This is the disciple which testifieth of these things
The Gospel of St.
John
I. ITS TRANSCENDENT THEME.
“The things which Jesus did.”
1. Their number--“many.”
2. Their variety--“other.”
3. Their importance. So deep had been the impression made by them that they were even then remembered and could have been written down.
4. Their significance. “The world would not contain,” &c.
II. ITS UNAMED AUTHOR--the disciple whom Jesus loved. That this was John
1. The Gospel indirectly attests.
2. Ecclesiastical tradition confirms.
III. ITS VERACIOUS CHARACTER.
1. The testimony of the author’s consciousness, if verse 24 be authentic.
2. The testimony of his contemporaries, probably the Ephesian
Elders, if verse 24 be non-Johannine.
Lesson: Gratitude
1. To God for His Son, Jesus Christ.
2. To Jesus Christ for the things which He did.
3. To the Holy Spirit for this sublime Gospel (T. Whitelaw, D. D.)
The revealed and the unrevealed in Christ’s biography
I. VERY MUCH HAS BEEN REVEALED. His four biographers have said very much about Christ, and each has presented Him in some fresh aspect.
II. MUCH MORE MIGHT HAVE BEEN REVEALED (John 21:25). What volumes it would have taken to record the deeds and words of Him who never spent an idle hour, but “went about doing good!” Conclusion:
1. We should fully appreciate the amount revealed. It teems with truths, and pulsates with inspiration. A larger amount, perchance, would have been obtrusive rather than helpful.
2. We may anticipate wonderful studies. All the unrevealed will be brought under our observation. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
The authentic and apocryphal Gospels
There are very many things written concerning Christ which are believed by others, but which I do not believe. The evidence from without I care little for, regarding only the evidence from within. Therefore it is that the reading of the uncanonical Gospels is useful in showing what a fine instinct, what a spirit of good taste, what a divinely inspired knowledge of what Christ was, the men who wrote our Four Gospels had. Between the two there is that singular difference which strikes a man of fine taste between the consummate work of a true artist and the work of a dauber, between a work of art wrought in love and one wrought only for bread. For the spirit of an artist creeps into every stroke of his brush; and in the writing of the Gospels, in settling which are canonical, every stroke is a betrayal. The apocryphal Gospels are not only a curious picture of the floating traditions of the Church; they are earthen vessels full of earthly dregs. They gather about Christ the stains of human stupidity and ignorance. Just as a man of fine taste has no difficulty in judging in a moment between a Raphael and what a coarse picture dealer declares to be one; just as one accustomed to the fine aromas of the wine of Hamburg can distinguish it from the spurious rubbish that is brought to imitate it; just as those who know the ring of true gold are proof against being deceived by the counterfeit, so there need be no difficulty in judging of these writings, as compared with the four Gospels now in use. (George Dawson, M. A.)
There are also many other things
The magnitude of Christ’s life
Such words as these are called “strong language” and “exaggeration.” But strong language is always true to the poet, natural to the passionate, truthful to the large-minded; and only obnoxious to the small, feeble, chill-blooded, to those who find human language big enough to live in. Human language is often felt to be like that bed of old, which was so short that a man could not stretch himself on it; and in trying to cover himself with the coverlid, found it to be too narrow. So as the next thing to having an adequate spoken language, men do what they can by extravagance to make it up. A great poet like Shakespeare presses the universe into his passion. He tells the woman he adores that her eyes outvie the brightness of the rising morning. One great ancient wished he was a star that he might look down always on her he loved. So these souls, feeling deeply, in order to say what they wish to say, since words won’t do it, call upon all things to help them--the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valley--all things are called in, that the beloved may be set forth in glory. Strong language is objectionable, is it? Yes, when it is but the emphasis of emptiness; when little people make a great noise, using language stronger than the occasion requires, the sin and shame of it is that they have no feeling adequate to it. But when the heart is all aglow, and the thing to be said infinite, then the most extravagant language is poverty stricken. To hear some commentations over the phrase is charming--“This passage must not be taken literally; of course the Apostle meant--“Oh, thank you for nothing! I want not your dry bread of sand.’” What John meant was that there were so many things that might be told about Christ, that the world could not contain it all. Beautiful expression! And how adequate! Now, what does it teach? If any man’s biography were to be daily written down it would make a big book. One of the most charming books was written by a man on a tour round his chamber. Put some people in a room and they behold no more than a blind horse would. But not so with the instructed man. He would pause at every part of the room, and tell tales about the woodwork, tales of the trees from which the wood came, and or the climate in which they grew--tales that would run back to Adam. Franklin tells us that he “rose at six and washed.” But if he had stopped to tell us all about “rose,” what a volume would be wanted, and so on with “washed” and “dressed.” And so one might come to think with the great poet, that the best portion of a man’s life lies in the little nameless, unrecorded acts of kindness. It is the unwritten things of life that uphold the great things. So, when we think of Christ’s life, and of the little that is said about Him, we know there must have been much that might have been written. (George Dawson, M. A.)
