PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of St. John, Vol. I
Dods, Marcus · 107,269 words · 146 reading sections
_Jesus Declares Himself._
The inference drawn by our Lord from the truth that God is a Spirit is one which needs still to be pressed. God seeks to be worshipped not by outward forms or elaborate ritual but in spirit. Ordinary teachers would have put in a saving clause to preserve some forms of worship; Christ puts in none. Let men worship God i…
684 wordsSECTION 62_Jesus Declares Himself._
But if the words of Christ were not intended to put an end to outward worship altogether, they do, as I have said, form a strong argument for simplicity of worship. No forms whatever are needed that our spirit may come into communion with God. Let us begin with this. As true and perfect worship may be rendered by the d…
696 wordsSECTION 63_The Second Sign In Galilee._
Truth is opposed also to error or misconception about the object of worship. Christ, by His presence, enables men to worship the Father in truth. He gives them the true idea of God. He makes God real, giving an actuality to our thought of God which we could not otherwise arrive at; and He shows us God as He truly is, c…
828 wordsSECTION 64_The Second Sign In Galilee._
All labourers in the Kingdom of God need a similar reminder. We can never certainly say in what state of preparedness the human heart is; we do not know what providences of God have ploughed it, nor what thoughts are sown in it, nor what strivings are being even now made by the springing life that seeks the light. We g…
737 wordsSECTION 65_The Second Sign In Galilee._
It is not the truth of the proverb that presents any difficulty, but its application to the present case. For the fact that a prophet has no honour in his own country would seem to be a reason for His declining to go to Galilee, whereas it is here introduced as His reason for going there. The explanation is found in th…
682 wordsSECTION 66_The Second Sign In Galilee._
The words, however, were especially a warning that His physical gifts were not the greatest He had to bestow, and that a faith which required to be buttressed by the sight of miracles was not the best kind of faith. Our Lord was always in danger of being looked upon as a mere thaumaturge, who could dispense cures merel…
800 wordsSECTION 67_The Second Sign In Galilee._
From the very greatness of Christ, and our consequent inability to bring Him into comparison with other men, we are apt to miss some of the significant features of His conduct. In the circumstances before us, for example, most teachers at an early stage in their career would have been in some excitement, and would prob…
897 wordsSECTION 68_The Second Sign In Galilee._
Another striking feature of this miracle is that the Agent was at a distance from the subject of it. This is, of course, quite beyond our comprehension. We cannot understand how the will of Jesus, without employing any known physical means of communication between Himself and the boy, without even appearing before him …
310 wordsSECTION 69_Sabbath Cure At Bethesda._
[12] The words (ver. 35) have quite the ring of a proverb--a proverb peculiar to seed-time and for the encouragement of the sower. If uttered on this occasion in seed-time, this gives December as the date. [13] This is lucidly taught in Mozley's _Bampton Lectures_. "After these things there was a feast of the Jews; a…
822 wordsSECTION 70_Sabbath Cure At Bethesda._
The man is sufficiently alive to feel the implied rebuke, and apologetically answers, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool. It is not that I am resigned to this life of uselessness, but I have no option." The very answer, however, showed that he was hopeless. It had become the established order of things with hi…
731 wordsSECTION 71_Sabbath Cure At Bethesda._
"Thy saints are comforted, I know, And love Thy house of prayer; I therefore go where others go, But find no comfort there." This miracle shows such persons that there is a shorter way to health than a languid attendance on ordinances--an attendance that is satisfied if there seems to be still in operation what may…
688 wordsSECTION 72_Sabbath Cure At Bethesda._
Before the man could get home with his bed he was challenged for carrying it on the Sabbath. They must surely have known that he himself, and many more, had that very morning been carried to Bethesda. But we can scarcely conclude from the Jews thus challenging the healed man that they sought occasion against Jesus. The…
746 wordsSECTION 73_Sabbath Cure At Bethesda._
Although the healed man seems to have had little interest in Christ, Christ kept His eye upon him. Finding him in the Temple, where he had gone to give thanks for his recovery, or to see a place he had so long been excluded from, or merely because it was a place of public resort, our Lord addressed him in the emphatic …
661 wordsSECTION 74_Jesus Life-Giver And Judge._
[14] Verse 4 is omitted by recent editors on the authority of the best ancient MSS. "The man went away, and told the Jews that it was Jesus which had made him whole. And for this cause did the Jews persecute Jesus, because He did these things on the sabbath. But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh even until now…
720 wordsSECTION 75_Jesus Life-Giver And Judge._
As soon as the impotent man discovered who it was that had given him strength, he informed the authorities, either from sheer thoughtlessness, or because he considered that they had a right to know, or because he judged that, like himself, they would rather admire the miracle than take exception to the Sabbath-breaking…
