Sermon Tone Analysis

Our Scripture Lesson this morning comes from John 6:60-69.

That we may hear God’s voice clearly this day, let us pray.

Heavenly Father, your Son Jesus tells us that the words he speaks are spirit and life.

Without the Holy Spirit we cannot understand nor receive His Word.

According to your tender mercies open our eyes that we may be able to behold glorious things in your Word.

Amen.

Throughout this series on worship we have seen that the corporate worship of God’s people on the Lord’s Day is the primary place that we grow to become mature disciples of Christ Jesus.

Just like the church of the Old Covenant was called out of Egypt to assemble before God, so the church of the New Covenant is called out of the world to assemble before God.

Gathered before God the collective people hear God’s voice and respond to it with trust, obedience and praise.

Worship is not something we give to God, but our response to God for what he has given to us!

The ordinary way by which God gives us the grace to transform us into mature disciples is the hearing and preaching of the Word, baptism, the Lord’s Supper and prayer.

These three things are what theologians refer to as the ordinary means of grace.

The are “ordinary” because they are the way God normally works.

God can and does work in extraordinary ways, such as Paul’s Damascus road experience or visions of Christ that are currently being reported in some Islamic countries today, but these are all EXTRA-ordinary and cannot be expected, nor are they to be pursued.

The problem is that our old nature despises the ordinary means and pursues the EXTRA-ordinary means.

To get the most out of the means of grace we need to be honest about this weakness.

Not only this, but the Devil knows this weakness and he does all he can to divert us from the ordinary means.

So the first set in Maximizing the Means is to know that:

The Ordinary Person Despises the Ordinary Means

When I say Ordinary Person, I am referring to our Old Sinful Nature.

Although the Christian, by the Holy Spirit is able to “put to death” the old sinful nature, the final stroke that will forever free us from the old nature will not occur until our death.

Until that time we have to daily deal with the reality that their is still a part of us that hates the things of God.

The truth that the Ordinary Person Despises the Ordinary Means is clearly seen in John 6.

In this chapter Jesus has just feed 5000 people with just 5 barley loaves and 2 fish.

After feeding the 5000, Jesus crosses over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.

Let me pick up the story at verse 22.

The response of the crowd was immediately a negative one:

Notice two things about the crowd:

First, they wanted worldly bread, not spiritual bread.

Jesus didn’t beat around the bush—They were seeking him because they wanted their bellies filled with free bread!

For most people, religion is a means to their own ends.

The biggest churches in America have gotten big, because they have catered to people’s “felt needs.”

Everyone wants something, be it financial wealth, a happy marriage or a sense of personal well being.

If you make a convincing promise to give it to them you will draw large crowds.

This type of religion is the “work” of man.

Notice that the crowds asked what type of work they could do?

In our sinful natures we want to design our own means of grace, as a means to worldly things.

The second thing to note, is that they also hungered after the trilling, entertaining, the spectacular.

When Jesus challenged them, they challenged him back.

“Moses gave our forefathers bread from heaven.

What will you give us?” Did you catch how hypocritical this response was?

Jesus had just done a greater miracle than Moses had done, yet they want to see another miracle!

The problem with miracles is that people become so easily unimpressed.

The same thing happens in the movie industry.

This year’s special effects will be unimpressive next summer.

No wonder people get bored with the Ordinary Means of Grace!

In our main text this morning Jesus explains exactly what is going on:

The Apostle Paul puts it this way:

In other words, even though preaching, prayer, baptism and the Lord’s Supper are ordinary, something EXTRA-ordinary must be happening behind the scenes for them to be effective as a Means of Grace.

A good, biblically worshiping Presbyterian/Reformed Church should be the most Pentecostal church in town!

Every Sunday there should be miracles happening in our hearts and minds that a more miraculous that feeding 5000 or walking on walk—the miracle of transforming us from those who Despise the Ordinary Means to Those Who Delight in the Ordinary Means!

This bring us to the second thing we must know to Maximize the Means of Grace.

The Spiritual Person Delights in the Ordinary Means

As the crowds and even many who claimed to be Jesus’ disciples departed grumbling, Jesus said this:

Something EXTRA-ordinary had happened to Peter, he had been transformed into one who loved the Word of God and the things of God.

He had become a Psalm 1 man!

How did this transformation happen to Peter?

The ultimate cause lays in the sovereign will of God the Father.

Many abuse the doctrine of Sovereign Grace and use it as an excuse for spiritual passivity and slothfulness, but God so works his sovereign grace that it works through our wills and the ordinary means, not apart from them.

In his first epistle Peter urges his readers to make diligent use of the Means of Grace.

In other words, we must...

Pursue the Ordinary Means by Faith

Hear again Peter’s answer to Jesus:

Peter believed not only that Jesus was the “Holy One of God”, but he believed that Jesus had “the words of eternal life.”

To receive a spiritual blessing from a Lord’s Day worship service we must assemble believing that we will receive a spiritual blessing from the Ordinary Means of Grace.

The Word read and preached, the Sacraments observed and Prayers said, seems so weak and ineffective according to human perceptions.

If we are honest with ourselves all of these things “feel” ineffective at times.

It is not uncommon to go away from a worship service “feeling” unblessed.

When we feel that way, we must remember that:

Our natural, sinful nature wants instant blessing, but Jesus taught us to persevere in seeking delayed blessing.

Notice what Jesus says at the end of this passage?

The “heavenly Father” will “give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

There is no maybe about this promise!

God gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask!

What did we hear Jesus teach earlier from John 6?

The key to receiving a blessing from a Sunday morning worship service is not found in what happens on Sunday, but what happen Monday through Saturday.

Are you knocking on the door of heaven, asking the Father to give the Holy Spirit to the preacher, the congregation and to yourself?

It is this Private Worship that brings down the Holy Spirit’s fire on Sunday morning!

And it is this Private Worship that week will examine next week as we conclude this series on worship.

Let us pray.