Bible Text: Galatians 2 | Pastor: Kent Tollakson

This is a biographical sermon about the life of George Whitfield, a powerful preacher in the 18th century during the first Great Awakening…

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George Whitfield –

Good morning everyone, my name is Kent Tollakson and I work with our youth ministry here at East Lincoln, my family and I have been off on vacation and not here for 2 weeks – it’s great to be back! Let me begin this morning’s time with a reading from Galatians 2. – towards the end – 9 books into the NT after 1 and 2 Corinthians…..

Let this clarification about rituals not being what saves but a God given faith within a person’s heart be an anchor for us as we look into the life of George Whitfield. Whitfield was a preacher in the 1700’s. Born Dec 27th, Gloucester (GLOSTER) ENG and lived a tremendously interesting 55 years, a life that could very well be helpful to us in our present day for reasons I will talk about soon. So this morning I will share:

Some information about his childhood and career as a preacher, both positive and negative.
A different kind of preaching he cultivated and WHY he preached the way he did.
A few useful observations about his lifetime and ours that might bring some applications to our own life.

Information about his childhood & career.

I only found a few sentences referencing his childhood, all pointing to a passion for acting. It seems he enjoyed trying to imitate preachers he heard and that he would skip school to practice for parts he was to perform for school functions .

But pursuing a career in acting was I assume – not practical. His parents owned a struggling Inn in Gloster bringing little finances for life or school. But his grades were good enough to be accepted into Pembroke College, in Oxford, so he worked for other wealthy students as a “servitor”. This was the lowest rank of student and he was required to serve his peers by helping them bath, clean their rooms, carry their books and assist them with work. I assume this lowly position did more to help George with his life and faith as a deterrent to pride and other sins. And we know he was living within a life of faith, that he was a believer in God, a believer in Jesus. We know this because of his friends and a group they formed called the “Holy Club”. They devoted themselves to all kinds of spiritual disciplines. These applied ‘Methods’ of promoting personal holiness was the beginning of the Methodist church. John Wesley and his brother Charles were part of this Hoy Club and friends of Whitfield’s. But Whitfield came to see Methodism and is practices were not “the” way to salvation. Whitfield was practicing all kinds of disciplines while with this ‘Holy Club’ to get godliness to seep into him. Things like, quoting Whitfield – “I always chose the worst sort of food. . . . I fasted twice a week. My apparel was mean. . . . I wore woolen gloves, a patched gown, and dirty shoes. . . . I constantly walked out in the cold mornings till part of one of my hands was quite black. . . . I could scarce creep upstairs, I was obliged to inform my kind tutor . . . who immediately sent for a physician to me.” But while reading a book called “The Life of God and the Soul of Man” by Henry Scougal he found something within those pages that brought him to see the truth. Quoting Whitfield again – [Scougal wrote], ‘a man may go to church, say his prayers, receive the sacrament, and yet, my brethren, not be a Christian.’ How did my heart rise, how did my heart shutter, like a poor man that is afraid to look into his account-books, lest he should find himself… bankrupt: ‘yet shall I burn that book, shall I throw it down, shall I put it by, or shall I search into it? I did, and, holding the book in my hand, [I asked] the God of heaven and earth: Lord, if I am not a Christian, if I am not a real one, for Jesus Christ’s sake, show me what Christianity is, that I may not be damned….. I read a little further, and the [truth] was discovered; ‘oh, says the author, they that know anything of religion know it is a vital union with the son of God, Christ formed in the heart’; oh what a way of divine life did break in upon my poor soul. . . . Oh! With what joy — Joy unspeakable —. He now knew it was a move of God that brings salvation – a rebirth by the Holy Spirit and not disciplined religious works! It was fresh air and freedom instead of self-applied works of faith. So began a lifelong disagreement within the friendship with John Westley about who was responsible for salvation – God or men. This disagreement led to many arguments, the splitting of ministry efforts as well as public name calling and insults much like what we see and hear within our political campaigning of today. This is a negative point about Whitfield, early in his career he was so strong in his convictions, wonderful as they are, that he turned relationships sour and antagonized verbal fights. He did learn from these bad experiences and was more effective as he grew older in presenting Biblical truth without fighting. But our focus isn’t on disagreements about theology and how to stay friends with those who disagree with us. Our focus will be to dissect certain aspects of Whitfield’s life so that we may make a few personal gains in glorifying God with our lives. This brings up why I think Whitfield is a very helpful study for our present day and age. You see George Whitfield was one of the most powerful tools of God to fan the flames of the Great Awakening – what we call the First Great awakening around the 1730s and 40’s. Christianity Today says “George Whitfield was probably the most famous religious figure of the eighteenth century. Newspapers called him the “Marvel of the age.” Whitfield was a preacher capable of commanding thousands on two continents through the sheer power of his [voice]. In his lifetime, he preached at least 18,000 times to perhaps 10 million [people].” I’m reading statements like that while also seeing articles within the last several months – declaring America to be on the verge of a third great awakening. Bethel Music Worship leaders are seeing so many people answering alter calls that they just sense a overall desire for a big culture change. A quote from Bethel Music “People were so hungry,”…… “It does feel like people are re-upping their commitment to the Lord. It’s been powerful every night … “ Greg Stier founder of Dare 2 Share ministries also believes America is on the verge of this third great awakening because he sees a cultural hunger for Christ in; 1. An increasing prayer movement 2. An urgency within churches to spread the gospel and 3. Thousands showing up to youth directed events like the one we took several youth too – Pulse Twin Cities at U.S. Bank Stadium. So if this is true, if we are on the verge of a Spiritual Awakening in America – possibly the world. Then wouldn’t it be smart to take a look at some revival facts of the past, to; as my dad always said to me – learn a thing or two.

