SERMON: Evangelism & the Sovereignty of God, Part 2 (John 6:30–46)
Evangelism
& the Sovereignty of God, Part 2
(John 6:30–46)
Series: “John:
Life in Christ’s Name” Text:
John
6:30–46
By: Shaun
Marksbury Date:
May
28, 2023
Venue: Living
Water Baptist Church Occasion:
AM Service
I.
Introduction
One of the most contentious topics amongst Christians is
that of election, and it has been so for many years. For instance, the Methodist church is known
for rejecting any form of Calvinism, but one had nonetheless chose to hear from
the prince of preachers, Charles Haddon Spurgeon. He recounts:
Preaching a few months ago in the
midst of a large congregation of Methodists, the brethren were all alive,
giving all kinds of answers to my sermon, nodding their heads and crying,
“Amen!” “Hallelujah!” “Glory be to God!” and the like. They completely woke me up. My spirit was stirred, and I preached away
with an unusual force and vigour; and the more I preached the more they cried,
“Amen!” “Hallelujah!” “Glory he to God!” At last, a part of text led me to what is
styled high doctrine. So I said, this
brings me to the doctrine of Election. There
was a deep drawing of breath. “Now, my
friends, you believe it,” they seemed to say. “No, we don’t.” But you do, and I will make you sing
“Hallelujah!” over it. I will so preach
it to you that you will acknowledge it and believe it. So I put it thus: Is there no difference
between you and other men? “Yes, yes;
glory be to God, glory!” There is a
difference between what you were and what you are now? “Oh, yes! oh, yes!” There is sitting by your
side a man who has been to the same chapel as you have, heard the same gospel,
he is unconverted, and you are converted. Who has made the difference, yourself or God? “The Lord!” said they, “the Lord! glory!
hallelujah!” Yes, cried I, and that is
the doctrine of Election; that is all I contend for, that if there be a
difference the Lord made the difference.[1]
That is the difference we read in this greater passage this
morning. Last time, we considered
Jesus’s presentation in vv. 30–36. We
see that belief in the God’s sovereign choice in salvation doesn’t mean we
don’t present the gospel to others, but that leaves us with an important
question: what makes the difference? Why
did some hear the gospel that day and disbelieve, and why do they do so today? It’s not necessarily the clarity of
presentation, for they had Jesus physically before them, patiently extending a clear
offer to a people who seemed interested, but they still reject it.
I don’t want to stir contention, but the text here gives us
a blessed set of doctrines which I must present. This passage helps us see why some don’t
believe, and Jesus gives two reasons for it.
Some people disbelieve because they must be given by the Father (vv.
36–40), and some people disbelieve because they must be drawn of the Father
(vv. 41–46). These two reasons are
related, of course, through the sovereign election of God, which we’ll see as
we proceed.
II.
Some people disbelieve because they must be
given by the Father (vv. 36–40)
But I said to you
that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe.
All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to
Me I will certainly not cast out. For I have
come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of
all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that
everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I
Myself will raise him up on the last day.
We began considering v. 36 last time. Remember, they came seeking Jesus after the
feeding of the five thousand, and after Jesus told them about the bread of
life, they said, “Lord, always give us this bread” (v. 34). However, they were unwilling to place their
trust in Christ to receive the bread of life only He can give, and He can see
this long before we can.
We noted that this is their fault. Yes, the gospel is good news; we are sinners
bound to be judged for our iniquities, but Jesus paid the penalty for those who
trust in Him. Yet, this good news comes
with the command to believe it — Jesus taught, “The time is fulfilled, and the
kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). There will be judgment not just for the rest
of our sins, but also for rejecting the good news of the gospel.
Knowing this, one would expect the rationally minded to
immediately repent and embrace the gospel.
However, sin warps the mind and heart, creating in us a desire to avoid
holiness and righteousness. Moreover,
Satan and this world blinds us in numerous ways. Scripture describes this state as a spiritual
deadness (Eph. 2:1–3) and then describes the extra grace of God which brings us
to new life (Eph. 2:5, 8–9). In other
words, we need God’s grace to bring us to new life.
