Host Bob Kaylor offers a brief update on the show and his impending move into a new season of ministry. Wednesdays with Wesley will be back in a few weeks but, in the interim, send your suggestions for future episodes to [email protected] (note the new address). Watch for new episodes coming soon!

In this episode we go a little deeper into John Wesley's understanding of the good news by looking at his definition of "true religion" found in Jesus' proclamation of the kingdom of God. It's a religion of the heart that is evidenced in the believer's life in "righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." As Wesley puts it, "This is the way; walk ye in it!" Host Bob Kaylor walks us through this important sermon that gets at the essence of the gospel and how it's lived out in the lives of those who will "repent and believe the good news."

Read The Way of the Kingdom

Leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform and email the host with your questions and comments at [email protected]. Follow Bob on Twitter @revbkaylor.

Many evangelical Christians are aware of The Four Spiritual Laws as a shorthand version of the gospel used in evangelism. While millions of Christians have come to faith through this simple presentation, which has its roots in the Reformed tradition, those in the Methodist tribe might wonder if there is a Wesleyan version of The Four Spiritual Laws that expresses not only the salvation we have in Christ but also a version of the "wonderful plan" for our lives that involves sanctification, restoration in the image of God, and power over sin. 

Host Bob Kaylor believes he may have found it in John Wesley's letter to Ebenezer Blackwell on December 20, 1751. Near the end of the letter, Wesley outlines in four statements the gospel that the early Methodist preached and believed:

1. God loves you: therefore love and obey him.

2. Christ died for you: therefore die to sin.

3. Christ has risen: therefore rise in the image of God.

4. Christ lives evermore: therefore live to God till you live with Him in glory. 

"This is the scriptural way, the Methodist way, the true way," said Wesley. "God grant that we may never turn therefrom, to the right hand or to the left." What would it mean for 21st century Methodists to adopt this as our "Four Spiritual Laws" for evangelizing the world? 

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

The spontaneous revival at Asbury University has now moved into its second week. What started as a regular Wednesday chapel service has grown into a move of God that is attracting hundreds of people to Wilmore, KY, to experience this outpouring of God’s Spirit. People are coming to experience the power of confession and repentance, healing and reconciliation, testimony and spontaneous praise. There’s no central leader, no direction or agenda, just people gathering together, drawn in and sent out by the Spirit  in a way that is so unusual that national news outlets are picking it up.

But while many are rejoicing at this movement of God that began with college students and is spreading to other campuses, others are skeptical and even critical--and, not surprisingly, a lot of that criticism seems to be coming from those who are actually in the church. Some merely chalk up the revival to emotionalism, while others sniff that it’s not immediately following their prescribed social justice agenda. Still others have never been part of such a spontaneous outpouring and question any kind of ecstatic experience. In Wesley's day, movements of the God outside the established church were considered to be a dangerous form of "enthusiasm," or an irrational religious madness. 

The reality is, however, that these kinds of revivals and spiritual watershed events are a hallmark of the Wesleyan holiness tradition. Asbury experienced a similar revival back in 1970 that launched a generation of pastors and missionaries. Camp meetings and other gatherings were, and in many places still are, opportunities for the Spirit to bring renewed vision in the midst of prayer, worship, healing, and testimony. Indeed, from the very beginning, Methodism has been a movement of the Holy Spirit and a movement that has always raised questions for those in the institutional church. 

In "The Nature of Enthusiasm," written in 1750, John Wesley responds to critics of the movement by redefining what "enthusiasm" actually means and offers a prescription for discerning the work of the Holy Spirit and the will of God. It's a timely sermon for this moment in history and one that both supporters and critics of revival need to consider. 

Read The Nature of Enthusiasm

Read Kevin Watson's helpful summary

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

In Discourse I, John Wesley described the way in which people (and especially preachers) void the moral law of God by an overemphasis on faith alone. In Discourse II, he offers three ways to properly establish the law through faith: through preaching a fully biblical doctrine, through seeing faith as a means toward holiness, and through living out that law of love in our hearts and lives. The Wesleyan way sees faith and law working together to produce Christ-like character expressed in holy love of God and neighbor. 

