_AN OFFERING OF LOVE_ ‘Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.’ John 12:3 What Mary brought was not a poet’s song, or a conqueror’s crown, or some great... [ Continue Reading ]
_A GOOD WORK_ ‘Then said Jesus, Let her alone: against the day of My burying hath she kept this.’ John 12:7 Note the time: it enhanced the gift. It was the insight of love. The Saviour was but a few hours from Calvary. Death was near. I. ‘SHE DID IT FOR MY BURIAL.’—Mary saw something was troubl... [ Continue Reading ]
_THE TRIUMPHAL ENTRY_ ‘On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees.… And Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat thereon; as it is written.’ John 12:12 I. THE PRINCIPAL FIGURE IN THE PROCESSION was Jes... [ Continue Reading ]
_A GREAT ASPIRATION_ ‘Sir, we would see Jesus.’ John 12:21 I want to ask you why it is that we should desire to see Jesus. I. HE WISHES US TO SEE HIM.—In the first place, because the whole tenor of Scripture makes it plain that He wishes us to do so. Surely He Who said ‘Look unto Me and be save... [ Continue Reading ]
_DEATH THE FULFILMENT OF LIFE_ ‘Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone.’ John 12:24 The universal and inexorable doom of all life is here pronounced by Him Who abolished death. Jesus Christ abolished death in the only way in which a stubborn fact can be abolished—by... [ Continue Reading ]
_A LIFE OF SERVICE_ ‘If any man serve Me, let him follow Me.’ John 12:26 Here is the secret of true Christian service. In what must the Christian worker follow Christ? In His I. OBEDIENCE.—He came to do God’s will. Have we tried to find God’s will concerning us? It is so much more pleasant to d... [ Continue Reading ]
_THE SANCTIFICATION OF SORROW_ ‘Now is My soul troubled: and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify Thy Name.’ John 12:27 Joy and sorrow are the warp and woof of human life. No life is wholly free either from the one or from the... [ Continue Reading ]
_VOICES OF GOD_ ‘The people therefore, that stood by … An angel spake to Him.’ John 12:29 We know the group who thus failed to recognise the voice of God—Jews, Greeks, unbelieving priests, etc. No voice reached them. There are voices of God still speaking to us, and according to our spiritual re... [ Continue Reading ]
_THE ATTRACTIVE POWER OF CHRIST_ ‘I, If I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Myself.’ John 12:32 (R.V.) Nothing had ever happened to suggest to this Galilæan carpenter the strange notion that any individual could thus attract the world, much less that He could Himself do so. We w... [ Continue Reading ]