To God Be the Glory

Psalm 29 A Psalm of David

Ascribe to the LORD, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.  ² Ascribe to the LORD the glory of his name; worship the LORD in holy splendor.  ³ The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the LORD, over mighty waters.  ⁴ The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is full of majesty.  ⁵ The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars; the LORD breaks the cedars of Lebanon.  ⁶ He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, and Sirion like a young wild ox.  ⁷ The voice of the LORD flashes forth flames of fire.  ⁸ The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness; the LORD shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.  ⁹ The voice of the LORD causes the oaks to whirl, and strips the forest bare; and in his temple all say, “Glory!”  ¹⁰ The LORD sits enthroned over the flood; the LORD sits enthroned as king forever.  ¹¹ May the LORD give strength to his people! May the LORD bless his people with peace!

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1 Corinthians 10:23-31  – ²³ “All things are lawful,” but not all things are beneficial. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up.  ²⁴ Do not seek your own advantage, but that of the other.  ²⁵ Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience,  ²⁶ for “the earth and its fullness are the Lord’s.”  ²⁷ If an unbeliever invites you to a meal and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience.  ²⁸ But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, out of consideration for the one who informed you, and for the sake of conscience – ²⁹ I mean the other’s conscience, not your own. For why should my liberty be subject to the judgment of someone else’s conscience?  ³⁰ If I partake with thankfulness, why should I be denounced because of that for which I give thanks?  ³¹ So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.

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Mark 7:24-37   – ²⁴ From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice,  ²⁵ but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet.  ²⁶ Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter.  ²⁷ He said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”  ²⁸ But she answered him, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”  ²⁹ Then he said to her, “For saying that, you may go – the demon has left your daughter.”  ³⁰ So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

³¹ Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis.  ³² They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him.  ³³ He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue.  ³⁴ Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.”  ³⁵ And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.  ³⁶ Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.  ³⁷ They were astounded beyond measure, saying, “He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”

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Welcome to the final installation of our summer series on hymns!

Today’s hymn is a bit different from the ones we’ve looked at before. The hymns we’ve done up to this point were over 500 years old, and they were inspired by events around the Protestant Reformation. Because of this, there was a lot of heavy theology in those songs.

Not so much with today’s hymn. Today’s hymn comes from a more recent time and is closer to us and where we are today, than the hymns we’ve looked at so far.

Today’s hymn – To God Be the Glory – comes from a time when revival was on people’s minds and hearts, both spiritually and socially. This was the time of the ‘camp meetings,’ when people would worship outdoors, sometimes for days, camping on-site. The camp meetings were designed to reach the lost for Jesus, and to raise money to feed the hungry and help the poor.

The story behind To God Be the Glory is a very personal one – both in terms of who wrote it, and in terms of the faith being expressed in it.

Let me start today with the story of the hymn-writer, because her life was truly miraculous.  The woman who wrote To God Be the Glory was Frances Jane Crosby, better known as Fanny Crosby. She was born in 1820 and died in 1915 – living almost 95 years! – and she was active in ministry for most of those years. She lived most of her life in New York City. Her ancestors included some of the Mayflower families: Puritans who came to the New World to escape religious persecution. (Just as an aside, Fanny Crosby was also related to Bing Crosby – they shared a common ancestor.)

Fanny Crosby was a lifelong Methodist – Methodist Episcopal, since the United Methodist Church didn’t exist back then. She started writing hymns at the age of six. That’s remarkable enough, but what makes it even more remarkable is the fact that Fanny Crosby was blind. Historians are not sure whether she was born blind, or if her eyes were damaged by treatments for an eye infection when she was six weeks old, but the net result was Fanny never remembered being able to see.

But she never let her blindness hold her back. At a very early age, Fanny Crosby set herself a goal: she wanted to

“win a million people to Christ through her hymns, and whenever she wrote a hymn she prayed it would bring women and men to Christ, and [she] kept careful records of those reported to have been saved through her hymns.”[1]

(Which, by the way, should be an encouragement to all of us: if a work of art touches us, if it inspires our life in some way, it’s a good thing to write or email the people whose creativity blesses us. The vast majority of musicians and authors and poets and other creative people never know whose lives they touch by doing what they do – and it can be a great encouragement to them to hear from someone who has been blessed by their work.)

