“I have said these things to you so that you wouldn’t be caused to stumble. They will put you out of the synagogues. Yes, the time comes that whoever kills you will think that he offers service to God. They will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. But I have told you these things, so that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you about them. I didn’t tell you these things from the beginning, because I was with you. But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have told you these things, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I don’t go away, the Counselor won’t come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. When he has come, he will convict the world about sin, about righteousness, and about judgment; about sin, because they don’t believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to my Father, and you won’t see me any more; about judgment, because the prince of this world has been judged.
“I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t bear them now. However when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak from himself; but whatever he hears, he will speak. He will declare to you things that are coming. He will glorify me, for he will take from what is mine, and will declare it to you. All things that the Father has are mine; therefore I said that he takes of mine and will declare it to you. A little while, and you will not see me. Again a little while, and you will see me.”
Some of his disciples therefore said to one another, “What is this that he says to us, ‘A little while, and you won’t see me, and again a little while, and you will see me;’ and, ‘Because I go to the Father’?” They said therefore, “What is this that he says, ‘A little while’? We don’t know what he is saying.”
Therefore Jesus perceived that they wanted to ask him, and he said to them, “Do you inquire among yourselves concerning this, that I said, ‘A little while, and you won’t see me, and again a little while, and you will see me?’ Most certainly I tell you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. A woman, when she gives birth, has sorrow because her time has come. But when she has delivered the child, she doesn’t remember the anguish any more, for the joy that a human being is born into the world. Therefore you now have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.
“In that day you will ask me no questions. Most certainly I tell you, whatever you may ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now, you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be made full. I have spoken these things to you in figures of speech. But the time is coming when I will no more speak to you in figures of speech, but will tell you plainly about the Father. In that day you will ask in my name; and I don’t say to you that I will pray to the Father for you, for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me, and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father, and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.”
His disciples said to him, “Behold, now you are speaking plainly, and using no figures of speech. Now we know that you know all things, and don’t need for anyone to question you. By this we believe that you came from God.”
Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? Behold, the time is coming, yes, and has now come, that you will be scattered, everyone to his own place, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. I have told you these things, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have trouble; but cheer up! I have overcome the world.”
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 33 1. These things I have spoken to you. He…
1. These things I have spoken to you. He again states that none of those things which he has spoken are superfluous; for, since wars and contests await them, it is necessary that they should be provided beforehand with the necessary arms. Yet he also means that, if they meditate deeply on this doctrine, they will be fully prepared for resistance. Let us remember that what he then said to the disciples is also spoken to us. And, first, we ought to understand that Christ does not send his followers into the field unarmed, and, therefore, that, if any man fail in this warfare, his own indolence alone is to blame. And yet we ought not to wait till the struggle be actually commenced, but ought rather to endeavor to become well acquainted with these discourses of Christ, and to render them familiar to our minds, so that we may march into the field of battle, as soon as it is necessary; for we must not doubt that the victory is in our hands, so long as those admonitions of Christ shall be deeply imprinted on our minds. For, when he says THAT YOU MAY NOT be offended, he means that there is no danger, lest anything turn us aside from the right course. But how few there are that learn this doctrine in a proper manner, is evident from this fact, that they who think that they know it by heart when they are beyond arrow-shot, are no sooner obliged to enter into actual combat than they give way, as if they were utterly ignorant, and had never received any instruction. Let us, therefore accustom ourselves to use this armor in such a manner that it may never drop out of our hands.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 25, 26, 29, 32, 33 The ministers of the Gospel must look for all…
The ministers of the Gospel must look for all manner of reproaches, not only of them which are open enemies, but even of them also which seem to be of the same household, and the very pillars of the Church.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 1 These things have I spoken unto you, that…
1 These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended.
Ver. 1. That ye should not be offended] As with a thing unexpected and intolerable. Darts foreseen are dintless. Crosses coming on the sudden find weak minds secure, make them miserable, leave them desperate.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–33 That is, that when you see these storms of…
That is, that when you see these storms of persecution arise, and fall heavily upon you, they may not give you any occasion, or be any temptation to you, to desist from your duty, and be afraid or ashamed to own me, and the profession of my gospel. Evils unthought of we are not ordinarily prepared for, so as, being surprised by them, they the more sink us.
Offended here therefore may signify, either immoderate trouble and affliction, or being tempted to any apostasy, or remission of duty.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv1, 5, 7, 8, 12, 14, 16, 23, 25, 26, 28, 31, 33 In the close of the foregoing chapter, our blessed…
In the close of the foregoing chapter, our blessed Saviour had acquainted his disciples with the hatred and hard usage which they were likely to meet with in the world, and here he intimates to them the reason why he did so much insist upon the subject; namely, not to sadden their hearts, and grieve their spirits, before their sufferings came, but that they might not be offended, discouraged or scandalized, at them, when they came, but prepared for them, and armed against them.
Hence learn, 1. That all afflictions, but especially persecutions, are so searching and trying, that the best of Christians have need to be guarded against them, that they be not offended at them.
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2. How our Saviour instances in two particular sorts and kinds of suffering, which the disciples were to expect in the world, and from the world: namely, excommunication and martyrdom, Joh 16:2 These things will they do, because they have not known the Father, nor me.
From whence we may learn that all the persecutions of the saints do speak in persecutors, an ignorance of God the Father, and of Jesus Christ his son. All persecutions spring from ignorance as well as from malice. And men, who continue ignorant of God and Christ, are in danger of turning persecutors, if they have a temptation to it.
Observe, 4. How our Lord again forewarns his disciples of their approaching sufferings, to the intent that they might remember that he had foretold them of them, and would not fail to support them under them.
He had often told them in general of persecutions and troubles which they must expect to meet with, but did not till now intimate the kinds and degrees of those sufferings, with respect to their weakness; and because, whilst he was with them, he himself bore the brunt of all, the world’s rage falling upon him, letting them alone: but after his ascension, when the malice of Satan and wicked men could not reach him, then did the storm fall upon them.
Learn hence, 1. That Christ is so tender of his disciples’ weakness, that he will not put them upon the hardship of sufferings, till they be trained up and prepared for them.
2. That it may encourage the saints in and under their sufferings, that Christ himself is the great object of the persecutor’s malice, and they only so for his sake; for, could they reach him, they would not concern themselves with them.
Learn, 3. That the saints of God, after long exemption and freedom from sufferings, must expect that storms will arise, clouds gather thick, and trials come on apace; and their being under one trial will not hide or shelter them from another.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 7, 16, 23, 28 Christ dealt faithfully with his disciples when he sent…
Christ dealt faithfully with his disciples when he sent them forth on his errands, for he told them the worst of it, that they might sit down and count the cost. He had told them in the chapter before to expect the world's hatred; now here in these verses,
I. He gives them a reason why he alarmed them thus with the expectation of trouble: These things have I spoken unto you, that you should not be offended, or scandalized, Joh 16:1. 1. The disciples of Christ are apt to be offended at the cross; and the offence of the cross is a dangerous temptation, even to good men, to turn back from the ways of God, or turn aside out of them, or drive on heavily in them; to quit either their integrity or their comfort. It is not for nothing that a suffering time is called an hour of temptation. 2. Our Lord Jesus, by giving us notice of trouble, designed to take off the terror of it, that it might not be a surprise to us. Of all the adversaries of our peace, in this world of troubles, none insult us more violently, nor put our troops more into disorder, than disappointment does; but we can easily welcome a guest we expect, and being fore-warned are fore-armed - Praemoniti, praemuniti.
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II. He foretels particularly what they should suffer (Joh 16:2): "Those that have power to do it shall put you out of their synagogues; and this is not the worst, they shall kill you." Ecce duo-gladii - Behold two swords drawn against the followers of the Lord Jesus.
1. The sword of ecclesiastical censure; this is drawn against them by the Jews, for they were the only pretenders to church-power. They shall cast you out of their synagogues; aposunagōgous poiēsousin humas - they shall make you excommunicates. (1.) "They shall cast you out of the particular synagogues you were members of." At first, they scourged them in their synagogues as contemners of the law (Mat 10:17), and at length cast them out as incorrigible. (2.) "They shall cast you out of the congregation of Israel in general, the national church of the Jews; shall debar you from the privileges of that, put you into the condition of an outlaw," qui caput gerit lupinum - to be knocked on the head, like another wolf; "they will look upon you as Samaritans, as heathen men and publicans." Interdico tibi aqua et igne - I forbid you the use of water and fire. And were it not for the penalties, forfeitures, and incapacities, incurred hereby, it would be no injury to be thus driven out of a house infected and falling. Note, It has often been the lot of Christ's disciples to be unjustly excommunicated. Many a good truth has been branded with an anathema, and many a child of God delivered to Satan.
2. The sword of civil power: "The time cometh, the hour is come; now things are likely to be worse with you than hitherto they have been; when you are expelled as heretics, they will kill you, and think they do God service, and others will think so too." (1.) You will find them really cruel: They will kill you. Christ's sheep have been accounted as sheep for the slaughter; the twelve apostles (we are told) were all put to death, except John. Christ had said (Joh 15:27), You shall bear witness, martureite - you shall be martyrs, shall seal the truth with your blood, your heart's blood. (2.) You will find them seemingly conscientious; they will think they do God service; they will seem latreian prospherein - to offer a good sacrifice to God; as those that cast out God's servants of old, and said, Let the Lord be glorified, Isa 66:5. Note, [1.] It is possible for those that are real enemies to God's service to pretend a mighty zeal for it. The devil's work has many a time been done in God's livery, and one of the most mischievous enemies Christianity ever had sits in the temple of God. Nay, [2.] It is common to patronise an enmity to religion with a color of duty to God, and service to his church. God's people have suffered the greatest hardships from conscientious persecutors. Paul verily thought he ought to do what he did against the name of Jesus. This does not at all lessen the sin of the persecutors, for villanies will never be consecrated by putting the name of God to them; but it does enhance the sufferings of the persecuted, to die under the character of being enemies to God; but there will be a resurrection of names as well as of bodies at the great day.
III. He gives them the true reason of the world's enmity and rage against them (Joh 16:3): "These things will they do unto you, not because you have done them any harm, but because they have not known the Father, nor me. Let this comfort you, that none will be your enemies but the worst of men." Note, 1. Many that pretend to know God are wretchedly ignorant of him. Those that pretend to do him service thought they knew him, but it was a wrong notion they had of him. Israel transgressed the covenant, and yet cried, My God, we know thee. Hos 8:1, Hos 8:2. 2. Those that are ignorant of Christ cannot have any right knowledge of God. In vain do men pretend to know God and religion, while they slight Christ and Christianity. 3. Those are very ignorant indeed of God and Christ that think it an acceptable piece of service to persecute good people. Those that know Christ know that he came not into the world to destroy men's lives, but to save them; that he rules by the power of truth and love, not of fire and sword. Never was such a persecuting church as that which makes ignorance the mother of devotion.
IV. He tells them why he gave them notice of this now, and why not sooner.
1. Why he told them of it now (Joh 16:4), not to discourage them, or add to their present sorrow; nor did he tell them of their danger that they might contrive how to avoid it, but that "when the time shall come (and you may be sure it will come), you may remember that I told you." Note, When suffering times come it will be of use to us to remember what Christ has told us of sufferings. (1.) That our belief of Christ's foresight and faithfulness may be confirmed; and, (2.) That the trouble may be the less grievous, for we were told of it before, and we took up our profession in expectation of it, so that it ought not to be a surprise to us, nor looked upon as a wrong to us. As Christ in his sufferings, so his followers in theirs, should have an eye to the fulfilling of the scripture.
2. Why he did not tell them of it sooner: "I spoke not this to you from the beginning when you and I came to be first acquainted, because I was with you." (1.) While he was with them, he bore the shock of the world's malice, and stood in the front of the battle; against him the powers of darkness levelled all their force, not against small or great, but only against the king of Israel, and therefore he did not need to say so much to them of suffering, because it did not fall much to their share; but we do find that from the beginning he bade them prepare for sufferings; and therefore, (2.) It seems rather to be meant of the promise of another comforter. This he had said little of to them at the beginning, because he was himself with them to instruct, guide, and comfort them, and then they needed not the promise of the Spirit's extraordinary presence. The children of the bride-chamber would not have so much need of a comforter till the bridegroom should be taken away.
V. He expresses a very affectionate concern for the present sadness of his disciples, upon occasion of what he had said to them (Joh 16:5, Joh 16:6): "Now I am to be no longer with you, but go my way to him that sent me, to repose there, after this fatigue; and none of you asketh me, with any courage, Whither goest thou? But, instead of enquiring after that which would comfort you, you pore upon that which looks melancholy, and sorrow has filled your heart."
1. He had told them that he was about to leave them: Now I go my way. He was not driven away by force, but voluntarily departed; his life was not extorted from him, but deposited by him. He went to him that sent him, to give an account of his negotiation. Thus, when we depart out of this world, we go to him that sent us into it, which should make us all solicitous to live to good purposes, remembering we have a commission to execute, which must be returned at a certain day.
2. He had told them what hard times they must suffer when he was gone, and that they must not expect such an easy quiet life as they had had. Now, if these were the legacies he had to leave to them, who had left all for him, they would be tempted to think they had made a sorry bargain of it, and were, for the present, in a consternation about it, in which their master sympathizes with them, yet blames them, (1.) That they were careless of the means of comfort, and did not stir up themselves to seek it: None of you asks me, Whither goest thou? Peter had started this question (Joh 13:36), and Thomas had seconded it (Joh 14:5), but they did not pursue it, they did not take the answer; they were in the dark concerning it, and did not enquire further, nor seek for fuller satisfaction; they did not continue seeking, continue knocking. See what a compassionate teacher Christ is, and how condescending to the weak and ignorant. Many a teacher will not endure that the learner should ask the same question twice; if he cannot take a thing quickly, let him go without it; but our Lord Jesus knows how to deal with babes, that must be taught with precept upon precept. If the disciples here would have found that his going away was for his advancement, and therefore his departure from them should not inordinately trouble them (for why should they be against his preferment?) and for their advantage, and therefore their sufferings for him should not inordinately trouble them; for a sight of Jesus at the right hand of God would be an effectual support to them, as it was to Stephen. Note, A humble believing enquiry into the design and tendency of the darkest dispensations of Providence would help to reconcile us to them, and to grieve the less, and fear the less, because of them; it will silence us to ask, Whence came they? but will abundantly satisfy us to ask, Whither go they? for we know they work for good, Rom 8:28.
(2.) That they were too intent, and pored too much, upon the occasions of their grief: Sorrow has filled their hearts. Christ had said enough to fill them with joy (Joh 15:11); but by looking at that only which made against them, and overlooking that which made for them, they were so full of sorrow that there was no room left for joy. Note, It is the common fault and folly of melancholy Christians to dwell upon the dark side of the cloud, to meditate nothing but terror, and turn a deaf ear to the voice of joy and gladness. That which filled the disciples' hearts with sorrow, and hindered the operation of the cordials Christ administered, was too great an affection to this present life. They were big with hopes of their Master's external kingdom and glory, and that they should shine and reign with him: and now, instead of that, to hear of nothing but bonds and afflictions, this filled them with sorrow. Nothing is a greater prejudice to our joy in God than the love of the world; and the sorrow of the world, the consequence of it.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv2–30 They shall put you out of the synagogues,.... The…
They shall put you out of the synagogues,.... The Jews had made a law already, that he that confessed that Jesus was the Messiah, should be cast out of their synagogues; and they had put it in execution upon the blind man Christ restored to sight, for his profession of faith in him; which struck such a terror upon the people, that even many of the chief rulers who believed that Jesus was the true Messiah, durst not confess him, because of this law; for it was what they could not bear the thoughts of, to be deemed and treated as heretics and apostates, and the vilest of wretches: for this putting out of the synagogue, was not the lesser excommunication, which was called "Niddui", and was a "separation" from a particular synagogue for a while; but the greater excommunication, either by "Cherem", or "Shammatha"; when a person was cut out from the whole body of the Jewish church, called often the synagogue, or congregation of the people; and was devoted and consigned to utter destruction, which was the height of their ecclesiastical power, their rage and malice could carry them to; and this the apostles were to expect; nay, not only this, but to have their lives taken away by ruffians, under a pretence of zeal for the service of God, and interest of religion:
yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you, will think that he doth God service. For this is not to be understood of their being delivered up into the hands of civil magistrates, and of their being tried, judged, condemned, and put to death by their orders, but of their being murdered by a set of men called "zealots"; who, in imitation of Phinehas, as they pretended, took upon them, whenever they found any person guilty of a capital crime, as idolatry, blasphemy, &c. or what they judged so, to fall upon him at once, and without any more ado kill him; nor were they accountable to any court of judicature for such an action, and which was reckoned laudable and praiseworthy: in this way, and by the hands of such miscreants, Stephen the protomartyr lost his life; for though they had him before a council, and suborned witnesses against him, yet when in his own defence he said what these "zealots" interpreted blasphemy, they ran upon him at once, and cast him out of the city, and stoned him to death; and without any leave or authority from the sanhedrim, as appears: and these men were accounted good men, zealous, (y) "with a zeal for God", his honour and glory; and valued themselves much upon such butcheries and inhumanity, and thought, as our Lord here says, that they "did God service"; or as the Syriac renders it, , "offered a sacrifice to God", and so the Arabic and Ethiopic: and indeed this is a rule the Jews (z), and which they form upon the instance and example of Phinehas;
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"that whoever sheds the blood of wicked men, (and such they reckoned the apostles and followers of Christ to be,) , "it is all one as if he offered a sacrifice";''
they looked upon this to be a sacrifice acceptable and well pleasing to God: so the Apostle Paul, in his unregenerate state, thought he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Christ: and that he was doing God service, when he prosecuted the church, and gave his voice with these ruffians, to put the saints to death.
(y) Jarchi & Bartenora in Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 9. sect. 6. (z) Bemidbar Rabbit, Parash, 21. fol. 229. 3.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 26, 30 The time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think…
The time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think he doth God service - But, blessed be God, the time is so far past, that those who bear the name of Christ do not now generally suppose they do him service by killing each other for a difference in opinion or mode of worship.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 Christ warns his disciples, and foretells the persecutions
CHAPTER XVI.
Christ warns his disciples, and foretells the persecutions
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they should receive from the Jews, 1-4.
Foretells his death, and promises them the Comforter, 5-7.
Points out his operations among the Jews, and in the world,
8-11.
His peculiar influences on the souls of the disciples, 12-15.
Speaks figuratively of his death and resurrection, at which his
disciples are puzzled, 16-18.
He explains and illustrates the whole by a similitude, 19-22.
Shows himself to be the Mediator between God and man, and that
all prayers must be put up in his name, 23-28.
The disciples clearly comprehend his meaning and express their
strong faith in him, 29, 30.
He again foretells their persecution, and promises them his
peace and support, 31-33.
NOTES ON CHAP. XVI.
Verse 1. These things have I spoken] Particularly what is mentioned in the two last chapters.
Be offended.] Ἱνα μη σκανδαλισθητε, That ye should not be stumbled. May not fall away from the faith, nor receive any injury to your souls, as that man does to his body who stumbles, or falls over a stone, or block, in the way which he has not discovered.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 7, 9, 12, 16, 23, 25, 29, 33 Joh 16:1-2. These things have I spoken, that you…
Joh 16:1-2. These things have I spoken, that you should not be offended — I have informed you beforehand concerning the opposition which you are to expect from the world, and the proportionable supports which you will receive from the Holy Spirit, that you may not be discouraged in, or turned aside from, the path of your duty; by my leaving you, or by the troubles which you will meet with from my enemies and yours, whose rage will excite them to use all manner of violence and cruelty against you. They shall put you out of the synagogues — The Jews will excommunicate you, as the most execrable of men: yea, whosoever killeth you, will think he doeth God service — That he doth the most acceptable thing possible; or that he offers sacrifice to God, as Dr. Campbell and others render λατρειαν προσφερειν τω Θεω; observing, that as λατερεια properly signifies the public service of religion, when it is joined, as in this place, with προσφερειν, (to offer up,) can only mean sacrifice; and it is so rendered in the Syriac and Gothic versions. This gives a beautiful turn to our Lord’s sentiment, which is, “The time shall come when the killing you will be thought a part of the worship of God, and equally meritorious and acceptable with the offering of sacrifices.” Archbishop Leighton’s observation on the passage is, that “the servants of Christ should be considered not only as sheep for the slaughter, but as sheep for the altar too.” The rage of the persecuting enemies of God’s church, and, beyond all comparison, the murders committed by Papal cruelty in the name of the Lord, in the hecatombs of whole burnt-offerings, (if an expression may be allowed which falls far short of the dreadful truth,) too justly illustrate the remark. But how justly God has already resented, and will still resent, the murder of his children upon his altar, the day in which he makes inquisition for blood does and will declare.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 These things - The things spoken in the two…
These things - The things spoken in the two previous chapters, promising them divine aid and directing them in the path of duty.
Be offended - For the meaning of the word offend, see the notes at Mat 5:29. It means here the same as to stumble or fall - that is, to apostatize. He proceeds immediately to tell them, what he had often apprised them of, that they would be subject to great persecutions and trials. He was also himself about to be removed by death. They were to go into an unfriendly world. All these things were in themselves greatly fitted to shake their faith, and to expose them to the danger of apostasy. Compare Luk 24:21. If they had not been apprised of this, if they had not known why Jesus was about to die, and if they had not been encouraged with the promised aid of the Holy Spirit, they would have sunk under these trials, and forsaken him and his cause. And we may learn hence:
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1.That if Christians were left to themselves they would fall away and perish.
2.That God affords means and helps beforehand to keep them in the path of duty.
3.That the instructions of the Bible and the help of the Holy Spirit are all granted to keep them from apostasy.
4.That Jesus beforehand secured the fidelity and made certain the continuance in faith of his apostles, seeing all their dangers and knowing all their enemies. And, in like manner, we should be persuaded that “he is able to keep that which we commit to him against that day,” 2Ti 1:12.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 13, 15, 16, 20, 22, 23, 24, 26, 29 Which the persecutions you will have to suffer, on…
Which the persecutions you will have to suffer, on the part of man, may possible occasion, particularly with the weak.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
John Nelson Darby 1862 · Public Domain On v1 John Chapter 16
John Chapter 16
In chapter 16 a further step is taken in the revelation of this grace. The Holy Ghost is looked upon as already here below.
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In this chapter the Lord declares that He has set forth all His instruction with regard to His departure; their sufferings in the world as holding His place; their joy, as being in the same relationship to Him as that in which He had been while on earth to His Father; their knowledge of the fact that He was in the Father and they in Him, and He Himself in them; the gift of the Holy Ghost, in order to prepare them for all that would happen when He was gone, that they might not be offended. For they should be cast out of the synagogues, and he who should kill them would think that he was serving God. This would be the case with those who, resting in their old doctrines as a form, and rejecting the light, would only use the form of truth by which they accredited the flesh as orthodox to resist the light which, according to the Spirit, would judge the flesh. This would they do, because they knew neither the Father nor Jesus, the Son of the Father. It is fresh truth which tests the soul, and faith. Old truth, generally received and by which a body of people are distinguished from those around them, may be a subject of pride to the flesh, even where it is the truth, as was the case with the Jews. But fresh truth is a question of faith in its source: there is not the support of a body accredited by it, but the cross of hostility and isolation. They thought they served God. They knew not the Father and the Son.
Nature is occupied with that which it loses. Faith looks at the future into which God leads. Precious thought! Nature acted in the disciples: they loved Jesus; they grieved at His going away. We can understand this. But faith would not have stopped there. If they had apprehended the necessary glory of the Person of Jesus; if their affection, animated by faith, had thought of Him and not of themselves, they would have asked, “Whither goest thou?” Nevertheless He who thought of them assures them that it would be gain to them even to lose Him. Glorious fruit of the ways of God! Their gain would be in this, that the Comforter should be here on earth with them and in them. Here, observe, Jesus does not speak of the Father. It was the Comforter here below in His stead, to maintain the testimony of His love for the disciples, and His relationship to them. Christ was going away: for if He went not away, the Comforter would not come; but if He departed, He would send Him. When He was come, He would act in demonstration of the truth with regard to the world that rejected Christ and persecuted His disciples; and He would act for blessing in the disciples themselves.
With regard to the world, the Comforter had one only subject of testimony, in order to demonstrate the sin of the world. It has not believed in Jesus-in the Son. Doubtless there was sin of every kind, and, to speak truth, nothing but sin-sin that deserved judgment; and in the work of conversion, He brings these sins home to the soul. But the rejection of Christ put the whole world under one common judgment. No doubt every one shall answer for his sins; and the Holy Ghost makes me feel them. But, as a system responsible to God, the world had rejected His Son. This was the ground on which God dealt with the world now; this it was which made manifest the heart of man. It was the demonstration that, God being fully revealed in love such as He was, man would not receive Him. He came, not imputing their trespasses unto them; but they rejected Him. The presence of Jesus was not the Son of God Himself manifested in His glory, from which man might shrink with fear, though he could not escape; it was what He was morally, in His nature, in His character. Man hated Him: all testimony to bring man to God was unavailing. The plainer the testimony, the more he turned from it and opposed it. The demonstration of the sin of the world was its having rejected Christ. Terrible testimony, that God in goodness should excite detestation because He was perfect, and perfectly good! Such is man. The testimony of the Holy Ghost to the world, as God’s to Cain of old, would be, Where is my Son? It was not that man was guilty; that he was when Christ came; but he was lost, the tree was bad. [62]
But this was God’s path to something altogether different-the demonstration of righteousness, in that Christ went to His Father, and the world saw Him no more. It was the result of Christ’s rejection. Human righteousness there was none. Man’s sin was proved by the rejection of Christ. The cross was indeed judgment executed upon sin. And in that sense it was righteousness; but in this world it was the only righteous One condemned by man and forsaken by God; it was not the manifestation of righteousness. It was a final judicial separation between man and God (see chapters 11 and 12:31). If Christ had been delivered there, and had become the King of Israel, this would not have been an adequate consequence of His having glorified God. Having glorified God His Father, He was going to sit at His right hand, at the right hand of the Majesty on high, to be glorified in God Himself, to sit on the Father’s throne. To set Him there was divine righteousness (see chapter Psa 32:1-11, and Psa 17:1, Psa 4:1-8, Psa 5:1-12). This same righteousness deprived the world, as it is, of Jesus for ever. Man saw Him no more. Righteousness in favour of men was in Christ at God’s right hand-in judgment as to the world, in that it had lost Him hopelessly and for ever.
Moreover Satan had been proved to be the prince of this world by leading all men against the Lord Jesus. To accomplish the purposes of God in grace, Jesus does not resist. He gives Himself up to death. He who has the power of death committed himself thoroughly. In his desire to ruin man he had to hazard everything in his enterprise against the Prince of Life. He was able to associate the whole world with himself in this, Jew and Gentile, priest and people, governor, soldier, and subject. The world was there, headed by its prince, on that solemn day. The enemy had everything at stake, and the world was with him. But Christ has risen, He has ascended to His Father, and has sent down the Holy Ghost. All the motives that govern the world, and the power by which Satan held men captive, are shewn to be of him; he is judged. The power of the Holy Ghost is the testimony of this, and surmounts all the powers of the enemy. The world is not yet judged, that is, the judgment executed-it will be in another manner; but it is morally, its prince is judged. All its motives, religious and irreligious, have led it to reject Christ, placing it under Satan’s power. It is in that character that he has been judged; for he led the world against Him who is manifested to be the Son of God by the presence of the Holy Ghost consequent on His breaking the power of Satan in death.
All this took place through the presence on earth of the Holy Ghost, sent down by Christ. His presence in itself was the demonstration of these three things. For, if the Holy Ghost was here, it was because the world had rejected the Son of God. Righteousness was evidenced by Jesus being at the right hand of God, of which the presence of the Holy Ghost was the proof, as well as in the fact that the world had lost Him. Now the world which rejected Him was not outwardly judged, but, Satan having led it to reject the Son, the presence of the Holy Ghost proved that Jesus had destroyed the power of death; that he who had possessed that power was thus judged; that he had shewn himself to be the enemy of Him whom the Father owned; that his power was gone, and victory belonged to the Second Adam, when Satan’s whole power had been arrayed against the human weakness of Him who in love had yielded to it. But Satan, thus judged, was the prince of this world.
The presence of the Holy Ghost should be the demonstration not of Christ’s rights as Messiah, true as they were, but of those truths that related to man-to the world, in which Israel was now lost, having rejected the promises, although God would preserve the nation for Himself. But the Holy Ghost was doing something more than demonstrating the condition of the world. He would accomplish a work in the disciples; He would lead them into all truth, and He would shew them things to come; for Jesus had many things to tell them which they were not yet able to bear. When the Holy Ghost should be in them, He should be their strength in them as well as their teacher; and it would be a wholly different state of things for the disciples. Here He is considered as present on the earth in place of Jesus, and dwelling in the disciples, not as an individual spirit speaking from Himself, but even as Jesus said, “As I hear I judge,” with a judgment perfectly divine and heavenly: so the Holy Ghost, acting in the disciples, would speak that which came from above, and of the future, according to divine knowledge. It should be heaven and the future of which He would speak, communicating what was heavenly from above, and revealing events to come upon the earth, the one and the other being witnesses that it was a knowledge which belonged to God. How blessed to have that which He has to give!
But, further, He takes here the place of Christ. Jesus had glorified the Father on earth. The Holy Ghost would glorify Jesus, with reference to the glory that belonged to His Person and to His position. He does not here speak directly of the glory of the Father. The disciples had seen the glory of the life of Christ on earth; the Holy Ghost would unfold to them His glory in that which belonged to Him as glorified with the Father-that which was His own.
They would learn “in part.” This is man’s measure when the things of God are in question, but its extent is declared by the Lord Himself: “He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. An that the Father hath is mine: therefore, said I, He shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.”
Thus we have the gift of the Holy Ghost variously presented in connection with Christ. In dependence on His Father, and representing His disciples as gone up from among them, on their behalf, He addresses Himself to the Father; He asks the Father to send the Holy Ghost (chap. 14:16). Afterwards we find that His own name is all powerful. All blessing from the Father comes in His name. It is on His account, and according to the efficacy of His name, of all that in Him is acceptable to the Father, that good comes to us. Thus the Father will send the Holy Ghost in His name (chap. 14:26). And Christ being glorified on high, and having taken His place with His Father, He Himself sends the Holy Ghost (chap. 15:26) from the Father, as proceeding from Him. Finally, the Holy Ghost is present here in this world, in and with the disciples, and He glorifies Jesus, and takes of His and reveals it to His own (chap. 16:13-15). Here all the glory of the Person of Christ is set forth, as well as the rights belonging to the position He has taken. “All things that the Father hath” are His. He has taken His position according to the eternal counsels of God, in virtue of His work as Son of man. But if He has entered into possession in this character, all that He possesses in it is His, as a Son to whom (being one with the Father) all that the Father has belongs.
There He should be hidden for a while: the disciples should afterwards see Him, for it was only the accomplishment of the ways of God; it was no question of being, as it were, lost by death. He was going to His Father. On this point the disciples understood nothing. The Lord develops the fact and its consequences, without yet shewing them the whole import of what He said. He takes it up on the human and historical side. The world would rejoice at having got rid of Him. Miserable joy! The disciples would lament, although it was the true source of joy for them; but their sorrow should be turned into joy. As testimony, this took place when He shewed Himself to them after His resurrection; it will be fully accomplished when He shall return to receive them unto Himself. But when they had seen Him again, they should understand the relationship in which He has placed them with His Father, they should enjoy it by the Holy Ghost. It should not be as though they could not themselves draw nigh to the Father, while Christ could do so (as Martha said, “I know that whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, he will give it thee”). They might themselves go directly to the Father, who loved them, because they had believed in Jesus, and had received Him when He had humbled Himself in this world of sin (in principle it is always thus); and asking what they would in His name they should receive it, so that their joy might be full in the consciousness of the blessed position of unfailing favour into which they were brought, and of the value of all that they possessed in Christ.
Nevertheless the Lord already declares to them the basis of the truth-He came from the Father, He was going away to the Father. The disciples think they understand that which He had thus spoken without a parable. They felt that He had divined their thought, for they had not expressed it to Him. Yet they did not rise really to the height of what He said. He had told them that they had believed in His having come “from God.” This they understood; and that which had taken place had confirmed them in this faith, and they declare their conviction with regard to this truth; but they do not enter into the thought of coming “from the Father,” and going away “to the Father.” They fancied themselves quite in the light; but they had apprehended nothing that raised them above the effect of Christ’s rejection, which the belief that He came from the Father and was going to the Father would have done. Jesus therefore declares to them, that His death would scatter them, and that they would forsake Him. His Father would be with Him; He should not be alone. Nevertheless He had explained all these things to them, in order that they should have peace in Him. In the world that rejected Him they should have tribulation; but He had overcome the world, they might be of good cheer.
This ends the conversation of Jesus with His disciples on earth. In the following chapter He addresses His Father as taking His own place in departing, and giving His disciples theirs (that is, His own), with regard to the Father and to the world, after He had gone away to be glorified with the Father. The whole chapter is essentially putting the disciples in His own place, after laying the ground for it in His own glorifying and work. It is, save the last verses, His place on earth. As He was divinely in heaven, and so shewed a divine heavenly character on earth, so (He being glorified as man in heaven) they, united with Him, were in turn to display the same. Hence we have first the place He personally takes, and the work which entitles them to be in it.
Footnotes for John Chapter 16
62: Man is judged for what he has done; he is lost by what he is.
John Nelson Darby — Synopsis of the Books of the Bible: the New Testament (c. 1857–1862) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On vv1, 16 See Joh_15:1 ff for the passage quote with footnotes.
See Joh_15:1 ff for the passage quote with footnotes.
Joh_16:1-15
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Joh_16:1. These things have I spoken unto you.—Ταῦτα: Another recapitulation, this time of the contents of Joh_16:18-25, in order to the introduction of a new idea; like Joh_15:17; Joh_15:11.—That ye may not be offended [ἴνα μὴ σκανδαλισθῆτε], i.e. that ye may not be disconcerted by coming in contact with the sufferings attendant upon the world’s persecution, and be made to fall from the faith, but may, rather, steadfastly approve yourselves martyrs. See Mat_5:29; Mat_13:21; Mat_18:7. Christ is discoursing of the danger of becoming offended in the future; His glance pierces beyond the offence that they shall take at Him in the impending night; He reverts to it, however, Joh_16:32.
Joh_16:2. They will put you out of the synagogues [or they will excommunicate you, ἀποσυναγώγους ποιήσουσι ὑμᾶς]—He now reveals to them, by fundamental traits, the operations of the world’s hatred, announced to them by Him. First comes excommunication. See Joh_9:22 [and Joh_12:42]. Jewish persecutions are meant; as a type, however, of the whole mass of declarations of excommunication and outlawry to be levelled against His followers.
Yea, and an hour cometh [ἀλλ’ ἔρχεταιὥρα].—In the form of an antithesis, ἀλλά [at, yea and] gives exceeding prominence to the following climax to the persecutions. [It introduces the contrast of a much more grievous, even bloody persecution; comp. 2Co_1:9; 2Co_7:11; Php_3:8.—P. S.]. Lücke: They were also to experience the bloody fanaticism of the world at the hands of Jews and Gentiles. He Himself fell a sacrifice to the same, as, did later, Stephen, Act_6:8, etc.; 2Co_1:9; 1Co_4:13.—That every one.—ἴνα lays stress upon the destiny of that hour. [Or, as Meyer expresses it, “that which shall happen in the ὤρα, is regarded as the object of its coming; comp. Joh_12:23.”—P. S.].—Will think that he doeth God sacrificial service [ἴνα πᾶς ὁ ἀποκτείνας ὑμᾶς δόξῃ λατρείαν προσφέρειν τῷ θεῷ].—Serve God by offering unto Him a sacrifice.—λατρεία in the sense of worship, service rendered to the Deity [comp. Rom_12:1; Heb_9:1; Heb_9:6, etc.]. The performance of the curse-sacrifice, Cherem, as the last and highest form of excommunication, was looked upon as a religious act. That the idea of a Cherem is present in this place is proved by the expression προσφέρειν, a term which Lücke seems not precisely to understand, whilst Meyer observes: “This axiom of Jewish fanaticism is well known: “omnis effundens sanguinem improborum æqualis est illi, qui sacrificium facit. Bammidbar Rabba, f. 329.” Comp. Matthew 10. Τῷ θεῷ “is primarily expressive of Jewish fanaticism: Gentile fanaticism, however, was substantially the same.” Lücke. The Gentile world also was acquainted with the curse-offering and performed it in manifold ways. See 1Co_4:12.
Joh_16:3. And these things will they do unto you.—This verse contains 1. consolation for the disciples in regard to their persecutions—conveyed in the intimation that these persecutions will not arise on account of anything in the disciples themselves; this involves the presupposition of their normal behaviour. 2. The thought is suggested that the persecutors will overweeningly imagine themselves to be raised above the disciples on the platform of intelligent judges and defenders of the truth, whilst in reality they are grovelling in the most lamentable darkness.
Joh_16:4. But I have spoken these things unto you.—According to Lücke, ἀλλά is an explanation: notwithstanding that nothing else can be expected, I have, etc. But it has just been necessary for Him to inform them that these very things must be expected. Meyer interprets the ἀλλά as a breaking off. But enough: these things (thus much) have I told you beforehand, etc. [So also Alford]. A later recollection of the prophetic fore-announcements shall serve to strengthen faith,—faith in the trustworthiness of the Lord as well as in the divinely normal course of things, see Joh_13:19. Hence correctly Tholuck (after Cyril, Gerhard): But, so little is it My intention to affright you with these things, that I have told you of them only in order that, etc.
I told you not from the beginning.—In what respect do the words: Because I was with you, serve as an elucidation? 1. So that I could comfort you (Aug., Lücke). Against this view it may be said: they were then not in need of comfort. 2. The hatred of the world touched Me alone (Chrysostom, Luth., Meyer, etc.). 3. Because ye were then too weak to bear such sayings (Erasmus, Calvin). 4. Because He now promises them the help of the Spirit, He can also tell them of suffering (Bengel, Tholuck). The meaning may be simply this: because I thus had it in My power to tell you at any time and had neither inclination nor need to tell you something painful and oppressive too soon; now, however, for the reason assigned, I am obliged to tell you, in order that ye may not be astonished at experiencing sufferings, of whose coming I have forewarned you. Further motives, as, for instance, forbearance towards their hitherto gradual development, etc., are not excluded by the above. But according to the Synoptists, Christ foretold such sufferings to the disciples at a much earlier time (Mat_5:10 ff; Mat_10:16 ff; Mat_24:9). Deliverances upon this diversity:
1. Here φοβερώτερα έκείνων are announced (Euthymius, Chrysostom).
2. Christ before spoke minus aperte (Grotius, Bengel).
3. Now He proclaims the cause of the world’s hatred (Lampe).
4. As a farewell-word the revelation was a new one (Luthardt). [So also Alford: in reference to His immediate departure.—P. S.]
5. Earlier intimations of a more general and less definite character are reported by the Synoptists in agreement with later and more definite ones (Meyer).
6. Those earlier predictions probably belong to the time when Jesus delivered His last discourses (Beza, Maldonatus).
7. The expression here recorded by John can hardly be justified (De Wette).
8. Tholuck: Those utterances were of an isolated cast; Christ has here more expressly declared the principial position of the disciples. This view must be illustrated more in detail: (1) in the Sermon on the Mount, Mat_5:10, the prediction is couched in such general terms that the disciples might apprehend it as referring to a participation in transient “throes of the Messiah,” soon to be succeeded by the appearance of the kingdom of God. (2) In the Apostolic Instructions, Matthew 10, the momentary predictions are, in accordance with the ideal order of things, amplified through later additions. Even to the adoption of the eschatological items. (3) The eschatological sayings, Matthew 24, were uttered but a day or two previously; hence they coincide ideally with our date.
Joh_16:5. But now I go [ὑπάγω] to Him that sent Me.—The motive for His present full enlightenment of them with regard to their future, in order that, together with what is sad, He may tell them the most gladdening things.—And none of you asketh Me—This seems to be at variance with Joh_13:36; Joh_14:5. The sense, however, is as follows: ye give yourselves up to the sad thought that I go away and make no inquiries as to the glad thought: whither, namely, to the Father. Calvin: “Audito meo discessu expavescitis, neque enim reputatis, quo discedam, vel in quem finem.”1 They cling to the ruins of their old expectations with regard to the Messiah’s kingdom and are afraid to venture a leap into the new views of life, however urgently the solemn mood of the Lord presses them thereto.
Joh_16:6. Sorrow hath filled your heart.—Sorrow and only sorrow. Joh_16:6 is explanatory of the mild reproach Joh_16:5,—none asketh Me: whither? They do the opposite; they linger at the fact of His departure and its immediate and sad results, as revealed to them by Him; they stay at the ὑπάγω, not at the πρὸς τὸν πέμψαντα. The course of ideas, therefore, is perfectly clear; De Wette and Lücke are under some misapprehension when they fain would improve it by reading Joh_16:6 before καὶ οὐδείς. Even the construction of Olshausen seems to be superfluous; he introduces a period and pause after πέμψ. με and makes Joh_16:6 follow as a question.
Joh_16:7-11. The Holy Ghost as the strength of their victory over the world.
[This whole passage (7–12), relating to the mission of the Holy Ghost, is unmeaning and incomprehensible to the carnal mind, but unspeakably precious and comforting to the spiritual; it touches on the deepest questions of doctrine, and on the practical discipline of our hearts and lives. With a few great strokes, as Olshausen remarks, Christ depicts all and every part of the ministry of the Holy Ghost in the world, His operation on individuals as well as the mass, on believers and unbelievers alike. Comp. here the remarks on pp. 440 f., and the Critical Notes to the five Sermons of Julius Charles Hare (late Archdeacon of Lewis and Rector of Hertsmonceux) on Joh_16:7-11, entitled: The Mission of the Comforter (2d ed., republ. Boston, 1854). These notes betray a rare familiarity with patristic and German exegesis, and contain by far the ablest and fullest exposition of our passage in the English language; yet they are wholly unknown to continental commentators and are ignored even by Wordsworth.—P. S.]
Joh_16:7. But I tell you the truth, etc.—Prominence given to the cheering results of His departure, as also to that departure itself. [But, ἀλλά, notwithstanding, nevertheless, refers to the λύπη in Joh_16:6.—P. S.]. I tell you; ἐγώ [I myself, in opposition to υμεῖς, the sorrowing disciples (5, 6), and in the consciousness of personal ability to remove their sorrow by sending the Comforter.—P. S.].—It is expedient for you that I [for My part] should go away [συμφέρει ὑμιν ἴνα (expressing the divine necessity and intention), ἐγὼ ἀπέλθω (depart from this world, leave you).—P. S.] “Ἵνα marks the fact of His going away, considered with regard to the purposes destined to be accomplished by it.
[With this passage should be compared Joh_7:39 and the notes pp. 258 f. The sending of the Spirit to men as the Spirit of redemption and adoption, presupposes the offering of the atoning sacrifice, the glorification of Christ’s humanity and His elevation to His mediatorial throne. Συμφέρει ὑμῖν, it is profitable, expedient for you (comp. 2Co_8:18; 1Co_6:12), indicates that the post-pentecostal dispensation of the Spirit who makes us partakers of the whole fulness of Christ and His completed redemption, is higher and more blessed than the dispensation of the Son in the state of His humiliation, as this was higher than the dispensation of the Father before Christ’s advent. Christ’s departure, in itself considered, without the consequent sending of the Paraclete mentioned in the last clause of this verse, would be the greatest calamity that could have befallen the disciples. For there never was any communion upon earth that could at all be compared in blessedness with their daily intercourse with their Lord and Master, who was dearer to them than life itself. But they lived then more in sight than in faith, and depended too much on His visible presence and His human form, like children upon the presence of their parents. They had to lose Christ as a mere man in order to find Him again as God exalted on His heavenly throne, from which He might send them His Spirit as it never had been sent before, establish His kingdom and convert through them the whole world. The book of Acts proves what they gained in independence and self-government, in strength and endurance of faith by the withdrawal of Christ’s visible presence. Archdeacon Hare (Note C., p. 234) ingeniously turns this passage against the Church of Rome, which has indeed preserved the true confession of Christ against all Christological heresies, but has been unable to recognize how it was expedient for Christ to go away. “She has never been content, unless she could get something present, a vicar, images, outward works, actual sacrifices, with priests to offer them up, real flesh and real blood. She chose rather to defy the evidence of the senses, than not to have an object of sense.” She has, as Augustine (Serm. 270, quoted by Hare, p. 232) says of Peter, “loved the Lord Jesus Christ as a man loves man, as the carnal loves the carnal, not as the spiritual loves true Majesty.”—P. S.]
For if I go not away, etc. [ἐὰν γὰρ (ἐγὼ) μὴ ἀπέλθω (depart, leave you), ὁ παράκλητος οὐκ ἐλεύσεται πρὸς ὑμᾶς, ἐὰν δὲ πορευθῶ (go to My Father), πέμψω αὐτὸν πρὸς ὑμᾶς].—Explanation see in Doctr. and Ethical No. 15. Augustine: “Si alimenta, quibus vos alui, non subtraxero, solidum cibum non esurietis.” The expression here becomes sublime; it is indued with ghostly severity and heroic boldness.
Joh_16:8. And when He is come, etc. [καὶ ἐλθὼν ἐκεῖνος].—Solemn and triumphant exaltation of spirit, and proclamation. The witness of the Spirit, announced Joh_15:26, is now, in accordance with its subject-matter, power and effect, declared to be a threefold victory over the world. Mention is not made of the disciples for the simple reason that, as bearers of the Spirit, they seem to vanish, utterly from sight in His glory. [Godet, ΙΙ. John 519: “Voici la description de la victoire morale que, par l’organe des disciples, le Saint Esprit remportera sur le monde. Le discours de saint Pierre à la Pentecôte et ses effets sont le meilleur commentaire de cette promesse.”—P. S.]
He will convict2 the world ἐλέγξει τὸν κόσμον περὶ ἁμαρτίας, κ.τ.λ.].—By His testimony. The ἐλέγχειν of the Holy Ghost is variously construed:
1. In the sense of a judgment. Chrysostom: They shall not do such things unreproved; on the contrary, sentence shall be passed upon them; similarly Theophylact [Erasmus, Wetzel] and others. De Wette: “The idea of judgment is conclusive.” A one-sided and abstract upholding of the punitory consideration; in opposition also to the idea of conviction, which in the forum itself is distinct from the passing of sentence, as is the latter, again, from the infliction of punishment. The κρίσις here spoken of is the judgment upon the devil. [The patristic interpretation to reprove, strafen, conveys a very inadequate description of the work of the Spirit, and gives no clear sense when applied to righteousness and judgment.—P. S.]
2. A convicting, a bringing to a consciousness of the truth, in such wise that decision must ensue, resulting either in faith or in impenitence (Calvin, Lampe, Bengel, Lücke, etc).
Exposition No. 1 must not be confounded with the doctrine of the Holy Ghost’s disciplinary office (Tholuck), in accordance with which Luther’s translation: strafen, discipline, reprove, likewise conveys an excellent meaning.3 The operation of the Holy Ghost is never external but always internal; His testification addresses itself to the human consciousness,—never to the intellectual consciousness alone, but invariably to the moral consciousness as well, the conscience. And inasmuch as this is true, the world, in being convicted, is always reproved as well, through the judgment of the Spirit. Now the power of Christ’s saying is involved in the idea that the Holy Ghost, as the Paraclete of the persecuted Apostles, turns the tables upon their adversaries,—reverently be it said; He prosecutes the persecuting world, brings it to judgment, and, in its totality as world, as sinner, convicts it. Thus, with checkless superiority, He executes an ideal judgment upon the whole world. The conversion of the world, or its confirmation in impenitence, is a result resting not solely in the impressions of the Holy Ghost, but in the diverse reactions of men, some turning to belief, others hardening themselves in unbelief. Under this all-powerful ἕλεγχος, however, the world, as an ungodly world, advances towards its dissolution; after the accomplishment of the ἔλεγχος it no longer exists. (See Joh_17:23; 1Jn_2:17). The meaning, therefore, is as follows: He shall reprovingly convince—convict—the world in His judgment, and, by convicting it, occasion its disintegration into the two portions of the saved and the judged, neither of which is any longer a world. (See Joh_3:20; Joh_8:46; 1Co_14:24). The conviction of the world ensues in three acts.
Be it observed that the point of view taken by Christ in describing the following events, is that of the consummation of the things predicted; hence He employs the Present tense.4 On the three themes see Tholuck, p. 384.
[Ἐλέγχειν in Homer and earlier Greek authors means chiefly to rebuke, to reprove, to reproach; so also in Luk_3:19; 1Ti_5:20; Tit_1:13; Rev_3:19. But in the phraseology of the courts of justice and of the schools the verb expresses demonstration, conviction and refutation of an opponent by fair and conclusive arguments. “In ἐλέγχειν,” says Lücke, “is always implied the refutation, the overcoming of an error, wrong,—by the truth and the right.” So the word is used Mat_18:15; Tit_1:9; Jam_2:9 (ἐλεγχόμενοι ὑπὸ τοῦ νόμου ὡς παραβάται); Joh_8:9 (ὑπὸ τῆς συνειδήσεως ἐλεγχόμενοι, being convicted by their conscience); Joh_8:46 (τίς ἐξ ὑμῶν ἐλέγχει με περὶ ἁμαρτίας, which of you, convicteth Me of sin?). The last passage comes nearest to our own. The ἔλεγξις here meant is a conviction (Ueberführung), by which the sinner is proved to be such and becomes conscious of his sin and guilt, is “pricked to the heart” and “smitten in conscience” (comp. Act_2:37), and brought to a crisis that he will either sincerely repent and be converted (1Co_14:24), or harden his heart and bring upon him condemnation (Act_24:25; Rom_11:7 ff.). The divine intention of this convicting agency is the salvation of the sinner; for the Holy Spirit, like Christ Himself, was sent not to condemn the world, but to save it (comp. Joh_3:17). This view of ἐλέγχειν is substantially held by Calvin and Beza, who translate it convincere, Lampe, Bengel (arguet), Lücke, Olshausen, Tholuck, Stier, Meyer, Hare (l. c. p. 355 ff.), Alford, Wordsworth, Barnes (“convince men that they are sinners and cause them to feel this”), Godet (convaincre de tort ou d’erreur, ici à la foi de l’un et de l’autre).—The world, ὁ κόσμος, is the object of the Spirit’s convicting agency and must not be confined to the Jews or to the heathen or to the ungodly, but be extended to all men (comp. Joh_3:16; Joh_12:31) who come under the influence of the Spirit and the preaching of the gospel. Calvin: “The term world comprehends those who were to be truly converted to Christ, as well as hypocrites and reprobates. For the Spirit reproves men through the preaching of the gospel in two ways. Some are seriously impressed, so that they willingly humble themselves, willingly subscribe to the sentence by which they are condemned. Others, although they are convicted and cannot escape from the position of a criminal, yet do not heartily yield, nor submit themselves to the authority and dictation of the Holy Spirit; nay, rather being constrained they inwardly fret, and in their perplexity cease not to cherish obstinacy of mind.” Calvin aptly quotes, in illustration, 1Co_14:24-25 : “If all prophesy, and there come in an unbeliever or an ignorant man, he is convinced (ἐλέγχεται) by all, he is judged by all; and thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so, falling down on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is truly in you.” Godet: “Si le monde est l’objet de la répréhension du Saint-Espirit c’est donc encore dans un but de salut.”—The threefold objects of the conviction are sin, which belongs to men, righteousness, which belongs to Christ, judgment, which is executed on Satan by the overthrow of his kingdom and the establishment of Christ’s kingdom. He who is convicted of sin, passes over either to the righteousness of Christ, or to the judgment of Satan (see Bengel). The triple ὅτι defines the substance and ground of the triple ἔλεγχος, and is=εἰς ἐκεῖνο ὅτι, in that, inasmuch as (comp. Joh_2:18; Joh_9:17; Joh_11:51). The omission of the article before the three nouns gives them the widest sense. The natural man has some slight perception of sin, righteousness, and judgment, as is evident from the writings of the heathen and infidels, and the penal codes of all nations; but it is only the Spirit of God who, appealing to the inner law of our conscience, and unfolding the higher law of God, especially the atoning sacrifice and divine-human fullness of Christ, leads us to a living, practical knowledge and personal conviction of these three facts, and traces them to their fountain-head and culminating point—sin to unbelief, righteousness to Christ, and judgment to Satan. Moreover, the natural man, with all his knowledge of sin, cannot get rid of its power. The great aim of the Spirit is to deliver man from his sin and from the judgment to come, and to make him partaker of the righteousness of Christ. The actual proof of this threefold work of the Spirit is found in the Acts of the Apostles, who were His organs, and is daily repeated in the history of the Church throughout the world; for the Spirit’s convictive work goes on in unbroken succession wherever the gospel is preached, producing everywhere the same effects unto condemnation and salvation, and will go on to the end of time, as long as there is a world to be converted. There is, however, another work of the Spirit, which is not touched upon here, the work of the sanctification of those who have come out of the κόσμος. Our Lord speaks here of the great help of His disciples in their warfare with the world and in laying the foundations of Christianity. Within the Church the blessed gifts and graces of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, etc. (Gal_5:22-23; 1 Corinthians 12-14; Romans 12), will necessarily manifest themselves.—As to the interpretation of this profound and comprehensive passage there is a substantial agreement among orthodox commentators, yet with characteristic differences of theological schools and creeds. See the details below.—P. S.]
