PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
Expository Thoughts on the Gospels — St. John — Volume 2
Ryle, J. C. (John Charles), 1816–1900 · 168,104 words · 353 reading sections
JOHN, CHA1?. XII.
331 visitors or sojourners, absent from home, and would materially swell a crowd. In leaving this passage it is impossible not to feel that there must have been an overruling, constraining influence on the minds of the Jewish people on the occasion of our Lord's trium- phant entry into Jerusalem. This, no doubt, was …
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20 And thero wore certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast: 21 The same came therefore to Phil- ip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus. 22 Philip cometh and telleth An- drew: and again Andrew and Philip tell Jesus. 23 And Jesus answered them, say…
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expecting. Enough for us to know that they showed more interest in Christ than Caiaphas and all his com- panions. Enough to know that they drew from our Lord's lips sayings which are still read in one hundred and fifty languages, from one end of the world to the other. We learn, for one thing, from our Lord's words in…
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"If any man serve Me," is the saying, " le* him follow Me." That expression, " following," is one of wide signifi- cation, and brings before our minds many familiar ideas As the soldier follows his general, as the servant follows his master, as the scholar follows his teacher, as the sheep follows its shepherd, just s…
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last day, before the assembly of angels and men, we shall find that His praise makes amends for all. Notes. John XII. 20—26. 20. — [And there icere certain Greeks, etc., etc.'] Who these GreeKs were has exercised the conjectural ingenuity of commentators. They were not downright heathens, it is clear, from the expres…
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The mention of Bethsaida accounts for Philip speaking to Andrew, in the next verse. Bethsaida was the native place of Andrew and Peter, and Philip therefore was their fellow-towns- man. [And desired him, saying, Sir.] The Greek word rendered "desired " is more frequently translated, "asked," " besought," " prayed." It…
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that at one time Jesus had said, "Go not into the way of the Gentiles." (Matt. x. 5.) On reflection they probably remem- bered our Lord's kindness to the Canaanitish mother, and the Roman centurion, and resolved to tell Him. Of course it is possible that the Greeks only wanted to look at our Lord and see what He was l…
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prefaces which are so frequent in John's Gospel, and indicate some very weighty truth coming. I think " to you " must surely include not only Andrew and Philip, but all the company arouud our Lord. [Except a corn of wheat, etc., etcl Our Lord here illustrates a great Scriptural truth by a very familiar fact in nature.…
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With the Father and the elect angels, but without any of the sons of men. Scott says the same. 25.— [He that loveth his life, etc.'] There are few of our Lord's say- ings more frequently recorded by the Holy Ghost than this pair of paradoxes. The repetition shows its great importance. It will be found in Matt. x. 39 ;…
1,102 wordsSECTION 310JOHN XII. 27—33.
27 Now is my soul troubled: and Tvttat shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. 28 Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven saying, I havo both glorified it, and will glo- rify it again. 29 The people therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that …
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touch, cast out devils with a word, and command the waves and winds to obey Him, in great agon}7 and conflict of spirit. Now bow can this be explained ? To say, as some do, that the only cause of our Lord's trouble was the prospect of His own painful death on the cross, is a verj7 unsatisfactory explanation. At this r…
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We cannot fail to see in the passage oefore us a mighty mental struggle in our blessed Saviour. Of its depth and intensity we can probably form very little conception. But the agonizing cry, " My soul is troubled," — the solemn question, "What shall I say?" — the prayer of suffering flesh and blood, "Father, save Me fr…
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believer may be known by his inward warfare as well as by his inward peace. We have, thirdly, in theue verses, a great miracle exhib- ited. That miracle is the heavenly Voice described in this passage, — a voice which was heard so plainly that people said it thundered, — proclaiming, "I have glorified my name, and wil…
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delivered. The Lord Jesus declared, " I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." Concerning the true meaning of these words there can be but one opinion in any candid mind. They do not mean, as is often supposed, that if the doctrine of Christ crucified is lifted up and exalted by ministers and t…
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Notes. John XII. 27—33. 27.— [Now is my soul troubled, etc., etc.] This remarkable verse comes in somewhat abruptly. Yet the connection is not hard to trace. Our Lord had just been speaking- of His own atoning death. The thought and prospect of that death appears to draw from Him the expressions of this verse, which I…
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the Greek Church, — "By Thine unknown sufferings, good Lord, deliver us." Rollock observes here, " If you ask me what the Divine nature in Christ was doing when He said, ' My soul is troubled,' and whether it was divided asunder from His human nature, I reply that it was not divided, but contained itself, or held itse…
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as Theophylact, Grotius, Bloomfield, and Barnes, to be wrongly translated in our English version. They would render them, "And what? What is my duty? What does the hour require of Me? Shall I say, Save Me," etc., etc. — I much prefer our English version as it is. I believe the question is strongly sig- nificant of the …