That’s another reason why you should never place your faith
in your own faith, as though you had the ability to bring yourself new
life. Back in John 1:13, Scripture says
that believers, the children of God, are “born, not of blood nor of the will of
the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”
It’s not dependent upon our will any more than the Jews there were saved
because of Abraham’s lineage. Salvation
does not “depend on the man who wills
or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy” (Rom. 9:16). God gives us new life, granting us the
ability to repent (Acts 11:18) and believe (Phil. 1:29).
That’s why Jesus can say with assurance in v. 37, “All that
the Father gives Me will come to Me.” Our
error is thinking that our confession of faith begins our relationship with
Jesus; the Father initiates it! He
selects people, and our Lord describes them as a unit: “all that” (singular)
“will come” (there will be no loss along the way).
The Bible uses the term predestination to describe God’s
sovereign choice of believers from eternity past. Those believers are known as the elect of
God. We could go down the rabbit hole on
each of these points, but notice how Romans 8 links this to the gospel; in
Romans 8:28–30, we read something similar to this passage:
And we know that God causes all
things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called
according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also
predestined to become conformed to
the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and
these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also
justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.
God predestines those who will come to Jesus, and they will
believe and be justified and glorified in the end (there will be no loss along
the way). Such truths should lift up our
hearts, for the next verses say, “What then shall we say to these things? If
God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but
delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all
things? Who will bring a charge against
God’s elect? God is the one who justifies” (vv. 31–33). Those predestined are the elect of God, and
they can know that the atonement of Christ justifies them from all sin.
This is a result of the grace of God, which is why the one
who the Father sends to Jesus will come.
In fact, in verse 44, we’ll see that there is an inability for anyone to
come unless he or she is part of the elect.
The reason for this isn’t because God is holding people back from
salvation, but rather, sin will always hold them back.
Hear the good news: “and the one who comes to Me I will
certainly not cast out.” Does that make
sense? This is a rhetorical means of
stating a positive truth through the negative; by Jesus saying He will never
ever cast someone out, He is saying He will always receive such a person. Any person who comes to Christ can know that
they come through the will of God and that Jesus will receive that person
forever! That is exactly what the rest
of Scripture says.
Jesus can make such
declarations because, as He explains in v. 38, “I have come down from heaven.” Back in John 3:13, we noted that He’s the Son
of Man who descended from heaven, and He says here He came “not to do My own
will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” Back
in v. 29, He stated that the Father had sent Him, and He is here to do the
Father’s will.
What is the Father’s will, you ask? In v. 39, Jesus says, “This is the will of
Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it
up on the last day.” This affirms what
He already said and what we read in Romans 8, that all who the Father
predestined come and will be glorified on the last day. This is the eternal security of the believer,
also known as the perseverance of the saints.
Those who have truly come to the Lord are part of the elect of God, and
He will not allow one to be lost.
This isn’t a popular string of doctrine, but I must present
what the text does. Certain Baptists
will accept the idea of eternal security but reject the idea of
predestination. Not only are they
rejecting a biblical term, they are holding another biblical view without the
full justification of Scripture. The
reason why Christians can know their salvation is secure is because God the
Father decreed it so, and because Jesus came to fulfill the will of the Father.
If He loses people, then definitionally, He fails the Father’s
will, which He repeats in v. 40 (“For this is the will of My Father, that
everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I
Myself will raise him up on the last day.”).
He doesn’t say, “that some who behold the Son and believes in Him will
have eternal life” but “everyone.” He
also doesn’t say, “if things really work out with someone, I Myself will raise
him up on the last day”!
Consider what He might mean by “the last day.” This must be a reference to an eschatological
or end-times reality. We don’t have time
to talk eschatology today, but the promise is obviously referencing a point
past the end of someone’s life. It guarantees
that a believer will face no condemnation in final judgment. All who come to Christ will undergo
glorification in the end.
