John 14

Chapter 14. Christs Parting Words to His Disciples On the Way From the Table to the GardenJohn 15-16This long discourse consists of three parts:

1. The Parable of the Vine and the Branches, and its application (John 15:1-25).
2. A fuller promise of the coming of the Comforter (John 15:26 to John 16:15).
3. A concluding conversation between the disciples and the Lord about various questions (John 16:16-33). The Vine and the Branches (John 15:1-25) The occasion of this discourse may have been their passing through the court of the temple and observing the magnificent carving of the vine in stone, which was one of the most remarkable decorations of the building, or it may have been suggested by the overhanging vines by the roadside as they passed down to the valley of the Kidron or the burning of the withered branches and prunings of the vineyards in the open places as they went out of the city. It was not a new figure, but drawn by Him from the beautiful imagery of the Psalms and the prophets (Psalms 80:8; Isaiah 5:1; Jeremiah 2:21; Ezekiel 15:2). The most valuable, perhaps, of the products of the plant creation, God has chosen it as the most significant figure of Christ and His relation to His people. The devil has tried to prostitute it, perhaps for this very reason, to the most unholy and wicked purposes.
4. Union with Christ as represented by this figure. a. Let us observe that the vine consists not only of the stem, but of the branches; so Christ identifies Himself with all His members, and counts them part of Himself. We are of the very same substance as our living Head, and partake of His own personal life. b. The fruit is borne, not by the stem, but by the branches, and, especially, by the little branches. So the Lord Jesus did not, in His own personal ministry, bring many souls to God, but left the most glorious fruit of the gospel to be gathered by His disciples, and still honors His feeblest members by permitting us to bring forth much fruit. c. The great essential of Christian life is to be united to Jesus. “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Two things constitute this union. The first is expressed by the words, “In me” (John 15:4); this denotes our faith in Christ for salvation and our union with Him in justification. The second, “I… in you” (John 15:4), expresses a closer union, even His personal coming into the heart, in the hour of our full surrender, to abide in us by the Holy Spirit as our Lord and life. This is the secret of sanctification, communion, power and fruitfulness. d. We must abide in this union and communion. It is not enough that it be formed, it must be maintained, moment by moment, in watchful, obedient dependence and fellowship. e. In connection with our abiding in Christ, it is necessary that there should be much faithful divine discipline, and therefore we read of the pruning of the vine and the Father’s thoughtful, patient care as the heavenly Gardener. f. On our part there must be obedience if we would abide in Christ. “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love” (John 15:10). And again, “You are my friends if you do what I command” (John 15:14). And again: “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you” (John 15:12).
5. The fruits of union with Christ. a. They are fruits, not works of the flesh and the will; they spring spontaneously and delightfully from the life within, just as the vine bears fruit without effort and the fruit seems to grow from very gladness. b. The first of these fruits is holiness. “You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you” (John 15:3). All true holiness must spring from the indwelling life of Christ. c. The next fruit is holy usefulness. This is expressed by the figure of much fruit, for fruit is reproduction, some 30, some 60, and some a hundredfold. “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit” (John 15:8). d. The next fruit is answered prayer. “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you” (John 15:7). e. The next fruit is fullness of joy. “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:11). If His life is in us, His joy will fill us, and His joy is fullness of joy. f. The next fruit is the fellowship of His sufferings. If we are one with Him the world will hate us, as it hated Him (John 15:18-21); but we will not shrink from His cross or seek to be greater than our Lord or more exempt from persecution and suffering, for trial will be sweet as it comes with the recollection, we are suffering with Jesus. We shall be also glorified together. The Counselor (John 15:26 to John 16:15) In the previous discourse, He had referred to the coming of the Holy Spirit as their teacher and guide, but here He unfolds His special ministry with more explicitness.
6. The necessity and importance of His coming. His presence is so essential to the next stage of their experience and work, that it is even expedient that their beloved Master go away in order that He may come. Anything that could require the withdrawal of such a friend must be valuable indeed. And yet, the Holy Spirit’s presence with the Church is better than the continued physical presence of the Lord Jesus would have been. For in the first place, it is an internal and not an external presence. Further, He is omnipresent, not limited, as the visible person of Christ, to one place, but equally accessible to all God’s people wherever they may be, and at all times. Moreover, the mission of the Spirit is to act as the Executive of the divine plan of redemption, and the time has now come when this stage of the work must follow the personal ministry and accomplished sacrifice of Jesus Himself.
7. His mission with respect to the Father. He was to proceed from the Father in response to the prayer of Jesus. “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor” (John 14:16). “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me” (John 15:26).
8. His mission with respect to the Son. He was to come in the name of Christ (John 14:26). He was to be the very Spirit that had dwelt in Christ; and, as has been beautifully expressed, He comes to us not in His essential deity, but colored by the humanity of Jesus, in whom He has resided. And He comes to unite us with the person of Jesus. “On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you” (John 14:20). He comes to testify of Jesus, to make His presence real and vivid to our consciousness, and to illuminate our spirit with the revelation of Jesus Christ in all His fullness. “He will testify about me…. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you” (John 15:26; John 16:14). The Holy Spirit is to Christ what the atmosphere of our globe is to the sun; we do not see the atmosphere, but the light of the sun; yet the light would be invisible but for the atmospheric medium through which it is diffused. The viewless air brings to us the vision of the sun, and so the Holy Spirit, hiding His own personality behind the person of Jesus, brings Him into our consciousness and life, to glorify Him. The telescope may be beautiful and costly in its construction, but it would be a mistake for a visitor to the great observatory of yonder Sierra Nevada mountains to concentrate his whole attention on the superb telescope, which the munificence of a wealthy patron of science has erected. Much wiser and grander would it be to use the telescope to gaze upon yonder celestial spheres, and see, not the medium of vision, but the heavenly worlds themselves. Let us honor the Holy Spirit just because He does not seek to honor Himself; but we shall ever please Him best and have His most gracious approbation when we unite our gaze with Him upon the face of Jesus.
