How to Become a Disciple
DiscipleShift • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Please turn to Roman 3:23.
Romans 3:23-26.
One of the most popular movie franchises is Mission Impossible. Tom Cruise plays Ethan Hunt and from one movie to the next - 8 movies - total (from 1996 to 2025 now)...fulfills various missions for the Impossible Missions Force. (and does a lot of crazy stunts as an actor)
and one of the most iconic phrases from those movies and the original series:
“Your mission should you choose to accept it is...” followed by a warning that this message will self-destruct — showing the secrecy and high stakes of the missions.
Jesus Christ Himself gave us a mission—and it’s not optional—all of us are expected to be a part of it.
and it won’t self-destruct. we keep reading about it!
but it is even more important than the Mission Impossible Franchise:
18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
(pretty big statement) could have a whole sermon on that—but b/c of that authority—this is what I want you to do)
19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
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.”
the main verse in that sentence is “make disciples...” or people who follow Jesus to also make other followers of Jesus and all the other words support it - “while going, baptizing, teaching...”
This is the mission Jesus gave us until He returns and makes all things new.
if you are wondering — why do I exist on planet earth—this is a big part of it.
if you are wondering why the church global and local exists—this is it—we make disciples of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit to the glory of God.
and so to kick off this new year—we are going to do a short series called DiscipleShift—the goal is to shift our focus on to this. b/c we forget and we get distracted by all sorts of things...
Lee and Liz Johnson did a phenomenal job last week (can we give it up for them). Their message on being in the Word and making the Word a priority enables us to keep our focus on this mission and to know God more.
but before I talk about the mission of making disciples I want to work backwards....before we can help make disciples—we have to first become a disciple.
and I know that may sound basic—but I love the basics, and I never want to assume that everyone here knows what it means to become a disciple or follower of Jesus.
in fact, I was reading an article about Indiana Hoosier football coach Curt Cignetti on ESPN. and part of what makes him great is he is meticulous about the basics...he will get on players during film session about the angle of a step or placement of your outside hand. the details matters...the basics matter.
He is also famous for his early offseason conditioning drills at 5am 3x a week, where he would set up trash cans around the field in case any of his players had to throw up. (hopefully that doesn’t happen here)
If you are look at our core values—this is at the core of who we are (pic on screen) there is the cross at the middle (I know — many of you have said it kind of looks like a QR code)
right at the center is the cross—and worship.
the cross is what enables us to become disciples. and that enables us then to live a life of worship that grows, connects, serves, and reaches—we do all this to make disciples.
so I want to celebrate that today—I believe this message is for both nonbelievers who are new to the ways of Jesus and believers.
even as believers we must never assume the good news—the Gospel of Jesus Christ. because if one generation assumes it—another loses it.
so let me read Romans 3:23-26 (which is actually just one sentence in Greek) I am indebted to a number of pastors and scholars, but most of all JD Greear if you look up the Whole Disciple series. HIs was especially helpful.
Leon Morris, Biblical scholar, called this sentence the most important sentence ever written.
Martin Luther, the man who started the Protestant Reformation from the Catholic Church said these verses mark “the center of the whole Bible” and that the entre Christian life rises and falls on our understanding of these verses.
so let’s stand and read...
This is the Apostle Paul writing to the church at Rome:
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—
26 he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
Let’s unpack these verses:
Part 1: Sin: (vs. 23)
What is sin?
we often think of sin as doing bad stuff, breaking God’s law. It’s an action. which is true.
but it’s more than that. or maybe you if are not a believer, you are like “this is what’s wrong with Christians—always talking about sin. Making people feel bad.”
2 helpful definitions of sin:
JD Greear says look at the word sin—spell sin S-I-N. In the middle is the letter I. Sin is when I think I know better than God. Sin is when I choose to do what I want to do rather than what he wants me to do. Sin is making myself the focus of my life. instead of him.
we have this propensity to make life all about me.
for instance, whenever you take a group photo and you look at the photo—who do you look for first? Yourself. (that’s not necessarily sinful—but it shows how self-focused we are)
whenever you have an argument with someone and it doesn’t play out well and get resolved. later when you are in the shower or your bed replaying the argument—who always wins—you do, of course. “I would have let them have it if I would have said that zinger.”
John Stott, famous British theologian/pastor says sin is: substituting myself for God.
that’s the core—putting myself in the place of God.
and Paul says all have done this. You have. I have. and we fall way short of God’s glorious standard. and we are not even close to what God expects in His holiness and justice.
you may think “I am not that bad...” “I can think of people far worse than me.” but according to God’s Word. we are. “ALL have sinned...”
For instance, do you always put God first? do you always love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength? do you love your neighbor as yourself? do you always follow the 10 commandments? a perfect heart following God would do all those things. and God deserves this all because He made us and owns us.
that’s the bad news, first. Sin has caused a mess—we have a broken relationship with God...we have brokenness with other (if we are honest) we have brokenness with ourselves and even all the created order.
we all deserve the punishment for our rebellion against a hold God who made us and loves us.
if we think we are beyond sin...I was struck the news recently of famous author Phillip Yancey, who is 76 years old, he wrote the book “What’s so amazing about Grace” He publicly confessed this week to having an affair for 8 years with a married woman, and it shocked the Christian world.” It’s a reminder that even our heroes, even all of us, are influenced and affected by sin. and if we think we are beyond it, we are in danger.
but the good news follows—look at all these God words—our eyes kind of glaze over at them.