And there are 2 things to keep in mind:

What saves men – rituals / works – or a God given faith? Paul’s argument in Galatians 2.
Is what we believe real – real enough to affect how we life our lives?

A Cultivated New Style.

So what can we learn from this man. I will go back to just one fact about his early years to dig in, that being his love for acting. Whitfield was a bit of a pioneer in preaching a particular way. This different way of doing things was extremely popular with this audiences and less popular with the pastors and priests. The formation of this preaching is an example of many of our experiences – it took time to evolve. It went something like this, he was ordained as a deacon within the church of England in 1738 and immediately began preaching. He didn’t wait till he was 100% ready, he knew he had some good to share and he went for it – there is something to be learned there. To his surprise crowds would gather when he spoke and reacted in positive ways to his sermons. The people were responding to his love of acting and the way he would portray the characters within the bible with a sense of realism that no one had seen before. A famous actor in Britain at the time, David Garrick, is quoted as saying “I would give a hundred guineas if I could say ‘OH’ like Mr. Whitfield.”

His friends the Westley brothers had gone over to America, settling in Georgia and Whitfield traveled over to serve with them as a parish priest. He stayed only 3 months before returning to England so he could pursue a passion to start an orphanage in Georgia and receive his orders as a priest. He found large crowds continued to gather to hear him act out his sermons, while the conventional churches closed themselves off, they claimed his style was too much like an actor and not enough like a preacher. He preached for the first time in the open air, to miners outside of Kingwood near Bristol (about 100 years before George Muller built orphanages there), opening up a new idea – go out to the people. He also experimented with on the spot, no preparation sermons with no pulpit standing between himself and his audience.

With conventional churches closing themselves, he traveled back to America in 1740 with the funds needed to found the orphanage in Georgia, which became a stable ministry that he supported for the rest of his life. I’m skipping over complexity on purpose here, the transition and travel between America and England was fraught with partnerships with John Westley and the Methodist movement, I don’t have all of it straight in my head, but it was messy with disagreements and divisions. In the end, Whitfield separated from that effort and became an itinerant preacher. His most important point was focused on waking people up to the reality that they must be reborn in order to be saved. Whitfield was different in style yes, he was an actor preacher – but he was also different in message. A standard preaching message at this time was that you got saved by living a religious moral life. The sermons people heard were basically saying that you did the right things and God then became your savior. Whitfield preached the opposite – that God inwardly touched you and gave you a rebirth, and doing good came out of that as a secondary proof. He emphasized that without this inward conversion of a person’s heart by the Holy Spirit, through faith in Jesus, that they were not saved. He often ended his sermons – not with 3 points on how to do something….(not always a bad thing!) but rather by saying “Come…poor, lost undone sinner, come just as you are to Christ.”

