Tyndale Chapel Podcast

George Sweetman
Good morning. We are delighted this morning to have with us the Reverend Dr. James Pedler. I always appreciate when James preaches at our chapel here at Tyndale. He is an astute observer of culture. He is a fine homiletician, an excellent exegete, and I am looking forward to his words today. What you may not know about James is he's also quite an accomplished musician. In fact, he is the worship and teaching pastor at Wesley Chapel Free Methodist Church here in Toronto. And the very first time I met James was actually almost 20 years ago; before he started working at Tyndale, in his current capacity as the Wesley Chair, as the chair of Wesley Studies and Professor of Theology; as a guest artist at one of our Sunday evening worship gatherings back at the old campus. Do you remember that? Yeah. James and his wife live here in Toronto, and they have two daughters. And James has a PhD from the University of Saint Michael's College at the Toronto School of Theology. If you to find James on campus isn't as easy as it once was. James used to have an office, not palatial by any means, but certainly an office on the 400 level among all the rest of the seminary faculty. But he volunteered to descend into the bowels of Tyndale University this past summer, and to find him is actually an adventure in itself. But he is down on the 100 level near the E entrance, so I kind of think of him as being the phantom of the chapel here at Tyndale. James will continue our series this morning that is called, "Deeply Rooted: The Outward Life of an Inward Faith", with a message entitled "The Messy Middle of the Road". The idea of this title comes from the myth that the Christian life is a straight line from point A to point B. I'd like to think of it that way, but we all know that that's just not the case. In many cases, it's more of a journey; a journey from a place where Jesus meets us, that walks with us, and shapes us while we're still confused and processing the road ahead. I know, for my my life right now, that is something that is acutely true as we travel this road that Christ has given to us. The road to Emmaus story is a perfect way to begin today's talk with Dr. Pedler. So I want to read from Luke 24:13-35. I'm reading from the New International Version, and many of you will be very familiar with the story. "Now, that same day, two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. And as they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him. He asked them, 'What are you discussing together as you walk along?' They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, 'Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?' 'What things?' he asked. 'About Jesus of Nazareth,' they replied. 'He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning, but didn't find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the woman had said, and they did not see Jesus.' He said to them, 'How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter His glory?' And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what he said in all the scriptures concerning himself. As they approached the village which they were going, Jesus continued on as he was going to go further. But they urged him strongly, 'Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.' So Jesus went in to stay with them, and when he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and began to give it to them. And then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, 'Were not our hearts burning within us while we talked, while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?' They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together and saying, 'It is true! The Lord has risen and He has appeared to Simon.' Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when He broke the bread." The word of Jesus Christ. Let me pray. God, we are so grateful this morning to have our friend and colleague James come and break open Your Word to us to help us continue to understand what this means to build the inward life of rooting, so that we can then live our outward life for the sake of community. God, You have gifted James with great abilities, and we are so grateful that he's sharing them with our community this morning. And You are here, You are present, and we are grateful. May we live grateful lives in the midst the tremors and the trials of our own situation here at Tyndale with OSAP and everything else, but just in a world that seems to be fractured and on fire. May we live grateful, grateful lives. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. James.

Rev. Dr. James Pedlar
John Wesley didn't want to go out that evening. He woke early that day at five a.m. Now that wasn't strange. He was an early bird. Some days he was up at four, but on May 24th, 1738, he woke up at five a.m. He picked up his Greek New Testament, and it opened on 2 Peter 1:4. "He has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature". To participate in the divine nature. To share in God's likeness through faith in Christ. That was the kind of holy life that John Wesley had been searching for as long as he could remember. He was born into a Christian home in 1703. His father was an Anglican priest. His mother took the job of raising her children in the faith very seriously. Little John was dramatically rescued from a fire in the family home when he was five years old, and from that day on, everyone believed that God had saved him for some great purpose. But it took him a while to find that purpose. It wasn't until he had finished his degree at Oxford around 1725, that he finally started to take his spiritual life seriously. He discerned a call to ministry. He started to read books about holy living. He started to keep a spiritual diary. He attended the Lord's Supper regularly. He did as many good works as he was able. He gave up all sorts of luxuries and conveniences so that he could give away as much of his money as possible. And