This week in Christian history: Assemblies of God, Charles Wesley's popular sermon, Knights Templar

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, March 29, 2020

Charles Wesley preaches popular sermon – April 4, 1742

Notable eighteenth-century Methodist hymn writer Charles Wesley, (1707-1788). | (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

This week marks the anniversary of when prolific Methodist hymn-writer Charles Wesley preached a notable sermon titled “Awake, thou that sleepest.”

The sermon was originally preached at the University of Oxford, gaining popularity as a widely circulated tract in the 18th century and has been republished several times since.

Wesley took the titled from Ephesians 5:14, “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the Dead, and Christ shall give thee Light.”

“God is the Light, and will give himself to every awakened Sinner that waiteth for Him: And thou shalt then be a Temple of the living GOD,” preached Wesley.

“The Spirit of Christ is that great Gift of God, which at sundry Times, and in divers Manners He hath promised to Man, and hath fully bestowed since the Time that Christ was glorified. Those Promises before made by the Father, he hath thus fulfilled.”