Kingwood United: Wesleyan Distinctives

John McMann

Kingwood United • Sermon • Submitted 6 years ago

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Methodist distinctives that unites us

Notes

Transcript

Introduction

What does it mean to be Methodist? Early in my walk I figured we were just welcoming people and kind of took in all the people that didnt fit elsewhere. Then it was in my study of the Wesleyan movement that I fell in love with the church and it really informed some of the ways I understand Christianity.

I will frame some of what I share today with some writing from Tim Tennent, President of Asbury Theological Seminary and draw on him for some clarity here....but much of what is shared is universal understanding of what the foundation of Methodism is.

What unites us at KUMC? Well we hold these together as utmost importance. If you are new or visiting or have no idea what the methodist church believes in listen up! Also, a lot of times what people do is talk about there church and how it is better than the others…I want to focus on what is good and distinctive.

Grace

Ephesians 2:4–10 The Message

Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah. Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.

Wesley believed to equate justification with salvation was to seriously diminish the work of grace in our lives.

Prevenient Grace:

God’s grace comes to us before we even become Christians. It is prevenient grace which enables us to respond to the gospel.

Prevenient grace is the grace that removes the scales from our eyes and shows us the brokenness within. Think of Paul on the road to Demascus.

Thomas Oden describes it this way, “…in order to repent of my sins I must first be enabled to recognize the power and destructiveness of sin in my most inward self.”[1]

[1] Thomas Oden. Classic Christianity. HarperOne: New York. 2009, p.570.

That’s why I love C.S. Lewis understanding of his pursuit of God, “like the mouse searching for the cat.” Even when I say I went looking for God, it was God that had already been pursuing me.

John 6:44 NIV

“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.

Example?

Justifying Grace:

Justifying grace is the love of God that works for us

As the person by free will, really a freed will of God’s grace, responds to this work of God and follows after Christ, they are justified by God’s grace. The individual is forgiven for sins and the relationship with God is restored.

Paul puts it this way in our text:

Ephesians 2:4–5 NIV

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.

Preach this out.

Sanctifying Grace:

Sanctifying grace is the love of God at work in us

Prevenient and justifying grace enables you to become a Christian, but sanctifying grace enables you to be a Christian.

God’s grace making us holy.

Through the lens of my life.

And please see how this emphasis from a Wesleyan perspective is so important. To understand God’s grace before we are aware is to admit our brokenness and fallen nature. It to be honest with the sin in our lives and God’s power calling us. To see God’s work continuing after the cross is to understand our purpose and God’s intent. It is not just forgiveness but restoration.

Means of Grace

There are many general ways by which we receive and position ourselves under his grace. Wesley believed that this was called the means of grace. “outward signs, words, or actions, ordained of God…whereby he might convey preventing, justifying, or sanctifying grace”

Specifically: Prayer, Scripture, The Lord’s supper.

Holy Christian Life

The second distinctive that I believe is important for us is the Holy Christian Life. When we become separated from a robust understanding of sanctification, then we are living with only part of the truth. We are Christian and yet lack the power, the healing, the purpose.

1 Peter 1:15 NIV

But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do;

1 Peter

Today much of the church is not holy and there is no more important legacy we can leave the contemporary church than to fully embody holiness. The great ramparts, gates and walls of holiness which have long set the church apart today lie in ruins and the world is now freely importing wickedness into the church. This is our hour to rise up and re-assert one of the four marks of the church: holiness. - Tim Tennent

We as Methodist believe that we are called to holy lives. That God can and does work in our lives to set us free from sin.

Christian perfection or entire sanctification:

This is where the Wesleyan doctrine of Christian perfection comes in.

[1] Christian perfection is the belief that God can not only forgive us of our sins but also set us free from them as well. There is a telos of forward movement in the journey to which God through the power of the Spirit is restoring us so that we might love God and people fully

Entire sanctification never meant that we never sin. Wesley actually rejected the phrase, “sinless perfection.” This is because for Wesley sanctification is not primarily a judicial, forensic term. Rather, it is a relational term. Entire sanctification means that your whole life, your body and your spirit have been re-oriented towards the joyful company of the Triune God. You are now oriented towards the eternal community of God himself. Entire sanctification was, for Wesley, not the end of some long drudge out of the life of sin, but joining the joyful assembly of those who have truly found joy. For Wesley, holiness is the crown of true happiness. Sin is still encamped around us on every side, but it is no longer our ally. We burn the secret agreements we have with sin in the night while we confess Christ in the day. We leave behind the agonizingly torn hearts, where we always live under condemnation because sin is always creeping back into our lives.