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of all things except present pain. This seems the case of onr Lord here. Yet even here He turns to His Father, showing that He never loses the sense of the Father's love. The lost in hell will never turn to the Father." It is worth noticing that our Lord speaks of " the Father " and •'My Father" at least one hundred a…
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Just so our Lord says, lastly, " The cup which my Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it ? " (John xviii. 11.) The brief prayer which our Lord here offers, we should remember, is the highest, greatest thing that we can ask God to do. The utmost reach of the renewed will of a believer is to be able to say always, "…
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(a) It may be applied solely and entirely to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. It would then be a special declaration of the Father to the Son : " I have glorified my name in Thy incarna- tion, Thy miracles, Thy words, Thy works. I will yet glorify it again in Thy voluntary suffering for mankind, Thy death, Thy resurrecti…
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but for their sakes,— to be a sign and a witness to them. The voice could tell Him nothing that He did not know. It was meant to show them what they did not know, or doubted. The sentence would be more literally rendered, " Not on ac- count of Me was this voice, but on account of you." It was just one more public mirac…
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darkness. I am about to spoil them of their dominion by my redeeming work, and to condemn and set aside the dark, godless order of things which has so long prevailed upon earth. It has been long winked at and tolerated by my Father. The time has come when it will be tolerated no longer. This very week, by my crucifixio…
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not clone at the first. It only means that he should be cast out of a large portion of the dominion, and power, and undisturbed authority he had hitherto exercised over men's souls. — The result of the change which took place in this respect, when Christ died, is perhaps not enough considered by Christians. We probably…
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tree was cast out of Paradise, so the second Adam by dying on the tree cast the devil out of his usurped dominion in the world. Bucer thinks there is a latent reference to our Lord's former words about the " strong man armed keeping his house," till a stronger comes upon him and spoils him. (Luke xi. 21, 22.) 82. — […
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The idea of some, that the verse may be applied to the lifting up or exalting of Christ by ministers in their preaching, is utterly baseless, and a mere play upon words. That the preaching of Christ will always do good, more or less, and draw souls to Christ by God's blessing, is no doubt true. But it is not the / doct…
305 wordsSECTION 326JOHN XII. 34—43.
34 The people answered him, We have heard out of the law that Christ abide th forever: and how sayest thou, The Son of man must be lifted up ? who is this Son of man ? 33 Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you ; for he that walkcth…
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at the state of professing Christendom, and, on the other, at the state of the heathen world. We must confess with shame that the Church is not walking worthy of its light. But the lesson of the words is specially applicable to ourselves as individuals. Our own time for getting good is short and limited ; let us take …
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little temporary excitement ; but, the novelty once gone, we should find ourselves just as cold and unbelieving as the Jews. The prevalence of unbelief and indifference in the present day ought not to surprise us. It is just one of the evidences of that mighty foundation-doctrine, the total corruption and fall of man.…
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confess it. They dared not face the storm of ridicule, if not of persecution, which confession would have entailed. And so, like cowards, they held their peace, and kept their convictions to themselves. Their case, it may be feared, is a sadly common one. There are thousands of people who know far more in religion the…
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ment prophecies about the eternity and never dying of Christ. — That " lifted up " meant being put to death on the cross, they seem to have understood. That our Lord, or the Son of man, as He called Himself, claimed to be the Christ, they quite under- stood. What they stumbled at was the idea of the eternal Christ bein…
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mean that one and the same person can be a dying person, and yet also the eternal Christ? Dost Thou claim "to be the eternal Christ, and yet talk of being lifted up on a cross? Explain this apparent contradiction, for we cannot understand it."— It is just the old story over again. The Jews could not and would not under…
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Lord saw His own approaching death and withdrawal from the world. Ecolampadius thinks that there is a latent connection between this verse and the question of the Jews. "You ask who is this Son of man? I reply that He is the Light of the world, as I have often told you. Like the sun, He is about to be eclipsed, or wit…
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the world. Up to the time of the destruction of the temple, they seemed like a nation of madmen, and a people judicially bliuded, — conscious that they were in a wrong position, strug- gling furiously to get out of it, and yet only plunging deeper into the mire of hopeless misery, till Titus took the city, and carried …
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at this point, on the peculiar unbelief of the Jerusalem Jews. He remarks on the singular hardness of this section of the na- tion, in the face of the singularly strong evidence which they enjoyed of Christ's M essiahship. The expression, "So many miracles," seems to point out that the miracles recorded by St. John ar…