I don’t know if Fanny ever hit that “one million” mark, but her hymns certainly touched many lives, and they still do.  I pray that God will likewise give each one of us a vision of what we are created to do that will bless others.  And just one more side note: Fanny Crosby wrote hundreds of hymns during her lifetime, some of which you might recognize: “Blessed Assurance”, “Tell Me the Story of Jesus”, and “Near the Cross” among many others.

Fanny Crosby attended school at the New York Institute for the Blind, which she entered at the age of 15 – and then she joined the faculty at age 22. She taught English, rhetoric, and ancient history. (There wasn’t much this woman could not do!) And in her spare time, Fanny was also a lobbyist: she spoke before both the Senate and the House of Representatives in Washington DC on behalf of education and schools for the blind; and she was personal friends with Presidents James Polk and Grover Cleveland.

Fanny married a fellow teacher from the New York Institute – a man who was also blind, and who just happened to work as an organist on the side. You might think this would be handy for a hymn-writer to be married to an organist, but ironically the two of them never actually collaborated. Their ministries were in different places.

The couple had one child together, who sadly died in infancy. Other than that they did well; but as time went on they discovered they didn’t get along all that well as a couple, and eventually Fanny and her husband Van separated. They never divorced; they remained in touch with each other, and remained friends, for the rest of their lives.

(Hell’s Kitchen: )

As a woman living alone, Fanny learned how to live on very little. Even though she had a job, and even though she had some royalties coming in from her poetry – as John Wesley taught, Fanny gave away anything she didn’t absolutely need. Eventually she ended up living in Hell’s Kitchen in New York City, and then in the Bowery – both locations that movies have been made out of, for how miserable the conditions were back then. Fanny lived during the times those movies are made about, and she personally provided for the needs of immigrants and the poor while she lived among them.

The hymn To God Be the Glory was written around 1870 and published between 1870 and 1875. Oddly enough, the hymn was heard first by British musicians while they were visiting New York, and they took it back home to England, where the hymn became wildly popular during British revivals of the late 1800s – and in fact was included in the British Methodist Hymn Book in 1933.

But To God Be the Glory was never widely known here in the United States – until it was discovered by Cliff Barrows, the music director for the Billy Graham Crusades. Cliff Barrows introduced the hymn to the Crusades in 1954 and its popularity took off.

So with all of this as background, what’s the message Fanny Crosby wanted to share in this hymn?

Different people have answered that question in different ways. Some people have said the hymn is “a planet-wide call to worship”. Others have said it’s a description of how people are redeemed, and how redemption works. For me, the best place to start is I Corinthians 10:31, where Paul writes: “whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God.” To God Be the Glory.

With all of this said, I’d like to turn to our scripture readings for today, which point in the same direction.

In Psalm 29, King David, the author, starts off by saying “ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.” David goes on to praise (1) the greatness of God that can be found in nature; (2) the greatness of God that can be found in God’s word, the Bible; and (3) the greatness of God expressed in the praises of God’s people as they worship in the temple.

So what exactly is glory? If someone asked for a definition, what would we say?

Glory is a word we hear a lot in the Bible, and we know glory is a good thing. David comes close to answering the question in Psalm 29, where he says God’s voice thunders, and controls mighty waters (I was thinking: if you’ve ever tried to control water at all, even in a bathtub, you know how tough it is to get water to go where you want it to go. But God can control water!) He says God’s voice breaks cedar trees, and makes the land itself skip, and “flashes forth flames of fire”.

Glory is incredibly powerful; but it’s also incredibly good. The dictionary defines ‘glory’ as renown, fame, honor, magnificence, splendor, grandeur, majesty. ALL of that wrapped up into one.

But the greatest glory is that God was willing to set all this glory for us and for our sakes.  Paul tells us in Philippians 2:7 that Jesus laid aside his power and glory:

“… taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death — even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,

that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
¹¹ and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.” – Philippians 2:7-11

That’s what God’s glory is all about.

In our New Testament reading today, in I Corinthians 10, Paul talks about glory from a different angle. He says “do everything for the glory of God”. In other words, whatever we do should shine God’s glory back on God.

Paul gives an example from a controversy that was going on back in his time. Back in his day, the early Christians used to argue over whether or not to eat meat that had been used in the worship of pagan gods. In those days most of the meat in the marketplace had, at one time or another, been used as an offering in pagan worship. There wasn’t much other meat available. Some believers believed it was wrong to eat this meat because of its association with pagan worship – and for them, not eating it was the right thing to do. Other believers believed that, since pagan gods are false gods, and therefore not gods at all – and because all things are given to us by the REAL God – it made no difference that the meat had been waved around in front of an idol. It meant nothing because the idol was nothing – so it was perfectly OK to eat.

