Wednesdays with Wesley

"Do not think I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets," said Jesus. "I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them." Many Christians have tried to separate Jesus from the Law and the Old Testament from the New Testament to create a less rigorous brand of faith. Jesus, however, states that obedience to the Law and teaching of the Law in its fullness is vital for life in the Kingdom. John Wesley breaks down this passage from Matthew 5:17-20 line by line and challenges modern brands of faith that would go soft on sin and light on obedience. Join host Bob Kaylor as he works through this important Discourse in the Sermon on the Mount series. 

Read Upon Our Lord's Sermon on the Mount: Discourse, the Fifth

Send your questions and comments to [email protected] and follow Bob on Twitter and Instagram @revbkaylor. 

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What does it mean for Christians to be salt and light? In this discourse, Wesley makes clear that Jesus is not promoting a solitary, individualized form of faith but the kind of religion that is impossible to conceal. In a culture where rugged individualism and privacy are expected, especially when it comes to religion, this sermon challenges us to recognize that "real Christianity" is a faith that cannot be kept to ourselves. 

Read Upon Our Lord's Sermon on the Mount: Discourse, the Fourth 

Email your questions and comments to [email protected] and follow host Bob Kaylor on Twitter and Instragram @revbkaylor. 

The third discourse completes Wesley's discussion of the Beatitudes, describing the "pure in heart" who are also peacemakers, doing good to all. That purity of heart does not come without a cost, however, as the world inevitably persecutes those who are seeking the righteousness that comes from God alone. Host Bob Kaylor takes a detailed look at this sermon and its implications for the life of holiness. 

Read Upon Our Lord's Sermon on the Mount: Discourse, the Third

Send your questions and comments to [email protected] and follow Bob on Twitter and Instagram @revbkaylor. Leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform and tell others about the show! 

In this second installment of Wesley's discourses on the Sermon on the Mount, we look at the Beatitudes concerning meekness, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, and mercy. Wesley sees these three marks of the Christian life as critical for implanting in us an appetite to be like and to love like Jesus. 

Read Upon Our Lord's Sermon on the Mount: Discourse, the Second

Leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform and tell others about the show! Contact Bob with your questions and comments at [email protected]. Follow on Instagram and Twitter @revbkaylor. 

John Wesley called the Sermon on the Mount "the way to heaven, the true way to life everlasting, the royal way that leads to the Kingdom." The 13 Discourses on the Sermon take up nearly a third of Wesley's original 44 Standard Sermons and outline the practical reality of what it means to be people who are pursuing holiness of heart and life. Indeed, Wesley sees the Sermon as containing the core of "real Christianity" and the core of Christian practice. 

In this episode, Bob Kaylor offers a look at Wesley's first Discourse, which is an introduction to the Sermon on the Mount as well as a treatise on the two foundational Beatitudes that are the initial steps on the way toward the kingdom: poverty of spirit and mourning. Learn how these are the basis of "the sum of all true religion" for Methodist Christians. 

Read Upon the Sermon on the Mount: Discourse the First

Contact Bob with your questions and comments at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @revbkaylor and on Instagram at @revbkaylor. Leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform and tell others about the podcast! 

Methodist theologian Albert Outler called The Scripture Way of Salvation “the most successful summary of the Wesleyan vision of the [order of salvation] in the entire sermon corpus.” Here we see Wesley outlining the movement of prevenient, justifying, and sanctifying grace in the life of the believer and salvation as "a present thing, a blessing which, through the free mercy of God, ye are now in possession of.” In this episode, host Bob Kaylor looks at the importance of entire sanctification and the optimistic view that we can expect it and expect it now.

Read The Scripture Way of Salvation

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"There is scarce any expression in Holy Writ which has given more offense than this...And whosoever 'preaches perfection,' [and] asserts that it is attainable in this life, run great hazard of being accounted by them worse than a heathen or a publican." These opening lines to John Wesley's sermon indicate that Christian Perfection is a widely misunderstood doctrine, even though it is at the heart of the Scriptures. Understanding what this term means is essential to understanding the key emphasis in Methodism. In this episode, Bob Kaylor unpacks Wesley's explanation of "perfection" and how it is audaciously optimistic about what the grace of God can do in the life of the believer. 

Read Christian Perfection

Read A Plain Account of Christian Perfection

Email your questions and comments to [email protected]. Follow Bob on Twitter @revbkaylor. 

John Wesley believed that the doctrine of entire sanctification is the "grand depositum which God has lodged with the people called Methodists, and for the sake of propagating this chiefly He appeared to have raised us up." Christian perfection, entire sanctification, holiness of heart and life--all these are ways of describing the end goal of the Christian life. In this early sermon of Wesley's, written in 1733 and revised later for publication, John Wesley describes entire sanctification as a "circumcision of the heart" that marks us as people who have "a mind and spirit renewed after the image of himself who created it." Understanding and aiming toward this core doctrine is essential for authentic Methodism. 

Read The Circumcision of the Heart

Send your questions and comments to [email protected] and follow Bob Kaylor on Twitter @revbkaylor. 

How does the grace of God come to us? The ways are limitless, of course, but John Wesley argues that there are some "ordinary means" or what we might call "holy habits" through which the grace of God becomes activated in us through the power of the Spirit increasing our capacity to love God and our neighbors. In this sermon, Wesley looks at three of these "instituted" means of grace--those specifically instituted or commanded by Christ. Prayer, searching the Scriptures, and the Lord's Supper are means of grace that convey to us "Christ and all his benefits." Join Bob Kaylor as he looks at these means of grace and as he makes an appeal for pastors and churches to consider making the Lord's Supper a central means of grace in every worship service. 

Read The Means of Grace

Send your questions and comments to [email protected]. Follow Bob on Twitter @revbkaylor and check out his blog at bobkaylor.com. 

On August 24, 1744, John Wesley ascended the pulpit at St. Mary's Church in Oxford and delivered a pointed sermon to the faculty and students on the nature of "scriptural Christianity." Wesley pulled no punches and knew that this would be the last sermon he would ever deliver in that place. In his Journal that day he wrote, "I preached for the last time before the University of Oxford. I am now clear of the blood of these men. I have fully delivered my soul." 

"Scriptural Christianity" is the sermon that marked the final transition of Wesley from Oxford don to itinerant field preacher and movement organizer. It's a sermon focused on the "ordinary" gifts of the Holy Spirit given to all Christians and calls its hearers to evaluate whether or not they are living lives of true holiness. It's a sermon that could just as easily been delivered to clergy and leaders in the church today, asking the question, "Where is this scriptural Christianity to be found?" It's a sermon that really cuts to the heart and calls for all Christians, particularly those in the Methodist tribe, to consider the state of their own lives and that of their churches and communities. 

Join host Bob Kaylor for a deep dive into this important and convicting sermon.

Read Scriptural Christianity

Contact Bob with your questions and comments at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @revbkaylor.