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Jews was a thing as clearly foretold In Scripture ns the suffer- ings of Christ. If they had not been unbelieving, the Scriptures would have been untrue. [To whom. ..arm of.. .Lord revealed.'] The expression, " Arm of the Lord," is thought by Augustine to mean Christ Himself. It may be so. If not, it must mean, " To w…
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choice power. So, " The world cannot hate you, but Me it hateth." So in common conversation a mau says, "I cannot love this or that person, calling the force of his will power." Augustine says : " If I be asked why they could not believe, I answer in a word, Because they would not." — He also says, "It is said of the …
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blindness, till after a long course of warnings. This was certainly the case with Pharaoh and with the Jews. The consequence of God blinding and hardening a person is that he does not "see " his danger with his eyes, or " under- stand " his position with his heart. The result is that he holds on his way unconverted, a…
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All the other texts speak of it as God's act. The thing is easily reconciled." — He then says : " The Jews first shut their own eyes, and hardened their own hearts. Thus behaving them- selves, God judicially gave them up to their own lusts, per- mitted their hearts to harden, and suffered them to close their own eyes, …
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minds than preachers are aware of. There is much secret con- viction. [But because... Pharisees... not confess him.~\ They dared not openly confess their faith in our Lord, for fear of the persecu- tion of the Pharisees. They were cowards, and iufluenced by the fear of man. No wonder that our Lord spoke so strongly in…
395 wordsSECTION 340JOHN XII. 44-50.
eth not my words, hath one that judg- eth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. 49 For I have not spoken of myself, but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. 50 And I know that his command- ment is life everlasting : whats…
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that in this place He compares Himself to the sun. Like the sun, He has risen on this sin-darkened world with heal- ing on His wings, and shines for the common benefit of all mankind. Like the sun, He is the great source and centre of all spiritual life, comfort, and fertility. Like the sun, He illuminates the whole ea…
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have an end. Banks shall at length close their doors for- ever. Stock exchanges shall be shut. Parliaments shall be dissolved. The very sun, which since Noah's flood has done his daily work so faithfully, shall rise and set no more. Well would it be if we thought more of this day ! Kent-days, birth-days, wedding-days, …
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demned of the Lord. Let us so speak and so act as men who will be judged by the law of liberty. Let us make conscience of all our hourly conduct, and never forget that for every idle word we must give account at the last day. In a word, let us live like those who believe in the truth of judgment, heaven, and hell. So l…
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However, it is useless to deny that the abrupt manner in which the verse before us and the following verses come in is a difficulty, and one which we know not exactly how to explain. One thing only is very clear : this was probably one of the last public discourses which our Lord delivered in Jerusalem, and forms a kin…
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To draw a wide line of separation between the Father and *he Son, as some do, and to represent the Father as an angry Being whom the Sou appeases, is very poor theology, and the highroad to Tritheism. The true doctrine is that the Godhead of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is one, and that in the unity of the Godhead there…
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once more the unity of Himself and the Father. It was partly to encourage all believers in Himself, for the last time, before He was crucified. Let them know that in resting their souls on Him, they were resting not on Him alone who died on Calvary, but on one who was one with the Father, and there- fore were resting o…
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sons are here exhorted not to remain, stick fast, and continue in darkness. Burgon remarks on this verse : " This verse shows that (1) Christ existed before His incarnation, even as the sun exists be- fore it appears above the eastern hills ; (2) that Christ is the one Saviour of the world, even as there is only one s…
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pressions as this, and John iii. 16, 17, can possibly be reconciled with an extreme view of particular redemption. To say, on the one hand, that Christ's death is efficacious to none but the elect and believers, is strictly true. Not all men are finally saved by Christ. There is a hell, and unbelievers and impenitent p…
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Christ's words, though despised and rejected by the Jews, did not fall to the ground. Those whom they did not save they will condemn. There will be a resurrection of all faithful sermons at the last day.— Great is the responsibility of preachers ! Their words are always doing good, or adding to the condemnation of the …
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everlasting." — Thus Peter says to our Lord, "Thou hast the words of eternal life," (John vi. 68 ;) that is, we know Thou hast a commission to proclaim and publish eternal life. — Thus our Lord says, " The words that I speak are spirit and life." (John vi. 63.) Poole and others say this sentence means, " I know that t…
289 wordsSECTION 351ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS'
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300 wordsSECTION 352HEADSHIP OF CHRIST 1.50
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114 wordsSource & rights
Public-domain historical edition (1857). Text from OCR of an original Internet Archive scan; OCR may contain recognition errors.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.