Paul agreed with the latter argument: the idols were nothing, and it’s OK to eat. BUT if someone raised the issue – if someone said “hey! This meat you’re eating came from idol-worship” – then Paul says abstain from that meat for the sake of their conscience. It’s better not to violate someone else’s conscience.

So bottom line, believers are free to do what we know is right; but we are not free to put a stumbling block in front of someone else.  To the best of our abilities, people should be able to look at the way we live and give thanks and glory to God for what they see in our lives.

To God Be the Glory being sung at Royal Albert Hall, London

Our last reading for today is from Mark chapter seven, where we read about two miraculous healings that Jesus performed. In the first healing, a Gentile woman approaches Jesus and says her young daughter is being held captive by an unclean spirit, and she asks for her healing. She knows when she asks that she has two strikes against her in society: she is Gentile, and she is a woman. Social etiquette at that time said that either one of these reasons was enough that she should not be speaking to Jesus in public. But she has heard better things about Jesus, so she doesn’t give up. And when he says to her “you don’t throw the children’s bread to the dogs” (which seems to me like a very un-Jesus-like comment – my guess is he was opening the door for her to put her faith into words) – she answered him “yes Lord, but even the dogs eat what falls from the children’s table.” And Jesus honors her faith and answers YES.

For the second healing, of the deaf man, Mark gives us a lot of detail about what Jesus did physically, but there’s one detail that’s easy for us as Americans in the 21^st century to miss. Mark tells us that Jesus and the disciples were passing through a region called the Decapolis. Very few Jewish people lived in the Decapolis; so most likely this man was also a Gentile. This might be one of the reasons why Jesus took him aside and said “don’t tell people about this”.

Jesus – when he was alive on earth – was sent for the people of Israel; the time of the Gentiles had not yet come. The inclusion of Gentiles – non-Jews – into the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had been predicted and prophesied in the book of Genesis. God’s promise to Abraham was: “In you all the nations of the earth will be blessed.” But till Jesus came, the Jewish people were the only people to whom the Word of God had been given. They held the Law of Moses, the Ten Commandments, and all the teachings of the prophets.

The Gentiles weren’t invited in (they sometimes came in anyway BTW) but they (we) weren’t invited in as a group until after Jesus’ resurrection.  In the book of Acts, when Peter was called to go to the house of Cornelius, the Roman centurion, he shared the Gospel – and the entire household believed, and they received the Holy Spirit. This was the beginning of the call to the Gentiles.  This caused a scandal among the early believers, until people understood that Gentile believers were a fulfillment of prophecy.

So all of these scripture readings come together to give us glimpses of God’s glory: God’s glory in nature, in the Psalms; God’s glory in our relationships, in the book of I Corinthians; and glory in our relationship with Godself, in Mark’s Gospel.

In the hymn To God Be the Glory, Fanny Crosby gives glory to God for all this, and specifically for three things that she mentions. She gives glory to God for the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross, which takes away our sin and opens the door of heaven to each one of us. She gives glory to God for the promises made in the Old Testament, which are fulfilled in Jesus. And in verse three Fanny gives us a glimpse of what we will feel when we first see Jesus in God’s Kingdom in the world to come.

In the end, when we are reunited with God face to face, we will see God’s glory. Revelation 21 describes something of what we will see in the Eternal City of God. John writes:

“I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.  ²³ And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb.  ²⁴ The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. ²⁵ Its gates will never be shut by day — and there will be no night there. ²⁶ People will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.” – Revelation 21:22-26

That, brothers and sisters, is the glory that is our future.

Glory is the business of eternity. For those of us who love Jesus, we will be surrounded by glory, forever and ever. For all these reasons and more, we can join with Fanny Crosby in singing “To God be the Glory!”  Let’s sing verse 1 one more time…

[1] Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_Crosby

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Charles Wesley: And Can It Be

Acts 16:26-34  – Suddenly there was an earthquake, so violent that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened.  27 When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, since he supposed that the prisoners had escaped.  28 But Paul shouted in a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.”  29 The jailer called for lights, and rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.  30 Then he brought them outside and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”  31 They answered, “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”  32 They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.  33 At the same hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptized without delay.  34 He brought them up into the house and set food before them; and he and his entire household rejoiced that he had become a believer in God.

