John 18

John 18:1

The prince of this world cometh. The worldly powers of which Satan is prince.

John 18:2

That the world may know that I love the Father. His obedience in the hour of trial demonstrated that he so loved the Father that he sought not his own, but the Father’s will.

John 18:4

The True Vine SUMMARY OF JOHN 15: The Vine and the Branches. Bearing Fruit. Glorifying the Father. The Greatest Love. The World’s Hatred. The Cloak for Sin. I am the true vine. The scene must be kept in mind. The Lord and his disciples had just eaten the last supper. He had said, “Arise, let us go hence” (John 14:31). They had risen, but were still standing in the room. On the table, from whence they had just risen, was the “fruit of the vine”, and the Lord had said he would never drink it again upon the earth. In the Old Testament, the Vine is often used as the type of Israel, planted and tended by the Almighty as the husbandman. See Isaiah 5:1 Psalms 80:8-16 Jeremiah 2:21. Israel, however, had proved a wild and fruitless Vine. Instead of it, therefore, Christ had now been planted by the Father as the True Vine.

John 18:5

Every branch in me that beareth no fruit he taketh away. As the husbandman cuts off the unfruitful branches of the vine, so the Father severs the unfruitful branches from his Son. Judas, an unfruitful branch which did not have the life of the Vine, had just been severed and had gone forth. Every [branch] that beareth fruit, he purgeth it. The husbandman prunes and dresses the branches in order that they may be more healthy and fruitful. The Father cleanses, purifies, frees from sin, all who become branches of the True Vine.

John 18:6

Now ye are clean through the word. The spoken word is the instrument appointed by God for the cleansing of the soul. The word tells us what to do in order that we may be cleansed from sin.

John 18:7

Abide in me, and I in you. The idea is, Abide in me that I may abide in you. Christ abiding in us is dependent on our abiding in him. We abide in him by keeping his words, or having his “word abide in us” (John 15:7), and all who “keep his sayings” (John 14:23) will have Christ abide in their souls. No more can ye, except ye abide in me. We are dead, fruitless branches, without the Christ-life. The whole history of the world demonstrates that fruitfulness is only found in union with Christ.

John 18:8

I am the vine, ye [are] the branches. He has already declared (John 15:1) that he is the True Vine, but he had not before declared that every disciple is a branch of the Vine. Observe that, not denominations, but church members, are the branches. The disciple, without Christ, “can do nothing”. Paul declared, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).

John 18:9

If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered. The lifeless, fruitless branches in the vineyard are lopped off and carried out, and wither and are burned. So, too, any one who does not abide in Christ, is severed from the Vine. They gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned (Revised Version). “They” (the angels at the great day; not “men”, as in the Common Version) cast them into the fire and they are burned.

John 18:10

Ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. The condition of this blessed promise is that we abide in the Vine, by having Christ’s words abide in us.

John 18:11

Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit. The best comment on this is the Savior’s injunction, “Let your light shine before men, that they, seeing your good works, shall glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

John 18:13

If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love. He abode in the love of the Father by a life of perfect obedience. So we must abide in his love.

John 18:14

These things have I spoken . . . that my joy may remain in you. Strange words, that one about to be crucified should speak of his joy! His joy was union with and presence of the Father. He had “anointed him with the oil of gladness above his fellows” (Psalms 45:7). He desired his disciples to have that joy, the constant consolation of the sense of the presence of Christ.

John 18:16

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. The highest human exhibition of love that earth has ever seen was this. Christ was about to exhibit this highest type of human love by dying for his friends. He did even more, as Paul shows us in Romans 5:6, he died for his enemies, something that man had never done.

John 18:18

I call you not servants; . . . I have called you friends. Christ’s disciples serve him, but their service is not bondage, but that of love. Hence, they are friends instead of servants.

John 18:19

Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you. Each one of the eleven apostles present had been chosen, called, by the Lord, from among his disciples. They did not choose him, but he them, in order that they might bring forth abundant fruit in the conversion of the world.

John 18:21

If the world hate you. “The world” is the unregenerate portion of mankind. It hated and slew the Lord. It has never loved his disciples. Satan is its prince.