To sum up this part of the passage, see that the will of God
is not thwarted by people who don’t come to faith. Jesus has not failed because the people in
front of Him at the moment will walk away in v. 66. Quite the opposite, He’s fulfilling the plan
of the Father because He knows that the ones sent to Him will come. The only way He would fail to fulfill God’s
will is to lose those who come to Him for salvation. That brings us to the next point:
III.
Some people disbelieve because they must be
drawn of the Father (vv. 41–46)
Therefore the Jews
were grumbling about Him, because He said, “I am the bread that came down out
of heaven.” They were saying, “Is not
this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now
say, ‘I have come down out of heaven’?” Jesus
answered and said to them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to Me unless the Father who
sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘And they
shall all be taught of God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the
Father, comes to Me. Not that anyone has
seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father.”
It’s fascinating that they’re grumbling about something He
said back in the previous verses, almost as though they haven’t heard what’s
He’s said since! (Maybe because they
were hungry!) They might be grumbling
now, but they haven’t even heard the difficult calls of the Lord yet! He hasn’t told them to take up their cross
and follow Him. They are stumbling at
foundational claims of Christ, such as His identity.
He’s not afraid of hard teachings, though, when
necessary. He even later repeats Himself
in v. 55 — “I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats
of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for
the life of the world is My flesh.” He
even goes a step further in vv. 55–56, “For My flesh is true food, and My blood
is true drink. He who eats My flesh and
drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.”
In any event, their sinful reaction proves His point. Sin isn’t necessarily making them
intellectually dense, only spiritually so, which is why they reason in v. 42, “Is
not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, ‘I have come down out of
heaven’?” There’s no doubt in their
first question; it’s framed a special way in the original language to expect a
positive answer (they believe Jesus to be the son of Joseph). Because they apparently knew His family, they
state what they already know (or think they know) in response to Jesus’s truth
claims. They lack spiritual insight into
His heavenly origins through the virgin birth.
Interestingly, as they grumble against Him, they
unintentionally create another parallel between Him and Moses — the people
complained about Moses, as well! Jesus
doesn’t allow it to continue unchecked, though.
In v. 43, He said to them, “Do not grumble among yourselves.” He then says, “No one can come to Me unless
the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.” They grumble because they lack the ability to
come to Him, but their depravity keeps them from seeing the irony in this.
Again, we need the grace of God to come to Christ. Some deny the need for special grace, that
the grace of God already present in the world is sufficient for people to come
to Him. However, that’s opposite of what
we’re reading here. In fact, before
God’s grace, we’re in a Romans 3 state; “There is none righteous, not even one;
there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God” (vv.
10–11). Yet, God’s grace through the
Holy Spirit corrects the sinfulness of the heart, creating understanding, a
knowledge of own’s own unrighteousness before God, and a desire to seek God
despite this. In other words, God’s
grace turns the heart away from sin to want what it should always have wanted.
That’s where the word “draw” comes in here (helkuō). In John 18:10, the
word refers to Peter drawing out his sword.
In John 21:6, this word is used of the disciples trying to haul in the
great catch of fish. In Acts 16:19, it
refers to the hauling away of bound Paul and Silas to the authorities. Because of the drawing power of God, a sinner
finds his heart desires drawn in a new direction, toward Christ (cf. John
12:32). This drawing is necessary
because the heart would never naturally turn to God.
This drawing is not necessarily a particular feeling, though
it may arrive with the conviction of sin.
It is more of a realized belief that the Bible is revealing one’s own
heart and the need for salvation, creating a willingness to exercise repentance
and faith in Christ. Theologians call
this biblical teaching a few names, such as irresistible grace, though R. C.
Sproul preferred “effectual grace.” God’s
grace effects the heart, drawing the soul to Jesus.