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Psalm 51:1-12  A Psalm of David, when the prophet Nathan came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.  ² Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.  ³ For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.  ⁴ Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment.  ⁵ Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.  ⁶ You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.  ⁷ Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.  ⁸ Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.  ⁹ Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.  ¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.  ¹¹ Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me.  ¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.

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Romans 8:1-8 – There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  ² For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.  ³ For 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,  ⁴ so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.  ⁵ For 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.  ⁶ To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.  ⁷ For 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,  ⁸ and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

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Welcome to the second installment of our summer sermon series featuring stories from the hymns! This Sunday we’ll be focusing on a hymn written by Charles Wesley: And Can It Be, which is #363 in our hymnal.

This hymn is one of my personal favorites. It has a special place in Methodist history, as well as in the hearts of many Christians around the world, particularly in the UK. This hymn almost always makes the “Top 10 Favorite Hymns” list in England, currently residing at #6. It’s not as well known in the States; but the churches here that know it, love it.

As with all hymns, it helps to know the back story: when was it written, why was it written, what inspired it? We’re very fortunate with this hymn that Charles Wesley wrote extensively in his diary about what he was thinking and experiencing in the days leading up to writing this hymn.

The text of the hymn was written in 1738: 38 years before the United States became a country. It was written in thanksgiving to God for Charles’ conversion on May 21^st of that year. The words were set to a number of different tunes over the years, but the best-known (and nowadays really the only) tune was written in the early 1800s. The music is said to have been influenced by the music of George Frederick Handel (who wrote Messiah) – which could help explain why it’s a little bit challenging to sing – and also why it’s worth the effort.

Back to the story: By the year 1738, the Wesley brothers – John and Charles – had already:

• started ministries to the poor in Oxford
• founded the Methodist movement (Methodism was a movement at the time – meant to reform the Church of England)
• gotten ordained
• ministered all over Great Britain and in parts of the American colonies – including evangelizing Native Americans and visiting slave plantations in Georgia
• preached in the dockyards of Bristol

They had done all these things, for which the Wesleys became famous – without ever experiencing, on a personal level, the salvation of God or the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives!

The Wesleys accomplished all these things based on their intellectual knowledge of the Bible and what it says God requires of people. The message of Jesus, his forgiveness, his death and resurrection, his mercy to sinners – even though this was in their heads and in their preaching, it hadn’t yet touched their hearts. Which goes to show it’s possible to know a lot about God, and sit in church every week, and read the Bible and pray, and not actually know God. It’s possible to grow up in the church – like the Wesleys did – and dedicate one’s life to serving the church, without grasping that the real church – the body of Christ – is the family of God, and has nothing whatsoever to do with a human institution.

Both John and Charles, in 1738, were sensing that something was missing in their lives and in their faith. They were touched very deeply spiritually when they got to know some local Moravians. The Moravian movement was a Protestant movement that started in the Czech Republic, predating Martin Luther by about 100 years. The Moravians were persecuted and driven underground in their home country; and they became refugees of conscience scattered all through Europe and the Colonies, which is how the Wesleys met them. (Side note: some of those Moravians came to Pennsylvania and founded the town of Bethlehem PA!)

The Moravians were known for having very personal relationships with God. They were known for a simple way of life that included a lot of scripture reading and prayer and singing; their faith was not complicated – it was easy for the average person to grasp; but at the same time it ran very deep, and it required a very deep commitment. And in May of 1738, the faith of the Wesleys’ Moravian friends began to sink in with the brothers, and both John and Charles experienced what they called “spiritual awakenings”. Charles came first, by three days.

I want to share with you Charles’ faith experience, in his own words, paraphrasing into modern English (because the English language has changed a bit in 300 years!)

The date, as mentioned before, was Pentecost Sunday, May 21, 1738. On that day Charles Wesley was feeling very ill, and was recuperating in the home of some friends who lived in London. The fact that Charles was not in church on a Sunday tells us how lousy he was feeling. He was resting on the sofa in living room of the house… and I’ll pick up with his own words… Charles writes:

“I woke up in hope and expectation of God’s coming. At 9:00AM my brother (John) and some friends came, and sang a hymn to the Holy Spirit, which gave me great comfort. In about a half an hour they left, and I started to pray using words similar to these…”

(side note: the words Charles is talking about praying were taken from Scripture. Charles had a habit of praying the Scriptures, which is always a good idea! Talking with God about what God has said opens our hearts and minds to understanding God, as well as opening dialogue. Anyway, on that day, Charles was praying – and quoting the scriptures, he said):

“O Jesus, you have said ‘I will come to you’; and you have said ‘I will send the Comforter to you’; and you have said, ‘My Father and I will come to you, and make our home with you’. You are God and you cannot lie; I totally trust your promise; may it come true in your time and in your way.”

