“A Heart Strangely Warmed”: Five Marks of a Methodist

Sermon Title: “Five Marks of a Methodist”

Good News Statement: Jesus strangely warms our heart

Preached: Sunday, May 21, 2023, at Dogwood Prairie and Seed Chapel UMC

Pastor Daniel G. Skelton, M.Div.

 

Scripture (NRSV): 2 Corinthians 5:6-10 Today’s scripture reading comes from Paul’s epistle or letter to the people of Corinth, who are needing the subtle but bold reminder that they are to not walk by sight of the world but by the faith of their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ…

⁶ So we are always confident, even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord— ⁷ for we walk by faith, not by sight. ⁸ Yes, we do have confidence, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. ⁹ So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to be pleasing to him. ¹⁰ For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive due recompense for actions done in the body, whether good or evil.

 

Ephesians 1:3-13: ³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, ⁴ just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. ⁵ He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, ⁶ to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. ⁷ In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace ⁸ that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight ⁹ he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, ¹⁰ as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. ¹¹ In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance,  having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, ¹² so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. ¹³ In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit;

Ephesians 4:1-5: I, therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, ² with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, ³ making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace: ⁴ there is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, ⁵ one Lord, one faith, one baptism…

 

This is the Word of God for the People of God; And all God’s people said, “Thanks be to God.”

 

Introduction:

            What did the boy say when asked why he walked to class with the same girl every day? His mother told him his whole life to walk by Faith!

When writing to the people of Corinth, the Apostle Paul, like the mother from our opening joke, reminds them, just before discussing the meaning of offering a ministry of reconciliation for the people, says, “So we are always confident, even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord—for we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:6-7). The Apostle Paul knows that the problems, the issues, the dilemmas of the world have caused the people to rely on their own insight instead of relying on the faith of Christ to help them “mount up with wings like eagles…run and not be weary…walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31). The sight of the Corinthian people, much like us today, has been blinded from the faith that has been presented before them. This faith is what helps us walk in the ways of the Lord as our heart is strangely warmed. We must learn to walk by faith and not by sight.

This Sunday, is a special Sunday in the United Methodist Church! Today, we celebrate the moment, the divine revelation, when our founding father, John Wesley, walked by faith and was given the vocation to create a movement known as the People Called Methodists. May 24th is known across the Methodist/Wesleyan family as “Wesley Day.” It marks the day when John Wesley got the order of salvation right. Prior to May 24, 1738, he believed that one must be sanctified before one could be justified. In other words, he thought he had to make himself acceptable to God before God could forgive his sins. While reluctantly attending a Moravian society meeting, not long after his return from Georgia and the disappointing conclusion of his career as a missionary—and not to mention his escape from being put on trial for denying Holy Communion to a female who chose not to go out with him—Wesley, listening to someone read the preface to Luther’s commentary on Romans, realized that justification, the forgiveness of his sins, is a free gift from God. It cannot be earned. At that moment, John Wesley’s heart, as mentioned in is journal entry, was “strangely warmed” and led by faith.

Today, as we honor and remember the day when John Wesley’s heart was strangely warmed, we are challenged to live out the marks of Methodism as we realize that we are set free to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love those whom God loves, as God loves them. Through these Five Marks we are called to walk by faith and not by sight so that we can learn to love God, rejoice in God, give thanks to God, pray constantly, and love others. John Wesley set out to start a movement by which would reform the church of today so that others may come to know the love and faith of Jesus Christ. What Wesley began, we have been called to continue by following his five marks of Methodism.

Body:

Buildings last because they rest upon solid foundations. Without a good foundation, they may exist for a while, but they can’t stand for a long period of time. Similarly, John Wesley understood that Methodism could begin and remain vital when it is built upon a good foundation. In his treatise entitled The Character of a Methodist, published in 1742, he describes the features of a good foundation. He describes it in terms of, as Steve Harper notes in his book Five Marks of a Methodist: The Fruit of a Living Faith, “distinguishing marks.” These distinguishing marks are the foundation upon which would establish a Methodist person or group on the right foot and sustain them for one lifetime after another. So, in The Character of a Methodist, Wesley provided a solid foundation for the early Methodist movement in particular, and one that is necessary for any follower of Christ.