696 wordsSECTION 76_Jesus Life-Giver And Judge._
But this gives Jesus an opportunity of more clearly describing His relation to God. He declares He is in such perfect harmony with God that it is impossible for Him to do either that miracle or any other work at His own instigation. "The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father doing." "I can of myse…
809 wordsSECTION 77_Jesus Life-Giver And Judge._
To this filial disposition on the part of the Son the Father responds: "The Father loveth the Son, and showeth Him all things that Himself doeth" (ver. 20). If we ask how Jesus saw the Father's works, or how, for example, He saw that the Father wished Him to heal the impotent man, the answer must be that it is by inwar…
758 wordsSECTION 78_Jesus Life-Giver And Judge._
And this explains why we find Christ uttering apparent contradictions: at one time saying, "For judgment came I into this world," and at another time saying, "I came not to judge the world." The object of His coming into the world was to give life, not to condemn men, not to cut them off finally from life and from God,…
891 wordsSECTION 79_Jesus Life-Giver And Judge._
4. The unbelief of the Jews is traced by Jesus to a moral root. They seemed very zealous for God's law, but beneath this superficial and ostentatious championing of God there was detected a deep-seated alienation from God which unfitted them for knowing either Him or His messenger. "Glory from men I do not receive (ver…
459 wordsSECTION 80_Jesus The Bread Of Life._
[15] Similarly in the Synoptical Gospels the hostility of the Jews is traced to His apparent breach of the Sabbath law. [16] The following division of the former part of this Apology may help the reader to follow the sequence of thought. In vv. 19, 20, Jesus enounces the general features of His relation to the Father.…
656 wordsSECTION 81_Jesus The Bread Of Life._
The moral ground being thus prepared for the miracle in the confessed inability of the disciples and of the crowd, Jesus takes the matter in hand. With that air of authority and calm purpose which must have impressed the onlookers at all His miracles, He says, "Make the men sit down." And there where they happened to b…
964 wordsSECTION 82_Jesus The Bread Of Life._
We must beware then of looking with repugnance on what Christ calls us to, as if it were a superfluity that may reasonably be postponed to more urgent and essential demands; or as if He were introducing our nature to some region for which it was not originally intended, and exciting within us spurious and fanciful desi…
832 wordsSECTION 83_Jesus The Bread Of Life._
For my part, I do not see that this can mean anything less than that Christ is Divine, that in Him we have God, and in Him touch the actual Source of all life. In Him we have the one thing within our reach which is not earth-grown, the one uncorrupted Source of life to which we can turn from the inadequacy, impurity, a…
851 wordsSECTION 84_Jesus The Bread Of Life._
But most emphatically of all does our Lord say that we must "eat His flesh and drink His blood" if we are to partake of His life. That is to say, the connection between Christ and us must be of the closest possible kind; so close that the assimilation of the food we eat is not too strong a figure to express it. The foo…
791 wordsSECTION 85_Jesus The Bread Of Life._
Doubtless the faith of the disciples was severely tried when they were required to advance each man to his separate hundred with his morsel of bread. There would be no struggling for the first place then. But encouraged in their faith by the simple and confident words of prayer their Master had addressed to the Father,…
446 wordsSECTION 86_The Crisis In Galilee._
[21] At the risk of omitting points of interest, I have thought it advisable to treat this whole representation of Christ, as far as possible, within the limits of one chapter. [22] Roughly speaking, L8. [23] From Psalm lxxii. 16 the Rabbis gathered that the Messiah when He came would renew the gift of manna. [24] T…
765 wordsSECTION 87_The Crisis In Galilee._
One cannot, I think, view this situation without perceiving how analogous it is in many respects to the aspect of things in our own day. In all ages of course this sifting of the followers of Christ goes on. There are experiences common to all times and places which test men's attachment to Christ. But in our own day e…
938 wordsSECTION 88_The Crisis In Galilee._
We need not then greatly fear for our own faith if we are sure that we covet the words of eternal life more than the path to worldly advantage. Still less need we tremble for the faith of others if we know that their tastes are spiritual, their leanings Godward. Parents are naturally anxious about their children's fait…
894 wordsSECTION 89_The Crisis In Galilee._
Any one then who is offended at the supernatural in Christianity, and is disposed to turn away and walk no more with Christ, should view the alternative, and consider what it is with which he must throw in his lot. To retain what is called the spirit of Christ, and reject all that is miraculous and above our present co…
693 wordsSECTION 90_The Crisis In Galilee._
Upon our faith nothing is more influential than the holiness of Christ. Nothing is more certainly Divine. Nothing is more characteristic of God--not His power, not His wisdom, not even His eternal Being. He who in his own person and life represents to us the holiness of God is more certainly superhuman than he who repr…