Joh_16:9. With respect to sin [περῖ—concerning, on the subject of, in respect to—ἁμαρτίας].—Act the first.—That they believe not on Me.—ὅτιon explicative: inasmuch as. Interpretations:
1. He will discover to them the sin they commit in not believing on Me (Euthymius Zigab., Lücke;—“He will convince them that their unbelief is sin, is wrong,” Meyer).5 But to the truth of this interpretation it were requisite that unbelief should be the object—not sin. And, moreover, the thought would not be a particularly comprehensive one. But above all, the view is subverted by the circumstance that the three terms: sin, righteousness, judgment, are mentioned with perfect universality, and unconditionally, in accordance with the universal operation of the Spirit.
Therefore, 2. The passage has reference to sin simply, which, as the Holy Ghost shall convince the world, consists in, is rooted in, in its different phases comprehended in, and, finally, made manifest in, their not believing on Me (Apollinar., Calvin [qualis in se sit hominum natura], De Wette [also Wetzel and Godet]. Only De Wette’s construction of the case is obscure; he opines that the Saviour’s words have reference solely to the unbelief of the impenitent as contrasted with believers, according to Joh_3:36. That unbelief is not prior, but subsequent, to the act of ἔλεγξις. It is sin too, beyond a doubt; sin, however, of a particular kind, since it is unpardonable. Believers themselves do not attain unto faith without, through the medium of the conviction of the Spirit, perceiving the identity of their sin with the unbelief hitherto cherished by them. The rejection of Christ is the central appearance of all the sins of all the world; light is thrown thereupon by the spiritual manifestation of Christ’s divine exaltedness above all the world. The old world makes a distinction between sin and unbelief, and even ventures to consider the latter a very meritorious thing; on that point, the views of the world shall be subverted by the Holy Ghost.
[Bengel: “Infidelitas est confluens peccatorum omnium et omnibus pejor.” Alford: “This unbelief is not a mere want of historical faith,—but unbelief in its very root,—the want of a personal and living recognition of Jesus as the Lord (1Co_12:3) which, wherever the Spirit has opened His commission by the planting of the visible church, is the condemning sin of the world.” On this point Luther, in his usual forcible and graphic style, makes some remarks which show how much deeper he penetrated into the marrow of the Scriptures on the doctrines of sin and grace and the depths of faith and unbelief than the fathers, not excluding even Chrysostom and Augustine. “The unbelief spoken of in the text,” says Luther, “is not merely that which is planted by Adam in man’s nature, but plainly this, that men believe not in Christ, that is, when the gospel of Christ is preached, in order that we may confess our sins, and through Christ seek and obtain grace. For when Christ came, the sin of Adam and of the whole human race, namely, their previous unbelief and disobedience, was taken away before God by Christ’s sufferings and death; and He built a new heaven of grace and forgiveness; so that the sin, which we have inherited from Adam, shall no longer keep us under God’s wrath and condemnation, if we believe in this Saviour. And henceforward he who is condemned must not complain of Adam and of his inborn sin: for this Seed of the woman, promised by God to bruise the head of the serpent, is now come, and has atoned for this sin, and taken away condemnation. But he must cry out against himself, for not having accepted or believed in this Christ, the devil’s head-bruiser and sin-strangler. Thus every man’s danger rests with himself; and it is his own fault if he is condemned; not because he is a sinner through the sin of Adam, and deserving of condemnation by reason of his former unbelief; but because he will not accept this Saviour Christ, who takes away our sin and condemnation. True it is indeed, that Adam has condemned us all, inasmuch as he brought us along with him into sin and under the power of the devil. But now that Christ, the second Adam, is come, born without sin, and has taken away sin, it cannot longer condemn me if I believe in Him; but I shall be delivered from it through Him and be saved. If, on the other hand, I do not believe, the same sin and condemnation must continue; because He who is to deliver me from it, is not taken hold of: nay, it will be a doubly great and heavy sin and condemnation, that I will not believe in this dear Saviour, by whom I might be helped, nor accept His redemption. Thus all our salvation and condemnation depend now upon this, whether we believe in Christ or no. A judgment has at length gone forth which closes heaven against all such as have not, and will not receive, this faith in Christ. For this unbelief retains all sin, so that it cannot obtain forgiveness, even as faith removes all sin. And hence without this faith everything is and continues sinful and condemnable, even in the best life and the best works which a man can perform; which although in themselves they are praiseworthy and commended by God, yet are corrupted by unbelief, so that on account thereof they cannot please God; even as in faith all the works and life of a Christian are pleasing to God. In fine, without Christ everything is condemned and lost; in Christ everything is good and blessed; so that even sin, which continues in our flesh and blood, being inherited from Adam, can no longer hurt or condemn us.”—I add Olshausen’s explanation, which well agrees with the foregoing extract: “In the first place the Spirit makes sin manifest, not however in its outward character,—in this respect the Law awakens the knowledge of sin (Rom_3:20),—but in its inward deep root. Now this is nothing else than unbelief, which we may call the mother of all sinful actions: but unbelief itself is, in its most glaring form, unbelief in the Incarnate Christ. The inability of recognizing this purest manifestation of the Divinity implies utter blindness.” Stier and Hare may also be profitably consulted on this passage.—P. S.]
Joh_16:10. With respect to righteousness [περὶ δικαιοσύνης6].—Act the second. Here, again, righteousness simply is manifested. Christ’s exaltation to the throne of glory is the central appearance of God’s righteousness; we say, of God’s righteousness in Christ, God’s righteousness in His providence, God’s righteousness in believers, in the conscience of unbelievers even,—an appearance illuminated by the spiritual manifestation of Christ’s world-reconciling and glorifying operations.
Meyer thinks that “things of entirely diverse natures are mingled together” in these words (Leben Jesu, II. 1385).7 So Paul might seem to him to mingle things of different natures, Rom_3:26, but the δικαιοσύνη θεοῦ is but one.
1. By Chrysostom, Beza, etc., Lücke, Meyer, the passage is construed to mean the righteousness of Christ (“guiltlessness,” which is too weak a term in this connection); comp. 1Ti_3:16.8 This view, Tholuck thinks, is untenable in the absence of a μου in connection with δικαιοσύνη; in addition to this objection, we would state that “the going to the Father” and “the seeing Christ no more,” must receive their share of consideration.
2. By Cyril, Augustine, Calvin, Luther, Gerlach, Stier, it is interpreted as significant of the righteousness that comes of faith, in the Pauline sense.9 Controverted by Tholuck on the ground that in the writings of Paul δικαιοσύνη is the central idea, but in those of John that position is occupied by ζωή. Hence he thinks to interpret the word in accordance with the Johannean usage exemplified elsewhere (1Jn_2:29; 1Jn_3:7; 1Jn_3:10), as indicative of moral purity or “Rechtbeschaffenheit” (righteous nature, to use the abortive term that has sprung up of late). But if we consider that the moral purity of Christ is infinitely positive, that it is the moral purity not of a child, but of the Lord of glory, we find that this exposition coincides with No. 1; irrespective of the fact that the lack of μου might with equal justice be complained of here.—Besides, the word is introduced entirely without limitation. The old world pronounced the Lord a sinner (Joh_9:24); in His crucifixion it set Him forth as sin itself, as the enemy of man κατ’ ἐξοχήν, and treated Him as such;—the Holy Ghost will subvert the world’s old views in reference to Christ and, together with these, its views of the righteousness of God and the human life itself.
The expression, and ye see Me no more [καὶ οὐκέτι θεωρεῖτέ με], is interpreted by Meyer as an affectionate participation in the disciples’ grief at their parting—an idea utterly incongruous with the context. It is likewise in accordance with righteousness that Christ, in His exaltation, is removed from the sinful world until His appearance in judgment; hence His kingdom this side of eternity must be a kingdom of the cross, and the world can reach Him only through faith.10 The full glory of righteousness is still in the hereafter with Christ, and not until the Last Day shall it appear.
[The explanation of δικαιοσύνη has caused more difficulty than that of ἁμαρτία. Commentators are divided, as has already been stated, on the question whether δικαιοσύνη here means the personal and inherent righteousness of Christ (as maintained by the ancient Greek and the majority of modern exegetes), or the communicated, justifying righteousness apprehended by faith (as vigorously advocated by the reformers and recently by Stier). Dr. Lange rightly sides with the former view, but gives it, in his own original way, the most comprehensive meaning, in accordance with his exposition of the δικαιοσύνη θεοῦ in Rom_1:17; Rom_3:26. (Comp. my annotations in the Comm. on Rom., pp. 74 f., 134 ff). To me it is very clear that the personal righteousness or absolute sinless perfection of Christ is meant, and not justification by faith (although this, of course, rests on the former), for the following reasons: 1. δικαιοσύνη is plainly the opposite to ἁμαρτία, and Christ is the subject of “righteousness,” as the world is the subject of “sin.” (Stier and Alford, who take δικ. in the sense of justification of the sinner, consistently make κόσμος the subject not only of ἁμαρτίας but also of δικαιοσύνης and κρίσεως, which is unnatural). The absolute holiness of Christ is the only full and proper antithesis to the sin of the world, which centres in unbelief, as the mother of sins from Adam’s disobedience down to the rejection of Christ in our day. 2. The explanatory ὅτι πρὸς τὸν πατέρα, etc., refers to Christ, not to us, and gives the proof of His righteousness, not ours. It was by the triumphant exaltation of Christ to the right hand of the Father and His invisible reign, that He, who had been sent to death as a “sinner,” yea as a blasphemer and impostor (Joh_18:30; Joh_9:24), was vindicated by God Himself and demonstrated by the testimony of the Paraclete, through the apostles, as the δίκαιος, the pure and holy one (comp. Act_2:33 ff; Act_3:14; Act_7:52; Rom_1:4; 1Pe_3:18; 1Jn_2:1; 1Jn_2:29; 1Jn_3:7). The other interpretation would require the mention of Christ’s expiatory death (comp. Joh_6:51; Joh_17:19), as the explanatory ground of justification, rather than His exaltation to glory. 3. John uses δικαιοσύνη always in its proper sense of righteousness (1Jn_2:29; 1Jn_3:7; 1Jn_3:10; Rev_19:11), not of justification, which corresponds to the Greek δικαίωσις—a term unknown to John’s vocabulary. 4. He expresses the Pauline idea of justification in opposition to condemnation not so much in its legal as in its moral aspects and in connection with its effects upon the soul by the familiar phrase: “He that believeth on Christ, hath eternal life” (Joh_3:16; Joh_4:14; Joh_5:24; Joh_6:27; Joh_6:40; Joh_6:47; Joh_12:50; 1Jn_2:25; 1Jn_5:11; 1Jn_5:13).—It is perfectly true, however, that according to John as well as Paul, Christ’s righteousness becomes our righteousness by faith. Christ is the Lord our Righteousness. He did not come down to lead a holy life for Himself, for He was holy from eternity, but for our benefit, that we may become partakers of His righteousness, and so also sharers of His exaltation to the Father in glory. It is in this way that Archdeacon Hare, Dean Alford, and Bishop Words-worth endeavor to combine the two interpretations. “If the conviction of righteousness,” says Hare (p. 135 f.), “which the Spirit works in us, were merely the conviction of God’s righteousness, or of Christ’s, we could only fall to the ground with awestruck, palsied hearts: we could no more venture to look upon Christ, than the naked eye can look upon the sun. But when we are thoroughly convinced that Christ’s righteousness is our righteousness, the righteousness which He purposes to bestow upon mankind,—that He came to fulfil all righteousness, not for His own sake but for ours, in order that He might give us all that we lack out of His exceeding abundance,—then indeed a bright ray of joy and comfort darts through the heart, startling the frost-bound waters out of their yearlong sleep. Then the soul, which before was a wilderness and a solitary place, solitary, because God was far from it,—yea, the barren desert of the heart rejoices and blossoms like the rose. All its hidden powers, all its suppressed feelings, so long smothered by the unresisted blasts of the world, unfold like the rose-leaves before the Sun of Righteousness; and each and all are filled and transpierced with its gladdening, beautifying light.” Comp. also the note of Alford, who closely follows Stier.—P. S.]
Joh_16:11. With respect to judgment, etc. [περὶ δὲ κρίσεως, ὅτι ὁ ἄρχων τοῦ κόσμου τούτου κέκριται].—Act the third. Elucidation of the judgment. The prince of this world appears therein as judged. The judgment executed upon the devil through the death and resurrection of Christ, is the central appearance of all God’s judgments in the history of the world until the end of the world; an appearance fully illuminated by means of the spiritual manifestation of the cross, or the accursed tree,—to which Satan brought Christ,—as the sign of victory. Thus the Holy Ghost subverts the old view of the world, which made misfortune and the cross a sign of reprobation, but held the momentarily successful issue of Satanic plots to be a sign of the favor “of heaven.” To that principiary judgment, consummated on the cross, the victory over the tempter in the wilderness (Matthew 4.), and that over the traitor in the midst of the disciples (Joh_13:30), were introductory: it must, however, as the consummation, be distinguished from those. This principiary consummated judgment has been in process of development throughout the world’s history ever since the time of Christ and shall become evident on that day when the world is judged.
[For a full and able practical exposition of this conviction of judgment see Hare’s fourth Sermon (pp. 162 ff.) and his ample notes. Luther is quite in his element here, when, in his bold, defiant, triumphant tone, he carries on as it were the word of God, and applies it to his own times. “Christ,” says he, “here speaks very grandly and boldly. Not only, He says, shall all emperors, kings, princes, or others, who rage against God’s word, be condemned along with their judgment, but the prince of this world himself, who has more might and strength in his little finger than all the world together. And the gospel shall not only be judge over flesh and blood, nay, not only over some of Satan’s angels or devils, but over the prince himself, who has the whole world mightily in his hands, and is the all-wisest, mightiest and thereto the all-fiercest enemy of God and His Christians, so that everything which is great, mighty and wicked among men is nothing in comparison with him….Therefore it behooves us not to dread or care for their judgment and condemnation, because we hear that it shall not harm us, but is already powerless, being condemned by God’s contrary judgment, so that they shall not work or effect anything against us, however fiercely they rage against us with their condemnation, persecution and murder, but must finally and forever remain under condemnation, which is passed against them both by God, and by us who judge after and by His word. And Christendom shall maintain the supreme judgment, and shall abide, as it has done hitherto, in spite of the devil and the world.” This is the same spirit that breathes in Luther’s “Ein’ feste Burg.”—P. S.]
Joh_16:12-15. The Holy Ghost as the Spirit of the development of Christianity, and of the revelation of the future.
Joh_16:12. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. [Ἔτι πολλὰ ἔχω λέγειν ὑμῖν, ἀλλ’ οὐ δύνασθε βαστάζειυ ἀρτι].—Ye cannot bear them now. Βαστάζειν. Cannot bear them mentally; i.e. in the first place, ye are intellectually unable to comprehend them; doubtless, however, it also means, ye are morally incapable of supporting them. What is Jesus’ meaning? Interpretations:
1. New articles of doctrine are intended. Tradition and its dogmas. Roman Catholic exegetes, Meyer also in measure. The latter does not pretend that the πολλά are specified, but he too conceives of the relation of new to old as additional (“for neither can we imagine the oral instruction of the Apostles to be fully set down in their Epistles”); he does not consider the new as an organic development of the old.
2. Sufferings to be endured by the disciples.
3. New forms of truth, in itself already familiar. Thomas Aquinas: “Non nova fidei mysteria, sed novo tantum modo (sc. altiori) docebit.”
4. New developments and applications of truth already known. Ancient Protestant interpretation, Lücke.
5. The entire ecclesiastical development of doctrine. Hegelian exegetes. Against this view Tholuck remarks: “The latter extension is manifestly in opposition to the context. Doubtless the promises made to the apostolic disciples, including those contained in the Sermon on the Mount and in Matthew 10, must admit of an application to the disciples generally;—they can, however, only relatively be thus applied; even Hofmann, II., 2, 245 ff., says in reality nothing more than this. Now the persons here addressed are none other than those μάρτυρες ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς, Joh_15:27, those to whom Joh_17:18 applies, for whom He prays first, Joh_17:9, reserving His petitions for other believers on Him until later, Joh_16:20.” Against the “development view” see Tholuck still further, p. 387. We agree with him in thinking that reference is not again had to the general development of Christian doctrine; that having already been treated of in Joh_14:26. Tholuck, with justice, directs attention to the expression: τὰ ἐρχόμενα ἀναγγελεῖ; the term ἀναγγελεῖ, be it observed, occurs three times in succession.
Hence 6. Christ has in view the apocalyptic disclosures of apostolic Christianity in its more developed stage; revelations, for instance, concerning the perfect emancipation of Christianity from Judaism, Acts 10, set forth also in the life of St. Paul, Eph_3:8-9; preëminently those eschatological revelations reposing upon evangelical premises, which appear in the Revelation of St. John, in the Epistles to the Thessalonians, Rom_11:25; 1Ti_4:1. Thus Albertus M.: “Non solum futura in tempore, sed magis æterna, ad quorum amorem inflammabunt.” Tholuck. The æterna are not to be excluded, we admit; the ultima, however, occupy the foreground of the picture. Of course these proclamations of things to come are principially contained in the communications hitherto made to the disciples, especially in the eschatological discourses of the Lord. Nevertheless, the theocratic and apocalyptic revelations as subsequently received by the Apostles (Acts 10; 2 Thessalonians 2; the Apocalypse), constituted new matter in the development of the kingdom of God, never before revealed with such distinctness.
Joh_16:13. But when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into the whole (full) truth. [Ὅταν δὲ ἔλθῃ ἐκεῖνος, τὸ πνεῦμα τῆς ἀληθείας, ὁδηγήσει ὑμᾶς εἰς τὴν ἀλήθειαν πᾶσαν].—See the Textual Notes. Lachmann’s reading suits the apocalyptic items of apostolic experience far better than does that of Tischendorf: ἐν τῇ ἀληθείᾳ πάσῃ. The emphatic position of πᾶσα is indicative of the new points of revelation.—On The Spirit of truth, see Joh_14:17.
[Rightly understood, this important passage proves the sufficiency of the Scriptures. The πᾶσαν after τ. ἀλ. expresses the truth in its completeness or totality; comp. Joh_16:22 : τὴν κρίσιν πᾶσαν. The article is important: the whole truth, the full truth. The A. V. (into all truth), and all the preceding E. Versions, as also Luther in his G. V. (in alle Wahrheit, instead of die ganze or volle Wahrheit), miss the sense of the original by omitting the article. It is not omniscience or any kind of speculative or scientific truth which is promised, but the full knowledge of living, practical truth as it is in Christ, and as it relates to our soul’s salvation. The Bible is not a universal encyclopædia of knowledge, but an infallible guide of religious faith and moral practice. Luther corrects his faulty translation in his comments. “This truth,” he says, “which the Holy Spirit is to teach them, is not such a doctrine and knowledge as reason of itself can understand and hit upon…for the Holy Spirit and Christ’s Church do not concern themselves with things which are subject to man’s understanding and which belong to this temporal life and to worldly rule…but treat of far other matters, how God’s children are to be begotten out of sin and death unto righteousness and everlasting life, how God’s kingdom is to be established and the kingdom of hell to be destroyed, how we are to fight against the devil and to overcome him, how to cheer, strengthen and uphold faith, so that a man shall continue alive in the midst of death, and even under the consciousness of sin shall preserve a good conscience and the grace of God.” Alford: “All the truth, viz. on those points alluded to in Joh_16:12….The Lord had told them the truth and nothing but the truth, in spiritual things, but not yet the whole truth, because they could not bear it. This the Spirit should lead them into, open the way to it, and unfold it by degrees. No promise of universal knowledge, nor of infallibility, is hereby conveyed; but a promise to them and us, that the Holy Spirit shall teach and lead us, not as children, under tutors and governors of legal and imperfect knowledge, but as sons (Gal_4:6), making known to us the whole truth of God. This was in a special manner fulfilled to them, as set to be the founders and teachers of the churches.”—Yet in a certain sense, the Spirit of God alone can lead us into all truth, even in temporal and human things, since the love of truth is inseparable from the love of God, and the perfect knowledge of truth from the knowledge of God, which comes from the Spirit of God, the true illuminator of the human intellect darkened and distorted by sin and its bosom companion, error. See some excellent remarks on this passage by Hare, 1. c. Note B., pp. 224 ff.—P. S.]
For He shall not speak of Himself. [Οὐ γὰρ λαλήσει ἀφ’ ἑαυτοῦ, ἀλλ’ ὃσα ἂν ἀκούει (ἀκούσῃ) λαλήσει, καὶ τὰ ἐρχόμενα ἀναγγελεῖ ὑμῖν].—See above Joh_14:26. Luther: “Thus He imposeth a limit and measure (a basis and principle) to the preaching of the Holy Ghost Himself; He is to preach nothing new, nothing other than Christ and His Word;—to the end that we might have a sure sign, a certain test, whereby to judge false spirits.” Thus the Spirit is conditioned by the Son, as the Son is by the Father, Joh_5:19.
Whatsoever He hath heard [heareth; on the different readings, ἀκούει, ἀκούσῃ, ἀκούσει, see Text. Notes.—P. S.].—I.e. such historical things as He, as the Spirit of believers and of the Church, has heard from Christ, either directly or indirectly: 1. Heard from Christ (Olshausen, Kling, etc.); 2. from God (Meyer); 3. from both (Luthardt [Alford, Godet]). A hearing from God on the part of the Spirit, a hearing independent of history, is not a clear idea at all; it would, moreover, set the revelation of the Spirit, as a separate one, by the side of that of the Son.—Things to come.—See notes on Joh_16:12. [Tὰ ἐρχόμενα are especially the eschatological doctrines scattered through the Acts and the Epistles and most fully in the Apocalypse; see Rev_1:1; Rev_22:6; Rev_22:20.—P. S.]
[Joh_16:14. He will glorify me, ἐκεῖνος ἐμὲ δοξάσει.—The Son reveals and glorifies the Father, the Spirit reveals and glorifies the Son. ἐκεῖνος is emphatic and clearly implies, as this whole discourse does, the personality of the Holy Spirit, ἐμέ is also emphatic. The Spirit alone gives us a living knowledge of Christ as our Lord and Saviour, and makes us partakers of His very life and all His benefits. The sole aim of the Son is to glorify the Father, the sole aim of the Spirit to glorify the Son. A mysterious rivalry, so to speak, of divine love, whose very essence is to do all for the beloved. How much more should man’s sole aim and end be to glorify God.—P. S.]
For He will take of what is Mine [ὃτι ἐκ τοῦ ἐμοῦ λήμψεται καὶ ἀναγγελεῖ ὑμῖν].—This, too, in reference to what the Spirit shall proclaim. Everything that shall appear until the arrival of the great Epiphany, is not only actually enclosed in Christ, but also germinally expressed in His word. [Alford. “This verse is decisive against all additions and pretended revelations subsequent to and besides Christ; it being the work of the Spirit to testify and to declare the things of Christ, not anything new and beyond Him. And this declaration is coincident with inward advance in the likeness and image of Christ (2Co_3:17-18), not with a mere external development.” Comp. also Wordsworth in loc.—P. S.]
Joh_16:15. All things that the Father hath, etc. [Πάντα ὃσα ἔχει ό πατήρ, ἐμά ἐστιν̇ διὰ τοῦτο εἶπον ὑμῖν ὅτι ἐκ τοῦ ἐμοῦ λαμβάνει καὶ ἀναγγελεῖ ὑμῖν].—As the entire ante-Christian revelation of the Father, through the medium of the creation and the Old Testament, is embraced in Christ (Col_2:3; Col_2:9; 2Co_1:20), so Christ is also the source of the entire post-Christian development of the new world until the Epiphany, together with all the revelations concerning that advent. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever, Heb_13:8.
[Here again, as in Joh_15:26, we have an incidental, but all the more convincing argument for the Trinity, both in its internal relation, as a living intercommunion and interpenetration of Father, Son, and Spirit in self-communicating infinite love, and in its external, self-revealing action upon the world for its salvation. The essential unity of Father, Son, and Spirit is implied in πάντα—ἐμά ἐστιν and ἐκ τοῦ ἐμοῦ, the tripersonality is clearly taught in the verbs ἔχει of the Father, εὶπον of the Son, λαμβάνει and ἀναγγελεῖ of the Spirit. Christ distinguishes Himself both from the Father and from the Spirit, and yet claims the whole fulness of the Father (πάντα ὅσα ἔχει), as His own (comp. Col_2:3), and communicates His fulness to the Spirit. The unlimited πάντα reveals His consciousness of the astounding grandeur of His person and mediatorial work. At the same time we must infer from this passage a certain subordination, not indeed of essence (for this is one and the same, and is incapable of division or multiplication), but of dignity and office; for the Son derives His life from the Father (comp. Joh_5:26 ἔδωκεν τ υἱῶ ζωὴν ἕχειν ἐν ἑαυτῷ), and the Spirit takes and receives His fulness from the Son. The present λαμβάνει (the true reading against λήψεται of Elz., which is a correction from Joh_16:14) indicates a standing relation and permanent function, which necessarily precedes the future ἀναγγελεῖ and refers, like the future δοξάσει and λήμψεται, Joh_16:14, to the economical Trinity, the pentecostal and post-pentecostal action of the Spirit in His relation to the exalted Saviour and to the Church. Calvin correctly: “Hic non tam de arcana et intrinseca, ut sic loquar, potentia disserit guam de injuncto sibi erga nos officio. Denique suas divitias prædicat, ut nos ad fruendum invitet.” Olshausen: “This passage has special importance for the proper conception of the Scripture doctrine of the Trinity (comp. Mat_28:19), in that it clearly exhibits the living, interexistence of Father, Son and Spirit, and is equally opposed to the Arian subordination and to a mechanical, wooden, though orthodox co-ordination of the persons of the trias.” Meyer explains the whole passage: “I have a full right to designate the divine truth which He (the Spirit) will reveal as My property, for all which the Father has, i.e., according to the context, the whole possession of the truth of the Father (der gesammte Wahrheitsbesitz des Vaters) belongs to Me as the Son who was in intuitive communion with the Father (Joh_1:18), who came out from the Father (Joh_8:42), who am consecrated (Joh_10:30) and sent to fulfil His work, who also continually live and move in the Father and the Father in Me (Joh_17:10). Observe the emphatic and comprehensive πάντα ὃσα, as the major proposition to the conclusion from the general to the particular; hence the less to be restricted to the announcement of the future (with Grotius and Hengstenberg).” Alford: “This verse contains the plainest proof by inference of the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity.”—P. S.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The first subject which has engaged our attention is the relation which the disciples sustain to the departure of the Lord, chap. 13. In reference to this the καινὴ ἐντολή is given them. Then follows an intimation of relation to the Lord in heaven. In view of that, they have received the promise of the Holy Ghost; first as the Spirit of Christ and the Church in general, subsequently as the Spirit of knowledge and enlightenment, chap 14. By means of this Spirit they are to abide in Christ, like the branches in the vine, in order to the production of true fruit. In order, first, to the production of brotherly love, the specific fruit of Christianity. This brings us to a consideration of the mutual relationship of the disciples, and, further, to their attitude towards the ungodly hatred of the world. In view of this latter, the Holy Ghost is promised them, as the Spirit of martyr faithfulness, chap Joh_15:26 to Joh_16:6 After which, their relation to the divine destiny of the world is treated of. In order to the realization of this, the Spirit of victorious strength, mighty to the overcoming of the world, is promised them, chap Joh_16:7-11. Finally, the discourse turns upon their relation to the development of Christianity in the world and the development of the world in Christianity, a process to continue until the consummation of all things. In reference to this last-named relationship, they receive the promise of the Spirit of apocalyptical annunciation, chap Joh_16:12-16. It is then promised them that they shall celebrate a new life in spiritual communion with Christ, chap Joh_16:17-27, and in conclusion the Lord bestows upon them a momentary foretaste of the Pentecostal feast, with a view to strengthening them for His departure, chap Joh_16:28-33.
2. Chapter 15 contains a dissertation upon the glorification of this present life through its conversion into an heavenly one, by means of that spiritual fellowship with the heavenly Christ which is enjoyed by the disciples here. This heavenly life shall be revealed in a two-fold manner: (1) by the cordial brotherly love and fellowship of Christians; (2) by the fact that they, by their spiritual life, excite the hatred of the whole ungodly world, yet manfully stand their ground against it and overcome it with the testimony of Christ, in the strength of the Holy Spirit.
3. Christ the real Vine. Earthly things mere shadows and similitudes of heavenly realities.—The most prominent symbols of Israel in the Old Testament are the palm tree (see Psa_92:12), the olive tree (Jer_11:16), and especially the vine, or the vineyard (see Gen_49:11; Isa_5:1 and the New Testament parallels; Jer_2:21; Eze_17:6-8, etc.). The vine, first cultivated and improved by Noah, though he was not the first to drink of its fruit (Mat_24:38; see Calwer Naturgeschichte), was especially fitted to be the symbol of Israel by the contrast of its insignificant appearance and its fine and generous nature (baseness and dignity); by the contrast of its immense need of culture and training and its generous fruit which not only refreshes, but inspirits man; by the contrast of its useless, dead wood and the fulness of blessing which waits upon its living branches; by the fair shade of its magnificent leaves, the sweet perfume of its delicate blossoms, the healthful, even healing refreshment of its generous clusters, the festive effect of its juice and its wine upon the human intellect and heart (Psalms 104); by the contrast of its natural tendency to put forth its strength in luxuriant branches and its tendency when under cultivation, to bear rich fruit; finally, by the contrast of its misgrowth as evidenced by sour, wild grapes and its thriftiness as evinced in sweet, ripe clusters. But being the symbol of Israel, it is also, together with Israel itself, the symbol of the New Testament kingdom of God. Hence Christ is the real Vine in respect of His connection with mankind, in particular, the believing portion of mankind, the Theocracy, the kingdom of God, the Church. In this figure there appears the true idea of the universe, and particularly of the kingdom of God. It is a noble plant; hence it demands the care which we perceive to have been exercised by divine Providence in the history of the world, and it is destined to bring to maturity the precious fruit of refreshment to the human heart, the fruit of the divine and blessed life of love, the fruit of heavenly, festal mirth and joy attendant upon that life. But the simile, as enlarged upon in the text, will be our best informant as to the manifold relations of the life of Christ, adumbrated in the symbol of the vine. Believers are regarded as the branches, in respect of their close connection with the Lord. Their need of suffering finds a parallel in the demand of the branches for the pruning knife. Their remaining in the Vine is considered as a remaining in it, not in respect of the external connection of the wood simply, but in respect of the internal connection consisting in the fruit-bearing impulse; in view of this latter connection, the wild wood on the vine itself is degenerate and must needs be lopped off. Finally, the exceeding combustibility of the withered branches which have been cut off, is taken into consideration. See the Exegetical Note.
It is worthy of remark still further, that the figure of the Vine has not the following for its meaning alone: viz. the Father hath planted Christ in mankind; its full sense is this: He hath made Him the foundation of mankind and the world; He hath made Him the principle and the centre of them. It is apparent at once that the parable has a special bearing upon the contrast of the disciples who have remained faithful, and Judas.
The figure of the Vine and the Branches is supplemented in reference to other of Christ’s relations to His people, by the symbols of the Shepherd and the Flock, the Head and the Members, the Corner-stone and the Stones built upon it, the Bridegroom and the Bride.
4. Without Me ye can do nothing. The Christian life is so entirely dependent upon Christ, so entirely and organically dependent, that a man can accomplish nothing Christ-like and God-like without the most cordial connection with Christ. We might go still further and affirm: without the Logos no man can do anything at all, not so much as exist (Heb_1:3); but here we are speaking of a doing of the Vine. And as, on the one hand, this doing is purely dependent on Christ, so, on the other hand, it is an organic co-living, co-working with the Vine, not a mere efficiency through mechanical impulsion. The passage is, in truth, utterly subversive of the views entertained by Pelagius; at the same time, however, it does not confirm the Augustine doctrine in its extravagances.
5. Love is the source of the Vine and its history. The love of the Father to the Son appears in the figure of the Vine-tiller who has planted the Vine and tendeth it; the love of the Son to the disciples is revealed in His appropriation of them to Himself as His branches and His communication to them of His heart’s life. They must prove themselves to be true branches by fruits of love. Christ now adds warnings to the consolations hitherto presented by Him.
6. But as the fire of the grape is evinced by its producing a joyous enthusiasm, so the fire of Christ’s love is manifested in the joy of His Holy Spirit; and it is designed to be manifested as the spirit of joy in and through the disciples also, Joh_15:11-17. First as a mutual brotherly love. It is conjointly only that the single clusters, the single branches, make the wine of joy.
7. Abide in My love.—I.e., continue to experience and contemplate My love. This is the idea of justification by faith. It is conditional upon the keeping of Christ’s commandments, i.e. obedience to His word. The justification of the disciples, Joh_15:9, rests in the righteousness of Christ, Joh_15:10. They develop in perfect joy, or in the life of the Holy Ghost and the fruits of brotherly love. See Note on clause 2 of Joh_15:10.
8. Love, as joy in personal life (a prototype of that rapture which is the effect of the vine, Psalms 104.), is exercised in the centering of a man’s aspirations upon the living of a life in the Spirit, hence, also, upon the perfect joy of a mind fully conscious of fellowship with God and Christ, and of the possession of eternal life in the kingdom of love.
9. The farewell discourses a foretaste of the Pentecostal feast. See Note on Joh_15:15.
10. Servant and friend. See Notes on Joh_15:14-15.
11. Love being the gravitation of hearts and minds, in personal conduct, towards the centre of all personal life, it is thence evidenced that it is a fundamental characteristic of the world to hate, for, as an ungodly world, it gravitates, with a perverted force, toward the finite, toward things impersonal or unsubstantial, out into darkness and into the midst of death. Hate stands in the centre of evil betwixt falsehood and death, just as love occupies the centre of good between light and life. And as these last three characteristics are the fundamental traits of Christ, so, in like manner, the first three are the characteristics of the Prince of this world (Joh_8:44) and, hence, of the world itself. Now if its peculiar propensity be to hate, it is natural that this propensity, diametrically opposed as it is to the Spirit of Christ, should first attain to full development by feeding upon Him and then spend itself upon the disciples.
12. The consummation of sin, in view of the word of Christ, Joh_15:22. Unbelief the second fall.
13. Promise of the Holy Ghost (see Note to Joh_15:26). The disciples have need of Him: (1) that they may not be overcome by the hatred of the world; (2) that they may overcome the world with the Spirit of love.
14. The shame and sufferings of Christ fraught, for His disciples, with the peril of becoming offended at Him; a peril made manifest in its full magnitude by the night of passion; rendered impotent, however, as far as His people were concerned, by His warning proclamation. See Note to chap. 16, Joh_16:1.
15. Christ must needs go away, in order that the Holy Ghost might come. His departure was not necessary, as some might think, simply because He had to send Him, for He was perfectly able to summon Him hither while Himself still abiding in this world; it was necessary that His disciples should, from viewing Him with the eye of sense, come to look upon Him with the eye of the spirit; that they should pass from a contemplation of separate details of His life to the view of it as a total. He must be completely withdrawn from them, in order to become fully alive in them and to be formed in them. They must first despair utterly of His external glory, before His inward and eternal glory could arise upon them.—They must be completely submerged in the depths of their inner selves, in order that they might be fully translated into Him. See Leben Jesu, II. 1379.
16. The personality of the Holy Spirit. The three great operations of the Holy Ghost at His coming. See Notes on Joh_16:8-11.
17. The work of the Holy Ghost in its relation to the work of Christ. See Notes on Joh_16:12-13. On the theological distinction of four offices of the Holy Ghost see works on doctrinal theology.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Christ’s parable of the Vine, and its interpretation: 1. As expressive of the Christian’s cordial, vital fellowship with Christ; 2. of his faithful fellowship of love with the brethren; 3. of his firm fellowship of salvation with the hating world; 4. of his victorious spiritual fellowship with the Holy Ghost.—Heavenly things not symbols of earthly things, but the converse.—How does Christ found His heaven upon earth?—Saying concerning the Vine: 1. The Vinedresser and His ministry; 2. the Vine and its operations; 3. the branches and their work; 4. the fruit and its effect.—he genuine and the false branches, or the difference between a merely extrinsic connection with Christ and a lively connection, grounded within, at the same time that it is outwardly evident.—The solemn position of the Christian in the figure of the branch: 1. Dependence upon Christ is the condition of his life (without Me, etc.); 2. he must be purged by the Father’s knife (Joh_15:2); 3. he may lapse from his connection with the Vine and go to destruction (may run wild, be lopped off, cast away, dried up, gathered, burnt); 4. he must evidence his branchhood by the noblest fruit.—The solemn and glorious position of the Christian in the figure of the branch: 1. The solemn position: see the foregoing remarks; 2. the glorious position: a. a planting of God, an object upon which God’s eye ever rests; b. one with Christ in a historical and spiritual connection; a partaker in His salvation and His Spirit; c. one with all the faithful in the communion of salvation and the Spirit; d. destined to refresh and rejuvenate the fainting world in her sickness and hour of death.—The wine of love is designed to inspire the world, worn out with hatred, with new vigor.—The great and decisive difference between true and false branches: 1. The outward semblance of similarity (or the semblance of superiority on the part of the wild shoots); 2. the inward difference: a. these spend themselves in the finest and most precious fruit, those in the most useless wood; b. these kindle a beautiful fire of life, those are consumed in the flame of death.—As the vine is more a child of the heavenly sun than of the earthly soil, so is the Christian.
The abiding in Christ: 1. Whereby conditioned: the keeping of His commandments, i.e. the preservation of His word in the obedience of faith; 2. Wherein consisting: in abiding in the contemplation and experience of His love; 3. How blessed: with the blessing of the word, with the blessing of prayer, with the blessing of the work, of joy, of the Spirit.—Christ’s love to His people, the model for their brotherly love: 1. The greatness of His love (in laying down His life); 2. the cordiality and intimacy of His love (friends); 3. the freedom of His love (chosen you); 4. the holiness of His love (established you that ye might bring forth fruit).—It is only in the faithful exercise of brotherly love that Christians overcome the hatred of the world.—The attitude of Christians towards the hatred of the world: 1. They think on the experience of the Lord (clear view); 2. on their vocation (valiant imitation); 3. on the guilt of the world (steadfastness in being hated without a cause); 4. on the Holy Ghost’s office as Witness (faithful martyrdom).—The world’s hatred of witnesses of the Gospel: 1. A hatred of Christ; 2. a hatred of the Father; 3. a suicidal hatred of the cause of her own life.—The flight of the world before the power of personal life: 1. From the truth of it (Pantheism); 2. from the demonstration of it (unbelief of the Gospel); 3. from the founding of it (turning away from the love-kingdom of Christianity).—The witness-ship of the faithful in the witness-strength of the Holy Ghost: 1. This witness-ship calls for this witness-strength; 2. this witness-strength demands this witness-ship.—The Lord’s warning against offence at His shame and cross.—The excommunication and outlawry to which the world sentences the witnesses of Jesus: 1. In a (brutal or polished) secular form; 2. in ecclesiastical form; 3. in a sectarian form.—That ye may remember, Joh_15:4.
Christ’s home-going in its two-fold effect upon the disciples: 1. In its deeply distressing effect upon their natural feeling; 2. in its highly exalting effect upon their life of faith.—The departure of the first Comforter, the arrival of the second.—Why must it be that Christ must go away? See the Doct. and Eth. Notes.—The infinitely quiet and secret, and yet all-powerful, victorious entry of the Holy Ghost into the world.—His office 1. In the world: an office of attesting, convincing, reproving and judging; 2. In the Church: an office of guiding, explaining, revealing, and of glorifying Christ.
The convincing and convicting of the world: 1. In respect of its subject: a. of the one sin in which all sins are embraced; b. of the one righteousness wherein all righteousness is manifested and fulfilled; c. of the one judgment in which all judgments are decided and grounded. 2. In respect of its effect: the convincement of men’s opinions, minds, consciences, hearts.
How the Holy Ghost loads the children of truth into all truth: 1. He leads them, not away from Christ (roving, visionary spirits), but unto Christ (Spirit of the Church); 2. He adheres to gospel words and facts and explains them (whatsoever He shall hear); 3. He unfolds what there is of a prophetic nature in Christian truth—the love of the future; 4. He glorifies the Christ to come in the present of the Church’s life.—The Holy Ghost as the Mediator of the perfect community of possessions existing between Christ and Christians.—How He conducts them into the whole inheritance of God, Joh_15:15.
On the Gospel for the Sunday after Ascension Day, Joh_15:26 to Joh_16:4. Pray for the coming of the Spirit when the hatred of the world arrays itself against you.—For this hottest of temptations, God affords help by the sending of the Holy Spirit.—The martyrdom of Christians begins simultaneously with the true Christianity of the Spirit.—The coming of the Holy Ghost considered with reference to the riches of His names: 1. The (other) Mediator; 2. the (other) Helper; 3. the (other) Awakener; 4. the (other) Comforter.—The marvellous coming of the Comforter: 1. How it adds new sufferings to the old ones (the sufferings of the martyrs); 2. how it transforms the old sufferings together with the new ones into joy.—The martyrdom of true Christianity and the inquisition of false.—The ban of the sanctuary and the ban of fanaticism.—The cross of patience and the cross as the standard of persecution (crusades against the Albigenses and Waldenses).—The horrible festivals of faith of religious persecutions (autos-da-fe: in a broader sense “festivals of faith”).—The perseverant patience of the Saints.
On the Gospel for the Fourth Sunday after Easter, chap Joh_16:5-15. The sending of the Holy Ghost: 1. Dependent upon a painful condition (the departure of Christ); 2. glorious in its intrinsic value (victory over the world); 3. heavenly in its aim (the communion of the Holy Ghost, the glorification of Christ, the communion of goods with the Father).—As all the sad moments in the life of Jesus have been changed into joyful ones, so it is with His departure: 1. How this holds good with regard to all the earlier moments (His birth in poverty, His pilgrimage under the form of a servant, His death on the cross); 2. and how it is specially applicable to His going home through the medium of His departure from earth.—The Ascension, viewed under its two-fold aspect: 1. Wrapped in the gloom of Good Friday,—one with Good Friday; 2. bathed in the light of Easter and Pentecost,—one with Easter and Pentecost.—Christ’s going away—or not until Christ went away, did He come to us in His most glorious form.—How the Lord meets His disciples’ extreme depression (which does not so much as venture the question: Whither goest Thou?) with the loftiest elevation of His spirit (the word: It is expedient for you).—Weaning of the babes of the Spirit, Joh_16:7.—Wonderful relation between Christ and the Holy Ghost: 1. Christ must go in order that the Spirit may come; 2. the Spirit is not permitted to speak of Himself, to the end that Christ may remain.—The office of the Comforter an office of reproving: 1. True reproof as a comforting: 2. true consolation as a reproving.—The operations of the Spirit: 1. In the world (Joh_16:8-11); 2. in the Church (Joh_16:12-15).
Starke: Zeisius: Just as a vine-dresser treateth his vine, doth the Heavenly Father deal with the Lord Christ in His bitter afflictions, and He dealeth even thus, in measure, with all His faithful people.—Luther: God is a Master who possesseth the art of making things that are meant for our hindrance and injury turn to our advancement and profit; whatsoever would kill us, must conduce to our life; whatsoever would plunge us into sin and condemn us, must aid in strengthening our faith and hope, in adding power to our prayer, and bounty to the answering of it.—Hedinger: If God lay not the knife to the vine, its strength is consumed in useless shoots.—The word of the gospel the blessed means of bringing men to a condition of purification.—Zeisius: O the dignity, O the glory, of being a branch on the living Vine!—Love and obedience are bound up together.—Canstein: The love of God, of Christ and of a Christian maketh a three-fold cord that never can be broken.—O inexpressible felicity, to be exalted to the friendship of God!—Hedinger: Christ will have no forced selection of men, no soldiers by compulsion, no timorous slaves, but children, brethren, friends.—Canstein: The dignity of being God’s friend, Jam_2:3. Rom_8:15.—The gospel does not make slaves, but freemen, children, heirs.—On Joh_15:16. Grace doth in all things anticipate us.—1Pe_2:12; 1Pe_2:16.—Blessed is the man whom God loveth, though the whole world hate him.;—A Christian is a cross-bearer.—The member must conform to the example of the Head.
Joh_15:23. That which is done to the Lord Jesus and His members, be it good or evil, is done unto God Himself.
Joh_15:24. The greater unbelief, the heavier damnation.—Luther: There is no vice and no wickedness to which the world is so inimical as to the name of Christ and His gospel.
Joh_15:27. A Christian should bear witness to Christ by word and by confession, by his life and walk, and by suffering, and that with a single view to God’s honor.
On Joh_16:1; Luk_8:13.—Zeisius: As Cain persecuted Abel, so the false Church still persecutes the true, so misbelievers still persecute true believers, hypocrites and mouth-Christians those who are Christians in sincerity, Gal_4:29.
Joh_16:5. Ibid.: The whole Christian life a constant going to the Father.
Joh_16:8. Hedinger: The Spirit is not idle.—Zeisius: Everything, from the highest to the lowest, is subject to the Holy Ghost in His office of Reprover.—The reproving office of the Holy Ghost is as necessary to men as salt is to meat.
Joh_16:9. Unbelief is a sin such as reason knows nothing of; the Holy Ghost must make it manifest.—Unbelief a cause of all sin, distress and misery in time and eternity.
Joh_16:12. Canstein: Faithful preachers must, in the execution of their office, have regard to the condition of their hearers, that they may discover what they are able to comprehend.
Heubner: Spiritual strength flows from Christ into believers as really as sap from the stem penetrates into the branches.—The Father, the efficient cause of the entire redemptive provision in Christ; He hath set and planted and tended Christ.—Pruning is painful; it is effected by grievous trials, but it is good and salutary, more blessed than to be lopped off and cast away.
Joh_15:6. If it is a sad and menaceful thing to see one’s physical strength declining, and sensibly to draw nearer dissolution, what must spiritual consumption and decay be.
Joh_15:7. Steadfast abiding in Jesus: Jesus calls it the hearing of prayer, because everything in a man who has a living religion, turns to prayer—his thoughts, etc.—Jesus’ friendship the reward of the faithful.
Joh_15:15. A notable test of friendship—not to be making many presents, but to open the heart, to give that; that is more than to bestow all riches.—My openness towards another is a decisive mark of the confidence that I place in him. Jesus revealed to the apostles whatsoever He had heard from the Father; His most sacred thoughts, emotions, sentiments, therefore—the whole counsel of God.
Joh_15:1-16. The cordial and intimate connection of Jesus with His people.
Joh_15:17-27. An exhortation to patience even amidst persecutions.
Joh_15:17. The very commands of Jesus are love.—It is a great consolation for a persecuted, hated Christian to know that he has a like fate with Jesus. There is then, thus teaches Christ, a hatred towards Him, an antipathy to His person. To imagine that these were possible only in the case of personal acquaintance with Jesus, would be to judge superficially. Hate has an intellectual spring in intellectual beings; to this day there exists hatred toward Jesus.
Joh_15:27. And ye also shall bear witness. This passage is manifestly discriminative of a double testimony of the Apostles: a divine and a human testimony (inspired testimony and that founded upon what had come under their own observation).
Joh_16:1-2. A description of the sufferings of the first confessors of Christ, in particular, the martyrs (in the note, p. 457); a register of the histories of the martyrs.—Are religious persecutions to be laid to the charge of Christianity? No.—Religion, the supreme good, is exposed to the utmost abuse; to the danger of being made a cloak for malice and hate and the shedding of blood.—Gospel far the Sunday after Ascension Day: Joh_15:26 to Joh_16:4.—How Christ has been glorified in His Apostles. The call of the ancient martyrs to the later Christian world.—Joh_16:6. There is a true and a false grief at separation from our friends.
Joh_16:5-15. The divine enlightenment of the Apostles a fruit of Christ’s departure.—Brotherly correction a duty of love.—The ministry of reproof of Christian teachers.
Gerlach: The glorification of God centres in the prosperity of the Church of Christ.—The redeemed disciple is Jesus’ friend, without thereby ceasing to be His servant (that he is then, however, in a higher sense).—Chap. 16. He will not speak of Himself. These words are an irrefragable testimony to the personality of the Holy Ghost.
Braune: Everything that one friend can say to another concerning the spirit of the Christian Church, concerning the harmony in which she must live, her purity of morals, activity in love and increasing illumination, concerning the confidence which she must needs possess, and her separation from the wrong, is here uttered in the trustful tone of parting love (Herder).—Purification is not effected without pain; even vine-branches are said “to bleed,” when they are pruned.—Only let no breach be made in the bond of peace through vain glory or wrangling; else will prayer in Jesus’ name be hindered, everything will become worm-eaten and go to destruction (Rieger).—On Joh_16:2.
Joh_16:7. It is expedient for you that I go away. A saying of wondrous magnitude.—The Spirit’s work in regard to the world is comprised in the threefold operation of impressing her with a consciousness of sin, a consciousness of the holiness of Christ, the Redeemer from all sin, a consciousness of the impotence of the Wicked One; a conviction of the latter fact is adverse to the establishment of the devil’s kingdom.
Gossner, Joh_15:2 : Something must show itself; faithfulness must be evidenced; otherwise, if there be no result at all, a heavy judgment of God ensues.—Persecutors of Christians do not themselves constitute the vine-dresser; they are but pruning-knives; God is the Vine-dresser who guides the knife and casts it into the fire when it has entirely served His purpose (after Luther).
Joh_15:3. Through the word; The branches derive their holiness (purity) from the Vine.—Everywhere are all things ascribed to the word; not alone purification, as in this passage, but 1Pe_1:23 regeneration, Jam_1:18; Jam_1:21 the whole of salvation.
Joh_15:4. This, the spiritual indwelling of Christ in us, is all-important.
