This thesis explores the relationship within the Wesleyan tradition between preaching and the interpretation of Scripture. It proposes a Scriptural hermeneutical method founded on John Wesley's sermon construct. Wesley urged his preachers in each of their sermons to emphasize both the love of God (called "gospel") in the passage as well as its demand on the hearer (called the "law"). It was not sufficient to tell the listeners that God loves them without also telling them ofthe demand of God in living out that relationship. Likewise, a preacher should not urge action or obedience without establishing the loving foundation on which such is based.
This thesis proposes to use the preaching moment of the worship service to teach this "love and demand" construct as a method to interpret Scripture. The intentional use of the preaching moment to teach a way to leam and understand Scripture is the crux of this thesis. Scriptural passages can be accessed by asking where, within the verses, are the lessons ofthe love ofGod and the demands of God to act out that love in the life of the hearer.
A series of teaching sermons to a focus group in the local church was used to test the thesis. Each sermon identified the love and the demand ofthe Gospel and proposed how that love and demand could be encountered in the present day. The evaluation process was twofold: (1) a Scriptural passage was given to the focus group to be analyzed pursuant to the interpretive method and (2) an interview of the members was conducted on the entire process. At the end ofthe sermon series, the focus group was able to locate or identify one or more aspects of the love and the demand of a Bible passage.
The method was successful in teaching Wesley's preaching construct as a Scriptural interpretive model. The evaluation demonstrated that hearers in the focus group learned to identify the love and demand of God in the text. This method is an additional effective tool in the preaching arsenal.