Read The Law Established Through Faith, Discourse II

Read Dr. Kevin Watson's helpful summary

Send your questions and comments to host Bob Kaylor at [email protected] and follow Bob on Twitter @revbkaylor. Leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform! 

“Consider this well--that to preach Christ is to preach all things that Christ hath spoken; all his promises; all his threatenings and commands; all that is written in his book; and then you will know how to preach Christ, without making void the law.” Bringing law and grace, law and faith, into balance is one of the strengths of Wesleyan theology, paying attention to the critical role that both play in the Bible and in the life of the disciple of Jesus. Law without grace is legalism, while grace without law is antinomianism. In this first of two Discourses, John Wesley explores the ways that Christians tend to "void" the law by faith, rather than seeing obedience to the moral law as an essential outcome of faith and the path to holiness. Host Bob Kaylor takes a deep dive into this sermon and explains why it's an essential teaching for Christians in a culture of expressive individualism. 

Read The Law Established Through Faith, Discourse I

Read Kevin Watson's helpful outline and summary

Send your questions and comments to [email protected] and follow Bob on Twitter @revbkaylor. Please take a few minutes to write a review on your favorite podcast platform! 

"The devices whereby the subtle 'god of this world' labors to destroy the children of God, or at least torment whom he cannot destroy, to perplex and hinder them in running the race which is set before them, are numberless as the stars of heaven or the sand upon the seashore." In this sermon, John Wesley looks at some of the particular devices of Satan that would hinder Christians from "going on to perfection." It's a helpful reminder that when it comes to the spiritual life we should focus more on what God has given us than on what we still lack. 

Read Satan's Devices

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

John Wesley's understanding of prevenient grace allowed him to acknowledge the good that God can accomplish through a variety of people, even those outside of the church. In this sermon he cautions against the kind of spiritual pride that would limit the power of God to only working within our own tribe or even our own religion. When sinners turn to God in repentance, no matter how or through whom it happens, it's something to be celebrated. Host Bob Kaylor takes a look at this important sermon which speaks to the ways that contemporary Christians, and especially Methodists in the midst of deep disagreements, ought to acknowledge God's power working through others in ways we might not expect. 

Read A Caution Against Bigotry

Read Kevin Watson's helpful summary

Email your questions and comments to [email protected] and follow Bob Kaylor on Twitter @revbkaylor. We encourage you to write a positive review on your favorite podcast platform and share the podcast with others. 

In this episode, host Bob Kaylor looks at one of John Wesley's most misquoted sermons, "Catholic Spirit." Rather than a sermon about theological pluralism, as many have perceived it, Wesley is making the case that Christians who are united around a core of "the faith once delivered to the saints" can hold different opinions while still loving one another. It's an important sermon to read and understand in context, especially in a time in which Methodism itself is in conflict over doctrinal and practical issues. 

Read Catholic Spirit

Read Kevin Watson's summary of the sermon

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

"The 'denying' ourselves and the 'taking up our cross,' in the fullness of the expression, is not a thing of small concern. It is not expedient only, as are some of the circumstantials of religion; but it is absolutely, indispensably necessary, either to our becoming or continuing his disciples." In this sermon, John Wesley takes up these commands of Jesus and expresses the truth that whenever a person is not living fully as a disciple of Jesus it is always due to a lack of following these commands of Jesus. Host Bob Kaylor takes a deep dive into this important sermon and offers some thoughts on how it counters the expressive individualism that characterizes Western culture and, in many ways, the culture of the Church itself. 

Read Self-Denial (Sermon 48)

Bob quotes from Christopher Watkin's book Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible's Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture. 

Send your comments, questions, and suggestions to Bob Kaylor at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @revbkaylor. Leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. 

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