“Never My Will”

 Scripture:   Matthew 7:20-22; John 6:38-40; John 8:25-27

Today, we arrive at the 8^th in our series of messages on John Wesley’s paper “The Character of a Methodist”.  In this paper, Wesley wrote “Agreeable to this his one desire, is the one design of his life, namely, not to do his own will, but the will of him that sent him.  His one intention at all times and in all things is, not to please himself, but him whom his soul loveth.”  These were not John Wesley’s original thoughts, but rather, they were based in those that Jesus shared with us in John 4:34 where we read - “’My food,’ said Jesus, ‘is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.’”

 In addition, He also told us that “⁵⁰ For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother (Matthew 12:50).”  So not only is Jesus committed to living in the will of His Father, but we are told that if we desire a relationship with our LORD, we had better be walking in the Father’s will, too!  Now before anyone thinks that it was a lot easier for Jesus than it is for us, consider just how much time the Christ spent in prayer, seeking the way of divine will for His own life!

 Maybe that’s the problem for us – how often do we go to prayer, seeking God’s guidance and will for everything we do in this life?  Is our constant desire to “please” the LORD, or does our own pleasure tend to take precedence from time to time?  The will of God will never be in step with our own desires, but His will can always bring greater opportunities and greater glory than anything we could ever conceive of.

 So today, we consider what living in the will of the Father and the Son will do for all who believe and trust and walk in the will of God.

 Read Matthew 7:20-22

 This passage occurs near the end of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, and He is obviously speaking of the standards that will be used in the Judgment.  The measures that will be used to try us won’t be what we say, it won’t be in our physical appearance, it won’t be on the places we live, it won’t be who we hang out with, and it definitely won’t be the church we worship through - it will only be about the One whose Will we live and serve in! 

 But perhaps the question that should be a challenge for us today is this – who is it that Jesus is offering this passage for?  Specifically, it is most likely for His disciples, but honestly, it just may be for anyone who was present on the hillside that day, and even more so, for any of the Pharisees who were always following after Jesus, trying to catch Him in some slight or violation of the Law of Moses! 

 But just in case any of us may be breathing a sigh of relief, believing that it could never be for us, it is just as important a warning for anyone of any age, as well as for this day, who believes that they have done so many good things in the name of Jesus, that a special place in heaven will be awarded in their honor! 

 That will be a false hope, to say the least!  If we ever believe that we have to cry out “LORD, LORD” to get His attention, and to list all that we have done for Him because it could make all the difference in God’s verdict on us, then we are sadly mistaken, and all the mercy of the heavens won’t do us one bit of good!

 The truth is that unless we are living and acting and speaking completely within the will of the Father, this warning is, absolutely, for us.

 Read John 6:38-40

 What is there about God’s using a “food” metaphor to speak about the Goodness that can come to us when we trust and believe in His Son Jesus?  Why food?  A similar phrase is offered in Proverbs 9:5-6 – “Come, eat my food, and drink the wine I have mixed.  Leave your simple ways and you will live; walk in the way of understanding.” 

 Why is “good food” so important for us?  It helps us to grow in a healthy way, it helps us to live in a productive posture, it helps us to have a long and worthwhile existence.  And what if we eat in an unhealthy way, subsisting on junk food, or items that have no nutritional value at all?  Life will be difficult and far shorter than it could have been!

 This is what Jesus meant by claiming that He is the Bread of Life’.  He is the food of spiritual power, the way to enhance life to live eternally, and not just in a physical sense.  When we “feast” on Jesus, we receive Godly wisdom, spiritual understanding, a Christ-centered life, and the promise of God for eternity.

 And Jesus gives us an even more important promise that comes directly from the Father – that it is God’s Will that when we give this spiritually nourished life to Christ, we shall never have the desire for anything else!  And God has no greater desire than we should come to the LORD Jesus for the “food” that feeds us for eternity! 

 Faith in Christ nourishes us that well.

 Read John 8:25-27

 Jesus had just told the Pharisees “²³… You are of this world; I am not of this world. ²⁴ I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am he, you will indeed die in your sins.” (John 8:23-25).  At this bold statement, they were not only confused, but they became rather angry at the LORD!  And now they hear that one day, Jesus is going to judge them, even though they have always believed that they, through the authority of the Sanhedrin, were the only ones who could judge anyone! 

 The problem with the Pharisees is that they thought that if they could just silence Jesus, their problems would all be eliminated.  But this is assuming that the words and the thought and the authority behind them was from Jesus Himself, but the truth that comes to us through the Christ wasn’t His to claim – it was the Father’s to speak and send, and the LORD’s, as well as ours, to share with the world.  Human judgment that was brought against the man Jesus, or against any person who walked on the face of the earth, would never accomplish anything, except to make the judgment against them even sharper!

