On the last day, that great day of the feast
Jesus the Christ
I. PROFFERING BLESSINGS.
1. Water for the thirsty (John 7:37; Exodus 17:6; Numbers 20:11; Psalms 78:15; Psalms 78:20, Psalms 105:41; Matthew 5:6).
2. Usefulness for the believing (John 7:38; Proverbs 4:23, Proverbs 18:4; Ac Romans 14:7; 1 Corinthians 6:20; James 3:10).
3. Divine aid for men (John 7:39; Isaiah 44:3; Joel 2:28; Zec John 16:7; Acts 2:33; Philippians 2:13).
II. AWAKENING THOUGHT.
1. The prophet (John 7:40; Deuteronomy 18:15, Deuteronomy 18:18; John 1:21, John 6:14; Acts 3:23; Acts 7:37).
2. The Christ (John 7:41; Matthew 16:16; Mark 14:61; Luke 4:41; John 1:41; John 4:29).
3. The seed of David (.John 7:42; Isaiah 11:1; Jeremiah 33:22; Luke 1:69; Romans 1:3; 2 Timothy 2:8; Revelation 5:5).
III. BAFFLING FOES.
1. Bitter enemies (John 7:44; Matthew 21:46; Mark 11:18; Luke 19:47, Luke 20:19; John 7:19; John 7:30).
2. Perplexed officials (John 7:46; Matthew 7:28; Matthew 27:22, Matthew 27:24; Mk Luke 23:22; Acts 23:9).
3. Raging Pharisees (John 7:47; Luke 5:30; Luke 6:7, Luke 7:30; John 7:32; Acts 23:9). (S. S. Times.)
Jesus the Christ
I. JESUS’ CLAIM TO DIVINE FULNESS (John 7:37-39).
1. It was tabernacles. The last day had come. It was Sabbath. All hearts overflowed with joy. With water from Siloah the priest came, pouring it upon the altar in the presence of all the people. That water was a symbol of salvation (Isaiah 12:3). Seeing it, Jesus makes, regarding Himself, this proclamation: “If any man thirst, let Him come unto Me and drink.” How emphatic the word “thirst!” It means all the needs of the soul and the deep cravings of mankind. The word “drink” is equally strong. Jesus here offers Himself as a complete satisfaction to man. The claim here set forth is one and the same thing with Isaiah 55:1. The same person speaks in both places. Jesus thus declares Himself to be God, i.e., the Christ.
2. The same thing is claimed in verse 38. The believer, having received Jesus, becomes himself a fountain of eternal life--rather is he a channel through which the grace of God flows to bless other hearts. This is the effect of the regenerating and sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. This Spirit is secured for the sinful world by the atonement of Jesus Christ. The cross has two sides--one turned towards God the Father, reconciling Him to man a sinner; the other turned towards man, securing for him the Holy Ghost. Under these two aspects Christ’s sacrifice is always presented in the Bible. It is to the last of these that verses 38, 39 refer. Hence Jesus declares Himself the Christ.
II. THE PEOPLE CLAIM JESUS AS CHRIST (verses 40-44).
1. Some declared that He was “The Prophet” (Deuteronomy 18:15). The person here spoken of was held by the Jews to be the coming Messiah Acts 3:22-23).
2. Others bolder, pronouncing His name: “This is the Christ” (verse 41).
3. A third party, while they seemingly rejected Him, bore a testimony to His being the true Messiah (verses 41, 42). He had both the lineage and birthplace which they required to convince them. Only their own ignorance stood in the way. Observe:
(1) It was Christ’s strong claim regarding Himself that won Him confessors. So in teaching, we must present the truth in strong terms, leaving results with the truth itself.
(2) A little ignorance often prevents men from receiving the gospel (verse 42).
(3) Anything for an excuse is the motto of some persons. The cry now is, “He is a Galilean!” If not this, then something else, equally untrue.
(4) The plain teaching of the Word is apt to attract the attention of all and cause divisions among the people (verse 43). Nothing is talked about so much as Christianity.
