The Means of Grace
2 Peter 3:18
Have you ever been told to do something, but then weren’t told how to do it? Or have you ever been told to do something, but then you weren’t given the tools for getting it done? There’s nothing worse than being given something to do, but then not being given the means to do it. We’re just left to figure it out. In our Scripture today, Paul challenges us to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” but then he never tells us how to do that. So how do you grow in God and what are the tools needed to do that? John Wesley identified 5 tools for growing in our faith as the Means of Grace. He didn’t invent them. In fact, these are practices handed down from both Judaism and the early church. And as a result, generations have born the fruit of these spiritual disciplines. He considered them to be gifts from God. Their purpose is to help us be obedient to God, grow our relationship to Jesus, transform us into the likeness of Jesus and build the kingdom of God. They enable us to make ourselves regularly available to God and to the power of grace.
The problem today is that we assume people not only know these means of grace but are practicing them as well. The Methodist church has failed in equipping its believers in how to grow their faith. For example, how many of you even know what the means of grace are. More practically, how many of you have ever been taught how to pray or to fast? Now the goal of the Christian life is to become like Jesus Christ and the only way to do that is through the grace of God and the means to do that is through the Means of Grace.
Last week, we talked about how John Wesley started with the end in mind. He asked what a fully devoted, mature follower of Jesus look like. To answer that question, he went to Scripture, the guide for our life and Jesus, the example of our faith. John Wesley identified 10 biblical characteristics of a follower of Jesus Christ and thus a Methodist. He shared those in a 1742 short pamphlet titled, “The Character of a Methodist”. From this, he created a discipleship system to build such qualities and characteristics in the people called Methodist including the Means of Grace.
Wesley defined the means of grace as “outward signs, words or actions ordained by God,…to be….channels whereby He (God) might convey to men preventing, justifying or sanctifying grace.” He believed practicing the means of grace was essential to the life of Christian discipleship. These basic practices are how Christians open themselves to God’s grace and allow the Holy Spirit to work within us, transform us and empower us to do the work of Jesus. The means of grace make us available to God and the power of grace to conquer sin, purify us, and make us whole. They are practices through which we learn the mind of Christ by attending to all his teachings, summarized in the Great Commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all of your strength … You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mark 12:30-31).
But here’s the catch. Unless you regularly practice the means of grace, you limit God’s grace and power in your life. God cannot give you what you do not put yourself in a position to receive. It’s kind of like a lamp in your living room that never gets plugged in. It may look good and you can turn the switch but there’s no power. You cannot take the next step in the faith journey without God’s grace empowering you. So the first thing is you have to plug into God for that to happen and that is done through the means of grace. Unfortunately, many Christians never experience God’s full grace and power in their lives to be a follower of Jesus because they never regularly access God’s resources. They may do one or two of the means of grace but not all five and thus they receive some grace and power but not all that’s available to them. The great saints of the faith who have made an incredible kingdom impact throughout the centuries were able to do so because they practiced the means of grace. These are training activities you can do now that will eventually enable you to do what you cannot do simply on your own.
We must understand this: the Means of Grace is about power – accessing God’s power of love, grace and forgiveness which you do not currently have. There’s nothing strange or mystical about this. But there is something very practical. As you practice the means of grace, God will transform you so that you are increasingly living in His power, a power that is not your own. And as you learn to live in God’s power, you will increasingly find yourself able to accomplish the kinds of things that only God’s power is able to accomplish. As you learn and begin to practice the “means of grace, God’s love and grace will work right into your life. They will increasingly help you to receive more and more of God’s grace, and thus more and more of his powerful activity in your life. You will then be able to do what you could not do before. It will simply feel natural – like a part of you. Because when God is working, and you are working in his power, you will not make an effort to obey him – you’ll just find yourself doing it. In other words, it not just becomes a part of who you are but rather who you are. So the means of grace are activities you can set about doing that will increase your capacity to receive God’s grace – to allow God to work in your life and you will increasingly find yourself doing what Jesus would do and over time, you become like Jesus.
John Wesley identified two categories of the means of grace: works of piety and works of mercy. Works of piety are how Christians grow and mature in their relationship with God. The works of mercy are how disciples live out their love for God in the world by loving their neighbors as themselves in acts of compassion and justice. The works of piety are prayer, worship, the Lord’s Supper, reading and hearing Scripture, mutual accountability and support in small groups (Christian conference), and fasting (or abstinence). They are both meant to be done in public (worship, the Lord’s Supper, Christian conference) and in private (prayer, studying Scripture, fasting).
Works of mercy, whose name is derived from Jesus’ words in Matthew 25:31-46. “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:40) are the result of the works of piety. It’s important to understand that the two go hand in hand. They create a life of harmony and balance. For if we are paying attention to God in prayer, worship, and Scripture reading, we will be compelled to service in the world; loving those whom God loves as God loves them.
