“Disciples are made, not born.” That was the title of a little paperback book that was in my house while growing up. That title has always stayed with me and is the inspiration for our Season of Lent series.
Being made into a disciple of Jesus means that we are always in a learning and growing process. It also implies that some things about being a disciple might seem counter-cultural and not very intuitive.
I think this is why Jesus sought to make disciples by telling stories and parables. Jesus was a master storyteller. He told parables where no matter who you are, you can find yourself in that story somewhere.
Luke, chapter 15 might be one of my top five chapters in the four gospels because this chapter includes three parables that have become known as the Divine Lost & Found. These include the Parable of the Lost Sheep, the Parable of the Lost Coin, and the parable we just heard read for us, the Parable of the Prodigal Son.
In the first parable, the parable of the lost sheep, Jesus says how there were 100 sheep and one of them got lost. Now, on one hand, we might think to ourselves, that we at least still have 99 sheep, so why bother, but Jesus is reminding us that every one of those sheep matter to him.
Can you imagine if some teachers came back to the school after a day long field trip and announced to the parents, “We started out with 100 students but somewhere during the day, we lost one of them. But at least we still have the other 99!”
At one time, Penny and I had three westies. In the blink of an eye, one or more of them would dart out an open door and the two of us would chase them down through someone’s backyard. “Oh, there are the McDowells again! Westies must have gotten loose!”
Jesus follows this up with another short parable about the lost coin. A woman lost a coin and she does everything she can to find it. After sweeping through her house, she finally finds it and she calls out to her neighbors to join her in a celebration party.
Now, if I invited my neighbors every time I found my misplaced cell phone, I would be having a neighborhood party every single day!
By the way, isn’t it a great feeling when you finally find something that you’ve misplaced? I’m sure that I’m not the only one here who has dumped out a bag of garbage in an attempt to find something important that we we might have thrown away. And why is it that this usually happens right after we dump coffee grinds into that same garbage bag? Yuck!
I’ve been known to climb into a dumpster now and then to find something I didn’t mean to throw away. Oh, the things we will do to search out that which is lost.
These first two parables are meant to help us see that this is who God is like. God is like that shepherd who is willing to do whatever it takes to find that one lost sheep. God is like that woman who frantically sweeps through the house in order to find that one lost coin.
And then we have the longest of the three lost and found parables here in Luke, chapter 15, the parable of the Prodigal Son.
Notice that this time, we’re not talking about a lost sheep or a lost coin. We’re talking about a lost son. And not just about a lost son, but about a lost son who was rebellious and who brought shame to the family by squandering his share of the family inheritance.
This son goes off and after recklessly spending the money becomes desperate until he finally comes to his senses and he decides to return home hoping to at least become one of his father’s hired hands.
And the shocker in the story is that when the father seeing his son from a distance, he runs out to meet him and welcomes him back into the family, even before he has a chance to apologize.
All three of these parables here in Luke, chapter 15 offer us a vivid picture of a God who is over the top gracious, forgiving, and loving toward us.
What does it mean for us to be made into disciples of Jesus who seek to be gracious, forgiving, and loving?
John Wesley, the 18th century Anglican Priest and founder of the Methodist movement had a very helpful theological understanding of God’s grace that he taught those early Methodists. He said that God’s grace can be experienced in three very important ways.
These include God’s prevenient grace, God’s justifying grace, and God’s sanctifying grace.
PREVENIENT GRACE
Let’s start with what Wesley meant by God’s prevenient grace. The word, “Prevenient” comes from the Latin word which means to “go before,” that is to say that God’s grace goes before our conscious awareness of it.
Think of it this way. In every single moment, God is reaching out to us, extending grace, mercy, guidance, and comfort. Even before we are even thinking about God, God has already made the first move toward us.
God’s grace is always stirring within us and inviting us to respond in faith. This is why we baptize infants because we believe that God’s claim on our lives comes before our awareness of it. The Sacrament of Baptism is primarily about God’s promise made to us and secondarily about our response to God’s grace in our lives. Both are important, God’s response and our response, but if it wasn’t for God making the first, move, we would be lost in our brokenness and sins.
JUSTIFYING GRACE
Which leads me to the second type of grace which is God’s justifying grace. This is the grace where we are awakened to what God has done for us through Jesus Christ. It’s when we have that “aha” moment and realize that through Jesus Christ, our sins are forgiven and we belong to Christ. Some might refer to this as when we personally accept Jesus Christ into our lives.
If you don’t remember a particular “aha” moment in your life where you made a conscientious decision to accept Jesus as your Savior, that’s OK because maybe you had several of these moments and to pick one would be really difficult.
For me, there were a couple of early memorable “aha” moments in my life where the light bulb came on and I realized just how much God loves me. The first time that I remembered becoming conscious of God’s love for me was when I was in elementary school during recess. I was waiting my turn in the tether ball line when a friend of mine asked me if I knew that I was going to go to heaven. Oh, the conversations that happen during recess!
I asked him what he meant and he told me how wonderful heaven is going to be. Looking back on this memory, I think he had probably heard a sermon about this at his Baptist Church and he wanted to share it with me.
He then told me that all I needed to do was to extend my arms and ask Jesus to come into my heart. And so very dramatically, there on the playground, I opened my arms wide and I said out-loud, “Jesus, come into my heart.” I still remember that moment even to this day.
Another time that I can remember having an “aha” moment was when I was in middle school and I went on a summer weekend youth retreat and felt God’s love in a very real way. It was another moment where I received God’s grace into my life in a very personal way.
To tell you the truth, I can’t tell for sure if there was just one moment or experience over the others that I can point to and say that this is when I received God’s justifying grace. I think that this happened many times for me, because I grew up in a very loving and nurturing church. The important thing was that God’s prevenient grace prepared me to receive God’s justifying grace where I wanted to be a disciple of Jesus.
SANCTIFYING GRACE
And this leads us to the third understanding of God’s grace, God’s sanctifying grace. This is the grace that continues to reach out to us even after God’s prevenient and justifying grace has led us to receive God’s gift of salvation.
Sanctifying grace comes from another Latin word, “sanctus” which means to be made holy. God’s ultimate desire for us is that we become more and more gracious, loving, and forgiving like God, and this is a life-long process.
Another way to describe these three aspects of God’s grace is to use the image of a beautiful house. Think of the front porch of that grand house as God’s prevenient grace. God’s grace invites us to draw closer to God and so we walk onto that front porch but we’re still not inside the house. That’s God’s prevenient grace that has led us to that space.
And once on the porch, we walk to the front door and we’re so amazed by the grandeur of this house that we can’t wait to go inside so we ring the door bell. The front door opens and we enter that wonderful house. That is God’s justifying grace. We have responded to God’s invitation to come inside the house. We’re now standing there in the foyer with our eyes wide open taking in the beauty of this home. We are feeling so grateful and thankful to be in such a beautiful place.
Once inside this magnificent house, we can’t believe how beautiful it is but we know that there is more to see. God’s sanctifying grace is when we are led to walk into each room of that house, taking in all of the splendor, feeling at home, and making it our home. And this is what we get to explore and enjoy for the rest of our lives, this place we can call home.
So in summary…
God’s grace is prevenient – it leads us to the front porch. It is justifying – it opens the front door so that we can enter the house. It is sanctifying – it then leads us to explore each and every room where we feel at home and we continue to make it our home for the rest of our lives.
To be made into a disciple of Jesus is to know and love the God who is gracious and always seeking out the lost and who loves to throw parties for those who have been found. So come on in. The door is open. Make yourself at home. Welcome to the party.
The Making of a Disciple: Grace-Filled
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