Pastor Jim Jackson

Richmond Hill Presbyterian Church

John Jasper (1812-1901) was born into slavery, converted in a dramatic religious experience in 1839, and emancipated in 1865. As a slave, his life was anything but easy. He was black and sometimes despised.

He was born only two months after his father died, a man who drank too much liquor, but his mother, a devout Christian.

John was the twenty-fourth child. As a slave, John advanced from a cart boy at age eight to a waiter in his master’s house, to a gardener and eventually to a sweeper in the tobacco house. With the death of John’s first wife, he lashed out at the system that held him captive. He began both drinking and smoking to excess, though he was intelligent and strong.

In 1839 John began learning to read with the tutoring of a fellow salve.

Upon his conversation, Jasper began feeling the call to preach the gospel. And with the his master, Samuel Hardgrove’s encouragement, he began preaching. And what a preacher he became. Soon after emancipation, John began gathering several thousand listeners every Sunday, many of them white. Yet he was criticized for not being formally taught and his English left much to be desired. Sometimes his sermons were inaccurate scientifically, such as the one he entitled: “The Sun Do Move.” So how can we explain his popularity and effectiveness of his preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ? John Jasper preached with passion. Liberated from slavery and liberated from sin, John was committed heart and soul to preaching the gospel which changed his life.

Preaching with passion, even when one is untaught formally, gets attention. Of course, I rush to say passion can also be dangerous. Adolph Hitler preached his “gospel” with passion, and unspeakable harm accompanied it. No gospel preaching is done perfectly and with perfect knowledge of our language or our world. Yet, when a preacher has experienced the power of the gospel to change his life and other lives for the better, how can he/she not do so with passion? No ho/hum spirit or demeanor should accompany his message. I don’t refer to just cleaning off and space and having a fit. I’m talking about one’s words being accompanied with obvious conviction that belief in Christ makes a difference.

I love what the Apostle Paul once announced passionately: “Woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel. And then, Luke wrote in Acts about Peter and John who were preaching with passion: and they responded to their attackers: “ Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak then things which we have seen and heard.” The good news (gospel) of Jesus Christ deserves nothing less than preaching with head, heart, and passion.