The many things which Jesus did
Does St. John end his Gospel with an exaggeration? What shaft we say?
I. THERE ARE SEVERAL SOLUTIONS.
1. That the passage has been interpolated. But this view has no foundation. The verse is only wanting in one MS.
2. That it is only St. John’s way of expressing his sense of the immense diligence of Christ’s life, and the unparalleled number of His good works; and that, to convey that idea, he uses language which is, indeed, after the Eastern language, hyperbolical; but which could not mislead.
3. That St. John is speaking of all which Christ had done, and is doing, and will do to all eternity--in which acceptation the words would be strictly true--for then we should be dealing with the Everlasting and the Infinite--which, of course, exceeds the compass of the universe. But thecomment is strained and far-fetched.
4. That the word “contain” is ambiguous, and that it might be translated, “the world,” i.e., the ungodly world, “would not receive the whole of what Jesus did.”
5. That St. John is speaking not of the mere outward actions, but of what they represented and involved. And this is none other than a literal truth that “if all these” were “written,” seriatim, “the world itself could not contain the account which should be written.”
II. The last seems to be the only true understanding of St. John’s words: THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE FULNESS THAT THERE IS IN THE MINUTEST PORTION OF CHRIST’S MINISTRY.
1. Remember
(1) It is the life of the Son of God who came to this earth for about thirty-three years, of which we have the history of only three, and in those three only a few leading, salient features.
(2) That the object of this short visit was the salvation of the whole world.
(3) That infinite love, wisdom, and power met in His every word and act.
(4) That the record, which has been given us, has been left for His Church to read, and live upon for ever. There is enough to satisfy the whole intellect and affection of the race. And if the gospel be such as this--what a weight, what an infinity, there must be in every iota. If we waste a crumb, it must be at our peril, and with great damage! Here is our duty, and here is the great work of the Holy Ghost, to find the latent senses of each fraction of that portentous narrative. “The secret of the Lord,”--covered thoughts, intentions sealed except to the initiated--“the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him.”
2. You must consider also
(l) Every action of Christ was first a great beautiful fact, standing out to be admired.
(2) It was an illustration of His character, in which we are to read out His sympathy, wisdom, power, faithfulness, &c.
(3) We are to read, through Him, God--the only real delineation we have of the Invisible Father.
(4) It is the illustration and the pledge of what Christ is and does now He is in glory.
(5) It is our pattern and example that we may copy.
(6) It is an allegory--a parable of spiritual things which always lie underneath it.
3. Now, take any one event in our Lord’s ministry, and divide it into all these parts: see it in all its lights; and what a volume will be there! Regard, in this way, His baptism, or His temptation, or His transfiguration, or His death, &c., or any one of His miracles; or a prayer, a touch, a look; and into what masses and mountains of thought it all swells! What piles upon piles might be said and written!
4. Think of all that, for nearly nineteen centuries, has been said and written by the Church on those four Gospels; and yet it is not exhausted. New thoughts, new beauties, new comforts are coming up every day. And were the world to last nineteen thousand centuries more, it would be just the same! And will not these things be the themes of faculties infinitely higher, than now, throughout eternity? Do not “the angels” still “desire to look” on them?