Why preach this way?

The combination of Biblical truth and his gifted style stirred thousands to give themselves to Christ. It was an exciting time. In England and Scotland all kinds of revivals were stirring and when Whitfield was back, thousands would come and hear him preach and thousands would repent. In America there was also localized powerful revivals happening with Jonathan Edwards in New England, William and Gilbert Tennent in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and with Samuel Davies in Virginia to name a few. But we need to take note of Whitfield here. He was different in his theatric style and he was willing to constantly travel to anywhere he could set up his platform (like a small stage) and preach. His wiliness to go out to the people instead of having them come to the church is a huge point. And God had gifted him not just with passion. He was small in stature yet had a very loud voice and he was noticeably cross-eyed! Many took this mix of unique features as divine favor! And his voice wasn’t just loud, it was huge. In Philadelphia it is reliably recorded that as he spoke to over 10,000 people his voice was clearly heard over 2 miles down the Delaware river. Benjamin Franklin was a big fan and friend of Whitfield, even though he didn’t believe in the rebirth as Whitfield preached it. Franklin went to hear him in Philadelphia because he didn’t believe Whitfield had been able to speak to over 10,000 people at a time in England. But Whitfield’s voice was so powerful that Franklin began walking away from the stage until he could no longer hear the preaching. He measured the distance to be over 500 feet and figured 2 square feet for each person, with these figures Franklin calculated that Whitfield could easily speak to over 30,000 people if gathered around him in a circle.

Franklin helped with another Whitfield method printing tracts (gospel messages). These scattered before and after his preaching tying several revival movements together into a large “Great Awakening”. His final sermon in 1940 ended in the Boston Commons with 23,000 people attending, the largest gathering in American history up to that point.

Whitfield traveled back to England, and also Scotland many times over the years. He made 13 trips across the Atlantic – no return voyage to his homeland because he died here in America, in 1770, Newburyport, Massachusetts. But with each trip back and forth his popularity grew. Before he stopped nearly every man woman and child in the colonies had heard Whitfield preach at least once. The calculations by many different independent biographers tell us that he gave over 18,000 sermons and over 12,000 speaking engagements over 30 years. When you do the math it’s hard to believe. 1,000 speaking engagements each year. It’s basically speaking 3 times every day. He did so while traveling like no other man in the world really. A voyage across the Atlantic at this time in history was no small task. His horseback journey from New York City to Charleston S.C. (about 800miles on our roads) was the longest undertaken by a white man in North America at that time, and he traveled to Scotland 15 times. Whitfield was a thread that tied revival movements from all across the 13 colonies and Europe together. And this was not easy. I don’t think anyone today would do anything so hard without quitting, I just don’t think we are as tough. (a note about difficulty other than travel – in Scotland Whitfield openly attacked the Catholic Church and was met with great hostility at times with a woman assaulting him with scissors, a pistol and her teeth, a pack of hundreds attacking him and smashing his portable stage, stones and dead cats thrown at him, getting struck so hard with a brass cane it almost killed him, and he was urinated on by a man who climbed a tree to do so. ) Are we doing the kinds of things God desires AND staying strong through the difficulties that WILL come?

There is much skipped over, I am sorry. He was involved with many other things like three churches being established in England in his name, he acted as chaplain in two places, the orphanage he started in Georgia is still going today as a boys school called Bethesda Academy, He was married in 1740 which was not a good marriage he is quoted as saying “I pray God that I may not have a wife until I can live as though I had none’ – not the way to think about having a wife!, he spurred on the building of an orphanage for black children, he switched support from anti-slavery to pro-slavery when he saw he couldn’t afford to run the orphanage without slaves yet berated slave owners with a passion and called for harsh legal punishments for treating slaves in anyway less than another man, he was also the first preacher to openly invite slaves to his sermons and tell them they were people with souls, Whitfield and Benjamin Franklin founded the orphanage for boys in Philadelphia in 1751 expanding to include the college of Philadelphia which in now the University of Pennsylvania. Ok, enough – right. I still didn’t get it all but it seems right and smart to point out both the awesome amount of accomplishment mixed with flaw – because we are all flawed and when so much powerful accomplishment is brought up it can make us think we are less and can’t do very much ourselves, but we can.

