It is estimated that John Wesley traveled around 250,000 miles and preached over 40,000 sermons in a span of 66 years. This series by Mark K. Olson, taken from his website Wesleyscholar.com, includes summaries and links to some of Wesley’s most famous and important sermons. This twelfth installment is on Wesley’s sermon “The Great Assize” from 1758.
How do you visualize the final judgment? What events will lead up to it? Where does it take place? What events follow?
John Wesley visualized the subject in graphic terms.
Introduction
In 1758 Wesley was invited to preach a sermon before Sir Edward Clive, the puisne justice of the common pleas at Bedford, England. He titled the sermon The Great Assize. According to Oxford Dictionary an assize was a court which sat at intervals in each county of England and Wales to administer civil and criminal law. Wesley used this opportunity to teach on the Last Judgment, which Christ will administer at his second coming. Jesus taught on final judgment often. For example, see Matthew 25.
Read the sermon The Great Assize 1758
As were many Christians in his day, Wesley was a postmillennialist who believed the current revival that was breaking out in the world — referred to today as The Great Evangelical Revival — would usher in the millennium in which the world would be evangelized and converted to the faith. After this period of Christian dominance there would be a period of great spiritual deception and apostasy among the nations described by the Apostle John in Revelation 20:7-10. This would lead to the great conflagration that would engulf the entire world, which John mentions in Rev. 20:9 and Peter elaborates on in 2 Peter 3:10. The second coming would take place at this time and the Great Assize would immediately follow.
The Great Assize
The sermon is divided into four main sections.
Section I deals with the events that immediately lead up to the Great Assize. Wesley used graphic and terrifying language to describe the events that would immediately precede the final judgment. In every part of the inhabitable world earthquakes will rock the planet. This will lead to violent tsunamis everywhere in which “every island shall flee away and the mountains will not be found” (Rev. 16:20). Drawing on Joel 2:30, the skies around the earth will be filled with violent thunder and lightning storms from the north to the south poles. From Luke 21:25-26 and Joel 3:15 Wesley describes how the heavenly realm will be thrown into chaos and out of their orbits. Then the end comes with the voice of the archangel and the general resurrection happening.
Can we visualize such events? We have witnessed in recent decades many destructive events. But what if the entire world was engulfed in them at the same time?
Section II describes the final judgment itself. Christ descends and Wesley surmises the Great Court will take place above the earth since scripture states Christ will come in the clouds. Every person who ever lived will be present and will be judged according to their works, which includes everything about a person’s character. Even the hidden things will be revealed, exposing the character of the heart. Wesley appealed to Matthew 12:36-37 that every idle word will come into judgment.
Section III covers the circumstances that will follow the Last Judgment. The present cosmos will shrivel up “as a parchment scroll.” Regarding the remnants of human civilization, Wesley states, “All, all will die, perish, vanish away, like a dream when one awaketh!” Such is the transitory nature of human culture and civilization. Wesley then chastises the scoffers and skeptics of his day. Sentence will be pronounced on the unrighteous who then go to Hell, who will be punished with “everlasting destruction from the present of the Lord.”
Section IV includes applications to his listeners, including you and I today. He begins by applauding those who bring the good news of salvation to lost people. He then calls upon his audience — you and I today — to take heed to what scripture teaches about the final judgment.
What do you think? Are you prepared for that final day?
Wesley says much more than what is included in my brief description. I encourage you to read the sermon. Here is the link The Great Assize 1758