 Jesus is the voice of the Father, and when we hear the commands that Jesus gave us, we were placed under the yoke of the Father, and from that moment on, it became Godly Law that demands our obedience, and the people of the world become subject to His judgment.

 In describing the Character of a Methodist, as well as that of every Christian, John Wesley wrote “There is not a motion in his heart, but is according to his will.  Every thought that arises points to him, and is in obedience to the law of Christ.”

 Every breath that we take, every beat of our heart, every word that we speak, and every life that we reach out to, must point directly to Jesus.  For it is the will of our heavenly Father that faith, trust, and obedience to His Son is the only way that should ever matter in our lives.  

All else must fall under His Cross.

 

“Purify the Heart”

 Scripture: John 6:47-51; Titus 2:11-14; 1 John 1:8-10; 1 John 3:1-3

 In John Wesley’s paper “The Character of a Methodist”, he wrote these words -  “seeing he loves not the world, nor any of the things of the world; [being] now crucified to the world, and the world crucified to him; being dead to all that is in the world, both to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life.  For all his desire is unto God, and to the remembrance of His name.”  This allegiance and love for God is what Wesley calls “pure of heart”, and he believes that this must exist in anyone who professes Methodism. 

 The prophet Joel also had something to say about this issue to the people of Israel 2,800 years ago – in 2:12-13, we read “¹² ‘Even now,’ declares the Lord, ‘return to me with all your heart,  with fasting and weeping and mourning.  ¹³ Rend your heart  and not your garments.  Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and He relents from sending calamity’.” 

 The point that each is making is that when we are apart from God, there can be no purity of heart, and they both are challenging us to tear the ways and influence of the world out of our lives so that we might return to Godly ways.  For it is only then that we will know the closeness of our Almighty LORD and Savior.

 

Today we will be considering what Jesus and the epistle writers had to say about this need to shun the world’s call, and to look to Him for true life now and forever.

 

Read John 6:47-51

 

Jesus is telling us that the world can give nothing even close to what faith in Him can bring.  Even though the heavenly Manna had nourished wandering Israel during their wilderness years, it only sustained their human lives, until each and every one of the wanderers eventually died and passed from the earth.

 

But the “Bread of Life” that Jesus brings, is the food of faith that sustains for eternity!  The problem was that in the wilderness, and even though the LORD God Jehovah was feeding, and leading, and strengthening, and enabling the nation, they never stopped complaining, and doubting, and wanting things to be done in their own way!  They trusted in the ways that were familiar and comfortable to their lives, but not in the far better ways of their Jehovah God. 

 

Jesus tells us that we need to set the ways of earth aside, and to begin following in a whole new way – a way that is by faith, and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:6-8).  Unfortunately, there are still many who are looking for the obvious, but human side of faith, instead of just trusting and obeying all that Jesus taught and commanded! 

 

But the hang-up for many folks are the words that His body, His flesh, is the Bread that will sustain them.  But to eat the flesh of others was unthinkable for Israel – after all, God had given them a command to never eat the flesh, and never to drink the blood of their defeated enemies!   This was a tradition that others followed, for they believed that to feast on the body of a powerful enemy meant that you would also gain their strength and ability! 

 But Jesus wasn’t talking about eating human flesh or about gaining human strength – He was talking about faith!  Verse 47 is the key, “the one who believes has eternal life.”  Jesus was about to give His life for the salvation of all who believe, and His human flesh would no longer be with them.  Believing in the human and fleshly death that He was about to accept on our behalf will be our heart’s “feasting” on Him – a feast that brings eternal life.

 Read Titus 2:11-14

 Once again, it becomes obvious that we have no hope whatsoever of gaining salvation on our own – it is only through the “grace” of God that saves us, and teaches us, and enables us to say “No” to the things of this world, and to live in a way that glorifies our LORD.  But we are also called to wait for the hope of Christ, while we live in the way that Jesus showed us - a Godly and selfless existence that rejects the wickedness of worldly thought and pursuits.  And this change can only come to be through the purification that faith and trust in Jesus can bring.

 But how can we ever actually do that?  We are told that the flesh is weak, but when we give ourselves over to God, James 4:7-10 tells us that Satan will flee from us!  When we come near to God, He comes near to us, and Satan knows that this will be an unbeatable combination.  The LORD, in His purification of us through faith, will be ours when we humble ourselves and allow Him to raise us up with Him!

