Untitled Sermon

Introduction

Good morning everyone! My name is Jackson and I am a member here at Echo Church.

We are continuing our series on Doctrine again this week. This morning we will be speaking about the “call” in what’s been described as the Order of Salvation. In the way in which God saves sinners, there is this order that we see in Scripture. He starts with election - that which happened before time began. And in salvation he then calls sinners to Himself through Jesus.

Main Point: God calls effectually to Himself through Jesus so that anyone who believes will receive eternal life

Human beings have this incredible ability called selective hearing. The proper name for it is selective auditory attention. I remember being in high school and sitting in class bored out of my mind, right. And the teacher is lecturing and I would kind of hear him saying words but I am not really listening to what he’s saying. And then all of a sudden my attention snaps back when I hear, “Mr. Tran, what’s the answer to the question?” There’s no drowning out that question. The teacher’s voice went from being the Charlie Brown WOMP-WOMP-WOMP to having my complete and undivided attention.

A second ago the teach could have asked “What’s the answer to the question?” to the entire class and I would not have noticed it. But when he turned and said, “Mr. Tran, what’s the answer to the question?” I immediately was drawn into the conversation - whether I liked it or not.

So yes, when you tell your child to clean up and they don’t listen to you but if you tell them it’s time for ice cream and they listen right away - there’s a reason for it!

It’s not a perfect analogy, but I think it is relevant to what we’re talking about today. In the doctrine of the the call of salvation, we differentiate between two different types of calls. One is the gospel call - that which Christians have been commissioned to do by Jesus. We are to proclaim the gospel and invite people to respond to the gospel.

But there’s a second call

Point 1: No one can come to Jesus unless the Father draws Him

The Gospel according to John c. Jesus the Bread of Life (6:35–48)

Jesus proceeds to explain what kind of ‘drawing’ (v. 44) the Father exercises. When he compels belief, it is not by the savage constraint of a rapist, but by the wonderful wooing of a lover

The Gospel according to John c. Jesus the Bread of Life (6:35–48)

The passage is here applied typologically: in the New Testament the messianic community and the dawning of the saving reign of God are the typological fulfillments of the restoration of Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile.

Point 2: The Father draws by speaking and teaching through the Son

The Gospel according to John c. Jesus the Bread of Life (6:35–48)

Verse 45 must not be interpreted to mean that a person may enjoy a direct, personal, mystical knowledge of God apart from the revelation that has been given in Jesus, not even if in consequence of such an experience he or she then becomes a follower of Jesus. Only Jesus has seen the Father; no-one has seen God except the one who is from God (cf. 1:18; 3:13; 14:7ff.). Jesus himself is the mediator of such knowledge: he is the one who ‘narrates’ God (cf. 1:18; 12:45). Thus, however much people are unable to ‘hear’ Jesus because of their moral delinquency (8:43), however much they can hear him only if they are ‘taught by God’, it is simultaneously true to say that they are ‘taught by God’ if and only if they truly ‘hear’ Jesus

Point 3: Anyone who believes in Jesus will inherit eternal life

The Gospel according to John c. Jesus the Bread of Life (6:35–48)

Notwithstanding the strong note of predestinarian thought in the preceding verses, this is an implicit invitation to believe, an implicit warning against unbelief.

The Gospel according to John c. Jesus the Bread of Life (6:35–48)

Yet despite the strong predestinarian strain, it must be insisted with no less vigour that John emphasizes the responsibility of people to come to Jesus, and can excoriate them for refusing to do so (e.g. 5:40).