24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—
justified, redemption, sacrifice of atonement, grace...
let’s look at these Key Words:
Justified - legal word (from the law courts) “God the judge declares us righteous.” God the judge looks at us and instead of being guilty or in sin, he says in his eyes we are actually righteous. perfect. blameless. even though in our behavior we aren’t any of those things.
how is this possible? how can God look at sinners like us and declare us righteous in his sight? (even though we are not yet technically righteous — we haven’t earn it or done anything—even though this is what we need if we are going to be forgiven...)
and this justification is a big word...it includes 2 aspects:
it’s as if we have never sinned
and as if we have done everything Jesus did
that’s amazing...God in a moment declares us just or righteous—even though we are sinners and fall short of the glory of God
how is this possible?
look back at verse 24 -25
24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—
it’s possibly because of his grace, redemption that came by Christ Jesus...and vs. 25—Christ is a sacrifice of atonement or propitiation - shedding of his blood.
which takes me to my next words
Sacrifice of Atonement or Propitiation - this is a big word. doesn’t show up much in the NT - but means that God’s wrath has been satisfied (or appeased or propitiated). the cause for anger has been taken away.
so think about this...because of our sin, God’s wrath is against us.
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness,
this bothers us sometimes that God gets angry. but some of the best theologians have tackled this. 2 responses:
response #1: we need wrath to have love. a full view of love has wrath. why? if I love you and I see you making bad choices in your life, what am I going to do? If I truly love you, I won’t be like, “who am I to judge.” No, I will get involved and confront you—because I hate what is happening to you and the choices you are making. and I do it out of love. wrath is a necessary part of love. which is why God hates sin—because he sees how sin is destroying us and our world....all the sickness, pain, divorce, death, ultimately stem from our sin, so God hates sin. He has wrath against it. and so it needs propitiated. I think this 1st response makes sense especially if you have ever been the victim of some type of abuse or wrong, you want a God who is angry at what happened to you. when we see victims of massive injustice around the world, we want a God who gets angry at that. God’s wrath is a very appropriate response to sin in our world and in us.
response#2:
because we see the word sacrifice—the way that God’s wrath is propitiated is that Jesus Christ is the sacrifice, the blood sacrifice of atonement. Jesus had to shed his blood on the cross in our place for our sins to be forgiven and for us to be justified.
now some people may not like this—it takes a blood sacrifice for God to be appeased. Why couldn’t God just forgive us? Why couldn’t God do something else than have His perfect Son, fully God and fully man, die for us in our place, shed His blood? it seems kind of gross, or maybe God is just bad-tempered and moody and needs appeased like the pagan gods.
but it’s different with God. God is a God not only of Love—He is love—but also of justice.
14 Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you.
c. JD Greear - one preacher uses this illustration—whenever we sin, we incur a debt and someone has to pay...suppose you stole my car and wrecked it, but didn’t have insurance; didn’t have the money to pay for it. now imagine if the judge looked at you and said “you are guilty of stealing Rick’s car. but I forgive you. no consequences. that may be great for you-but that leaves me without a car. and that’s not a very good judge giving justice.
the same is true of God - we owe a debt to God that’s worse than stealing a car. that must be paid.
now let’s change the illustration—what if the judge brings down the gavel and says to you “guilty” you have to pay for Rick’s car and court fees, but I say to you “I forgive you. You don’t owe me anything.” can I do that? Yes—what happened to the debt?
I paid the debt myself.
Propitiation is similar in that God agrees to pay the debt we owe him for our sin himself. It is God absorbing the penalty of his own wrath into himself so that He can forgive us. He is not a moody god demanding some payment from us—he has an appropriate response of wrath against sin which is killing us, and instead of demanding payment from us—he pays it for us.
this is why verse 26 says this:
26 he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
he satisfies seemingly 2 things that are at odds at the cross—God is just—absolutely righteous and yet gracious—he justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
This is why the Messiah, Jesus had to be God Himself. If God were to punish some other being for our sin, an angel or a lesser god, or a human, he wouldn’t be just. that’s just cruel to punish some random person for our sin—but for God to send His Own Son—Himself—the Trinity is a mystery! He can satisfy his justice and be gracious at the same time.
this is helps us with verse 25
25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—
in the OT, God temporarily allowed animal sacrifices to happen to atone for sin. where the worshipper would bring the lamb or goat to the priest, put his hand on them to symbolize that his/her sin is transferred to that animal, and the animal would be killed and the blood would flow.
but Hebrews makes clear that the blood of bulls and goats really cannot atone and pay for our sin. no but God allowed them—these animal sacrifices were pointing forward to the ultimate sacrifice, Jesus Christ.