All of this was born out of that passion to act, to be full of action and drama while speaking about biblical truth. But why? See – Whitfield wasn’t just using acting because it was a passion and he had some gifting. He saw a real issue early on and he even points it out in this. A Mr. James Lockington was present at a sermon and wrote down the following discourse word for word;

“I’ll tell you a story. The Archbishop of Canterbury in the year 1675 was acquainted with Mr. Butterton the [actor]. One day the Archbishop . . . said to Butterton . . . ‘pray inform me Mr. Butterton, what is the reason you actors on stage can affect your congregations with speaking of things imaginary, as if they were real, while we in church speak of things real, which our congregations only receive as if they were imaginary?’ ‘Why my Lord,’ says Butterton, ‘the reason is very plain. We actors on stage speak of things imaginary, as if they were real and you in the pulpit speak of things real as if they were imaginary.’”

“Therefore,” added Whitfield, ‘I will bawl [shouting loudly], I will not be a velvet-mouthed preacher.”

And drama he did bring! …another contemporary from Scotland, John Gillies, reported how Whitefield moved with “such vehemence upon his bodily frame” that his audience actually shared his exhaustion and “felt a momentary apprehension even for his life.”

I find myself coming to an overall conclusion that Whitfield was very much like the Apostle Paul who was going out and preaching the gospel to people who were not born into the Jewish family tree – gentiles. We read in Galatians Chapter 2 that Paul was worried he was preaching inaccurately on the mission field, so he traveled back to Jerusalem to meet with the church leaders (some direct disciples of Jesus) to check his teaching – they found it was solid and true and he went back – Peter went also and yet Peter first ate with the gentiles (eating gentile kinds of foods) and didn’t care about circumcision but when other Jews showed up he acted like their food was not ok and even began insisting on circumcision. But Paul knew those rules were not requirements for salvation – but rather rules of men. God had already told Peter – eat anything I have made that can be eaten, there is nothing unclean (Acts10:10-15) and circumcision was a covenant sign of old. The new covenant promised in Jerimiah 31:31-34, (a new sign of faith) had come, and this is explained in Heb9:14-15 “14 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts (ritual works) that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! 15 For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called (reborn) may receive the promised eternal inheritance.”

That’s it. Christ is the mediator, the go-between us and God. And His grace, through faith is given so that we will believe that God is real, believe that Jesus is the Son of God and real, believe that Jesus died for all the sins of those who believe, and believe that Jesus rose again to show eternal power over death – NO more ritual of what to eat or not to eat, NO more rituals of circumcision or ANY other “ritual”. Saved by grace, through faith – not of our doing – but of Gods doing…Eph2:8-9. So here was Paul enjoying the work of God helping unbelievers become full believers in Jesus and Peter comes and throws them a stumbling block of – no you better watch what you eat and get yourself to the doctor for a circumcision…. Whitfield wanted people to see the truth about rebirth – that God saves and our ONLY part is saying yes to Him.

And, Whitfield wanted the world to know that the things we cannot see with our physical eyes are real, and he wanted to talk about them in a way that was real – he would act – stomp, cry, shout and whisper – anything to get people to understand that the words in our wonderful Bible are true – words of Romans 8:24-25, 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. And Jn20:29, 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

