All sermons preached by the webmaster may be freely copied, printed and distributed. We ask only that the site name and homepage URL be included in all copies distributed. Thankyou.
This sermon was preached on Sunday 20/10/2001 Am, by Kevin Matthews.
This morning we return to our studies in John chapter 6. As you know we have been considering John 6 for a couple of months now and today we continue to look at Jesus’ teaching in this chapter in response to Jewish misunderstanding of, and opposition to the plan of God in salvation. We have arrived at a place in the chapter where there has been a change of geographical location, though it is only a slight change. We have seen Jesus on one side of the sea and then after His crossing the sea on the other side at Capernaum. In our passage this morning there has been another movement, this time from the place of the initial contact of Jesus with those near the Sea of Galilee at Capernaum, to a place near or in the Synagogue at Capernaum (6:59).
Though there has been this change of location, the Lord Jesus Christ is continuing with the same subject matter, and this is what we have seen and considered in recent weeks in John 6. There has of course been a progression of thought though the chapter, and this continues in today’s passage, as the Lord moves through His teaching on the Father’s plan of salvation and His place in that plan. Today we consider the area in that plan that involves the Father drawing sinners to Jesus that they might have life.
It seems obvious that stories of Jesus’ arrival in Capernaum have made there way to the synagogue and to the Jewish leaders there, along with what Jesus has actually been teaching since His arrival in Capernaum. The leaders have been thinking about these things it would seem, perhaps even discussing them among themselves, yet not in any accepting way it would seem, for John 6:41 tells us that the ‘Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven.’
By the time we arrive here in verse 41, Jesus has already arrived at the synagogue and been confronted by the Jewish leaders of the town. In the thinking of these Jewish leaders, what they thought they knew about Jesus and what Jesus was alleged to have been teaching at Capernaum just didn’t reconcile or fit together. None of it made sense to them. It just didn’t add up and seemed absolutely ludicrous to them. Humanly speaking it just didn’t make rational sense and was therefore it must be illogical. You see they had formed their own preconceived ideas about the things Jesus was teaching, even ideas opposed to the correct understanding of the Old Testament Scriptures as we have already seen, having been carried on the wave of centuries of Jewish traditional and unbiblical thought. These were people that just point blank refused to hear what Jesus had to say, for in their minds He was an uneducated man with a theory opposed to centuries of Jewish tradition.
So what we find here then is that these people, perhaps even including those who brought the reports concerning Jesus to the synagogue leaders, murmuring against Jesus and perhaps ridiculing His teachings and human origins. In other words, you had this group of people that were passing comments and judgments on Jesus as He approached. Here were a group of whisperers and backbiters, a group of jeerers that lurked in the background, seeking to undermine all that Jesus was teaching. They didn’t bring their grievances out into the open where they might discuss their queries with Jesus, but they hid away in the background murmuring and whispering among themselves, enflaming their anger against the Lord and perhaps even poisoning against Him the minds of those whom Jesus was ministering to.
As they continued in this whispering, their thoughts began to pull apart all that Jesus was teaching, and this became a major stumbling block for them, preventing them from seeing and understanding the truth about Jesus (1 Cor 1:23). All they were able to comprehend, and all they were prepared to comprehend was what they presumed they knew about Jesus, even though that was merely on the external and superficial level, and what they assumed they knew about the Old Testament Scriptures. Then all this vitriol that they had managed to create within their own minds, they passed onto others through snide comments made behind their hands or muttered them when Jesus wasn’t watching, thinking that He didn’t know what was going on.
‘And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven (Jn 6:42)?"’
‘Who does this Jesus think He is talking to? We know His parents, we know His history, we know He hasn’t come down from heaven, He’s just like the rest of us. How can He say He comes from heaven? Who does He think He is? What absurd nonsense!’
But all these thoughts are based on perceived understanding, grounded in faulty human logic devoid of spiritual understanding and without the benefit of all the facts. These people don’t know of the virgin birth, they don’t know that Joseph was not the real father of Jesus, and so on. This is one upon whom they had made a very superficial judgment, and with which they were entirely satisfied. Yet this One whom they mock is truly who He says He is, and that is clearly demonstrated throughout the time of His ministry. Indeed the stories they must have heard of Jesus’ recent ministry should have had them thinking this way. How did these mockers account for all the signs that He performed? Perhaps they palmed them off as mere coincidences or natural phenomena. Sound familiar?
We can sit back and read this account and perhaps think what fools these people must have been, but I ask you, has anything really changed in what goes by the name of Biblical religion today? What do you think of the Lord Jesus Christ and the salvation He brings? Are not the declarations of the sinful heart and mind the same today as they were in Jesus’ day? Do we not hear similar comments coming from among those that are supposed to be the friends of Christ and His church? Are there not still mockers and slanderers of Christ in religion today?
‘This Jesus you talk about was killed by the Romans on a wooden cross. He’s dead!’ ‘When someone comes back from the dead and tells me, then I will believe what you have to say!’ All these are the same sort of comments as those made by the Jews, and they are all too often made in the context of the church, by people who presume to know what they are talking about because their ‘Christians’ you know. Today you have ministers and church leaders and church members only too happy to give you heretical understandings of Jesus, His nature and His work, who when the truth is proclaimed in their hearing begin to mock and spew forth their falsehoods about a Christ they allege to know.