 Read 1 John 1:8-10

 John’s first epistle reminds us that even when Christ has brought purity to the life of all believers, we still can’t claim the status of sinlessness.  Only Jesus can claim that!  We can only continue to confess our sin, and seek the LORD’s forgiveness and purification once again.  Purification is not the same as “permanent perfection”!  Perfection is one thing that Jesus never promised – He only promised that we would be worthy to stand in the presence of God if we believed and trusted in His word!

 In 1 Thessalonians 2:11-13, Paul tells the church that they have been encouraged to live lives worthy of God, who has poured out His grace and life on all who believe.  Not a single word about being sinless, only worthy to be called the children of God!

 And our declaration of perfection gets even worse – in doing so, we are, in essence, denying God’s divinity and the truth of His own perfection!  And the word of God will not be in us.

 Read 1 John 3:1-3

 When the day of Judgment comes, the children of God will be the reflection of God Himself, and the people of the world will not.  For the promise that comes by faith in Christ can only rest on those who know Christ, and all who are known by Him.  It is the purity that God grants to those who believe that will clear our way to eternity, but those who have not put their lives in the hope of Christ will continue to know nothing, except that they have lost out on the greatest opportunity of all time.

 For those who believe, and have been purified by the love of God, Wesley wrote these words - “none can take from him what he desires; seeing he loves not the world, nor any of the things of the world …  For all his desire is unto God, and to the remembrance of His name.”

 The mark of a Methodist is the same mark that defines a Christian –that they are one of God’s own. 

 

“Loving Like Jesus”

 Scripture: John 13:2-5; John 14:21-24; John 21:15-17; Romans 8:36-39; Ephesians 5:25-28

Today, we arrive at the sixth lesson that John Wesley offered to all who would call themselves “Methodist” – that of loving in the way that Jesus lived and taught.  In his tract, "The Character of a Methodist", paragraph #9, Wesley wrote  “For he loves his enemies, yea, and the enemies of God, the evil and the unthankful. And if it be not in his power to do good to them that hate him, yet he ceases not to pray for them, though they continue to spurn his love, and still despitefully use him and persecute him.”  In other words, even if others won’t accept your love, love them in your heart just the same.

 Think of the love that Jesus showed to others, even though they ridiculed Him, betrayed Him, denied Him, persecuted Him, and even crucified Him.  The love of God was ingrained in every fiber of His being, and evident in every blessing, every healing, every challenge, every prayer, every encouraging word and every word of truth that He spoke while walking among us.

 In John13:33-35, Jesus gives us this commandment – “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”  And how did Jesus love?  In just a few words - sacrificially, perfectly, and offering it to everyone!  So let’s consider some of the ways that Jesus loved others in His Godly way, and what that means for each of us.

 Read John 13:2-5

 The verses that I chose are but a part of a much greater lesson that Jesus’ final Passover meal presents, with the primary thought being that Jesus knows that His ministry here on earth is coming to a close, and the time that He will be returning to the Father’s side is about to arrive.  The evening that John is describing here shows that Jesus’ was not about to leave this place until He made one more effort to reemphasize all that His last three years was to mean for this world.  And He would be offering these final lessons in a way that would also emphasize the love that He had for the people of this earth.

 That eternal struggle between good and evil would be demonstrated in so many ways in the next few hours that we would be remiss if we only considered the love of God that is work in the lives of those who had grown so close to Jesus.  Judas had been with the LORD for a long time, but he was about to surrender Christ’s love in favor of Satan’s lies.  Peter was about to object to the divine lesson that his Jesus would be offering to him – that is the washing of his feet – but would grudgingly accept it, without fully understanding the significance of this gift.  And the entire band of followers would be challenged by the hatred of the world, and would fear the wrath of the oppressors, until, that is, the resurrected Jesus began appearing to His flock to give them His reassurance – and according to 1 Corinthians 15:3-6, it was to as many as 500 of the faithful.

 Jesus loved them all in such a complete and perfect way that this act of washing the feet of those closest to Him proved the servanthood that had guided him throughout those years of ministry.  He wanted each and every one of them to understand that to follow Him in love meant that they were to first be servants to all, and to accept the love that others offered to them.  He wanted them to know that it was the love of God that had inspired and guided Him for the entire 33 years of His life among us, and that it would be that same love that would continue to inspire, teach, guide, and enable them, and us, to be His, now and forever. (John3:16-17)

 Read John 14:21-24

 So what does loving like Jesus do for us?  For many, they still believe that a love like the world’s is more than sufficient, but the truth is that it falls so far short of God’s love that it is, in Christian service, totally inadequate.  This passage gives us some insight into the need for Godly love in our lives, if we have any intention whatsoever to live as a Christian, and equally, as a John Wesley methodist. 