Joh_15:20. Either we must not profess to be servants of Christ, or we must put up with His cross. A good servant will not sit in the chimney-corner whilst his master’s life is in jeopardy.
Joh_15:24. Men do not care to have the name of haters of God, enemies of God; yet nevertheless, they put that name in practice in their works.
Joh_15:26-27. There are in the Church two inseparable witnesses for Jesus Christ: His Spirit and His word.
Joh_16:2. This hour, when it is thought to be a species of religious service to persecute the truth and the witnesses for the truth,—this hour is come; it is, and it shall cease only with the end of the world.—Since the rise of the Spanish Inquisition, it has burnt, from the year 1481 to 1808, no less than 34,358 Christians in person and 10,049 in effigy, etc.—Unbelief. And so this or that thing is not the sin that damns thee. The Holy Ghost says: this is the sin,—that thou believest not on Jesus; this condemns thee.
Joh_16:13. Such is the double office of the Holy Ghost: first He reproves and corrects, then He leads and guides, as a mother does her child.—All parties and sects, all speakers and gabblers, insist upon it that they have the Holy Ghost, and consequently demand that belief should be accorded to their words. But if we grasp for support these words of Jesus, we can repel them all, etc. Do but compare what they say with the word of Christ.
Schleiermacher: Concerning the purifying—purging—of the branches. The Lord has shown us in these words the uninterrupted progress of the Christian Church in purification, presupposing, at the same time, its continual development.—Clean for the word’s sake; It is the whole connection of His words, a connection discoverable, of course, in every individual word of His.—The word was the only means by which He could unite men to Himself, just as it is our sole power of communication with each other.—If we would not be involved in the destiny of being sundered from connection with the divine and higher life, and of being profitable only through the ashes that remain of us—if we would not have it so, then must this be the great rule of our whole life: without me ye can do nothing.—The Lord here abolishes all those distinctions, so often made by men, between things spiritual and secular, things temporal and eternal. In whatever sphere of life we may be, our work, if done without Christ, is nothing; and its nothingness shall ever become more and more manifest. There is no strength or fruitfulness in aught without Him.—The Comforter in His stead. In all who believe on the name of the Lord, the strength of truth is to become a life and a continual activity, proper and peculiar to themselves. For this cause His bodily, personal presence must be withdrawn, to the end that, with the help and through the strength of the divine Spirit, all things that Christ had given them might develop into a peculiar (personal) life,—a life independently self-communicative and filling the whole human world with the same blessing.
Besser: If the devil’s ill-will were the only thing needful, he would soon lay his knife to our throats and stifle us with his manure and the stench of it. But God taketh him in his hand and saith: Devil, I know well that thou art a murderer and miscreant, but I will make such use of thee as I will; thou shall be but My pruning-knife; the world and all that cleaveth unto thee shall be dung for My beloved vineyard, that it may prosper and improve (Luther).—If thou wilt not suffer the evil to be taken away from thee, thou wilt have to suffer thyself to be taken away (Bengel).—To abide—that is the whole. Constancy, says Bernard, is the king’s daughter, the sum of the virtues and the perfection of them, etc. But what an affable and friendly command is this of His: Abide in Me.—The vine may live without the branches, and, instead of one that is cut off, may put forth three fresh ones, but the branch can not live without the vine.—Casting away, drying up, gathering, throwing into the fire, burning, are the five degrees of that judgment whose execution is dependent upon the long-suffering of God.—John is the faithful minister of the Comforter in the three grand departments of the latter: through his Gospel he reproves [convicts] the world concerning sin, righteousness and judgment, through his Epistles he guides it into all truth, through his Revelation he proclaims things to come.
On the Gospel for the Sunday after Ascension Day, Joh_15:26 to Joh_16:24. Schultz: What should be the conduct of the true Christian when experiencing the world’s enmity to the kingdom of God.—Rambach: The persecutions of Christianity as a loud-tongued testimony to its worth.—Grueneisen: That our testimony and that of the Spirit belong together.—Florey: How edifying for us the memory of the martyrs of the first centuries of Christianity.—Muellensiefen (Zeugnisse von Christo, 1st collection, p. 101): Testimony to Christ: 1. How the Holy Ghost testifies of Christ; 2. how we, through the Holy Ghost, should testify of Christ.—Kapff: The promise of the Holy Ghost: 1. How definitely bestowed by the Lord; 2. how much needed by us; 3. to whom fulfilled.—Ahlfeld: The Holy Ghost is to testify of Christ, 1. in us; 2. through us.—Stier: The Holy Ghost’s testimony to Christ: 1. How necessary for the world it was and Isaiah 2. how it has really existed in the Church throughout all ages; 3. how it may and ought to be given through us also.—Steinhofer: The government which, from His throne, the Lord Jesus exercises amongst men on earth: He leads us, 1. by His Spirit; 2. amidst the contradictions of the world; 3. to the glory of Himself and His Father.
On the Gospel for the Fourth Sunday after Easter, Joh_16:5-15. Draeseke: Let not your heart be full of mourning.—Hossbach: The Redeemer’s glorification in us through the Holy Ghost.—Reinhard: That God’s Spirit reproves the world in our days just as emphatically as He ever did.—Görwitz: What is requisite to make us regard our departure from the world as a going home to the Father?—W. Hoffmann (“Ruf zum Herrn”): The Holy Ghost testifies ofJesus; that is the beginning of His ministry to the world; He glorifies Jesus; that is the end and aim of His ministry to the believer.—Steinhofer: The three principal things in which the Holy Ghost’s operation and work upon the hearts of men appear. He labors at man’s heart for the purpose of convincing him, 1. on account of sin, 2. on account of righteousness, 3. on account of judgment.—Fuchs: What consolation have we at the departure of our loved ones who have fallen asleep in the Lord?—Ahlfeld: Rejoice ye at the arrival of the Comforter; 1. Rejoice for the sake of Him who sendeth Him; 2. rejoice for the sake of what He doeth.—Heubner: The vocation of every true Christian, to reprove the world: 1. What is demanded by this vocation; 2. what binds us to it; 3. what renders us fit for it.—Burk: Want of faith in Jesus (Christ) the greatest, nay, the one only sin.—Rautenberg: It is good for you that I go away; A strong word of consolation: 1. from the mouth of the Redeemer; 2. from the mouths of departing redeemed ones.—Ibid.; That we are still unable to bear as much as the Lord hath to say to us.—Harless: The Holy Ghost’s testimony against the world, at once reproof and comfort.
[Craven: From Hilary: Ch. 15. Joh_15:1-2. The useless and deceitful branches He cuts down for burning.—By pruning the branches we make the tree shoot out the more.—Ch. 16. Joh_15:15. This unity hath no diversity; nor doth it matter from whom the thing is received, since that which is given by the Father is counted also as given by the Son.—From Augustine: Ch. 15 Joh_15:1. He says this as being the Head of the Church, of which we are the members, the Man Christ Jesus; for the vine and the branches are of the same nature.
Joh_15:2 God’s culture consists in extirpating all the seeds of wickedness from our hearts; in opening our hearts to the plough of His Word; in sowing in us the seeds of His commandments; in waiting for the fruits. of piety; [and in pruning.]—Every branch; who is there so clean that he cannot be more and more changed? He cleanseth the clean, i. e. the fruitful, that the cleaner they be, the more fruitful they may be.
Joh_15:3. Christ performs the part of the husbandman as well as of the vine.
Joh_15:4. Abide in Me and I in you—not they in Him as He in them; the branches do not confer any advantage upon the vine, but receive their support from it.—As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, etc. Great display of grace! He strengtheneth the hearts of the humble, stoppeth the mouth of the proud.—He who thinks he bears fruit in himself is not in the vine; he who is not in the vine is not in Christ; he who is not in Christ is not a Christian.
Joh_15:5. Without Me ye can do nothing; He does not say, Ye can do little.—Much fruit; Christ, though He would not be the vine, except He were man, yet could not give this grace to the branches, except He were God.
Joh_15:6. The branches are as contemptible, if they abide not in the vine, as they are glorious, if they abide.—One of the two, the branches must be in—either the vine or the fire.
Joh_15:7. His words abide in us, when we do what He has commanded, and love what He has promised.—When His words abide in the memory, and are not found in the life, the branch is not accounted to be in the vine.—So far as we abide in the Saviour we cannot will anything that is foreign to our salvation.
Joh_15:9. As the Father hath loved Me, etc.; This is the source of our good works,—they proceed from faith which worketh by love; but we could not love unless we were first loved.—The grace of a Mediator is expressed here.
Joh_15:10. These words do not declare whence love arises, but how it is shown.
Joh_15:11. What is Christ’s joy in us, but that He deigns to rejoice on our account? And what is our joy, which He says shall be full, but to have fellowship with Him? He had perfect joy on our account, when He rejoiced in foreknowing and predestinating us; but that joy was not in us, because then we did not exist: it began to be in us when He called us. And this joy we rightly call our own, this joy wherewith we shall be blessed; which is begun in the faith of them who are born again, and shall be fulfilled in the reward of them who rise again Joh_15:12. Where then love is, what can be wanting? Where it is not, what can profit?—This love is distinguished from men’s love to each other as men, by the words, as I have loved you.—To what end did Christ love us but that we should reign with Him?
Joh_15:13-15. Great condescension! Though to keep his Lord’s commandments is only what a good servant is obliged to do, yet, if they do so, He calls them His friends.—Shall we therefore cease to be servants as soon as ever we are good servants? There are two kinds of servitude, as there are two kinds of fear. There is a fear which perfect love casteth out; which also hath in it a servitude, which will be cast out together with the fear. And there is another, a pure [filial] fear [and with it a filial servitude] which remaineth for ever.
Joh_15:16. Ineffable grace! For what were we before Christ had chosen us, but wicked and lost?—He does not choose the good; but those, whom He hath chosen, He makes good.
Joh_15:17. Love is this fruit (Gal_5:22).
Joh_15:18-21. Thou refusest to be in the body, if thou art not willing with the Head, to endure the hatred of the world.—Our Lord, in exhorting His servants to bear patiently the hatred of the world, proposes to them an example than which there can be no better and higher one, viz., Himself.
Joh_15:21. For My name’s sake; i.e. in you they will hate Me, in you persecute Me, your word they will not keep because it is Mine.
Ver 22. By sin here He means not every sin, but a certain great sin, which includes all, and which alone hinders the remission of other sins, viz. unbelief
Joh_15:23-24. How could they hate one whom they did not know (Joh_15:21)? If the Jews were asked whether they loved God, they would reply that they did love Him, not intending to lie, but only being mistaken in so saying [through mistake as to His real character]. For how could they who hated the Truth, love the Father of Truth? They did not know that the Truth was born of God the Father, and therefore they did not know the Father Himself. Thus they both hated, and also knew not, the Father.
Joh_15:25. A man hates without a cause who seeks no advantage from his hatred; thus the ungodly hate God.
Joh_15:26-27. The Holy Spirit by His testimony made others testify; taking away fear from the friends of Christ, and converting the hatred of His enemies into love.
Joh_16:4. These things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember, etc. The night of the Jews was not permitted to mix with or darken the day of the Christians.
Joh_16:7. Christ departing in the body, not the Holy Ghost only, but the Father and the Son, came spiritually.
Joh_16:9. It makes a great difference whether one believes in Christ, or only that He is Christ; for that He was Christ even the devils believed; but he believes in Christ, who both hopes in Christ and loves Christ.
Joh_16:11. Satan is judged in that he is cast out; or, that he is destined irrevocably for the punishment of eternal fire.
Joh_16:13. The Holy Spirit both teaches believers now all the spiritual things they are capable of receiving, and also kindles in their hearts a desire to know more.
[From Chrysostom: Ch. 15 Joh_15:2. By fruit is meant life, i.e. that no one can be in Him without good works.
Joh_15:4-5. Having said that they were clean through the word which He had spoken, He now teaches them that they must do their part.—Without Me ye can do nothing; the Son contributes no less than the Father to the help of the disciples.
Joh_15:6. Cast forth as a branch; i.e. shall not benefit by the care of the husbandman: is withered, i e. shall lose all that it desires from the root, all that supports its life, and shall die.
Joh_15:8. He now shows that they themselves (true disciples) should be invincible, bringing forth much fruit.
Ver 11. As if He had said, If sorrow fall upon you I will take it away, so that ye shall rejoice in the end.
Joh_15:15. All things, i.e. that they ought to hear.
Joh_15:17. These things (Joh_15:13-15) I command you that ye love one another; I have said this (these things) not by way of reproach, but to induce you to love one another.
Joh_15:18. As if to say, I know it is a hard trial, but ye will endure it for My sake.
Joh_15:19. He consoles them still farther by telling them, the hatred of the world would be an evidence of their goodness, so that they ought rather to grieve if they were loved by the world.
Joh_15:19-21. Ye must not be disturbed at having to share My sufferings, for ye are not better than I.
Joh_15:26. He calls Him not the Holy Spirit but the Spirit of Truth, to show the perfect faith that is due to Him.
Joh_16:7. Nevertheless I tell you the truth, etc., as if He had said, Though your grief be ever so great, ye must hear how it is profitable for you that I go away.
From Gregory: Chap. 15. Joh_15:12. When all our Lord’s sacred discourses are full of His commandments, why does He give the special commandment respecting love, if it is not that every commandment teaches love, and all precepts are one? As all the boughs of a tree proceed from one root, so all the virtues are produced from one love; nor hath the branch, i.e., the good work, any life, except it abide in the root of love.
Joh_15:12-15. The highest, the only proof of love is to love our adversary, as did the Truth Himself.—Our Lord came to die for His enemies, but He says that He is going to lay down His life for His friends, to show us that by loving, we are able to gain over our enemies, so that they who persecute us are by anticipation our friends.—Whoso in time of tranquillity will not give up his time unto God, how in persecution shall he give up his soul?
Joh_15:19. The dispraise of the perverse is our praise.—He proves himself no friend to God who pleases His enemy; and He whose soul is in subjection to the Truth, will have to contend with the enemies of that Truth.
Joh_16:7. As if He said, If I withdraw not My body from your eyes I cannot lead you to the understanding of the Invisible, through the Comforting Spirit.
From Alcuin: Chap. 15. Joh_15:4-7. All the fruit of good works proceeds from this root.—He Who hath delivered us by His grace, also carries us onward by His help.—He that abideth in Me, by believing, obeying, persevering, and I in Him, by enlightening, assisting, giving perseverance, the same, and none other, bringeth forth much fruit.—From Theophylact: Chap. 15 Joh_15:8. The fruit of the Apostles are the Gentiles.
Joh_15:15. As if He had said, The servant knoweth not the counsels of his Lord; but since I esteem you friends, I have communicated My secrets unto you.—From Didymus: Chap. 15 Joh_15:26. The Holy Spirit He calls the Comforter, a name taken from His office, which is not only to relieve the sorrows of the faithful, but to fill them with unspeakable joy.
Joh_16:13-14. The Holy Ghost would lead them by His teaching and discipline into all truth, transferring them from the dead letter to the quickening Spirit, in whom alone ail Scripture truth resides.
[From Burkitt: Chap. 15 Joh_15:1-2. The vine doth most fitly symbolize Christ in His office for, and relation to, His people—1. As being weak, mean and small in outward appearance; 2. As being plentifully fruitful of sweet fruit; 3. In that the fruit thereof is pressed that it may be drink unto men; 4. As being the root from which all the branches derive their nourishment and fruitfulness.—The Father is the husbandman, He—1. ingrafts all the branches into this vine; 2. takes notice what store of fruit every branch brings forth; 3. daily tends His vineyard that it may bring forth fruit abundantly.—There are two sorts of branches, some fruitful, others unfruitful; some are branches only by external profession [mechanical connection], others by real implantation [ingrafting].—The true touchstone whereby to discern one sort of branches from another, is not by the fair leaves of profession [not by connection with the church], but by the substantial proofs [fruits] of a holy conversation.—In the most fruitful branches there remains much corruption to be purged out.—The Husbandman’s hand manages the pruning knife of affliction; He had rather see His vine bleed than be barren.—Such branches as, after all the Husbandman’s care, remain unfruitful, shall be finally cut off and cast away, as was Judas.—He purgeth it, by His word and Spirit, by ordinances and providences, by mercies and actions [afflictions].
Joh_15:3. Now are ye clean; such as are justified and [partially] sanctified, are in Christ’s account clean notwithstanding their many spots.—Through the word; the word of Christ is the instrumental cause of a believer’s cleansing.
Joh_15:4. Abide in Me, and I in you; abide in Me, not only by an outward profession, but by a real and fiducial adherence, and I will abide in you by the influences of My Spirit.—The union between Christ and His members is mutual.—Believers themselves, without daily dependence on Christ and constant communications of grace from Him, can do nothing.
Joh_15:6. Such as have had a long standing in God’s vineyard, and contented themselves with a withered profession, are in danger of having God’s blasting added to their barrenness.
Joh_15:7. Observe here—1. A glorious privilege declared, ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you; 2. The condition of this privilege, If ye abide in Me and My words abide in you.
Joh_15:8. Our Lord here exhorts His followers to a holy fruitfulness by a double argument—1. One drawn from the glory of God; 2. The other from their own advantage, so shall ye be My disciples, i.e. hereby ye shall have evidence and prove yourselves to be My disciples.
Joh_15:9. What a comparison is here! As the Father hath loved Me so have I loved you! This love is—1. real; 2. operative; 3. eternal; 4. immutable.—Continue ye in My love; it should be the care of every Christian to preserve the sweet sense and inward diffusion of Christ’s love in his own soul.
Joh_15:10. As our obedience to Christ is the best evidence of our love to Him, so it is the best means to preserve us in the sense and assurance of His love to us.
Joh_15:11. Our Lord declares the reasons of His urging fruitfulness on His disciples—1. That His joy might remain in them, i.e. that the joy He had in their holiness might remain with Him; 2. That their joy in Him might be full, this arises from the former.
Joh_15:12. Christ’s love unto believers is both an obligation unto mutual love, and a pattern for it.
Joh_15:13. Christ’s love in laying down His life for His people a matchless love.
Joh_15:14. Christ invites His people to obedience by the honorable title of friends.—Ye are My friends, etc.—1. Actively, you will manifest yourselves to be My friends; 2. Passively, I will declare Myself to be your friend.—Learn 1. How condescending is the love of Christ—He calls His servants, friends; 2. How glorious the believer’s relation to Christ; 3. How grateful [excellent] is obedience to Christ; 4. Our conformity to Christ consists, not so much in imitation of what He did, as in obedience to what He prescribed—some of His actions are inimitable, but all His commands are obeyable; 5. Nothing short of obedience will evidence the truth of our relation to Christ.
Joh_15:15. Henceforth I call you not servants, i.e. not mere servants, not that they were to be exempted from obedience—All Christ’s disciples are His servants; and all His servants are His friends, in regard of intimate communion and tender usage.—After His resurrection He called them brethren, Joh_20:17; the dignity of believers is a growing dignity—the longer they follow Christ, the higher privileges are accorded them.
Joh_15:17-21. With what frequency and importunity our Lord pressed the duty of mutual love upon His disciples; from this learn—1. The great importance of the duty; 2. The great averseness of our hearts to its performance.—The argument our Saviour uses to press His disciples to mutual love, viz., that the world would hate them.—The considerations propounded by Christ to comfort His disciples under the world’s hatred—1. His own usage by the world; 2. This hatred is evidence that they are not of the world; 3. Their relation to Him as servants to a master; 4. The goodness of the cause for which they suffer, viz., Christ’s name’s sake.
Joh_15:19. Ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world; 1. The children of God, though in the world, are not of the world either in Spirit or conversation; 2. The difference between them and worldlings is of God’s making.
Joh_15:21. For My name’s sake; the great quarrel of the world against the disciples of Christ, whatever may be pretended, is for the Name of Christ.
Joh_15:22. Sins of ignorance are, as it were, no sins, compared with those committed against light.—Sins committed against gospel light are of aggravated guilt, as against the very remedy.—The gospel, whore it is plainly preached, takes away all excuse from sinners.
Joh_15:23-25. Let men pretend to never so much respect for God, yet if they hate Christ and despise His gospel, they are haters of God.—The miracles wrought by Christ surpassed all others in number, kind, and manner.
Joh_16:1. All afflictions are so trying that the best of Christians have need to be guarded against them lest they should be offended.
Joh_16:2. The being under one trial will not shelter from another.
Joh_16:3. Ignorance of the Father and the Son the ground of the world’s hatred against Christians.
Joh_16:4. Christ is so tender of His disciples, that He will not put them under the hardness of suffering until they be prepared for it.
Joh_16:7. It is expedient for you that I go away, etc. The presence of the Holy Spirit with us is a greater comfort and advantage, than the presence of Christ in the flesh amongst us.
Joh_16:8-14. Our Lord declares the advantages that would redound by the coming of the Comforter—1. To the world, Joh_16:8-11; John 2. To the Apostles, Joh_16:13; To Himself, Joh_16:14.
Joh_16:9. Of sin, i.e., of their sinful state and nature, of the large extent of sin, and particularly of the sin of unbelief.
Joh_16:10. Of righteousness, i.e., of the insufficiency of all human righteousness, or (and) of a complete and perfect righteousness in Me imputable to sinners for their perfect justification.—Because I go to My Father and ye see Me no more; as though He had said—Hereby you may be satisfied that by My active and passive obedience [righteousness] I have fully satisfied my Father’s justice for you, and you shall never be charged or condemned; because, when I go to heaven, I shall abide there in glory with My Father, and never be sent back again—ye shall see me no more—as I must have been, had anything been omitted by Me.
Joh_16:11. Of judgment, i.e., that Jesus is both Lord and Christ, that He had power to judge Satan, the prince of the world, and that He did by His death put down the kingdom of darkness.
[From M. Henry: Chap. 15. There fire four words to which our Lord’s discourse in this chapter may be reduced: 1. Fruit, Joh_15:1-8; John 2. Love, Joh_15:9-17; John 3. Hatred, Joh_15:18-25; John 4. The Comforter, Joh_15:20; Joh_15:27.
Joh_15:1-8. Christ discourses concerning the fruit, which His disciples were to bring forth, under the similitude of a vine; observe—I. The doctrine of this similitude: that—1. Christ is (1) the vine, i.e., (a) planted, not spontaneous, (b) having an unpromising outside, (c) a spreading plant, (d) whose fruit honors God and cheers man, (2) the true vine, as opposed to (a) counterfeit, (b) type; 2. Believers are the branches, i.e, (1) supported by the unseen root, (2) many, (3) yet meeting in one root, (4) insufficient to stand (and be fruitful) of themselves; 3. The Father is the husbandman, i, e., (1) the proprietor, (2) the land-worker, γεωργόςς, though the earth is the Lord’s, it yields Him no fruit unless He work it, (3) the husbandman, having care of the vine and all the branches, by planting, watering, [pruning], and [thus] giving the increase. II. The duties taught us by this similitude—1. To bring forth fruit; this duty is urged by (1) the doom of the unfruitful, Joh_15:2; (2) the promise made to the fruitful, Joh_15:2 [increased culture in order to increased fruitfulness]; (3) the duty of showing forth the power of the benefits they have received, Joh_15:3; (4) the glory that will redound to God, Joh_15:8; (5) the comfort and honor that will come to ourselves, Joh_15:8, so shall ye be my disciples; 2. To abide in Christ in order to fruitfulness, consider (1) the duty to abide in Christ by faith, (2) the necessity of so doing in order to fruit-fulness, Joh_15:4-5; (3) the fatal consequence of forsaking Christ, Joh_15:6; (4) the blessed privilege of those who abide in Him, Joh_15:7.
Joh_15:2. Farther fruitfulness is the blessed reward of former fruitfulness.—The purging of fruitful branches is the care and work of the great Husbandman, for His own glory.
Joh_15:3. There is a cleansing virtue in the Word, as it works grace and works out corruption.
Joh_15:4. The knot of the branch abides in the vine, and the sap of the vine abides in the branch, and so there is a constant communication between them.
Joh_15:5. We depend upon Christ, not only as the vine upon the wall for support, but as the branch on the root for sap.
Joh_15:6. Withered; They that bear no fruit, after a while will bear no leaves.—Fire is the fittest place for withered branches, for they are good for nothing else.
Joh_15:7. See here—1. How our union with Christ is maintained, by the Word; 2. How our communion with, Him is maintained, by prayer.—They that abide in Christ as their heart’s delight, shall have through Christ their heart’s desire.—If we abide in Christ and His Word in us, two things are promised—1, that we will not ask for anything but what is proper to be done for us; 2, that we shall have an answer of peace to all our prayers.
Joh_15:8. The fruitfulness of all Christians is to the glory of God—1, By their good works many are brought to glorify God; [2. Good works manifest the beauty of His law, and the power of His gospel.—E. R. C.].
Joh_15:9-17. Christ who is Love itself discourses concerning a fourfold love,—I. The Father’s love to Him, He tells us that—1. The Father did love Him (Joh_15:9); 2. That He abode in His Father’s love (Joh_15:10); 3. That He thus abode because He kept His Father’s law (Joh_15:10). II. His own love to His disciples, though He leaves them He loves them: Observe—1. The pattern of this love, as the Father hath loved Me, etc.; 2. The proofs and products of this love, which are (1) His laying down His life for them (Joh_15:13), (2) His taking them into a covenant of friendship (Joh_15:14-15), (3) His freeness in communicating His mind to them (Joh_15:15), (4) His choosing and ordaining them to be the prime instruments of His glory in the world (Joh_15:6). III. The disciples’ love to Him, this is enjoined in view of His love to them; He exhorts them to—1. Continue in His love, i.e., keep up their love; 2. Evidence their love by keeping His commandments. IV. The disciples’ love one to another; this is (Joh_15:12)—1. Recommended by Christ’s pattern; 2. Required by His precept.
Joh_15:9. A strange expression of the condescending grace of Christ! As the Father loved Him who was most worthy, so He loved them who were most unworthy.
Joh_15:10. Ye shall abide in My love, as a dwelling-place.
Joh_15:13. This is the love wherewith Christ hath loved us, He is our ἁντίψυχος—Bail for us, body for body, life for life, though He knew our insolvency and foresaw how dear the engagement would cost Him.—The excellency of the love of Christ beyond all other love; others have laid down (passively) their lives, Christ gave up (actively) His.
Joh_15:16. The treasure of the gospel was committed to the disciples that it might be—1. propagated; 2. perpetuated.—Those whom Christ ordains should and shall be fruitful.—Whatever ye shall ask, etc. Three things set forth for our encouragement in prayer—1. That we have a God to go to who is a Father; 2. That we have a good name to go in; 3. That an answer in peace is promised.
Joh_15:18-25. Christ discourses concerning hatred: Observe—I. Who they are that hate, viz., the world, i.e., the children of this world as distinguished from the children of God, called the world as indicating their—1. number, 2. confederacy, 3. spirit. II. Who they are that are hated—1. The disciples of Christ; 2. Christ Himself; 3. God the Father (Joh_15:23-24).
Joh_15:19. Whom Christ blesseth, the world curseth: the favorites of Heaven have never been the darlings of the world.
Joh_15:20. The fruits of the world’s hatred—1. persecution; 2. rejection of doctrine.
Joh_15:19-21. The causes of the world’s hatred against Christians—1. They do not belong to it; 2. They belong to Christ, for my name’s sake; 3. Its ignorance of God.
Joh_15:22. Observe—1. The excuse they have who have not the gospel; 2. The aggravated guilt of those who reject the gospel.
Joh_15:23-24. In hating Christ the world hates God; deists are in effect atheists.
Joh_15:25. Enmity to Christ is unreasonable.
Joh_15:26-27. Christ speaks of the Comforter, promising—I. That He should maintain Christ’s cause in the world notwithstanding all opposition. II. That the Apostles by His assistance should have the honor of being Christ’s witnesses.
Joh_15:26. The Spirit is spoken of as—1. A Person; 2. A divine Person proceeding from the Father.—The offices of the Spirit—1. One implied in His title Comforter or Advocate; 2. Witnessing for Christ.
Joh_15:27. The Spirit’s working is not to supersede, but to engage and encourage ours.—They are best able to preach Christ that have themselves been with Him; ministers must first learn Christ and then preach Him.
Chap. 16. Christ by His words—I. Wounds, Joh_16:1-6 : II. Heals by the assurances that He—1. would send them the Comforter (Joh_16:7-15); 2. Would visit them again at His resurrection (Joh_16:16-22); 3. Would secure to them an answer of peace to all their prayers (Joh_16:23-27); 4. Was now returning to His Father (Joh_16:28-32); 5. By virtue of His victory over the world Would give them peace in Himself.
Joh_16:1-6. Christ dealt faithfully with His disciples when He sent them forth, for He told them the worst of it, that they might sit down and count the cost.
Joh_16:1. The disciples of Christ are apt to be offended at the cross.—Our Lord by giving notice of trouble, designed to prevent its being a surprise; Being forewarned we are forearmed.
Joh_16:2. Behold two swords drawn against the followers of Jesus, that of—1. Ecclesiastical censure; 2. Civil power.—Many a good truth has been branded with an anathema, and many a child of God delivered to Satan. God’s people have suffered the greatest hardships from conscientious persecutors.
Joh_16:3. The true reason of the world’s enmity to Christians, because they have not known the Father nor Me: Note—1. Many that pretend to know God are ignorant of Him; 2. They that are ignorant of Christ cannot have any right knowledge of God.
Joh_16:4. When sufferings come it will be of use to remember that Christ has told us of them.—As Christ in His sufferings had, so we in ours should have, an eye to the fulfilling of the Scriptures.
Joh_16:5-6. As though He had said, Instead of inquiring after that which will comfort, you pore upon that which looks melancholy.—An humble believing inquiry into the design and tendency of the darkest dispensations would help to reconcile us to them.—It is the common fault and folly of melancholy Christians to dwell only on the dark side of the cloud.—Nothing is a greater prejudice to our joy in God, than the love of the world.
Joh_16:7. It is expedient, etc.—1. Those things often seem grievous that are really expedient; 2. Jesus is always for that which is most expedient for us.—The glorified Redeemer is not unmindful of His Church on earth—though He departs, He sends the Comforter; nay, He departs that He may send Him.
Joh_16:8. Convincing work is the Spirit’s work.—The Comforter begins His work by convincing—first opens the wound, and then applies the remedy.
Joh_16:9. The Spirit convinces of Sin, its—1. fact; 2. folly, 3. filth; 4. fountain—corrupt nature; 5, fruit—death.—He fastens especially on the sin of unbelief as—1. The great reigning sin; 2. The great ruining sin; 3. That which is at the bottom of all sin.
Joh_16:10. of righteousness, i.e., Christ’s righteousness—1. His personal righteousness; 2. His righteousness communicated to us for our Justification.—Christ’s ascension is the great argument proper to convince men of this righteousness; if He had left any part of His work unfinished He had been sent back again.
Joh_16:11. Of judgment, because the Prince of this world is judged, the devil was judged, was discovered to be a great deceiver and destroyer; judgment was entered against him and in part executed; he was cast out—1. from the heathen world, when his oracles were silenced and his altars deserted; 2. from the bodies of men in Christ’s name; 3. from the souls of people by the grace of God working with the gospel of Christ; 4. as lightning from heaven.—A good argument wherewith the Spirit convinces of judgment—1. Of inherent holiness and sanctification, Mat_12:18; Matthew 2. of a new and better dispensation of things; 3. of the power and dominion of the Lord Jesus (Isa_42:1-4); 4. of the final day of judgment.
Joh_16:12-15. See what a teacher Christ is! None like Him for—1. copiousness; 2. compassion.
Joh_16:13-15. The Spirit promised—1. To guide the apostles; 2. To glorify Christ.—To guide, taking care—1. That they should not miss their way; 2. That they should not come short of their end.—Into all truth—into—1. The whole truth; 2. Nothing but the truth.—The Spirit glorified Christ—1. By His coming; 2. By leading the disciples into the truth.
[From President Edwards: John 16 : Joh_16:9. Of sin, etc. The greatest sin in the world is sin against the Gospel, contempt of and opposition to Christ; and the greatest evidence of man’s sin is his ill treatment of Christ, His Gospel and followers.
Joh_16:10. Of righteousness, etc. Christ’s ascension was the brightest evidence that He had suffered wrongfully; it confirmed the righteousness of His words, doctrines, design in coming into the world, and promises.
Joh_16:11. Of judgment, etc. It is the greatest evidence of Christ’s might and kingly power to overcome and dethrone Satan; and the greatest manifestation of His high judicial authority to judge and condemn this great rebel, and to execute vengeance upon him.
From Scott: Joh_15:1. The union of the divine and human nature in Christ, and the fulness of the Spirit in Him, resemble the root of the vine, deriving the fertilizing juices from a rich soil; and His mediatorial work, like the stem, conveys these to all believers.
Joh_15:1-2. As professed Christians, we appear to belong to this vine; but woe to them who have no other union than what consists in notions, sacraments, and forms.
Joh_15:9. As the Father hath loved Me, so, etc. No love of man to his dearest friend ever was comparable to His love to us, when strangers and enemies.
Joh_15:18-20. We cannot experience worse usage than our Master met with; and we ought not to be offended or grow weary of well-doing, if we meet with no better.—
Chap. 16. Joh_16:2-3. How fallacious the opinion that God will accept every man who is sincere in his religion, whatever that religion may be.—Humble docility, implicit belief of Scripture, and a disposition unreservedly to do the will of God, are essential to godly sincerity.
Joh_16:6-7. Our hearts are often filled with sorrow at events highly advantageous.
Joh_16:8; Joh_16:12. Sin, righteousness, and Judgment; On these subjects all who would be honored as instruments in converting sinners, should be frequent, copious, alarming, encouraging, distinguishing; but in matters less essential they would do well, after the example of Christ, not to press them on their hearers before they are able to bear them.——From A Plain Commentary (Oxford)
Chap. 15. Joh_15:1-2. The vine is a tree which not only admits of pruning, but whose very productiveness depends on the judicious use of the pruning-knife.—Delightful is it to find writers about the Grape-Vine, who had nothing less in view than the illustration of the Gospel, becoming our instructors in such passages as the following;—“It is hardly possible to plant a Vine in any situation in which it will not thrive … The truth is that the roots of the Vine possess an extraordinary power of adapting themselves to any situation in which they may be planted, provided it be a dry one. They will ramble in every direction in search of food, and extract nourishment from sources apparently the most barren. In short, they are the best caterers that can possibly be imagined; for they will grow, and even thrive luxuriantly, where almost every other description of plant or tree would inevitably starve.… Pruning and Training are so closely connected together, that they almost constitute one operation. In pruning a Vine, regard must be had to the manner in which it is afterwards to be trained; and, in training it, the position of the branches must, in a great measure, be regulated by the mode in which it has previously been pruned…. The old wood of a Vine is not only of no use, but is a positive injury to the fertility of the plant. … The sole object in view in pruning a Vine is to increase its fertility.… Although by pruning a Vine its fertility is increased, its existence is no doubt thereby shortened (?). The severing of a healthy branch from any tree is, without doubt, doing an act of violence to it; the effects of which are only overcome by the superior strength of the vegetative powers of its roots.” (Clement Hoare on the Cultivation of the Grape-Vine).
Joh_15:5. And I in him; The branch bears fruit, not because it abideth in the Vine, but because in it the Vine abideth.
Joh_15:12. Love ye one another even unto death, as even unto death I have loved you.
Joh_15:15. The servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth; “It is not necessary that he should! The common soldier is neither expected nor permitted to know the plans of the commander.” (Robert Scott).
Joh_15:22. “He meaneth they had no color of plea, nothing to pretend by way of excuse.” (Saunderson).
Joh_15:24. Without effort, by a more word, He showed that all creation was obedient to His will, from Him, as from an inexhaustible fountain, flowed forth healing virtue equal to the needs of all.
Joh_16:7. What must be the value of that great blessing which was given to them, which is given to us, to compensate for the loss of His visible presence!
Joh_16:8. “He shall so bring home to the world its own sin, My perfect righteousness, God’s coming judgment, shall so convince it of these, that it shall be obliged itself to acknowledge them.” (Trench).
Joh_16:9. Under one great head of unbelief the guilt of the world is gathered up and comprised; unbelief is therefore a sin of the heart, not a mere error of the understanding: a fault not a misfortune.
Joh_16:15. “Our God is One, or rather very Oneness, and mere Unity, having nothing but itself in itself, and not consisting (as all things do beside God) of many things. In which essential Unity of God, a Trinity personal nevertheless subsisteth, after a manner far exceeding the possibility of man’s conceit. The works which outwardly are of God, they are of such sort in Him being One, that each Person (in the Divine Unity) hath in them somewhat peculiar and proper. For being Three, and they all subsisting in the essence of One Deity, from the Father, by the Son, through the Spirit, all things are. That which the Son doth hear of the Father, and which the Spirit doth receive of the Father and the Son, the same we have at the hands of the Spirit as being the last, and therefore the nearest unto us in order, although in power the same with the second and the first.” (Hooker.)
[From Stier: Chap 15, Joh_15:1-6. Our Lord’s language in reference to the Vine and its branches is connected by a three-fold foundation with the whole system of the sacred language of figures—1. Nature in itself; 2. The prophetic phraseology which interprets nature; 3. The recently instituted Supper.—”Since God was constrained to give His vineyard up to ruin, He separated for Himself this Vine, and designed it to be a beginning from which a great increase should take its rise.” (Luthardt).—Bread and wine are correlated as the flesh and blood in man’s personality; hence Christ is the bread of life, the corn of wheat in the general, inasmuch as from His body and life the Church is nourished, but as He gives His life to death for that purpose, and in His blood makes us especially partakers thereof, He is also the Vine. The juice of the grape, the juice of stem and branches generally which is to be glorified, as it were, into a spirituous energy, is, according to the profound phraseology of Scripture, the blood and life of the noble plant. [This “has its classical analogies in the αιμα βοτρυων of Ach. Tatius, the sanguis terræ of Pliny, the rivarum frigidus sanguis of Cassiodorus.”] Joh_15:1. The true Vine: The Vine in nature is only a figure and symbol pointing to Me.
Joh_15:1-2. He explains that all the sufferings which both He and they should encounter are no other than (the manifestation of) the diligent care and watchfulness which a vinedresser bestows upon the vine and its branches.
Joh_15:1-2. They are “Christians” (branches) who have the Word and Sacraments, but receive them in vain; and to these the preacher should earnestly apply this saying! They are indeed planted in the vineyard like that fig-tree, Luk_13:6—even grafted for a beginning into the Vine.—The fruit which the Vine-dresser desires is, in its general principle, only the consummation and ripening of our own regeneration; as the cluster, so to speak, is the glorified form and manifestation of the virtue of the branch.—Every thing here goes strangely against appearances! An inexperienced person might say, For what purpose is this crooked and unsightly tree in this beautiful garden? [And why] the unpitying cutting away of so many shoots seemingly so green and healthy?—EVERY branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth, etc.: Purging is applied without respect of person, sparing none, according to the vine-dressing rule which aims at fruit, and the utmost possible fruit.
Joh_15:3. “That which is clean bears fruit; that which bears fruit becomes also (more) clean.” (Hiller).—All the cultivation and care of disciplining grace is efficient only on the condition of our receiving and faithfully keeping His word; Christ, the Vine, at once begins by His word to cleanse, and thus is Himself the Vine-dresser.
Joh_15:4-5. On Me has become in Me inasmuch as the connection of the shoots with the stem is no mere joining on, but there is a participation of the same juice flowing from one into the other.—So act by your abiding that I, as I gladly would, may abide in you.—Without our abiding in Him, there is no abiding of the Lord in us; as without our receiving Him there is no such coming as ends in His indwelling.—“The question here is not of external doing, and general influence upon men, but of the holy power to save ourselves and others, through deliverance from sin and death.” (Schmieder).—Leaves and sour grapes are not fruit.
Joh_15:6. Our Lord indicates “the stages of apostasy and rejection” (Zeller.)—1. The solitary ground (apostasy), if a man abideth not in Me; 2. the five stages of judgment, the accomplishment of which begins in time, is fulfilled in eternity—(1) casting forth (the appearance of life continuing), (2) withering (the appearance of life departed), (3) gathering, (4) casting into the fire, (5) burning.—Concerning the damned the present (καιεται) may always be used; they burn, or feed the fire.
Joh_15:7. Only those who wilfully forsake Me can ever thus burn; only apart from Me ye can do nothing and fall to ruin, In Me ye can do all things!—If His words remain in us, His prayer pre-eminently remains in us.
Joh_15:8. “This means not only that our works appear in the world honorable as good fruit, but that they are carried up to heaven and offered to God, so that He accepts them as His especial honor and highest service” (Luther).—Those may take courage whose light the people will not regard.—” Therein, that ye bring forth much fruit, is My Father glorified, and I shall have in you genuine disciples who will do Me honor.” (Kling.)
Joh_15:9-10. The common life, which from the vine-stock pervades the branches and produces their precious clusters, is love. Love is the first root-principle in God, the first living germ in us; and perfect love, as God loves, is also the last ripe fruit.—We can think of nothing beyond this, nothing greater to be promised than that the love, in which the Father and the Son through the Spirit are eternally one, shall be poured out also in us.—All love, like all righteousness, is livingly imputed, communicated, and implanted in us at once, from the Father through Christ.—In Christ the eternal love of the Father appears as the sole, abiding, impulsive principle of all His life and suffering, of all His acts and of all His love.
Joh_15:11. My joy is pre-eminently the joy which He Himself has, but then immediately the words might remain in you makes it the joy which He gives.—Your joy is by no means only their joy, ‘joy in Him and in His work,’ but the gladness in God which flowed from Him into them.
Joh_15:12-13. Our Lord graciously condescends so deeply to a comparison with our human relations, that He, as it were, leaves out of sight for a time the all-embracing, and in the solitary sense atoning, character of His death. “The Lord does not speak (primarily) of the redeeming design of His death, but of that point in great love which we may recognize and imitate.” (Richter).—Jesus calls even sinners and enemies, whom He desires to save, His friends, inasmuch and because He is first their friend. “The love wherewith, according to St. Paul, He dieth for sinners is at the same time the love whereby, according to St. John, He maketh the disciples His friends. He dies for sinners only because in the fulness of His love He regards them as friends.” (Luecke).
Joh_15:15. The proof of the relation of friendship is that open, confidential, unrestrained communion, the typical expressions of which are found—in Abraham’s case, Gen_18:17—that of Moses, Exo_33:11—of the pious generally, Psa_25:14; Pro_3:32, etc.
Joh_15:16. Though the Lord calls us friends, this does not imply an equality; He calls His followers afterwards even brethren, but they all the more reverently call Him only their Lord and their God.—The love between us began with Me and not with you.—Ordained (ἔθηκα) you, etc. The branches become elevated, as it were, themselves into new vines of the second degree, since the Lord sets them to bear fruit.—“He who is united with Christ, obtains thereby the true independence, and stands before God as a personality pervaded by Christ.” (Fikenscher).—I have planted and appointed you that ye should bring forth fruit, that is, that ye should secure fruit by your effectual prayer.
Joh_15:17. By all these My discourses and commandments I would specially point you to that one (commandment) which I would confirm in your hearts, that ye love one another!
Joh_15:17-18. There is need that ye should be all the more closely united in My love, for the world hateth you.
Joh_15:18. The most conscientious and tender Christian is the most likely to fall into the temptation of seeking the cause of the world’s hatred solely in himself, of thinking that if he were perfect in goodness, love, humility, and meekness, the evil of the world must needs be overcome; and this might lead to a false compliance: Against such trouble and temptation the Lord arms us beforehand: “If the most holy love upon earth found no better return, if He did not succeed, if He could not in His wisdom avoid hatred when it arose against Him, all the more fiercely as His pure love more brightly beamed upon it—how could we hope altogether to escape this hatred?—or do we vainly imagine that we can surpass the love and prudence of our Lord?” (Dietz.).—The world cannot love you, it must hate you as it hates Me!
Joh_15:19. This world would not indeed love you. (for it cannot truly love at all!)—but its own in you.—”Although worldly men often quarrel fiercely, which is one of the characteristics of corrupt nature, Tit_3:3, yet these enmities are only about particular conflicting interests: in the great essentials there is always a perfect accord among them.” (Lampe).—The I has a twofold emphasis: as to the world, its hatred is reduced to hatred against Himself; as to the disciples it is impressed upon them that He alone is the origin of their new life.—Therefore, etc. The hatred of the world becomes to us a precious note (sign) that we are His—not indeed the first and only mark: as the second note it neither begins our test nor must we seek it or wish it; but if, alas, it incessantly comes, then it is time to comfort ourselves in the reflection that the love of the world would be a sad condemnation; Luk_6:26; Gal_1:10; Jam_4:4, etc.
Joh_15:20. The consolation has an undertone of demand, that they should rejoice and feel themselves honored in being counted worthy to suffer as He suffered.—“It belongs to the perfection of a disciple, who would be as his Master, that
he should encounter the hatred of the world.” (Braune).—The general tolerance of a tolerant world is always grazing the limits of its liberality; when the I have chosen you out of the world is obtruded upon them in all its earnestness, then begins their exclusion, their ban, their rage.—If they have kept, etc. Let not their hatred cause you to keep back this word; and also, Oppose the world with your word alone, do nothing more, for the rest suffer patiently as I have suffered.
Joh_15:21. This sin is practical, persevering, opposing unbelief.
Joh_15:22. “Ignorance would be otherwise an excuse”—but here it is in the fullest sense inexcusable.—Sin enough they have; but all their sin would have been forgiven and taken away through Christ, if they had received Him in faith.
Joh_15:23. One of the many consequences that result from the unity of the Father and the Son; he that seeth Me, seeth—he that believeth in Me, believeth in—he that loveth Me, loveth—he that hateth Me, hateth—the Father!—He that can hate Jesus, the manifestation of God in the flesh, must bear in himself hatred to God.
Joh_15:24. “My works, Me, and the Father, in them—to see and yet to hate; these two irreconcilables are reconciled by a God-hating world!” (Luecke.)
Joh_15:25. The last solace for the hatred to Christ which the God-hating world exhibits, lies in the counsel of the divine wisdom which foretold all this.—“In sin there is neither reason nor righteousness” (Berlenb. Bibel).—“Hatred without cause is worse than idolatry or blood-guiltiness.” (Talm. Joma.)
Joh_15:26-27. While the Spirit previously testifies of Christ to the disciples themselves, and then through them to the world, He becomes at the same time a Counsellor, Helper, Intercessor, Representative, for the disciples.—How will He testify and what? He will not immediately (by any personal manifestation as the Son) bear witness, but in and through you: further, He will testify that which ye have already seen in Me, that which ye have already heard of Me—nothing besides, essentially different or new.—Then shall ye actually bear witness; and more, then will your testimony be the testimony of the Spirit, who will make you infallible in this vocation and function.—Not a speculative idea, but a historical fact, is the ground-work of the world’s salvation.—We (of the present day) first livingly experience and receive, through the New Testament Scriptures, the life, deeds, and sayings of our Lord, as eye and ear witnesses of the second degree; then we also wait humbly for power from on high; and then it is our obligation and right to testify with power and success what we have seen and heard in historical conviction and living experience.
Joh_16:1-2. It has been said that excommunication is a greater evil than bodily persecution, yet the Lord does not here so regard (present) it: he who is strong in the truth may suffer that truth to be called a lie without being much aggrieved; but to our weakness, and our unsinful natural love of life, the death of martyrdom must ever be the crown of patience and endurance.—O that unhappy thinking, into which the hatred of unbelief may be blinded and hardened, while it seeks to justify itself before God!
Joh_16:3. Even the true Church should and must cast out, for the sake of truth and love; but it belongs to the false synagogue to treat those differing in faith with hatred which reaches unto persecution, and putting to death as λατρεία—It becomes us to mourn over our blind persecutors, and, like Stephen, to continue the Lord’s own intercession for those who know not what they do.
Joh_16:5. We should never be too idle or too sorrowful to investigate and inquire from the impulse of faith and love, and with an eager desire for saving knowledge.
Joh_16:6. The same disciples afterwards, when the risen Lord ascended to heaven, returned to Jerusalem with great joy, without any sorrow for the separation (Luk_24:52).—“Under this gentle rebuke there lies a tacit consolation. While He accuses their negligence in not putting the question, Whither goest Thou, He gives them their own excuse, that their omission was due to excess of sorrow.” (Lampe.)—“The Lord knoweth our frame, and of what stuff we are made. And of this we can remind Him, Heb_4:15.” (Berlenb. Bibel.)
Joh_16:7. In precise opposition to the disciples’ view, that to Him, the pure and holy One, death would be no suffering or ruin, but their irreparable loss, the Lord points, in silent contrast, to the fact that to Him the departure to the Father through the death of a sinner, for sin’s sake, would indeed be very bitter (Joh_12:27)—but all the more does He turn it into an it is expedient for you. Thus speaks the love that looks not at its own.—The primary thought which, in the analogy of human relations generally, finds here its grandest application, is—that only after the withdrawal of the sensible presence of a teacher and master, his abiding and influential spirit is truly set free and penetrates our being.—“Before He went away, (the Christ after the flesh), the Christ after the Spirit could not come. When the former vanished, the latter appeared.” (Draeseke.)—In all fellowship with the sufferings of Christ, which might seem to us to be His going away from us, the Comforter repeats to us His prototypic word of consolation—It is expedient for you!
Joh_16:8. “The Apostles were to convince the unbelieving and hating world, maintain their right against it, and conquer it by the truth they testified.” (Œtinger.)—The sentiment, so often misunderstood and perverted, that the world’s history is the world’s judgment, has its truth in this working and judging of the Spirit, this final preparation for the judgment to be revealed, which, again, must tarry for its consummation until that personal appearance of the Son to which the Spirit points the Church.—“The reproof, that is, the bringing to view of our own unrighteousness, could not be without a gracious revelation and offer of the true righteousness; even the judgment is exhibited before the world only in order, where possible, to turn its thought to Him, who frees all who believe from condemnation. (Schleiermacher.)—The reproving office necessarily precedes the comforting. The Paraclete does not, properly speaking, perform “a strange work, before He comes to His own work, that of comforting, and preaching grace.” (Luther.)—In the three great words ἁμαρτία, δικαιοσύνη, κρίσις, the Lord names the three all-embracing, essential elements of truth and its whole procedure. Not until the Holy Ghost has explained these words, does the world know what sin, righteousness and judgment are.—The production of an experimental and perfect knowledge of these three words is the office of the Spirit alone, and that as Spirit,—by the mediation, indeed, of the word and the work, yet only so far as these are made inwardly efficient in the heart and conscience.
Joh_16:9. The ὅτι gives us the thing signified in sin, righteousness, judgment, tells us what kind of sin, righteousness and decision of judgment, He means.—The Lord means first specifically the sin of unbelief. This is no mere error, but the foundation and crown, the fruit and kernel, the true essential substance of all sin of the evil will.—“The Holy Ghost reproves the world of lying when it pretends that its unbelief is honest doubt, etc.” (Richter’s Hausbibel).—The reproof of unbelief is at once a proffer of faith (and) an offer of all strength and grace requisite in order to it.
Joh_16:10. “The Holy Ghost convinces the world of righteousness: partly, that it must necessarily have a righteousness; partly, that it cannot find that righteousness in itself; partly, that it should seek such righteousness in Christ.” (Rieger.)—The ὑπάγειν denotes here, as in Joh_16:7, a ministering, obtaining, redeeming departure.—The not seeing must refer to faith in the Invisible. The righteousness of Christ, to be laid hold of in faith, is thus arrayed against the sin of unbelief.
