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. It was a prophecy, in the first place, of the full revelation of Christian truth. Christ had lived before the disciples, spoken to them, as they were able to bear it, and His words were in their ears. They would come back to them by and by, when He was gone from them; though even this is attributed in these Chapter s to the same agency. "He shall bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." But how little even the Apostles had understood His words. How were they to be the teachers of the churches? The wonder of Pentecost first fully opened their eyes to the truth, the truth never again doubted for one moment amid all discouragement, of the Divine mission and eternal presence of their Lord; and it was the new power of the gift of Pentecost which gave the clearness and firmness, the variety and the unity to their teaching. They built up the Church of Christ, in its members, its doctrines, its institutions. And then beyond the Apostolic age, who shall say that the Church has not needed and received the same guidance into truth? "He shall take of Mine, and shall show it unto you," the meaning and depth of the Divine words, the fulness and perfection of the Christian character, the limits and the largeness of the Christian revelation.
II. But there is yet another sense in our Lord's promise, and one perhaps that touches us yet more closely. It speaks of the gradual bringing home to men of the full force, the length, the breadth, the measure of the stature of the fulness, of Christ's character. Tradition, though so early busy, never put a trait to that character. Criticism has taken nothing from it. Each Christian age has caught something fresh, learnt something more of it, perhaps even, alas, has forgotten again something. Some lessons have been worked slowly but surely into the heart of humanity, have become so much a part of the world's common heritage, that we begin to forget that though Christians did not learn them fully at once, though men have not learnt to practise them fully even now, they had their origin in Christianity, that is, in Christ. Such are (1) the care for the sick and suffering, for human pain because it is human pain, not merely the pain of a friend. (2) The rights, the sanctity of conscience. (3) The unity, the brotherhood of all mankind.
E. C. Wickham, Sermons in Wellington College,p. 101.
I. "All things that the Father hath are Mine," Our Lord might say thus, first, in respect of His original Godhead; and but for His original Godhead, he could not without blasphemy have said it. It is impossible to explain away this absolute and unrestricted claim of a universal right of property in all that is the Father's; no rank, however high, conferred by God; no offer, however honourable and trustworthy in His kingdom; no gifts, no riches, no endowments, however various and costly, bestowed out of His boundless liberality, could sanction the use of words like these, by any created being, or warrant His saying broadly and without reserve, "All things that the Father hath are Mine."
II. When the Lord said, "All things that the Father hath are Mine," He had respect not only to His original Godhead, but also to His suffering manhood. It is this consideration, indeed, which makes the statement practically important in its application to us. It is as being in our nature, in His character of God man, that the Lord Jesus asserts His title to regard all things that the Father hath as His own. When in reference to His manhood as well as His eternal Godhead, our Lord stands forth in this attitude of unhesitating confidence, He virtually appeals to the perfection of His righteousness and the sufficiency of His atonement. He proceeds upon the assurance of His finished work of propitiation being accepted by His Father. And as the recompense of that work, He receives, in His human nature, an interest in all that the Father hath.
III. It is as the head of His body, the Church, that Christ says, "All things that the Father hath are Mine." Taking His people as His own, uniting Himself to them, identifying Himself with them, in the character and capacity of their Head He says, "All things that the Father hath are Mine." Through Him all the energy and all the blessedness of His Divine life are diffused, even as from the fertile vine a healthful influence goes forth into all the branches, causing them to rejoice and blossom and bear forth fruit. "All things that the Father hath are His" His, not to be retained as His own, but to be communicated to His people.
R. S. Candlish, The Sonship and Brotherhood of Believers,p. 265.
The Revealings of the Holy Ghost
I. There are times when words, over which we once shed tears, are meaningless to us as the stones of the desert. And there are times when the oldest and most familiar passages of the Bible wake up to us like a new creation. Why is this? The Spirit has made them to come forth so prominent and so clear. I believe this to be a constant method of His working. The height of some grand truth looks out, through the purified atmosphere of the thoughts, near, accurate, lovely. You see, and you can almost touch, the smallest sands upon the hill-top, because the difficulties have all melted away, hidden meanings have unrolled themselves, clouds of doubt have been destroyed, like mists by the morning light, and so invisible things have become realities and future promises are present property.
II. Or once more. What the Spirit shows He makes a possession. This is the most blessed fact of all. He manifests that a thing is, and whenever He manifests that a thing is, He manifests that it is yours. He seals it to you with the oath and the impress of Almighty God. There are some who have made very high attainments in Divine knowledge and why? Not because they have any greater intellect, but because the Spirit being glorified in those men, has put forth more of His power, and has shown them more. How are some so very like their Master? What has made them so? The passing and re-passing of the Holy Spirit, thousands and thousands and tens of thousands of times, from Christ to those hearts; and every time leaving on the soul another and another little line of the transcendent copy. That is the way by which the living likenesses of Jesus are made on some men's hearts. Therefore, wait honouringly on the Spirit. Confess to His supremacy and solitary power to show you truth. Cherish His still movings, His veil-liftings to the understanding, His loving convictions to the conscience His silken drawings of the affections. If any man perish, it will not be that Christ has not done all for that man's soul, but that He did not seek and cultivate the revealings of the Holy Ghost.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons,5th series, p. 162.
I. He shall take or receive of Mine. The Lord speaks of the Holy Ghost as well entitled to take of what is His, as well able and well qualified to do so, and as one whom He would willingly have to do so. (1) The Spirit is well entitled to take of what is Christ's, especially considering that it is what the Father has that is Christ's because He is Himself a Divine person, one with the Father and the Son. (2) He is not less qualified and able than He is entitled to receive of what is Christ's. For having been with the Father in the ordering of the plan from all eternity, and having been with Christ all along in the accomplishment of it, "He searcheth all things, yea the deep things of God," and in dealing with what is Christ's, He is in His element so to speak, and at home. (2) He is one whom Christ must needs be and is altogether willing to have taking of His. "He shall glorify Me," says Christ Himself; He is of My council, and His sole aim is to carry out My work and to exalt My name.
II. What the Spirit thus takes or receives of Christ's He shows to His Church and people. He does not keep it to Himself, He does not conceal or hide it; He does not intercept or appropriate it. He acts in all good faith, if I may so speak with all reverence, in the way of revealing and transmitting it, so that all that is Christ's may be seen and enjoyed by His believing followers, and Christ Himself may be magnified in their esteem. "He shall glorify Me, for He shall take of Mine and shall show it unto you."
R. S. Candlish, The Sonship and Brotherhood of Believers,p. 265.
References: John 16:15. Spurgeon, Evening by Evening,p. 298; Preacher's Monthly,vol. v., p. 239; Bishop Lightfoot, ChristianWorld Pulpit,vol. xxviii., p. 81; J. Vaughan, Three Hundred Outlines on the New Testament,p. 95. B. Baker, Thursday Penny Pulpit,vol. ii., p. 193. Joh 16:15-33. Parker, Christian Commonwealth,vol. vii., p. 155.