there is one event that must be noted.   One evening, at the age of five, John awoke to find the room and house on fire.   He was the only one left inside.   As the flames grew hotter and consumed more and more of the house, he moved to the window.   When the crowd below spotted young John standing in the second story window, a strong man put another on his shoulders and positioned himself underneath John.   He was saved from the fire at the very moment that the roof collapsed inward.   His father, with his house, and all of his books and writings destroyed said, "Come, neighbors!   Let us kneel down!   Let us give thanks to God!   He has given me all eight children.   Let the house go.   I am rich enough." Susannah believed that God had saved John for a great work and John always viewed himself as "brands plucked from the burning", which references Zechariah 3:2.  

At age seventeen, in 1720, John began the undergraduate program at Oxford University and was elected to Christ Church.   Ryle notes that John's correspondence with his father and mother during his first few years at Oxford clearly demonstrates the inner battle that Wesley was having over spiritual matters.   "They all show more or less absence of spiritual light and clear views of the gospel."   Yet, through his transparency with his parents, it is clearly understood that he felt true religion was serious business.   In 1726, Wesley was elected Fellow of Lincoln College.   In the eight years that followed, 1726-1734, John resided at Oxford.   During this time, he gradually began to get involved with his brother Charles, who was student at Christ Church, in doing good for others.   Then, in November of 1729, he began to gather a group together of young, like-minded men to study the Greek New Testament.   This group initially began with four attendees but they were later joined by four more, including the young George Whitfield.   They committed themselves to helping those less fortunate by visiting prisoners, helping the poor, distributing Prayer books and Bibles, helping neglected children go to school as well as engage in the intense study of the Scriptures in the original languages.   Because these actions were so out of the box for the time in which they lived, they received much ridicule and persecution, being called "Methodists" and a "Holy Club."   John formed habits from his experiences over these eight years that would last him for rest of his life.

Following his time at Oxford, Wesley accepted the opportunity to be a missionary in Georgia to the Indians.   His time in Georgia was wrought with failure and confusion that left him feeling defeated and uncertain of his own soul.   Wesley records in his journal, only a day after he had landed in Georgia on February 6, 1736, a conversation with a pastor, Mr. Spangenberg, which is most relevant to understanding the process leading to John Wesley's conversion: "I soon found what spirit he was of and asked his advice with regard to my own conduct.   He said, " My brother, I must first ask you one or two questions.   Have you the witness within yourself?   Does the Spirit of God bear witness with your spirit that you are a child of God?" I was surprised, and knew not what to answer.   He observed it and asked, "Do you know Jesus Christ?" I paused and said, "I know He is the Saviour of the world."   "True," replied he; "but do you know he has saved you?"   I answered, I hope He has died to save me."   He only added, "Do you know yourself?" I said, "I do."   But I fear they were vain words " (italics mine).  

After two years, Wesley, defeated and happy to leave, boarded a ship to sail back to England.    On the voyage back home, a great storm arose that threatened the lives of all on board. John was struck by the peace demonstrated by the Moravian missionaries during this.   Over the course of the journey home, Wesley recorded, "I went to America, to convert the Indians; but oh!   Who shall convert me?   Who, what is he that will deliver me from this evil heart of mischief?"   Once in England, Wesley would continue a relationship with the Moravians and to study the Scriptures fervently.   All of this led up to the defining night in 1738 where at a society meeting on Aldersgate Street, John sat listening to a reading of Luther's preface to the Epistle of Romans.   He says of this night, "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." In the days that would follow his conversion, the enemy would tempt him that it was not real but he did not waiver and his response would simply be to cry out to God and flee the temptations.  