Joh_16:11. Even the Holy Ghost (who was to do away with all accommodations and strip off all Jewish embellishments of the truth) does not put an end to the teaching concerning a Devil, but rather begins it anew.—The great cause is lost by the enemy of God, the author of all sin and unrighteousness, the blinder of men’s minds into unbelief of a Saviour; and it is won for the world, in which he has no longer either power or right.—The future judgment to which the world is proceeding, under the deciding testimony of the Spirit, is founded on the judgment which has been already accomplished through the departure of Jesus, and which is presented to the minds of men by the Holy Ghost.—The Spirit’s ἔλεγχος separates mankind into two classes, each consisting of three sorts of men. Among those who accept this ἔλεγχος, we distinguish the penitent who acknowledge their sin, the believing who are justified in Christ, the holy who are perfectly delivered from Satan’s power in the full accomplishment of their sanctification. Among those who persistently oppose, there are the abiding sinners, unbelievers, condemned.—Satan is either condemned to our advantage if we lay hold on righteousness, or we remain with him in condemnation if we continue as the world in sin.—Will ye then be, and be forever, the Devil’s? Will ye be condemned with him?—The three-fold office of the Holy Ghost has a corresponsive reference to the prophetical, high-priestly, and judicial offices of Christ.
Joh_16:12. Ye cannot bear it, is a more gracious and stronger expression than if He had said, Ye cannot receive it. The Lord considers the weakness of their oppressed minds. A further development and exposition of these great things would have altogether weighed them down, without the understanding which the Spirit should first bring.—Prematurely to pour out to people the whole truth, is not only useless, but it is also positively hurtful.
Joh_16:13. The living teaching of the Spirit is a guidance and leading into truth, in more senses than one. First, because it must assuredly presuppose, bring with it, require, a constantly corresponding practical obedience,—hence bringing no more to the inner and true understanding than the life is ripe for and fully willing to be guided by. “The Spirit will lead, the Christian must therefore walk with Him.” (Braune). Then, secondly, the Spirit gives, as we see in the case of the Apostles, His solutions and explanations according to the need and the occasion (Mat_10:19-20)—just as in part at least the laws of Moses were given according to the emergencies which required them. “In the activity of his vocation a man attains the region of truth,” says Braune. Thus, while the leading into of itself indicates a gradualness, in opposition to the mechanical and childish notion that the Apostles at one bound were established in all truth on the day of Pentecost, we have to seek the reason and the measure of this gradualness, both externally and internally; partly, in the internal ripening and progress of the Apostles themselves in their own sanctification, with which their knowledge keeps pace—and partly in the stages of the way in which their vocation as witnesses led them through the world.—“If the Holy Ghost may not speak of Himself, and (out of Himself—O Preacher! how canst thou draw thy preaching out of thyself, out of thine head (or even heart)”! (Gossner.)—Let nothing of thy preaching and testimony come from thine own mere impulse and will to know and to teach, before the Spirit hath taught and impelled thee!
Joh_16:14. The glorification of Jesus Christ will be consummated before His disciples and in them, only by the Holy Ghost. He shall glorify Me—in this the Lord names the inmost centre of the whole truth, around which the periphery of its manifold development revolves; as also the most decisive test for every spirit of lying.—“What preaches Jesus, and leads to faith in Him, is of the Holy Ghost. For as the Son speaketh of the Father and glorifieth the Father, even so speaketh the Holy Ghost of the Son and glorifieth the Son.” (Luther).—“The full harmonious close of all the words of Jesus is Spirit; the testimony of Jesus is the kernel and spirit of all the prophets.” (Œtinger.)—The Holy Ghost testifies of Jesus (Joh_15:26)—this is the beginning of His office in the world; He glorifies Jesus—that is the goal and end of His office in believers.—The glorification of Christ before us must coincide with the appropriating establishment of His image in us.—There is no other receiving of this glorifying light, no other living growing and becoming perfect in it than that which takes place according to 2Co_3:17-18.
Joh_16:15. The honor of the Father could not be left without its positive expression; we have found this pervading all these farewell discourses, but the Trinitarian expression and winding up of all culminates in this passage.—Thus, there is opened to us a glimpse into the living blessed bond of love in receiving and giving in the eternal ground of the triune essence of the Godhead.—“This is the circle; round and complete; all Three, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost in one eternal Divine nature:—thus the Holy Ghost is Himself true God, without any difference, only that He hath it both from the Father and the Son.” (Luther).
[From Barnes: Joh_15:1. Christ really and truly gives what is emblematically represented by a vine.—A vine yieldsproper juice and nourishment to all the branches, whether these be large or small.
Joh_15:2. Every branch in Me; Every one that is a true follower of Me—that is united to Me by faith—and that truly derives grace and strength from Me, as the branch does from the vine.—It is a union of friendship, of love, and of dependence; a union of weakness with strength; of imperfection with perfection; of a dying nature with a living Saviour; of a lost sinner with an unchanging Friend and Redeemer. It is the most tender and interesting of all relations; but not more mysterious or more physical than the union of parent and child, of husband and wife (Eph_5:23), or friend and friend.—He taketh away: The vine-dresser cuts it off’; God removes such in various ways: 1. By the discipline of the church; 2. By suffering them to fall into temptation; 3. By persecution and tribulation, by the deceitfulness of riches, and by the cares of the world. (Mat_13:21-22), by suffering the man to be placed in such circumstances as Judas, Achan, and Ananias were—such as to show what they were—to bring their characters fairly out, and to let it be seen that they had no true love to God; 4. By death.—To bear fruit is to show by our lives that we are under the influence of the religion of Christ; and that that religion produces in us its appropriate effects.
Joh_15:4. Live a life of dependence on Me, and obey My doctrines, imitate My example, and constantly exercise faith in Me.
Joh_15:5. We see hence, 1. That to Christ is due all the praise for all the good works the Christian performs; 2. That they will perform good works just in proportion as they feel their dependence on Him, and look to Him; 3. That the reason why others fail of being holy is because they are unwilling to look to Him and seek grace and strength from Him who alone is able to give it.
Joh_15:8. Bear much fruit: Abound in good works; be faithful, zealous, humble, devoted, always abounding in the works of the Lord. This honors God, 1. Because it shows the excellence of His law which requires it; 2. Because it shows the power of His gospel, and His grace that can overcome the evil propensities of the heart, and produce it; 3. Because the Christian is restored to the divine image, and it shows how excellent is the character after which they are formed.—The Saviour says those who bear much fruit are they who are His disciples.—No one should take comfort in the belief that he is a Christian who does not aim to do much good.
Joh_15:9. So have I loved you: Not to the same degree, but with the same kind of love—deep, tender, unchanging; love prompting to self-denials, toils, and sacrifices to secure their welfare.—A strong reason why we should continue in His love, 1. Because the love which He shows for us is unchanging; 2. It is the love of our best Friend—love whose strength was expressed by toils, and groans, and blood; 3. As He is unchanging in the character and strength of His affection, so should we be—thus only can we properly express our gratitude, thus only show that we are His true friends; 4. Our happiness here, and for ever, depends altogether on our continuing in the love of Christ.
Joh_15:16. Bring forth fruit: This is the great end for which Christians are chosen.—Your fruit should remain: This probably means, 1. That the effect of their labors should be permanent on mankind; 2. That their labor should be unremitted.—He that expects or desires to grow weary and cease to serve Christ, has never yet put on the Christian armor, or known anything of the grace of God.
Joh_15:19. If ye were of the world: If you were actuated by the principles of the world—if, like them, you were vain, sensual, given to pleasure, wealth, ambition, they would not oppose you.
Joh_15:22. We may understand this as teaching, 1. That they would not have been guilty of this kind of sin; 2. They would not have been guilty of the same degree of sin.
Joh_16:1. Learn, 1. That if Christians were left to themselves, they would fall away and perish; 2. That God affords means and helps beforehand to keep them in the path of duty; 3. That the instructions of the Bible and the help of the Holy Spirit, are all granted to keep them from apostasy; 4. That Jesus, beforehand, secured the fidelity, and made certain the continuance in faith, of His apostles—seeing all their dangers, and knowing all their enemies; and, in like manner, we should be persuaded that “He is able to keep that which we commit to Him against that day.” 2Ti_1:12.
Joh_16:7. It is expedient for you, etc.; 1. By His departure, His death, and ascension—by having these great facts before their eyes—they would be led by the Holy Spirit to see more clearly the design of His coming than they would by His presence; 2. While on the earth the Lord Jesus could be bodily present but in one place at one time; 3. It was an evident arrangement in the great plan of redemption, that each of the Persons of the Trinity should perform a part; 4. It was to be expected that far more signal success would attend the preaching of the gospel when the atonement was actually made, than before.
Joh_16:8-11. Here is presented a condensed and most striking view of the work of the Holy Spirit.
[From Owen: Joh_15:6. There is no true branch of the Vine that does not bear some fruit.—Those who have no living connection with Christ, represented by abiding in Him, are to be cut off eventually even from the outward and visible connection with His body, and cast forth.
Joh_15:7. The word of Christ is His own presence: where that dwells and forms the rule of conduct, He dwells.—Ye shall ask what ye will, etc. This is not a promise, as some absurdly suppose, that every request made by Christ’s disciples shall be granted; but that such petitions as result from His indwelling word, and are therefore in accordance with the mind of the Spirit, shall be heard and answered.
Joh_15:8. We should be cautious not to refer the bearing of fruit to the external results only which crown a life of activity in the service of Christ; the main reference is to the growth of grace in the soul, the fruits of the Spirit (Gal_5:22-23).—So shall ye be, etc. The condition of discipleship in the school of Christ.
Joh_15:9. The connection between Christ and His followers is one of love, having the same characteristics as that which subsists between the Father and Son.
Joh_15:10. Not only is obedience the proof of true discipleship, but it is here declared to be the very means of indissolubly uniting the soul to Christ.
Joh_15:16. The verb rendered have chosen, literally signifies, to choose out for one’s self, i.e. for one’s own use, or in accordance with one’s own pleasure; hence it signifies a choice with the idea of favor, approval and love.—Ye have not chosen Me: No one ever chooses Jesus in this evangelical sense of the word, until inclined thereto by the sovereign purpose and grace of God through Jesus Christ.—Should go and bring forth fruit: A picturesque expression denoting living energy and activity, a going forth under a profound sense of responsibility; and an addressing of one’s self with all one’s powers to the service assigned one.
Joh_15:19. It is only in opposition to truth, and in hatred to the followers of Jesus, that the men of the world are united, and it is in reference to this hatred to everything that is good, that the world is said to love its own.
Joh_15:24. Miracles must be connected with a holy life and true words, to have any power and significancy (as being from God).
Joh_15:26. Comforting is an important function of the Spirit’s office, though it constitutes but a small portion of His work as the Helper and Guardian of the saints on earth.—The preposition in from the Father implies that the original abode of the Spirit was with God.
Joh_16:1. Offended, “Hindered by stumbling- blocks such as are mentioned in the next verse.” (Crosby)
Joh_16:10. “The world’s only possible righteousness is in the grasping of the unseen and ascended Christ, and they will be convinced of that by God’s Spirit either to salvation or damnation.” (Crosby.)
Joh_16:14. He shall glorify Me, announces the great object of the Spirit’s mission; as all that He reveals has reference to Christ, so in the fulness and clearness of His revelation is Christ glorified, 2Co_4:6.]
Footnotes:
[1][So also Alford: None of you inquires into the nature (ποῦ being emphatic) of My departure, so as to appear anxious to know what advantages are to be derived from it.—P. S.]
[2][The E. V. translates reprove (Luther: strafen), but gives in the margin convince, which is much better. See Text. Notes, and the exegesis below.—P. S.]
[3][This reproving and punitive action of the Holy Spirit is only the negative side of the ἐλέγχειν here spoken of; the positive side is the salutary action, which leads to godly repentance and conversion. Luther describes the Strafamt with his usual force. See the eloquent passage admirably translated by Hare, l. c. p. 357 f. The following is a specimen: “Christ gives here His apostles and the preachers of the gospel the highest authority upon earth, that they must rebuke the world with their preaching, and that all men must for God’s sake be subject to their preaching, and must suffer themselves to be rebuked by it, if they would receive God’s grace and be saved. Verily, this is a vast grasp in a word, and the beginning of a war which was to be great and arduous, that these few mean, poor beggars, the Apostles, are to stir up the whole world, and to bring it upon their shoulders. For what is meant by the world? Not one or two of their fellows; but all emperors, kings, princes, and whatever is noble, rich, great and learned, wise, or anything upon earth; all these are to be rebuked by their preaching, as being ignorant, unrighteous, and condemned before God, with all their wisdom, righteousness, and power, which they hitherto had had and made boast of.—The world cries out furiously, when this sermon begins, that it is a mischievous, intolerable sermon, producing dissension and confusion, giving rise to disobedience, insurrection, tumult. And we cannot wonder at these complaints; for it is a vexatious matter, that the preachers should take upon themselves to reprove all, without distinction, and should allow none to be just and good before God. Who can deem it right or reasonable that this sermon should breed such a hubbub, and bring about changes and innovations so that the whole former religion and worship, with so many beautiful ceremonies of such long standing, should be despised, and should fall? And the most vexatious thing of all is, that they who undertake the work of rebuking, are not high and mighty, learned or otherwise eminent men, but poor, mean, unknown, despised fishermen, and such folks as everybody would class with beggars and vagabonds.”—P. S.]
[4][Hare, p. John 65: “That which was to be effected by His Spirit in tile Church during the whole course of ages down to the end of the world, He concentrates, as it were, into a single point of space, and a single moment of time; even as our eye, with the help of distance, concentrates a world into a star.”—P. S.]
[5][Similarly Chrysostom, Theophylact, Grotius, Hammond, who refer at the same to signs and wonders and other external proofs as the principal means by which men are to be convinced of the sin of their unbelief.—P. S.]
[6][The Rhemish version, as usual, follows here the Vulgate and translates justice (justitia), on which Hare (p. 371) makes the following instructive observations: “The Latin word is more appropriate here than in many other cases: though even here the corresponding Saxon word better expresses the vital principle dwelling and working in the soul; while the Latin, in conformity to the predominant character of the language, and of the nation whose image that language reflects, relates rather to outward acts and conduct. The difference is analogous to that which we find in the translations of the sixth beatitude, where, instead of the pure in heart, the Rhemish Version is led by the Vulgate, beati mundo corde, to put ‘Blessed are the clean of heart.’ I trust it is neither unjust nor fanciful to look upon these two words as in some measure symbolical of the distinctive characters of the Reformed churches and of that of Rome, that is to say, so far as each answers to its peculiar principle and idea. The former seek purity, and cannot be satisfied without it, and therefore are always oppressed with a deep consciousness of impurity; the latter aim at cleanness, which may be attained in a high degree, and by means of outward acts. So may justice; but righteousness is unattainable. I do not mean that the Romish Church is altogether regardless of purity and righteousness, or the Reformed of cleanness and justice. Specific distinctions are seldom absolute, but relative, and are formed by the predominance of one or other of the constitutive elements, by the development of that which had been latent, the coming forward of that which had been kept in the background, the superiority of that which had been subordinate. Neither are the cleanness and justice inculcated by the Church of Rome irrespective of purity and righteousness; nor are the purity and righteousness, the ideas of which were the beacon stars of the Reformation, irrespective of cleanness and justice. Indeed it would be utterly impossible for either to exist without some admixture of the other. But the error, which is the caricature and corruption of each church, and has evermore lifted up its head therein, marks its tendency by its main danger: and this in the Church of Rome has been the proneness to Pelagianism, in the Reformed Churches the aptness to run into Antinomianism. Our modern impugners and revilers of the Reformation have never duly recognized these main distinctions between the two great branches, into which the Western Church since that event has been divided. Hence they have gone blindly astray in their judgments upon each, blaming and praising inconsiderately and irrelevantly, nay, at times blaming where they ought to have praised, and praising where they ought to have blamed, even as in their own theology they want to turn back the hands of the world’s great clock, and to pull down to cleanness and justice, to rudiments of outward acts and observances,—touch not, taste not, handle not,—instead of urging and helping us to that inward purity and righteousness, which we are to seek from the Comforter, and which He alone can give.”—P. S.]
[7][Omitted in the fifth edition of Meyer.—P. S.]
[8][So also Maldonatus, Bengel, Olshausen, Barnes, Bäumlein, Godet, Owen.—P. S.]
[9][In this sense: The Spirit convinces the world also of the necessity of justification for the sinner (so that κόσμος would be the subject of δικαιοσύνης as well as of ἁμαρτίας); for after my atoning death I go to the Father and will work invisibly for you. This is substantially also the interpretation of Erasmus, Melanchthon, Lampe, Donne, Storr, Hengstenberg, Alford. Its chief representative is Luther, the almost inspired teacher of justification by faith. See the rich and full extracts given from him in fresh, racy Saxon English by Hare, pp. 441 ff., which are true in themselves and in opposition to Romish work-righteousness, and yet miss the proper sense of our passage. Ebrard adopts the same interpretation in the modified sense: the righteousness which the world ought to have, but has not. But in this case, as Meyer justly objects, the ἔλεγξις περὶ δικαιοσύνης would substantially amount to the same thing as the ἔλεγξις περὶ ἁμαρτίας.—P. S.]
[10][Hare, p. John 139: “In that Christ went to the Father, He gave the most certain demonstration of His righteousness. In that we see Him no more, He renders it easier for us to make His righteousness ours. Were He still living upon earth, were He walking about before our eyes, it would not be so … .So long as He continued with His disciples, they lived by sight, rather than by faith. Sight, as belonging to the world of sense, partakes of its frailties and imperfections. To put forth all its power, faith must be purely and wholly faith. It is so even with the human objects of faith and love. So long as they continue in the flesh, our faith in them, our love for them is imperfect. The infirmities of the flesh cleave to it. Their corruption must put on incorruption,—they must be transfigured by death,—they must pass away from this world of sight,—we must see them no more;—then may our faith and love towards them become pure and holy and heavenly and imperishable. When our love springs from the root of faith, then alone may it hope to blossom through eternity.”—P. S.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31, 33 They shall put you out of the synagogue-- (Joh…
They shall put you out of the synagogue-- (Joh 9:22; Joh 12:42).
the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service--The words mean religious service--"that he is offering a service to God." (So Saul of Tarsus, Gal 1:13-14; Phi 3:6).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 1. These things—Including his description both of the hostility…
1. These things—Including his description both of the hostility of the world and the co-operation of the Paraclete or Comforter.
Should not be offended—Be caused to backslide or to apostatize.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–33 1–11. The World and the Paraclete
1–11. The World and the Paraclete
1. These things] These discourses generally, especially the last section about the world’s hatred of Him and them (Joh_15:18-27).
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should not be offended] Literally, should not be made to stumble: comp. Joh_6:61; 1Jn_2:10. The metaphor is frequent in S. Matt. and S. Mark, occurs thrice in S. Luke (Luk_7:23; Luk_17:1-2), and twice in S. John. The fanatical hatred of the Jews might make Jewish Apostles stumble at the truth.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 (1) These things have I spoken unto you.—Comp. Note…
(1) These things have I spoken unto you.—Comp. Note on Joh_15:17. Here, too, the reference is to the things which he had just said (Joh_16:17-27). He had foretold them of the hatred of the world and also of the witness of the Spirit.
That ye should not be offended.—Comp. Mat_11:6; Mat_13:21; Mat_24:10, et al. In St. John the word occurs only here and in Joh_6:61.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 Vers. 1-6. (c) The bitter issues of the hostility…
Vers. 1-6. (c) The bitter issues of the hostility of the world.
These things. What things? Primarily the explanation he had given of the opposition and hatred of the world, and the vast consolation which he had promised in the identification of the disciples with himself, and the witness which would be borne by the Paraclete; but not exclusively, for they include all the preparatory instructions based on his own Person, his going to the Father, his return in the power of the Spirit. Have I spoken to you, that ye should not be offended; that you should not be made to fall over the stumbling block of persecution, and the refusal of the people to hear your message concerning me. For the moment he passes over the terrible stumbling and falling of that very night, whose shadows were deepening as the hours moved on, and he anticipated their future temptations and the source of their ultimate heroism.
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Vers. 1-4. A warning of future persecutions.
Having spoken of the guilt of the persecutors, our Lord refers now to the sufferings of the disciples.
I THE DESIGN OF THE WARNING. "These things have I spoken unto you, that you should not be offended.
1. The obstinate unbelief of the Jews would be not only a great surprise to the apostles, but a profound disappointment. They always lived in the expectation of a national conversion of Israel.
2. It was therefore necessary to prepare them by timely warnings for a fact so unexpected and so tragical in its results.
II RELIGIOUS ZEAL THE PRETENCE Or FUTURE PERSECUTIONS. "They shall put you out of their synagogues: yea, the hour cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think he offereth worship to God.
1. The persecutions would either take the form of
a. excommunication or
b. death.
2. Fanatical religious zeal would prompt the most extreme action, as it did in the case of Saul the persecutor, who thought he ought to do many things contrary to the Name of Christ.
3. The cause or ground of this persecuting zeal. "And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.
a. Blindness and hatred often go hand-in-hand.
b. The Jews were not guiltless of cruelty on the ground of their ignorance, because they had the amplest opportunities for knowing Christ and his Father.
III OUR LORD"S PREDICTION OF COMING PERSECUTIONS OUGHT TO BE A GROUND OF FAITH. "But these things I have foretold you, that when their hour shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them.
1. Our Lord will not allow his disciples to go forward into suffering without being prepared and trained to meet it.
2. He had hitherto spared them this disclosure of coming evil. "These things I said not unto you from the beginning, because I was with you.
(1) He had often spoken of persecutions as awaiting them, but not in such close connection with their relationship to himself and the manner in which they were to be encountered in the comfort and strength of the Spirit"s witness.
(2) So long as Christ was with the disciples, the rage of the Jews was directed against himself, and not against them.
HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG Ver. 1. Concerned for the stumbling-blocks.
The disciples of Jesus evidently entertained many expectations which, though plausible and excusable enough, were not reasonable; and hence inevitably, sooner or later, there must be a crushing collapse of their hopes. Indeed, the sooner such a collapse came the better. Terrible and overwhelming was the experience, but it was brief; and once over, it did not return. And all the while we can see that Jesus had these experiences constantly in mind.
I THE FIGURE HERE EMPLOYED. Jesus would speak words of such a kind as that, by attending to them, the disciples would escape offense. The allusion is to something coming in our way which may cause us to stumble, perhaps to fall. This agrees with the whole spirit of the discourse, in which Jesus again and again speaks of his disciples as making progress in a particular way. And what Jesus wants is to take out of the way all difficulties coming from wrong notions and expectations. We all have difficulties enough in our Christian life, what we may call external difficulties, without adding to them difficulties of our own making. And surely in that same spirit Jesus deals with us still. He seeks to spare us the stumbling-blocks. Others may have stumbled, but that is no reason why we should stumble too. And just as we put up signals of all sorts to catch eye and ear in dangerous places, so Jesus does the same. If any one has to do with guarding against the main dangers that beset human life, surely it is he who is eminently called the Savior. He who leaves the ninety and nine to bring back the wanderer will take all possible means to keep him from wandering again.
II THE EFFECT OF SUCH AS INTIMATION ON OUR MINDS.
1. A continuous feeling of self-distrust. We must never forget how easy it is to go wrong. The longer we live the more reason we have for distrusting ourselves. We need a wisdom, a foresight, a largeness and depth of view, altogether beyond our own. Our hesitating, vacillating actions come often just because we listen too entirely to the suggestions and prophecies coming out of our own hearts. Our natural boldness and our natural fearfulness are equally without reason. We must not listen too readily either to the suggestions of self or the suggestions of others. Be warned by the experiences of these first disciples. All their notions had to be upset, all their dearest fancies dissipated, before they could get at the truth.
2. A continuous regard to Jesus. Jesus must be ever in the foreground if self is to be ever in the background. Stumbling begins the moment the hand of Jesus is let go. We are but of yesterday, and know nothing; Jesus is of eternity, and knows everything. He who seeks to sweep all stumbling-blocks out of our way never stumbled himself. We can only take a step at a time, and it must be just where Jesus tells us to plant it. That is the secret of safe progress, and progress always in the right direction. Y.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 23, 25, 26, 28, 29, 31, 32, 33 These things have I spoken unto you, that ye…
Joh_16:1-6
These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended
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Christs reasons for present speech and former silence
I.
OUR LORDS LOVING REASON FOR HIS SPEECH.
1. The two statements of Joh_16:1; Joh_4:1-54 are separated by a reiteration of the dark prospect that He has been holding out. The world is the apostate Jewish Church. A formal church is the true world, to-day as then. And such a body will do the cruellest things and believe that it is offering up Christs witnesses as sacrifices to God. And the bottom of it all is that in the blaze of light, and calling themselves Gods, they do not know either God or Christ.
2. But that is all parenthetical. Look now at the loving reasons which Christ here suggests for His speech. That ye should not stumble. There could be nothing more productive of intellectual bewilderment and doubt than to find oneself at odds with the synagogue about the question of the Messiah. A modest man might naturally say, Perhaps I am wrong and they are right. A coward would be sure to say, I will sink my convictions and fall in with the majority. And, says Christ, the only way by which you will ever get over these temptations is to reflect that I told you it would be so, before it came to pass.
3. Of course all that has a special bearing upon the apostles, &c., a secondary bearing upon Christians, who live in a time of persecution. But it also has a bearing upon us. For, if we are trying to live like our Master, we, too, shall often be surrounded by people that take such an entirely opposite view of duty and of truth, as that we shall be only too much disposed to say, Well, perhaps after all it is better for me to hold my tongue. And then, besides, there are all the cares and griefs which befall each of us. Christ does not try to enlist recruits by highly-coloured pictures. He tells us plainly at the beginning, If you take My yoke upon you, you will have to carry a heavy burden. The roadway is narrow and rough, and the gateway is very strait, but it all goes steadily up. Will you accept the terms and come in and walk upon it? Jesus Christ will have no service on false pretences. Through much tribulation we must enter the kingdom. And the way by which all these troubles and cares can best be overcome is precisely by this thought, The Master has told us before.
(1) Sorrows anticipated are easier met. It is when the ship is caught with all its sails set that it is almost sure to go down. But when the barometer has been watched, and its fall has given warning, and everything has been made fast, and every spare yard has been sent below, and all tightened up and made ship-shape--then she can ride out the storm. Forewarned is forearmed.
(2) Sorrow foretold gives us confidence in our guide. We have the chart, and as we look upon it we see marked waterless country, pathless rocks, desert and sand, wells and palm trees. Well, when we come to the first of these, and find ourselves as the map says; and when, as we go on mile after mile, we find that it is all down there, we say to ourselves, The remainder will be accurate too. And if we are in Marah to-day, we shall be at Elim to-morrow. He has told us this; if there had been anything worse than this He would have told us that.
(3) Sorrow that comes punctually in accordance with His word plainly comes in obedience to His will. Their hour--the time allotted to them by Him. He could tell that they would come, because it was as His instruments that they came. It was only an hour, a definite, appointed, and brief period in accordance with His loving purpose. It takes all sorts of weathers to make a year; and after all the sorts of weathers are run out the years results are realized and the calm comes.
II. OUR LORDS LOVING REASONS FOR PAST SILENCE.
1. These things (Joh_16:4) include the whole of the previous chapter, in which He sets the sorrow as being the consequence of union with Him. In so systematic and detailed fashion our Lord had not spoken in His earlier ministry. And the reason why He had given but passing hints before was because He was there. What a superb confidence that expresses in His ability to shield His poor followers, as a hen gathereth her chickens, &c. But He is going away, and so it is time to speak, and to speak more plainly.
2. For us, too, difficulties and sorrows, though foretold in general terms, are largely hidden till they are near. It would have been of little use for Christ to have spoken more plainly before. The disciples managed to misunderstand His plain utterances about His own death and resurrection. There needs to be an adaptation between the hearing ear and the spoken word. And there are great tracts of Scripture dealing with the sorrows of life, which lie dark and dead to us, until experience vitalizes them. The old Greeks used to send messages from one army to another by means of a roll of parchment twisted spirally round a baton, and then written upon. And it was perfectly unintelligible when it fell into a mans hands that had not a corresponding baton to twist it upon. Many of Christs messages to us are like that. You can only understand the utterances when life gives you the frame round which to wrap them, and then they flash up into meaning, and we say at once, He told us it all before, and I scarcely knew that He had told me until this moment when I need it.
(1) It is merciful that there should be a gradual unveiling of what is to come to us, that the road should wind, and that we should see so short a way before us. Did you never say to yourselves, If I had known all this before, I do not think I could have lived to face it. Thank God for the loving reticence, and for the as loving eloquence of His speech.
(2) There ought to be in our lives times of close communion with that Master, when His presence makes all thought of trials in the future needlessly disturbing. If these disciples had drunk in His Spirit when they were with Him, then they would not have been so bewildered when He left them.
III. THE IMPERFECT APPREHENSION OF OUR LORDS WORDS WHICH LEADS TO SORROW INSTEAD OF JOY (Joh_16:5-6). The one definite idea that they gathered was that He was going. And they said, Going? What, is to become of us? If there had been a little less selfishness, and if they had put their question, Going? What is to become of Him? then it would not have been sorrow that would have filled their heart, but joy. That gives us a thought that the steadfast contemplation of the ascended Christ is the sovereign antidote against all sense of separation and solitude, the sovereign power by which we may face a hostile world, the sovereign cure for every sorrow. If we could live in the light of that great triumph, then, oh! how small would the babble of a world be. Look up to the Master that has gone, and as the dying martyr outside the city wall saw the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing--having sprung to His feet to help His poor servant--at the right hand of God, so with that vision in our eyes we shall be masters of grief and care, and sin, and feel that the absent is the present Christ, and the present Christ is the conquering power in us. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The Church and the world
I. THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH TO THE WORLD IS THE SAME AS CHRISTS--one of moral contrast as to character, principle, motive, inward life, whether it be the Jewish world, or the Greek, or the Roman. And it is the same now. Conceive the character of Christ, and place by the side of it that of a thoroughly worldly man, you will have the most striking contrast. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. And marks there are, plain and palpable, between the Church and the world. There are two kinds of changes possible with respect to these.
1. They may be shifted.
(1) The Church may push them out so as to take in more and more of the world, bringing in more and more converted spirits.
(2) The world may push it in upon the Church, making inroads upon it, persecuting it. Moral ravages, too, may be made, and those who have been in the Church may backslide, and the number of the faithful may be thus diminished.
2. They may be obliterated
(1) By practical compromise. The peculiarities of Christian character are by degrees diminished, and the Church becomes more and more like the world, so that one shades itself off, and gradually fades away into the other.
(2) By theoretical dogmas. The puritan doctrine was most unmistakeable. But there is in these days a doctrine which is just the opposite, that instead of dwelling upon the distinction between the Church and the world, dwells upon what belongs to Christians and men of the world in common. Now, we must protest against this obliteration of landmarks. Christ has drawn them most distinctly, and it is at our peril that we destroy them. We believe as firmly as any in the fatherhood of God over all His creatures; but in the case of worldly men, they have broken the hands of spiritual relationship, and adopted themselves into another family. We believe also in the universality of the atonement; but still there is to be a distinction made between those who accept that gospel and those who reject it.
II. THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH IS THE SAME AS THE MISSION OF CHRIST. As Thou hast sent Me into the world, &c. I am the Light of the world, Ye are the light of the world. Christ is represented
1. In the Churchs testimony of truth. The Church is to hold forth the truth, to make a stand for it, to illustrate and enforce it.
2. In the Churchs missionary operations. Christ was the great Missionary, and His work is now to be carried on instrumentally by His Church. Go ye into all the world. There are different kinds of missions. There is the lip mission; the pen mission; the hand mission; the foot mission; but chief of all, there is the life mission, and that must be connected with all the rest. Some men have done great things for the cause of Christ by their intellectual power, by pecuniary power, by business power, but I believe there is still more to be done by moral and social power. That connected with the rest makes the rest most effective.
III. THE DESTINY OF CHRIST IN THE WORLD, AND THE DESTINY OF CHRISTS CHURCH IN THE WORLD IS THE SAME. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own, &c., and so the text. A great change has been wrought in society by the influence of Christianity; so that the world is not what it was when the prediction was first spoken. And persecution does not exist now in the world as it once did. It is one part of the nominal church persecuting another. But the world is still opposed to what is most truly the spirit of Christianity. The world does not like to hear about the mediation of the Lord Jesus or the work of the Holy Spirit. And then, again, the world is not opposed to some aspects of Christian consistency. When a Christian carries out that in the way of generosity the world will praise him, but when he refuses to connive at deceit and falsehood, the spirit of the world will come out and persecute. Nor is the world so much opposed to moral consistency as to spiritual consistency. Those who oppose forms of amusement which are instinct with evil, such men the world hates. The world, too, may admire specimens of Christianity which are remote, but it does not like specimens of Christianity which are near. Bunyan dead is applauded, but Bunyan alive would not be so. Had Havelock come to England and exemplified his principles in connection with some civil callings at home, there are numbers who would have been ready to persecute the very man whom they applauded to the skies when he was far away. In many cases also the world would be found to admire Christians in spite of their Christianity, but not because of their Christianity. They are praised for their kindness, their generosity, their humility; but their fondness for prayer, their religious strictness, and so on, how often all this is regarded as an abatement! (J. Stoughton, D. D.)
They shall put you out of the synagogues
The best men liable to the worst treatment from mistaken zealots
I. THE BEST OF MEN MAY BE EXCLUDED FROM THE COMMUNION OF THOSE WHO MAY ASSUME TO BE THE TRUE AND ONLY TRUE CHURCH, and that under the notion of very bad and criminal persons. What the Jews did to the apostles hath been too frequently practised since by some of the professors of Christianity towards one another. Witness the case of Athanasius and others, in the reign and prevalency of Arianism, and the ill treatment that whole churches have met with from that haughty and uncharitable church which makes nothing of thundering out excommunication against persons and churches more Christian than herself. But it is our comfort, that the apostles were thus used by a church that made the same pretences that they do, and upon grounds every whit as plausible.
II. THEY WHO ARE THUS EXCOMMUNICATED MAY NEVERTHELESS BE TRUE MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. Men may be put out of the synagogue, and yet received into heaven; for the judgment of God is not according to the uncharitable censures of men, but according to truth and right.
III. FROM UNCHARITABLE CENSURES MEN NATURALLY PROCEED TO CRUEL ACTIONS. This has been the source of the most barbarous cruelties; witness the severity of the heathens persecution, which justified itself by the uncharitable opinion that the Christians were despisers of the gods, and consequently atheists; but they were pertinacious and obstinate in their opinions; i.e., in the modern style, heretics. And the like uncharitable conceit has been thought a sufficient ground (even in the judgment of the infallible chair) for the justification of several bloody massacres; for after men are once sentenced to eternal damnation, it seems a small thing to torment their bodies.
IV. MEN MAY DO THE VILEST AND MOST WICKED THINGS OUT OF A REAL PERSUASION THAT THEY DO RELIGIOUSLY. The great duties and virtues of religion are easy to be understood; and so are the contrary sins and vices: but then they are only plain to a teachable and honest mind; to those who receive the Word with meekness and love. But if men will give up themselves to be governed by any corrupt interest, to be blinded by prejudice, intoxicated by pride, and transported by passion, no wonder if they mistake the nature, and confound the differences of things, in the plainest and most palpable cases; no wonder if God give up persons of such corrupt minds to strong delusions to believe lies. In these cases men may take the wrong way, and yet believe themselves to be in the right and be verily persuaded that they are serving God, and sacrificing to Him. Of this we have a plain and full instance in the Scribes and Pharisees, and in St. Paul. And if God had not checked him in his course, he would have spent his whole life in persecution, and would (with Pope Paul IV. upon his death-bed) have recommended the Inquisition to the chief priests and rulers of the Jewish Church.
V. SUCH ACTIONS ARE NEVERTHELESS HORRIBLY WICKED. To make an action good and acceptable to God, we must do it with a good mind, and to a good end, and it must be good and lawful in itself.
VI. THE CORRUPTION OF THE BEST THINGS IS THE WORST. Religion is certainly the highest perfection of human nature; and zeal for God highly acceptable: and yet nothing is more barbarous, and spurs men on to more horrid impieties, than a blind zeal for God, and false and mistaken principles in the matter of religion (Act_26:9-11). (Abp. Tillotson.)
Whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.
The word doeth is the technical word for offering sacrifice (cf. Mat_5:23; Mat_8:4)
. The word service means the service of worship (Rom_9:4; Rom_12:1; Heb_9:1-6). A rabbinic comment on Num_25:13 is, Whosoever sheddeth the blood of the wicked is as he who offereth sacrifice. The martyrdom of St. Stephen, or St. Pauls account of himself as a persecutor (Act_26:9; Gal_1:13-14), shows how these words were fulfilled in the first years of the Churchs history, and such accounts are not absent from that historys latest page. (Archdeacon Watkins.)
Abuse of conscience
What a rattle and noise hath this word conscience made! How many battles has it fought? how many churches has it robbed, ruined, and reformed to ashes? how many laws has it trampled upon, dispensed with, and addressed against? and in a word, how many governments has it overturned? Such is the mischievous force of a plausible word applied to a detestable thing (Act_26:9). (R. South, D. D.)
Put you out of the synagogue
Excommunication
was much more than simply to exclude from the place of public worship. It cut a man off from the privileges of his people, from the society of his former associates. It was a sort of moral outlawry, and the physical disabilities followed the sufferer even after death. To be under this ban was almost more than flesh and blood could bear. All men shunned him on whom such a mark was set. He was literally an outcast; in lasting disgrace and perpetual danger. Those familiar with the history of the dark ages, or who are acquainted with the effects of losing caste among the Hindoos, will be able to realize the terrors of such a system. Sometimes this punishment and degradation was a prelude even to death. At all events, the Jews, who since their subjugation by the Romans had lost the legal prerogative of life and death, yet thought it meritorious even by irregular and clandestine measures to compass the destruction of those who were obnoxious. And the men who, in however underhand a manner, carried out the secret sentence of their displeasure were regarded by the rulers with approbation. So that there grew up a desperate and fanatical sect among them, which went by a name which in our adopted term of zealot has a very mitigated meaning. (G. J. Brown, M. A.)
Excommunication among the Jews
The three degrees of excommunication among the Jews were
1. Niddui, putting out of the synagogue (Luk_6:22). And the effect of this excommunication was to exclude men from the communion of the Church and people of God and from His service, which was a great disgrace, because after this sentence none of the Jews were to converse with them, but to look upon them as heathens and publicans.
2. Cherem, which extended farther, to the confiscation of goods into the sacred treasury, and devoting them to God, after which there was no redemption of them (Ezr_10:7-9).
3. Shammatha
when the rebellious and contumacious person was anathematized and devoted, and, as some conceive, according to the law Lev_27:29), was to be put to death; though other very knowing men in the Jewish learning think it amounted to no more than a final sentence, whereby they were left to the judgment of God, by some remarkable judgment of His to be cut off from the congregation of Israel. Of the first and last of these degrees of excommunication our Saviour seems here to speak. (Archbishop Tillotson.)
Gratitude for massacre
One of the most horrid circumstances attending the dreadful massacre of the Protestants under Charles IX. of Prance was that, when the news of this event reached Rome, Pope Gregory XIII. instituted the most solemn rejoicing, giving thanks to Almighty God for this glorious victory over the heretics!!
Religious fanaticism
In the Huguenot persecution in Belgium and France in 1562, the inhabitants of the town of Orange fell into the hands of the Catholics. They were hacked to pieces, burnt at slow fires, or left, infamously mutilated, to bleed to death. Noble ladies, first sacrificed to the lust of the soldiers, were exposed in the streets to die--either naked, or pasted over in devilish mockery with the torn leaves of their Geneva Bibles. Old men and children, women and sick, all perished under cruelties unexampled even in the infernal annals of religious fanaticism. (J. A.Froude.)
Religious intolerance dishonouring to God
In one of the Jews books it is stated that when Abraham sat at his tent door, according to his custom, waiting to entertain strangers, he espied an old man stooping and leaning on his staff, weary with age and travel, coming towards him, who was a hundred years of age. He received him kindly, washed his feet, provided supper, and caused him to sit down. But observing that the old man eat and prayed not, nor begged for a blessing on his meat, he asked him why he did not worship the God of heaven. The old man told him that he worshipped the fire only, and acknowledged no other God. At which answer Abraham grew so zealously angry, that he thrust the old man out of his tent, and exposed him to all the evils of the night and an unguarded condition. When the old man was gone, God called to Abraham and asked him where the stranger was. He replied, I thrust him away because he did not worship Thee. God answered him, I have suffered him these hundred years, although he dishonoured Me; and couldest thou not endure him one night, when he gave thee no trouble? Upon this, salts the story, Abraham fetched him back again, and gave him hospitable entertainment and wise instruction. Go thou, and do likewise, and thy charity will be rewarded by the God of Abraham. (Jeremy Taylor.)
The fate of the first disciples
Matthew suffered martyrdom by the sword in Ethiopia. Mark died at Alexandria, after being dragged through the city. Luke was hanged on an olive tree in Greece. Peter was crucified at Rome with his head downward. James was beheaded at Jerusalem. James the less was thrown from a pinnacle of the Temple and beaten to death below.
Philip was hanged against a pillar in Phrygia. Bartholomew was flayed alive. Andrew was bound to a cross, whence he preached to his persecutors till he died. Thomas was run through the body at Coromandel, in India. Jude was shot to death with arrows. Matthias was first stoned, and then beheaded. Barnabas was stoned to death by Jews at Salonica. Paul, in deaths oft, was beheaded at Rome by Nero. (J. Angus, D. D.)
Because they have not known the Father, nor Me
The tribulation explained
I. TRACED TO ITS CAUSE--ignorance. It is strange how differently Christ and man may view the same action. The Jews imagined they above all men were acquainted with the Father, and knew better than all the world beside what kind of service to present upon His altar. This was not the judgement of Christ.
II. CONDEMNED IN ITS CHARACTER. Though Christ ascribed their behaviour to ignorance, He does not say that for this they were not responsible, if they did not know the Father or Him they might have known Joh_15:22).
III. COMMISERATED IN ITS ACTORS. One cannot help thinking Christ designed His words to awaken pity in the breasts of His persecuted followers, like that afterwards found in His own, when, hanging on the cross, He prayed for His murderers (Luk_23:34). (T. Whitelaw,D. D.)
But now I go My way to Him that sent Me
Going to God
He says, not that He is going the way of all the earth, because He was not going as all flesh must go, from the necessity of mans nature, but of His own will. All things which He suffered on earth were a going to His Father, a fulfilment of His mission, and the way by which He was to return to Him that sent Him. By His cross and passion, by His sufferings and death, was His kingdom to be set up and His throne established. And by reminding His disciples of this truth He seeks to assuage their grief, and to prevent their being offended in Him, since, however greatly He should be humiliated, and however many His sufferings might be, they were all but a going to His Father, all but the means by which His glory was to be made known unto men. This thought was the consolation of the Man Christ Jesus, and with the same thought He consoles us. The oil from the head of our Great High Priest flowed down to all His members, even the oil of gladness to comfort them in all their troubles. The whole of this present life of man is one continual going either to God or from Him. All thoughts and deeds of our daily life are either separating us from our heavenly Father or drawing us towards Him in whose presence we are at all times. It is our vocation to pass through life into the glory of our Father; and our duty to remember that whilst all is shifting around us, the Christians career is in itself a going the way to Him that sent him. (W. Denton, M. A.)
None of you asked Me, Whither goest Thou?
Misdirected and sanctified curiosity
Curiosity is often reprehensible. It is the fault of many to wish to pry into matters which they had much better never know. But there is one direction in which inquiry is never out of place. We can never be too anxious to know about Christ, the reasons of His movements, and the explanations of His doings (1Pe_1:10-12). Here anxious interest and casting about for light are not only legitimate, but necessary to our proper instruction, comfort, and salvation (Jam_1:5). But just here it is that the human heart is most sluggish. People spend their lives searching into questions of political and domestic economy, finance, commerce, agriculture, education. They toil and experiment touching the character, relations, and classifications of rocks, metals, soils, plants, insects, reptiles, animals, birds, and flowers. They explore and labour, at every expense and inconvenience, to make and test theories about the world. They rummage the darkest histories of the past, and exhaust their powers speculating upon the phenomena of human life, and perplex themselves about a thousand things in reference to which the best wisdom is as useless as it is scanty. But when it comes to the great and mighty movements of the Lord of all, the incarnation of Jehovah for the redemption of a world labouring under the curse of sin, and those moral and spiritual administrations, without which all the universe must be as nothing to us, they have no inquiries of living interest to propound. And to many an energetic sage and earnest searcher in departments not a thousandth part the account of this, the wronged and burdened Saviour is compelled to say, I go My way to Him that sent Me; and none of you asketh Me, Whither goest Thou? And especially in times of affliction, when the good Lord seems to withdraw Himself, and leave us to ourselves and our weaknesses, does the Saviour find occasion to complain of the deadness of men, paralyzed with their griefs, when they ought to be inquiring of Him about the reasons and objects of them. He has His explanations for all our days of darkness, and an antidote for every pain or privation we suffer, if only we had the faith and interest to ask after it. But the human heart is such an inveterate doubter, and so ready to give way before what is afflictive and dark, that we often miss the very consolations which are at hand, just because we are too dull and despondent to make the requisite inquiry. (J. A. Seiss, M. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 20, 22, 23, 25, 31, 33 1. These things have I spoken. The warnings found…
1. These things have I spoken. The warnings found in the 14th and 15th chapters. They were given beforehand lest they should stumble. To be forewarned would be a help to their faith amid the dark scenes of the next few days, and in the persecutions that would come later.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv1, 16, 23 Chap. Joh_15:27. The Spirit does not teach historical facts,…
EXPLANATORY AND CRITICAL NOTES
Chap. Joh_15:27. The Spirit does not teach historical facts, but reveals their true meaning. Hence the apostolic testimony and the testimony of the Spirit form but a single act, in which each contributes a different element—the one the historic narrative, the other the internal evidence and the victorious power. This relation is reproduced in our day in all living preaching derived from Holy Scripture. St. Peter equally distinguishes the two kinds of testimony (Act_5:32) (see Westcott, etc.).
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Joh_16:1. These things, etc.—i.e. regarding the hatred of the world (Joh_15:18-27), lest that should become a cause of offence to them. He will not send them unwarned into the field of bitter strife. But perhaps, also, the reference is to the comforting promises, and the views of their union with Him just given, which would comfort and strengthen them in the midst of their sufferings. Offended.—Mat_11:6; Mat_13:21, etc.
Joh_16:2. They shall put you out of their synagogues, etc.—i.e. excommunicate the disciples, debar them from religious fellowship. Toward this the Sanhedrin had already taken steps (Joh_9:22; Joh_12:42). It would be a trial to the disciples to be shut out from participation in the blessings promised to Abraham’s seed. But more than that, whosoever killeth you will think he is bringing an offering to God—. So blinded would these persecutors be by their hatred to Christ and His people that they will think (δόξη) that they are serving God by this bitter hatred, so alien to the God of love. But the Rabbis taught that “every one that sheds the blood of the wicked is as he that offereth an offering” (see Westcott, in loc.).
Joh_16:3. These things, etc.—Such action would proclaim their entire ignorance of the true nature of God (Joh_15:21), in Himself and as revealed in Christ. They rejected the light, and thus did the works of darkness.
Joh_16:4. But these things, etc. (Joh_16:1).—The ἀλλά, but, indicates a break. The Lord now turns aside from the idea of future sorrow. And these things I said not at the beginning, etc.—He had spoken of future trials (Mat_5:10; Mat_10:17; Mat_16:24, etc.), but not with the same fulness as now. Nor had He before told them of the manner in which the world’s hatred was to be met by the Spirit. When He was with them His presence protected and comforted the disciples. The world’s hatred fell on Him. But now, with His promise, they would be able to endure.
Joh_16:5-6. But now I go My way, etc.—His work was nearing its close, and this to Him was matter of rejoicing. But the disciples were so engrossed with the thought of parting with Him, and of what they were to encounter, that they had no thought of the purpose of His departure, and whither He was going, the glorious state into which He was to enter. The disciples were absorbed in themselves, and even in the questions of Peter (Joh_13:36) and Thomas (Joh_14:5) the whither was lost sight of. They did not think of the Lord’s glory, but of themselves.
Joh_16:7. Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is expedient, etc.—He appealed again to their conviction of the truth of His words (Joh_14:2). They imagined His departure to be an unmitigated evil for them; but He showed them that it was not so. His going away was the condition of His ascension and glorious sitting at the right hand of God, from whence He should send the Comforter (Joh_7:39). “I do not desire that you should love Me after a fleshly manner, and through being contented with this milk remain ever children” (Augustine; 2Co_5:16). He is nearer to His true disciples than if He were on earth. “The complete work of Christ was the necessary preliminary, and, in some sense, the procuring cause of that gift; and since the Word is the Spirit’s instrument, the revelation must be complete before the application of it can begin in its full energy. Christ must be at the right hand of God before He can bestow the Spirit, ascending on high that He may receive for, and give the gift to, spirits fitted to receive it by faith in His completed work” (Maclaren). The redemptive work of Jesus needed to be completed ere the Spirit could come (Heb_9:26).
Joh_16:8. And when He is come, He will reprove, etc.—i.e. He will convince or convict (ἐλέγξει) the world of fault or error. This ability to be convinced shows that there is still possibility of salvation for the world. The testimony of the disciples, filled with the Spirit, would surely convince the world of its sinfulness. The Spirit would use the testimony of the apostles regarding Christ so powerfully that, despite itself, the world would be convicted of its error, and their cause vindicated (Act_2:37). Sin, righteousness, judgment.—The world entertains erroneous conceptions of these great facts, the greatest as regards the position of men spiritually. The world does not understand what sin is in relation to God, feels no need of righteousness, does not comprehend fully the idea of retribution, and dreams of some way of escape. From such fatal dreams the world must be awakened.
Joh_16:9 In respect of sin, etc.—Sin in its deepest essence is disobedience to the divine will, and therefore unbelief (Gen_3:17). And the world’s sin had reached its highest point when it rejected Christ. To all open hearts Jesus is the manifestation of the highest good, and those who reject Him turn away from the light which reveals. Unbelief in Christ is the acme of sinfulness.
Joh_16:10. In respect of righteousness, because, etc.—The world being blinded as to the true idea of sin had also no true conception of righteousness. But when the full redemptive work of the Saviour was seen and understood, when men were made aware at what a cost sin needed to be propitiated—how it required the sending, the humiliation, the death of the incarnate Son—and was announced as completed by His rising and ascension, then, they would understand what sin really was, and that no mere outward reformation could take it away, that the Lord our righteousness alone could effect it (Rom_1:17; Rom_10:3, etc.).
Joh_16:11. In respect of judgment, etc.—This judgment began when, in meek obedience, the Saviour hung upon the cross, bowed His head, and gave up the ghost, crying, “It is finished.” The serpent’s head was bruised (Gen_3:15). But the power of evil, though vanquished and retreating, is not yet finally overcome, and may yet make desperate efforts to retrieve the lost position (2 These. 2; Revelation 13, etc.). But Christ’s judgments are in the world; and year by year the kingdom by God is advancing to triumph.
Joh_16:12. I have yet, etc.—The disciples were like spiritual children. They required “line upon line, precept upon precept” (Isa_28:10). See how the risen Christ had to reprove the two on the way to Emmaus as “fools, and slow of heart,” etc. (Luk_24:25). They required the inner illumination of the Spirit. Nor was Christ’s work all accomplished. The final and most important part of it had yet to come. And that the disciples could not then understand; they could not conceive of it until it was past, and its purposes revealed to them.