(5) No one can damage the truth, except so far as God gives him permission, and then it is for a wise purpose, as the future will show (verses 32, 44). His hour did come. Then He was crucified. The greatest crime secured the world the greatest blessing!
III. THE OFFICERS CLAIM JESUS AS CHRIST (verses 45-49). Their testimony in His behalf is contained in verse 46. It was the same as saying: “His speaking is that of a Divine person.” Those hard men, that went to arrest Him, were overcome by the love shown in His speech; by the truth which impressed them; by the persuasion His words carried with them and by His authority as a teacher. These all were so marked that, returning, His enemies had to declare. “Never man so spake”--none, save God, could show such love, truth, persuasion and authority.
1. These are all divine qualities, man having them in proportion as he is “endued with power from on high.”
2. The gospel has these four great elements--Love, Truth, Persuasion, and Authority.
3. Those who will not receive the gospel pronounce such testimony as this “deception” (verse 47). The belief of the humble-hearted is foolishness unto the intellectual-proud (verses 48, 49).
IV. Nicodemus claims Him to be Christ (verses 50-53). The charge against Jesus by the Pharisees was that He claimed to be from God, the true Messiah. Nicodemus virtually said this: “You have not disproved this claim; nothing has been done to prove the falsity of Jesus’ words” (verse 51). He might have made His testimony stronger. We must remember that a secret disciple is not bold in word or deed. The reply of the Pharisees was weak, showing that their cause was based on ignorance and prejudice (verse 52). Such is the cause of unbelief to-day. (A. H. Moment, D. D.)
If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink
The thirst of humanity anticipated and met
On the last day of the feast of tabernacles the priests stood near the altar and poured water over it copiously from large capacious vessels. Perhaps the day took its name “the great day” from that circumstance. It was a symbolical act intended to connect itself with the predictions that in the days of the Messiah God would pour out His Spirit, and was something like a prayer that they might live to see those days and share that blessing. It was our Lord’s custom to connect His teaching with occurrences before Him, and so, perhaps pointing to that act, He said, “If any man,” etc., proclaiming His Messiahship.
I. HUMANITY IS THE SUBJECT OF INTENSE SPIRITUAL DESIRES. We know how intense the animal appetite of “thirst” may become. How terrible it has been in the burning desert or the besieged city i That is here taken to indicate the character of spiritual desire, and is an ordinary rhetorical figure used by our poets and philosophers when they speak of the thirst of gold, ambition, etc. But Christ offers no drink for the appetites or passions.
1. There is the thirst of the intellect--the desire for truth. It is very wonderful how soon the mind of a child will begin to speculate about the mystery of life, of death, of God, and the soul.
2. There is the thirst of conscience in two forms.
(1) There is the consciousness of moral weakness. A man feels the moral obligation he is under, sees the beauty of duty, has a conviction of right, but a sense of infirmity of purpose--makes his strong resolutions and scatters them the next day. And so the moral nature thirsts for strength to perform.
(2) The conscience is burdened by a sense of sin, and yearns for its forgiveness and removal. This has given rise to priests. The people create the priests. No priesthood ever yet originated itself for the purpose of trampling on the people.
3. There is the thirst of the heart: not merely a desire for happiness. You are made for something greater than that. There is a thirst in looking at the dislocation of things around us. What tears of soul bereavement and pain let out the waters of bitterness in times of darkness I So the soul wants something to rest upon, to feel that we are not in a neglected and fatherless world.
II. JESUS CHRIST IN THE GOSPEL MEETS THESE DIVERSIFIED WANTS.
1. Christianity professes to be a revelation of spiritual truth. It interprets nature and adds communications of its own about all that it is necessary for us to know.
2. Christianity meets the thirst of conscience in a special way.
(1) By the revelation of the Person of Christ. The gospel does not come as a system of thought, nor are its preachers philosophers; it presents a Saviour, through whom we may obtain forgiveness of sins.
(2) Connected with this is the mission of the Spirit to renew, to strengthen the will, to purify the affections, to make duty a delight, and bring the whole man into harmony with duty and God (Romans 8:3-4).