Between 1733 and 1738, Wesley was overseeing a growing number of Christians who wanted to live their lives according to the gospel and do so in ways that held them accountable to each other—to walk by faith and not by sight. By 1742, this collection of people became an identifiable movement within the larger Christian church. Anglicans, Quakers, Puritans, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Roman Catholics, and nondenominational Christians turned to Wesley for spiritual guidance.

Some of this movement occurred outside of London and beyond Wesley’s ability to oversee everything taking place, though. In anticipation of what would soon become the Annual Conference—the yearly gathering of leaders who prayed to discern what they were supposed to believe, teach, and do—Wesley wrote the foundational document called The Character of a Methodist, to provide the sustaining strength for what Methodism would become. In this document, Wesley lays out the foundation upon which we stand as Methodists. This foundation consists of five distinguishing marks that confirm our identity as genuine and fruitful disciples and followers of Christ: 1) A Methodist Loves God, 2) A Methodist Rejoices in God, 3) A Methodist Gives Thanks, 4) A Methodist Prays Constantly, and 5) A Methodist Loves Others. Let us explore each of these marks, praying that they will help us to become the disciple that Christ needs us to be as we continue to make disciples for the transformation of the world as we walk by faith.

            First, A Methodist Loves God. In paragraph five of The Character of a Methodist, John Wesley wrote, “What then is the mark? Who is a Methodist, according to your own account? I answer: A Methodist is one who has ‘the love of God shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost given to us.” We live the Christian life in relation to the two greatest commandments. Matthew 22:36-38 states, “’Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment.” John Wesley knew how important it is to love the Lord his God, which is why his first mark of Methodism begins with the call to love God.

Our life in Christ begins in the fact that we love God. We are like Peter, sitting with Jesus on the shore in John 21:15-19 and hearing him ask three times, “Do you love me?” There is no other starting point for the life of faith or the journey of discipleship. Jesus has to ask us more than once, as he did with Peter, because we are prone to wander away from this core reality: we are prone to walk by sight and not by faith. And even if we find ourselves saying that we do love God, the repeated question forces us to look beneath the surface of our response so see what we mean by it. When you say you love God, what do you mean you love God? Do you love God because He is there for you? Do you love God because He cares for you and sees you? Do you love God because He answered your prayers when you prayed that your car would start? Do you love God because He loves you? Why do you love God? And how many times does Jesus need to ask you, “Do you love me?”

In many ways, love of God was John Wesley’s keynote theme for the rest of his life and ministry. We see it continuing in his sermon “Scriptural Christianity” (1744) where he lays the foundation of the love of God in ways that are remarkably similar to what he said in The Character of a Methodist. While looking at the first Christians on the Day of Pentecost, Wesley noted, “This then was the very essence of his faith…the love of God the Father.” There is no greater day in the Christian life than when we discover that salvation means wholeness. It doesn’t merely mean going to heaven when we die; it means living abundantly while we are here on this earth. “But for this to happen,” states Harper, “we must love God.” Having received God’s love first (1 John 4:19), we love God in return with everything we are and have. We do it in relation to every aspect of our life. We do it every day and to everyone. This is the first and foremost mark of a disciple. We must love God.

By naming the first mark of a disciple to be a person who loves God, Wesley is inviting us to step into the stream of scripture and tradition; to join with the first followers and subsequent saints who have made the love of God their heart’s desire, a desire made possible because we are made in the image of God; that is, created with the desire and the capacity to receive and give life. The love of God is the goal to which we aspire, and it is the means by which we reach it. A Methodist loves God. As Charles Wesley penned, “Love divine, all loves excelling, joy of heaven, to earth come down….Visit us with thy salvation! Enter every trembling heart” (Love Divine, All Loves Excelling, in Works 7:545). Do you love God?

            Second, A Methodist Rejoices in God. In paragraph six of The Character of a Methodist, Wesley simply wrote, “Rejoice evermore!” When one of my good friends from seminary sends me an email, she ends the email by using these words: “with His joy.” For my friend, this phrase is much more than a happy-go-lucky way of ending a communication. It captures the spirit of biblical living. It brings forth the words of Nehemiah 8:10 “Don’t be sad, because the joy from the LORD is your strength.” It leads me to understand that when I rejoice in the LORD, His joy shines through me to others.

