An Overcoming Atonement

O Come All Ye Faithful

WELCOME

Good morning family!

In just a moment we’ll read the text for this morning’s sermon in John 6:35

You can find it on PAGE 1060 in the black Bibles.

Turn there now.

While you’re turning, a few announcements:

1) Today we are blessed to have Caleb Figgers with us.

Most of you know his family, but let me tell you a little about Caleb.

He and his wife Jenna and their four-month-old daughter Tabitha live in Minneapolis, MN where Caleb recently graduated with an M.Div. from Bethlehem College and Seminary. Caleb is a non-staff elder at Good News Church of Eagan, a new church very recently planted in the Twin Cities area. Caleb also serves with Training Leaders International, a non-profit ministry launched out of Bethlehem Baptist Church that seeks to strengthen local churches by offering theological education to Christian pastors and church leaders both within the US and overseas.

Caleb is going to share for a few moments about his ministry and how you can pray about getting involved...

Thank you Caleb. If you’d like to learn more, please talk with Caleb after the service. He’ll be at the white flag.

2) Christmas in Boutopia

Tonight from 4-7

This is our Christmas gift to you!

3) Christmas Eve service

Saturday at 5PM

In a 2021 poll, Lifeway Research found six out of 10 Americans typically attend church at Christmastime.

Among those who don’t attend church at Christmastime, 57 percent say they would likely attend if someone they knew invited them.

Flyers at the exits

4) Christmas Day

“Canceling church to celebrate Christmas is like avoiding your spouse to celebrate your anniversary.”

That said, it will be a shortened service. No Sunday School, no PM gathering.

Worship at 10:30 in the chapel

5) Christmas cards in the box

Now look in your Bibles at John 6:35 as Beth Klaassen comes to read for us.

Scripture Reading (John 6:35-44)

Prayer of Praise (Christ our Love), Beth Klaassen

Sing We the Song of Emmanuel

Angels from the Realms of Glory

Prayer of Confession (Disobedience), Sterling Tollison

In Christ Alone

PBC Catechism # 51

What is our responsibility to our church leaders?

We commit to pray for our leaders, submit to them as they submit to Christ, and hold them accountable as they lead us in obedience to Christ.

Pastoral Prayer

Thanksgiving—God the Father

Prayer for PBC—a praying church

Prayer for sister church—GracePoint Church (Bill Dumphy)

Prayer for US—Religious liberty

Help us to be aware of threats to religious liberty

Understanding of religious freedom has shifted from the free exercise of religion (which ensures our freedom to live out our core beliefs in the culture) to the freedom to worship (which allows us to gather like this as long as we keep our unpopular beliefs to ourselves)

Religious liberty vs. erotic liberty

Help us to speak on behalf of religious liberty

Help us to work for religious liberty

Raise up young men and women with sanctified hearts and minds ready to defend this precious right in our country

Even as we are concerned about the erosion of religious liberty in our country, help us not to forget places where there is no religious liberty. Like the nation or Iraq, one of the worst places for Christian persecution in the world.

Prayer for the world—Iraq

Leader—President Abdul Latif Rashid

Social issue(s)—3.5 million refugees living in refugee camps

Spiritual issue(s)—41 million people, 0.2% evangelical, 98% unreached

Local churches—faithfulness amidst persecution

Laborers

Pray for the sermon

SERMON

Consider with me a tale of two Christmas gifts... [1]

Gift #1. It’s Christmas morning, and all the family is together today. Including your very rich and very generous uncle Mortimer, whom you haven’t seen in a few years.

After you finish opening your presents, you head outside to go to church (because why wouldn’t you want to gather with God’s people on the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus!?!).

Ahem. Anyways.

You head outside and that’s when you notice a shiny, brand new vehicle is in your driveway. It’s the one you’ve always wanted. And in typical TV commercial fashion there’s a massive 50-pound red bow on the top.

Your rich uncle Mortimer tells you, “I know it’s a lot of money, but it’s yours if you want it. Paid in full. I made an agreement with the dealership and the transaction won’t be complete until you drive it out of the driveway. So here’s the keys, drive it to church and it’s yours!”

That’s an incredible gift—a pricey vehicle for free, if you decide to accept it.

Gift #2. It’s Christmas morning, and you suddenly wake up. You don’t know where you are, so you look around until you realize you’re lying on a hospital bed connected to wires and needles. Your first thought is, “oh man, how am I going to get to church?!?!”

Haha, Just kidding.

Your first thought is, how did I get here?!? You wrack your brain to remember what happened. It was Christmas Eve night and you were finishing a bit of last-minute Christmas shopping. You remember thinking how everybody seemed to be in such a hurry this Christmas season. You remember wishing it wasn’t like that, but you knew you were part of the problem too. And then you remembered the crash, and everything going black.