3. Christianity meets the thirst of the heart by providing a large measure of rational and manly happiness, and that in two ways.
(1) By the life of faith--faith as a daily habit, looking to God in all things; and along with that it gives spiritual consolation and grace.
(2) By the character it creates and sustains, delivering us from the torments which attend passion, sin, disharmony with God.
III. CHRIST NOT ONLY MEETS THE THIRST OF HUMANITY, BUT IS URGENT TO MEET IT. “Let Him come.” Do not mystify yourselves with the metaphysics of the Divine decrees. Take Christ in His plain utterances and remember that secret things belong unto God. He says, “if any man will, let Him come”--believe in His honesty of purpose, and that He means what He says, “It is not the will of my Father that one of these little ones should perish.” “You may perish, but that will be from your own acts, not God’s.”
IV. CHRIST IN MEETING THIS THIRST DOES OF SET PURPOSE MAKE US A BLESSING TO OTHERS. “Out of Him shall flow,” etc. (T. Binney.)
Thirst relieved
“A word spoken in season how good it is!” Much of the force of an observation depends upon its being well-timed. The orators of Greece and Rome attended to this. But there was One who “spake as never man spake,” who seized all occasions. Here is an instance of it.
I. THE APPETITE SUPPOSED.
1. Let us account for it. When man proceeded from the hand of God he was a stranger to thirst. He was formed for the enjoyment of God, and God became the source of his enjoyment. Then he was in his element. But sin has removed man from the fountain, and he now wanders through a parched wilderness. “My people have committed two evils,” etc.
2. Its nature. It includes
(1) Want and emptiness. The mind has an aching void. We might as well expect light in a beam cut off from the sun, the source of all radiance, as expect satisfaction of mind without God.
(2) Restlessness--the fever of the mind. Hence the anxiety of change, “seeking rest and finding none.”
(3) Misery. Disappointed in the objects of pursuit men turn away in disgust, saying, “miserable comforters are ye all.” Hence despondency and suicide.
3. Its universal prevalence. It is felt more or less intensely, but none are strangers to it.
(1) The inquiries of men prove this. “Who will show us any good.”
(2) The pursuits of men prove this. The toils of the studious, the slumbers of the voluptuary, the cell of the hermit, the hoards of the miser, all.say, “I thirst.”
(3) The regrets of men prove this. “Vanity of vanities,” etc.
II. THE SATISFACTION PREPARED.
1. The person who offers the refreshment. The eternal Son of God who became man, to die for sin and rise and ascend into heaven to “receive gifts for men,” even the Holy Spirit. The “living water.” Christ has the Spirit without measure for the enlightenment and salvation of men. Here is all that can satisfy the thirsty, soul--pardon for the guilty, liberty for the enslaved, peace for the distracted, and finally heaven.
2. The means of getting the living water. Note
(1) the approach of faith, “let him come.”
(2) The application of faith “drink.”
III. THE EXTENT OF THE INVITATION. “If any man.”
1. As to character. There is no description of the persons invited. “If any man,” be he who he may, whatever his age, country, condition. This is better than any specification of name, for others might bear the same.
2. As to the simplicity of the qualification. All men thirst. Don’t say I am not thirsty enough. If you thirst at all you are meant.
3. As to the sincerity of the Inviter. Can we doubt this? Is He not able, and willing to relieve us.
Conclusion:
1. Learn why Christ is imperfectly appreciated--because men do not realize their moral condition.
2. If this is not assuaged here it never will be in eternity. Read the parable of the rich man. (G. Clayton.)
Rivers of living water
1. These words were spoken on the last day of the feast--therefore on the last opportunity for doing good to that multitude. The dispersion of a mighty crowd is always affecting, as we forecast that it is a final parting with some, and see in it a foreshadowing of that last separation. Our Lord was sensitive to such feelings, and could not suffer the vast assemblage to break up without giving them something which might reveal itself in their hearts when far from the excitement of the city.
