sermon 10/10/26

Prevenient Grace

Luke 15:1–10 NIV

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Big Idea

Before we ever went looking for God, God was already looking for us.

Core Wesleyan Truth

God's grace is at work in every human life before a person consciously responds to Christ.

Prevenient grace does not mean everyone is automatically saved. It means God's grace comes before our response, awakening us, drawing us, convicting us, and enabling us to say yes to God.

The Gospel of Luke The Shepherd’s Joy (Luke 15:1–7)

THERE is no chapter of the New Testament so well known and so dearly loved as the fifteenth chapter of Luke’s gospel. It has been called ‘the gospel in the gospel’, as if it contained the very distilled essence of the good news which Jesus came to tell.

Romans 5:8 NIV

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

The Wesleyan Bible Commentary, Volume 4: Matthew–Acts a. Introduction (15:1, 2)

The Judaism of Jesus’ day was more concerned about avoiding all association with sinners, for fear of being defiled, than it was about saving them. But the glory of Christianity is that it receives sinners and by the grace of God turns them into saints. A religion which is concerned only with keeping the status quo is already dead, even if not yet buried.

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Our God is different than every other “god” including the Jewish idea of who God is.

—> A God who searches for people, a God who goes after His own creation. That’s increadible,

—> Prevenient Grace applies to us and to everyone else as well.

—> God searches for everyone

—> No one is beyond the grace of God

—> lost people are everywhere

—> the world

—> the church

No matter where the lost may be…

—> God doesn’t give up and we shouldn’t either.