Aldersgate Sunday is celebrated on the nearest Sunday to May 24th.
This year it was celebrated a week earlier than it should have been in our
church in Hyderabad, on May 19th. It commemorates the experience which John
Wesley had at a Moravian meeting on May 24th 1738. In his words as
found in his diary, he felt ‘strangely
warmed". He describes the experience as:
“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. “
John
Wesley was an Anglican priest at that time, and had studied in the seminary at
Oxford. There he was an active member of the Holiness club in 1729. He sailed
to USA for two years of ministry in 1736. On the outward journey the ship was
caught in a storm and he was terrified. But he found the Mennonites who were
from Germany and migrating to the USA were calm and not disturbed by the storm.
This astonished him. On his return after two years of frustration in the USA,
he found that his evangelical, holiness preaching was not appreciated by the
Anglican church, and feeling down he went to this Moravian meeting at
Aldersgate where he had an encounter with God.
How do we understand this experience?
Some call it a second experience. Some would call it an anointing of the
fullness of the Spirit. Is there a biblical basis for this kind of a second
experience? In Acts the usual picture is that you believed and were baptised
and received the Spirit of God. Except for those who only received the baptism
of John there does not appear to be an example of a second experience. But if
we look closer to the New Testament, you find that the church was mixed with people
at different spiritual levels and paul, Peter and others are exhorting them in
their epistles to reach for a higher experience of God.
In John 1:40-42 we read of Peter’s
first encounter with Jesus, which did not seem to have much of an impact on
him. But later in Luke 5:8-11, in Peter’s second recorded encounter with Jesus,
we see a dramatic impact on Peter and it says, He forsook all and followed
Jesus.
So, what is this second experience? Is
it a salvation experience, or is it a deeper experience of Jesus?
In Galatians 3:2-3 Paul says that we
receive the Spirit by faith. When we believe in Jesus we receive the Spirit of
God. In this second experience, we surrender our life to the control of the
Spirit of God, and we are no longer running our lives but the Spirit of God is.
It is like a scooter where we were on the driver’s seat. When we surrender our
life to the Spirit He is now in the driving seat and we are just going along
with Him.
In a swimming pool, if we see the edge
of the pool (which equals safety for most of us poor swimmers) as the security
of the world, and the deep as where we are dependent on God, it is moving away
from the security of the world to the control of the Spirit. The more we leave
the world the more the Spirit is able to rule us.
Then we can say with Paul, Gal 2:20, “I
have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ
lives in me; and the life which
I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved
me and gave Himself for me.”
We can understand what Paul says in 2
Corinthians 5:15, “and He died for all, that those who
live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and
rose again.”
This
leads to three major changes in our life.
First is
an assurance of salvation.
Romans
8:1, There is therefore
now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk
according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
We are no
longer trying to earn our salvation or earn merit before God.
Romans
3:20, Therefore by the deeds of the
law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
This does
not mean that we keep sinning, but the motivations for a holy life changes. Now
we are following the Spirit and fulfilling God’s purposes for our lives, and so
we do not sin, but are set apart for God. The focus of our life changes from
not sinning to doing the works of God.
Romans
8:4-5, that the
righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk
according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 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, the things of the Spirit.
We no
longer carry guilt in our lives. God has forgiven us, and so we are able to
forgive ourselves, and not carry the guilt to the grave. Many struggle with
this, but when we surrender our life to the Spirit we experience a deliverance
from this.
Romans
8:16, The Spirit Himself bears witness
with our spirit that we are children of God,
We have a
confident relationship with God. Nothing can separate us from God.
Romans
8:38-39, For I am
persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor
powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor
height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Second is
a change in our prayer life.
Romans
8:26, Likewise the Spirit also helps in
our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought,
but the Spirit Himself makes intercession [a]for us
with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Earlier,
we prayed for all the material things we need to have security in this world,
money, promotions, increments, jobs, fame, success etc. Now we longer pray for
these things, since they are no longer a priority in my life. My priority is
the kingdom of God and that is what we pray about.
Romans 8:8-10, So
then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the
flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if
anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And
if Christ is in you,
the body is dead
because of sin, but the Spirit is life
because of righteousness.
Jesus
said, we need to love God and to love mankind. When our priority becomes the
kingdom of God, we become involved in the lives of people. This becomes the
centre of our prayer lives. We intercede for others, just as Jesus intercedes
for us.
Romans
8:27, Now He who searches the hearts
knows what the mind of the Spirit is,
because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
Third is
the presence of the power of God in your life.
Romans
8:11, But if the Spirit of Him who
raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the
dead will also give life to your mortal bodies [a]through
His Spirit who dwells in you.
We begin
to live in the realm of the impossible. We bless others through our lives and
help them in ways we did not think possible. It is like Moses who thought he
cannot rescue the Israelites, but did. God will do the impossible through you
and you will create history wherever you go.
Are you
willing to let go of your life into the hands of the Spirit of God?
Romans
8:14, For as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
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