Having prayed this, (Charles says) “I was about to go to go to sleep in the quietness and peace of the house, when Mrs. Musgrave came in (or so I thought by the sound of her voice) and she said, “In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, arise and believe and you shall be healed of all your infirmities.”

(Charles writes he was not entirely sure the voice he heard was that of Mrs. Musgrave; he also wasn’t sure who she was talking to. He only heard her voice from the next room. Charles continues with his story, saying…)

“I wondered what motivated her to speak in this way; but the words cut to my heart. I sighed and said to myself, “Oh that Jesus would speak this way to me for my recovery of body and soul. […]

“I rose and opened the Bible nearby, and the first words I saw were: “And now, Lord, what is my hope? truly my hope is in thee.” And then I opened the book again and read Isaiah 40:1 –

“Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God: speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sin.”

(Side note: these also happen to be the opening words of Handel’s Messiah, and Charles Wesley and Handel knew each other. Coincidence?)

(Charles continues: ) “I now felt totally at peace with God, and rejoiced in the hope of loving Jesus. My mood for the rest of the day was mistrust of my own weakness, which I hadn’t known until now. I saw that I stood by faith, always by faith, which kept me from falling, even though I am always sinking deeper in sin. I went to bed still very aware of my own weakness – and I humbly hope to become more and more weak – to be more confident of Jesus’ protection.”[1]

Charles wrote later in his journal that the Spirit of God “chased away the darkness of [his] unbelief.”[2]  Two days later, on Tuesday May 23, he wrote:

“I woke up under the protection of Christ, and gave myself up, soul and body, to him.”[3]

The very next day, May 24^th, his brother John had the experience we’ve all heard about, where his heart was “strangely warmed” while at a worship meeting of the Moravians in London. John immediately shared this good news with Charles.

Charles wrote:

“Towards ten, my brother was brought in triumph by a troop of our friends, and declared, ‘I believe.’ We sang the hymn with great joy, and parted with prayer.”

What a difference a day can make! Before these few days, John and Charles Wesley were struggling to do God’s will in their own power, and they were constantly running into roadblocks and discouragement. After these events, their ministries caught fire – and changed the course of history, worldwide.

Do we want to make a difference in our world, and in the lives of our relatives and friends? Then we need to follow in the footsteps of the Wesleys: reading the Bible, hearing and believing God’s promises, and praying! All Godly work begins and ends with prayer.

All of this is the context in which today’s hymn was written. Let’s open the hymnal now to #363 and follow along with the text. Again I’ll need to sort of ‘translate’ this into 21^st century English. But starting with…

Verse 1

“And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Saviour’s blood?” Charles, as a new believer, can hardly believe he’s been accepted into God’s kingdom! He takes nothing for granted. He does not even begin to think that he’s got a seminary degree, and experience in preaching, or anything like that. As the apostle Paul once said, these things are like filthy rags next to the joy of knowing Jesus. But the words Charles uses here could almost be taken from the world of investing. To have “an interest in” something is to be a part-owner. It’s like Charles has just bought stock in KOG – the Kingdom of God.

And what a humbling investment this is! The blood of Jesus, shed for every sinner, covers you and me and Charles Wesley. We are all totally equal in the blood of Jesus: equally in need of forgiveness, and equally saved. Charles says: “can it be?” We haven’t done anything to earn it. We haven’t paid for it. Jesus paid for this KOG stock with his life – and gave it to you and me for free.

Charles goes on: “Died he for me? Who caused his pain? For me – who him to death pursued?” Again, confessing that our sin is what makes Jesus’s death on the cross necessary.  “Amazing love! How can it be that you, my God, should die for me?”

Verse 2

“Tis mystery all: the immortal dies” – This thought is beyond human understanding. God, who by definition lives forever and cannot die, has found a way to die – for our sakes.