2. It was the great day, when, after the solemnities of the previous week and their august associations and suggestions, all susceptible souls would be open to elevated thoughts. So Jesus, seizing the moment when the metal was molten to give His own impress to it, cried, “If any man,” etc.
3. Christ’s gift is living waters. He speaks to us as subject to desires for which nature has made no provision, and offers Himself as a fountain of relief and eternal satisfaction. His words sweep the entire circle of humanity, for every man thirsts. The only question is, Can His religion do what everything else confessedly fails to do? “Yes,” said Jesus. The Holy Spirit as given by Him is as rivers of living water, because
I. THE SPIRIT IS THE CHANNEL OF GOD’S LOVE TO SOULS.
1. Man thirsts for love. It is the nobleness of our nature that food and raiment and gross pleasures do not satisfy it. What makes childhood’s blessedness, but that its whole atmosphere is love? Yet how far all human love comes short of satisfying our craving all know. But let a man be thoroughly certified that God loves him to save him, and that every moment he has access to God to tell Him all his griefs, what a river of refreshment must this love prove in his heart.
2. God’s love to us is His love in Christ--love, the most ample in its measure, the most intense in its power, the most complete in its adjustments to our condition. But it is not this love in a book that will give us relief. The testimony of the Book must be transferred to the heart to become a living reality there. The Spirit adds nothing to its dimensions, but makes it approved and accepted to the soul. Divine love is the sovereign element of all blessedness: Christ is the Divine Vessel holding that love which flows over with sweet waters, but it is the Spirit which witnesses of this to the soul.
II. THE SPIRIT IS THE CREATOR OF BLESSED AFFECTIONS IN THE SOUL. “Shall be in Him.” Man thirsts for an inward blessedness. Not in his circumstances but in his heart, in noble views, pure affections, generous aspirations, lies the true well-being of man. He may have millions and yet be haunted with fears of starvation. He may allow himself every luxury, and yet his soul be a level of monotonous wretchedness. Malignant self-centred passions are the fever of the soul. Place a man amidst the splendours of royalty, and a jealous spirit will make him miserable. It is from a right state of the heart that its blessedness must flow; therefore the true salvation of man is not outward but inward. It has its outward elements in an alteration of man’s relation to God; but what were it worth for the outcast to be delivered from his rags and poverty, and be received back if he retained all the evil passions which ruined him? He must become an altered man to become blessed. All experience and Scripture bear witness that this is a work not for man but for the Spirit of God. It is the almighty spirit of love, whose living waters flowing into the heart destroy its bitterness and impurity, and make it a fountain of brightness.
III. THE SPIRIT IS THE POWER OF SPIRITUAL COMMUNICATION.
1. As the waters of a fountain gush forth by their own pleasure, so do the living waters of spiritual life impart themselves to all around. Every refreshed soul is constituted a well of refreshment, like a fertile spot in the wilderness. How is this done? By the gifts and service which it prompts. Whenever He is in the heart, our families, neighbourhoods, churches will be refreshed. Stagnant waters which have no outlet become corrupt and bitter like the Dead Sea.
2. Man thirsts for successful, useful action. You are not content with the result which your daily calling gives you. Without despising common duties, you feel that you were made for nobler things. Well, the noblest course is open to all. You need not acquire rank or money. If renewed by the Spirit, you can make your course as a shining river. No other life is worth living: all other is vanity and vexation.
3. This blessedness and usefulness must be habitual, a river not a brook. Nothing can be more remote from the true idea of the Holy Spirit than transcient excitement. Conclusion:
1. This gift of the Spirit is acquired by faith. “Coming” is
“believing.”