All such thoughts as these proceed from darkened understandings founded upon human logic and reasoning, and that clouded by sin. It’s just foolishness to those who don’t believe, and this because their foolish understandings are darkened by the corruption of sin, being therefore devoid of the ability to understand spiritual realities.
If you don’t get that this Jesus of the Bible is very God of very God, and if all you see in the Bible are quaint stories or accounts of a mere man designed to teach some morals and the like, it’s because you too lack true spiritual understanding, being yet dead in your trespasses and sins. You do not accept the plain meaning of the Scriptures, but twist them to suit your own vain imagination, that you might have what appears to be a legitimate foundation for your false suppositions.
Now you may be different than these false prophets and false professors, for you may agree that Jesus is God, yet in your practical life, day by day, you deny the knowledge of the divinity of Christ and His work of salvation for sinners. How is this so? Because it makes no apparent impact on your attitudes, motives, thoughts and life. Now the reason for this is that you too are still dead in trespasses and sins, not having that true knowledge of Christ’s divinity and work of salvation that brings about true spiritual understanding and life. All you have is an empty shell, a form of godliness without any power.
There may be cries of a desire to know God, and there may be longings expressed to enter the kingdom of heaven, but these are not a true indication of your heart’s disposition. These are ploys designed to gain the approval of man and the church, and to gain a temporal satisfaction and an earthly crown. In reality you do not have spiritual understanding, and that which the spiritual man or woman holds dear you find to be illogical and unsustainable. For all your tears, for all your protestations of sincere godliness and a close walk with God, you find yourself in the very place of the Jewish opposition - ‘Who is this Jesus, He is not the one that I know. I know nothing of the comfort of Christ in troubled times, I know nothing of the peace that passes understanding or of losing all that I might gain Christ. I only know of the Jesus that the church speaks about, a good man and a good example, but nothing more. I know of Jesus as the one who forgives sinners and as the one who died for sinners, but I don’t know that that has anything to do with me. What are these people here going on about and what is the preacher getting so excited about? I know nothing of the power of this Jesus.’
Oh sinner, you do not have the root of the matter within you. Professor of Christianity, you alleged seeker of Christ - you are no seeker of Jesus, for there is none that seeks after God, no not one! You haven’t begun to move toward faith in Jesus, for you are still just as far away as you were before you heard the name of Jesus. It’s not surprising that you don’t really understand. It’s not surprising that you know not the peace of God within because of forgiven sin. You’re still without Christ and you take your repose in foundations of sand that the storm of God’s wrath will wash away from under you. Whatever it is that you think you have gained by showing a form of interest in the gospel, even that will be taken away from you, for you truly have nothing.
Don’t murmur and speak against true spiritual living and true salvation in Christ, for this will do you no good. Don’t despise and whisper against the truth that you hear this morning concerning a false profession of Christianity or a pretended seeking after Christ, for that will not bring you any nearer the Kingdom of Christ. You won’t gain anything by pouring contempt on the Lord Jesus Christ and His work. Hear what Jesus says:
‘Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves. No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day (Jn 6:43,44).’
Are you surprised by the sort of people that don’t come to Christ? Perhaps they are people whom you have witnessed to for years? Perhaps they have heard such stirring preaching that you wondered that they had not repented? Perhaps even they have said that they are seeking Jesus Christ and yet still do not believe? Why is it that such people do not come to Christ?
There’s no need to be confused about this matter. The passage before us leaves us without any doubt, for it tells us the answer to such bewildering cases, for unless the Father draws them to Christ they will never go to Him for life. In fact, there has not been one person who has been able to go to Jesus Christ for life under his /her own steam. No there hasn’t. No amount of preaching, teaching, arguing or debating will make a scrap of difference in bringing a lost sinner to faith in Christ, unless that sinner is drawn to Christ by the Father. All evangelism is useless unless the Father is pleased to use that evangelism to bring sinners to Christ. If God doesn’t work, then no one will be saved. Now look at the passage, isn’t that what it plainly says?
You can polish up the best sermon the world has ever heard, yet it will be useless if God does not draw sinners to Himself. There must be more than human reasoning in order to awaken a spiritually dead understanding, and more than human strength to breath spiritual life into the spiritual corpse of a sinner. There must be God, or none will ever be saved and brought into life.
This passage has been making this fact abundantly clear, for ‘All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out (6:37).’ The Father in His eternal purpose gives certain people known as the elect to Christ and then these sinners come to Christ by faith, but in order for these elect sinners to come by faith, they must first be drawn by the Father, and this is what verse 44 is telling us, for ‘No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him (6:44a).’
Does this make evangelism more difficult or the salvation of souls uncertain? Of course not! This makes it more certain, for the Almighty God is actually going to save those people that have been given to Christ. All that have been given to Jesus will be saved; verse 37 clearly says that. Now if God didn’t do what He says He does in verse 44, draw sinners to Christ, then none would be saved at all. He doesn’t just make up a plan and leave it at that, He actually works to bring that plan to accomplishment, and thank God that He does so, for without God salvation in Christ is impossible.