In the life of a sanctified person sin becomes your permanent enemy, not your secret lover!

Also, not just about sin, but about fruit of our lives.

This is so important friends. Wesley wrote this at the end of his life...I believe this statement is still true today. The great deposit to which God has brought the people called methodist…that which we offer the church is our belief and passion that God makes us holy.

Wesley described Christian perfection as “the grand depositun which God has lodged with the people called Methodists; and for the sake of propagating this chiefly He appears to have raised us up.”.

[1] John Wesley. “Letter to Robert Carr Blackenbury,” The Works of John Wesley. Jackson Edition: Vol 13, 1879. p 9.

Community

The third Wesleyan distinctive that also unites us here at KUMC is an emphasis of community.

“Directly opposite to this is the gospel of Christ. Solitary religion is not to be found there. ‘Holy solitaries’ is a phrase no more consistent with the gospel than holy adulterers. The gospel of Christ knows of no religion, but social; no holiness but social holiness.” - John Wesley

John Wesley and the methodist believed in the necessity of communion. I byproduct of the reformation and the recovery of being saved by faith, was this movement of hyper-individualized sinners before the cross. We understand well the need to be in community, that it is in discipleship groups that the sanctification, holiness process takes place as we encourage one another in love.

Vision for the World

“The world is my Parish,” famous words that encapsulated the early methodist movement of horse back riding circuit preachers. It is an imperative the we desire for God’s salvation to go to the ends of the earth. Do you know that the Methodist church is in revival in south America, Africa and parts of Asia? One could say we have an optimistic view of the power of grace and the love of God for the world. Someone challenged me recently about our work with Haiti…isnt there more that can be done here? Why do we do this in Haiti? God’s grace is not an expendable resource....there is enough to go around. And we desire for both the orphan in Harris County and the orphan in Source Matelas to know the saving grave of Jesus Christ. We do not have to choose.

Finally, to this point, here is what is unique about Methodism. We hold holiness and justice together. As my professor in seminary termed it Holy-Love.

Conclusion:

Grace, Holy Christian life, Community, Vision for the world.

This week will be historic for the denomination of the United Methodist Church. I am well aware that some or many of you might not have the slightest clue about what is before us. We have intentionally chosen to not distract ourselves with these denominational issued yet and focus on what God is doing right here in front of us. This week there is a special called conference of the world delegates (864) that will gather in St. Louis to determine the future of the denomination. For several years now we have been at an impasse with divisive problems centering around same sex marriage, ordination of LGBT persons, and the churches view upon the matter. It is unfortunate that we find ourselves at a place where a single issue has caused such difficulty. However, I believe that this is a presenting issue of something that lies under the surface. Forgive me for using these terms: conservative and progressive, I know they carry unfair baggage but for time’s sake I do not want to try and redefine or choose new terms.

On either side of this are people that believe they are arguing for God’s will.

One side would say that it is impossible for the church to love LGBT + people without allowing for marriage and ordination and other things. This is mostly about a justice issue, a lot of times being compared to fighting against slavery or equal rights for women.

The other side believe that this is more than even human sexuality that this is about abandoning authority of scripture and 2000 years of traditional teaching on marriage and sexuality. To talk about same sex relationships or trangendered experiences is to severely miss a theology of the body and failure to seriously consider what is being said here. This side, for clarity, is the historical stance of the UMC. They feel that they have severely been wronged by people around the denomination breaking this covenant to officiate weddings and not care about church law.

Now that is a healthier perspective on things. The fringe of either side points fingers differently.....stating that one side is full of hateful bigots or the other is based upon some immoral absence of truth and disregard for anything holy.

This week they will vote on some plans going forward. You will see in the major news segments some coverage of this. Do not stop on the surface with what you are seeing. And as your friends or neighbors see reporting on this stay conservative in your sharing and stay well read. They news outlets will find the biggest and ugliest voices on either side to share. Burt and myself will be attending as observers and we will share some information via blog, twitter, and facebook. We will be working with our Bishop following the conference to communicate what is happening before us. If you choose to email me this week, please allow for some time in response. Pray pray pray.