A few minutes later a doctor enters the room. You were hit by a vehicle flying through the parking lot and you lost a lot of blood. You should be dead. In fact, the doctor pronounced you dead earlier this morning, but now your heart is beating. The hospital staff had pumped blood into your veins when you had bled out from the accident.

That’s an incredible gift—somebody else’s blood for free, put into you when you had no ability to ask for it, resist it, or receive it.

Both gifts were freely given to you. Both gifts were undeserved.

But one gift is presented for you to either accept or reject, while the other gift is a new quality infused within you.

Which of those gifts best describes the gift of salvation?

Is it a gift we can accept or deny—like the vehicle from Uncle Mortimer?

Or is it something that is worked in us by God’s sovereign, unfailing will—like the blood you received at the hospital?

During our Christmas series we’ve seen...

Our need for the atonement (sin has corrupted every part of us)

The Father’s plan for the atonement (we were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world)

The price the Son paid on the cross, and the good news that Jesus really did pay it all!

We said last week when God makes a plan and pays the price, He guarantees the results.

But how does it work? What if somebody rejects the gift that God has planned and purchased for them?

God can guarantee the results of our salvation because He overcomes all our resistance by His sovereign grace.

Turn to John 6:35

This is a portion of Jesus’ teaching in what’s called “the bread of life discourse”

Here we see the truth that God can guarantee the results of our salvation because He overcomes all our resistance by His sovereign grace.

Let’s read the text again, then ask and answer 4 Questions About God’s Overcoming Grace.

John 6:35-44—Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 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 whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” Jesus answered 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.”

1) WHAT Must We Do to be Saved?

This was, of course, the Philippian jailer’s question in Acts 16.

Paul and Silas were in prison in Philippi for preaching the gospel. A supernatural earthquake opened all the jail doors and unfastened all the prisoner’s bonds.

Their jailer prepared to take his own life, thinking that all the prisoners had escaped. But before he did anything, Paul reassured him, “don’t hurt yourself. We’re all here.”

The jailer was absolutely shaken to his core, and he asked Paul and Silas, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

Acts 16:31—And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

Faith in Jesus for salvation wasn’t the invention of Paul. Jesus Himself repeatedly told people to believe in Him for salvation.

Including twice in our passage...

6:35—“I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”

6:40—“For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

What does it mean to believe?

If you’ve ever watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, you’ve likely seen or heard about their Believe Meter which has supposedly been measuring belief in Santa Clause since 1858. The four markers on the meter are imagine, wish, dream, and believe.

SHOW BELIEVE METER IMAGE

That’s a good example of what the world often thinks about belief. It’s a fun and comforting game you can engage in if you wish, but it’s not really connected to the actual world.

The Bible’s view of belief is nothing like that. In the Bible, believing means trusting. It means relying. And trusting in and relying on Jesus always requires us to stop trusting/relying on something else. Which is why the Bible often uses the words repentance and faith to describe what we must do to be saved.

Jesus begins His ministry saying in Mark 1:15— "repent and believe in the gospel.”

In Athens, Paul preached in Acts 17:30-34—“The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent...” but some men joined him and believed...

Paul didn’t say, “wait, I told you to repent, not believe!” Repentance and belief are two sides of the same coin!

Paul summarizes his ministry in Acts 20:20-21—“… I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Repentance and faith are like ice skating on a frozen pond. Faith is more than believing the pond will hold your weight, it’s turning away from the solid ground where you’re standing and trusting it will hold you by skating out onto the ice.

What must you do to be saved? Repent and believe. Turn and trust.

Important to remember this after the last two Sundays. The Bible never says what you have to do to be saved is “make sure you’re elect!”

"You take the first step, God will take the second step, and by the time you get to the third step, you will know that it was God who took the first step." [2]

When you put it that way, it seems pretty simple doesn’t it? Which leads to a second question...

2) HOW Do We Respond?

Here it’s helpful for us to understand the context of Jesus’ teaching here in John 6...

The chapter begins with the famous story of Jesus’ feeding the five thousand men and their families with two fish and five loaves of bread.

After the miraculous feeding, the crowd was so stunned by Jesus’ power that they were about to make Him a king by force.

Of course, this wasn’t Jesus’ mission, so He and the disciples crossed to the other side of the Sea of Galilee

The next morning, some of the crowd got in boats to follow Jesus to the other side.

When they finally catch up to Jesus, He confronts them. He basically says...

“You didn’t follow Me over here because you wanted Me. You just wanted breakfast.”

6:26-29—Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

Jesus performed an INCREDIBLE miracle! Now He’s challenging them to do the work of God.

They say, “OK, what work do you want us to do?”

Jesus says BELIEVE!!!

You would think there response would be, “Great, sign me up!!” But it’s not. Take a look...