Do we need it any clearer than that. Not one single person can come to Christ, for the ability to do so is not there within them. They cannot choose Christ. They cannot believe. They cannot repent. They are the salves of sin and the Devil. No one can go to Christ for life, for not one single sinner is able to believe in Christ Jesus for salvation in and of themselves. That is the plain teaching of Scripture, and to reject that is to reject the clear testimony of Scripture that you have before you this morning. No one can come to Christ unless they are first drawn by the Father.
To come to Christ then, you must first be drawn of the Father. Now what does that mean? The word drawn doesn’t mean to just hear the gospel message and it doesn’t mean to be merely attracted to Christ or the gospel. But what it does mean is that there is a powerful irresistible work of God upon the sinner that will bring a sinner from a natural inclination to rebellion against Christ and of exercising unbelief in Christ, to a place where the sinner actually desires to go to Christ by faith in order to obtain salvation from sin and does so.
The same word usage is found in John 21:6 in drawing a net full of fish into a boat, and in John 18:10 of Peter drawing his sword, clearly showing that the word does not mean mere persuasion, but a real activity and power. It each case they did not merely speak some nice polished words to the fish or to the sword, or seek to convince them that it was better doing something else then being a fish in the water or a sword in a sheath. No, there was activity to bring about what would not have taken place without that activity. The ability and the power came from the one doing the drawing, even against the will of what was being drawn.
Clearly the Scripture usage of this word and its derivatives point to an activity of God in John 6:44 that actually turns the sinner who seeks not after God, to a sinner that actually does. Of all that is involved in this activity of God we cannot begin to explain, but this we know, that God in some way powerfully influences the mind and will of man, so that the entire man willingly seeks after Christ. This is the power of God in the gospel, that gets its man every time, being part of the instrumental means of God for bringing every single one of His elect into the Kingdom, for not one will be lost.
Now all of Scripture points to this. Think of John 3 for example. There you have the classic John 3:16, ‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (NKJV).’ Does that make a difference to this teaching? Not at all, for taken in its context it’s plain to see that no one will believe without Divine drawing. Hear verse 3, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ Verse 5 says, ‘Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.’
Without the work of God previous to it, conversion will never take place. For the exercise of faith to take place in a sinner, God must be at work, drawing and giving new life, or it will never happen. As John 3:3 says, you cannot even begin to understand the truth about salvation and the kingdom of God.
Jesus Himself in verse 45 of our text quotes from the Old Testament Scriptures proof that His teaching is no new thing. ‘It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me (Jn 6:45).’ Here the Scriptures are pointing to the salvation of God coming about through the inner illumination and teaching of God, for He will show them the truth and give them spiritual understanding, and all these so taught will come to Jesus. Clearly the all in this verse is the elect, for not all are saved, only those given to Jesus by the Father.
An elect sinner may initially resist the drawing work of God, but it is a futile resistance, for he fights the power of a universe creating God, who always gets His man. One of the wonders of this drawing of the Father of sinners to Christ, is that each person that comes to Christ is initially a hardened rebel, but when He is drawn of the Father he comes freely and willingly, there not being one that has desired it otherwise. Each of these sinners will come to Jesus through the exercise of faith.
What a precious encouragement this is to the people of God, for they know they can take the message of salvation to a world of hostile sinners with the assurance that God has an elect people that will come to Jesus. Oh they might be the most hardened sinners, the most wicked in practice, inhabiting a part of the city were most people won’t even walk for fear of their safety, but when God draws these people to Himself, they come. They come!
We don’t know who these chosen sinners are exactly, but we know they are of every tongue, tribe and nation, and that none of them will be lost. We know that they will not believe without a preacher, and that there will be no preacher unless one goes to them. We know that they must believe, and so they must have the gospel. Let’s take it to the world with this full understanding of the dynamics of salvation, for then we will be sure that God will save sinners and His church will be built. Why haven’t I given up in despair at how few come to this church? It is because of this very thing, God has an election by grace and these He will draw to Jesus.
If you are truly a seeker after Christ, then go to Him now, but if not don’t pretend otherwise, for my Bible tells me that there is none that seek after God, no not one! Those who truly seek are those that are drawn by the Father, and each of these will come and each of these will gain life. There is no such thing as a person that seeks and never finds, that knocks and does not have the door of salvation opened to Him.
Sinner, God makes people willing to come to Him in the day of salvation and they come. If a sinner does not come, it is because he does not want to come, such is the plain implication of this passage. If you will not come then you will die in your sins and you will be punished for your sins.
The gospel pathway has been made plain to you this morning and other the course of the Gospel of John, if you do not walk in it your blood is upon your own head for I have not failed to make plain to you the whole counsel of God on this matter.
Embrace the gospel and you will have life, ‘And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day (Jn 6:40).’ You need no other warrant than the expressed will of God revealed in Scripture. Come, and enter into life.
Outpost
Homepage
JOHN SERMONS
SERMONS
PAGE
NEXT SERMON IN SERIES
TOP
10/10/2006
AN OUTPOST PRODUCTION