John 18:23

They will also persecute you. The servants must expect similar treatment to that given the Master. The long roll of Christian martyrs shows how this has been verified.

John 18:24

For my name’s sake. That name, so sweet to the saved, is a hateful thing to his enemies. Jewish persecutors bade Christians to teach no more “in the name” (Acts 4:18 5:40); Gentile rulers bade them blaspheme “the name” or die.

John 18:25

If I had not come . . . they had not had sin. Certain conclusions follow: (1) The degree of our sin is measured by our opportunities; (2) increased opportunities bring a consciousness of sin; light in the room enables us to see the dirt; (3) “the sin” of sins is the rejection of Christ. Since he came there is no cloke, no covering, no excuse. Those who refuse Christ die in their sins, because they will not part from them.

John 18:27

If I had not done, etc. The proof of his divine mission was such that they were left without excuse. Hated both me and my Father. The Jews claimed to love God, but when God, manifest in the flesh, appeared, they hated him. The hatred of Christ is the hate of God.

John 18:29

When the Comforter is come. See John 14:16-18. Shall testify concerning me. See John 16:13-15.

John 18:30

Ye also shall bear witness. The apostles had been “with him from the beginning”, and knew all the facts. If he was true, they knew it; if he stilled the waves and raised the dead, they knew it; if he rose from the tomb, they knew it (see Acts 1:21,22). They bore witness to him by word and left their words to us. They bore witness by life, gave up all for him and died for their testimony. Such testimony is the strongest human testimony ever offered to any fact.

John 18:32

The Work of the Holy Spirit SUMMARY OF JOHN 16: Persecution Predicted. The Comforter to Come. He Will Reprove the World of Sin. He Will Reprove the World of Righteousness. He Will Reprove the World of Judgment. Will Guide into All Truth. Sorrow and Rejoicing. Overcoming the World. 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.

John 18:33

They shall put you out of the synagogues. Excommunicate you. The first persecutions were Jewish. Whoever killeth you will think he doeth God a service. Even so Saul of Tarsus thought while persecuting the saints (Acts 22:3,4). Fanaticism has always held the slaughter of those who are deemed heretics to be praiseworthy.

John 18:34

These things will they do, etc. Had they known Christ, or the Father, and received the Holy Spirit, they could not do thus.

John 18:35

These things I said not unto you at the beginning. He had made his instructions as they were prepared to receive them, lesson by lesson.

John 18:36

Now I go my way to him that sent me. To the Father, by way of the Cross, the Sepulcher, the Resurrection and the Ascension. None of you asketh me, Whither goest thou? They had asked this question, but in the stupefaction of their sorrow they had ceased to ask.

John 18:38

It is expedient for you that I depart. What seemed then a crushing sorrow was a real blessing. His mission could never be accomplished unless he went away. For if I go not away, the Comforter will not come. While Christ was present in person, in bodily form, the Holy Spirit, the representative of the Godhead, could not come. Christ, as King, must send him, and on the day of Pentecost Peter declared, “He hath shed forth the things ye do see and hear” (Acts 2:33).

John 18:39

He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. The Revised Version more correctly renders, “Will convict the world in respect of sin”. There are three points concerning which the world would be convicted, concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment. The Holy Spirit would effect these important results through some means. If we would understand the methods we have only to turn over to the fulfillment of these predictions recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. In Acts 2:38, the Holy Spirit fell upon eleven apostles and they spoke as “the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:4).

The words that they spoke were the words of the Holy Spirit. In the record of what was said by the mouth of Peter, we find that the Spirit convicted (1) of sin, in that those who heard had rejected the Lord of life and glory; (2) of righteousness, in that it was demonstrated by the manifestations of that hour that God had exalted the Lord whom they had condemned to his own right hand; (3) of judgment, in that they were assured of the “wrath to come” (Matthew 3:7 Lu 3:7 1 Thessalonians 1:10), and warned to “save themselves from this untoward generation” (Acts 2:40).

John 18:40

Of sin, because they believe not on me. In naming sin, the chief of all sins is singled out. All sin springs from unbelief. To destroy sin, the heart of man must be pierced with the sword of the Spirit. Hence, the aim of the Spirit on Pentecost, and always, is to destroy unbelief.