6:30-31—So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ”

WHAT?!? How can they be asking Him to perform a sign? He’s already miraculously fed thousands!

They say, “But God fed His people every day in the wilderness for forty years!”

6:32-36—Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.”

Jesus says, “don’t forget who gave you that bread! It was God Himself.”

“And now, God has given you a new and better bread!”

But the people still don’t believe!

This illustrates something about humanity...

You can see Jesus, taste His miracles, hear His teaching, and speak to Him, and still not believe.

This isn’t what how some people respond, it’s how ALL PEOPLE RESPOND!

Romans 3:10-11—… None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.

We don’t respond rightly because we can’t. We’re spiritually dead.

That’s a pretty bleak picture if the story ends there. If we’re paying attention we should be asking...

3) WHO then Can be Saved?

This was, of course, the disciples’ question in Matthew 19, after Jesus talked with the rich young ruler. And Jesus’ answer to this question is instructive.

Matthew 19:26—....“With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

If we are dead in our trespasses and sins, if none of us are righteous and none of us seek after God than nobody can be saved!

Unless God overcomes all our resistance by His sovereign grace.

That’s exactly what He does!

6:37—All that the Father gives me WILL come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.

6:44—NO ONE can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him...”

These two verses are two sides of the same coin. NOBODY can come to Jesus unless the Father draws them. EVERYBODY who the Father draws WILL come to Jesus.

This doctrine is sometimes called irresistible grace or effectual calling. It simply means that God overcomes all our resistance by His sovereign grace.

How does God do it?

Think back to our first question, what must we do to be saved?

We must repent and believe.

How is it that we repent and believe?

Philippians 1:29—For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in Him but also suffer for His sake

The ability to believe is a gift from God!

Acts 11:18—When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”

The ability to repent is a gift from God!

Think back to the tale of two gifts: are repentance and faith like the free car from uncle Mortimer, or the fresh blood in your veins on the operating table?

If we believe God overcomes all our resistance by His sovereign grace, than repentance and faith aren’t gifts we can accept or reject. They are new properties worked in us by God’s grace alone!!

Think back to your conversion. It probably wasn’t the first time you heard the gospel. Perhaps you had heard it dozens or even hundreds of times before. But that day was different. That day the Lord was working in your heart in an irresistible way. He was overcoming all your resistance to the gospel. You couldn’t say no if you wanted to, and you didn’t want to! You wanted Jesus and you couldn’t help but turn from your sins and trust in Him!

God gave you a new heart (regeneration) and with that new heart you turned from your sins and trusted in Jesus (conversion)

God can guarantee the results of our salvation because He overcomes all our resistance by His sovereign grace.

4) WHERE Do We Go from Here?

Repent and believe!

6:37—All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.

I promise you this: if you repent and believe you WILL be saved!!!

Christian: if you have repented and believed, be encouraged! He will NEVER cast you out!

Praise God!

In C.S. Lewis’ book Prince Caspian, Lucy returns to the magical world of Narnia for the second time. There she encounters Aslan, the lion king once again. Even though Lucy was a year older, she was surprised to notice that Aslan looked larger than he did last time she saw him.

“Aslan,” said Lucy, “you’re bigger.”  “That is because you are older, little one,” answered he.  “Not because you are?”  “I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.” [3]

As adults, most things in life appear smaller than they did when we were kids. But the opposite is true with God. The more you grow, the bigger He’ll appear. Not because He’s changed, but because you have!

Keep Proclaiming the Good News!

A few Sunday nights ago I sat near some folks who were struggling with a wayward child. One of the saints around the table said, “they can’t come unless God draws them!”

This doesn’t mean we don’t have a responsibility to speak the Gospel. God always uses means!

It does mean the pressure is off! Your job is not to save! You’re not a failure if you don’t see fruit! Our job is to keep proclaiming the good news and trust God with the results.

Pursue One Another

If God didn’t overcome your initial resistance to the Gospel, you’d be on your way to hell.

If God was willing to overcome your resistance to His love, shouldn’t we be willing to do the same with one another?

Confront! Don’t be content with a sin-ravaged relationship!

Pursue! Don’t give up after one failed attempt!

Confess! Don’t hold onto the sin that separates you from each other.

The new Christmas movie Spirited, treats viewers to a fresh spin on Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

What if Scrooge resisted the three spirits? What if he didn’t want to change? What if he simply said “no thanks and good afternoon!”

That’s every one of us, isn’t it? We want to resist God. We don’t want to change!

But God doesn’t quit on His people. He pursues and pursues until all our resistances our overcome.

And in the end, we’re not dragged kicking and screaming to a Jesus we don’t want to believe in. When God is done with us, we see Him for who He really is and we want to repent and believe!

Grace Greater Than our Sin

Benediction (1 Timothy 6:15-16)

He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.”