Joh_16:13. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, etc.—πνεῦμα, neuter, but pronoun ἐκεῖνος (masc.) shows that the Spirit is a person. Guide.—Christ is the way of truth; the Spirit guides men to and in Him the living way. He shall not speak of Himself, or from Himself.—He shall declare the will of the Father as Christ did (Joh_8:38-40; Joh_14:24; Joh_15:15). This is the test of His guidance. His divinity is clearly shown in the words, “He shall show you things to come.” None but God can do this. The things that are coming (see Rev_1:1; Rev_22:6).—The course of the Church’s progress would be revealed to them (see especially Revelation 2; Revelation 3).
Joh_16:14. He shall glorify, etc.—The Son glorifies the Father. And the Spirit, teaching the glorious truths of Christ’s redemptive work to men, shall glorify the Father and the Son (Joh_16:15) in every redeemed soul. “The Son is of the Father alone; but the Holy Spirit is of the Father and the Son” (Augustine).
Joh_16:15. All things that the Father hath, etc. (Col_1:19).—Thus He is the complete revelation of the Father. It is a stupendous claim; but is it not borne out by the person and work of the Redeemer? The three divine hypostases are united in man’s redemption.MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Joh_16:1-15
Chap. Joh_15:26 to Joh_16:4. True witnesses of Christ.—The Spirit was to testify of Christ in the minds and hearts of the disciples. He would make clear the word spoken by Christ in their souls. He would come with power into their hearts, witnessing to their spirits that they were God’s children. They realise that their treasure is in heaven; and in silent hours that treasure is revealed to them, and they are blessed in the knowledge. They are bound in one, and the Spirit is the messenger passing between them. The Spirit witnesses that they have found their Lord and Saviour, and the Spirit testifies to Christ that they are children of God. For this cause the Spirit will witness through God’s children (Joh_15:27).
I. The source of this witness-bearing.—
1. “When the sunbeams have borne witness to the planets and the moon as to the source of their light, they in turn shine in the night and bear witness of the source of their light. When the sunshine bears witness in the flowers of the source of their life, then they bear witness to it in their varied beauty and their sweet odours.” So should it be with Christians and Christ.
2. They bear witness to His power in their lives. They are as lights in the world, as the salt of the earth. And whatever is revealed in Scripture by the Holy Spirit regarding the meaning and aim, the contents and fruit, of the work of Jesus, remains as the directory for this witness-bearing.
II. Its steadfastness.—
1. This witnessing for Jesus excites the hatred of the world, which seeks to isolate believers and excommunicate them from participation in the divine service. The disciples speedily came under the ban of the Jewish authorities. It had been threatened before. But after the descent of the Spirit, when the true nature of the religion of Christ was perceived, then the hatred of Jewish bigotry broke out in bitter persecution. They were not allowed to witness for Christ in temple or synagogue; and the hatred of their persecutors followed them into strange countries (Act_9:1-2).
2. Not only so, but the persecution took a bitterer form, and the protomartyr Stephen was the first of those who fell under the hands of those who thought they were doing God service in slaying him.
3. As the years sped on Roman persecutions took the place of the Jewish. When any misfortune came upon a country, men imagined it was the wrath of the gods because the “new superstition” was permitted to extend. And the cry was, “To the lions with these Christians, and then things will mend!” This they did because they knew not the Father nor Christ.
4. And it descended to pre-Reformation times, when the first companies of the faithful separated from the Romish Church. A crusade against heretics was preached. As Huss was bound to the stake to be burnt, and the fire did not speedily enough burn up, a monk cried out, “Whoever brings wood for the burning of this heretic shall have full absolution and forgiveness of sins.” These things were done then because men truly knew not the Father or Christ.
5. But to the believer the fellowship with his Lord is a full compensation, and in peace his soul finds a rich indemnity for temporal loss. Thus his faithfulness toward Jesus does not waver; he is drawn indeed into closer union with his Lord the more earnestly the world drives him away from itself.
III. The comfort with which the disciples of Jesus are consoled.—
1. They remember that the Lord had foretold these persecutions. The Lord had spoken the truth, but that truth was yet like an unopened book. The ages have unsealed and opened it.
2. But the Lord had forewarned the disciples, so that when the trouble came they might not think that some strange thing had happened unto them (1Pe_4:12). They were not to dream that the position of disciples would be one of happiness in the world. When they know of the enemy then they are able to stand on their guard. And these persecutions they were to account an honour; yes, they were to remember that those who suffered with Christ would also be partakers of His glory.
3. There was a proverb in the ancient Church that “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” When the willows by the brook have their twigs cut off they do not wither, but shoot forth more sprays than there were before. So when mockery and persecution break forth on Christian men for the sake of the name of the Lord and Saviour, then they are like trees planted by the watercourses. What the world thinks shall be evil He will turn to good. Against his will must the enemy build up the Church also in your souls.
4. Believers remember also amid it all that many are enraged at the gospel purely from want of knowledge. And in the hope that finally to the witnessing of Jesus the victory is sure, they work on in patience and prayerful watching.
Joh_16:5-15. The blessed coming of the Spirit (see also Joh_14:16-18).—The one thought filling the disciples’ hearts at the moment these words were spoken was a thought of sorrow. “He is going away,” was the dominant thought. And it had filled the hearts of the disciples with sadness. Their faces were clouded as is the summer noon when a storm draws on apace. Sorrow indeed prevented them asking the simple question whither He was going, for then their sorrow had been turned to joy. But in mercy and kindness, remembering their weakness, the Redeemer spoke words of cheer, telling them that though He must depart this was but the prelude of richer blessing, which would in the end turn their sorrow into joy.
I. The glorified Saviour will send the Comforter.—
1. The Spirit is called the Comforter for this reason among others—that He would bring comfort to the hearts of the disciples when the Saviour had ascended, and when He should tell them what they could not hear then from Christ.
2. It was better for the disciples and the world that the Saviour should depart. Had He remained it must have been in one place, in which His reign would be more conspicuous than elsewhere. But the influence of the Spirit would be universal. Nor would it be an outward manifestation so much as an inward life. The Lord comes spiritually in the Holy Ghost. And thus the life of sight, of the actual bodily presence of the living Saviour, gave place to the life of faith.
3. The Saviour has now ascended, and sits at the right hand of God. So that now the believer knows there is One awaiting him beyond. It is no unknown country. The loving Redeemer is in the Father’s presence and has prepared a place for His followers.
4. But had not the Spirit been in the world ere Christ came? Did He not influence the hearts of God’s people of old through law and prophecy? Yes,—but to a desire for better things, to a faith in what was to come, and from which the prophets were permitted sometimes for a moment to uplift the veil, revealing the coming Redeemer and His wondrous work. Thus many of the Old Testament saints rejoiced, though dimly, in Christ.
5. But now the time of type and symbol was past, and the Spirit was to come as an indwelling guest, revealing Christ in the hearts of all true believers. But first Christ must bring the work of redemption to its completion. Only in hearts cleansed in the Fountain opened for sin can the Spirit joyfully dwell as the Paraclete. And His resurrection and ascension must show that work completed, as “all power is given to Him in heaven and earth,” and He can send them forth in spiritual strength to witness to His saving work, the Spirit bringing all things to their remembrance of His life and work, so that they could proclaim in His name forgiveness of sin.
II. The Comforter comes with quickening power.—
1. But He comes thus only to those who believe. To be baptized is not enough, to be a church member not enough. It is only to believing hearts that the Spirit will come as a comforter.
2. To the world He comes otherwise. He “convinces the world of sin.” Ere He comes into our hearts there is the silence and calm of death. But when the Spirit comes through the word or some providential dealing, this fatal calm is broken up, and the storm of conviction descends on the soul like a rushing wind, or the door is shut against His pleading.
3. And the sin of which He convinces the dead world is the sin of unbelief. This is the root of all sin—the believing of the devil’s lie, “Thou shalt not surely die” (Gen_3:4), rather than the voice of God which is truth. It is turning away from the Light of truth—the rejection of that Light which all along was revealing the Father, and which finally made manifest His glory, full of grace and truth (Joh_1:14).
4. But the Spirit further convinces the world of righteousness. Men of the world have in vain striven to establish a righteousness of their own. But the Spirit convinces those who open their hearts of the futility of this endeavour, and points to the only way, i.e. that they should humbly confess their sinfulness and come to the Redeemer, that He may be made unto them righteousness. And His going to the Father meant the completion of that work which made it possible for men to attain this righteousness.
5. The Spirit “will convict the world of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.” Satan’s kingdom will be destroyed as the kingdom of grace advances. Christ came not to judge the world, but to save it; and therefore His very coming was a judging of the prince of the evil world of men’s hearts. At the cross the serpent’s head was bruised; and whereever the Spirit comes with power there the dark kingdom of evil shrinks and contracts. And through the ages it is shrinking and contracting at every new conquest of the cross. The darkness is passing and the true Light now shines. Every new mission station, every enlightened heart, is a new conquest of a part of the territory of the awful power of darkness. As Christ cried “It is finished” the prince of this world was judged. And as the risen Christ is preached so declines the power of evil.
6. But in this convincing and convicting power of the Spirit lies the purpose of eternal love. He does not convince and convict in vain, or merely to demonstrate the divine judgments. He comes in judgment to tear up the fallow ground (Jer_4:3), to uproot the noxious weeds, the thorns and thistles, which would choke the good seed sown by the servants of the Church, so that when He descends like rain upon the grass to be mown, and as showers that water the earth, the good seed may spring up and bring forth abundantly.
7. This conviction, too, is an awakening from the darkness and ignorance of sin and unrighteousness under which men were exposed to judgment, and a bringing of them into the light of truth. He shall guide you into all truth—fit representative of the good Shepherd who leads His flock—telling of the gentle dealing of God. And as the Saviour ever listened for the Father’s voice (Isa_50:4), so the Spirit will not speak of Himself. His witnessing is one with the witness of the word of Christ. Nothing revealed by Him can truly be in contradiction to the teaching of Christ and His inspired word. For He is to receive of Christ what is His, to show it unto the disciples—show it not to the head alone, but to the heart. For it is here especially that moral truth is apprehended; and the heart must be specially enlightened.
8. How has the Spirit glorified Christ! The history of the progress and power of Christ’s gospel is a testimony to the power of His witness-bearing to the Redeemer. And every redeemed heart bears the same witness; for what the Spirit gives is what He received of Christ, and therefore Christ is glorified.
9. So also is the Father glorified in Christ. For the things of Christ are the Father’s. “Christ is God’s.” Here all the persons of the Godhead are seen conjoined in this glorious work. How ought this wondrous love to constrain us not to live unto ourselves—to open our hearts joyfully to the influence of the blessed Paraclete, that He may work His sanctifying work within us! “Working out our own salvation with fear and trembling, seeing that it is God who is working in us,” etc. (Php_2:12).
Joh_16:5-15. How the Holy Ghost brings to completion God’s purpose of grace toward men.—The working of the Holy Spirit in the faithful and in the world; the comfort of believers in view of the world’s enmity and their own wickedness; the true spirit of obedience in reference to the leading of the Spirit, are the chief points in the passage.
Introduction.… Rejoice at the remembrance that God has sent His Son into the world that the world through Him might be saved, that the Son died on the cross to reconcile the world to God. The Holy Spirit has come as the promised Paraclete, to enable all who seek it to appropriate Christ’s righteousness, and to make them joyful in their divine sonship. Our passage shows how this working of the Holy Spirit completes God’s purpose of grace toward men.
I. He comforts the sorrowing.—
1. The disciples were sorrowful because of the departure of Jesus. It was shown to them how needful this was, and how good it would be for them.
2. In tribulation we by nature see that alone. The Holy Spirit quickens our vision, so that we recognise the blessings that come from tribulation.
II. He punishes those who oppose.—
1. The world is by the Holy Ghost convicted of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.
2. We all possess in ourselves a bit of the world, which must be discarded. For this reason the Holy Ghost also discovers our sinfulness to us, and chastens us, so that we may be led to repentance, to lay hold of Christ’s righteousness, and comfort ourselves in the same, in view of the judgment.
III. He leads the “willing people.”—
1. The Holy Ghost was to lead the disciples into all truth, so that through their testimony Christ might be glorified.
2. The Holy Ghost leads the penitent ever deeper into the knowledge of God’s way of salvation; He purifies their life evermore from sin, brings them into ever closer union with Christ, and thus their word and life glorify Jesus.—J. L. Sommer, “Evang. Per.”
Joh_16:8. He shall convince the world of sin.—What Scripture lays stress on is not men’s circumstances, but their moral and spiritual condition. According to their inner life, men in the same outward circumstances will do vastly different deeds and arrive at issues wide asunder as heaven and hell. In the same circle, under the same influences, with the same advantages, we find a John who leaned on the Saviour’s breast, and a Judas who betrayed Him. It may be well to seek social reform, higher wages, better education, better circumstances. But if we would seek to raise the race higher, we must begin first and strive chiefly after inward and spiritual reform. With that the external and outward will come also.
I. The presence of sin and its power in the life of men show the need of conviction of sin.—
1. The divine teaching is therefore directed first to the conviction of sin. This is one of the chief offices of the Spirit. It is a weakness of much of modern evangelical preaching that this is so little insisted on.
2. The apostolic preaching enforced this truth on Jew and Gentile, showing that the culmination of sin was unbelief, through knowing not God and Him whom God hath sent. This made Wesleyanism and the evangelical revival at the end of last century so powerful.
3. To ignore the fact of sin is to ignore history. Apart from this great fact Christ’s work is meaningless. Hence the attempt to discredit the divine facts. The modern craze of evolution has infected the Church; hence men are seeking to square Scripture and divine eternal truth with this narrow and dubious theory,
4. But the stern truths of the existence and doom of sin men cannot get rid of, juggle as they may. This is not only a Bible dogma. It lies at the basis of the religious history of mankind It is met in all its sombreness in all the historic religions, in the cultured literature of Greece and Rome. The great cycle of Greek tragedies reveals it—
“Pollution, like a cloud, hangs o’er a man,
And folly hides the knowledge of his fall.”
The Greek poets not only saw sin working out its dire results here. They were convinced it would follow man beyond.
“For Hades is a stern inquisitor
Of men beneath the earth, and views their deeds,
And writes them in the tablets of his mind.…
The lewd offender shall not when he dies
Escape arraignment in the shades below.”
Æschylus, “Agam.”
No fine-spun theories can get rid of the momentous fact. Each one in view of sin must confess, “I did this; this habit of sin is in me; whatever the motive, I was the mover. Man at first knew the right and good, i.e. obedience to the divine will. It was not necessary that he should know personally what evil was in order to his development. But when he disobeyed the divine will he could not help knowing it, and now his development is effected in another way than it would have been had he not fallen” (see Maurice, Theol. Essays). The first step, therefore, that God’s Spirit takes is to convince men of sin. This He had been doing all along, even in pagan hearts, as we see from Greek and Roman literature, Egyptian monuments, etc. But now, in view of the exhibition of what sin is on Calvary, His convincing and convicting power is infinitely increased.
II. The blessedness of the Spirit’s work in convincing the world of sin.—
1. The real principle of sin is disobedience to the word of God arising from unbelief. Hence sin in this view is called a deficiency, a want, a missing of the mark. It is as if some important bolt or rivet from a great, complicated machine had been broken or withdrawn. The machine is thrown into confusion and much of it destroyed. So with man’s nature,—the moral bond between God and man being snapped asunder, moral and physical deterioration inevitably followed.
2. Sin never remains alone. It is followed by a numerous progeny. One lie leads to another, one crime to another. This perhaps is the great lesson taught by the mediæval tragedy of Faust, modernised by Goethe, Lenau, and others. It shows how sin follows on the heels of sin, in the vain effort made by the sinner to escape the consequences of what has gone before.
3. Hence evil becomes “crookedness,” perversion of the divine law. Then it develops into open rebellion, and, last and lowest stage, becomes habitual wickedness, and, if persisted in, moral death. It leaves its mark on the nature.
4. Another reason why it is blessed to have this conviction thrust upon us is the fact that sin is hereditary. It has led to physical deterioration. Children inherit this, and also a weakened moral nature. The sins of the fathers are visited on the children. “The evil that men do lives after them.” Modern science “is laying unexpected emphasis upon the words of Robert Browning when he said that Christianity is the faith which launched its dart at the head of a lie, taught original sin, and the corruption of man’s heart” (Expository Times, 1892).
5. Sin haunts men, and the longer they continue impenitent the more terrible does it become. Our sins are “like our shadows.” Not only so, but the shadow often envelops others in its gloom, and may follow beyond.
Application.—We should therefore hail with joy the fact that the Spirit’s work is to convince the world of sin, and now more powerfully than ever before, in view of Gethsemane and Calvary. Let His convincing and convicting power have free play in our hearts and consciences. For the first step from the bondage of sin is this conviction of its deadly power and presence in the world and in our hearts.
Joh_16:10. The way of escape from sin.—Thank God, the Spirit not only convicts the world of sin. He also comes to convict or convince it of righteousness, and thus of the way of escape from sin. The Comforter will not only quicken the consciences of sinful men, but, in the finished work of Jesus, will point the way to deliverance from sin.
I. How men of old longed for this.—“We must either learn to discover the truth about these subjects; or, if this be impossible, we must take the best and most irrefragable of human words, and supported on this, as on a raft, sail through the waters of life in perpetual jeopardy, unless we make the journey on a securer stay—some divine word, if it might be—more securely and with less peril” (Plato’s Phœdo, in Westcott’s Religious Thought in the West).
II. This divine word which those seekers after truth would fain have possessed we have.—
1. This word gives us the joyful assurance that the work of sin may be undone: not by merely changing our circumstances, but by having ourselves changed.
2. There is a way of escape from moral evil, its toils here and its terrors hereafter. The divine law is founded on the possibility of men resisting evil. But if men persist in sinning, it is an eternal decree that evil, if persisted in, hardens the heart and sears the conscience. Some aid must therefore be given if sin is to be overcome.
3. Christ brings this aid. His redemptive work is often presented under the very defective view of providing merely for the pardon of actual transgressions—as if that were enough. If by an act of royal clemency a criminal is discharged, is he less a criminal? No; and this would not suffice in the moral sphere either. Thus the Redeemer was called Jesus; for He shall save His people from their sins. He delivers men from the bondage of corruption. He, through the Spirit, will make them new creations. Convincing them of the need of righteousness, the Spirit will point to the completed work of Jesus, and its acceptance in His ascension to the right hand of the Father, where He reigns, “The Lord our righteousness.”
III. The effect in the moral and spiritual life of the Spirit’s convincing men of righteousness.—
1. Let men, while now is the accepted time, yield themselves to the influences of God’s Spirit, and He will convince them of sin, righteousness, judgment.
2. But He will not leave them there. He will guide them so that they may rise to that condition from which man fell—to submissive readiness to do God’s will, and to renounce their own will. He will lead them to righteousness—not absolute, but through faith ever becoming more marked through union with Christ.
3. And He will also lead them to realise that judgment is already going forward in the world, that yet a little while and the final time of declaration will come, “when we shall all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body,” etc. (2Co_5:10).
Joh_16:11. The mission of the Comforter.—This passage is frequently interpreted as though it referred to the final judgment of the world, and men have supposed that Christ meant to say that the last conviction produced by the Comforter is the assurance of a day when He (the Lord) shall appear as the Judge of man. It is evident that Christ referred to a judgment that had then and there commenced, for the words have a present meaning—“The prince of this world is judged.” We shall most easily illustrate this by referring to a precisely similar utterance in chap. Joh_12:31, “Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.” The Saviour had just declared that by His death He should give life to the world. He had just received from heaven the assurance of final victory. The judgment, therefore, to which He pointed was that conquest which He had already commenced of the dominion of evil, and the final victory over it which He should gain on His cross; and the same meaning must be attached to the word world here, so that the verse may be rendered thus: “He shall convince the world that evil is conquered, overthrown, and shall finally pass away.” Taking it in that sense, we perceive at once why the belief in judgment must follow the belief in righteousness. For when we have been freed from sin, and made righteous in Christ, we find that we have entered on a life-long struggle with evil; and as the one thing to keep us true, we need the assurance of final victory. These words present two thoughts—a fact, and a conviction founded on that fact.
1. Christ’s conquest over the kingdom of evil.
2. His conquest revealed by the Comforter is the pledge of victory for man.
I. The kingdom of evil as opposed to the Saviour.—He speaks of the “prince of this world”; and if we examine that phrase, we shall find it full of suggestions that throw an awful light on the majesty of the power that He overcame for man. In speaking of a prince Christ manifestedly implies that evil forces are not separated, but combined and connected things, that they form a great living power, a kingdom of wrong. The phrase also points to a personal evil spirit as lord of that evil kingdom. Not in the sense that he is the cause of it all, but he is the representative of it, as being the greatest and the first. This was the kingdom that opposed itself to the Son of man. The question may arise, What have we to do with a prince of evil? Is he a personal power, “working in the children of disobedience”? “I believe there are indications of a personality of evil acting on human life to-day. Whence come the thoughts, blasphemous and horrible, about God and man—temptations to awful crimes—actual outbursts of demoniacal wrong, rising from a region no human eye has fathomed or science explored? Are they the product of our own individual spirits, or the result of any abnormal combination of circumstances? May they not be the flashings on the surface of the mysterious sea of human consciousness, which indicate a power troubling its waters? At least God’s Bible tells us they may be, and no philosophy under heaven can account for them. Now look at the kingdom of evil which opposed Christ; it all arrayed itself in might against Him. Evil spirits confronted Him constantly, possessions by devils were more frequent. All the evil influences that touch the human soul gathered themselves against the Perfect Soul to turn Him aside and tear Him from His self-chosen path of dedication for the world.”
II. The Saviour’s conquest.—We are regarding it as a conquest won for man and for this two things were requisite: Christ must overcome the essence of evil by a means common to humanity, and He must show in His conquest that the facts which seemed to prove the perpetuity of evil were the signs of its overthrow. Note then, first, that the essence of evil is self-will. Christ must conquer sin through the might of a divine obedience, and yet occupy a battle-ground common to humanity. And where was this so perfectly accomplished as in His life and death? His temptation opened with the challenge in the wilderness, “If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread”; “If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down from hence”; and closed with the last taunt, “If Thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.” But the cry, “It is finished,” was the herald of conquest. Then, secondly, Christ must show by His conquest that the facts which seem to prove the perpetuity of evil are really signs of its overthrow. The darkest lie of the evil one is this—that evil is an eternal power. Before the advent of the gospel the world was beginning to believe in the omnipotence of wrong. The slavery wrought by sin was so complete that men were losing faith in anything which could conquer evil, and were sinking into a dreary and hopeless fatalism. Just note the two great facts which, as the results of sin, lay at the root of this state.
1. Suffering.—Men felt the pressure of its mystery. It seemed to belie the goodness of God, to darken the heaven of His love, and prove sin to be irresistible. Its shadow rested on the ages of the past, and projected itself with a grim certainty into the future. Now suffering, in all its deepest dreadfulness, Christ endured. He became the high priest of sorrow. He grew glorious through it. “He was perfected through sufferings,” and thus revealed it to man as the education of a Father.
2. Death.—The great mystery, the spoiler of human hopes, the divider of friend from friend, the sign-manual of sin’s dominion. He became subject to its power. It seemed to conquer Him. It seemed to divide Him from the Father, but really it was the pledge of their eternal union.
III. Christ’s conquest as a pledge of victory for man.—
1. The fact itself is a power.—We are strengthened by the belief that some one has known our difficulties and subdued them. This lies at the root of all true “hero worship.” like us Christ fought. By a strength which we may share He conquered. Look at the early Church when the meaning of this fact was revealed by the descending Comforter.
2. Christ is God’s promise.—Through His life God speaks to us now.
3.Christ is a present friend.—We do not always realise His presence, but sometimes amid the pauses of the battle we feel Him near in that “peace which passeth all understanding,” and hear Him saying, “Be faithful unto death,” etc. (Revelation 2). This then is the sublime position of the Christian warrior. In his life the war of worlds is gleaming. He is fighting in a battle which is the heritage of the ages. He is wrestling with “principalities and powers.”. He is following in the track of the great Captain who has passed before him into the heavens. The condition of victory is, “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me on My throne,” etc.—E. L. Hull, B.A.
Joh_16:12. Christ’s reticence in teaching truth.—Our Lord Jesus Christ had been engaged for years in instructing His disciples. There never was so constant and skilful a teacher, using every opportunity and every incident. The record of His lessons preserved to us in the four Gospels is a very small part of what He spoke, and yet what a store of truth, new to the world, and divine and everlasting in its reach, is contained in it! But after all these revelations, and now at the close of His ministry, much remains untold. The Teacher is all-wise, but the learners are weak and full of prejudice. The Teacher is so wise that He will not give them more than they can well receive.
I. Some illustrations of this feature of Christ’s teaching.—
1. Some of the truths to which we may suppose our Lord made immediate reference.—One of these was the long separation which was about to take place between Him and His disciples. He did not reveal to them plainly the fall of the Mosaic dispensation, accompanied with the destruction of the Jewish State, and the scattering of the nation over the world for so many centuries. Another thing of the future not fully revealed was, the admission of men of all nations upon equal terms to the privileges of the children of God. Also notice the gradual way in which He made the true view of His own person dawn on them. All those things of which we have spoken are rooted and imbedded in the Gospels; we can see them there in our Lord’s words and actions from the beginning. It was from these very words and actions that His disciples came to learn them under His Spirit’s teaching, but they are presented in such a way as to meet the state of their minds at every stage.
2. The manner of His revelation of truth to the world in general.—His methods are of a kind peculiarly fitted to reveal truth as men are able to bear it. The parable is His favourite method in speech, and the miracle in action, which, as He performs it, is a parable put into a living shape. Our Lord desired that truth should not be thrust upon a man from without, but grow up within, as from a seed, night and day, he knows not how. If we go back to the Old Testament, we shall find that the teaching was conducted in the same way. When we come down to the ages that have followed His appearance upon earth, there is the same gradual unfolding of the principles of His kingdom.
3. Christ’s teaching in the individual life.—Take, for example, the way in which the view of human life alters as men advance in years. Were the young to discover how unsatisfactory the present world is at the core, how little of real happiness, as they expect it, it can bring, what blanks and what bitters there are in its most promised sweetness, they could not bear it.
“If nature put not forth her power,
About the opening of the flower,
Who is it that could live an hour?”
The young need this bright view of the world to develop their energies, to nurse their affections and imagination, that when the veterans droop they may come in, like a fresh reinforcement, into the failing battle of life. There is a similar experience in the Christian life. Those who enter on it have the confident feeling which would gain triumphs without thinking of trials, the spirit of Peter, that hopes to have the heavenly vision without the hard world, “Master, it is good for us to be here,” or the fancied strength which prompted his boast, “Lord, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest.” They have the “love of their youth, the zeal of their espousals,” and they cannot conceive that it should ever be otherwise. But then comes “the check and change,” chillness of feeling, temptation, the bitter cross, and long prospects of march and battle before the close. Ere this, however, they have learned to add to their faith virtue and temperance and patience, to put on the whole armour of God, and having done all to stand. The afflictive events of God’s providence are measured in the same way. The great doctrines of the Gospel are presented to the mind in a like manner.
II. Some of the conclusions taught us regarding Christ and human nature.—In regard to Christ we admire His control over Himself and His message. With this self-control there is united Christ’s tenderness in teaching. There are in the teaching of Christ, both in the Bible and in providence, reticences and pauses, which temper the truth to feeble minds, as clouds chasten light. If we so read them, they are not mere blanks, but tokens of a true and real tenderness. “His doctrine will yet drop from them as the rain, His speech distil as the dew.” “He will not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax, till He bring forth judgment unto truth.” We see in this method of teaching, not less, the wisdom of Christ. Last of all in regard to Christ, we learn His patience as a teacher. This subject may also teach us some conclusions concerning our common human nature. We may learn to take large and tolerant views of it. When we see how slowly the best of men have apprehended the clearest of all truths, we must not be provoked at what we call the stupidity and prejudice of our contemporaries, nor fret unreasonably because antiquated opinions, as they seem to us, obstinately hold their ground. If the great Teacher had to wait, we may be content to do so. We may cherish very hopeful views of human nature. There are many grounds for this, but here is one, that there must be noble things in store for that race with which the Son of God is contented to have such patience. In regard to things which Christ does not tell us, let us be thankful to Him for His silence. The cloud that veils full knowledge “is a cloud of love.” Finally, let us be chiefly concerned about knowing the one great thing which Christ has to say to us. There is a message which stands out in His word distinct from the beginning to the close: “This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.”—Dr. John Ker.
Joh_16:13. Concerning the love and fear of truth.—There is nothing of which a more criminal abuse may be made than truth. It is important that we should consider the true position we ought to take in relation to it. There is a truth which reproves and a truth which flatters us.
I. Of all truths there is none we ought to love more than that which reproves us.—Why? There are four reasons.
1. Because it lets us know ourselves. However enlightened we may be, and however much care we may take to know ourselves, there are many faults that escape our notice. The truth that brings them to our notice is healthful. As Chrysostom has said, “When a sick man finds a physician who makes known to him clearly what his malady is, far from being offended at him, he esteems him.” A young noble of the court of Augustus, and even related to his family, by name Germanicus, filled with a noble curiosity to know himself (little thought of by the great of this world), and being at the head of the Roman troops, disguised himself from time to time, and went to the camp of his troops in the evening, approaching the tents unknown to the occupants, and listening to the talk of the soldiers, for he knew that then they would speak with most freedom what they thought of their general. This example of a pagan should confound this nicety so foreign to Christianity, which causes men to revolt against truth the moment it begins to silence and wound them.
2. Because this truth is the most efficacious for our correction. It makes us look within and leads to repentance. The truth spoken à propos often suffices to save men from vicious habits. All else may have been tried in vain; but the truth spoken with prudence has at last prevailed. The man may be troubled at first and inclined to rebel; but grace and reason overcome sentiment. And truth, although bitter at first, even by its very bitterness becomes the cause and principle of healing.
3. Because such truths are those that people will hardly say out to us, which they will rather seek to hide from us. It is very rare to find a friend so sincere as to reprove us. Above all this is true in regard to people of position. Therefore the truth that reproves should be the most precious.
4. Because such truth proceeds from a pure, generous, and disinterested zeal. For there is nothing harder than to tell any one a disagreeable truth. Therefore such a truth should be heard with docility and thankfulness. As in the case of Belshazzar and Daniel, why did he load Daniel with favours? Because, says Chrysostom, he judged that a man who had courage to speak such truths to a prince, and who, in order to acquit himself for this heroic act, forgot his own self-interest, was a man who merited the highest honours (Daniel 3). But when the truth reproves most men they hate it. As, e.g., Ahab and the prophet Micaiah (1Ki_22:8 ff.). So men shut their ears against the preacher’s voice when he becomes personal.
II. The truths we ought to fear most are those which flatter us.—Why? There are two good reasons.
1. Because, according to the custom of the world, as St. Gregory says, as we know by experience that which flatters us is usually that which deceives and seduces us. That which flatters us tends to corrupt us. What does God say by the mouth of Isaiah? “O My people,” etc. (Isa_3:12). Indeed, what are the better part of the praises of the world, in the manner of the world, but official lies! Nevertheless men are intoxicated by these vain praises, and believe themselves to be far better than they really are. This indeed was the source of heathen idolatry. And another sort of idolatry has replaced this in Christendom. People no longer call the rich and great gods, but they tell them that they are not like other men; and these are willing to let themselves be persuaded that they are of another mould. So a woman or a friend is idolised and seduced. They are so surrounded by flatteries that they forget altogether their faults, and make no effort to correct them. What is the result of these public praises, epistles recommending a book, funeral orations in the holy place? Is there not often a mercenary abuse of such customs? Nevertheless people protest that there is nothing they have a greater horror of than to be deceived. They do not wish to be, and yet they seek what leads to it. What then can we reply to God when we are reproached by Him for having sought flattering truths which we have often found to be deceitful?
2. Because that which flatters us tends to corrupt, and that in two ways.
(1) In inspiring us with secret pride;
(2) in diminishing and weakening within us a zeal for perfectness, which, were it earnestly entertained, would be more to our profit than all the advantages we possess. Let us then lay hold of these two important maxims. Let us desire that truth which corrects us and makes us known to ourselves, and rather avoid what would flatter us and hinder our desire for improvement.—Bourdaloue.
HOMILETIC NOTES
Joh_16:7-14. The working of the Holy Spirit.—
I. In relation to the world.—
1. He punishes because of sin;
2. Because of righteousness;
3. Because of judgment.
II. In relation to believers.—
1. He proves Himself to be their comforter;
2. He leads them into all truth;
3. He glorifies Jesus.—Dr. v. Biarowsky.
Joh_16:9. The sin of unbelief.—Unbelief is the root of other sins, which are the shoots. It is useless to cut away the shoots whilst the root remains. These will always grow again. But if the root be destroyed, whence will the shoots come? It is not meant here that the Holy Ghost does not convict the world because of other sins. Other sins are of such a nature that reason itself perceives their sinfulness. But unbelief is a sin of such a nature that reason does not recognise it as such. The Holy Ghost must convince men of the fact.
Joh_16:10. Righteousness.—Men have no righteousness of their own before God, and can have it only through Jesus Christ, who has procured it for us. This is a truth reason cannot know. It can be known alone through the enlightenment of the Holy Ghost.—Weigel.
Joh_16:11. Judgment.—Chrysostom writes: “Tell me, O man, since you know that you must stand before the judgment seat of Christ, how it comes about that you would rather speak of a thousand other matters than of this judgment? When you have a case before an earthly judge, then you think day and night about it, and converse about it everywhere as to how you may prosecute your cause. Yet you must do this before God the just judge, and give an account to Him of your whole life; but you never speak about the matter, and cannot indeed bear that any one should begin to converse with you about it.
Joh_16:12-15. The Spirit guiding the disciples into all truth.—In these verses we have a very abundant exhibition of the unity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, coupled with a very remarkable setting forth of the tripersonality. The Father “hath” (ἔχει) that which is in very essence the Son’s (ἐμά); and the Spirit whose purpose is to glorify the Son by making Him known to men (λαμβάνει) takes of “Mine” and will declare it (see Schaff, Stier, note to Lange). Luthardt once thought with Stier, but now he limits the reference, without giving any reason for it, to what he calls “the deposit of divine truth to the humanity of Jesus.” The sum of this astonishing assurance is that the Holy Spirit of truth will lead these apostles into the fulness of truth, and of knowledge of the future, by taking up the essential realities of the Christ in the fulness of His being and work, and disclosing them by spiritual insight and supernatural quickening. These realities of the Christ will prove to be the fulness of the Father’s heart—all that the Father hath.… Does John even here travel beyond his prologue?—Dr. H. R. Reynolds in “Pulpit Commentary.”
Joh_16:14. The glory of Christ.—The glory of Christ is often hidden from men like a jewel in a humble casket. The Holy Ghost opens the casket. He shows us how much of comfort and power there is in the cross, what honour in the shame of the cross, what wealth under Christ’s earthly poverty, what majesty under His lowliness. And thus Christ is made dear and precious to us, so that we esteem Him more than all the treasures of earth, even when we view Him as crucified.
Joh_16:14. How the Holy Ghost glorifies Christ to us.—He shows us Christ as He—
1. Who removes our sorrow;
2. Who bears our sins;
3. Who frees us from the judgment.—J. L. Sommer.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Joh_16:1-4. How shall we bear witness to Christ?—In this way: by confessing Him by the mouth (Rom_10:10). It is therefore a confession. Whosoever confesses Him before men He will confess before His heavenly Father (Mat_10:32). We must not be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, but confess that it is the power of God unto salvation to all those who believe. O dear Christian people, that we were more courageous in our confession! You display all your earthly possessions so willingly. You conduct your friends over your houses, which you have fitted up so carefully. You are glad to display your fine dresses. You lay on your adornments, your rings on your fingers. You willingly let your artistic tastes or your learning be seen by all. You bring forward your children with pride. And will you permit the best treasure you possess to remain bidden? Do you not venture to mention it, almost as if you were ashamed of it? Do you call that witnessing for Christ? There must be something lacking in you, else were you more joyful in this witness-bearing. What then is lacking? This: that you have not yet in yourselves the full witness of the Spirit that you are God’s children. When you have that, then you will not be silent. Those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. And those whom He leads must confess the first-born Son of God. But so long as He leads you not, then better remain silent. Otherwise your words might be feigned. But pray diligently that the Holy Spirit may speedily write that blessed testimony in your heart, so that you may then be able to bear it further afield, so that you may then be able to celebrate the victories of the Lord in the tabernacles of the righteous (Psa_118:15), and make known the deeds of Him who bath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light. You also should bear witness of Christ with the life. Yes, with the life. This is and remains a chief witness. What will it profit if I confess Christ with my tongue, with my lips, whilst my heart is far from Him? All confession without the life is as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal, which has no heart in it. Thus with life and love, with love and life, should you bear witness to Christ. The Spirit mirrors His image in your hearts. But His image should then be reflected out again on the world if you are followers of Christ. Men should see it in your walk and conversation that you are His disciples. When people must first inquire of any one whether he holds fast to the confession of Christ, his Christianity must be of a weak sort.
“No one need ask the vine this question:
Art thou a vine? Tell, yea or nay.
The ripe and luscious hanging clusters
Confess the truth in clearest day.”
Translated from Ahlfeld.
Joh_16:7. Our Lord’s ascension the Church’s gain.—Συμφέρει ὑμῖν. He Himself says, “It is expedient.” He might have said “expedient” for the blessed spirits of the just made perfect, to whom, after overcoming the sharpness of death, He was about to open the kingdom of heaven. He might have said “expedient” for the blessed angels who had for thirty-three years been “ascending and descending upon the Son of man,” and who had now higher ministries in store for them. He might have said “expedient” for Myself, who, after finishing the work that was given Me to do, am to be glorified by the Father with that glory which I had with Him before the world was. But He does say, “for you.” My sorrowing, broken-hearted, despairing disciples, it is “expedient for you” that I, your teacher, and friend, and guide, and strength, should leave you in your weakness, in your wanderings, in your loneliness, in your ignorance. You have hitherto believed Me; trust Me now when I tell you, “It is expedient for you that I go away.”—Wherein then, it may be asked, did this expediency lie? Why was it for the advantage of those whom our Lord had chosen out of the world, and whom He sent back into it as sheep in the midst of wolves, that He should leave them? How were they to be gainers by the departure of their Lord and Master, when they had hitherto been indebted to His visible presence, to His voice, to His companionship, for every spiritual blessing that they enjoyed? Why was it better for the apostles and for us that the incarnation of the blessed Son of God should not be visibly perpetuated into Christian history? What then is this transcendent gift, more precious, as it seems, than the hearing and seeing with the eyes and looking upon and handling the very Word of life? What is this gift, so great that it can more than compensate for the loss of that intimate companionship with our Lord and Saviour which was enjoyed by His first followers? We cannot look this question too steadily in the face; for on the answer to it depends nothing less than our estimate of the true character of the Christian dispensation.
I. It may, indeed, be said with much truth that there was a kind of natural expediency in the ascension, grounded on that law of the human mind which makes the appreciation of present blessings so very difficult.—Had Christ our Lord continued to live visibly upon the earth, the spiritual force of the Church might have been expended in an indefinitely prolonged observation. It was natural that He, the Light of the world, should rivet the gaze, of those who beheld Him, too completely to allow time and leisure for analysis, and comparison, and inference. The strength even of saintly souls might have been fatally overtaxed if a moral miracle, such as the life of Jesus Christ, had been perpetuated here below. In the Gospels, after all, we possess only a fragment of the witnessed deeds and of the uttered and remembered words of Christ. If all had been recorded, the world itself, we are told, could not have contained the books that should be written. But those recorded words and acts of Christ have engaged the reflective powers of Christendom ever since. They are a mine which may still be worked without risk of exhaustion. They have been drawn out into literatures. They are the basis of institutions. They are the spirit of codes of law. They may have mingled with some earthly alloy, but they are to this day quick with heavenly virtue. And each representative teacher that has unfolded, and each authoritative assembly that has enforced, their true essential meaning, has in adding, not to the stock of revealed truths, but to the illuminated thought of Christendom that surrounds them, attested the truth of our Master’s words, “It is expedient for you that I go away.”
II. Startling as it may seem, it is nevertheless certain that the life of the separate souls of the apostles must have been quickened by the departure of their Lord.—Faith, hope, and charity are the threefold cord that links the living spirit with its God. These graces were dwarfed or merely nascent in the apostles before the ascension of our Saviour.
III. If the apostles had been altogether left to their own resources by their ascending Lord, could they have formed so true, so wonderful an estimate of the bearings and proportions of His life as by their writings to rule the thought and kindle the enthusiasm of all the ages of Christendom?—Were the faith, the hope, the love, which gave to their lives the beauty and force of heroism, thrown out, as plants of native growth, from the rich soil of their natural hearts? Are the Epistles of St. Paul, or is the character of St. John, to be explained by any searching analysis of their natural gifts, of their educational antecedents, of their external contact with the manifested Redeemer, of the successive circumstances and directions of their lives? Surely not. Even though the Pentecostal miracle had not been recorded, some supernatural interference must have been assumed, in order seriously to account for the moral transformation of the apostolical character, and for the intellectual range of the apostolical writings. Of itself the departure of our risen Lord would neither have permanently illuminated the reflections of the Church, nor yet have quickened the graces of its separate members. But He left this earth in His bodily form, to return as a quickening Spirit, present in force and virtue, before He comes to be present in judgment. He ascended up on high to obtain gifts for men; and having received of the Father, as the bounteous firstfruits of His opening and omnipotent intercession, the promise of the Holy Ghost, He shed upon the earth those wondrous gifts which the first Christians saw and heard. With the apostles we must wait until Pentecost, if we would enter into the full expediency of the the Ascension.—Liddon.
Joh_16:8. The manner in which the Spirit convinces men of sin.—Do you desire to understand how the Spirit convicts because of sin, then imagine yourself to be in a house where people have lived till now entirely at peace in following sin. Now there comes with you a friend who knows the better life, the fear of God which is the beginning of wisdom, the love of Christ which is the fulfilling of the law. He walks in the Spirit, and does not bring forth the works of the flesh. Then the Spirit will convict the others. Your friend needs to speak no word. The evildoers are chastised by his walk. They learn from him either to serve the Lord with him, or they will begin to hate him as the world hated the disciples of the Lord. He will become to them either a savour of life unto life or of death unto death.… That the enemy is wounded unto death is evident wherever the Spirit comes and begins His work. Although men at first may rage and strive, yet let the work go forward in gentle humility and full faith, then it will go unrestrainedly to victory. Not with rapid march, not always with full and flowing sail, not with great noise, but all the more surely. The Lord did not lift up His voice in the streets—only at the last He cried, “It is finished.” So will it be also in the world. The world feels this of itself. A tremor passes through it. That is the judgment of the Holy Ghost. The world’s prince has fallen; the world strives in vain. Beloved brothers and sisters, give to the convictions of the Spirit a place in your hearts. Only when He convinces of sin will you realise that sin is your deadly foe, and then you will give place to grace. Only when He shatters the trust in a false righteousness in you will you find the way to gospel righteousness. Only when in you judgment has been passed on the prince of this world will the Lord become your prince and leader to eternal life. But, do you say, how is the Spirit then called a Comforter? for this is simply a work of conviction and judgement.… It is a conviction that seeks to lead to godly sorrow which leads to repentance not to be repented of. Thus the Spirit is even here a Paraclete; and if at first you could not rejoice in this experience, yet in the end you will rejoice. Truly the other part of His work is sweeter which He brings to pass in those won to faith. He will lead them, into all truth. “The spirit of lies,” wrote an old faithful witness of Christ, “is like a spider: he evolves everything out of himself. The Spirit of truth is like a bee, which brings honey from the flowers.” The flower is the divine word. “From it He will take of Mine and show it unto you.” This is the test of every spirit. We are not to believe every spirit, but to try the spirits whether they be of God (1Jn_4:1). Though a man may speak with words of power, though his words may be ever so pleasing to the flesh, if he has not received them of Christ, if they do not accord with God’s word, he is but a lying spirit. “The Spirit guides into all truth.”—Translated from Ahlfeld.
Joh_16:13. The disciples guided into all truth.—In this great discourse, which was not given in writing to the Christian world upon the authority of St. John until a lapse of nearly three-quarters of a century had realised in experience its every promise, we read beforehand, and in the words of Jesus, why it was expedient that He should go away. It was not merely that He might prepare a place for His disciples, and then come again and receive them unto Himself. It was because, as He says, “If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you.” The whole action of the Spirit upon the intellect and affections and inmost character of the Christian, as well as His felt presence and power in forming, enlightening, guiding, governing, and sanctifying the Church, must have become a lengthened justification of their Master’s ascension in the eyes of the apostles. If the apostles are to be guided into all truth, if they are to be shown things to come, if they are to be taught all things, and if all the blessed words of Christ, whatsoever He said to them, are to be brought home with literal accuracy to their remembrance, it is expedient that their Lord should go. If they are to do greater works than the works of Christ, it is “because I go to My Father.” If dauntless missionaries of the cross are to bear witness of their Lord to a sinful and perishing world, it can only be because the Comforter, sent from the Father by the ascended Saviour, witnesses through their weakness to the strength and glory of their Lord. If the world is to be convinced of the sin of its own unbelief, or of the righteousness of the all-holy Redeemer, such conviction is to be a consequence of Christ’s going to the Father and being seen no more. Pass the eye over that last great discourse, and mark how it bears with repeated effort and significance upon the statement of the text, that the Ascension was expedient for the apostles, expedient for the Christian Church.—Liddon.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On v1 John 14-16. Now that the Passover meal has been…
CHAPTER 23
THE VALEDICTORY SERMON
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John 14-16. Now that the Passover meal has been enjoyed, and that celebrated Mosaic institution totally eclipsed by bloody Calvary, normally verified and abolished forever, and the Eucharist instituted, our Lord proceeds to preach His Valedictory Sermon to the Eleven, poor Judas no longer in his place. As this is our Savior’s Farewell, our appreciation is certainly intensified to the very utmost. “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.” They are all flooded with trouble over what Jesus has told them about immediately going away from them, thus upsetting their sanguine anticipations of His eternal perpetuity with them, as they believe Christ will abide forever (Dan 7:14), applying the prophecies appertaining to the second coming to the first, really thinking the Messiah would come but once.
“In the house of My Father are many mansions.” The Father’s house includes the vast celestial universe. Astronomy has revealed one hundred and seventeen millions of suns. Our sun is attended by ten great worlds, most of them much larger than this. Hence, you see, the conclusion follows that one billion one hundred and seventy millions of worlds have proximately been reached by telescopic observation. So rest assured there are many mansions. Our earth, originally one of those mansions, but much out of kelter by reason of Satanic invasion, is even now being refitted, and will erelong be restored, shine with a luster eclipsing Eden, and become one of those bright celestial mansions, occupied by saints and angels to shine and shout forever.
“But if not, I would have told you; because I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” O blessed thought, to abide with Jesus forever! “And whither I go, ye know the way.” He is now introducing a beautiful and glorious truth, which solves the problem, over which they were so much troubled, as to His departure and the possibility of following Him. “Thomas says to Him, Lord, we know not whither Thou goest, and how do we know the way?” Thomas was the chronic doubter, always taking the dark side of every picture; slow, but sure; the very opposite of Peter. Both of them, however, were all right after the fires of Pentecost consumed the doubts of the one and the cowardice of the other.
“Jesus says to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life.” O what a comprehensive affirmation! If you want to know the way to heaven, just take Jesus for your Paragon. He had no sin, and He says that we shall be like Him. Therefore get Him to take all your sin away, so you can live and die like Him, and you are all right. You want the truth, and can not be saved without it. You have nothing to do but to take Jesus Himself, the blessed Bible being your constant companion. Do not trouble yourself with creeds, nor human dogmatism of any kind, looking to mortal guides. You are going to an immortal heaven. None but the Immortal Jesus can lead you. You want life eternal. Jesus Himself is that Life. If you have Him in your heart, you already have the Life which can never die.
“No one cometh to the Father but through Me. If you have known Me, you shall know My Father also; and henceforth you know Him and have seen Him. Philip says to Him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.”
St. Paul’s Church in London, occupying a whole square, is the largest in the Protestant world. When Dr. Fisk was preaching in it, endeavoring to tell his audience about their Heavenly Father, his eye, dropping on a superscription in large letters in the rear of the orchestra, read these words:
“Christopher Wren, architect, of this city and church, who lived more than ninety years, not for himself, but for the public. Reader, would you see his monument? Look around.” Then, proceeding, he said to his audience:
“Would you see the monument of your Heavenly Father? Just look around upon the glittering stars, the blazing sun, the queenly moon, moving amid the dazzling constellations; the verdant earth, with her majestic mountains, mighty oceans, and thundering seas, — and you see His monument.”
“Jesus says to him, Am I with you so long a time, Philip, and you do not know Me? The one having seen Me, has seen the Father; how do you say, Show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words which I speak unto you, I speak not of Myself; but the Father abiding in Me doeth His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me; and if not, believe Me on account of the works themselves. Truly, truly, I say unto you, He that believeth in Me, the works which I do, he shall do also; and greater works than these; because I go to My Father. And whatsoever you may ask in My name, this I will do, in order that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you may ask anything in My name, I will do it.” This prophecy was signally verified during the great Pentecostal revivals, when three thousand were converted in a day, and eight thousand within three days; when all Jerusalem was moved as never during the ministry of Jesus. Signal verifications of this prophecy mark the roll of ages down to the present day. Francis Xavier reports ten thousand converted in a day under his own ministry. Great multitudes pursued Jesus in His peregrinations, actuated by a diversity of motives — e. g., curiosity, criticism, and the loaves and fishes; while a few actually yielded to His interior spirit, gladly forsaking all for Him. You remember how that wonderful sermon, going down to the deep things of God, expounding bottom-rock sanctification, which He preached in the synagogue in Capernaum about the close of His second year, alienated a great host of His disciples, so that it seemed that He would almost be left alone?
“If you love Me with Divine love, keep My commandments.” This is the grand confirmation of discipleship — interior love, imparted in regeneration and perfected in sanctification, with a life of exemplary obedience to all of His commandments, constitute the sine qua non of New Testament Christianity.
“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever.” Parakletos, “Comforter,” is from para, “by your side,” and kaleo, “to call.” Hence it means one called by your side. O how blessed the reality to have the Omnipotent Comforter called down from heaven to walk by your side whithersoever you go! “The Spirit of truth,” because He is the Revelator of all truth, and as He alone understands it; consequently the Exponent of all truth. “Whom the world is not able to receive.” Consequently you must get out of the world before you can receive the Holy Comforter. Hence you see that the Zinzendorfian heresy, teaching that we get sanctified — i. e., receive the Holy Ghost as an indwelling Comforter — in conversion, flatly contradicts the Savior, who says the world can not receive Him. Ekklesia, “Church,” means “the called out;” i. e., those who have heard the call of the Holy Ghost and come out of the world, identifying themselves with God, constitute the Church. Hence the Comforter is given to the Church, and not to the world; i. e., sanctification is for Christians, and not for sinners. “Because it does not see Him, nor know Him.” Here you see that Jesus certifies that the unregenerate are utterly blind to the very existence of the Holy Ghost. “You know Him, because He abideth with you, and shall be in you.” Here you see plainly specified the difference between the regenerated and the sanctified, the Holy Ghost abiding with the former as an Illuminator, Teacher, Guide, and Protector; while in the case of the sanctified, He is actually dwelling in them, having taken up His abode in the heart, there to abide a blessed, Heavenly Guest, filling the soul with perennial sunshine, your life with constant victory, and your mind with glorious anticipations of the heavenly triumph the moment your work for Jesus is done. You see these facts illustrated in the case of the apostles, the Holy Ghost being with them from their conversion; but moving in and filling them in their Pentecostal experience, forever afterward dwelling in them, qualifying them all to enjoy a perpetual victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil, and go up to heaven wearing a martyr’s crown.