723 wordsSECTION 91_The Crisis In Galilee._
All that He desires, then, is, in the first place, not something we cannot give, not a belief in certain truths about which doubt may reasonably be entertained, not an acknowledgment of facts that are as yet beyond our vision; but, that we follow Him, that we be in this world as He was in it. Shall we, then, let Him pu…
354 wordsSECTION 92_Jesus Discussed In Jerusalem._
[26] "Those who turn their backs on the Eternal Son must understand, then, that they are on their way to a creed which denies an Eternal Father, and puts in His place an unconscious impersonal soul of nature, a dead central force, of which all the forces in the universe are manifestations; or an unknown, unknowable cau…
1,146 wordsSECTION 93_Jesus Discussed In Jerusalem._
After describing how matters were brought to a crisis in Galilee, and pointing out that, as the result of our Lord's work there, only twelve men adhered to Him, and in even this final selection not all were to be trusted,--John passes on to describe the state of feeling towards Jesus in Jerusalem, and how the storm of …
995 wordsSECTION 94_Jesus Discussed In Jerusalem._
But this feast was not solely a celebration of the ingathering, or a thanksgiving for the harvest. The name of it reminds us that another feature was quite as prominent. In its original institution God commanded, "Ye shall dwell in booths or tabernacles seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths," t…
779 wordsSECTION 95_Jesus Discussed In Jerusalem._
2. Again, John notices the _perplexity_ of the people. They saw that, much as the authorities desired to put Him out of the way, they shrank from decisive measures. And from this they naturally gathered that the rulers had some idea that this was the Christ. Then besides, they saw the miracles Jesus did, and asked whet…
705 wordsSECTION 96_Jesus Discussed In Jerusalem._
Faith in Christ is thus represented as an act rather of the spiritual nature than of the intellect, and as the result of sympathy with the truth rather than of critical examination of evidence. A painter or art-critic familiar with the productions of great artists feels himself insulted if you offer him evidence to con…
654 wordsSECTION 97_Jesus Discussed In Jerusalem._
But the true worshippers among these Israelites had been seeing a spiritual meaning in the water, and had been conscious of an uneasy feeling of thirst still in the midst of these Temple services--an uneasy questioning whether even yet Israel had passed the thirsty desert, and had received the full gift God had meant t…
793 wordsSECTION 98_The Woman Taken In Adultery._
[28] It will be observed that the remaining part of the Gospel goes into very small compass as regards time. Chapters vii.-x. 21 are occupied with what was said and done at the Feast of Tabernacles, chapters xii.-xx. with the last Passover. [29] A mixture of religious thanksgiving and unrestrained social hilarity, ana…
662 wordsSECTION 99_The Woman Taken In Adultery._
Underhand scheming of this kind is of course always to be condemned. Setting traps and digging pitfalls are illegitimate methods even of slaughtering wild animals, and the sportsman disdains them. But he who introduces such methods into human affairs, and makes his business one concatenated plot, does not deserve to be…
1,265 wordsSECTION 100_The Woman Taken In Adultery._
Having given His answer His eye again falls, His former stooping attitude is resumed. He does not mean to awe them by a defiant look; He lets their own conscience do the work. But that their conscience should have produced such a result deserves our attention. The woman, when she heard His answer, may for a moment have…
810 wordsSECTION 101_The Woman Taken In Adultery._
But what will Jesus do with this woman thus left on His hands? Will _He_ not visit her with punishment, and so assert His superiority to the accusers who had slunk away? He shows His superiority in a much more real fashion. He sees that now the woman is self-condemned, lies under that condemnation in which alone there …
1,002 wordsSECTION 102_Christ The Light Of The World._
Still it is one of the most hopeful features of present-day Christianity that men are becoming sensible that they are not mere individuals, but are members of a society; and that they must bear the shame of the existing condition of things in society. Intelligent Christian men now feel that the saving of their own soul…
911 wordsSECTION 103_Christ The Light Of The World._
Two obvious characteristics of this guiding Light must be kept in view. 1. God's people were not led by a road already made and used, and which they could have studied from beginning to end on a map before starting; but they were led day by day, and step by step, by a living guide, who chose a route never before trodd…
662 wordsSECTION 104_Christ The Light Of The World._
When matters difficult to handle and to manage come into our life, and when we are tempted to long for some external sign which would show us infallibly the right thing to do and the right way to follow, let this be our consolation, that this very exercise of judgment and bearing of responsibility in matters where righ…
908 wordsSECTION 105_Christ The Light Of The World._
The darkness regarding conduct in which men are involved has largely a moral root. Men are blinded by their appetites and passions, so that they cannot see the best ends and enjoyments of life. It is the strong craving we have for gratifications of sense and of worldly desire that misleads us in life. As some creatures…