3. we will come back to the word grace in a second—but let’s look at redemption now (we have looked at justification, propitiation)
vs. 24
24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
redemption simply means “to buy someone’s freedom”
so justify is “to declare righteous”
sacrifice of atonement/propitiation to have God’s wrath be satisfied...”
to buy back. one of the richest stories of redemption for a 1st century Jew was the Exodus. when God delivered them from slavery in Egypt. He bought them.
it was also used of slaves who were redeemed (could get into slavery b/c of debt), or their freedom was purchased.
this word implies - - purpose.
we are not just saved from something — from our sin, or from the wrath of God, but for something.
1 But now, this is what the Lord says— he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
our purpose is now to walk with the Lord, to glorify God as his beautiful children, to make more disciples and followers of Jesus. as JD Greear says you weren’t just saved from sin—you were saved for God’s glory—for a purpose.
redeemed also reminds us that God paid quite the price for us.
18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors,
19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.
if justification and propitiation deal with our guilt....redemption deals with our shame. you and I matter immensely to God that he would pay that much for us.
the third p is power. purpose, price, power. redemption means you are set free. you might feel like sin has a hold on you, your addiction has a hold on you, the old way has a hold on you. but you are purchased, bought, redeemed, with great power—the Holy Spirit now resides within you.
4. Grace - (vs. 24 - justified freely by his grace)
24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
this is the source of our justification, redemption, and propitiation.
the words we have looked at so far show the means—how we are put right with a holy God—through the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ in our place. Jesus’ death enables us to be justified, declared righteous in God’s sight. to be redeemed, bought back to freedom, and for God’s wrath to be propitiated.
it’s grace - "gift” “unmerited favor”
this is what is different about following Jesus, becoming his disciple vs. every other religious system.
every other religious system says “do this, and you will be accepted.”
the Gospel says “I am accepted b/c of Jesus, therefore (in response) do this.
every other religious system says “Do.” Do.
Christianity says “Done.” it’s a gift you receive.
i remember teachers telling me the famous acronym
GRACE = God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense
free for us—but it cost Jesus so much!
this is what sets Christianity apart—grace.
this is the source of how we become a disciple
Closing—how to respond:
Faith (vs. 24)
24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—
26 he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
faith is how we get in on this good news. faith is how we become a disciple.
I often think of the word “trust” as equivalent.
one theologian says faith means “to lean your weight on.”
famous illustration of the chair—I can say I have faith in this chair to hold me—but i can only be in 2 positions related to the chair. sitting on it, trusting it, or standing on my own 2 legs, trusting msyelf.
you can only be 2 positions when it comes to Jesus—trusting him, leaning your weight on him to save you, or yourself.
you become a Christian, a follower of Jesus, the moment, when you put your trust that you cannot save or earn your salvation; only Jesus can, and all he did for you in his life, death on the cross in our sins, and resurrection.
as part of faith—another common word we see in Scripture is “repent”
faith and repent are 2 sides of the same coin
14 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.
15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
faith means trusting Jesus paid it all for you.
repent means to turn from my sin and make Jesus the Lord of my life.
He is now king. He is now Lord. I am surrendering everything to Him.
Jesus wants everything in our life—surrender doesn’t our salvation; but is a response.
If I give Jesus 95% of my life—I am still holding onto 5%—he wants it all.
so #1 is have faith and repent for the first time.
(call Mike forward)
2. is cherish these words...grace, justification, redemption, propitiation, faith. this is your story. we need to keep coming back to these words again and again and again.
b/c sometimes we start by grace, but we continue by works as if it all depends on me. that’s exhausting.
grace must be our identity. God doesn’t need us—He never has—but He chooses to first of all love us and know us and then use us.
this focus on the Gospel helps us as we will read some tough statements about following Jesus next way—it all begins and continues with grace.
we rest in the finished work of Christ, and that motivates us then to go and make disciples...more on that next 2 weeks. next week we will look at some of the hard sayings of Jesus, of what it means to follow him. but it all starts and continues with grace.
Rick Dugan, one of our World Partners missions director said this:
In a conversation today, we discussed how the difference between a disciple and a non-disciple is often framed in terms of commitment. Disciples are portrayed as serious about following Jesus, while everyone else is dismissed as a religious consumer or an unbeliever.
But the disciples of Jesus didn't follow him because they were more committed. They followed him because they were healed, forgiven, and accepted.
To be a disciple is to learn to obey everything Jesus commanded, and his commands are summed up in two: love God and love your neighbor.
But how do we learn to love? As Jesus says, “The one who has been forgiven much loves much.”
Discipleship, then, begins not with commitment, but with grace.
When we frame discipleship primarily as commitment, it often serves to conceal the very wounds or guilt that most need grace. By emphasizing our commitment, we try to prove that we are strong enough to do this. We try to overcome the pain by proving our worth. Commitment becomes a mask, covering fear, hurt, shame, or guilt.Inviting others - Christians or not - to become disciples of Jesus is not firstly about inviting them to be more committed. It's inviting them to be more vulnerable; to expose their wounds to the loving touch of Jesus.