so, from his early 20s, he was striving to live a life of total devotion, but by May 1738, his life was a bit of a mess. Three years earlier, he had signed up to be a missionary in the American colony of Georgia, thinking he was going to preach to the Indigenous peoples, but he didn't get much of a chance to do that because the authorities wanted him in Savannah to work as a parish priest. Now he might have stayed longer if it had not been for a young woman named Sophie Hopkey. They had a pastoral relationship, but there was also a romantic connection. And Wesley struggled with this because he wasn't sure if he should get married. I mean, he took the Apostle Paul seriously when he said it's better to remain single. But while Wesley was waffling, Sophie got impatient and went and got married to another man. And the Reverend Mr. Wesley did not handle this as well as he might have. He sent her angry letters, complaining that she had lied to him, her pastor, about her love for this other man. And later, based on this supposed sin, he refused her communion at Sunday worship. Now Savannah was a very small place at that time. There was only one church in town. Everyone was there. She came forward to receive the Lord's Supper, and he turned her away. That is a way to start rumors. Not surprisingly, her husband was not pleased and decided to sue John Wesley for defamation. So John Wesley left America under the cover of darkness, facing indictment from a grand jury after less than two years as a missionary. So he was feeling a bit dejected when he arrived back in London in January of 1738. He was still out of sorts. He was questioning his faith. He was questioning his calling. He was questioning his relationship with God still months later, on May the 24th, and he wasn't expecting God to show up in any special way on that day. Well, the two disciples on the road to Emmaus weren't expecting God to show up either. In fact, I almost wonder if they were giving up as they walked away from Jerusalem into the sunset late that Sunday. It had been a bewildering few days. The disciples, these two, were likely with Jesus on Palm Sunday when He entered Jerusalem; shouting "Hosanna", over His triumph. They probably watched with glee as He answered every question of the religious religious authorities with wit and wisdom. They expected great things were around the corner. Look at what they said in verse 21. "We had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel." We had hoped. But then the unthinkable happened. Jesus was betrayed by one of His own, arrested, tried in a kangaroo court. Sentenced to death for crimes He did not commit, He hung on a cross with two criminals, humiliated, for all Jerusalem to see. Then He was crucified, died, and was buried. These two disciples saw it with their own eyes. He was put in a tomb, it was sealed. They must have been in shock, and they stayed with the disciples that long Friday, that long sad Sabbath day; while Jesus lay in the tomb. They stayed much of the following day. But that morning, they'd heard these strange reports from the women disciples that the tomb was empty, that the stone had been rolled away, and the angels had appeared. But they hadn't seen it; they hadn't seen anything. They did not believe the women. As far as these two are concerned, Jesus was still dead. And so late on that third day, they decide to leave town. They're leaving behind the community of disciples. Maybe they thought it was time to go back to their normal lives. They left everything to follow Jesus, but maybe if they went back home, they'd find everything just as they left it. They had hoped Jesus was the one to redeem Israel, but now it seemed that all was lost. Of course, we know it wasn't over. We know everything had changed that morning. The women were not crazy. Christ was not dead. He was risen, and in fact, they had more than enough proof that Jesus was alive. They had reliable testimony from brothers and sisters they knew well and should have trusted. Not to mention all the times Jesus himself had predicted His death and resurrection, and yet in spite of this, they were still walking away on that road to Emmaus with sad, downcast faces, Luke, tells us. It was the greatest day in all history. Christ was risen; everything had changed. Not only that, He had drawn near to them as they walked on the road. He was staring them in the face. And yet they were, as Jesus said to them, "slow in heart to believe all that had been promised concerning the Messiah". Well, God was basically shouting at John Wesley all day on May 24, 1738, but he only realized it after the fact. He was still searching, and troubled from his mission in Georgia, and so that morning, as I said, he woke at five a.m. he opened his Bible. The first thing he read was that promise of partaking in the divine nature. Later, as he prepared to go out, he opened his Bible again, and it opened on Mark 12:34. "Thou art not far from the kingdom of God". In the afternoon, he went to a service at Saint Paul's Cathedral, and the choral anthem was based on Psalm 130. "Out of the deep have I called unto thee, O Lord. If thou, Lord, wilt be extreme to mark what is done amiss, O Lord, who may abide it? But there is mercy with thee. Therefore, thou shalt be feared." But that was where he found himself that afternoon, calling to God out of the depths, knowing he was a sinner, hearing that promise that God would redeem him from all his sins, but not knowing it in his own heart. And still, even though God was sending him messages all day long, Wesley was not expecting anything that evening. He didn't do anything special to make some spiritual moment happen. He didn't pray a new prayer. He didn't make a new decision. It wasn't that he suddenly had his life in order. His heart-changing experience came almost as a surprise to him. Listen to how he tells the story in his journal. "In the evening, I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street." Now, when he says