2. This gift assumes different forms in different believers.
3. This gift every believer is bound to use. (J. Riddell, M. A.)
The incident
While the morning sacrifice was being prepared, a priest, accompanied by a joyous procession with music, went down to the pool of Siloam, whence he drew water into a golden pitcher capable of holding three log (rather more than two pints). But on the Sabbath they fetched the water from a golden vessel in the Temple itself, into which it had been carried from Siloam on the preceding day. At the same time that the procession started for Siloam, another went to a place in the Kedron valley, close by, called Motza, whence they brought willow branches, which, amid the blasts of the priests’ trumpets, they stuck on either side of the altar of burnt offering, bending them over toward it so as to form a kind of leafy canopy. Then the ordinary sacrifice proceeded, the priest who had gone to Siloam so timing it that he returned just as his brethren carried up the pieces of the sacrifice to lay them on the altar. As he entered by the “water-gate,” which obtained its name from this ceremony, he was received by a threefold blast from the priests’ trumpets. The priests then went up the rise of the altar and turned to the left, where there were two silver basins with narrow holes--the eastern, a little wider, for the wine; and the western, a little narrower, for the water. Into these the wine of the drink offering was poured, and at the same time the water from Siloam, the people shouting to the priest, “Raise thy hand,” to show that he really poured the water into the basin which led to the base of the altar … As soon as the wine and water were poured out, the Temple music began, and the Hallel (Psalms 113:1-9, Psalms 118:1-29.) was sung … Salvation in connection with the Son of David was symbolized by the pouring out of water Thus the Talmud says distinctly, “Why is the name of it called the drawing out of water? Because of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, according to what is said: ‘ With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.’”… We can now in some measure realize the event. The festivities of the week of tabernacles were drawing to a close. “It was the last day, that great day of the feast.”… It was on that day after the priest had returned from Siloam with his golden pitcher, and for the last time poured its contents to the base of the altar; after the Hallel had been sung to the sound of the flute, the people shouting and worshipping as the priests three times drew the threefold blasts from their silver trumpets--just when the interest of the people had been raised to its highest pitch, that from the mass of the worshippers, who were waving towards the altar quite a forest of leafy branches as the last words of Psalms 118:1-29, were chanted--a voice was raised which resounded through the Temple, startled the multitude, and carried fear and hatred to the hearts of their leaders. It was Jesus who “stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink.” Then by faith in Him should each one truly become like the pool of Siloam, and from his inmost being “rivers of water flow.” “This spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive.” Thus the significance of the rite, in which they had just taken part, was not only fully explained, but the mode of its fulfilment pointed out. (A. Edersheim, D. D.)
The significance of the incident and Christ’s use of it
In the latter days of Jerusalem, as we learn from the history of the period, a ceremony was added to those of the ordained feasts of booths, intended, evidently, to commemorate the thirst in the wilderness, and the supply that was provided from the rock in Horeb. On the last day of the feast, towards evening, the priests formed a procession, and, having drawn water from the pool of Siloam, bore it to the Temple, and poured it on the ground, so that it should flow down to the lower streets of the city. This symbol pointed, probably, to Ezekiel’s grand vision of waters issuing from the Temple, small at first, but rapidly increasing, until they became a river that could not be passed over--a river to swim in. The precession of priests has gone to Siloam and returned to the Temple. They have poured the water from the golden vessel, and a rivulet is making its way along the unwonted channel, forth from the hallowed courts towards the city. The assembled crowds are ranged on either side, watching the progress of the mimic stream. The beams of the setting sun strike the water, where in a hollow it spreads into a pool, and golden glory flashes for a moment from the spot that had been dull dry earth before. The multitude gaze in ignorant superstition; but some of the Lord’s hidden ones are there, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and spelling painfully out of these dead letters the name of their living Redeemer. Jesus looked on the crowd as they gazed wistfully on the symbolic water. His heart was yearning for them. He knew what was in man: He knew that the Jews made idols of these significant signs, as they made idols of the scriptures which were printed on their clothing. He saw them drinking that which cannot quench the thirst of a soul. He pitied them, and came to the rescue. (W. Arnot, D. D.)
The Preacher’s last sermon for the season
I. THE INQUIRY FOR THE THIRSTY.
1. It is very wide. “Any man” of all that heterogeneous mass.
2. It is anxiously narrowed down. “If”--as if He had said the mass of you do not thirst; do any of you thirst? He reads their genera/indifference only too well. Alas I the thirsty are few: self-content possesses the minds of many, and world content steals over others. They are in a desert; no drop of dew falls about them, and the water-bottle has long since been dry; but they are mocked by the mirage, and they put aside their thirst with the fond idea that they can drink to the full.