God’s gracious drawing brings people to Christ, which is why
Jesus said in v. 37, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and
the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.” Again, in v. 65, He says, “For this reason I
have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him
from the Father.” Coming to Jesus
parallels believing in Him (v. 35), and without God’s drawing, no one will
believe.
Some paint this as cold or robotic, but God draws believers
from His love, as we see even in the Old Testament. In Jeremiah 31:3, we read, “The Lord appeared
to him from afar, saying, ‘I have
loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you with
lovingkindness.” In Hosea 11:4, we read,
“I led them with cords of a man, with bonds of love, and I became to them as
one who lifts the yoke from their jaws; and I bent down and fed them.” There is a
divine concurrence between God’s sovereign choices and man’s choices, and His
grace expresses His love to us.
His drawing grace lovingly teaches our hearts what they
didn’t know because of sin. In v. 45,
Jesus says, “It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught of
God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned
from the Father, comes to Me” (quoting Isaiah 54:13, a promise for redemption). Thus, the drawing of God isn’t best
understood in v. 44 to mean God drags people to Him kicking and screaming;
rather, He teaches them in a personal, effectual way. It is those who have heard and learned from
the Father that come to Christ, and Christ promises here, with an emphatic
pronoun, to raise such a person up on the last day.
This isn’t some kind of Pentecostal or charismatic
experience. It’s not as though we get a
vision of the Father or hear the audible voice of God. Jesus says in v. 46, “Not that anyone has
seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father.” This parallels what John said in John 1:18 —
“No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of
the Father, He has explained Him.” As
one study notes, “Hearing and learning (v. 45) fall short of seeing the
Father.”[2] Jesus is the revelation of God, and we
who are taught by the Father will come to Him because they are taught from
God.
Those taught by God’s drawing grace hear the words, “Jesus
died for the sins of the world” and understand it to mean, “Jesus died for my
sins!” The dividing line between
those who come to Christ in a gospel presentation and those who don’t, then, is
ultimately God’s sovereign grace. He
predestines, elects, and effectually calls sinners, and those who respond with
faith and belief evidence the work of God in their hearts.
IV.
Conclusion
People who say that a belief in the sovereignty of God in
salvation leads to less evangelism are mistaken, if, for no other reason, we
see Jesus sharing the gospel message here.
It might lead to a reduction of unbiblical methods of evangelism, such
as high-pressure sales tactics and emotional manipulation. Yet, some of the greatest evangelists and
missionaries in church history have all held to the sovereignty of God in
salvation.
There are two benefits for believing in God’s sovereignty as
a Christian. First, there’s relief that
the salvation of souls is not entirely dependent upon you. If your neighbor doesn’t come to believe even
though you’ve shared the gospel message, then it isn’t due to your fault. You can share again out of faithfulness to
the Lord, but there is a weight lifted from our shoulders when we realize that
the actual salvation isn’t due to our own speaking abilities and perfection (or
lack thereof).
Moreover, this should help your trust in the gospel
more. The faith that you profess is the
gift of God. You wouldn’t have come to
the Lord if not for His electing and drawing grace. You also are not going to keep yourself in
the kingdom; Christ promises to do that.
We simply rest and abide in Him with thanksgiving! That is good news!
Now, no unbeliever should ever use this as an excuse to not
come; “Oh, I guess I’m not elect!” Don’t
allow your sinfulness to twist a blessed doctrine of Scripture into license for
unbelief. If there is breath in your
lungs, there is time to repent. Just
because you’ve rejected God in the past doesn’t mean that He isn’t calling you
now to salvation. Be free of your sin;
turn from your false ways and call upon Him to be saved. And you’ll find that He drew you along the
very path you needed to travel for you to come to trust in Him.
[1] C. H. Spurgeon, The
New Park Street Pulpit Sermons, 1860, 6, 138.
[2] Earl D. Radmacher, Ronald Barclay Allen, and H. Wayne
House, The
Nelson Study Bible: New King James Version, (Nashville: T. Nelson Publishers, 1997), Jn 6:46–47.