5. Then, we must add to the account that there were “many things which Jesus did” which St. John knew but did not record; many more, which none knew, or could know. But all would bear the same development.
6. Then, when, for a moment, we try to draw these together and conceive the total of such an aggregate, is the language one whir too strong?
III. LET ME GATHER SOME INFERENCES.
1. When we have to do with the life of Christ, we are dealing with the most solemn immensities. The more we study it, the more we shall feel with St. John--that we are standing on the shore of a boundless ocean; that what we see is nothing compared to what lies beyond the horizon. That all human intellect put together, and all the largest hearts of men of love, if that love could go on for ever, could not contain the half of what Christ did, and what Christ was. Is that too much to say? You will not think so if you love Him and know Him.
2. Therefore you must come to the contemplation of every part of Christ’s life very modestly. There is much more than you have any idea of. If you think you know any verse of the Bible, you have yet a great deal to learn. You will never empty it. And, seeing it so exceeds all our proportions, you must pray for the enlargement of your own soul, that you may be able to contain it.
3. For a heart enlarged by the Holy Ghost has a greater capacity than the universe. The universe could not contain it; but, by the working of the Holy Ghost, it is promised you shall be “able to comprehend with all saints, what is the length, and breadth, and depth, and height, and know that love of Christ which passeth knowledge.” (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
The unwritten sayings of Jesus
When I see how much has been written of those who have lived; how the Greeks preserved every saying of Plato’s; how Boswell followed Johnson, gathering up every leaf that fell from that rugged old oak, and pasting it away, I almost regret that one of the disciples had not been a recording angel, to preserve the odour and richness of every word of Christ. When John says, “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written,” it affects me more profoundly than when I think of the destruction of the Alexandrian Library, or the perishing of Grecian art in Athens or Byzantium. The creations of Phidias were cold stone, overlaid by warm thought; but Christ described His own creations when He said, “The words that I speak unto you, they are life.” The leaving out of these things from the New Testament, though divinely wise, seems, to my yearning, not so much the unaccomplishment of noble things, as the destruction of great treasures, which had already had oral life, but failed of incarnation in literature. (H. W. Beecher.)
The sufficiency of the Gospels
Supposing a complete biography of Christ to have been written, let us consider
I. ITS MAGNITUDE. In every life there are many transactions which would add nothing to the completeness of a biography. There are many things in the experience of us all which are like blades of grass. To distinguish them in a picture would be to impair it and give us not the field but the grass. But things were otherwise with Christ. Every miracle, prayer, look, &c., was worthy of a picture by itself. And suppose instead of our present summary we had all the details what a library there would be. And then there are many things which it takes a longer time to describe than to do.
II. ITS CUMBROUSNESS.
1. What life would be long enough to produce it.
2. What means could be adequate to disperse it.
3. What man could read, let alone remember it. Conclusion: Let us see the impossibility of making any improvement in God’s Word. There is wisdom as well in its limits as in its matter and form. (Mathematicus.)
St. John’s Gospel a collection of specimens
The materials which he has actually made use of are few in number compared with the store from which he might have drawn; he omitted many things, the record of which might have over-filled the world with books; with only a few selections from his rich treasury, he shows us the glory of the Incarnate Word--as if a painter should take a bit of grey rock, a tuft of maidenhair fern growing in a crevice, some patches of grass and heather, a tree or two, a human figure, a dim-seen mountain range, the infinite blue sky, and putting these into a picture should show us the glory of God in nature. (J. Culross, D. D.)
Christ an inexhaustable treasure
Treasures many are contained in the Bible, but not all. There are more treasures in Christ than even in the Bible. He could not transfer all the treasures of His person into a book, “for if they should be written,” &c. Blessed be God for the treasures contained in this precious volume before me, but the day will arrive when they shall be all exhausted. But after exhausting the treasures of the Book, the treasures of the Person will still remain. Blessed be His name for the treasures which have come through Christ, thrice blessed for the treasures that are in Christ. Dwelling in Him are treasures enough to make a dozen new Bibles, the Bibles of eternity. (J. Cynddylan Jones, D. D.)
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