9. His mission with respect to the disciples. Already in the preceding discourse, has He been revealed as their indwelling Teacher and Monitor. Here He is represented still more fully in this respect, as the patient and gentle Guide, who will supplement the present instructions of the Master by such fuller unfoldings of the truth as they may be able to bear from time to time, and, especially, the truths respecting the future and the second coming of the Lord—the whole prophetic horizon, which was to be opened to their view a little later. “He will guide you into all truth…. he will tell you what is yet to come” (John 16:13). He was also to be to them the Spirit of testimony. “He will testify about me. And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning” (John 15:26-27).
10. His mission with respect to sin, righteousness and judgment. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. (John 16:8-11) His first work upon the hearts of sinners is to convict them of sin, the deepest need of the unconverted heart; and the special sin for which He arraigns the human conscience, is that which is to be the ground of final condemnation, the rejection of Jesus Christ. Next, His work is to reveal to the soul the righteousness of Christ as the ground of its justification and the source of its sanctification, and enable it to accept the righteousness of God as witnessed by the resurrection of Jesus Christ in both of these aspects. The exact meaning of the third specification of His work has been variously interpreted. Some apply it symbolically and literally, to the future judgment. It seems a little difficult, however, to connect, intelligibly, with this, the next sentence, with regard to the Prince of this world being judged. It would seem relevant and clear to apply this to the revelation of Christ’s second coming—the next great theme of the gospel—and its glorious result, in the judging and casting out of Satan and the power of his kingdom. It would seem to unfold, also, the idea of the world and the devil as now already judged by the Lord, and therefore, to be treated by the disciple of Christ as a conquered foe. This is the closing echo of this very discourse: “But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). The world and the devil, its master, are already judged, and the judgment will be made manifest in all its fullness at His second coming. We are, therefore, to be separated from it as a forbidden world of evil, and to testify against it. We are not to fear it in its opposition and persecution, or its malignant and mighty prince, the devil, but to treat him as a conquered foe. All this the Spirit reveals to the soul, after convicting it of sin and righteousness; leading it out of the world, giving it victory over temptation, and inspiring the blessed hope of Christ’s second coming and the new world of righteousness and glory. Closing Conversation Between Christ and His Disciples (John 16:16-33) The remaining utterances of this discourse are somewhat broken by the questionings of His disciples. The first subject referred to is His expected separation from them, and His speedy reappearance to them. His own remark, “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me” (John 16:16), had perplexed them. He tenderly anticipates their question, and more fully explains His meaning in John 16:20-22. He plainly intimates in these words, His approaching death and the sorrow it will bring them, as well as the malignant triumph of the hostile world. But it will be followed immediately by His reappearance to them—a joy, which, thenceforth, shall never pass away. This dark hour, that is approaching like the anguish of a travailing woman, is but the birth throe of a new creation which is about to come, even the birth of the Church of Christ, which is to emerge from the cross and the resurrection, and go forth into a cloudless and everlasting day. The reference is, undoubtedly, to His appearance to them after His resurrection, and to the exalted fellowship and privileges into which they are then to be raised. He proceeds next to unfold these privileges: In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete…. In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. (John 16:23-24, John 16:26-27) The first word translated, “ask,” in John 16:23, does not mean to pray, but to inquire about matters with respect to which they are in perplexity. He means that in the coming day, the light will be so plain and clear, that they will not need to inquire, as they do now, “What does he mean?… We don’t understand what he is saying” (John 16:17-18), but they shall plainly understand His will and teachings and His Father’s love. And, as to prayer, they shall have a higher place of access and confidence, for they shall ask in His name, even as He asks, which they have not yet been able to do, because His redemption work was not complete and His heavenly priesthood, in their behalf, had not begun. Henceforth He shall be at the Father’s side in their interests, and their petitions shall be received at the heavenly throne even as His own. He will not need to plead for them as for strangers, or aliens, for the Father Himself loves them, even as He loves His Son. His intercession is not so much to propitiate an angry Father and constrain from His reluctant hands the answer to His people’s prayers, as that He is to be the Channel through whom the answer will come, and the Mediator who receives our petitions as they ascend to heaven, in their imperfection and ignorance, purifying them with His holy intercession and then presenting them with the added incense of His own merits as His own very prayers. There is one more word, and then this tender discourse closes. There is a touch of deep sorrow in its tone, but it soon rises to the notes of triumph. “You believe at last!” He answers their honest but superficial confession, “But a time is coming, and has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home. You will leave me all alone” (John 16:31-32). Thus was the dark shadow of Gethsemane anticipated; but He quickly rises and adds, “Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me” (John 16:32). And then, looking forward to their Gethsemane, too, He tenderly says, “In this world you will have trouble” (John 16:33); they, too, shall have their crosses and their conflicts, but their one source of rest and victory is Himself, and His triumph for them. “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). That victory is the pledge of ours; as we cry out for strength, His answer ever is, “I have overcome for you.” And so, As surely as He overcame, And triumphed once for you, So, surely, ye that trust His name, Shall triumph in Him, too.