Now that Wesley was converted and sure of his conversion, he set his efforts on the salvation of others.   Soon Wesley received an invitation from a former "Holy Club" member, George Whitefield, who was now a famous preacher dividing his time between his parish in Georgia and England.   Though Wesley was unconvinced at first of Whitefield's methods of preaching outdoors, this soon changed and the two spent much of their early years of ministry preaching together.   Whitefield played a strategic role in Wesley's life early on after his conversion.   The two worked together with great success preaching to crowds that have been estimated to be over twenty thousand.   Soon, Wesley became the leader of the movement.   After much success in ministering together, the two decided to go their separate ways over the fact that they disagreed substantially over the doctrine of predestination and free will.   Whitefield preferred the view of Calvinism while Wesley favored the view of Armenianism and thus the two decided to follow their own convictions and separate without fueling a controversy.            

While Whitefield would found a new denomination, Wesley had no interest to do such.   Gonzalez says the purpose of Wesley "was to awaken and cultivate the faith of the masses in the Church of England, as Pietism was doing for German Lutheranism."   It was never Wesley's intent to depart from the Church of England and he demonstrated this in that he remained an Anglican minister until he died.   Further evidence can also be seen in that he was careful to never allow his preaching to conflict with the time of the Anglican services and always viewed that 'Methodist' meetings, gatherings that followed Wesley's methods, existed to prepare an individual for the worship service and the taking of communion.   The 'societies' that Wesley organized were called 'Methodists' because they adhered to his methods.   This will be further discussed in the section on Wesley's contributions.

             "John Wesley averaged three sermons a day for fifty-four years preaching all-told more than 44,000 times. In doing this he traveled by horseback and carriage more than 200,000 miles, or about 5,000 miles a year."   The significance of his ministry can scarcely be understood.   Hundreds of thousands must have been delivered under his preaching.   Over 550 itinerant preachers and over 1500 local pastors, most of whom Wesley personally raised up, were influenced under this man's ministry.   His writing ministry includes a four-volume commentary on the whole Bible, a dictionary of the English language, a five-volume work on natural philosophy, a four-volume work on church history, histories of England and Rome, grammars on the Hebrew, Latin, Greek, French and English languages, three works on medicine, six volumes of church music, and seven volumes of sermons and controversial papers. He also edited a library of fifty volumes known as "The Christian Library."   Retirement was never an option as he continued to preach into his eighties.   At age eighty-three he became frustrated with his own humanity in that he could not write more than fifteen hours a day without hurting his eyes.   At age eighty-six, he again became faced with his own humanity having to admit that he could only preach twice a day but, amazingly, in this year, he preached in every shire in England and Wales.   John Wesley died in 1791 in his eighty-eighth year of life and his sixty-fifth year of ministry.   JC Ryle says of his death, "He had always enjoyed wonderful health and never hardly knew what it was to feel weariness or pain till he was eighty-two.   The weary wheels of life at length stood still, and he died of no disease but sheer old age."  

   Summary of his involvement in prayer

            A discussion of Wesley's involvement in prayer cannot begin without understanding what took place on New Year's Eve in 1738 at the Fetter Lane Chapel, a Moravian congregation in London.   Each year the congregation would gather for a "Watch Night" service, have a meal together, take communion, read a Scripture and have a time of prayer.   Whitefield would later describe what happened next as "a Pentecostal season indeed."   While little details are known about the evening, what is understood is that the New Year was ushered in with the people of that chapel praying and the power of God coming upon the group.   At this time, Wesley had been a Christian for less than a year and was longing for a still deeper experience.   His wish came true that night.   He describes it by saying that at "about three in the morning, as we were continuing instant in prayer, the power of God came mightily upon us, insomuch that many cried out for exceeding joy, and many fell to the ground.   As soon as we recovered a little from the awe and amazement at the presence of His majesty, we broke out with one voice, 'We praise Thee, O God, we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord.'"   This night has been claimed as the beginning of the Methodists or   The Evangelical Revival, as it came to be called in England.