“I will not leave you orphans: I come to you. Yet a little while, the world sees Me no more; but you see Me: because I live, you shall live also.” He returned to them after His resurrection, putting an end to their bereavement; also, in the person of the Holy Ghost, coming on the day of Pentecost to abide with them. “In that day you shall know that I am in the Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” In the day of their Pentecostal experience the blessed witness of the Spirit revealed to them the Father and the Son, inundating them with the full assurance of their personal salvation.
“The one having My commandments, and keeping them, he is the one loving Me with Divine love; he that loveth Me with Divine love shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and manifest Myself to him.” You see, the great problem of salvation is solved in the Divine agape, which the Holy Ghost alone can pour into your heart, and which is made perfect in the full sanctification, eliminating all antagonism, and giving it the undisputed dominion of soul, mind, and body.
“Judas, not Iscariot, says to Him, Lord, what was it that You are about to manifest Yourself unto us, and not unto the world?” You will find in the apostolical catalogue by Matthew, Mark, and Luke, an apostle by the name of Judas, who was also called Lebbeus and Thaddeus. This apostle is the author of the Epistle of Jude, his name being changed from Judas to Jude in order to clearly distinguish him from Judas Iscariot. You observe, also, that the brothers of our Lord were James, Judas, Simon, and Joses. It is claimed that James and Judas became apostles about the time of our Lord’s resurrection.
“Jesus responded, and said to him, If any one loves Me with Divine love, he will keep My words; and the Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him.” Our Savior gives a very plain specification here — the person loving Him with Divine love will keep His commandments, and the Father and the Son will make their abode with him, the Holy Spirit revealing to him the blessed, loving Father and the precious, Omnipotent Savior, the permanent, abiding Guests of his home, however humble it may be. With this description before you, you can not fail to identify the disciple of our Lord wherever you may see him.
“And he that loveth Me, keepeth My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but that of the Father who sent Me.” The specifications here are plain and unmistakable. Human love has no place in it. It is the holy agape, the very essence of God (1 John 4), which nothing but the Holy Ghost can impart, and which invariably verifies itself by a life of holy obedience.
“I have spoken these things unto you, abiding with you; but the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and remind you of all things which I spoke to you.” O how infinitely precious the illumination of the indwelling Comforter, lighting up the intellect, quickening the apprehension, vivifying the diagnosis, invigorating the memory, pouring light on the blessed words of Jesus, and sending heavenly irradiations to interpenetrate every fiber of mind, soul, and spirit, thus making the precious words of Jesus a perpetual banquet to the appreciative heart!
“My peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you; not as the world gives, give I to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” This is an affectionate adieu He bids them, as the mob is already astir and everything in commotion, getting ready to come and lay violent hands on Him, to take His life.
“You heard that I said to you, I go, and I come to you. If you love Me, you would rejoice because I go to the Father; because the Father is greater than I.” Love always rejoices in the Divine administration, being in perfect harmony with it. You have frequently seen the identity of the Father and the Son certified, as even in this chapter. Then, how is the Father greater than the Son if they are identical, and of course equal? He is greater in position, being in heaven at that time, and the Son down on the earth, His enemies gritting their teeth with rage and thirsting for His blood.
“Now I have told you before it takes place, in order that when it may occur, you may believe.” Of course. His prophecy in reference to the treason of Judas, the denial of Peter, His own arrest, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, would prove to them an overwhelming confirmation of His Divinity after they had seen it all fulfilled, and thus become a mighty inspiration to their faith.
“I will no longer speak many things with you; for the ruler of this world cometh, and He hath nothing in Me.” That is a positive proof of our Lord’s perfectly pure humanity, as Satan really had nothing in Him. This is the standard of New Testament Christianity which all who go to heaven must reach, as Jesus says that we are to be like Him. There is but one way for us to be like Him, and that is for us to consecrate ourselves fully to Jesus, and trust Him to take everything out of us which Satan ever puts in us; and in what case we will be like Him. You also here see that Jesus pronounces Satan the “ruler of this world.” O how we see the Satanic administration in all the affairs of this world, even in the State, and so largely in the Church, multitudes of people in all countries actually worshipping Satan, believing him to be God!
“But in order that the world may know that I love the Father with Divine love, and as the Father sent Me, so do I.” The Father had sent Him into the world to redeem it by His vicarious death. O the depths of the Father’s love! “Arise, let us go hence.” Thus far our Lord has been sitting at the table, the supper having. taken place and the Eucharist having been administered. He is going away into Gethsemane, over the brook Kidron, on the slope of Mount Olivet. Now they rise up; but His heart is so flooded with these tremendous truths, and this is His last opportunity to speak to His disciples before He passes through the dark valley of death, consequently He proceeds, speaking on through Chapters fourteen and fifteen.
“I am the True Vine, and My Father is the Husbandman. Every branch in Me not bearing fruit, He taketh it away; and every one bearing fruit, He cleanseth it, in order that it may bear more fruit.” This is very plain. God takes away all backsliders — i.e., non-fruit-bearing branches — lest they encumber the Vine; meanwhile He sanctifies the regenerated — i.e., the fruit-bearing branches — in order that they may bear more fruit.
“Now, you are clean through the Word which I have spoken unto you.” This is in the present tense, denoting an existing fact, setting forth the Word as the constituted medium of spiritual purity. While the Holy Ghost is the efficient cause of sanctification, the blood is the Divine elixir, the Word the medium, and faith the condition. While this states a general truth, universally applicable, the apostles at that tithe being clean so far as the pollutions of actual transgression were concerned; yet, as the Word abundantly reveals, they needed a deeper purgation, which they received at Pentecost.
“As the branch is not able to bear fruit of itself unless it may abide in the vine, so you are not unless you abide in Me.” John Wesley says: “It is impossible for us to lay up a stock of holiness, as we really have no holiness except as we abide in Christ.” The moment we are separated from Him, our holiness evanesces, and we have nothing left but unholiness.
“I am the Vine, ye are the branches.” The Church of God is the body of Christ; i.e., all the people in the world who are really in Christ by the regeneration of the Holy Ghost. Hence the idea that religious denominations are branches of the Church of Christ is incorrect, that Church being an indivisible unit, including all the children of God; as you see here the Church is the vine, and the individual members the branches. “He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit; because without Me you are not able to do anything.” Millions of Church members, who are in the world and not in Christ, vainly think they are working for God, when the devil in hell is chuckling over it, knowing that they are working for him, and actually worshipping him, believing him to be God, and delighted with him, because he puts his full approval on their sinning religion.
“If any one may not abide in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and they gather it, and east it into the fire, and it is burned.” The demons from the bottomless pit throng the atmosphere, gathering up the dry, withered branches, which the pruning-knife of the Holy Ghost has amputated from the Vine, and casting them into the lake of fire, where they are burned.
“If you may abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatsoever you may wish , and it shall be done unto you.” Unutterably blessed promise! O how wonderfully consolatory! The soul abiding in Christ and Christ in him has nothing to do but ask everything he wants, and it is granted. The carnally-minded can not understand this, as they would ask for a thousand things detrimental to their spiritual good and heavenly hope. The soul blessed with this mutual abiding, desires nothing but God’s will as revealed by His Word, Spirit, and providence. This soul, lost in God’s will and blessed with the mutual abiding, actually does ask and receive constantly in the full realization of this precious promise.
“In this My Father is glorified, that you may bear much fruit, and shall be My disciples.” This blessed, spiritual fruit is the grand end for which God sent us into this world. Therefore He is more anxious to answer our prayers, and load us with the luscious grapes, like the vines of Eshcol, than we are to receive. Rest assured, He is neither poor nor stingy.
“As the Father loved Me, I indeed loved you; abide ye in My love.” This is the Divine agape all the time, here so copiously emphasized, the fruit of the Spirit, the essence and quintessence of the Christian religion, simple and plain. You seek, with radical repentance, confession, and faith, till the Holy Ghost pours into your heart the heavenly agape, and then go on till He makes that same love perfect by the complete purification of your heart from original sin.
“If you may keep My commandments, abide in My love; as I have kept the commandments of My Father, and I abide in His love.” Our Lord, as you see, makes no provision for sin. When you get this holy love, you can only abide in it by faithfully keeping His commandments, as otherwise you sever your connection with Christ, and forfeit this Divine love. You receive first- love in regeneration, which must abide till swallowed up by perfect love in sanctification, otherwise you become a backslider.
“I have spoken these things unto you, in order that My joy may be in you, and your joy may be full.” Here we see that we are to have our Savior’s joy. N. B — He never had the joy of pardon, because He never had any sins to be pardoned; but He always had the joy of purity, from the simple fact that He was always pure. Hence, you see, you must be sanctified wholly in order to receive the Savior’s joy.
“This is My commandment, That you may love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no one than that he may lay down his life for his friends.” You see here that our Lord lays a climacteric emphasis on the Divine agape, which is indigenous in Him and exotic in us, poured out into our hearts by the Holy Ghost. (Rom 5:5.) You see the Lord hangs the issues of time and eternity, heaven and hell, on “love.” Wholesale delusions sweep over the Churches like withering siroccos, Satan especially, through carnal preachers, manipulating the people into the dreamy hallucination that this is carnal human love, such as the natural man exercises toward his wife, children, comrades, and friends. The word our Savior uses constantly is not native in the fallen human heart, but in God, and can only be received when imparted by the Holy Spirit. Churches are filled up with members on a profession that they love the Lord and the brethren, which is true; but it is only carnal love, and no salvation in it. How can I know that I have the genuine Divine agape, on which the Savior here lays such tremendous emphasis? That problem is easily solved. If you have the same love which actuated Jesus to come down and die for a guilty world, who are not only aliens, but implacable enemies who conspired against Him and took His life, then you will love your enemies sufficiently to die for them. The human philia will love your friends, but allow you to hate your enemies; while the Divine agape loves friends and enemies indiscriminately.
However, in the latter case the love assumes the form of pity and sympathy, while in the former it assumes that of admiration and appreciation.
“You are My friends, if you may do whatsoever I command you.” Hence you see from this affirmation that the people who claim to love Jesus and commit sin are all liars. If they really loved Him, they would die rather than commit a known and willing sin, which you know to be the very opposite of obedience.
“I no longer call you servants, because the servant does not know what his lord doeth; I have called you friends, because I made known to you all things which I heard with My Father.” The Bible is a most wonderful book, revealing the deep things of God and the heavenly state. The very fact that it is appreciated, loved, and enjoyed by so few people, is demonstrative proof that the multitudes of this world are not traveling to heaven, as in that case they would be searching diligently day and night to ascertain the character of God in heaven,
“You did not choose Me, but I chose you.” This is a beautiful affirmation of the prevenient grace, administered by the Holy Spirit to God’s elect, calling and wooing them before they have even thought about seeking the Lord. While the election is mutual, yet grace leads the way, making the first overtures, which we have only to reciprocate in order to make our calling and election sure. “And have put you forth, in order that you may go and bear fruit, and your fruit may abide; in order that whatsoever you may ask the Father in My name, He may give unto you.” This is one of the passages on which. Church ordination is founded, as E. V. translates etheka humas, “I have... ordained you,” which is a simple effort off the part of the translators to defend Church authority, etheka having no such a meaning as ordain.
You will find the same fact true in every case where the E. V. uses the word ordain, there being no such an institution as ecclesiastical ordination in the New Testament. The only example we have is the case of the Church at Antioch, gathering around Paul and Barnabas, praying, laying hands on them, and invoking the enduement of the Holy Ghost to qualify them for the arduous and perilous evangelistic tour they were about to enter upon. This is all right, and cannot be too highly appreciated, there being no New Testament authority for the pompous, papistical, prelatical, and clerical ordination, which was foisted upon the Church during the Dark Ages, and around which a world of superstition has accumulated, and out of which have developed terrible tyranny, autocracy, ostracism, and persecution. The Lord’s people should certainly follow the example of the Antiochian saints in the consecration of brothers and sisters who feel called by the Holy Ghost to preach the living Word.
“I command these things to you, in order that you may love one another with Divine love.” This memorable farewell sermon of our Savior emphasizes, echoes, and reverberates this superlative commandment, that we shall all exercise the very love toward one another which brought Him down from heaven to die for a guilty world.
“If the world hate you, know that it first hated Me.” The love of the world has proved Satan’s chief battering-ram, demolishing the walls of Zion in all ages.
“If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out from the world, on this account the world hates you.” The world hated Jesus enough to kill Him, and in a similar manner hates all of His elect. So beware of the friendship of the world, lest it prove Satan’s trap-door, dropping you into hell.
“Remember the word which I spoke to you, The servant is not greater than his master. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they have kept My word, they will also keep yours.” You here see the counterfeit of all popular religion, which goes with the world; as in the case of the true there never can be any harmony, but eternal antagonism, similar to that between Jesus and Satan, who is the god of this world. (2Co 4:4.)
“But they will do all of these things to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One sending Me.” Our Lord is here forewarning His disciples of the implacable hostility, persecution, and martyrdom which will most assuredly characterize all of their contact with the world.
“If I did not come and speak to them, they had not sinned; but now they have no apology for their sin.” Responsibility is tremendously augmented by opportunity. Infinitely better for people never to hear the gospel, and take chances for God’s uncovenanted mercies, than to hear it and reject it.
“He that hateth Me, hateth My Father also.” Those preachers and Church officers who killed Him, were so deluded by Satan as to believe that they loved God, when they hated Jesus with the very venom of the bottomless pit, thus demonstrating their implacable hatred to God. And yet they stood at the head of the Church, paragon illustrations of Satanic hallucination. N.B. — The same thing is going on now.
“If I had not done the works among them which no other one did, they had not had sin; but now they have seen and hated both Me and My Father.”
The holiness movement this day is piling mountains of responsibility on the professors of Christianity in all lands.
“But in order that the word having been written in their law may be fulfilled. They hated Me without a cause. When the Comforter, whom I shall send unto you from the Father may come, the Spirit of truth, who proceedeth from the Father, He will testify concerning Me.” The Holy Ghost is the Spirit of Jesus, His great work being to reveal, magnify, and glorify the Son of God in the salvation of the world. “And you also testify, because you are with Me from the beginning.” The Lord’s true disciples, like the Holy Ghost, are always magnifying Jesus and witnessing to His glory.
“I have spoken these things unto you, that you may not be offended.” He knew the world, the flesh, and the devil would combine against His disciples, consequently He predicts the bloody ordeals that await them, thus putting them on their guard, lest they be jostled and their faith shaken.
“They will put you out of the synagogues;” i.e., turn you out of the Church, as we nowadays see so frequently in the case of the holiness people. Therefore you must fully consecrate your Church membership with everything else, and not be surprised, upset, nor in any way disturbed, if they turn you out of the Church simply because you are true to God. Jesus must be first, and everything else secondary and subordinate. When you are thus persecuted, ostracized, and excommunicated, Jesus says, “Leap for joy.” ( Luk 4:23.) “But the hour cometh when every one killing you may think that he is offering a sacrifice to God.” How signally has this prophecy of our Savior been verified! The pagan emperors in the ensuing three centuries killing a hundred millions, and the Romanists a hundred millions more. If this sounds extravagant, count in the Moslem martyrdoms, and they will make up all apprehended deficiency.
“They will do these things because they do not know the Father nor Me.” These martyrdoms, here predicted by our Lord, were all perpetrated by people claiming to be the true saints of God, thus illustrating the wonderful potency of Satanic delusion and intrigue.
“But I have spoken these things unto you, in order that when the hour may come, you may remember that I said them to you.” Prophecies are invaluable guarantees against surprise, unsettlement, and the delusions of the enemy in a general sense, who so adroitly tells the persecuted saints that their troubles are Divine castigations for their sins, showing that they are not right. The priest used to walk out to the burning stake with the martyr, holding up his Bible, begging her to recant and live, and at the same time assuring her that the flames of martyrdom are but the prelude of hell’s devouring fires, into which she will go down from the consuming flame. If we only know the blessed Word of the Lord, we are amply fortified at every point of the diabolical compass.
“I did not speak these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you.” While He was with them, they suffered no persecution, because it was all concentrated on Jesus. But since her Divine Spouse, who protected her so heroically while with her, has ascended up to heaven, the widowed Church is awfully persecuted by the devil.
“Now I go to Him that sent Me, and no one of you asks Me, Whither are you going? But because I have spoken these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.” They were flooded with grief because He had told them that He was going away to leave them. “But I speak the truth to you, that it is profitable to you that I may depart.” His ascension to heaven marked a grand epoch in the development of the redemptive scheme, illustrating incontestably His Messiahship, and becoming the grand fulcrum on which the lever of justifying and sanctifying faith rests through all subsequent ages.
“For if I go not away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I go away, I will send Him to you.” The Holy Ghost had been in the world in all ages, convicting, illuminating, regenerating, sanctifying, and edifying the people. Yet the ascension and glorious coronation of Jesus marked an epoch in the history of redemption so decisive and exceedingly prominent as to bring in a new era in the execution of the redemptive economy, and actually to superinduce the new cognomen of Comforter. He comforted Abel in his dying hour; Enoch in a three-hundred-years’ walk with God; Noah, while warning the antediluvians of the coming flood, one hundred and twenty years; Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Job, Moses, and all the prophets and Old Testament saints. Yet in their case He could only comfort them by lighting up the Messianic prophecies, pointing to the coming Savior. Now, since these prophecies have all become matter-of-fact history, O what wonderful leverage has the Holy Ghost acquired, flooding the soul with the blessed assurance that the atonement is made, the world redeemed, hell defeated, Satan cast down, God reconciled, the redemptive scheme fully accepted in heaven, Jesus, our King, enthroned at the right hand of the Heavenly Majesty, pleading for us in glory, and coming back to sweep sin and misery from the globe, imprison the prince of darkness in the bottomless pit, envelop the globe in millennial glory, populating heaven with the countless millions of the Abrahamic covenant, and finally expurgating the earth with the sanctifying fires, speaking into glorious victory the new heaven and new earth, in which dwelleth righteousness, thus restoring this fallen world to its long-vacated place in the Celestial Empire, the soldiers’ bounty of the sainted heroes, to shine and shout with unfallen angels forever! Such are the wonderful facilities of consolation, pertinent to all the children of God, that the Holy Ghost, illuminating and appropriating these tremendous realities and unutterably inspiring the human spirit, is appropriately and significantly denominated the Comforter.
“And having come, He will convict, the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment.” Elenchsei, “will convict,” is a very strong word, literally meaning the arrest and prosecution of a criminal before a civil court. “Reprove,” E. V., is entirely too weak a translation of this verb, which really describes the Holy Ghost as going out, like the sheriff, arresting every criminal, and bringing him to trial. The fact revealed is really grand and glorious. When, like the Pentecostians in their ten-days’ prayer- meeting, we hold on to God with the pertinacity of unwavering faith till he pours down His Spirit on the Church in this extraordinary enduement, the result is that He goes out, arrests sinners, and brings them to trial before the tribunal of their own guilty consciences, now quickened and electrified with heavenly dynamite, thus superinducing that awful state of conviction which reveals an open hell, and the devil roaring like a lion ready to devour them without mercy, till the people fall like dead men, as on the day of Pentecost. Satan keeps the Church blinded to her wonderful availability, thus sleeping on, unconscious of her power, while the people all around are dropping into hell. You see from this statement of Jesus that the coming of the Holy Ghost on the Church, in His sanctifying power, is the normal antecedent of mighty convictions on the sinners.
“Concerning sin, indeed, because they believed no on Me.” The exegesis of this is obvious. If the sinners believed on Jesus, their sins would all be taken away. Consequently they bear their own blood and seal their own perdition, as Jesus has settled the whole matter, and they have nothing to do but abandon all sin and put their trust in Him, thus becoming the happy recipients of His free, pardoning mercy.
“And concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you see Me no more.” Dikaiosune, “righteousness,” is the regular word for justification. Now, we must remember that the ascension of Jesus to His Father is the positive and unequivocal confirmation of His Christhood, thus becoming the fulcrum on which the mighty lever of justification and sanctification must rest, while we actually pry up and tilt forever away the great mountains of sin which have accumulated on us during years of black drudgery in the devil’s kingdom. When Archimedes, the illustrious Greek philosopher, discovered the wonderful lever, the greatest mechanical power, such was his assurance of its reliable efficiency that he gave himself notoriety for the bold maxim, Dos pou sto, kai ton kosmon kineso, “Give me a place where I may stand, and I will move the world,” which is literally true of the lever power. But O how significantly real do we find it in the plan of salvation, when we take the lever of sanctifying faith and toss the world out of our own heart!
“And concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.” Until Jesus died on the cross, Satan browbeat every sinner, either telling him his sins were too small for God to notice them, or too great to be forgiven. Consequently, in either case, the conclusion is, “Enjoy the world while you can.” While Satan thought if he could kill Jesus his dominion over the world would be settled and fixed forever, as he would then have nothing to do but reign without a rival, yet really that bloody tragedy satisfied the violated law, expiated the guilt of a lost world, consummated the redemption from under the curse of the law, and demolished Satan’s usurped claim forever, thus superinducing that preliminary fall which exposes him to signal defeat through the rolling centuries, and will culminate in his final arrest, ejectment, and incarceration in the dark pandemonium when our Lord returns in the effulgence of His glory.
“I yet have many things to say to you; but you are not able to bear them now .” Before the full salvation baptism of Pentecost they were comparatively weak, being yet in spiritual minority. “But when He may come, the Spirit of truth, He will guide you into all truth for He will not speak of Himself, but so many things as He hears He will speak, and will proclaim to you those things which are coming.” The Holy Ghost, after His descension on the day of Pentecost continued the revelation of truth which Jesus had begun giving us Acts of the Apostles and all of the wonderful epistles, winding up with that glorious book of prophecies revealed to His servant John in the Apocalyptic visions. “He will glorify Me; because He will take from Mine, and proclaim unto you” i.e., the grand office of the Holy Ghost is to reveal to us the things of Christ, which He has done in all the subsequent New Testament Scriptures, and is still doing by illuminating, expounding, and revealing the deep things of God.
“All things, so many as the Father has, are Mine; therefore I said, He takes of Mine, and proclaims to you.” You see that the office of the Holy Ghost is to reveal the wonders of the Christhood, the stupendous latitude, longitude, and altitude of redeeming love, shining down into the deep interior of the human spirit, irradiating the mind, interpenetrating the entire spiritual being, gloriously flooding us with light from heaven, and empowering us, lost in contemplation of the Divine majesty and glory, to sink away into God, the world, with all its vanities, follies, and vices, waning into total eclipse.
“A little while, and you see Me no more; and again, a little while, and you shall see Me; because I go to the Father. Then some of His disciples were saying to one another, What is this which He says to us, A little while, and you shall see Me, and that I go to the Father? Then they said, What is this little while of which He speaks? We know not what He says. Jesus knew that they wished to ask Him, and said to them, You are seeking with one another concerning this, because I said, A little while, and you see Me not; and again, a little while, and you see Me? Truly, truly, I say unto you, That you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will mourn, but your mourning shall be turned into joy.” Though He had repeatedly predicted to them His death, resurrection, and ascension, down to this date they had no light on it, and no apprehension of it. It must be predicted, in order to the completion of the prophetical curriculum, which becomes the basis of faith for all future generations. Yet is said that is was held from them. This was really necessary to prevent a popular revolution, as the disciples and hosts of others would have fought in His defense, thus precipitating on the country a bloody revolution. You see here from His talk that He is simply alluding to His interment in the sepulcher, when they will see Him no more for a little while, followed by the resurrection, rendering Him again conspicuous to their vision.
“When a woman may bring forth, she has sorrow, because her hour has come; but when the little child may be born, she remembers her suffering no more, on account of her joy because a man is born into the world.” This is a very comprehensive metaphor, not only applying to Christian experience, when the agonizing penitent sweeps gloriously into life, but its application to the history of the Church is quite extensive. Terrible was the suffering of the drowning antediluvians, out of whose death-pang was born the new, postdiluvian world. Awful was the suffering amid the plagues of Egypt, the destroying angel hewing down the first-born in every home, and Pharaoh’s army drowned in the Red Sea; yet out of these death-pangs the great nation of Israel was born. Awful was the suffering: when Jerusalem was destroyed, a million slain by sword, pestilence, and famine, and a million more sold into slavery; yet out of those death-pangs was born the Gentile Gospel Church. Awful will be the suffering when the bloody billows of Armageddon shall roll over this world, putting an end to the present age; yet out of the death-pangs of the Gentile dispensation will be born the glorious millennium. How awful when this world will be all wrapped in fire, cremating out of it not only all sin, but all the effects of sin; yet out of those purgatorial fires will be born a new heaven and a new earth!
“Therefore you now indeed have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one taketh your joy from you.” The joy following the resurrection was permanent and abiding, as death had no more dominion over Him. “And in that day you will not ask Me anything. Truly, truly, I say unto you, that whatsoever you may ask the Father He will give unto you in My name. Hitherto you have asked nothing in My name; ask, and you shall receive in order that your joy may be complete.” Before Jesus ascended up to heaven, the people of God did not ask in His name, because they were not certain that He was the Christ. Of course, in all bygone ages they offered their petitions in the name of the Redeemer God had promised to send into the world. But now, since they knew that this Jesus is the Christ, they all ask in His name specifically and personally.
“I have spoken these things to you in parables. But the hour cometh when I will no longer speak to you in parables, but openly will I proclaim to you concerning the Father.” The Old Testament is symbolic; the gospel of our Savior parabolic, by way of accommodation to our finite capacities, as the plan of salvation was not yet ostensibly perfected and the history of redemption complete. You see no parables in Acts, Epistles, and Revelation, but straight truth, enunciated categorically.
“In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say that I will ask the Father concerning you; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God.” While, of course, Jesus intercedes for us, as He here says, the Father will answer and bless us, because of His own love for us, as well as that of Christ.
“I came forth from the Father, and I have come into the world; again, I leave the world, and go to the Father. His disciples say, Behold, now Thou art talking openly, and speaking no parable. Now we know that Thou knowest all things, and that Thou hast no need that any one may ask Thee; in this we believe that Thou hast, come forth from God. Jesus responded to them, Do you now believe? Behold, the hour has come when you may be scattered abroad, each one into his own place, and leave Me alone; and I am not alone, because My Father is with Me.” N.B. — They are yet in that upper chamber on Mount Zion, where they ate the Passover meal and celebrated the Eucharist. In a few minutes they go away to Gethsemane, where they all take fright, escape for their lives, and leave Him alone, literally fulfilling His prophecy here enunciated.
“I have spoken these things to you, in order that you may have peace.” The prophecies including all the perils which awaited them, of course, in due time illustrated the verity of all these wonderful, consecutive events, enabling them intelligently to apprehend and acquiesce joyfully, seeing that everything is in its place. Consequently faith has the victory. “In the world you have, tribulation but take courage; I have conquered the world.” This winds up our Savior’s valedictory sermon, following the Last Supper, the very night of His betrayal.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 Christ’s Going Away our Gain
Joh 16:7
Christ’s Going Away our Gain
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The departure of our Lord was the disciples’ gain, and it is ours. It is the gain of His whole Church on earth. Let us see how this can be.
I. And first, because by His departure His local presence was changed into an universal presence. He had dwelt among them as man, under the limitations of our humanity; in Galilee and Jerusalem, on the mountain and in the upper chamber, they had known Him according to the measures and laws of our nature. He had thereby revealed to them His very and true manhood. They had yet greater things to learn. They had to learn His very and true Godhead, His Divine and infinite majesty. And this was to be revealed from a higher sphere and by a mightier revelation of Himself. The day of Pentecost was the enlargement of His presence from a local and visible shape to an invisible and universal fulness. As the Father dwells in the Son, so the Son in the Holy Ghost.
II. His departure changed their imperfect knowledge into the full illumination of faith. While He was yet with them, He taught them by word of mouth. But the mysteries of His passion and resurrection were not as yet fulfilled, and their hearts were slow of understanding. The truth itself lay hid in Him. But when the Comforter came, all things were brought back to their remembrance. Old truths and perplexing mysteries received their true solution. Their very faculties were enlarged; they were no longer pent up by narrow senses and by the succession of time, but were lifted into a light where all things are boundless and eternal. A new power of insight was implanted in their spiritual being, and a new world rose up before it; for the spirit of truth dwelt in them, and the world unseen was revealed.
III. And lastly, Christ’s departure changed the partial dispensations of grace into the fulness of the regeneration. It is expedient, then, for us, that He has gone unto the Father. If He had tarried upon earth, all had stood still. It would have been as a perpetual promise of day, a lingering blossom and a retarded fruit, a lengthening childhood and a backward maturity. The word of God is ever unfolding and advancing. When He was upon earth, all was local, exterior, and imperfect; now all is universal, inward, and Divine. The corn of wheat is not alone. It hath borne much fruit, even an hundredfold; and its fruit is multiplied, in all ages and in all the earth, by a perpetual growth and a perpetual reproduction.
H. E. Manning, Sermons, vol. iv., p. 86.
The Invisible Government of Christ through His Spirit
I. The Holy Spirit, in His direct, as in His subordinate or instrumental presence, is the agent, not of disjunction, but of combination, between the faithful and their Lord; Christ still continuing the fontal reservoir of all the graces communicated. The clearest general view of the agency of the Holy Spirit may be obtained by considering it as the counterpart to that tremendous activity of the Spirit of Darkness which has continued incessantly since the Fall of Man. Satan perpetually imitates the operations of God. The evil spirit has the advantage of priority in each soul as it springs to life, and he uses it. No poison so virulent can leave the constitution as it found it, and the Spirit of God in this world has to wander among ruins.
II. The nature of evil being the association of an accursed element with our nature, it surely would seem that it must, in accordance with all the intimations of Holy Writ, be met and counteracted by the introduction of an element of holiness really abiding as it is abiding, really distinct as it is distinct, the seed of eternal life as it is of death eternal. The original corruption consists, not in the evil of every faculty, but in the superadded presence of a principle, once inherent in Adam, thence by the spirit of evil perpetuated to us, which governs the will and perverts the faculties into the machinery of sin. The regenerating gift must in like manner consist, not in the annihilation of any of our natural faculties, but in the indwelling of a principle once inherent in Christ, and from Him transmitted to all who in Him are born of the Spirit—a principle which as it advances displaces its rival, as it retreats admits it; when it shall make us wholly its own, shall wholly dispossess it; when it deserts us, yields the heart once more and altogether to ruin.
W. Archer Butler, Sermons Doctrinal and Practical, p. 272.
Christ’s Departure the Condition of the Spirit’s Advent
I. It is clear that our Lord speaks here of His ascension to the Father as the departure which was necessarily to precede the advent of the Comforter. The true nature or ultimate ground of the connection which subsisted between the ascension of Christ into Heaven and the descent of the Holy Spirit to enrich the Church is, of course, to us quite incomprehensible. The economy of the spiritual world being as certainly regulated by immutable laws of Divine wisdom as that of the world of sensible experience, we may conceive the one event as necessarily a pre-condition to the other as the members of any physical sequence whatever. And when we remember the limits of our knowledge in the latter case, we need not be much surprised at our ignorance in the former.
II. No one, whose inmost spirit has been busy with the New Testament, can fail to be aware that there is everywhere a profound community or even identity of nature intimated between the heavenly world itself and a state of spiritual-mindedness on earth, altogether transcending the mere notion of recompense or sequel. It is as if heaven itself was already, though faintly, realised in the soul, and that some rather accidental than essential obstacle delayed its consummation, as if the sanctified spirit were there, but from a temporary defect of vision could not see or enjoy it. Now, if a connection so intimate do subsist between the two departments of the great empire of grace, it seems highly consistent that that seed should be issued originally from heaven which is to flower here as heaven’s image, and to bear its immortal fruits in heaven’s own climate.
III. The Holy Spirit was also the fruit of a victory, and dispensed as the gift of triumph. It ought not, then, to be given till the triumph was consummated by the entrance into glory; it could not be given till the victory was publicly evidenced by the appearance of the living sacrifice—priest and victor—in the presence of the expectant Father, the enlargement of the kingdom following naturally and immediately on the recognised defeat of the power of evil, by the principle of righteousness incarnate in Christ.
W. Archer Butler, Sermons Doctrinal and Practical, p. 289.
The Expediency of Christ’s Invisibility
I. We know that Christ, being God as well as man, deserved and received adoration during the days of His flesh. In all the instances of this unqualified adoration, however, it is not. certain how far we can answer for the absolute purity of the motives of all the adorers. Men might worship a God in the spirit of idolatry, if they worshipped only the human element of His complex nature. Now, this is just the result which the visible presence of Christ might be apprehended to produce. Perpetually familiar with the humanity, it is scarcely conceivable that men could fix a steady gaze upon the Deity it enshrined. Assuredly such a power of abstraction is not within the habits of the mass of mankind; and yet it is only under this condition that Christ can be legitimately adored with the unbounded homage of the entire man.
II. The principle of faith is the basis and the condition of the spiritual life. The faith which clings to an absent Saviour is very fitly made the connecting link between the reality of this world and the reality of the world to come; and the imagination, under the guidance of Reason and Revelation, anticipates, and by anticipating prepares for the heaven which the purified senses are yet to apprehend by direct experience. Christ stands aloof and superintends the work, Himself unseen, because He knows that at present His visible presence would interfere with the completion of the process. Faith, to qualify for glory, must fight at a disadvantage; love must seek its beloved through clouds and darkness, but could not hereafter know itself for the grace it is; joy must rejoice with trembling and smile through tears, if it will echo the song of Moses and the Lamb.
III. If it were mysteriously requisite that the Captain of our Salvation should be, in relation to His office, perfected through sufferings, it is equally fitting that the many sons to be led to glory should be led through the same pathway of sorrow; that they should be, like Him, undignified and unsustained by the visible patronage of heaven; that, their perfection being wrought out like His, they should present, and glory to present, the counterpart of every grief He bore.
W. Archer Butler, Sermons Doctrinal and Practical, p. 257.
Help from an Absent Saviour
It was expedient that Christ should go away—
I. Because the great work for which He came lay as yet unaccomplished. He must depart to finish His work and their salvation. He had read to them the lesson of life; now He had to read to them the still more wonderful lessons of death; now He had to break through the inexorable door, and open the kingdom of heaven to all believers. The pathway of His degradation was the highway of the world’s salvation.
II. To reveal to the disciples the true proportions of His exalted being. Hitherto they had known Christ after the flesh; henceforth they were to know Him so no more. Yes, the Saviour would gain by leaving that little band. How often, in the after years of active ministry, they would recall the old scenes and impressions, the loved walks and words! How, in such mourning, the Lord would gain in their hearts, their eyes overflowing with tears! Divinity would rise out of that manhood.
III. It was expedient to develop their own character. As long as He was with them, they would lean even too selfishly on Him. His departure roused them to action. Men’s hearts had to be trained by sorrow and hardship, by trial and suffering; and so He would go away and leave them to themselves—quit them visibly. It was a true, Divine, human lesson; it was rooted in the very deeps of our moral progressive being; it was a lasting theme for faith and aspiration, and effort and hope; and, instead of a life merely in the present, it was a crown held before them in the future.
IV. And, finally, our Lord included all when He Himself gave the reason for His departure. He goes, really the better to help our infirmities. It was that He might be the channel of Divine influence to the world. He is here, by His promise, the Comforter. Thus, Christ daily helps our infirmities—infirmity of will, that paralysis of our moral being—of temper, of speech, of knowledge.
Learn then (1) the reason of Christ’s absence from you. It is expedient, and not unkind. When our Lord’s absence is no more useful to us, then He will come again and receive us to Himself. In life it is so. He leaves us (a) to show us Himself; (b) to show us ourselves. (2) Learn the expediency of our dead friends’ farewell. They are saying to us, in their shrouds and winding-sheets, "It is expedient we go away; we leave you to work for you and with you, and shall be the better fitted to meet you when it is done."
E. Paxton Hood, Sermons, p. 274.
I. One reason of the expediency of the Ascension which must strike a modern believer in our Lord Jesus Christ is, that it seems to him to secure an adequate sense of the true place and dignity of man among the creatures of God. There are several lines of thought—I had almost said, there are some great studies—which, at least as they are sometimes handled, tend to create a degraded and false idea of man. But the Christian falls back upon a distinct fact, which enables him to listen with interest and with sympathy to all that the astronomer, or the physiologist, or chemist, may have to tell him, and withal to preserve the robust faith in the dignity of man; he believes in the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ into heaven. Somewhere in space, he knows—somewhere there is at this moment, intimately and for ever associated with the glories of the self-existing Dignity—a human body and a human soul. Ay, it is on the throne of the universe!
II. The expediency of the resurrection is further traceable in the effect which it may produce upon life and character by making room for faith in Christ, and by colouring the whole character of distinctly Christian worship. If Christ our Lord had continued to be visibly present among us, there would have been no room for true faith in Him. If we are to give our hearts and wills to the Author and End of our existence; if our Christian worship is not to be a coldly calculated compliment, but the outcome of a pure and of a soul-consuming passion—then it is well that on the heights of heaven should throb to all eternity a human heart, the sacred heart of Jesus, and that, in the adoration which we pay Him, we should know that we are extending the inmost resources of our nature at the feet of the one Being who has upon them the claim of relationship as well as the claim of duty.
III. And a last reason for the expediency of our Lord’s departure is to be found in His connection with His present and continuous work of intercession in heaven. He has entered, so the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews tells us, into the holiest place of all, as the High Priest of Christendom. But while every Jewish priest stood ministering and offering often the same sacrifices, which could never take away sins, "This man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever sat down at the right hand of God." It is the knowledge that the great work, on which Jesus Christ our Lord entered at His ascension, proceeds uninterruptedly, that makes hope and perseverance possible when hearts are failing, when temptation is strong, when the sky is dark and lurid. Surely it is expedient for you and me that He should go away!
H. P. Liddon, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxiii., p. 273.
The Mission of the Comforter
There are three facts which are plainly revealed in Scripture about the coming of the Holy Spirit.
I. It is evident that in some sense the Holy Ghost had come upon men, and had dwelt amongst them, even from the first. That God should say, "My Spirit shall not always strive with men," implies that the Spirit did strive with them during a certain time. That David should pray, "Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me," "Uphold me with Thy free Spirit," implied, of course, that he had enjoyed the presence and assistance of that Spirit.
II. And yet, in the second place, nothing can be more plain than that the Holy Ghost came on the day of Pentecost, after a totally different fashion from any in which He had come before. It cannot be too strongly expressed that His coming then was an altogether new thing, never before experienced by man, and making an epoch in human history as remarkable and as blessed as that made by the birth of Christ Himself. It was to the Church, in another sphere, what the Incarnation was to the world; if the redeemed world of God date her years from the birth of His Divine Son, His chosen Church counts her age from the Pentecostal coming of His Divine Spirit.
III. In the third place, it is also plain that this change, so unspeakably important, in the manner of the presence of the Holy Ghost, was dependent on and consequent on the finished work of Christ. His presence in us is based on that humanity which is common to Christ and to us, and it is charged with all that was powerful in His atoning sacrifice, with all that was holy and victorious in His life. He comes to minister to us, all that Christ earned by His obedience to our nature, to set forward and continue in us the life that Christ lived in our nature. The Holy Ghost came at Pentecost with the life and victory and immortality of the glorified Son of Man, and bestowed them for ever on the Church.
R. Winterbotham, Sermons and Expositions, p. 276.
We can easily understand that it was in the delicacy of our Saviour’s life to feel very jealous lest any of His people should think for a moment that His going away from this world would make any change in His feelings. To us now such a supposition may seem ridiculous, but not to them. Is not history full of such things—men who have bound themselves to a great and spontaneous effort of affection, and when it is done, the heart, like a plant exhausted with its one flower, has lapsed, if not into its apathy, yet certainly into a very low level of feeling? We very seldom sustain anything which rises above the level of mediocrity. It might be in part to meet such a thought that our Lord spoke the words of my text. Look now at one or two of the reasons why it was good for. the Church that Christ’s visible presence should be taken away from it.
I. God has so constituted us that a state of pure simple faith, i.e., of dealing with the unseen, is essential to the development of the highest and best faculties of our nature. The best reason I can give for this is, that ultimately we shall all of us have to do with spirit; and therefore we are now disciplined to deal with what is only spiritual, that we may be prepared for perfectly spiritual intercourse.
II. But the departure of Christ was chiefly characterised as being introductory to the descent of the Holy Ghost. Was it not a part of the expansion of the covenant, a note preparatory to the larger developments which were coming, when He said, "It is expedient for you that I go away?"
III. The things which are opening now, during Christ’s absence, are to prepare us and make us capable of that Presence. Already God is working towards that point. The expediency of Christ going away was, because, if He should come then in His glory, we were not ready to receive Him. But now He is making us ready to receive Him, that it may be "expedient" for us that He should come back again.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 5th series, p. 216.
Mysteries
The peculiarity of the Bible mysteries is this, that they are always associated with life, never with mere thought. They always present themselves to the view of the disciple rather than to that of the mere student; they always address the heart quite as much as the intellect. Observe how very little there is of what can be called speculative revelation in the Bible. The Bible teaches us not how to think, but how to live; and treats the thinking as part of living.
I. Take the doctrine contained in the words of the text, namely, the gift of the Holy Spirit, as an instance of the method which is always observed in the Bible in revealing mysteries. There is nowhere any distinct statement in the Bible of the attributes of the Holy Ghost, or of the part which He takes to Himself in dealing with us. What the Holy Ghost precisely is, and even what He precisely does, is nowhere defined. There is no philosophy of His existence given us. But if this is not given, what is given? Wherever the Holy Spirit acts on our life, there we are told how we can see His action. Wherever He can comfort, strengthen, enlighten, there we meet with a promise that we shall find Him. Whatever is needed to enable us to reverence Him, worship Him, obey Him, that is revealed.
II. One word on the bearing of this mystery on our own lives. In ordinary times, our consciences seem to us no more than one of the faculties of the soul. The guidance that they give does not seem very much to differ in kind from the light given by the understanding, from the influence exerted by the feelings. But every now and then we know that this is not so. Every now and then, that spiritual voice which we call the conscience, seems to rise up within us into a separate being; seems to command, to forbid, to warn us with an awful authority; seems to assert a claim to obedience, even to the death; seems to sting and pierce, or else to inspire or uplift, the soul with a power altogether beyond the power of earth. This is assuredly nothing less than the revelation of the Holy Spirit, which we read in the pages of the New Testament. Then, if we have eyes to see the truth, shall we recognise that the voice which speaks to us is the voice of the Divine Person who has promised to guide all Christians.
Bishop Temple, Rugby Sermons, 2nd series, p. 162.
References: Joh 16:7.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. x., No. 574; vol. xxviii., No. 1662; H. Wace, Expositor, 2nd series, vol. ii., p. 202; A. Blomfield, Sermons in Town and Country, p. 110; J. M. Neale, Sermons in a Religious House, 2nd series, vol. i., p. 64; Parker, City Temple, 1871, p. 52; Contemporary Pulpit, vol. v., p. 287; vol. x., p. 253; J. Armstrong, Parochial Sermons, p. 282; T. Howell, Christian World Pulpit, vol. iv., p. 133; T. Gasquoine, Ibid., vol. xvi., p. 229; H. P. Liddon, Ibid., vol. xxiii., p. 273; J. Graham, Ibid., p. 280; H. W. Beecher, Ibid., vol. v., p. 138; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iv., p. 546; vol. xiv., p. 303; J. Keble, Sermons from Ascension Day to Trinity, p. 406. Joh 16:7-11.—W. Roberts, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xi., p. 140; Homiletic Magazine, vol. xix., p. 245. Joh 16:7-33.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iv., p. 224.
Joh 16:8
Look—
I. At the Holy Spirit’s operations, as set forth under the New Testament. At one time He is represented as exerting influence upon the understanding. The eyes are opened; the faculty of spiritual discernment is bestowed; the dead letter quickens into a living and sublime reality, and our heart burns within us, as fresh, warm light from heaven streams in upon the sacred word. At other times, the influence seems to be exerted upon the will. The strongholds of the ancient enemy are cast down; the soul is led onwards by the constraint of a sweet captivity, and drawn upwards by the bonds of love. Whilst at other times, the work of the Holy Spirit seems to lie directly with the affections of the heart. Then there is shadowed forth the love of God; we feel the presence and power of a new affection; we are urged on by the inspiration of grateful emotion. "The love of Christ constraineth us," because this love is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which He hath given us.
II. Consider the especial work of the Spirit—the reproving or convincing of sin. To convince of unbelief, is to convince of an estranged heart. We should believe more if we loved more; if the persuasion were more habitually cherished; if God’s deep tenderness, and the fire of holy gratitude, were kindled on the altar of our languid faith. There is nothing for which we are plainly more responsible than first convictions of sin; they bear marks of, and come direct from God. They follow no law, they are confined to no instrument, they wait no opportunities, and yet they come armed with a force which challenges our obstinacy to disregard, and defies our philosophy to explain. Resisted convictions will in time destroy all religious sensibility. As the difficulty lessens, so also does the pain. Resistance unites resistance, and the heart, like an anvil, grows harder for each succeeding stroke. Instead of resisting first convictions of sin, use all means to deepen them. "To-day, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts."
D. Moore, Penny Pulpit, No. 3357.
References: Joh 16:8.—S. Baring Gould, One Hundred Sermon Sketches, pp. 155, 157; Parker, City Temple, 1871, p. 185. Joh 16:8, Joh 16:9.—R. Lorimer, Bible Studies in Life and Truth, p. 143.
Joh 16:8-10
I. The first point of thought suggested here, is the ground on which the charge is founded—"of sin, because they believe not on Me."
II. Note the way in which the Comforter, by revealing Christ, answers the cry for forgiveness, and for power to become righteous. "He shall convince the world of righteousness because I go to the Father." It is not Christ crucified only, but Christ risen and ascended, who reveals a righteousness for man. Three of man’s necessities—the assurance of forgiveness of the past, the removal of the terrors of the future, the creation of a new manhood in the present—are all met by the truth that Christ has gone to the Father; and when that is revealed by the Comforter, we have the conviction of righteousness.
E. L. Hull, Sermons, 2nd series, p. 14.
References: Joh 16:8-11.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxix., No. 1708; Contemporary Pulpit, vol. vii., p. 286; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. v., p. 484. Joh 16:9.—J. Vaughan, Sermons, 11th series, pp. 205, 213.
Joh 16:9-11
Conviction of Sin by the Cross
It is a fixed expectation of Christ Himself, that His mission to the world will have a considerable part of its value in raising a higher moral sense in mankind, and producing a more appalling conviction of their guilt or guiltiness before God.
I. Conviction of sin is a profoundly intelligent matter, and worthy in that view to engage the counsel of God in the gift of His Son. The sense of guilt is itself a pain of the mind, just as light is pain to a diseased eye; but light is none the less truly light, and guilt is none the less truly intelligent, on that account. The returning of guilty conviction is, in fact, the dawning, or may be, of an everlasting and complete intelligence, in just the highest, moral side of the nature, that was going down out of intelligence into stupor and blindness. Is it, then, a severity in Christ that He is counting on a result of His ministry and death so essentially great and beneficent?
II. It is quite evident that such a Being as Christ could not come into the world, and pass through it and out of it in such a manner, without stirring the profoundest possible convictions of character. If the Divine glory and spotless love of God are by Him incarnated into the world, the revelation must be one that raises a great inward commotion. Every guilty mind will feel itself arraigned and brought to know itself, that beholds or looks into the perfect glass of history that describes this life. And, above all, when it is ended by such a death, inflicted by a world in wrong, who that knows himself to be a man will not be visited by silent pangs, not easy to be stifled.
III. Christ was a Being who perfectly knew the pure standards of character and duty, knowing as well what sin is in the breach of them, and what man is in the sin. He knew exactly what to do on all occasions, and with all classes of men, to put the sense of guilt upon them; and we can see ourselves that He has it for one of the great objects of His ministry, even as it was a great expectation, in the matter of His death, that all enemies and rejectors would discover, in bitter pangs of conviction, that, in what they have done upon Him, they have only let their sin reveal its own madness.
IV. In the Scriptures we find many tokens that Christ, before His coming, was expected to come in this character; and also many declarations by Himself and His followers afterward, that He had, especially in His death, accomplished such a result.
V. A very bad act often brings out the show of a bad spirit within, and becomes, in that manner, a most appalling argument of conviction. Hence the immense convincing power to be exerted on mankind through the crucifixion of Christ by His enemies. It rolls back on our thought in a kind of silent horror, that will not always be repelled, that the manifested love of God, impartial and broad as the world, a grace for every human creature, is yet gnashed upon by the world and crucified.
VI. I think I may assert with confidence, that there is no man living who is not made conscious at times of sin, by the simple fact of his own rejection of Christ. No matter what may be reasoned by infidels and Christian speculatists about, against, or for the historic person of Christ; if He is a fiction only, or a myth, a romance of character, got up by three or four of the most unromantic writers in the world, still He is the greatest, solidest, most real truth, ever known to man. The Christ of the New Testament is the want, consciously or unconsciously, of every human heart; and that, aching secretly for Him, it aches the more that it has Him not, and still the more that it will not have Him. "He shall convince of sin, because they believe not on Me."
H. Bushnell, Christ and His Salvation, p. 98.
References: Joh 16:10.—J. Vaughan, Sermons, 11th series, p. 229.
Joh 16:11
These words present two thoughts—a fact, and a conviction founded on that fact
I. Christ’s conquest over the kingdom of evil It was a conquest won for man, and for this two things were requisite— Christ must overcome the essence of evil by a means common to humanity; and He must show in His conquest, that the facts which seemed to prove the perpetuity of evil were the signs of its overthrow.
II. Christ’s conquest and pledge of victory for man. (1) The fact itself is a power. (2) Christ is God’s promise. (3) Christ a present friend.
E. L. Hull, Sermons, 2nd series, p. 29.
References: Joh 16:10.—G. Calthrop, Words Spoken to my Friends, p. 44; R. Lorimer, Bible Studies in Life and Truth, p. 165.
Joh 16:12
Gradual Revelations
The thought which our Saviour here expressed was in strict accordance with His whole method of life. He was always measuring what and how much His followers could bear, for He was that true wisdom which cometh down from above and is always gentle.
I. And here let us notice the blessedness of having the mind placed under God’s own direct teaching. The great power of a teacher lies in being able to have sympathy with the mind of his scholar. God, who knows exactly the real state and power of everyone’s heart, marvellously suits the lesson to the capacity, and leads on as we can bear it. The child has the child’s milk, and the giant has the giant’s meat.
II. But the subject opens to us another field of thought. We are all placed in this world as in a school; we have all to learn of God, His being, His word, His work, His love, His glory. All other knowledge springs out of that knowledge. The Cross itself, the whole life and death of Jesus Christ were, after all, a means to know God. Now, this knowledge lies in a long series, and the different parts range one above another in a continual scale, and by these ranges of knowledge we are all ascending. Now God’s system is this: He gives knowledge as a certain reward and privilege to particular states of heart. The spiritual intellect will advance as the spiritual state improves. This principle is contained in that important verse: "If any man will do My will, he shall know of the doctrine." Consequently, the way to grow in Divine wisdom is continually to be attaining a more humble, affectionate, holy, pure, praying, active condition of life. And any man who would be wise, must be patient in the cultivation of his affections; otherwise he cannot receive truth, or if he received it, he could not bear it. If any man without an adequate spiritual preparation were to be admitted at once into the occupations of the blessed, they would be to that man either intensely dull or witheringly grand.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 5th series, p. 283.