While standing in the stream of the Christian saints, John Wesley said, “God is the joy of his heart.” How many of you have the joy of God in your heart? How many of you have the joy, joy, joy, joy down in heart to stay? Through this joy, Wesley shows us that joy (like everything else) flows from the love of God. Wesley also demonstrates for us that there is more to joy than what we may realize. Wesley asserts that joy is happiness: a disciple is “happy in God.” As a matter of fact, when studying the Beatitudes of Matthew 5, instead of saying the word “blessed,” as in “Blessed are the poor in spirit…Blessed are the pure in heart…Blessed are the peacemakers” (Matthew 5:3, 8-9), John Wesley states, “Happy are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven…Happy are the pure in heart, for they will see God…and Happy are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” Happy are those who come to love God with their whole heart, mind, body, and soul. In His joy, let us rejoice evermore!

Additionally, to rejoice or be happy assures a level of peace. This peace, according to Harper, “is based on the fact that perfect love (the union of God’s love for us with our love of God) casts out fear, 1 John 4:18. Peace is a mark of discipleship that gives us confidence and courage. From peace, we find ourselves receiving hope. Wesley says that our redemption not only provides present blessings, it also gives us a vision of the “glory that is about to be revealed” (1 Peter 5:1). Rejoicing in God brings us happiness, peace, and a hope to be revealed in us today and every day. A disciple rejoices in God. In the hymn “Rejoice the Lord is King,” Charles Wesley writes, “Rejoice the Lord is King! Your Lord and King adore; mortals, give thanks and sing, and triumph ever more. Lift up your heart, lift up your voice; rejoice; again I say, rejoice.” As a Methodist we are called to rejoice in God and receive is His joy of everlasting.

Third, A Methodist Gives Thanks. In paragraph seven of The Character of a Methodist, John Wesley wrote, “And you who have God’s hope…in everything give thanks.” Wesley’s third mark is that disciples, or Methodists, give thanks. Wesley uses Paul’s words to describe the third mark: in 2 Corinthians 9:15, Paul wrote, “Thank God for his gift that words can’t describe”; and in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “Give thanks in every situation because this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” When was the last time you gave thanks to God for what God has done, is doing, and may do in your life? This thanks doesn’t have to be complicated: it can be simple and still change your life.

Wesley offers us four things to consider when thinking about giving thanks to God. First, Wesley notes that gratitude is the Christian’s response to God. Gratitude is the response to grace. Second, gratitude is grounded in the nature of God, in the works of God, in the ways of God, and in the teachings of God. Gratitude guides us towards goodness and avoiding harm. Third, gratitude is a means of leading us out of anxiety. Because God is good, we can cast all our anxiety on God (1 Peter 5:7; Philippians 4:6). And fourth, gratitude leads to prayer and realizing that we are never a bother to God; and no matter whether we understand what is happening or not, we can always “take it to the Lord in prayer.”

John Wesley closes his third mark of Methodism by reciting this prayer: “God, you the great creator and sovereign Lord of heaven and earth, you the father of angels and human beings, you the giver of life and protector of all your creatures, mercifully accept this my morning sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, which I desire to offer, with all humility, to your divine majesty.” The third mark asks that we give thanks to God. Have you allotted some time for thanking God for the blessings in your life?

         Fourth, A Methodist Prays Constantly. In paragraph eight of The Character of a Methodist, John Wesley wrote, “For indeed one ‘prays without ceasing.’” Every relationship is established and maintained by communion and communication, so it comes to no surprise that Wesley describes the Christian life in relation to prayer, making it his fourth mark of being a Methodist. Prayer is the way we create and sustain our relationship with God. John Wesley viewed prayer as a means of grace, saying that “the chief of these means is prayer, whether in secret or with the great congregation.” He goes on to say, “The heart of a disciple is a heart of attentiveness, and devoting ourselves to prayer is the main way we confirm our desire to hear from God and then put what we have heard into action.” The key element in prayer isn’t what we say to God but rather what God says to us. Wesley knew that by praying from the heart, it is possible to be fully engaged in the affairs of life while simultaneously being attentive to God.

John Wesley prayed with words and in silence. He prayed alone and with others. He prayed when he felt like it and when he felt as if his prayers were making no difference. He prayed with inspiration and guidance of the Bible and with the instruction of tradition. He prayed with the full range of emotions. My point is that John Wesley prayed at anytime and anywhere: He prayed outside of Sundays. He prayed without ceasing and he prayed for all people. 1 Timothy 2:1 asserts, “First of all, then, I ask that…prayers…be made for all people.” We discover in the fourth mark of a disciple that Wesley has given us a vision and pattern for prayer that is for anyone, anytime, and anywhere. Charles Wesley wrote, “Pray, without ceasing pray, (Your Captain gives the word). His summons cheerfully obey, and call upon the Lord; to God your every want in instant prayer display; Pray always; pray and never faint; Pray, without ceasing pray.” We are called to pray for everyone, at any time, and wherever we are.