Wesley's view on prayer was one of absolute necessity to the Christian life.   He taught that prayer and meditation was essential to understand the things of God.   In outlining how one is to study the Scriptures he states, "Serious and earnest prayer should be constantly used before we consult the oracles of God; seeing 'Scripture can only be understood through the same Spirit whereby it was given.' Our reading should likewise be closed with prayer, that what we read may be written in our hearts."   Wesley saw prayer as a Christian duty and an instituted means of grace.   He wrote to the Societies at Bristol concerning the Christian responsibilities saying that prayer was to be done in private, with the family, and in public.   Prayer was to consist of deprecation, petition, intercession, and thanksgiving and it was to be carried out every morning and evening along with other duties.   Wesley recommended that at least two hours a day be spent in some kind of prayer.

Summary of his involvement in revival

            Wesley's involvement in revival can be found during The Evangelical Awakening in Britain, otherwise known as the Methodist Revival.   During his life, he traveled and preached almost every week, being motivated that if there was breath in his lungs, he was to preach the gospel somewhere.   He led The Evangelical Awakening in Great Britain with his preaching ministry in the open fields, his publishing's, his equipping of others to preach the gospel, and an unwavering focus on the purpose of always sharing the gospel.   The unusual ability to both preach and organize, coupled with an immeasurable zeal, positioned Wesley to be the leader of this revival.   Ensley comments that "there have been other revivals which, for a brief period, have approached the Wesleyan achievement in intensity.   The Great Awakening in America rivaled it in its effects on education and public affairs.   But what evangelist can claim such permanent consequences and continuing life for his labors as the little Oxford don who left his classroom to save the souls of miners and shopkeepers of eighteenth century England."                              

Summary of his involvement in evangelism

            John Wesley was in the truest sense an evangelist.   He sought to reach people with the gospel no matter the obstacle.   Taylor notes five methods of evangelism used by both John and Charles Wesley.   The first is the open-air crusade, also known as field preaching.   As already stated, field preaching was Whitefield's idea and Wesley was quite hesitant to embrace it.   This method was first used in Kingswood, Bristol in February of 1739.   Whitefield noted of this technique, "Blessed be God that I have now broken the ice.   I believe I never was more acceptable to my Master than when I was standing to teach those hearers in the open fields."   The reluctant Wesley soon realized that this technique of evangelism was what God had purposed him for in order to see revival.   As Wesley traveled with Whitfield and saw the mass crowds, sometimes reporting as high as thirty thousand, it became apparent that field preaching had become the number one method of eighteenth century evangelism.     

The second method was to train and use lay preachers.   Both John and Charles gave careful supervision to these lay preachers and placed strenuous requirements on them.   Those who were too afraid to confront the Wesley brothers would often deliver blows to the lay preachers in an effort to thwart their efforts.   All such attacks were carried out in vain as the lay preachers continuously experienced the power of God in revival and became the greatest force in modern evangelism.  

The third method of evangelism was done through the power of the pen.   John Wesley saw the need to make printed booklets and books available to those who were poor; therefore he had a printing office, a warehouse, and a shop of his own. An example of such materials provided in the 1740's were A Word to a Drunkard, A Word to an Unhappy Woman, A Word to an Englishman (1745), A Word of Advice to Saints and Sinners, A Word to a Methodist, A Word to a Protestant and A Word to a Freeholder (against accepting bribes in parliamentary elections).   Throughout the revival, he published both his own and his brothers sermons, hymns, poems, tracts, appeals as well as an abundance of literature designed to meet certain needs.   It can be estimated that there are probably four hundred works published and catalogued by Wesley with profits in his lifetime exceeding $150,000, which is quite substantial for that time period.   All of the monies were put back into the ministry for evangelistic efforts.  

The fourth method used was through music but John Wesley was not as involved in this as was his brother Charles.   Charles wrote hymns for the sole purpose of educating ignorant souls to the gospel.   These hymns were put to such musical styles as folk tunes which John probably heard during his travels.  