The Changed Aspect of Christian Theology
I. As regards Christian theology, two things appear to be true. (1) That the Revelation of Christ was taught by the Church through forms, both of doctrine and practice, which were created by the spirit of the world, and that it could not have been received at all except it had been taught through these forms; that therefore the imperial and aristocratic elements in the Church were not created by the religious body acting alone, but by the whole spirit of the age. (2) That in spite of the forms in which the universal ideas of Christ were cast being evil, though not known as evil then, they entered into men’s hearts, and in their slow growth is to be sought the real work of the Spirit of God in the development of Christianity. But that inner indirect influence in men’s hearts worked against those forms and slowly undermined them, and we look to the ideas which the Spirit of God has evolved in history out of the seeds which Christ sowed for the truest form of His revelation, not to the forms into which the Church threw only a portion of the thoughts of Christ.
II. Now for the first time in history and after a sustained battle, we have nearly worked up to the level at which Christ wrote, we stand upon His platform; we know what He meant when He said: "I have yet many things to say to you, but ye cannot bear them now." There is a clear path of progress before us, and it will not be long before we may run along it with joy, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Those within the Church who see the position at which the world has arrived have a clear duty, a noble work to do. They have (1) to take away from theology, and especially from its idea of God and His relation to man, all exclusive and limited conceptions. They have to bring the outer teaching of Christ’s revelation up to the level of that inner one which has now become outward in society and politics; to confess and accept this as the work of God. (2) Their teaching in the Church should heartily, but temperately, go with the ideas that are collected round the words, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, not serving the wild image which France made of them, but the image which an honest and just idealism presents to our hope. The Church should get nearer in spirit and in life to Him who was the intimate friend of the poor, whom the common people gladly heard, and who never hesitated one instant to proclaim ideas which He knew would overthrow the existing conditions of society.
S. A. Brooke, Sermons, 2nd series, p. 1.
The Continuing Life of Christ on Earth
I. If the life of Christ were visibly to continue on earth and to influence the earth, that continued life and influence must of necessity bear a close resemblance to the life that Christ once lived among His countrymen, and to the influence that He for years exercised over them. Is that what we find? Christ’s life was for many years an unobserved life, till His mighty words and loving deeds could be no longer hid. What of His life continued on and by the Holy Spirit, His life infused into His body, the Church, and into us, the individual members of that body. Are not the same marks visibly imprinted? The feature of quiet, unobserved growth marked both the common life of our Lord on earth and His supernaturally continued life on earth as well.
II. Wherever Christ went in Syria, the hearts of men acknowledged Him, some by opposition, some by submission. Where that continued life now goes, the same results follow, as the slow time unrolls itself towards the final judgment. Across a chasm of 1800 years, Christ makes a demand which of all others is most difficult to satisfy. He asks for that which a philosopher may often seek in vain at the hands of his friends, or a father of his children, or a bride of her spouse, or a man of his brother. He asks for the human heart, and He will have it all to Himself. He demands it unconditionally, and forthwith the demand is granted. In defiance of time and space, the soul of man with all its powers and faculties, becomes an annexation to the empire of Christ. The continued power of the mighty drawing of the unseen love of Jesus Christ our Lord is at once one of the greatest tokens of the presence of His abiding love with us, and one of the most unanswerable proofs of the absolute truth of Christianity.
III. There are two points which we may briefly take here. The first is the message of warning which such a fact conveys to us. Think you not that the disciples took heed to their words, to their deeds, to their habits of life, when, in those forty days, they felt that, all unseen by them, the Lord might be so close to them, and might at any moment manifest Himself to them? We are as near to God as they were. Are we as careful? Secondly, there are both the strength and comfort that flow down to us from the fact of the nearness of Christ to us, near to us in His house, near to us in His church, near to us in His sacraments, in prayer, in our hearts. The life of our God is continued even now upon earth, and where that life is, there is the full, unending, irresistible power by which God will lead us from strength to strength, until at length we come to appear before our God in Sion.
B. Wilberforce, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvi., p. 22.
References: Joh 16:12.—Contemporary Pulpit, vol. iii., p. 308; Homiletic Magazine, vol. xiii., p. 270; Parker, Cavendish Pulpit, p. 70; A. K. H. B., Graver Thoughts of a Country Parson, 3rd series, p. 71; H. Bonner, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvi., p. 84; H. P. Liddon, Ibid., vol. xxiii., p. 257; Easter Sermons, vol. ii., p. 294.
Joh 16:12-13
In these words our Lord describes two sorts of persons—those who cannot yet bear the truth, and those who, through the guiding of the Spirit, are led into all truth. They who could not yet bear it were, we see, our Lord’s disciples; they who had followed Him from the beginning of His ministry; they, of whom He had just before said, that they were all clean, except Judas, who betrayed Him. Still, He had much to say which they could not yet bear, but which they should be able to bear and to understand, when the Spirit of truth should come and lead them into all truth. These words were applicable to our Lord’s twelve first disciples, and they are much more applicable to many of us. There are many in every age who cannot bear all that Christ has to say unto them, because they are not yet led by the Spirit, and neither their heart nor their understanding can receive the perfect truth.
I. If we want a more ancient example of this, the whole history of the Old Testament will furnish one. The hardness of the hearts of the Israelites was the reason why they were allowed some things, which in a riper state of knowledge men would shrink from; but there are many who are in this respect Israelites among us, there are many who are yet living under the law, and who cannot yet understand or feel the voice of the Spirit. Christ has many things to say unto them, but they cannot bear them now.
II. The whole of the Gospel message is a comfort to those who feel themselves sinners; to those whose consciences trouble them, and who fear the anger of God and wish to flee from it. It is a medicine for the sick, which they who do not feel themselves sick, cannot be persuaded to care for. It is vain to talk to men of Christ, till they feel their want of Him; it is idle to speak to them of the mercy of their redemption, till they have some sense of the danger from which they have been redeemed. The law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ; but Christ will never be sought by those who have never learned to fear the law.
T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. ii., p. 64.
The Purposed Incompleteness of Christ’s Teaching
I. These words show, first of all, that our Lord’s own teaching during His sojourn upon this earth, did not embrace all necessary Christian doctrine. A man, then, who should think himself a good Christian for keeping only to the words of Christ, would deceive himself. He could not keep only to the words of Christ if he really kept to all the words of Christ, for among the words of Christ is the saying in the text which states as clearly as possible that over and above Christ’s actual teaching there were truths to be taught in His name and by His direct authority, truths which, as coming from Him, although through others, Christians were to receive and believe.
II. Why was our Lord’s teaching thus incomplete—incomplete according to His own will and announcement? Why did He not Himself teach all that could properly be called Christian doctrine? The answer is that the same motive which led Him to teach men at all, led Him to impose these limits, these restraints, these delays, upon His process of teaching. He taught men in their ignorance because He loved them too well to leave them in it. He taught men gradually, and as they were able to bear the strong light of truth, because He loved them too well to shock or blind them by a sudden blaze of that truth, for which in its fulness they were as yet unprepared. The full understanding of who He was and what He came to do was preceded by a twilight. That twilight was itself His own work, and it brightened more and more, moment by moment, towards the day. He rose amidst the mists of imperfect apprehension—of misapprehensions—as to who and what He was; and not until He was high in the heavens did He permit the full truth to break upon the intelligence of the world. In this He was true to God’s providential action throughout human history. All along the course of the ages God has taught men gradually. The old Jewish Scriptures were a long series of revelations—the patriarchal first, then the Mosaic, then the prophetical, each being a great advance on its predecessor, and all leading up to the final and complete revelation of God in Christ.
H. P. Liddon, Penny Pulpit, No. 581. (See also Easter Sermons, vol. ii., p. 279.)
References: Joh 16:12, Joh 16:13.—E. Bickersteth, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiv., p. 225. Joh 16:12-14.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. v., p. 208. Joh 16:12-15.—W. Roberts, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xi., p. 237.
Joh 16:13
Notice two out of many errors to be avoided in the search for truth—over-confidence and indifference.
I. I call those over-confident who see no difficulties. To judge from their conversation and demeanour there are many such. Nothing is more attractive, more irresistible than the confidence of one who has strong convictions, who has surpassed his difficulties, who rides at anchor with a noble carelessness on the ebb and flow of human opinion, for he has received Christ into his boat, and is in the haven where he would be. But wait—is the confidence of ignorance attractive? Is the security of blindness a sign of power? A very moderate experience of life will teach you to discern between those who have won their position for themselves by diligent enquiry, and those who in society assume the post of teachers before they have had the heart to become learners. The process of learning is gradual, whatever be its subject. Modesty, perseverance, and an honest love of the truth, are indispensable to its success. The study of art, the investigation of history, the acquirement of languages, a discriminating taste for poetry, a knowledge of business,—these come not by instinct, or in a flash of light. And so it is with our enquiry into religious subjects. It may be said of this domain of the Christian’s life as of his moral perfection, "The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day."
II. The error of indifference is of a very different kind, and may be briefly stated. It is often accompanied by a profession of pious veneration for the devotional and practical teaching of Holy Scripture, and as often by an abdication of all the privileges which an intelligent mind may claim in the study of the book. Modesty and patience are the ruling principles of an enquiring mind. Both arise from an honest love of truth. Let those especially who have not yet stiffened into inveterate habits, strive after that character of mind which they admire in those whom they would choose for friends. Let them fix their eyes so fast on Him who is above all controversy, as to sail with a strong bent and graceful ease through the spray cast up by the fretful waters at the bow; the swifter the speed and the straighter the course, the higher the spray is flung, but we have passed along our course before it falls.
C. W. Furse, Sermons, p. 96.
Note:—
I. The Spirit guiding into all truth in respect of revelation. (1) This means that the Spirit will speak the truth and nothing but the truth, "for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak." It is impossible to be original in speaking the truth—originality is the exclusive property of falsehood. (2) The words further teach that the Holy Spirit will inspire the truth, the truth already extant in the world, and only waiting the breath of inspiration to quicken it. (3) The Holy Spirit further revealed new truths, truths otherwise inaccessible to created intelligences. The truths of the Gospel are His deep things—too deep for human reason ever to fathom, but which nevertheless God has shown to us by His Spirit.
II. The Spirit guiding into all truth in respect of exposition. In other words, the Spirit guiding the readers of the Bible to understand it: "He will guide you into all truth." (1) This sets forth the nature of the Spirit’s influence. "He will guide you into all truth;" this word "guide" meaning to show the road, and not only to show it, but to travel along it. The Holy Spirit takes the hand, as it were, and leads the soul to a reasonable apprehension of the great doctrines of salvation. (2) Observe also the subjects of His guidance. "He will guide you"—not the Apostles only, but you also. The Spirit influences the mental movements of the weakest saint. (3) The words further indicate the scope of the Spirit’s influence. "He will guide you into all truth"—not into some, but all.
III. The Spirit guiding into all truth in respect of application. In other words, the Spirit guiding the ministers of the Gospel to apply and enforce the truth. (1) This suggests that the Spirit whets the truth, that He may put edge on the ministry of the word. (2) In conclusion, the Spirit imparts warmth to the ministry. "He will baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire." Warmth is an essential element in the inspiration of the ministry.
J. Cynddylan Jones, Studies in St. John, p. 300.
References: Joh 16:13.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. i., No. 50; J. Keble, Sermons from Ascension Day to Trinity, p. 396; J. Clifford, The Dawn of Manhood, p. 98.
Joh 16:14
Christ Manifested in Remembrance
Consider:—
I. In what special way the Holy Ghost gives glory to the Son of God. The special way in which God the Holy Ghost gave glory to God the Son seems to have been His revealing Him as the only begotten Son of the Father, who had appeared as the Son of Man. Our Saviour said most plainly that He was the Son of God; but it is one thing to declare the whole truth, another to receive it. Our Saviour said all that need be said, but His Apostles understood Him not. Apparently it was not till after His resurrection, and especially after His ascension, when the Holy Ghost descended, that the Apostles understood who had been with them. When all was over they knew it, not at the time. Such is God’s rule in Scripture, to dispense His blessings silently and secretly, so that we do not discern them at the time, except by faith afterwards only, of which we have two special instances in the very outline of the Gospel history: the mission of our Saviour, who was not understood till afterwards to be the Son of God most High; and the mission of the Holy Ghost, which was still more laden with spiritual benefits, and is still more secret.
II. And hence it is perchance that years that are past bear in retrospect so much of fragrance with them, though at the time perhaps we saw little in them to take pleasure in; or rather we did not, could not, realise that we were receiving pleasure, though we received it. We feel at the time; we recognise and reason afterwards. Such is the sweetness and softness with which days long passed away fall upon the memory and strike us. The most ordinary years when we seemed to be living for nothing, these shine forth to us in their very regularity and orderly course. What was sameness at the time, is now stability; what was dulness, is now a soothing calm; what seemed unprofitable, has now its treasure in itself; what was but monotony is now harmony; all is pleasing and comfortable, and we regard it all with affection. Such are the feelings with which men often look back on their childhood, when any accident brings it vividly before them. Some relic or token of that early time, some spot or some book, or a word, or a scent, or a sound, brings them back in memory to the first years of their discipleship, and they then see, what they could not know at the time, that God’s presence went up with them and gave them rest. They think that they regret the past, when they are but longing after the future. It is not that they would be children again, but that they would be angels and would see God; they would be immortal beings, crowned with amaranth, robed in white, and with palms in their hands, before His throne.
J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. iv., p. 253.
References: Joh 16:14.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. viii., No. 465; E. M. Goulburn, Three Hundred Outlines on the New Testament, p. 94; Church of England Pulpit, vol. iii., p. 277.
Joh 16:14-15
This text is a prophecy that Christ’s glory, His work, His nature, His teaching, His character should be revealed, brought home to men, progressively; the Holy Spirit should make them more and more clear, should show them to the disciples, open their eyes to them, as time rolled on.
I. It was a prophecy, in the first place, of the full revelation of Christian truth. Christ had lived before the disciples, spoken to them, as they were able to bear it, and His words were in their ears. They would come back to them by and by, when He was gone from them; though even this is attributed in these chapters to the same agency. "He shall bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." But how little even the Apostles had understood His words. How were they to be the teachers of the churches? The wonder of Pentecost first fully opened their eyes to the truth, the truth never again doubted for one moment amid all discouragement, of the Divine mission and eternal presence of their Lord; and it was the new power of the gift of Pentecost which gave the clearness and firmness, the variety and the unity to their teaching. They built up the Church of Christ, in its members, its doctrines, its institutions. And then beyond the Apostolic age, who shall say that the Church has not needed and received the same guidance into truth? "He shall take of Mine, and shall show it unto you,"—the meaning and depth of the Divine words, the fulness and perfection of the Christian character, the limits and the largeness of the Christian revelation.
II. But there is yet another sense in our Lord’s promise, and one perhaps that touches us yet more closely. It speaks of the gradual bringing home to men of the full force, the length, the breadth, the measure of the stature of the fulness, of Christ’s character. Tradition, though so early busy, never put a trait to that character. Criticism has taken nothing from it. Each Christian age has caught something fresh, learnt something more of it, perhaps even, alas, has forgotten again something. Some lessons have been worked slowly but surely into the heart of humanity, have become so much a part of the world’s common heritage, that we begin to forget that though Christians did not learn them fully at once, though men have not learnt to practise them fully even now, they had their origin in Christianity, that is, in Christ. Such are (1) the care for the sick and suffering, for human pain because it is human pain, not merely the pain of a friend. (2) The rights, the sanctity of conscience. (3) The unity, the brotherhood of all mankind.
E. C. Wickham, Sermons in Wellington College, p. 101.
I. "All things that the Father hath are Mine," Our Lord might say thus, first, in respect of His original Godhead; and but for His original Godhead, he could not without blasphemy have said it. It is impossible to explain away this absolute and unrestricted claim of a universal right of property in all that is the Father’s; no rank, however high, conferred by God; no offer, however honourable and trustworthy in His kingdom; no gifts, no riches, no endowments, however various and costly, bestowed out of His boundless liberality, could sanction the use of words like these, by any created being, or warrant His saying broadly and without reserve, "All things that the Father hath are Mine."
II. When the Lord said, "All things that the Father hath are Mine," He had respect not only to His original Godhead, but also to His suffering manhood. It is this consideration, indeed, which makes the statement practically important in its application to us. It is as being in our nature, in His character of God man, that the Lord Jesus asserts His title to regard all things that the Father hath as His own. When in reference to His manhood as well as His eternal Godhead, our Lord stands forth in this attitude of unhesitating confidence, He virtually appeals to the perfection of His righteousness and the sufficiency of His atonement. He proceeds upon the assurance of His finished work of propitiation being accepted by His Father. And as the recompense of that work, He receives, in His human nature, an interest in all that the Father hath.
III. It is as the head of His body, the Church, that Christ says, "All things that the Father hath are Mine." Taking His people as His own, uniting Himself to them, identifying Himself with them, in the character and capacity of their Head He says, "All things that the Father hath are Mine." Through Him all the energy and all the blessedness of His Divine life are diffused, even as from the fertile vine a healthful influence goes forth into all the branches, causing them to rejoice and blossom and bear forth fruit. "All things that the Father hath are His"—His, not to be retained as His own, but to be communicated to His people.
R. S. Candlish, The Sonship and Brotherhood of Believers, p. 265.
The Revealings of the Holy Ghost
I. There are times when words, over which we once shed tears, are meaningless to us as the stones of the desert. And there are times when the oldest and most familiar passages of the Bible wake up to us like a new creation. Why is this? The Spirit has made them to come forth so prominent and so clear. I believe this to be a constant method of His working. The height of some grand truth looks out, through the purified atmosphere of the thoughts, near, accurate, lovely. You see, and you can almost touch, the smallest sands upon the hill-top, because the difficulties have all melted away, hidden meanings have unrolled themselves, clouds of doubt have been destroyed, like mists by the morning light, and so invisible things have become realities and future promises are present property.
II. Or once more. What the Spirit shows He makes a possession. This is the most blessed fact of all. He manifests that a thing is, and whenever He manifests that a thing is, He manifests that it is yours. He seals it to you with the oath and the impress of Almighty God. There are some who have made very high attainments in Divine knowledge—and why? Not because they have any greater intellect, but because the Spirit being glorified in those men, has put forth more of His power, and has shown them more. How are some so very like their Master? What has made them so? The passing and re-passing of the Holy Spirit, thousands and thousands and tens of thousands of times, from Christ to those hearts; and every time leaving on the soul another and another little line of the transcendent copy. That is the way by which the living likenesses of Jesus are made on some men’s hearts. Therefore, wait honouringly on the Spirit. Confess to His supremacy and solitary power to show you truth. Cherish His still movings, His veil-liftings to the understanding, His loving convictions to the conscience—His silken drawings of the affections. If any man perish, it will not be that Christ has not done all for that man’s soul, but that He did not seek and cultivate the revealings of the Holy Ghost.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 5th series, p. 162.
I. He shall take or receive of Mine. The Lord speaks of the Holy Ghost as well entitled to take of what is His, as well able and well qualified to do so, and as one whom He would willingly have to do so. (1) The Spirit is well entitled to take of what is Christ’s, especially considering that it is what the Father has that is Christ’s—because He is Himself a Divine person, one with the Father and the Son. (2) He is not less qualified and able than He is entitled to receive of what is Christ’s. For having been with the Father in the ordering of the plan from all eternity, and having been with Christ all along in the accomplishment of it, "He searcheth all things, yea the deep things of God," and in dealing with what is Christ’s, He is in His element so to speak, and at home. (2) He is one whom Christ must needs be and is altogether willing to have taking of His. "He shall glorify Me," says Christ Himself; He is of My council, and His sole aim is to carry out My work and to exalt My name.
II. What the Spirit thus takes or receives of Christ’s He shows to His Church and people. He does not keep it to Himself, He does not conceal or hide it; He does not intercept or appropriate it. He acts in all good faith, if I may so speak with all reverence, in the way of revealing and transmitting it, so that all that is Christ’s may be seen and enjoyed by His believing followers, and Christ Himself may be magnified in their esteem. "He shall glorify Me, for He shall take of Mine and shall show it unto you."
R. S. Candlish, The Sonship and Brotherhood of Believers, p. 265.
References: Joh 16:15.—Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 298; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. v., p. 239; Bishop Lightfoot, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxviii., p. 81; J. Vaughan, Three Hundred Outlines on the New Testament, p. 95. B. Baker, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. ii., p. 193. Joh 16:15-33.—Parker, Christian Commonwealth, vol. vii., p. 155.
Joh 16:16
Christ Visible to Loving Hearts
What Christ here promises is something special and interior; deeper and more intimate; the peculiar gift of those who "keep His commandments." It is a manifestation, not to the eye or to the ear, but to a sense above both hearing and sight; a spiritual sense, comprehending all powers of perception, to which all other senses are but avenues. And this presence is no mere figure, but a reality; this manifestation no empty metaphor, but a showing of Himself to our spiritual sense; a perception which should be equal to the perception of sight in all fulness, vividness, and truth. Let us therefore take an example. What does the sight of any one, as, for instance, of a friend, bestow upon us? What are its effects?
I. The first effect it produces in us is a sense of his presence; we know what his coming and going awakens. It may be, we were waiting for his arrival full of other thoughts, busy or weary, or musing, or all but forgetful. When he came, we were wakened up in every pulse. We see him, recognise him again; he sees us, and fixes our sight upon himself. Some such effect is wrought in faithful hearts by this promise of our Lord. He shows Himself by a secret unveiling of His presence. His disciples’ whole life is full of a sense that He is near; and they know, by an inward faculty, that they are living with Him and for Him.
II. Another effect wrought by the sight of a friend, is a perception of his character. We read the fullest and most detailed biographies and imagine the most vivid picture of the subject; but what is all biography to one meeting? Then the moral life which is in the one speaks to the moral sense which is in the other by a language which has no written character. So is it in those who love the Lord Jesus. When He shows Himself by the illumination of the heart, then all they have read turns to reality.
III. We may take one more effect of sight. It gives us a consciousness of the love of a friend for us. There is something in his eye, looks and bearing, which is expressive above all words and emphatic above all speech. So there is a love with which, as God, Christ loved all mankind eternally; and another deeper love, with which He loved all whom He foreknew would love Him again. In His foreknowledge, all His elect people love Him and are loved. As, one by one, they love Him, He loves them and shows Himself to them. When the disciple whom Jesus loved lay on His breast at supper, the foreknowledge of everlasting love had its fulfilment. So with every one who shall love Him unto the end of the world. "He hath heard of Me by the hearing of the ear, but now his eye shall see Me."
H. E. Manning, Sermons, vol. iv., p. 105.
The Spiritual Presence of Christ in the Church
I. Observe what the promise is in the text and the verses following. A new era was to commence, or what is called in Scripture "a day of the Lord." We know how much is said in Scripture about the awfulness and graciousness of a day of the Lord, which seems to be some special time of visitation, grace, judgment, restoration, righteousness and glory. The day that dawned upon the Church at the Resurrection, and beamed forth in full splendour at the Ascension; that day which has no setting, which will be not ended but absorbed in Christ’s glorious appearance from heaven to destroy sin and death; that day in which we now are, is described in these words of Christ as a state of special Divine manifestation, of special introduction into the presence of God. Christ is really with us now, whatever be the mode of it. As God He is ever present, never was otherwise than present, never went away; when His body died on the Cross and was buried, when His soul departed to the place of spirits, still He was with His disciples in His Divine ubiquity.
II. Observe what was the nature of His presence in the Church after His resurrection. It was this, that He came and went as He pleased; that material substances, such as folded doors, were no impediments to His coming; and that when He was present His disciples did not, as a matter of course, know Him. For so it was ordained that Christ should not be both seen and known at once; first He was seen, then He was known. Only by faith is He known to be present; He is not recognised by sight. When He opened His disciples’ eyes He at once vanished. He vanished from sight that He might be present in a sacrament; and in order to connect His visible presence with His presence invisible, He for one instant manifested Himself to their open eyes—manifested Himself, if I may so speak, while He passed from His hiding-place of sight without knowledge, to that of knowledge without sight.
J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. vi., p. 120.
The Light of Faith
I. These words announce the departure of our Lord through the grave into the unseen world, when He passed among the long-imprisoned dead, "the spirits in prison," and unveiled His visible form, His soul, to the longing eyes of the saints of the earlier covenant, and, overthrowing the powers of hell, delivered the thralls of ages, opening to their gaze the inner realms of light, and the vision of God which His passion had obtained for redeemed man. The interval between His death and His resurrection was the "little while" during which He was no longer seen by the disciples on earth; and His return from the grave and His lingering among them before He ascended was the "little while" during which they again saw Him.
II. We may understand these words to represent one important feature of the spiritual life which characterises all the people of God in their earthly state. This not seeing Him for a little while, and again for a little while seeing Him, this alternative of brightness and darkness, is what our experience shows us to be the appointed condition of the faithful throughout the time of their probation. The loss of the sensible presence of Christ is, as even our natural reason may discern, necessary for the exercise of this discipline. An unchanging vision, palpable to the sense, would have been as incompatible with this economy of trial as the complete hiding of His countenance from the forsaken soul. In the one case it would have been all rapture, in the other all despair. What is needed is the vision of faith, which is a seeing and yet not seeing—a seeing neither clearly nor darkly, but an inexpressible intermingling of experiences, which are neither fulness of sight, nor yet blindness. And this wonderful discipline of the soul began in earnest, as the law of our regeneration, when our Lord withdrew Himself into His ascended glory, and the invisible and incomprehensible Spirit came forth to be the second Comforter. "Verily Thou art a God that hidest Thyself." But it is only because we cannot yet see Thee and live that Thou shinest upon us with tempered ray suited to our weakness; but our dim eyes strain after Thee, and seek to discern Thee more and more, not merely in the special means and pledges of Thy presence, but even in all these outer forms, these visible works of Thy hands.
T. T. Carter, Sermons, p. 183.
References: Joh 16:16.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iv., p. 359; C. Kingsley, All Saints’ Day, p. 109; G. E. L. Cotton, Sermons and Addresses in Marlborough College, p. 137. Joh 16:16-21.—W. Roberts, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xi., p. 302. Joh 16:16-22.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 195. Joh 16:16-33.—A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve, p. 442. Joh 16:19.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iii., p. 414. Joh 16:20.—T. J. Rowsell, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxvii., p. 248; J. Keble, Sermons from Ascension Day to Trinity, p. 335. Joh 16:20-22.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiv., No. 1442. Joh 16:21.—J. M. Neale, Sermons for the Christian Year, vol. ii., p. 29. Joh 16:21, Joh 16:22.—D. Fraser, Metaphors of the Gospels, p. 360.
Joh 16:22
I. "Ye now therefore have sorrow." Sorrow (1) because He was going away; sorrow (2) because of the declared manner of His death. If He had been about to die the common death of all men; if, young though He were, He was to be deprived of the residue of His years by pining sickness; if they could have stood by His bed and watched Him as the fastenings of the earthly tabernacle gave way, this might have lightened that great sorrow. But how different Christ’s death was to be. (3) Selfishness entered very largely into the sorrow of the disciples. It is to be confessed that they had been disappointed. The service of Christ had not proved to be what they looked for, and the longer they continued in it the more discouraging their prospects became. "Ye now therefore have sorrow."
II. How beautiful is the law of our mental constitution which makes joy such an overruling, absorbing, past-obliterating thing. So soon as it comes, the preceding suffering becomes expunged, erased from thought, blotted out as a thing which had never been. That dark crucifixion scene, they remembered it no more; that dreadful, distressing sacrifice, they remembered it no more; that burying of their last hope in the garden, they remembered it no more, for joy that Christ had come to them again; and this is the Easter aspect of our subject: "I will see you again." Rejoice (1) to see how kindly He had remembered them, how promptly He had come to them, and how affectionately He had met them again, for the first time, without a word, or look, or gesture that had not love in it. (2) Rejoice, because that in His return from the winepress gloriously apparelled, travelling in the greatness of His strength, they saw proof that their Master had triumphed after all; that all the powers of darkness had been baffled and defeated, and that the shield of omnipotence had been thrown over innocence and truth and right. (3) Rejoice, because in their Master’s coming to them again there was an end put to all their dejection, distress, and fear. (4) Rejoice, because they saw in the resurrection the seal of their and our immortality; they understood the force and reality of those many expressions of the Saviour in which He had affirmed His dominion over the issues of life and death; and they would perhaps begin to comprehend for the first time the meaning of that He had said to them, "Because I live ye shall live also."
D. Moore, Penny Pulpit, No. 3320.
References: Joh 16:22.—H. le Pla, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxx., p. 139; J. Keble, Sermons from Ascension Day to Trinity, pp. 345, 355. Joh 16:23.—E. Bickersteth, Church of England Pulpit, vol. viii., p. 5; Homilist, 2nd series, vol. iii., p. 247; J. Keble, Ibid., p. 445; Contemporary Pulpit, vol. ii., p. 105; vol. v., p. 289; H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, The Life of Duty, vol. i., p. 244; S. Martin, Three Hundred Outlines on the New Testament, p. 96. Joh 16:23, Joh 16:26.—A. Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer, p. 190. Joh 16:23-29.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iii., p. 93; Homiletic Magazine, vol. xviii., p. 227. Joh 16:23-30.—W. Roberts, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xii., p. 68. Joh 16:23-33.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. ii., p. 264; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 197. Joh 16:24.—J. Keble, Sermons from Ascension Day to Trinity, p. 436; J. Irons, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. xvi., p. 92; Church of England Pulpit, vol. i., p. 287. Joh 16:25.—Ibid., p. 282; J. M. Neale, Sermons in a Religious House, 2nd series, vol. ii., p. 85. Joh 16:26.—H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, The Life of Duty, vol. i., p. 268.
Joh 16:26-27
The Intercession of Christ
I. While Christ’s advocacy for us is a valuable part of His mediation and a comfort to timid petitioners, there is no doubt that it is very much exposed to serious and perilous misconception. Nothing is more easy than to push an analogy, drawn from human life, beyond that point at which it ceases to apply to the Divine. There is a false idea, according to which Jesus becomes the influential Patron to whose voice, pleading for His unfortunate clients, the ear of the Eternal is open, because He is the Father’s Beloved and Jehovah’s Fellow. The worst result of this perversion of the doctrine is that it splits the Divine character in two, and apportions its features between the First and Second of the blessed Persons. For the tendency of such a representation is to gather into the remoter Father, at whose judgment seat Jesus pleads, all the sterner attributes of anger, rigorous justice, and hardness to be won; while Jesus Christ becomes the peacable and gentle Friend, full of pity for our case, on whose good offices with His Father we have to build our hope.
II. How are we to represent to ourselves the intercession of Christ, while guarding with jealousy like Christ’s own the spontaneous love of the Father? The Scriptural representation of Christ as an intercessor strengthens the faith of penitents, by holding before their mind the ceaseless virtue of His atonement as the sole ground of their acceptance. The Father has assuredly no need to be either prompted, or coaxed, or entreated to extend that mercy which it is the joy and glory of His Fatherhood to extend to every penitent. But we have need to be encouraged to trust in His mercy. Evermore, therefore, is that Man who bore our sins to be thought of as the right hand of advocacy. Beside the Father "of an infinite majesty," as well as infinite love, there is One above whose love is not more, but whose majesty is less. He lies closer in to a man than any one who is not a man can do. Let Him search us, and when by the mysterious link of human brotherhood He has thus known us in our adversity, let Him tell to the Father what we cannot tell. Let Him justify us, if He can, or confess for us, or pray in our name, as to His supreme gentleness shall seem meet; and it shall be well.
J. Oswald Dykes, Sermons, p. 176.
Joh 16:26-32
Love the Evidence of Faith
I. Our Lord here speaks of His disciples’ belief in Him as one of the reasons why the Father loved them. But He puts it second. He puts their belief after their love. This is the true and only sure order of the growth of faith in the soul. It begins with love. That which leads a man to the belief in Christ, that which supplies, as it were, the root of his faith, is love. Faith is worth little, can stand little temptation, unless it is rooted in love. The true Christian finds in the character of the Lord that which his heart can love, and because of that he believes. Faith rests on the correspondence between the revelation of God and the soul of man. And the beginning of this correspondence is the love of the heavenly.
II. Nothing is more common than the fancy which leads men to rest their faith on some striking event, on some remarkable experience, or fulfilment, or apparent fulfilment, of prophecy. Nor is there anything wrong in allowing such arguments to strike our minds, provided we recognise how poor and shallow is the faith which rests on any such foundation. Let these things help us if they can, but let us know, too, that if we rely on them, and fancy that the truth of God can be proved by such arguments as these, we should be making the same mistake as the disciples just before our Lord’s arrest. The faith which rests on what is outside is at the mercy of what is outside.
III. The man, whether young or old, who is storing up in his soul a real love of what is good, is building within him a sure faith. He may have to change some of his opinions; he may have to give up some that he has cherished much. He may find that arguments that seemed to him weighty are worth nothing. He may at times be sorely tried, and perhaps his faith may even fail, as the faith of the Apostles failed when they saw their Master led off unresistingly to prison. But his faith has a real root, a root deep in the very inmost soul. And he shall not be taken away from God, nor lose his hold on God’s truth. He may wander, but he will return; for God’s finger has touched him.
Bishop Temple, Rugby Sermons, 3rd series, p. 107.
Joh 16:28
The Earthly Life of Jesus
Full and momentous as our Lord’s life was—infinitely beyond the life of other men—if He could say of it, "I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; again, I leave the world, and go to the Father"—if He could put that life into such a parenthesis, and so bracket it between two eternities, what must our sojourn on this earth be? What an insignificant interval! Then, what is life worth but in its bearings on eternity? The life which Christ thus lived, from the Father and for the Father, seen now in a calm retrospect had most strange proportions. He lived thirty-three years—a little life for such a man and to do such a work. And yet, of those thirty-three years, thirty were almost out of sight, spent apparently in preparation. Observe it well: thirty years preparing for three years’ working—ten-elevenths of life passed to lay a foundation. What a contrast to ourselves! What a lesson; what a special lesson, to an impatient, superficial, showy, rushing generation! Now, let us look at one or two of the features of this wonderfully proportioned life.
I. It was certainly a progressive life. It was a life which passed (and is not this growth?) from the active to the passive—from the obedience that did to the obedience that bore.
II. And this was singularly a life which showed always the work He had in hand. Everything had its rule, everything had its measure, everything had its principle.
III. He came to receive. It was scarcely more a life of imparting than it was a life of receiving. He was always depending upon some loving follower for the supply of every want He ever had. There is a very high order of greatness in that acceptance of compassion. It was a part of the grandeur of His humility.
IV. And along, from Bethlehem to Bethany, it was a mystic life. There was more than met the common eye. In that life thousands and tens of thousands were living; in that death thousands and tens of thousands were dying. It was always a representative life. All His Church went down with Him to His burial; they rose with Him in the unity of their perfect membership, on the resurrection morning; and in His ascension they all soared with Him to the higher level of a glorified life.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 5th series, p. 211.
References: Joh 16:28.—Contemporary Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 17; W. Dorling, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xi., p. 356. Joh 16:31.—Church of England Pulpit, vol. i., p. 12; Ibid., vol. xvii., p. 304.
Joh 16:31-32
The Work of the Comforter
I. Many, perhaps, cannot understand how the condition of Christians now is better than that of the disciples when our Lord was upon earth; how the Comforter, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him, can be a greater blessing than the visible presence of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Yet if we look at the character of the apostles, we shall see that our Lord’s words were exactly true. It was expedient for them that He should go away, because while He was with them their faith often wavered, and their hearts were more often turned to earthly things than to heavenly; but when He went from them, and the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, visited them in His room, they were led into all truth and their whole minds were renewed by that spiritual baptism, so as to be fit for the kingdom of God. That Comforter is now ever working in the hearts of Christ’s true servants, and therefore to them, as was promised, Christ still manifests Himself. Though now they see Him not, yet believing, they rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory; a far happier state than theirs who saw Him and yet did not believe in Him.
II. To feel the burden of our captivity is not the same thing as to be free from it; to love God in our better mind, or, as St. Paul calls it, "according to the inward man," is not the same thing as to walk according to that love and show it forth in our lives and actions. So that though we may now believe, yet if the hour cometh when we shall be scattered every man to his own, assuredly we cannot reckon ourselves as belonging to that flock of the good Shepherd, who hear His voice, and also follow Him whithersoever He goeth, so that they may never go astray from the fold. We must attain to the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus; the Spirit of God must abide in us and change us into His own image, that we may be delivered from sin and the flesh, and serve them no more at all.
T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. i., p. 246.
References: Joh 16:31-33.—W. Roberts, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xii., p. 171.
Joh 16:32
Loneliness
I. There is a loneliness inseparable from the spiritual life. To cherish such loves and hopes of heaven, such desires for God’s honour, such delight in Jesus’ grace, as you dare not drag from the sacred silence of the heart, is not that the burden of all the saints? "Yet not alone." Let it console us under our hidden hopes and fears, under weariness of sin, and under unappreciated efforts to do good, to remember not only that Christ felt it all, but that in the midst of it all He drew into His bosom the sweet companionship of a heavenly confidant and Father. To us, as to Him, shall the sense of such society prove balm to our pain and solace in our loneliness.
II. A special variety of spiritual solitude arises when a Christian is called to endure temptation. In such assaults a Christian can expect little aid and hardly any companionship from man. But it is when no man stands by us that our Joseph discovers himself to His brethren, and the presence of Jehovah is a secret place.
III. There is a loneliness in sorrow. Deep grief loves silence and retirement. When a man would weep, he goes apart to do it. Where is the mourner who has not experienced the twofold desire—desire for a solitude within, that is felt to be indispensable; desire for fellowship within reach, as near at hand as may be, about a stone’s cast off. He who could face His trial with the assurance that One above would never leave Him entirely alone, knows how to save you by the angel of His presence.
IV. Exactly in proportion to the preciousness of the Divine presence is the unspeakable solitude of the Divine absence. Yet, has the forlorn soul, under such loneliness of desertion, any right to say that it is passed beyond the fellow-feeling of the Son of God? Out into an absolute loneliness of outer darkness He peered; He crossed the line; He lost the consciousness of that Presence, and felt Himself for the first time alone indeed, bereft of that secret inward instinct whose conscious sympathy had sustained Him in every earlier solitude. "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" If He too went through such an awful experience, must He not be drawn to watch you in it with the interest of fellow-feeling?
J. Oswald Dykes, Sermons, p. 326.
References: Joh 16:32.—Contemporary Pulpit, vol. ix., p. 363; Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 81; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. viii., p. 367; J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 10th series, p. 9; E. Bersier, Sermons, 1st series, p. 299; Church of England Pulpit, vol. xiii., p. 253.
Joh 16:33
There is a difficulty in seizing the precise meaning of the word "world." It seems an airy, subtle, impalpable thing, that world of St. John. It refuses to be described, to be precipitated, to be measured, to be defined. It is not the wicked, though they are its victims. It is not Satan, though the Scriptures call him its prince, as presiding over it and rejoicing in it. It is an atmosphere, a temper, a spirit, a power real and most energetic, but dread and invisible. It has hung for ages—this world—like a dark murky cloud over the heart of humanity. It poisons the very air we breathe. It is that warp in the aim and affections of the soul which makes of each of the objects of this visible creation, and of the circumstances of life, a distinct hindrance to getting to heaven. Let us note the character of its influence.
I. First of all, it works secretly and without being suspected. Observe the language which we use with regard to it in daily life. When we speak of the world, we uniformly assume that it is something outside us. The world disguises itself; it is like Satan showing himself in the character of an angel of light; it seeks to be habitually respectable, it dislikes gross sin, it affects very particularly to cultivate the social virtues. It can be prudent, like the old prophet; it can be wise, like Ahithophel; it can be courageous as was Saul; it can be very pious indeed, like the false apostles of the Church of Corinth.
II. The world has a marvellous versatility, a power of self-adaptation to all ages and races and classes. There may be a difference of form; there is a marvellous and awful unity of spirit. The spirit of the world is contagious; it passes, like an infection, from soul to soul.
III. What was the relation of our Lord to the Jewish world in His day and generation? It could not receive His spirit; it rejoiced at His departure. It rested not, that world, till it had led Him to the Cross. And, therefore, His resurrection was not merely a conquest of death, not merely the crowning proof of His Divinity; it was a triumph over the power that had killed Him. It was the conquest of the world. "Be of good cheer," He said, in full view of His Easter triumph; "I have overcome the world."
H. P. Liddon, Penny Pulpit, No. 3847.
The Mystery of Peace
I. The mystery of peace, for the disciples, as for us, could be clearly shown by teaching two truths. (1) First, the Lord brought out to them, as seen in the fact of His conflict, the meaning of the outer life of the Christian. That outer life, so it appeared, was to take its meaning and derive its trial from antagonism with one overwhelming power. In the world ye shall have tribulation. There lay before the Christian, if he had strength to be a Christian, a long and necessary course of trial. (2) But the tribulation is turned to excellent uses. Trial is the school of obedience; trial is the means of growth of character; trial is the method of discipline; trial is the training of faith. There is this sad fact of the outer life of the Christian; but the silence of the winter world witnesses to the coming life of spring; the narrow wrapping of the narrow bud witnesses to the opening flower; the dark night witnesses to the morning; the outer struggle of the Christian witnesses to the inner life.
II. Examine some of the conditions of the mystery of peace. (1) First, we plainly need the forgiveness of sin. Resistance; the onward march of a struggling soul; the yearning towards, the crying for, the seeking after forgiveness; these are needed; then—for Christ is unfailing in His promise—it is the peace, the real rest of the weary, not the stillness and lethargy of decay. (2) "First the kingdom of God and His righteousness" is a condition of peace. When the soul is learning to act in this life on the principles of another—to live, to move, to work, in fact, "in Christ"—then, like the consistent calmness of the sunlight on the quiet summer day, then, like the majesty of stillness in the unfathomed azure of the summer night—then, there is peace. (3) As a condition of peace we must surrender an attractive principle and adopt one at least apparently severe. To have this treasure of peace, so fair, so needed, we must be freed from a tyrannous and trembling anxiety to please ourselves.
III. We are led to peace (1) by Christ’s example; (2) by faith in His blood; (3) by growth in grace.
W. J. Knox-Little, The Mystery of the Passion, p. 137.
Joh 16:33
There is clearly a negative rolled up in this sentence. It is this: that there is no peace out of Christ.
I. Let us be careful that we understand what the peace of God is. It is the feeling of being forgiven—a quiet conscience—a stilling sense of the love of God. That is the first thing. Then, growing out of that, it is a certain contemplative habit of mind that deals silently with unseen things, which lives up high enough not to be tossed and anxious much about the matters which concern the present world. For it is the repose of faith, a trust in promises, a sense of a Father’s love, a Father’s nearness, a Father’s care—the hush of a little child leaning on His bosom.
II. It is of immense importance to have that peace, because (1) first, it is the sweetest and the best and the only satisfying of all possessions. It meets the deepest longings of a man’s heart. Pleasure is man’s delight, but peace is man’s necessity. No man is complete till he has peace. No man knows what he can be—the capabilities of his own nature, or what enjoyment is—till he is at peace. (2) Peace is the root of all holiness. To believe that you are pardoned, to be at leisure from the retrospect, to carry a conscience at ease, to take the unruffled reflection of Christ, even as Christ did of the Father—that is the atmosphere of a daily religious life, and that is the secret of every good thing. (3) Peace is the fulfilment of the work of Christ. Then the eloquence of the Cross has not been in vain. Then His word has accomplished its grand design. "These things have I spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace."
III. Three rules for peace. (1) Be more decided. Decision is the parent of peace. Take some steps at once heavenward, and it may be that one step will land you in peace. (2) Confess Christ; confess Him in the world; do not be ashamed of your better portion; begin to speak of Christ to somebody. (3) And lastly, go up and down more in Christ—His work, His person, His beauty, His grace. Listen for His still small voice. He will speak. You will hear Him, and you will feel Him—a strange grand reality—a thing that comes and does not go away again, like everything else—peace.
J. Vaughan, Sermons, 1868, p. 37.
In the world ye have tribulation! Such is our cry when we think of the thousand pains and miseries which we have endured in the year that is gone, when we remember the labour and trouble that we have passed through, eating our bread in the sweat of our brow, sighing under the burden and heat of the day. These are but our own troubles, and life would be an easy thing if each had only his own burden to bear, if the manifold grief of others did not also lie heavy on our hearts.
I. What was the tribulation of which the Lord speaks in the words of our text? A new Divine life had sprung up for the disciples in their Redeemer—a life which the world neither possessed nor understood. They were to bring that life to the world. And the world was hostile to them; not only was it unwilling to receive the life of God, but it would not even listen to the story of that life; it had no heart for the love which God had shown it, no eye for the truth of grace which shone in upon its darkness. So the disciples had tribulation in the world; and their tribulation is ours also. We feel that this is a world of sin. We know the terrible power with which sin rules in the world at large, and in the little world which each man carries within him.
II. "Be of good cheer," says the Lord; "I have overcome the world." He who speaks thus was no idle spectator of our sorrows, but One who Himself fought a battle such as none ever fought before or since. At the very moment when His fiercest conflict was about to begin, He calls to us in these words from the clear joyous heights in which His being had its home. And was not the battle He fought the fiercest ever engaged in? He bore Himself in the contest as no warrior ever did before. There was not one moment of defeat during all that conflict. He was victor from first to last. The fiercer the battle, the more glorious was His victory. And the glorified Victor calls now to us: "Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." For him who follows, the world is overcome already. This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
R. Rothe, Predigten, p. 70.
The Duty of the Church to the World
I. The world is nothing less than this—any one of God’s works enjoyed or possessed without God, be it what it may—the world contemplated without that counterpoise in the other world that exists, and was meant to exist, to prevent us from being slaves of this. Without this love of God which lifts a man above this present world, he must, whether pagan or Christian, become necessarily the slave of the world, the subject of its rule, the very servant of its whims and its caprices. He becomes a very man of the world in the very lowest and poorest sense of the word—not daring to be his own master, but the very servant, not even of the world in its largest and best sense, but of that little fragment of the world and of society to which he appears to belong.
II. We live, every one of us, or we are in danger of living, in the most abject slavery to the world to which we belong. And what will set us free? The truth, and the truth alone, makes man free—the truth that teaches each one of us that we are redeemed and immortal spirits, telling us that we belong not to ourselves nor yet to our party, nor yet to our world, but to the God in heaven Who made us and will judge us, and has redeemed us. This alone gives a man the courage that comes forth from the very depths of self-sacrifice and humiliation before his Lord and Master, to rise up, and in His name, in the name of His law and in the power of His might, to defy the smaller laws—to break through the stringent customs, to brave the hostile opinions of the world in which he lives. And the man who cannot do this is not yet made free with the glorious liberty of a son of God. He is overcome by the world; he has not yet learned to overcome the world.
III. It is not, and never was, the duty of the Church to conform herself to the spirit of the age. It is the duty of the Church to instruct the age, to love the age, and if need be to rebuke the age, but never yet in its whole history has it been her duty to conform to the spirit of the age. And yet, on the other hand, how deeply and intensely it is the duty of the Church to understand and sympathise with her age—to be in very deed a dweller amongst men. She is to go forth wherever men are, and, in the name of her Divine Master, who died to redeem humanity, whatever men are doing and thinking, she is to say with an infinitely deeper meaning than it had on the lips of Him who first said it: "We are human, and there is nothing in or of our age that we can count estranged from us." The Church is to be of her day, and yet of all days and of all ages; having truths deeper, and facts greater, and laws and powers mightier to speak of and to reveal, than even the facts and the truths and the laws which science is revealing to us now. In this way only can the Church hope to overcome the world.
Bishop Magee, Penny Pulpit, No. 579.
References: Joh 16:33.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxii., No. 1327; Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 124; Contemporary Pulpit, vol. xi., p. 304; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iii., p. 278; G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines, p. 361; J. Aldis, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xi., p. 129; J. H. Kitchens, Ibid., vol. xiii., p. 203; E. Johnson, Ibid., vol. xxii., p. 137; New Outlines on the New Testament, p. 67; W. M. Taylor, Three Hundred Outlines on the New Testament, p. 97. Joh 17:1.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxv., No. 1464; Contemporary Pulpit, vol. x., p. 363; J. M. Neale, Sermons in a Religious House, vol. ii., p. 588; F. D. Maurice, Gospel of St. John, p. 411; J. Armstrong, Parochial Sermons, p. 230; W. Braden, Christian. World Pulpit, vol. xiii., p. 168; C. Stanford, Evening of Our Lord’s Ministry, pp. 151, 157; C. Kingsley, Good News of God, p. 12; Homilist, vol. vii., p. 382. Joh 17:1, Joh 17:2.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. viii., p. 72; vol. ix., p. 137.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v28 Section 6. (Vers. 28-33.)
Section 6. (Vers. 28-33.)
A note of victory.
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A brief note of triumph closes His speech with the disciples. He repeats finally that, having come from the Father into the world, He now goes back from the world to the Father. It might seem as if He was returning with His great purpose unaccomplished, and with regard to Israel, it was in some sense really so: "I have labored in vain, and spent My strength for nought," is His own complaint through the prophet (Isa 49:4): yet, He adds, "Surely My judgment is with the Lord, and My work with My God." The answer accordingly comes from God to Him: and we know how that Cross which was then the symbol of His rejection has become the symbol of a wider and higher triumph. New purposes were to be disclosed: mysteries hidden in God through all the former ages were to reveal the unsuspected wonder of His work, and fill heaven as well as earth with the display in them of the divine glory. The Lord is full, as we are permitted to see when He turns presently to His Father, with the light beyond the gloom; but the disciples are not ready for the communication of it to them. For a moment, indeed, a gleam seems to have pierced the darkness. As He speaks of going to the Father, they have got already, they say, beyond the allegories into the plain speech they longed for and of which He had spoken. But even in the words in which they say this, they show how far the gloom had shrouded them. "Now we know," they say, that Thou knowest all things: -by this we believe that Thou earnest forth from God." Patiently and sadly He replies to this: "Do ye now believe? Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is come, that ye shall be scattered every one to his own, and shall leave Me alone: and yet," He adds, "I am not alone, but My Father is with Me." Amid all, He knows that the victory is sure: and sure for them: "These things have I spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good courage: I have overcome the world."
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv1, 7, 9, 12, 16, 20, 23, 25, 28, 29, 33 Joh 16:1 - Joh 16:6.
John
WHY CHRIST SPEAKS
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Joh 16:1 - Joh 16:6.
The unbroken flow of thought, and the many subtle links of connection between the parts, of these inexhaustible last words of our Lord make any attempt at grouping them into sections more or less unsatisfactory and artificial. But I have ventured to throw these, perhaps too many, verses together for our consideration now, because a phrase of frequent recurrence in them manifestly affords a key to their main subject. Notice how our Lord four times repeats the expression, ‘These things have I spoken unto you.’ He is not so much adding anything new to His words, as rather contemplating the reasons for His speech now, the reasons for His silence before, and the imperfect apprehension of the things spoken which His disciples had, and which led to their making His announcement, thus imperfectly understood, an occasion for sorrow rather than for joy. There is a kind of landing place or pause here in the ascending staircase. Our Lord meditates for Himself, and invites us to meditate with Him, rather upon His past utterances than upon anything additional to them. So, then, whilst it is true that we have in two of these verses a repetition, in a somewhat more intense and detailed form, of the previous warnings of the hostility of the world, in the main the subject of the present section is that which I have indicated. And I take the fourfold recurrence of that clause to which I have pointed as marking out for us the leading ideas that we are to gather from these words.
I. There is, first, our Lord’s loving reason for His speech.
This is given in a double form. ‘These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended.’ And, again, ‘These things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them.’ These two statements substantially coalesce and point to the same idea.