a society, he means a religious society. It was basically like a kind of small group meeting. But he's careful to say he went very unwillingly. I take that to mean he didn't want to go. Maybe he thought it would be a waste of time. Maybe he wasn't feeling his best. Maybe he didn't like the person running the meeting. You know what that's like. You ever show up for a meeting very unwillingly? You ever get dragged to a party you really didn't want to attend? Be honest. There are probably times where you've gone to church very unwillingly. Maybe you came here today, very unwillingly. Well, that evening, John Wesley went very unwillingly to the kind of small group meeting he had attended many, many times before. He did not know his life was about to change, and in the end, it didn't happen during a dramatic altar call. They didn't do those back then. It wasn't even during a sermon or a prayer time or a worship time. Here again is how he tells the story, "In the evening, I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans. 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." Suddenly, unexpectedly, God showed up and did something in his heart. He felt his heart strangely warmed. It was an inward sense of God's presence and pardoning love that he could not fully explain, but it was undeniable. He knew now, in the inward depths of his being, that God had taken away his sins and saved him. He'd always known that Jesus died and rose again for the sins of the whole world, but he hadn't known that it had to be applied to his own heart. He didn't need to try to earn God's forgiveness with all his amazing acts of holiness. He didn't need to trust in his own efforts. He had learned the hard way. He couldn't earn God's love through endless hours of prayer, through visiting prisoners or the sick, even sailing across the dangerous North Atlantic as a missionary. He could only trust in Christ. But praise God, Christ can be trusted, and now he knew it. It was burned into his heart, and now he was free. And after that, his life and his ministry were transformed. Well, seventeen centuries earlier, two other reluctant disciples felt a similar burning in their hearts as they walked on the road to Emmaus. Like Wesley, the fire came not because of anything they had done; came in the midst of their failings, it came in the midst of their confusion. They had the scriptural promises. They had the teaching of Jesus. They had the testimony of the other disciples that he was risen, and yet they were leaving town, thinking all was lost. But it was precisely in that moment, that Jesus drew near to them, the risen Savior was intimately present with them, even in their unbelief. These two disciples are supposed to be following Jesus, but it turns out He was following them on that road; even in the moment when they thought they would follow Him no longer. They were a mess. They may have given up on Him, but He hadn't given up on them. Jesus was pursuing them. We're well into the semester now. The weeks are flying by. The deadlines are creeping up. I can guarantee that some of us in this room will soon find ourselves in a mess. Maybe most of us, faculty included, by the way. We may come face to face with our own limitations and weaknesses. We may face disappointments. We may not be satisfied with where we are. We may feel that we are not the people God has called us to be. Wherever you find yourself today, whatever mess you might get into in the coming weeks, know that Christ is there with you. You don't have to go looking for Him. The risen Christ has already been to hell and back for you. That is the deep love of Jesus, the one who died for us while we were yet sinners. It's an everlasting love. It's a love that pursues us, even in our messiest moments, with all our disappointment and confusion and doubt. We cannot stop Him from pursuing us. Even if you run, He will chase you. And where can we go from His Spirit, as Psalm 139 says? "If we go up to the heavens, He is there; if we make our bed in the depths, He is there. If we rise on the wings of the dawn, if we settle on the far side of the sea, even there He is with us. If we think we can hide in the darkness, we will find that even the darkness is not dark to God. If we doubt Him, even if we stagger at the greatness of His promises, even then He will draw near to us." Now, not all of us will have our hearts strangely warmed, like John Wesley, in the same way. Sometimes the Spirit comes like a fire that warms; sometimes, like a fire that burns. Sometimes the Spirit moves like a mighty rushing wind. Sometimes like a gentle breeze. Sometimes the Spirit overwhelms us like a flood. Sometimes it's like a cool soothing mist. Sometimes He speaks like the blast of a trumpet. Sometimes it's a still small voice. The Spirit is sovereign God, mysterious, beyond all comprehension. We cannot control or predict when or how He might move, and of course God can speak to us whenever He chooses, in whatever way He chooses. But we know that He primarily makes Himself known to us using the same means that He used to reveal Himself to the disciples on that road to Emmaus. That is, He is known in opening the word of God to us and in the breaking of bread. That is, in the word and the table. That's why Christian worship has been shaped around those two great means of grace. So, whatever happens over these next few weeks, however messy it gets, continue to watch and pray. Continue to attend to the word. Come to the table at every opportunity. God might move at a time we least expect, in a way we least expect, but in the way we most need. He might even meet us in a place we've gone very unwillingly. Please stand as I pray a prayer of benediction. Now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God and of His Son Jesus Christ, our Lord. May the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit be among us and remain with us always. Amen. Amen. Go in peace.

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