 Godly love, both that which is shown to us by the LORD, as well as that which we return to Him and others, is the key to experiencing the fullness of the Triune God in our lives.  Jesus is asked the question – why will you show yourself to us, but not to the world?  The problem is that we are the ones who block Jesus from coming into our lives when we refuse to love God in the way of Jesus!  It isn’t God’s desire that anyone should be excluded from His loving grace, but unless our choice is to accept Jesus and His ways, God’s love will be meaningless and completely foreign to our lives.

 And the evidence that our love is totally off the mark? “He who does not love Me will not obey My teaching!”  Loving God is shown through our affection and obedience to the ways that Jesus taught – not to our own version of what God wants, but through the Godly love that has been shown and offered to all of humanity.

 Read John 21:15-17

 This is one of the many appearances that the resurrected Jesus made for those who loved Him and followed His word.  Jesus had prepared breakfast for the fishermen, because they had been unable to catch any fish during the entire night of casting nets on the Galilean Lake.  Remembering that Jesus had predicted that Peter would deny Him three times (John 13:38), sets the stage for Peter’s denial of his LORD after Jesus’ arrest in the garden (John 18:15-27). 

 Now, Peter is being asked if his love for Jesus is true, or if it was just a flash in the pan!  Peter is understandably irritated by the questioning, but it was Jesus’ way of driving home the point that love of Him and His word can never be a part time commitment – that it must be constant and consistent with Christ’s teaching!  In John10:14-27, Jesus speaks about the sheep of His pasture, and that they come from many places, more than Peter and the others could ever imagine, or would ever agree with.  And they are defined by one thing – verse 27 – “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow Me.”

 If we are to be included as members of Jesus’ “flock” – His true Church – we must listen to His voice, which includes obeying all that He taught, and all that He has shown us, throughout scripture.

 Read Romans 8:36-39

 Human love is one of those things that seem to come and go in our lives.  Social media has come up with a set of terms for this – first, there is “bff”, which, we are told, means “Best Friend Forever”.  That is what Jesus would have our love be – forever!  And yet, the world has also given us a second term as a means to terminate those friendships” -  that being to “unfriend” any person we so desire!  So much for the world’s vision of what “forever” actually means!

 Jesus’ love for us will truly be forever, and will help us to love Him in that same way!  In this very familiar passage, Paul is saying that the things of earth will never be able to put a damper on God’s love for us, even in those times when we are tempted to “unfriend” our LORD and His word.  And He will be our merciful pardon and restoration in those times of our denial and forgetfulness.  So Paul’s words are the important reminder for us, that “in all these things we are more than conquers through Him who loved us” (v. 37).

 Read Ephesians 5:25-28

 Paul writes these words to the Church in Ephesus as an example of how to love each other in the way that Christ has loved His Church.  But this is only a portion of the lesson – I have omitted the part that gives guidance to the wife (which actually is a metaphor for the Church).  The complete passage tells us that the “wife”, or the Church, should respect and submit to the “Husband”, or rather to Christ Himself. 

 So the question that I would pose to each of us, is this – As the “bride” of Christ, as the Church who bears His name, do we not only respect the word He has given us, but do we submit to that word and ways of our LORD?”  Or does anyone believe that affection for Jesus is quite enough, that submission to His commands doesn’t have any place in our vocabulary!

 Remember the Great Commission – “¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. (1) ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, (2) baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, (3) ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

 And John Wesley’s thought once again – “And if it be not in [your] power to do good to them that hate [you], yet [you must] cease not to pray for them, though they continue to spurn [your] love, and still despitefully use [you] and persecute [you].”  Love others, in spite of all that they may do.

 These must be the marks of both a Christian AND a methodist – loving others as we have been loved by Jesus Christ, and that obeying the commands of Jesus is the outward sign that we love Him in return. 

 May it be so for each and every one of us!

“Pray Without Ceasing”

 Scripture:   2Chronicles 7:11-16, 2 Chronicles 7:19-22, Mark 11: 23-25, Proverbs 28:9-10, James5:13-16

 As we continue to examine Wesley’s teachings in his tract the “Character of a Methodist”, we have already seen that his call is basically to live out this life in solid, Christian ways.  Now this may seem to be pretty obvious to us, but the truth is that very few in the Church actually do!  Unless we dedicate ourselves to searching the scriptures on a regular basis, unless we commit to living and serving in the model that Jesus established for us, faith can easily fall into a simple, shallow, and routine effort.