769 wordsSECTION 106_Christ The Light Of The World._
And as the Teacher taught by living so must the scholar learn by living. Christ brings light by passing through all human experiences and situations, and "he that followeth" Him, not he that reads about Him, "shall have the light of life." There are very few men in the world who can think to much purpose on truths so a…
285 wordsSECTION 107_Jesus Rejected In Jerusalem._
[33] "Many had spoken wonderfully the truths concerning our state, and even concerning our hopes; they had sounded great depths in the sea of wisdom; they had drawn the line between what is solid and what is vain in life; they had caught, firmly and clearly, what was worth living for; they had measured truly the relati…
934 wordsSECTION 108_Jesus Rejected In Jerusalem._
John has now briefly detailed the self-manifestations of Jesus which He considered sufficient to induce the Jews to believe in Him; and he has shown us how, both in Galilee and in Jerusalem, the people, with few exceptions, remained unconvinced. He has also very clearly shown the reason of His rejection in Galilee. The…
717 wordsSECTION 109_Jesus Rejected In Jerusalem._
And, according to this Gospel, Jesus at once made it plain that His idea of the Messianic office was not the popular idea, It was "eternal life" He constantly proclaimed as the gift the Father had commissioned Him to bestow; not physical life, not revived political life. So that it very shortly became impossible for an…
719 wordsSECTION 110_Jesus Rejected In Jerusalem._
And the main authentication of Christ's claim at all times is simply this, that He makes the claim, and that there is that in Him which testifies to His truth, while there is that in the claim itself which is congruous to our instincts and needs. There was that in the bearing of Christ which commanded belief in natures…
771 wordsSECTION 111_Jesus Rejected In Jerusalem._
III. What were the true reasons of our Lord's rejection? 1. The first reason no doubt was that He so thoroughly disappointed the popular Messianic expectation. This comes out very conspicuously in His rejection in Galilee, where the people were on the point of crowning Him, but at once deserted Him as soon as it becam…
650 wordsSECTION 112_Jesus Rejected In Jerusalem._
The rejection of Jesus by the Jews was therefore due to their moral condition. Their condition is such that our Lord does not scruple pungently to say, "Ye are of your father the devil." Their blindness to the truth and virulent opposition to Him proved their kinship with him who was from the beginning a liar and a mur…
426 wordsSECTION 113_Sight Given To The Blind._
"And as He passed by, He saw a man blind from his birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, Rabbi, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he should be born blind? Jesus answered, Neither did this man sin, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. We must work the works of Him…
853 wordsSECTION 114_Sight Given To The Blind._
We have already considered the striking use our Lord made of the Temple illumination to proclaim Himself the Light of the world. A still more striking physical symbol of this aspect of our Lord's person and work is found in His healing of the blind man. It is, as we have already had occasion to see, the manner of this …
809 wordsSECTION 115_Sight Given To The Blind._
To the work of healing the blind man Jesus at once applies Himself. While the lifted stones were yet in His pursuers hands He paused to express His Father's love. He must, He says, work the works of Him who sent Him. He represented the Father not mechanically, not by getting well off by rote the task His Father had set…
810 wordsSECTION 116_Sight Given To The Blind._
The blind man, with the quickened hearing of the blind, heard with interest the talk about himself; and a new awe fell upon his spirit as he heard that his blindness was to be the object of a work of God. He had learned to judge of men by the tones of their voice; and the firm, clear, penetrating voice which had just u…
704 wordsSECTION 117_Sight Given To The Blind._
And the Pharisees might, with their gift of interpreting trifles, have deduced from this cure at the humble and noiseless Siloam some suggestion that though Jesus did seem a powerless and common Man, and though for thirty years His life had been flowing quietly on without violently changing the established order of thi…
735 wordsSECTION 118_Sight Given To The Blind._
This miracle was so public as to challenge scrutiny. It was not performed in the privacy of a sick-room, with none present but one or two disciples, who might be supposed ready to believe anything. It was performed on a public character and in broad day. And we nowadays may congratulate ourselves that there was a stron…
814 wordsSECTION 119_Jesus The Good Shepherd._
[34] See the _Meditations_ of Marcus Aurelius. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth; and the sheep he…
689 wordsSECTION 120_Jesus The Good Shepherd._
The primary object, then, of this allegorical passage is to impart to those who believe in Jesus the truest independence of spirit. This our Lord accomplishes by explicitly claiming for Himself the sole right of admission or rejection from the true fold of God's people. He comes into direct collision with the ecclesias…
750 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.