They are separated, as I have said, by a reiteration, in more emphatic form, of the dark prospect which He has been holding out to His disciples. He tells them that the world which hates them is to be fully identified with the apostate Jewish Church. ‘The synagogue’ is for them ‘the world.’ There is a solemn lesson in that. The organised body that calls itself God’s Church and House may become the most rampant enemy of Christ’s people, and be the truest embodiment on the face of the earth of all that He means by ‘the world.’ A formal church is the true world always; and to-day as then. And such a body will do the cruellest things and believe that it is offering up Christ’s witnesses as sacrifices to God. That is partly an aggravation and partly an alleviation of the sin. It is possible that the inquisitor and the man in the San Benito, whom he ties to the stake, may shake hands yet at His side up yonder. But a church which has become, the world will do its persecution and think that it is worship, and call the burning of God’s people an auto-da-fe {act of faith}; and the bottom of it all is that, in the blaze of light, and calling themselves God’s, ‘they do not know’ either God or Christ. They do not know the one because they will not know the other.
But that is all parenthetical in the present section, and so I say nothing more about it; and ask you, rather, just to look at the loving reasons which Christ here suggests for His present speech-’that ye should not be offended,’ or stumble. He warns them of the storm before it bursts, lest, when it bursts, it should sweep them away from their moorings. Of course, there could be nothing more productive of intellectual bewilderment, and more likely to lead to doubt as to one’s own convictions, than to find oneself at odds with the synagogue about the question of the Messiah. A modest man might naturally say, ‘Perhaps I am wrong and they are right.’ A coward would be sure to say, ‘I will sink my convictions and fall in with the majority.’ The stumbling-block for these first Jewish converts, in the attitude of the whole mass of the nation towards Christ and His pretensions, is one of such a magnitude as we cannot, by any exercise of our imagination, realise. ‘And,’ says Christ, ‘the only way by which you will ever get over the temptation to intellectual doubt or to cowardly apostasy that arises from your being thrown out of sympathy with the whole mass of your people, and the traditions of the generations, is to reflect that I told you it would be so, before it came to pass.’
Of course all that has a special bearing upon those to whom it was originally addressed, and then it has a secondary bearing upon Christians, whose lot it is to live in a time of actual persecution. But that does not in the slightest degree destroy the fact that it also has a bearing upon every one of us. For if you and I are Christian people, and trying to live like our Master, and to do as He would have us to do, we too shall often have to stand in such a very small minority, and be surrounded by people who take such an entirely opposite view of duty and of truth, as that we shall be only too much disposed to give up and falter in the clearness, fullness, and braveness of our utterance, and think, ‘Well, perhaps after all it is better for me to hold my tongue.’
And then, besides this, there are all the cares and griefs which befall each of us, with regard to which also, as well as with regard to the difficulties and dangers and oppositions which we may meet with in a faithful Christian life, the principles of my text have a distinct and direct application. He has told us in order that we might not stumble, because when the hour comes and the sorrow comes with it, we remember that He told us all about it before.
It is one of the characteristics of Christianity that Jesus Christ does not try to enlist recruits by highly-coloured, rosy pictures of the blessing and joy of serving Him, keeping His hand all the while upon the weary marches and the wounds and pains. He tells us plainly at the beginning, ‘If you take My yoke upon you, you will have to carry a heavy burden. You will have to abstain from a great many things that you would like to do. You will have to do a great many things that your flesh will not like. The road is rough, and a high wall on each side. There are lovely flowers and green pastures on the other side of the hedge, where it is a great deal easier walking upon the short grass than it is upon the stony path. The roadway is narrow, and the gateway is very strait, but the track goes steadily up. Will you accept the terms and come in and walk upon it?’
It is far better and nobler, and more attractive also, to tell us frankly and fully the difficulties and dangers than to try and coax us by dwelling on pleasures and ease. Jesus Christ will have no service on false pretences, but will let us understand at the beginning that if we serve under His flag we have to make up our minds to hardships which otherwise we may escape, to antagonisms which otherwise will not be provoked, and to more than an ordinary share of sorrow and suffering and pain. ‘Through much tribulation we must enter the Kingdom.’
And the way by which all these troubles and cares, whether they be those incident and peculiar to Christian life, or those common to humanity, can best be met and overcome, is precisely by this thought, ‘The Master has told us before.’ Sorrows anticipated are more easily met. It is when the vessel is caught with all its sails set that it is almost sure to go down, and, at all events, sure to be badly damaged in the typhoon. But when the barometer has been watched, and its fall has given warning, and everything movable has been made fast, and every spare yard has been sent below, and all tightened up and ship-shape-then she can ride out the storm. Forewarned is forearmed. Savages think, when an eclipse comes, that a wolf has swallowed the sun, and it will never come out again. We know that it has all been calculated beforehand, and since we know that it is coming to-morrow, when it does come, it is only a passing darkness. Sorrow anticipated is sorrow half overcome; and when it falls on us, the bewilderment, as if ‘some strange thing had happened,’ will be escaped when we can remember that the Master has told us it all beforehand.
And again, sorrow foretold gives us confidence in our Guide. We have the chart, and as we look upon it we see marked ‘waterless country,’ ‘pathless rocks,’ ‘desert and sand,’ ‘wells and palm-trees.’ Well, when we come to the first of these, and find ourselves, as the map says, in the waterless country; and when, as we go on step by step, and mile after mile, we find it is all down there, we say to ourselves, ‘The remainder will be accurate, too,’ and if we are in ‘Marah’ to-day, where ‘the water is bitter,’ and nothing but the wood of the tree that grows there can ever sweeten it, we shall be at ‘Elim’ to-morrow, where there are ‘the twelve wells and the seventy palm trees.’ The chart is right, and the chart says that the end of it all is ‘the land that flows with milk and honey.’ He has told us this; if there had been anything worse than this, He would have told us that. ‘If it were not so I would have told you.’ The sorrow foretold deepens our confidence in our Guide.
Sorrow that comes punctually in accordance with His word plainly comes in obedience to His will. Our Lord uses a little word in this context which is very significant. He says, ‘When their hour is come.’
‘Their hour’-the time allotted to them. Allotted by whom? Allotted by Him. He could tell that they would come, because it was as His instruments that they came. ‘Their time’ was His appointment. It was only an ‘hour,’ a definite, appointed, and brief period in accordance with His loving purpose. It takes all sorts of weathers to make a year; and after all the sorts of weathers are run out, the year’s results are realised and the calm comes. And so the good old hymn, with its rhythm that speaks at once of fear and triumph, has caught the true meaning of these words of our Lord’s-
‘Why should I complain
Of want or distress,
Temptation or pain?
He told me no less.’
‘These things have I spoken unto you that ye might not be offended.’
II. Still further, note our Lord’s loving reasons for past silence. ‘These things I said not unto you from the beginning, because I was with you.’
Of course there had been in His early ministry hints, and very plain references, to persecutions and trials, but we must not restrict the ‘these things’ of my text to that only, but rather include the whole of the previous chapter, in which He sets the sorrow and the hostility which His servants have to endure in their true light, as being the consequences of their union with Him and of the closeness and the identity of life and fate between the Vine and the branches. In so systematic and detailed fashion, and with such an exhibition of the grounds of its necessity, our Lord had not spoken of the world’s hostility in His earlier ministry, but had reserved it to these last moments, and the reason why He had given but passing hints before was because He was there. What a superb confidence that expresses in His ability to shield His poor followers from all that might hurt and harm them! He spreads the ample robe of His protection over them, or rather, to go back to His own metaphor, ‘as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings’ so He gathers them to His own breast, and stretches over them that which is at once protection and warmth, and keeps them safe. As long as He is there, no harm can come to them. But He is going away, and so it is time to speak, and to speak more plainly.
That, too, yields for us, dear brethren, truths that apply to us quite as much as to that little group of silent listeners. For us, too, difficulties and sorrows, though foretold in general terms, are largely hidden till they are near. It would have been of little use for Christ to have spoken more plainly in those early days of His ministry. The disciples managed to forget and to misunderstand His plain utterances, for instance, about His own death and resurrection. There needs to be an adaptation between the hearing ear and the spoken word, in order that the word spoken should be of use, and there are great tracts of Scripture dealing with the sorrows of life, which lie perfectly dark and dead to us, until experience vitalises them. The old Greeks used to send messages from one army to another by means of a roll of parchment twisted spirally round a baton, and then written on. It was perfectly unintelligible when it fell into a man’s hands that had not a corresponding baton to twist it upon. Many of Christ’s messages to us are like that. You can only understand the utterances when life gives you the frame round which to wrap them, and then they flash up into meaning, and we say at once, ‘He told us it all before, and I scarcely knew that He had told me, until this moment when I need it.’
Oh, it is merciful that there should be a gradual unveiling of what is to come to us, that the road should wind, and that we should see so short a way before us. Did you never say to yourselves, ‘If I had known all this before, I do not think I could have lived to face it’? And did you not feel how good and kind and loving it was, that in the revelation there had been concealment, and that while Jesus Christ had told us in general terms that we must expect sorrows and trials, this specific form of sorrow and trial had not been foreseen by us until we came close to it? Thank God for the loving reticence, and for the as loving eloquence of His speech and of His silence, with regard to sorrow.
And take this further lesson, that there ought to be in all our lives times of close and blessed communion with that Master, when the sense of His presence with us makes all thought of sorrows and trials in the future out of place and needlessly disturbing. If these disciples had drunk in the spirit of Jesus Christ when they were with Him, then they would not have been so bewildered when He left them. When He was near them there was something better for them to do than to be ‘over exquisite to cast the fashion of uncertain evils’ in the future-namely, to grow into His life, to drink in the sweetness of His presence, to be moulded into the likeness of His character, to understand Him better, and to realise His nearness more fully. And, dear brethren, for us all there are times-and it is our own fault if these are not very frequent and blessed-when thus, in such an hour of sweet communion with the present Christ, the future will be all radiant and calm, if we look into it, or, better, the present will be so blessed that there will be no need to think of the future. These men in the upper chamber, if they had learnt all the lessons that He was teaching them then, would not have gone out, to sleep in Gethsemane, and to tell lies in the high priest’s hall, and to fly like frightened sheep from the Cross, and to despair at the tomb. And you and I, if we sit at His table, and keep our hearts near Him, eating and drinking of that heavenly manna, shall ‘go in the strength of that meat forty days into the wilderness,’ and say-
‘E’en let the unknown to-morrow
Bring with it what it may.’
III. Lastly, I must touch, for the sake of completeness, upon the final thought in these pregnant verses, and that is, the imperfect apprehension of our Lord’s words, which leads to sorrow instead of joy.
‘Now I go My way to Him that sent Me; and none of you asketh Me, Whither goest Thou? But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart.’ He had been telling them-and it was the one definite idea that they gathered from His words-that He was going. And what did they say? They said, ‘Going! What is to become of us?’ If there had been a little less selfishness and a little more love, and if they had put their question, ‘Going! What is to become of Him?’ then it would not have been sorrow that would have filled their hearts, but a joy that would have flooded out all the sorrow, ‘and the winter of their discontent’ would have been changed into ‘glorious summer,’ because He was going to Him that sent Him; that is to say, He was going with His work done and His message accomplished. And therefore, if they could only have overlooked their own selves, and the bearing of His departure, as it seemed to them, on themselves, and have thought of it a little as it affected Him, they would have found that all the oppressive and the dark in it would have disappeared, and they would have been glad.
Ah, dear brethren, that gives us a thought on which I can but touch now, that the steadfast contemplation of the ascended Christ, who has gone to the Father, having finished His work, is the sovereign antidote against all sense of separation and solitude, the sovereign power by which we may face a hostile world, the sovereign cure for every sorrow. If we could live in the light of the great triumphant, ascended Lord, then, Oh, how small would the babble of the world be. If the great White Throne, and He that sits upon it, were more distinctly before us, then we could face anything, and sorrow would ‘become a solemn scorn of ills,’ and all the transitory would be reduced to its proper insignificance, and we should be emancipated from fear and every temptation to unfaithfulness and apostasy. Look up to the Master who has gone, and as the dying martyr outside the city wall ‘saw the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing’-having sprung to His feet to help His poor servant-’at the right hand of God,’ so with that vision in our eyes and the light of that Face flashing upon our faces, and making them like the angels’, we shall be masters of grief and care, and pain and trial, and enmity and disappointment, and sorrow and sin, and feel that the absent Christ is the present Christ, and that the present Christ is the conquering power in us.
Dear brethren, there is nothing else that will make us victors over the world and ourselves. If we can grasp Him by our faith and keep ourselves near Him, then union with Him as of the Vine and the branches, which will result inevitably in suffering here, will result as inevitably in joy hereafter. For He will never relax the adamantine grasp of His strong hand until He raises us to Himself, and ‘if so be that we suffer with Him we shall also be glorified together.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The Resurrection and Ascension of Christ Will Prove the…
The Resurrection and Ascension of Christ Will Prove the Disciples' Comfort in Time of Persecution
1-6. The Persecution of the Apostles predicted. This section repeats many of the ideas of the previous chapter (see Joh_15:18-24). The reason of the anticipated persecution is 'because they (the persecutors) have not known the Father nor Me' (Joh_16:3); i.e. because they have mistaken the character of the service which the Father requires of them. They think that He requires strict observance of the Ceremonial Law; what He really requires is worship in spirit and in truth, according to My teaching.
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1. Offended] i.e. that your faith should not be shaken (RV 'made to stumble').
2. Out of the synagogues] i.e. excommunicate you: see Joh_9:22, Joh_9:34; Joh_12:42 and cp. Mat_10:17. Doeth God service] more precisely, 'offereth sacrifice to God.' There was a Jewish saying, 'Every one that sheddeth the blood of the wicked, is as he that offereth a sacrifice.'
4. The time] RV 'their hour,' i.e. the hour of your enemies' apparent triumph. Ye may remember] The Apostles' persecutions would be easier to bear, if it was clearly understood that they were foreordained by God and foretold by Christ: cp. Joh_13:19; Joh_14:29. I said not unto you at (RV 'from') the beginning] Some intimations of the coming persecutions had been given in the earlier charge to the Twelve (Mat_10:16),.but only now does our Lord bring the matter prominently forward. Because I was with you] While Christ was with the Apostles, they were in no danger of persecution, and therefore there was no need to speak to them about it. But since persecution was to begin after His death, and His death was now impending, it was necessary for Him to begin to speak to them about it.
5. None of you asketh me] The Apostles were so much disturbed by the thought of Christ's imminent death, and their own approaching persecutions, that they had no heart to enquire about the glorious abode to which Christ was going, and to which they also would one day go.
7-15. The work of the Comforter in the world and in the Church.
7. It was better for them that Christ's personal presence should be withdrawn, in order that His spiritual presence might be nearer to them than ever, or, rather, might for the first time truly begin. This would be effected by the coming of the Holy Ghost, when He. who was now 'with' them, would be ever 'in' them. If I go not away] The glorification of Christ's humanity through the indwelling Spirit was not complete till the Resurrection and Ascension, hence not till after the Ascension could the Spirit of the glorified Christ be given. Comforter] see on Joh_14:18.
8. Reprove] RV 'convict.' The Gk. word, which also occurs Joh_3:20; Joh_8:9; (AV) Joh_8:46, means to prove a person in the wrong, hence to convict. The Holy Ghost will 'convince' or 'convict' the world, by placing before it the claims of Christ with a force and clearness that cannot be evaded. The result will be twofold. Some will be 'convicted by their own consciences' (Joh_8:9), or 'pricked to the heart' (Act_2:37), and so repent and believe (Act_2:38). Others will be hardened in their sin and unbelief (Rom_11:8), and be 'convicted' of wilful blindness in the sight of God and good men.
9-11. The Holy Ghost, through the apostolic preaching, and through the new power of holiness manifested in the lives of believers, will convince mankind, (1) of their sin and folly in rejecting Christ; (2) that Christ is a sincere and righteous teacher, and not, as they had thought, an impostor, as will be clearly demonstrated when the Father has raised Him from the dead and set Him at His right hand in heaven; (3) that the unspiritual system of religion which they have hitherto professed, and which has led them to reject Christ, is of the devil and not of God, that God Himself has condemned it, and that therefore they must condemn it too.
This passage is an extremely difficult one, and various other interpretations of it are given.
11. Judgment] i.e. condemnation. The prince] i.e. Satan: see Joh_12:31; Joh_14:30. The Resurrection is the proof that Satan and the world (i.e. the opponents of Jesus) are condemned by God.
12, 13. This promise of divine guidance to the Apostles as teachers, justifies us in accepting their writings as specially inspired. The promise, however, is not exclusively to them, for in all time (and not least in our own) the Holy Spirit is guiding the Church into all truth.
13. Into all truth] RV 'all the truth,' i.e. all that is necessary to the salvation of souls and to the well-being of the Church. It should be noticed that the Church's apprehension of truth is regarded as progressive.
Things to come] Here the prediction of events is regarded as one of the functions of true prophecy.
14, 15. One of the leading Trinitarian passages in the NT. In it (1) the three Persons are clearly distinguished; (2) their relative subordination is clearly taught, the Father giving His all to the Son, and the Son communicating His all to the Spirit; (3) their equality of nature is distinctly affirmed, for the Son receives from the Father 'all things whatsoever the Father hath' (see RV), i.e. His whole nature and attributes, and communicates them to the Spirit.
14. The Spirit would glorify Christ, by progressively revealing the full sense of what Christ had taught them.
16-24. The Apostles' Sorrow turned into Joy.
16. Ye shall see me] (1) with bodily sight during the forty days; (2) with spiritual vision after Pentecost (see on Joh_14:18-19).
20. But the world shall rejoice] 'My enemies will rejoice at My death, and the apparent failure of My designs.'
22. I will see you again] The reference is both to the Resurrection and to the coming of the Spirit.
23. In that day] i.e. the time beginning at Pentecost. Ye shall ask me nothing] RM is preferable, 'Ye shall ask me no question,' i.e. about the true meaning of My words, for all will then be clear to you. He will give it you] RV adds 'in my name,' i.e. for My sake.
24. Hitherto.. name] because prayer in the name of Christ presupposes His glorification.
25-33. Last Words. Temporary defeat in the present will be followed by final victory.
25. In proverbs] RM 'in parables.' Very many of our Lord's discourses were dark and enigmatical to the Apostles, until the coming of the Holy Spirit furnished the key to their meaning. Mere words can only hint at, not fully express, the things of God. It requires the inward teaching of the Holy Spirit to bring home to the soul God's message of salvation. The time] i.e. the dispensation of the Spirit beginning at Pentecost.
26. I say not.. that I will pray the Father for you] 'After Pentecost you will have direct access to the Father. You will ask directly for what you need in My name, and no longer will it be needful for you, as it is at present, first to come to Me, and to ask Me to bring your needs before the Father.' This text does not deny Christ's heavenly intercession (Rom_8:34; Heb_7:25; 1Jn_2:1), but only such a view of it as would make it a barrier between the Father and the prayers of His children.
30. Needest not that any man should ask thee] Thou didst answer our questions before we asked them, for Thou didst know what questions were in our minds.
30, 31. Jesus shows that He can read the thoughts of their hearts in a deeper sense than they imagined. He knows precisely what their faith is worth, and prophesies their immediate desertion of Him. In Mat_26:31 = Mar_14:27 this prophecy is said to have been delivered at the Mount of Olives, or at least on the way thither. This favours the view that the discourses Joh_16:15-17 were delivered on the way to the Mount of Olives.
32. To his own] i.e. to his own house; see Joh_1:11; Joh_16:32; Joh_19:27; Luk_18:28; Act_21:6. Yet I am not alone] Only for a few awful moments upon the cross (Mat_27:46) was our Lord's conscious communion with His Father interrupted.
33. I have overcome the world] See the sublime vision in the Revelation, where Christ goes forth 'conquering and to conquer' (Rev_6:2). The victory of Christ over the world, and the victory of believers through that victory, are favourite themes of the fourth evangelist (see 1Jn_2:13-14; 1Jn_4:4; 1Jn_5:4; Rev_2:7, Rev_2:11, Rev_2:17, Rev_2:26; Rev_3:5, Rev_3:12, Rev_3:21; Rev_12:11; Rev_15:2; Rev_17:14; Rev_21:7).
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On v1 J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [CXXI. Farewell Discourse].
J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [CXXI. Farewell Discourse].
CXXI. FAREWELL DISCOURSE TO DISCIPLES. (Jerusalem. Evening before the crucifixion.) dJOHN XIV.-XVI.
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d1 Let not your heart be troubled: believe in God, believe also in me. [That one should betray him and one should deny him, that all should be offended, and that the Lord should depart, raised anxieties which Jesus here seeks to quiet. That they should go out as homeless wanderers without the presence of their Lord and be subjected to persecution, was also in their thoughts. But Jesus sustains their spirits by appealing to them to trust in the unseen Father, and his yet present self. As to the two verbs "believe," both may be either indicatives or imperatives.] 2 In my Father's house are many mansions [Many abiding places or homes. They were not to be homeless always]; if it were not so, I would have told you [That is to say, if heaven had been of such limited capacity that there was little or no hope that you could follow me, I should have dealt plainly with you, and should have disabused your mind of all vain hopes. But there is room ( Luk_14:22), and you may follow-- Joh_13:36]; for I go to prepare a place for you. [We are familiar with the thought that the going, or death, of Jesus prepared a way for [660] us by providing a fountain for the cleansing of our sin, and by rending the veil of the temple, "thus signifying that the way into heaven is now open." But the thought here is different. Jesus departed to prepare places for his own in the Father's house.] 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again, and will receive you unto myself; that where I am, i there ye may be also. [The cause for the departure becomes the assurance of the return.] 4 And whither I go, ye know the way. [My manner of life leads to the Father's house, and as ye know that manner of life, ye know the way.] 5 Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; how know we the way? [Thomas looked for a way wherein one might walk with his feet.] 6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by me. [God is not approached by physical motion. Being spirit, we must draw near to him by spiritual simplicity, and this is revealed to us fully in the person of Christ, and an energizing power is imparted by Christ to enable us to attain unto it.] 7 If ye had known me, ye would have known my Father also [the unity of nature and of character is so perfect that to know the Son is to know the Father also]: from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. [This saying is the outgrowth of what is said in the Joh_14:6. Since we can only come to the Father's likeness by the imitation of Jesus, then the truth here uttered follows; viz.: that to see Jesus is to see the Father.] 8 Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. 9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and dost thou not know me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; how sayest thou, Show us the Father? [As Thomas asked for a physical instead of a spiritual approach to God, so Philip asked for a physical instead of a spiritual revelation of him. The answer of Jesus tenderly rebukes Philip. The excellency of God is not physical, but spiritual. Righteousness, truth, love, holiness, etc. are all spiritual. A physical revelation of God, if such a [661] thing had been practicable or even possible, would have been of little or no benefit to the apostles. All the physical demonstrations at Mt. Sinai did not prevent the manufacture and worship of the golden calf.] 10 Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I say unto you I speak not from myself: but the Father abiding in me doeth his works. [The question of Jesus is a mild rebuke because Philip had been so slow to learn and to believe what the Lord had taught; viz.: his unity with the Father ( Joh_16:24). God would glorify himself through Christ by answering prayer thus made.] 15 If ye love me, ye will keep my commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may be with you for ever, 17 i even the Spirit of truth: whom the world cannot receive; for it beholdeth him not, neither knoweth him: ye know him; for he abideth with you, and shall be in you. [The third token of Christ's union with the Father would be the sending of the Holy Spirit ( Act_2:33). Since, however, the worldly-minded could neither receive nor behold the Spirit, the promise to send him to the disciples is prefaced by an appeal to them to keep his commandments, and thus avoid a worldly spirit such as would be compatible with the reception of the Holy Spirit. The word "Comforter" does not fully translate the Greek word Paraklete; no English word does. The word "Advocate" may be used, and "Helper" is as good if not better than "Comforter." He is called the Spirit of truth because of his many relationships to the truth ( Joh_17:19, 1Co_2:4, 1Th_1:5, Act_2:4, Act_5:32, Heb_2:4). That the gift of the Holy Spirit is conditioned upon belief and obedience is also taught elsewhere ( Joh_7:38, Act_2:38, Act_5:32). We should observe that by the use of the word "another" Jesus shows that he himself had been and would be a Paraklete. But earthly fellowship with him was about to be cut short, and therefore the Holy Spirit would come, with whom fellowship would never be interrupted. We should note, too, the distinction between the present "abideth with you," and the future "shall be in you." The Spirit, being present in the person of Christ, had been abiding with the apostles who followed him. Hereafter the intimacy of the relation would be increased, and the Spirit should abide within them.] 18 I will not leave you desolate [Literally, orphans. The expression breathes the spirit of a father, as at Joh_13:33]: [663] I come unto you. 19 Yet a little while, and the world beholdeth me no more [the next day the world crucified him and sealed him in the tomb, and since then has seen him no more]; but ye behold me [the present tense here indicates a continued vision; it can not therefore refer to the appearances of Christ after the resurrection, for the terminated at the end of forty days]: because I live, ye shall live also. 20 In that day [we may take this either as the day of Pentecost, or the period which began on that day] ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. 21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself unto him. [The fourth and all-convincing token of Jesus' union with the Father would be his return in the spirit which is here described. It was not his temporary return after the resurrection, as is shown Joh_14:25 stands in contrast with the word "teach" of the Joh_14:26. Jesus had uttered the truth, but because of the divine plan of salvation through the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord was yet incomplete, all the words which he had spoken were but dimly understood, since they were related to and founded upon this incompleted plan. When the plan was completed the Holy Spirit would reveal or teach the meaning of the words by bringing them to remembrance after full comprehension of the plan to which they related.] 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful. [This legacy of peace is by no means to be confined to the period of doubt and fear which accompanied the crucifixion; in fact, it seems to overstep that period, and to begin after it, and continue throughout all the trouble ministry of the apostles. The breadth of the legacy also to be noted: 1. The quality of it; it was not the absolute unshaken peace of God, but the peace which Jesus himself possessed while upon the earth--peace with all things save the devil and his powers. 2. The nature of it; it was not peace from without, but from within. It was not such as promised to pacify and quell the persecutors, but a promise of [665] inner calm amidst the storm. 3. The manner of it; it was no stinted, measured store such as the world bestows, but a full, free gift from the overflowing bounty of God.] 28 Ye heard how I said to you, I go away, and I come unto you. If ye loved me, ye would have rejoiced, because I go unto the Father: for the Father is greater than I. [The departure of Jesus was not wholly a humiliation, as it might appear to them; but a real exaltation at which they might well rejoice, and that the more readily and freely since it would not mean to them the total separation which they anticipated, because he would return in the spirit. The word "greater" as here used does not refer to any difference in the nature or essence of the Son as related to the Father. It may well be true that there has been a certain subordination of the will of the Son to the will of the Father from all eternity, but even that, if it exists, is not referred to here. Jesus has in mind the utter humiliation to which his mediatorial office had brought him, and to even lower depths to which it was about to bring him. From all this his departure to the Father would in a large measure free him, restoring him in some degree to that state of equilibrium in glory, power and authority from which he had descended-- Phi_2:6.] 29 And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe. [Jesus had told them fully of his return to the Father, that when they received the subsequent manifestation of it they might firmly believe it.] 30 I will no more speak much with you, for the prince of the world cometh: and he hath nothing in me; 31 but that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. [In a few hours the earthly teaching of Jesus would be interrupted by the coming of Satan and would never be resumed save in occasional fragments. Satan would come in the persons of his servants and emissaries, but he would find nothing in Christ which would give him either right or reason to exercise power over him. The sorrows and sufferings of Christ would be entered upon of his own free will because by [666] enduring them for our sakes he would please the Father and carry out his commandments, and thus manifest to the world the love which he bore the Father.] Arise, let us go hence. [Some think that Jesus then left the room, and that the next three chapters of John's Gospel contain matters spoken on the way to Gethsemane. But it is likely that the words of these chapters were spoken in the upper room after they had risen from the table and prepared to depart, and that Joh_18:1 marks the leaving of the upper room as well as the crossing of the Kidron.]
XV. 1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. 2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh it away: and every i branch that beareth fruit, he cleanseth it [by pruning], that it may bear more fruit. [The use of the word "true" shows that Jesus refers to a typical vine. The Jewish people had been such a vine ( Isa_5:1, Psa_80:8-16, Jer_2:21). Yet it was but "a figure of the true" ( Heb_9:24). God had now in Christ planted the true vine, and would dissever and cast off all that did not derive life from him, and would prune all that did. This vital connection with Christ is set forth by Paul under the figure of a body and its head ( Eph_5:23, Col_2:19). The fact that Jesus had just given them the fruit of the vine to drink as the symbol of his blood made the transition to this figure easy and natural, for the branches derive their juices from the vine.] 3 Already ye are clean because of the word which I have spoken unto you. [It is God in Christ who cleanseth the soul, but this cleansing is effected through hearing, believing and obeying the Word. The Word tells us what to do that we may be cleansed and saved-- Eph_5:26, Jam_1:18.] 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; so neither can ye, except ye abide in me. 5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for apart from me ye can do nothing. 6 If a man abide [667] not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. [The whole parable is intended to teach us Christ's relationships. 1. Toward the Father--Husbandman and Vine. 2. Toward man--Vine and branches. 3. Toward good works--Vine, branches, and fruit. 4. The negative condition, or lack of relationship--the Vine, the dissevered branches, the fire.] 7 If ye had known me, ye would have known my Father also: from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. [Though this verse stands somewhat in contrast to the warning in Joh_15:6, it is rather a statement of causation than a promise of reward. If by communion and the study of the word we abide in Christ, our prayers will be of such a nature that it will fully accord with the divine counsel to answer them, for they will be prayers tending toward fruitfulness.] 8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; and i so shall ye be my disciples. [The spirit of Christ leads to those deeds which cause men to glorify God ( Mat_9:8, Luk_17:15), and whoso does those deeds causes such glorification ( Mat_5:16). Moreover, the spirit of Christ leads to abundant fruitfulness, and he who has it, not only performs charitable deeds, but converts the sinner and begets a spirit of goodness in those about him ( Mat_13:8-26, Phi_4:17); and this fruitfulness becomes an evidence or demonstration of true discipleship.] 9 Even as the Father hath loved me, I also have loved you: abide ye in my love. 10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. [From the outward evidence of union with Christ, shown by the fruit, Jesus now turns to that inward bond of union which is the cause of fruitfulness. That bond is love. Love is, as it were, the sap which passes back and forth between the Vine and branch, and that love is kept active and vital by the most practical of means--obedience to commandments, a means which the Lord himself does not hesitate to describe as efficient between himself and the Father, only claiming for [668] himself the love of the Father because of a like obedience to that which he prescribed. "And our obedience must be impartial," says Jay; "we must do 'whatsoever' he commands us."] 11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy may be in you, and i that your joy may be made full. [He had spoken the words of this discourse that the disciples might have a joy corresponding to his own. By perfect obedience he enjoyed a consciousness of the Father's presence and approval. By a like obedience the disciples might have a like sense of his presence and approval, and hence a like joy.] 12 This is my commandment, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you. 13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. [Jesus gives, as his supreme commandment, this law of love. The disciples are to love one another as intensely as Jesus loved them, and the measure of the intensity of his love is prophetically set forth by an allusion to his death on their behalf. But he died for his enemies as well as for his friends-- Rom_5:6.] 14 Ye are my friends, if ye do the things which I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I heard from my Father, I have made known unto you. [The commandments of Jesus were not to be obeyed in the spirit of bondmen, but in that of friends. Jesus had shown his friendship by receiving his apostles into confidence as to the things which he had heard from his Father.] 16 Ye did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit, and i that your fruit should abide: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. [Jesus shows the stability of the friendship existing between him and the disciples in that origin of it lies in himself and not in them. For he chose them as friends before they chose him, gave them their high places as apostles without their solicitation, prepared them to bring forth lasting fruits, and gave them the privilege of supplementing their [669] personal deficiencies by prayer made effective through his name.] 17 These things I command you [this includes all the precepts from the beginning of the Joh_1-15:16], that ye may love one another. 18 If the world hateth you, ye know that it hath hated me before i it hated you. [While teaching the fullness and richness of love which is to exist within the circle of discipleship, Jesus warns them that in opposition to it the outer circle of unconverted and sensual--that circle known as the world--would manifest a spirit of hatred. Since this world-spirit hated him, the disciples need not be surprised to find that it hated them when manifesting his spirit.] 19 If ye were of the world, the world would love its own: but because ye are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. 20 Remember the word that I said unto you, A servant is not greater than his lord. [ Joh_13:16.] If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also. [The apostles could rest assured that the messengers would receive like treatment with him who sent them. When, therefore, they found the world rejecting their message they could cheer themselves with the expectation that a few at least would receive it, since a few had always received the words of the Master.] 21 But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me. [Christians in the early ages were persecuted for bearing the name of Christ by those who were ignorant of God. But this name, hateful to the world, was sweet to the disciples. For opposition to the name, see Act_5:28, 1Pe_4:14, Rev_3:8. For joy in it see Act_5:41, 2Co_12:10, Gal_6:17.] 22 If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 He that hateth me hateth my Father also. 24 If I had not done among them the works which none other did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. 25 But i this cometh to pass, that the word [670] may be fulfilled that is written in their law [ Psa_35:19, Psa_69:4], They hated me without a cause. [Though the great proof of the hatred of Christ was yet to come, it is spoken of as if it had passed. Jesus does not mean to say that the world would have committed no sin at all if he had kept away from it. The meaning is that it would not have been guilty of the sin of rejecting Jesus. They would have been excusable.] 26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, i even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall bear witness of me: 27 and ye also bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning. [One of the principal offices of the Spirit is to testify of Christ ( Joh_16:13-15). The Spirit testified through the apostles and other messengers ( Act_2:4), so that in a sense the apostles were double witnesses. They themselves could testify as to what they had seen and heard. The Spirit could aid them to testify accurately, and with a full intelligence as to the real meaning of things. The Spirit also gave attention to apostolic testimony by enabling the apostles to work miracles.]
XVI. 1 These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be caused to stumble. [Jesus warned his disciples of coming persecutions in order that those persecutions might not shake their faith.] 2 They shall put you out of the synagogues [see Act_26:9, Gal_1:13, Gal_1:14.] 3 And these things will they do, because they have not known the Father, nor me. 4 But these things have I spoken unto you, that when their hour is come, ye may remember them, how that I told you. And these things I said not unto you from the beginning, because I was with you. [The disciples being but few, and finding the vast majority of the nation against them, and being but unlearned [671] Galilæans, and finding the leaders--the wise, the cultured, the mighty--against them, would be tempted to doubt the correctness of their course, and to ask, "May we not, after all, be mistaken: may not those who know more be better judges in this matter than we who are so ignorant?" To forestall and prevent such questioning, Jesus asserts that the ignorance is with the rulers. Knowledge of himself and of his Father is the great and supreme knowledge, and the apostles having this were wiser than those with all other learning. It would also strengthen their faith to remember that the Lord's divine wisdom had foreseen all this trouble.] And these things I said not unto you from the beginning, because I was with you. [While he was with his disciples they were in no danger, for he himself bore the brunt of persecution. In the beginning, therefore, of his ministry he did not deem it expedient to dishearten his disciples by foretelling trials which were then remote. When he began to announce his approaching death, then he also began to declare that the disciple must be willing to lose his life if he would find it. See Mat_5:10-12 forms a contradiction to our Lord's statement here. While the words in Matthew were spoken early enough to be classified as "from the beginning," their import is to general to permit of their being brought into contrast with this direct and personal prediction of persecution.] 5 But now I go unto him that sent me; and none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou? 6 But because I have spoken these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. 7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I go, I will send him unto you. [The disciples had asked the Lord whither he was going ( Joh_13:36, Joh_14:5), but their question had a very different meaning from that which Jesus here suggests to them. They asked it to ascertain whether his departure would involve a separation or whether it would be a withdrawal from the world in which they could accompany him. The question which he suggests [672] has reference to the place to which he was about to journey, that place being the home and presence of his Father. The question asked was selfish, as if the apostles had asked, "What will your departure mean to us?" The question suggested was generous, intimating that the apostles should have asked, "What will this departure mean to you?" Viewing his departure from a selfish standpoint filled their hearts with sorrow; but viewing it from a generous standpoint would have filled them with sympathetic joy, because of the supreme happiness which it would bring to their Master ( Joh_14:28). But even from a selfish standpoint the apostles would have had reason to rejoice because of the advantage which would accrue to them through the Lord's departure, for that departure would result in the advent of the Holy Spirit. Space does not permit us to discuss why the Spirit could not come until the Lord had departed, but the verses which follow give us one good and sufficient reason, for they show that his work had to do with the conviction of human hearts through the preaching of a completed gospel, and the ascension or return of Christ to heaven, and his enthronement in glory there, are essential parts of that completed gospel.] 8 And he, when he is come, will convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment [It would be the work of the Holy Spirit to take the truths respecting Christ, and, using the apostles as mouthpieces ( Act_2:1-37), to convince the world as to these truths. This convincing work was entirely in relation to Christ, the sin of disbelieving him, the righteousness revealed in him, and the power of judgment conferred upon him]: 9 of sin, because they believe not on me; 10 of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and ye behold me no more; 11 of judgment, because the prince of this world hath been judged. [Sin, righteousness, and a day of judgment with its reward upon one and its punishment upon the other, are three cardinal doctrines of the gospel. The Spirit convinces the world that disbelief in Christ is its fatal sin, for belief in Christ leads to forgiveness, and to the unbelieving there is no forgiveness. The least sin is a sin unto death, and [673] is a sin eternal unless forgiven. The greatest sin, if forgiven, becomes harmless and is as if it had never been. Until the world is convinced of this great truth it feels no need of a gospel. Again, Christianity teaches that righteousness is prerequisite to the attainment of the presence of God. Without righteousness we can never behold him, nor can we ever hope to stand before him. But this required righteousness was found in Jesus, for he returned to the Father, and abides with the Father, being seen by us no more. The Holy Spirit convinces the world that those who are found in Christ, having his righteousness, shall attain unto the presence of the Father ( Phi_3:3-14). Lastly, the Spirit convinces the world that Jesus is commissioned as its judge. Our Lord's resurrection is the assurance of this fact ( Act_17:31). The resurrection is such an assurance because it is an evidence of the judgment and condemnation of Satan, the head and leader in sinful rebellion against God, and he that hath power to judge the head thereby shows he has power to judge the body. Satan held the power of death over humanity, but Jesus judged him and brought him to naught by taking away this power ( Heb_2:14, Heb_2:15). The cross of Christ as the source of life asserted his superiority over all other powers ( Col_2:14, Col_2:15), which implies an ability to judge them.] 12 I have yet many things unto say to you, but ye cannot bear them now. [The doctrines of the gospel were necessarily obscure and largely incomprehensible to the apostles until time had developed the gospel facts. Jesus, therefore, forbore to speak of many things at this time, lest by doing so he should confuse the minds of his followers.] 13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you into all the truth: for he shall not speak from himself; but what things soever he shall hear, i these shall he speak: and he shall declare unto you the things that are to come. 14 He shall glorify me: for he shall take of mine, and shall declare it unto you. [The Holy Spirit was to bring no absolutely new teaching. The Son of God here claims for himself all that the Spirit taught even to the declaration of things to come. [674] The Spirit would bring to mind and republish in the minds of the apostles all the words which Jesus had spoken, and would add those things which, being now in the mind of Jesus, were really part of his teaching, but which he at this present forbore to utter, the apostles not being able to bear them.] 15 All things whatsoever the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he taketh of mine, and shall declare i it unto you. [The Son's unity of interest with the Father made him possessor of all the Father's truth, as well as all the Father's counsel as to the future. As Jesus, therefore, might at this time have uttered all which the Holy Spirit subsequently taught, he rightfully claimed all the teaching of the Spirit as his.] 16 A little while, and ye behold me no more; and again a little while, and ye shall see me. [Having finished his digression about the Holy Spirit, Jesus here returns to his point of departure, the theme of Joh_14:19-23.] 17 i Some of his disciples therefore said one to another, What is this that he saith unto us, A little while, and ye behold me not; and again a little while, and ye shall see me: and, Because I go to the Father? [ Joh_14:28.] 18 They said therefore, What is this that he saith, A little while? We know not what he saith. [Having been unable to entertain the idea of our Lord's burial and resurrection, no wonder the apostles were mystified by these allusions to it.] 19 Jesus perceived [by his divine insight-- Joh_2:24, Joh_2:25, Joh_6:61, Mat_9:4] that they were desirous to ask him, and he said unto them, Do ye inquire among yourselves concerning this, that I said, A little while, and ye behold me not, and again a little while, and ye shall see me? 20 Verily, verily, I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. [The death of Jesus truly brought gladness to his enemies ( Luk_22:5), and sorrow to [675] his friends ( Joh_20:11), but the sorrow was indeed turned to joy-- Mat_28:8.] 21 A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but when she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for the joy that a man is born into the world. [The simile here is very apropos, according with Scriptural ideals-- Col_1:18, Rev_1:5.] 22 And ye therefore now have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no one taketh away from you. [ Luk_24:52, Luk_24:53. The joyful hopes which come to us through the resurrection of Jesus are beyond the reach of the despoiling hand of man.] 23 And in that day ye shall ask me no question. [The coming of the Spirit would make all things clear, and the mysteries about which the apostles now questioned would then be fully explained.] Verily, verily [these two words give emphasis and introduce a new thought], I say unto you, if ye shall ask anything of the Father, he will give it you in my name. 24 Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be made full. [Having spoken of his departure, and of what the Spirit would do during his absence, he now speaks of the work which he would himself do while absent. He entered heaven as our high priest ( Heb_9:24), and part of his priestly office is to make intercession for his people ( Heb_7:24, Heb_7:25). The use of Christ's name for intercessory purposes was new to the apostles, since it was only thus employed after his ascension.] 25 These things have I spoken unto you in dark sayings: the hour cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in dark sayings, but shall tell you plainly of the Father. [This closing discourse was full of dark sayings which the disciples did not understand, but when the gospel facts were completed and when the Spirit came on the day of Pentecost, then Christ through the Spirit made all things plain to them.] 26 In that day ye shall ask in my name [fullness of knowledge would lead them to look readily to Christ as intercessor]: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father [676] for you; 27 for the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came forth from the Father. 28 I came out from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go unto the Father. [Birth and death are alike beyond our control. That Jesus had a divine as well as a human nature is shown by the fact that his entrance into and exit from the world were both governed by his own violation, as was also his resurrection ( Joh_10:17, Joh_10:18). While the apostles did not believe in the voluntary exit of Jesus, it having not yet taken place, they did believe that he had come into the world as a divine being, and for this belief the Father loved them, and this love of the Father was not to be lost sight of in considering the mediatory work of Christ. In short, the Father must be looked upon as one who does not need to be interceded with because of a lack of love. Though, according to the divine plan and order, Jesus is intercessor ( 1Ti_2:5, 1Jo_2:1, 1Jo_2:2), yet the office is not self-assumed for the purpose of counteracting any spirit of severity in the Father, but is, on the contrary, undertaken by direct appointment of the Father, made because of the Father's love ( Joh_3:16). Failing to recognize the Father as the fountain and source of grace, love and mercy has led the Roman Church into gross errors. The Father being suspected of undue rigor, a like suspicion arose also as to the Son because of his nearness to the Father. Therefore the Virgin Mary was called in to intercede with and soften the obduracy of the Son. Since the deification of the Virgin Mary in 1853, she also has been looked upon with growing distrust, and the tendency has been to call upon Joseph to intercede with Mary to intercede with the Son to intercede with the Father. Thus that wonderful love of God which passes all understanding is made less than that of mere mortals who never manifested a measure of philanthropy above what is common. Against such errors Jesus guards us by causing us to understand that, if the love of the Father alone were to be considered, there would be no need for him to intercede at all.] 29 His disciples say, Lo, now speakest thou [677] plainly, and speakest no dark saying. [They now clearly understood that as Jesus came from heaven so would he return to heaven, but they did not understand the process by which this return would be effected.] 30 Now know we that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God. [The miraculous manner in which he had just read their thoughts caused them to boldly declare their faith in his divinity.] 31 Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe? 32 Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and i yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. [He contrasts the faith which his disciples then professed with that utter lack of it which they would manifest in a few hours. All their confidence in his divinity would vanish when they saw him arrested, etc., and they would seek their own safety, leaving him to his fate. Much as he would feel their desertion, he would not be left utterly comfortless, because the Father would be with him. Paul speaks in a similar strain-- 2Ti_4:16-18.] 33 These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye may have peace. In the world ye have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. [Christ's return to the Father and his throne is the Christian's source of peace. As none of the accumulations of evil which came upon Christ prevented him from attaining his goal, so the Christian feels that in the conquering power of Christ, he too shall rise superior to all his troubles, and this feeling brings him peace.] [678]
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J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv8, 11, 12, 13, 20, 21, 28, 33 world kosmos = mankind. (See Scofield "Mat 4:8").
world kosmos = mankind. (See Scofield "Mat 4:8").
sin Sin. (See Scofield "Rom 3:23").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 1. Persecutions Predicted. (Joh 16:1-6.)
CHAPTER 16
1. Persecutions Predicted. (Joh 16:1-6.)
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2. The Comforter and His Demonstration. (Joh 16:7-15.)
3. Sorrow and joy. (Joh 16:16-22.)
4. The Father Himself Loveth You. (Joh 16:23-27.)
5. His Final Word before His Prayer. (Joh 16:28-33.)
Again He announced coming persecutions. The world is the same today as then, and before this age ends these predictions of our Lord will be again fulfilled, during the great tribulation.
The coming of the Comforter is once more announced by Him. He could not come unless the Lord departed. He is to be sent to His own and when He comes He will make a great demonstration to the world. The word “reprove” in Joh 16:8 is incorrect; the Greek word is difficult to express in its full meaning. Some have translated it by “rebuke,” others use the word “convince” or “convict.” The word “demonstrate” seems to be the nearest to the original. “And when He is come He will bring demonstration to the world of sin, and of righteousness and of judgment.” The presence of the Holy Spirit in believers is the proof to the world that the whole world is guilty of the death of Christ; the whole world is under sin and therefore not on probation but under condemnation. The Holy Spirit is also the demonstration to the world of righteousness. This does not mean that He brings righteousness to the world, or makes the world righteous, as so many erroneously believe. Our Lord adds: “Of righteousness, because I go to my Father and ye see me no more.” The Holy One was rejected by the world, cast out as an unrighteous One. But He, Who owned and satisfied God’s righteousness in dying as the substitute of sinners, is now exalted to the right hand of God; there He is the witness of righteousness. The presence of the Holy Spirit on earth demonstrates this fact. God raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory; the world sees Him no more as a Saviour personally on earth; but will see Him again as Judge, when He comes to judge the world in righteousness. Righteousness is fully displayed in the glory, where He is. The hope of righteousness is to be with Him there. (Gal 5:5.) The Holy Spirit also brings demonstration to the world of judgment “because the prince of this world is judged.” Sentence of judgment is pronounced against Satan, but not yet executed. He is the god of this age, but he was judged in His Cross. Judgment must come upon the world and its prince. The Holy Spirit now present upon the earth in the believers demonstrates this fact.
Many things He had to say unto His disciples, which they could not bear. The many things He mentioned were made known in due time by the Holy Spirit come down from heaven. Of this He speaks in the verses which follow. Note the seven things spoken of the Spirit of Truth: 1. He will guide you into all truth. 2. He shall not speak of Himself. 3. Whatsoever He shall hear that shall He speak. 4. He will show you things to come. 5. He shall glorify Me. 6. He shall receive of Mine. 7. He shall show it unto you. This is the work He does now among and in the Saints. In all His work His gracious aim is to glorify Christ. When we glorify Christ, exalt Him, obey Him, follow Him and are devoted to Him, the Holy Spirit fills and uses us.
Then He spoke of the little while; the little while when they would see Him not; the little while, when they would see Him again. His final words before His great prayer are full of comfort and assurance. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, He will give it you.”--”For the Father Himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.” These are words precious to faith. Once more He speaks of His leaving the world to go back to the Father. But before that homegoing takes place they all were to be scattered and leave Him alone. He added: “Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.” Our Lord was never forsaken by His Father; He was forsaken of God, the Holy God, when He stood in the sinner’s place.
The last utterance to His own is the assurance of peace in Him, the tribulation in the world, and the shout of victory: “Be of good cheer: I have overcome the world.” And then His prayer.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 5, 8, 12, 16, 19, 23, 29 Comfort against the World’s Hatred.
Comfort against the World’s Hatred.
The intensity of the world’s hatred:
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v. 1. These things have I spoken unto you that ye should not be offended.
v. 2. They shall put you out of the synagogues; yea, the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.
v. 3. And these things will they do unto you because they have not known the Father nor Me.
v. 4. But these things have I told you that, when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you.
Jesus had both warned His disciples of persecution and hatred, and had given them encouragement to meet all such demonstrations. And all these statements were made with the view of saving the disciples against being offended, that the coming of the predicted tribulations should not scandalize them. They now know that all these things happen in accordance with God’s counsel and will or by His permission. The hatred of the world, of the children of unbelief, may have various forms or degrees. For one thing, they will excommunicate the believers in Christ, they will exclude them from all external communion. The ostracism of the true disciples of Christ, in both church and society, is a favorite method of manifesting enmity toward Christ to this very day. And the time will come, Jesus says, when bigotry and hatred against Christ and His followers will not be satisfied with such measures, but will not even shrink back from murder itself. Every one of them, as a fitting representative of the whole class, will have the idea that he is thereby doing an act of special worship toward God. Everyone will believe that his murderous intent and execution is a work of great merit and well pleasing to God. These words have been and are being fulfilled continually. The believers have ever been accounted a mad and malicious company. But the reason for this hatred, its intensity and its expression, is found, as Jesus has remarked before in the fact that the unbelievers know neither the Father nor the Son. From the beginning Jesus had attempted to bring out the relation between Himself. and His Father very strongly; both His words and His works proclaimed the union between them, and yet the deliberate blindness of the unbelieving Jews continued. "But this is said for our comfort and strength against such excommunicating and murdering, that we pay no attention to it nor be offended. For here we have the testimony and the glory, which they themselves must give us by their own confession, that they do not persecute us on account of such matters in which they could adduce a public proof as doing well and right, as in the things in which the world has a right to condemn and to punish, so far as notorious scoundrels, thieves, murderers, and rebels are concerned, but they persecute us in those matters of which they neither know nor understand anything, namely, that we preach of Christ and the Father, whom they know not, and yet, in their blindness, they oppose such preaching and rage against it. " What Jesus therefore has told His disciples will serve both as a warning and as a consolation, lest the coming of the trials and persecutions occasion surprise and offense. It had not been necessary for Jesus to give them such a full account at the beginning of His ministry for in those days, and since, He had been with them as their Friend and Protector, guarding them against both weakness and persecution.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 5, 8, 12, 15, 17, 19, 22, 25, 26, 29, 32 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
The part of the story from the previous chapter continues. Jesus reclines at the table with his disciples and continues to speak to them.
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you will not fall away
Here the phrase "fall away" implies to stop putting one's trust in Jesus. You can translate this in an active form. AT: "you will not stop trusting in me because of the difficulties you must face" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information and Active or Passive)
the hour is coming when everyone who kills you will think that he is offering a service to God
"it will someday happen that a person will kill you and think he is doing something good for God."
translationWords
synagogue
hour, hours
God
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 7, 8, 11, 13, 16, 20, 21, 23, 25, 26, 33 16:1-2 Jesus had outlined the coming conflicts (15:18-25) so…
16:1-2 Jesus had outlined the coming conflicts (15:18-25) so that the disciples would not abandon their faith (literally be caused to stumble). The greatest obstacle his disciples would face was to stumble and renounce their faith before their opponents (see Matt 23:34; Luke 6:22), especially during the dark days ahead (see John 12:35; 1 Jn 2:9-11).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.