The means of grace reshape what we desire so that in those critical moments of choice, we desire less and less to do our will and desire more and more to do God’s will. We desire less and less to sin and desire more and more to do God’s will. And when someone attacks me verbally, I no longer want to exact revenge but now my genuine desire is to love and forgive him! That is the freedom the means of grace provides us because God’s grace is love, forgiveness and power and they empower us to do what we cannot do on our own – live free of anger, pride, selfishness, and control. Can you imagine living free of those things and all others that currently drag you down and plague you?
What does it take to become a practicing Methodist incorporating the Means of Grace in your life? First, you have to take responsibility for your spiritual. You know God’s desires, that is for you to become holy, but you are the only one who is responsible for choosing the path to holiness. You are the only one responsible for the spiritual path you take. Nobody else is responsible for your spiritual growth. I’m not, Ms. Adrain isn’t, the leaders of this church aren’t. Only you are responsible for where you are right now spiritually and only you can decide whether you want to spiritually what God is calling you to. Stop playing the victim and blaming others for your situation or expecting others to do the work for you. You’ve got take responsibility for your spiritual growth. Your relationship with God is like a marriage. It takes hard work, more than you ever expected. It takes dedication and discipline. You have to be willing to invest the energy to grow in your faith and relationship with Jesus. No one else can do it for you.
Second, put God first in your life. You can’t make God a part of your life. He has to be all of your life and nothing else is acceptable to Him. You have to make Him the center and have everything else revolve around it. God has to be in the middle of your life, not on the periphery. God has to be the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end of everything for you. Before you can have the full life God intended for you, God has to be the most important thing in your life and everything else is a distant second. Most people today believe in God, profess Jesus Christ as Savior but they haven’t made God their life. You have to come to the place where you stop dating all the other gods of our culture, and instead choose to get married to God for better or for worse “till death do you part.” This is what life in Jesus is all about. It’s about making a commitment of all of yourself to Him and living it out with passionate abandon. The problem is that we are commitment phobic. We like the closeness of the relationship, but we want outs, we want options, we want exceptions. You have to “make a commitment” to God to the exclusion of everything else in your life.
Third, you have to reprioritize and commit the time. Every relationship of any depth and significance takes time and energy. Those are our two most precious commodities today. We’re tired and we’re overcommitted and as a result, we’re short on time. Relationships are not just about what you commit to or take, they’re also about what you give up. And that means if you’re going to make Jesus your life, something’s gotta give. You’ve got to reprioritize to make the time available for Him. Now spending time together in any relationship does not naturally bring intimacy but it’s impossible to be intimate without spending time together. And it’s not just quantity time meaning you have to do it on every day, but it also about quality time which means giving God your very best time of the day. So you have to do it on a daily basis. For some of you, that’s late at night. For others of you, that’s early in the morning. Whatever it is, you give that time for God and practicing the Means of Grace. This is much more than giving God your Sunday morning. Worship is one of the means of grace but it is only 1/5 of the means of grace. If this is the only time you read the Word of God, the only time you pray, the only time you sing God’s praises, then your relationship is not what it could be. If you really want to be close to God, you’ve got to spend quality time with Him on a consistent basis.
Fourth, balance works of piety and works of mercy. How do we maintain the balance that is so important to growing in love of God and neighbor? We need help because left on our own, our practice of the means of grace will gravitate toward those that suit our temperament or personality. For example, an introvert will naturally be drawn to some of the works of piety (private prayer, Bible study, and fasting) and will tend to neglect worship, being a part of a small group, and most of the works of mercy. On the other hand, an extroverted person will naturally be drawn to those communal works of piety and mercy but will neglect time alone with God in prayer and reflection. Maintaining balance is essential for Christian formation and faithful discipleship. It is how we become whole in Christ. Just as we are called to attend to all the teachings of Jesus, so we are called to practice all of the means of grace, acts of piety and mercy, and not just those that suit our temperament. It takes both to allow grace to form our character and heal our souls.
Fifth, be accountable. Why was it important to do it like this? Our commitments to God need to be made public. Why is this important? It’s about accountability. Being accountable helps me become stronger but it also makes me more likely to live out my commitments. When I know that I have to give an accounting of how I practiced the Means of Grace, I am much more likely to do it. No one likes to fail or be seen as a failure. But accountability is also about inviting others into your spiritual journey to be an encourager, a source of wisdom and support and sometimes even a corrector. Solomon put it this way in the Proverbs: “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” You see, on our own, we love our independence. No one tells me what to do. I do what I want when I want. And if I mess up or if I fall short of the practices of the faith, I just let it slide and don’t give it another thought. And we just go on about our lives. The problem is that not many of us are strong enough to push ourselves to get better. We need others to help us do that. That’s why all of the greatest world athletes have a personal coach or trainer. What if, in order to be a better follower of Christ, I laid down that freedom, and instead chose to be accountable? Voluntarily, I will give someone the right to ask me about my actions. This is why it is so important to bind ourselves in relationship with one another because together we will be stronger and together we can make each other better followers of Jesus Christ than if we stand alone. Amen.