“Who can explore this strange design?” Charles asks. People have spent the last 2000 years trying to explain how Calvary works.  How it is that Jesus’ death on the cross saves us? How is it that the immortal God could die? And why was it necessary? You want to start an argument among theologians? Toss these questions into a roomful of them and shut the door.

Charles Wesley says: “In vain the first-born seraph tries to sound the depths of love divine”. How can anyone measure the depth of God’s love? We can’t. God’s love cannot be comprehended. Even the citizens of heaven, the angels themselves, can’t put it into words… can’t find the end of God’s love.

Charles says, “Tis mercy all! Let earth adore” – Our job is not to figure out  ‘how’ but simply to accept God’s mercy as it’s offered, and worship Jesus. “Let angel minds inquire no more.”

Verse 3

In verse three, Charles turns his attention to Jesus specifically. “He left his Father’s throne above (so free, so infinite his grace!)” That phrase in parentheses is an exclamation of praise to Jesus that Charles can’t help it, he just has to put it in there.  He goes on describing Jesus: “Emptied himself of all but love, and bled for Adam’s helpless race.”

THAT is the Christian message in a nutshell. For all of Adam’s descendants, this is all we need to know, and it’s all we need to share. Jesus gave up everything: his throne in heaven, his intimacy with God, and his very life – for people who were and are unable to save themselves. That’s the gospel message, right there.

Charles says: “Tis mercy all, immense and free, for O my God, it found out me!”  It’s all God’s mercy, from beginning to end; it’s none of our doing. God searches us out; and if we’re honest, we know that God is so far above us and so perfect that being in God’s presence – just the way we are – would destroy us, because we’re not able to stand in God’s perfect, holy presence and stay alive. But Jesus changes all this. His love for us changes the whole story.

Verse 4

Verse four refers to the events in Acts 16 where Paul and Silas had been thrown in jail under false accusations after having cast an evil spirit out of a young woman. They were in prison, singing songs to God (while the other prisoners listened) when there was an earthquake. The foundations of the jail were shaken, and the cell doors popped open, and the prisoners were free.

Charles Wesley says it was like that for him, when he finally saw the truth and mercy of Jesus. He says: “Long my imprisoned spirit lay, bound up in sin and nature’s night” when God’s eye “diffused a quickening ray” – (“quickening” is an old-fashioned word meaning ‘to bring back to life’.) So just one glance from God brought Charles to life.

He continues: “I woke; the dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off, my heart was free; I rose, went out, and followed thee.” Just like Paul and Silas in that prison, God set Charles Wesley free not only from his sin but from all his efforts to be good or to be holy. And once he was free, Charles was then able to follow Jesus the way he’d always wanted to.

Verse 5

Verse five is Charles’ reflection on all that has happened. “No condemnation now I dread” – all the fear of judgement or hell is totally gone: not because of anything Charles has done, but because of what Jesus has done.

“Jesus, and all in him, is mine.” – What an amazing thought that is!  It’s not just that Jesus saves us. It’s not just that we get to go to heaven. It’s that we now have Jesus AND EVERYTHING ELSE.  All things in heaven and on earth are in Jesus, and in Jesus, all of it is ours. Think on that for a moment. We are, as Charles says, “alive in Jesus, our living Head, and clothed in God’s righteousness.” Everything that Jesus has, is ours, in Him.

Given this truth, Charles – and every one of us – can be bold enough to approach the eternal throne of God “and claim the crown (of eternal life) through Christ my own.” (“My own” is an old-fashioned way of saying “my beloved.”)

It is never about what we do. It’s about what Jesus did. In him each one of us has a crown of life waiting for us, waiting for our arrival in God’s kingdom. Picture that for a moment, as we look around this congregation. Picture a crown on each head.

Jesus gave it all for us – so that we could be with Him forever. Jesus gave these crowns to us. And for that reason (and many more) we sing His praise.

Let’s sing vs 5 (hymn #363) one more time…

No condemnation now I dread; Jesus and all in him is mine;

Alive in him, my living head, and clothed in righteousness divine

Bold I approach th’eternal throne

And claim the crown through Christ my own.

Sources include:

The Journal of Charles Wesley

https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/blog/may-21-1738-charles-wesleys-experience-of-assurance

Also  https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/john-and-charles-converted

[1] https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/blog/may-21-1738-charles-wesleys-experience-of-assurance

[2] https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/john-and-charles-converted

[3] https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/articles/index.php?view=article&aid=26139

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