          Fifth, A Methodist Loves Others. In paragraph nine of the Character of a Methodist, John Wesley wrote, “One who loves God, loves our brothers and sisters also.” The fifth and final mark of a Methodist is that we love others. 1 John 4:20 states, “The person who doesn’t love a brother or sister who can be seen can’t love God, who can’t be seen.” Paul wrote to the people of Ephesus, “I, therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace: there is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism…(Ephesians 4:1-5). In the second greatest commandment Jesus calls us to “love your neighbor as you love yourself” (Mark 12:33). We, as Methodists, are simply called to love others. The United Methodist Book of Discipline asserts, “We affirm that God’s grace is available to all. We will seek to live together in Christian community, welcoming, forgiving, and loving one another, as Christ has loved and accepted us.”

The second greatest commandment becomes the conduit for God’s love to flow through us after it has flowed into us. It is a love, Wesley says, “full of love to all humankind, to every child of the Father of the spirits of all flesh.” And lest we think he was only thinking of fellow Christians, Wesley hastens to say it extends to people we don’t know, and to people whose lives we don’t approve of, and to people we don’t necessarily agree with. It extends even to our enemies. In other words, it is the kind of love that isn’t given because of the nature of the receiver but because of the nature of the giver, and we know that the giver is God. We are called to love others. And this love leads us to pray these words from Frank Laubach, “Lord, what are you doing in the world today that I can help you with?” In all that we do, in all that we say, in all the places we go, we are called to help God by showing him our love and by offering our love to all people. A Methodist loves others.

Conclusion:

Everything Wesley described as being a mark of a Methodist—loving God, rejoicing in God, giving thanks to God, praying constantly, and loving others—are intended to be a spring of living water that can nourish those around us, as we love them in Jesus’ name. We love God, we rejoice in God, we give thanks to God, and we pray to God as a means of forming a personal communion with God that grows into the commission to live for God. Wesley offered us a firm foundation to build upon, and he did so by offering us five marks of Methodism that are not complicated but aren’t simple either, that can strangely warm our heart, and that can help us learn to walk by faith and not by sight. We have all been marked with the “seal of the promised Holy Spirit” (Ephesians 1:13) so that we may go out into the world making disciples of Jesus Christ. We may not change the world, but we can certainly try as we love God more today than we did yesterday, rejoice in the works of God, give thanks to God, pray to God, and love others the way God loves us. It doesn’t take much to get a fire going, it only takes a spark; and that spark lives inside of you.

From these five marks of a Methodist, Wesley wants us to see that no matter who we are, or where we are, we are all part of nothing more nor less than what God has created. The essence of discipleship is this: remain firm to Christ, which makes us followers of Jesus “not in name only but in heart and life,” a life in Christ in which we are “inwardly and outwardly conformed to the will of God as revealed in the written Word.” In Wesley’s view, a disciple is one who “thinks, speaks, and lives according to the method laid down in the revelation of Jesus Christ. A Christian’s whole being is renewed after the image of God, in righteousness and in all true holiness. We are called to walk by faith and not be sight, which means we are called to love God, rejoice in God, give thanks to God, pray to God, and love others the way God loves us.

We are the people called Methodists. And we are here to help make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Which of the five marks of Methodism do you need to work on to become the disciple that he has called you to be? Let it be so…

Closing Prayer:

            Let us Pray: Dear Jesus, we know we aren’t perfect: we know that we have things to work on as your disciples. So, Lord, help us to love you more, help us to rejoice in your name, help us to give thanks to you, help us to pray more to you, and help us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. O Lord, guide us to fulfill the marks of what it takes to be your disciple today and every day. All honor and glory is yours now and forever, Amen.

 

Benediction:

Do you love God? Do you rejoice in God? Do you give thanks to God? Do you pray to God? And are you doing your best to love others the way God loves you? John Wesley’s heart was strangely warmed on May 24^th 1738 because he devoted his life to walk by faith. I pray that the Lord warm your heart today and every day as you are blessed to walk in his faith, and his faith alone. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, go, living and experiencing the marks of a faithful disciple. And all God’s people said, Amen. Amen. Amen.