_Let not your heart be troubled._ This clause is the true heading to the whole consolatory discourse, for it flows on in one channel of love and ends at last with the words, “Be of good cheer.” LET NOT YOUR HEART BE TROUBLED We may well feel glad that God’s people of old were men of like passions... [ Continue Reading ]
_Whither I go ye know_ THE INTERPELLATION OF THOMAS Observe I. THAT A MAN MAY, IN SPIRITUAL THINGS, KNOW MORE THAN HE IS CONSCIOUS OF KNOWING. “Ye know,” “We know not.” It may be said that our Lord is only attributing a certain knowledge with a view to stirring up His disciples to think so that th... [ Continue Reading ]
_Jesus said unto him, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life_ BRIEF EXPOSITIONS The way of a holy conversation; the truth of a heavenly doctrine; the life of a bliss everlasting (_Leo_) _._ The way to beginners, the truth to the progressing (chap. 8:32), the life to the perfect (_Ferus_) . I am... [ Continue Reading ]
_Philip saith unto Him, Lord, show us the Father and it sufficeth us_ MAN’S CRY AND CHRIST’S RESPONSE I. THE SPIRITUAL CRY OF MANKIND. Philip represents all men in their deepest spiritual experiences. What is this but the cry of spiritual orphans for a lost Father. “Oh, that I knew where I might f... [ Continue Reading ]
_Believe Me … for the very works’ sake_ THE MIRACLES I. SHOULD WE BELIEVE THE MIRACLES? 1. Are miracles possible? Hume, Spinosa, and others say, “No: reason pronounces them impossible.” But whose reason? Theirs? Then that contradicts the all but universal reason, which affirms that with God all t... [ Continue Reading ]
_He that believeth on Me the works that I do shall he do also._ THE ACTIVITY OF THE GLORIFIED CHRIST I. ITS REALITY AND CERTAINTY. Verses 13, 14 show that Christ regarded Himself as the worker and His followers only as His agents. II. ITS ORGAN AND INSTRUMENT. Our Saviour’s language 1. Does not... [ Continue Reading ]
_Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name that will I do_ PRAYING IN THE NAME OF CHRIST I. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? 1. To obtain anything in the name of another supposes that your own name is an insufficient warrant. In the negotiation by which you secure it, your own personality is lost altogether. Thus a... [ Continue Reading ]
_I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter_ THE PRAYING CHRIST, THE GIVING FATHER, AND THE ABIDING SPIRIT The “and” shows us that these words are a consequence of some preceding steps. The ladder that has its summit in heaven has for its rungs, first, “believe”; second, “lov... [ Continue Reading ]
_I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you_ NOT LEFT COMFORTLESS The word “comfortless” means “bereft. ” We have adopted the Greek word, and have gradually limited it to the severest kind of bereavement--orphanhood. But the promise, starting from one kind of bereavement, enlarges itsel... [ Continue Reading ]
_At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you_ CHRIST’S LEGACY I. THE LEGACY ITSELF: Knowledge. “Ye shall know.” God delivered the Jews to some extent from ignorance by the law, which was their schoolmaster. But in the gospel we are graduates, and know as a matter o... [ Continue Reading ]
_He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me_ LOVE TO CHRIST I. THE REASONS WHICH JUSTIFY ITS EXERCISE. If we love an object, it is because of something amiable in that object. 1. And is there not real excellency in Jesus Christ--“the brightness of His Father’s glory,”... [ Continue Reading ]
_Judas saith unto Him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that Thou wilt manifest Thyself unto us and not unto the world?_ HOW MAY THE LORD DISCLOSE OR REVEAL HIMSELF TO HIS DISCIPLES, AND NOT TO OTHERS? Disclosure, or revelation, is at least a double process. It consists in the presentation of an objec... [ Continue Reading ]
_These things have I spoken unto you_ THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT I. ITS DISTINCTION FROM THAT OF JESUS CHRIST. Both Christ and the Spirit were sent by the Father, and were sent to teach; but they differed in respect of 1. Character. Christ had been sent in the Father’s name as the Father’s re... [ Continue Reading ]
_Peace I leave with you_ THE LEGACY OF LEGACIES The Earl of Dundonald fought with his solitary ship a line of formidable forts in South America, whose fire proved so raking that his men could not be got to stand to their guns. Calling his wife, he asked her to fire one of the guns, and show these... [ Continue Reading ]
_If ye loved Me, ye would rejoice, because I said I go unto the Father_ THE DEATH OF THE GOOD A REASON FOR JOY Note the view which Christ had of His death. “I go.” 1. Whence? From the world. 2. Whither? To the Father, not to destruction, eternal solitude, nor to fellowship with minor souls. 3.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Henceforth I will not talk much with you_ CHRIST AS A CONVERSATIONALIST I. CHRIST’S GREATEST WORK WAS DONE BY CONVERSATION. 1. In the four Gospels there are but five discourses properly so called--that in the synagogue at Nazareth, that upon the Mount, that on the Bread of Life in the synagogue... [ Continue Reading ]
_But that the world may know that I love the Father_ CHRIST’S DEPARTURE 1_._ It is well that “we do not know when the last time is the last: unconsciously and without premonition we leave our door, we retire to bed, we grasp the hand of our friend for the last time: and by and by it is said, “He... [ Continue Reading ]