John 16:7 Christ's Going Away our Gain 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 th... [ Continue Reading ]
John 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... [ Continue Reading ]
John 16:8 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 wo... [ Continue Reading ]
John 16:9 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. Convictio... [ Continue Reading ]
John 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... [ Continue Reading ]
John 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... [ Continue Reading ]
John 16:12 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 min... [ Continue Reading ]
John 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 confide... [ Continue Reading ]
John 16:14 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. I... [ Continue Reading ]
John 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... [ Continue Reading ]
John 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 se... [ Continue Reading ]
John 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 the... [ Continue Reading ]
John 16:26 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,... [ Continue Reading ]
John 16:26 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.... [ Continue Reading ]
John 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,... [ Continue Reading ]
John 16:31 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... [ Continue Reading ]
John 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... [ Continue Reading ]
John 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,... [ Continue Reading ]