3. It is painfully clear. The thirsty know what thirst is. It is a self-explaining pain.
4. It is being continually repeated. It is as urgent to day as then.
5. What is this thirst? Nothing actual or substantive; it is a lack crying out of its emptiness. When our system needs drink, a merciful providence creates a pang which drives us to a supply. Thirst rings the alarm bell, and mind and body set to work to supply the demand. It were a dreadful thing if the system needed water and yet did not thirst; for we might be fatally injured before we knew that any harm was happening to us. So with spiritual thirst.
II. THE ONE DIRECTION FOR THE RELIEF OF ALL SUCH THIRSTY ONES. “Let him come,” etc.
1. Christ who gives the water which quenches spiritual thirst, invites us to Himself personally. What creed you are to believe will do by and by, just now your duty is to come to Christ. At this time Christ had not been crucified, risen, etc., but the text was spoken with a foresight of all that should transpire up to His glorification. Come directly to Him, who by all this has become a fountain of living water--not to creeds, ceremonies, sacraments, priests, services, doings, or feelings. Salvation lies in Him only.
2. All that a sinner wants is to be found in abundance in Him, and all that every sinner wants.
3. In Jesus is a varied supply. The thirst of the soul is not like the thirst of the body which is quenched with one liquid; the soul thirsts for many things--peace in distraction, pardon of sin, purity from pollution, progress ingrace, power in prayer, perseverance; and all this is in Christ.
4. We must come to Christ and bring nothing of our own except our thirst, and that coming is believing.
5. Having come we must drink--the first action of the infant, the easiest act of the man.
III. THE PERMISSION HERE GIVEN FOR THEIR PARTICIPATION.
1. There is no limit as to what thou has formerly done, in the way of sin, unbelief, hardness, denial.
2. There is no limit put as to where thou hast been before. A man went to a merchant to ask the price of a certain article. He then went to others and tried to buy at a cheaper rate, but found that the first had quoted the lowest price. So he went back, but the merchant refused to serve him, not caring for such customers. But if you have been to Moses, to Rome, yea, even to the devil, Christ still says, “Come unto Me.”
3. There is no limit because of any kind of lack. Some think themselves deficient in tenderness, or penitence, or disqualified by age, poverty, illiterateness. Some are locking the door with the very key that was meant to open it. “I am afraid I do not thirst;” “I have not the sense of need I ought to have;” but this means that you are sensible that you are more needy than you think you are. The fact that you need a sense of need proves how horrible is your need. Would you come if you did thirst? Then come and you shall thirst. The more unfit the more you are invited; your very unfitness is your fitness.
4. When Christ says “Come” nobody else can say “Nay.”
IV. THE ENTREATY FOR THEIR COMING. “Jesus stood and cried.” It was the last opportunity, hence the urgency. Surely we ought to entreat Him to let us come. Instead of that we are callous. When a man has charity to give does he entreat people to accept it? How strange that you should be so unwilling and Christ so anxious! (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The great invitation
I. WHO THEY ARE WHO ARE INVITED. The thirsty.
1. In all thirst there is
(1) A sense of want. Every man is sensible that he is not self-sufficient.
(2) Desire of supply. The soul of man is ever desiring.
2. The object of this thirsting
(1) The end where the soul may rest, and that is happiness. For this every man thirsts.
(2) The means leading to the end. He that desires refreshment, desires also to drink, though he may by ignorance take a cup of poison.
3. There is a two-fold thirst
(1) Natural and common to all men. It is as natural for a man to desire happiness as it is for him to breathe. But men miss the way and seek it in the world, and hence, disappointed, say, “Who will show us any good?”
(2) Supernatural, experienced by those only whose heart God hath touched. “My soul thirsteth for the living God.” There is no happiness unless this is satisfied.
