What Jonathan Edwards Would Preach to Your Youth Group
Commentary
Imagine if Jonathan Edwards was asked to be the keynote speaker at a modern-day Youth Conference. What do you think his overall theme would be?
Well, if you haven’t read anything written by Edwards and simply go off stereotypes, you’d probably guess the theme would sound something like “You’re Going to Hell” or “God is Angry with You; Oh, You Dangling Spider!”. Yet thankfully we do have records of what Edwards preached to the youth of his church, and I think the content may surprise you.
In To the Rising Generation, Dr. Don Kistler compiled 13 sermons that Edwards preached to the children and youth of his congregation at Northampton. He also includes a letter that Edwards wrote to a young convert as well as the list of Bible Questions he prepared for the children of his church (talk about a great resource for your next Sunday School Trivia night).
While many of these sermons address various topics such as the dangers of sin and being prepared to die (child and youth mortality rates were much higher in the 18th Century), there was one overarching theme that penetrates everything Edwards says.
After reading all these sermons, I’d argue the theme of Edwards’ youth conference would be:
“A Higher Delight”
This certainly should not surprise those familiar with the teaching ministry of John Piper, for as one who describes himself as an “Edwardian”, it was Edward’s emphasis on delighting in God that led Piper to adopt the term Christian hedonism: the biblical idea that God is most glorified when we delight in Him.
This is important because as one who grew up in the church and heard many sound, expository preachers at myriad youth events, this theme was almost completely missing. I would hear men preach on the importance of purity (yes, I survived the 90’s purity movement), Lordship salvation, reading the Bible, the sufficiency of the Bible, the inerrancy of the Bible, music, prayer, pursuing the will of God, evangelism, biblical leadership, God’s wrath, judgment, hell, heaven, obedience to parents, authority, doctrines of sovereign grace, the 5 Solas, the list goes on and on.
Yet, the one thing missing which was ironically THE one thing Edwards continually hammered home to his youth in Northampton from 1727-1750, was the importance of delighting in God Himself.
This is huge, because the paradigm of my youth saw the pursuit of holiness as tantamount to the abdication of pleasure. This is where the purity movement went wrong. I failed to see that holiness, far from being the denial of pleasure, was actually the pursuit of a higher pleasure. In fact, all other worldly pursuits lead to broken cisterns that fail to satisfy the endless longing of our souls. Even further, instead of satisfying our souls, these worldly idols actually lead to emptiness and despair.
This was something Edwards understood all too well and it permeates everything he exhorts the Northampton youth. Listen to some of these excerpts from his sermons:
“Is not the God who made us able to give us more pleasure in intercourse with Himself than we have in conversations with a worm of the dust?”
“Walking in ways of religion and virtue doesn’t hinder young people’s comfort in outward enjoyments, but promotes it. It gives them a far more excellent kind of pleasure, more sweet and satisfying delights then the world can afford, but the enjoyment of these things doesn’t rob young people of pleasure in outward things, but helps it.”
“when young people walk in ways of virtue and Christianity it not only gives them abundantly the most pleasant enjoyment of the present time, but renders the prospect of what is to come exceedingly comfortable and joyful.”
“religion, instead of being a hindrance to your spending youth pleasantly, will be the most direct way to it.”
“It is sweet to the soul to love Christ; it is a holy affection that fills the soul with sweetness. Then you will have the pleasure of living a life of communion with Christ, which will be a very sweet life.”
“Let me beseech you prudently to seek your own happiness … consider how happy those young persons must be who give up their youth to God and spend it in a strict walk in the ways of virtue and piety … they have more comfort; their youth is more pleasant and they have better pleasures.”
“Let me beseech you to cast off all carnal mirth and sinful pleasure, and seek the sweet and excellent delights and pleasures that are to be had in a life of love for the Lord Jesus Christ and in communion with Him … tis a more sweet and satisfying pleasure … this pleasure does not fade … this happiness won’t fail you when outward things fail … these pleasures won’t disturb your inward peace, but will establish it … and these pleasures will be in no way hurtful to your nature … they sanctify the affections and lay a foundation for peace and quiet, for comfort in this world and glory in the world to come.”
This was the message the youth needed to hear in the 18th Century, and it is still the message our youth need today in the 21st Century. As Michael Reeves writes in God Shines Forth: How the Nature of God Shapes and Drives the Mission of the Church, “We were created to satisfy ourselves in the love of God, and we are most full of joy when we drink at the overflowing fountain of His life, rather than sucking on the feeble fumes of our own.” Or as John Howe, the Puritan chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, put so succinctly when he wrote that in God “you will still find a continual spring, unexhausted fullness, a fountain never to be drawn dry.”
May we lead our youth, like Jonathan Edwards did nearly 300 years ago, to drink from this everlasting spring today.
Structure of the Book
The book is divided into 15 chapters:
Preface (Dr. Don Kistler)
Chapter 1: Early Piety is Especially Acceptable to God
Chapter 2: The Sudden Death of Children
Chapter 3: The Time of Youth is the Best Time to Be Improved for Religious Purposes
Chapter 4: The Sins of Youth Go with Them to Eternity
Chapter 5: The Most Direct Way to Happiness
Chapter 6: God is Very Angry at the Sins of Children
Chapter 7: Children Ought to Love the Lord Jesus Christ above All Things in this World
Chapter 8: Corrupt Communication
Chapter 9: A Flower Cut Down
Chapter 10: Don’t Lead Others into Sin
Chapter 11: A Lovely and Pleasant Sight
Chapter 12: The Awful Death of Unclean Youth
Chapter 13: The Danger of Sinful Mirth
Chapter 14: A Letter to a Young Convert
Chapter 15: Bible Questions for the Children of Northampton
Five Key Quotes
“be earnest and violent for the kingdom of heaven.”
“For a short moment’s pleasure, you will have a long reckoning. Such kinds of pleasure don’t lay any foundation for peace or comfort in any one … on the contrary, they lay a foundation for an abundance of trouble and for inward uneasiness and torment.”
“Man was made for higher and more excellent delights. This [sin] kind of mirth won’t give contentment; rather it makes for more. It puts the soul into a tumultuous, uneasy frame.”
“Consider the peculiar advantage young people are under to obtain spiritual and eternally good blessings … later other business and concerns tend to crowd out religion.”
“Make haste and escape for your life; make haste and fly for refuge, and with all possible speed get into Christ so that you may be ready for death, however soon it may come.”
Recommended Complementary Reading
God’s Call to Young Peopleby Various Authors
The Good Work Begunby Thomas Vincent
Thoughts for Young Menby JC Ryle
Where to Buy the Book
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