 As an example, in Wesley’s introduction to his tract, he writes “We believe Christ to be the eternal supreme God, and herein are we distinguished from the Socinians and Arians.  But as to all opinions which do not strike at the root of Christianity, we think and let think.”  I have known people who love to quote those last 5 words, but totally ignore the ones that precede them!  The point of this statement is that if all of our opinions and thoughts are not Christian in any way, shape or form, we should begin working to cleanse our life of those that are not.  They aren’t even worthy of our thoughts!

 Consider our concluding passage from last week - 1Thessalonians 5:16-18 tells us to rejoice constantly, to pray continually, and to give thanks in all things!  In general, we can easily remember the verbs (rejoice, pray, and give thanks), but how well do we live out the modifiers?  For today, we will be looking at what it means for our lives if we truly are committed to “pray continually”.

 Read 2 Chronicles 7:11-16

 The first temple, sometimes known as Solomon’s Temple, had been completed, dedicated, and sanctified, and God, through the king, claims the temple as the place for His presence.  And the point is made that whenever the nation angers the LORD through their sinfulness, they can always reach out to His divine grace and ask for mercy and forgiveness.

 But while God tells the nation that they can always come to Him, He also explains that an attitude of humility must accompany their prayers of repentance.  Prayer for forgiveness is, of and by itself, insufficient.  God doesn’t forgive unless there is a change in the way we live our life - from the way that ignores Him, to one that glorifies Him.

 Think about that – why would God, or any of us for that matter, want to restore the relationship that a friend has destroyed, unless the reason for the damage is acknowledged and removed from their heart and life?  Obviously, God doesn’t, and none of us should either!  But there is one more issue at play here – prayers for forgiveness, it appears, must come first, before any other prayers of petition are lifted up!  In John 15:7-8, Jesus tells us that whatever we ask for will be done, IF our life is in Him, and His word is in us.

 Read 2 Chronicles 7:19-22

 As we continue in 2 Chronicles, and relate it to our own faith, the LORD is quite adamant that if we try to play games with His word and promises, that it will not go well with the temple (or in our case, the Church!) or with Israel (the people)!  And it will become so obvious to others that they will know that something was done to cause God to turn His back on us.  If faith doesn’t give God the praise and honor for all that He has done on our behalf, why should He continue to bless us if we aren’t going to appreciate it?

 Read Mark 11:23-25

 In this passage, Jesus is describing to His disciples the power that they will have through a faithful prayer life.  Notice that we aren’t to just ask Jesus to do things for us, but that even as we pray, we are to believe that it not only can be done, but that it has already begun to happen!  Unwavering faith is crucial in a Christian life.

 In Wesley’s tract, he writes “Whether he lie down or rise up [the person who has given their heart and life to Christ Jesus], God is in all his thoughts; he walks with God continually, having the loving eye of his mind still fixed upon Him, and every where seeing Him that is invisible.”  Sounds a lot like 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 doesn’t it – pray (and live for Jesus!) without ceasing!

 Read Proverbs 28:9-10

 For Israel, the worst thing that anyone could do is to intentionally go against the law of Moses.  For the world of today, that “worst” has come to mean the result of turning against the Law of God, or in other words, to ignore the teaching of Jesus.  And when we take on the role of a god to deceive the hearts of others, the failures that come will be our own responsibility, and we will be taking those who have trusted and believed us into the “trap” right along with us.

 In Luke17:1-3 Jesus tells us that everyone “stumbles” from time to time, but when we teach others that there is nothing wrong with our going against Christ’s teaching, the punishment that will come is by our own hand, and we both will suffer for it.  And when we pray, our prayers for mercy will fall on deaf ears.  This is why in James 3:1 we read that those who teach will be judged by a much higher standard.

 Read James 5:13-16

 This passage tells us to pray, praise and anoint, all of which are means of reaching out to God, seeking His goodness, His joy, and His blessing on whatever situation we may find ourselves in.  And while these verses seem to be offered in the singular tense, the call is actually upon the Church as a whole.  We notice that James encourages us to seek out the elders of the church, those who are seen as leaders, teachers, and preachers of the word.  These are the examples that we all need if we are to grow in faith and to live and love in the way of Jesus. 

 By everyone being included in all the ministries and missions that God places upon His Church, we learn what John Wesley meant when he wrote these words - “In retirement, on company, in leisure, business or conversation his heart is ever with the LORD.”

 Is our heart “ever with the LORD”?  Are we willing to step back to allow others the opportunity to discover the blessing of leading, teaching, preaching, and praying?  And are each of us willing to do all we can to grow in those same 4 areas of faith? 

Won't you give Christ and His Church a chance to shower you with God’s blessings today!