I leave you with this thought – if Whitfield had lived in days like Jeremiah, when revival was not happening – he would have been the same –He would have spoken with passion and worked to help people understand the truths of salvation and warn of the realities of what cannot be seen. He would have just spoken to fewer people. He would have done works to help others less fortunate because that is what Jesus has done for all who are saved. Whether we are living in a period of time when revival winds of the Holy Spirit are blowing or not we are to live out the unseen realities of our faith like they are indeed real – because they are! Examine yourself and look for the ways you do and don’t live as a reflection of God being real, of Jesus being real, of salvation through faith being a requirement that ends up really impacting your and others. Strive to serve more than you are served as a reflection of the love of Christ. Whatever you find to be proud of, boast in God, thank God for it, I know we all have some things that make that list– isn’t He so good! Whatever you find to be lacking, address as a way to thank and honor Him. Whatever you find that is to be ashamed of – attack it knowing God is on your side. Let’s try and learn a thing or two from Whitfield and live our faith in a way that shows the world it is absolutely REAL. Amen?

1 Bob Jones University, The Great Awaking, Spiritual Revival in Colonial America , 2009. 6/22/18, http://greatawakeningdocumentary.com/exhibits/show/biographies/george-whitefield
2 Christianity Today, George Whitfield Sensational Evangelists of Britain and America, From Book “131 Christians Everyone Should Know”, 6/21/18 https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/evangelistsandapologists/george-whitefield.html
3 George Whitfield. (n.d.) In Wikipedia. Retrieved 6/22/18, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Whitefield
4 Jones, The Great Awakening, 2009
5 Piper, John. (Feb, 3 2009). “I Will Not Be A Velvet Mouthed Preacher”. Desiring God 2009 Conference for Pastors. In “Whitfield Born Again – Stout, The Divine Dramatist, 25-26. Retrieved 6/22/2018 from https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/i-will-not-be-a-velvet-mouthed-preacher
6 Piper, (Feb 3, 2009) In “Whitfield Born Again – Haykin, Revived Puritan, 25-26”
7 Whitfield, Wikipedia, “Evangelism”, 6/22/18
8 Whitfield, Wikipedia, “Whitfield Changes”, 6/22/18
9 First Great Awakening. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved 7/5/2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Great_Awakening
10 Christianity Today, 6/22/18
11 Law, Jeannie. (July 3, 2018). Bethel Music Worship Leaders Declare ‘Third Great Awakening’ Is Coming To America. The Christian Post, Retrieved 7/5/2018, from https://www.christianpost.com/news/bethel-music-worship-leaders-declare-third-great-awakening-coming-to-america-225629/
12 Stier, Greg. (Jan 1st, 2018). Could 2018 Be the Year of the Next Great Awakening? Yes!. The Christian Post, Retrieved 7/5/2018, from https://www.christianpost.com/voice/could-2018-be-the-year-of-the-next-great-awakening-yes.html
13 Jones, The Great Awakening, 2009 – Whitfield, Wikipedia, “Clergy versus Whitfield”, 6/22/18
14 Christianity Today, 6/22/2018
15 Whitfield, Wikipedia, “Evangelism”, 6/22/18
16 Jones, The Great Awakening, 2009
17 Whitfield, Wikipedia, “Evangelism”, 6/22/18
18 Christianity Today, 6/22/2018
19 Jones, The Great Awakening, 2009
20 Whitfield, Wikipedia, “Bethesda Orphanage”, 6/22/18
21 Jones, The Great Awakening, 2009
22 Whitfield, Wikipedia, “Bethesda Orphanage”, 6/22/18
23 Jones, The Great Awakening, 2009
24 Whitfield, Wikipedia, “Revival Meetings”, 6/22/18
25 Piper, (Feb 3, 2009) In “Speaking to Thousands– Dallimore, George Whitfield, 1:480”
26 Whitfield, Wikipedia, “Benjamin Franklin and Whitfield”, 6/22/18
27 Christianity Today, 6/22/2018
28 Whitfield, Wikipedia, “Death”, 6/22/18
29 Christianity Today, 6/22/2018
30 Whitfield, Wikipedia, “Laity verses Whitfield”, 6/22/18
31 Whitfield, Wikipedia, 6/22/18
32 Piper, (Feb 3, 2009) In “Why Was He Acting – Stout, Divine Dramatist, 239-240”
33 Piper, (Feb 3, 2009) In “Why Was He Acting – Stout, Divine Dramatist, 141, ”