George Whitefield
Picture credit to: christianitytoday.com
4/30/2024
George Whitefield was an astounding man. I am currently reading the classic biography on George Whitefield by Arnold Dallimore and the facts of his life are simply unbelievable. He was a man preeminently consumed with a passion to preach the Gospel and save as many souls as he possibly could with his limited time on earth. He has been a spiritual hero of mine for over a decade now and his brimming fiery passion for Jesus is outrageously contagious and incredibly inspiring.
1. Whitefield was clearly consumed with a passion to preach the Gospel and preached to tens of thousands at a time
Whitefield on one occasion recorded a week of his preaching duties in his journals:
Wednesday, May 2. Preached this evening to above 10,000 at Kennington Common. . . .
Saturday, May 5. Preached yesterday and to-day as usual at Kennington Common, to about twenty thousand hearers, who were very much affected.
Sunday, May 6. Preached this morning in Moorfields to about twenty thousand people, who were very quiet and attentive, and much affected. Went to public worship morning and evening, and at six preached at Kennington. Such a sight I never saw before. I believe there were no less than fifty thousand people, and near four score coaches, besides great numbers of horses. God gave me great enlargement of heart. I continued my discourse for an hour and a half, and when I returned home I was filled with such love, peace and joy that I cannot express it.
Tuesday, May 8 ... before I set out from town it rained very hard.. .. To my great surprise, when I came to the Common I saw above twenty thousand people. All the while . . . the sun shone upon us; and I trust the Sun of Righteousness arose on some with healing in his wings.
Wednesday, May 9 . . . after God had enabled me to preach to about twenty thousand for above an hour at Kennington, He inclined the hearers' hearts to contribute most cheerfully and liberally to the Orphan House.... When we came home we found that we had collected above £46, amongst which were £16 in half pence.
Thursday, May 10. Preached at Kennington, but it rained most of the day. There were not above ten thousand people and thirty coaches. However, God was pleased so visibly to interpose in causing the weather to clear up and the sun to shine out just as I began, that I could not avoid taking notice of it in my discourse.
All this of course with no microphone, in the howling wind and competing noises, to tens of thousands in the open air in London, and keeping everybody in attendance enthralled with the free offer of grace through the Gospel.
2. Whitefield never tired in being busy with his Master’s work
You would think that Whitefield would be exhausted after preaching to tens of thousands in the open air, but you would be wrong. Dallimore writes that “Whitefield makes no suggestion of weariness as the result of these labors. The sight of the crowds and the prospect of preaching to them had an exhilarating effect on his mind, and both during and after his great efforts in the fields he frequently experienced a richly increased joy and strength.”
On one occasion, after spending the day in much preaching, Whitefield records “When we came home ... God was pleased to pour into my soul a great spirit of supplication, and a sense of His free, distinguishing mercies so filled me with love, humility, joy and holy confusion, that I could at last only pour out my heart before Him in an awful silence. I was so full I could not well speak. Oh the happiness of communion with God!”
Truly Whitefield was a man who waited on the Lord and received new strength and ran hard yet did not become tired and walked and did not become weak! (Isaiah 40:31)
Jonathan Edwards
3. Whitefield’s astonishing preaching created lasting fruit in the people who heard him preach
Jonathan Edwards was a big admirer of George Whitefield. He wrote to George Whitefield asking him to come to his church in Northampton writing “It has been with refreshment of soul that I have heard of one raised up in the Church of England to revive the mysterious, spiritual, despised and exploded doctrines of the Gospel, and full of a spirit of zeal for the promotion of real, vital piety, whose labours have been attended with such success. Blessed be God that hath done it! who is with you, and helps you, and makes the weapons of your warfare mighty… I desire that you… would come directly to my house. I shall account it a great favour and smile of providence to entertain such guests under my roof.”
Whitefield came to Northampton at Jonathan Edwards’ invitation and preached at his church one Sunday “Preached this morning and good Mr Edwards wept during the whole time. . . . The people were equally affected; and in the afternoon, the power increased yet more.”
Edwards’ wife, Sarah Edwards, wrote to her brother after Whitefield had visited and records, “It is wonderful to see what a spell he casts over an audience by proclaiming the simplest truths of the Bible. I have see upward of a thousand people hang on his words with breathless silence, broken only by an occasional half-suppressed sob. He impresses the ignorant, and not less the educated and refined .. . our mechanics shut up their shops, and the day-labourers throw down their tools to go and hear him preach, and few return unaffected. . . . Many, very many persons in Northampton date the beginning of new thoughts, new desires, new purposes, and a new life, from the day they heard him preach of Christ.”
Many people in Northampton attributed “new thoughts, new desires, new purposes, and a new life, from the day they hard him (Whitefield) preach of Christ.” Clearly this man was anointed by God and a man full of the Holy Spirit.
4. His preaching was birthed out of a personal communion with God Himself
Shortly after becoming a Christian, Whitefield said of communion with God “Oh, what sweet communion had I daily vouchsafed to me with God in prayer. How often have I been carried out beyond myself when sweetly meditating in the fields! How assuredly have I felt that Christ dwelt in me and I in him. And how did I daily walk in the comforts of the Holy Ghost and was edified and refreshed in the multitude of peace.
He loved the Bible. He loved reading the Bible. He loved meeting God through the Bible and seeing Jesus Christ through the Scriptures. His most precious companion next to his Bible was Matthew Henry’s commentary of the Bible and he spent much time in solidarity alone with God filled with wonder through His word and precious time spent in God’s presence.
Dallimore insightfully writes “When we shortly see him preaching forty and more hours per week with virtually no time whatsoever for preparation, we may look back upon these days and recognize that he was then laying up a store of knowledge on which he was able to draw amidst the tumult and haste of that later ministry.”
Whitefield communed with God and this communion with God empowered all his preaching and ministry.
What a man. What a ministry. What a life. Perhaps the greatest preacher who ever lived outside of Jesus Christ Himself.
Oh to see men, women, pastors, preachers, and teachers who are consumed with a passion for their master’s work, never tiring in the harvest fields, bearing much lasting fruit in the people they preach to, all empowered by and out of a sweet and precious communion with the Lord Himself!
Citations:
Dallimore, Arnold A.. George Whitefield: God's Anointed Servant in the Great Revival of the Eighteenth Century . Crossway. Kindle Edition.