The final method was the evangelistic preaching of John Wesley.   While Mr. Wesley was quite unimpressive in his stature, weighing in at only 122 pounds and standing only 5 feet 5 inches in height, he had a clear and strong voice.   On one occasion he measured that his voice could be heard clearly for 140 yards.   His preaching style was "plain truth for plain people."   He never screamed and rarely used illustrations communicating with a profound simplicity what the Word of God said about salvation and obedience.   While he was not afraid to preach on hell, the predominant theme of his sermons was the love of God.   One of his most famous was entitled God's Love for Fallen Man based on Romans 5:15.   In the days before he died, he preached twice and his final sermons were in beautiful harmony with the life he had led.   First, he preached at Chelsea on February 18 th on the subject "The King's Business Requireth Haste" (1 Samuel 21:8) and his final sermon was based on the words "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found" (Isaiah 1v. 6) and was preached at Leatherhead on February 23 rd .   Wesley finished preaching in the same manner he began, that people may find eternal life in Jesus Christ.      

Unique characteristics or contributions

            One of the most important contributions and unique characteristics of Wesley's ministry was the organization of societies.   It was not Wesley's pattern to simply preach somewhere without setting up a society to help disciple new converts.   He began to set these up in 1739, which was within a few months of his beginning to do field preaching.   He would later describe these societies in detail in a 1748 letter entitled, "A Plain Account of the People Called Methodists" written to his closest clerical friend, Vincent Perronet, who Charles Wesley called the Archbishop of Methodism.   In that letter, Wesley describes the society as a group of people associating themselves together to "'flee from the wrath to come' and to assist each other in so doing.   They therefore united themselves 'in order to pray together, to receive the word of exhortation, and to watch over one another in love, that they might help each other to work out their salvation."   Because of these simple requirements, the Methodists society was the easiest and hardest group to join.   He set the societies up so that there would be a lay leader over each but he would personally oversee the entire system.   As the movement continued to grow, the societies would continue to split up so that they could stay a reasonable size numerically.   There were five different types of societies designed to meet the various needs of the people, the United Societies, The Bands, The Class Meeting, The Select Societies and the Penitents.      

My personal insights gained from studying John Wesley

            While there are many insights that could be noted from studying the Kingdom driven life of John Wesley, one that should be noted was his impact on other men in the ministry who may have totally disagreed with him on a doctrinal basis. George Whitefield is probably the most prominent.   On one occasion, Whitefield was asked whom he would like to preach his funeral.   Immediately Whitefield responded, "John Wesley."   Whitefield died in America in 1770 and Wesley preached a funeral sermon in the chapel on Tottenham Court Road and another in the Tabernacle at Greenwhich--at both services there were overflow crowds.   Another Calvinist greatly used of God, who was not even born until over forty years after Wesley's death, said of the "prince of Armenians", "I can only say concerning him that, while I detest many of the doctrines which he preached, yet for the man himself I have a reverence second to no Wesleyan; and if there were wanted two apostles to be added to the number of the twelve, I do not believe that there could be found two more fit to be so added than George Whitefield and John Wesley.   The character of John Wesley stands beyond all imputation for self-sacrifice, zeal, holiness, and communion with God; he lived far above the ordinary level of common Christians, and was one 'of whom the world was not worthy. '"    

            How could God so greatly use an Armenian in John Wesley and a Calvinist in George Whitefield (or Jonathan Edwards and Charles Hadden Spurgeon for that matter)?   I think it was simply a matter of motivation.   Great men whom God has used are not concerned with preaching theology, but rather Christ, and using sound theology to do so.   Additionally, their identity was more wrapped up in who Christ was than a theological system.   This is not to say that there was not great conviction in the hearts and minds of these individuals or that they were more doctrinally sound as compared to a contemporary that took a different view but is instead to say that a theological system was not their chief motivation or identity in ministry and life.   Spurgeon spoke of this when he said, "There is no soul living who holds more firmly to the doctrines of grace than I do, and if any man asks me whether I am ashamed to be called a Calvinist, I answer--I wish to be called nothing but a Christian; but if you ask me, do I hold the doctrinal views which were held by John Calvin, I reply, I do in main hold them, and rejoice to avow it. "   The success of such a variety of theological understandings can be found in the words of the apostle Paul in the first and last chapters of the book of Romans, they were simply "obedient to the faith."