John 19:9 I. If we try to place ourselves in the position of one of our fellow-creatures placed on trial for his life, and before judges from whom he had little to look for in the way of consideration or mercy, we can understand that the silence of a perfectly innocent man might be natural for more... [ Continue Reading ]
John 19:22 I. Man's life is an inscription on a Cross. II. That inscription is written irrevocably (1) on the tablet of the eternal past, (2) on the tablet of the immortal memory. III. That inscription is read by God. This, then, is life: man writing silently, constantly, his life inscription ove... [ Continue Reading ]
John 19:23 As the robe which Christ wore closest to Himself was curiously and strangely wrought without seam from head to foot; so all that Jesus Christ has left behind is singular, unique, harmonious; for, judge Him by the religious system which He has left, or judge Him by the code of morality wh... [ Continue Reading ]
John 19:25 The Honour due to the Virgin Mary. I. We find in the New Testament that in place of there being any sanction in Scripture for the extraordinary honour being rendered to the mother of our Lord, the weight of testimony is all the other way. We believe that the most satisfactory account whi... [ Continue Reading ]
John 19:25 I. The death of the Lord Jesus Christ differed from all other deaths in this, that the death was voluntary. Death is to us the natural termination of life, and the event of death is the only one which we can venture to prophecy, without fear of mistake, as certain to happen to us all. Bu... [ Continue Reading ]
John 19:26 Whatever the ruling passion has been, it becomes strengthened and intensified in the hour of death. Such was the death of Jesus our Lord. In Him there had been but one quenchless passion. The thirst to do good had marked every hour and every action of His life. Behold, as He draws near to... [ Continue Reading ]
John 19:27 Look at that hour. Notice I. Its anticipations. It has always seemed to me to be a fact fatal to the unpropitiatory theory of that hour, that it had been anticipated and expected by Christ Himself. It did not startle Him or take Him by surprise. He did not avoid it or recoil from it. "Th... [ Continue Reading ]
John 19:30 I. These words, as uttered by our Saviour on the cross, have a wide and deep meaning. For as His life was totally unlike that of all other men, so was His death. He did not live for Himself, or to Himself, nor as one of many; nor did He die so. He died, as He had lived, wholly for mankind... [ Continue Reading ]
John 19:38 Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus at the Burial of Jesus I. Before the death of Jesus, the two rulers here named had been His secret disciples. They were no worse than multitudes are who pass as irreproachable. There may be, in the world of rank and fashion, many a man whom Christ has ca... [ Continue Reading ]
John 19:41 I. The burial of Christ lies between His humiliation and His exaltation. It is the pausing point of His history, who, for the suffering of death, was made a little lower than the angels; the moment when the hope and faith of His followers was most sorely tried; when victory seemed to be... [ Continue Reading ]