II. TO WHAT THEY ARE INVITED.
1. To come to Christ, i.e., to believe on Him (John 7:33). Unbelief is a departing from the living God: faith is coming back.
2. To drink, i.e., to actually make use of Christ for the supply of this need. This points out three things in Christ.
(1) The fulness of Christ for needy sinners.
(a) In Him there is a fulness of merit to take off the fulness of our guilt.
(b) A fulness of the Spirit to take away the power of sin, and to actuate us in all good.
(c) A fulness of grace.
(2) The suitableness of Christ. In Him there is a remedy for every disorder.
(3) His satisfactoriness. This drinking also implies three things in us.
(a) The soul going out for a supply of its particular wants, renouncing all confidence in itself or any creature (Jeremiah 17:5).
(b) The soul’s going out in desire after supply from Christ upon His invitation.
(c) Believing application of Christ to the soul in
(i) catching hold of the promise suited to our case.
(ii) Venturing our case upon the promise and proposed supply.
(iii) Confidence in Christ answering our necessities.
III. MOTIVES FOR ACCEPTING THE INVITATION.
1. The supply of the needs of sinners is the great end of the mystery of Christ.
2. He is able to supply all needs however great they may be. Christ is a fountain that is never dry. The creatures are broken cisterns and soon exhausted.
3. Consider your need of Him.
4. If you come now you will drink of the rivers of God’s pleasures for evermore. (T. Boston, D. D.)
We must drink in the gospel
A celebrated minister was once taken ill, and his wife requested him to go and consult an eminent physician. He went to this physican, who welcomed him very heartily. The minister stated his case. The doctor said: “Oh it is a very simple matter, you have only to take such and such a drug and you will be right.” The patient was about to go, but the physician pressed him to stay, and they entered into pleasant conversation. The minister went home to his wife and told her what a delightful man the doctor had proved to be. He said, “I do not know that I ever had a more delightful talk. The good man is eloquent, and witty, and gracious.” The wife replied, “But what remedy did he prescribe?” “Dear,” said the minister, “I quite forgot what he told me on that point.” “What?” said she, “did you go to a physician for advice, and came away without the remedy?” “It quite slipped my mind” he said, “the doctor talked so pleasantly that his prescription has quite gone out of my head.” You must receive Christ by faith. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Christ a Divine Fountain
“If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. What man would dare to say of merely physical things, “If any man lacks knowledge, let him come unto me.” Neither Humbolt, nor Liebig, nor Agassiz would dare to say this, even of the departments in which they are pre-eminent, how much less of the whole range of learning! yet Christ, disdaining physical things, appeals at once to the soul with all its yearnings, its depths of despair, its claspings--like a mother feeling at midnight for the child whom death has taken--its infinite outreachings, its longings for love, and peace, and joy, which nothing can satisfy this side of the bosom of God, and says, “If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink.” He stands over against whatever want there is in the human bosom, whatever hunger there is in the moral faculties, whatever need there is in the imagination, and says, “He that cometh to Me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst.” (H. W. Beecher.)
The gospel a general offer of grace
I was travelling some time ago, and I had a little child with me, and I was not acquainted with the law of the railroad respecting children, but I happened to see this announcement, “All children under five years of age free.” I did not ask any questions. My child was under five. Neither did I buy a ticket. I took the announcement to mean what it said, and did not pay a halfpenny. (D. L. Moody.)
We must feel our need of Christ before we come to Him
Suppose a man were to call upon the physician and say, “Well, sir, I want your services.” “Are you sick?” says the physician. “No; not that I know of.” “What, then, do you want of me?” “Oh! I want your services.” “But what for?” The man makes no reply. “Are you in pain?” “No.” “Is your head out of order?” “No.” “Nor your stomach?” “No; I believe not. I feel perfectly well; but still I thought I should like a little of your help.” What would a doctor think of such a case as this? “What must Christ think of those that ask His help, not feeling that they really need it? (H. W. Beecher.)
The thirsty should drink
During a revival in a town in Ohio, a man who had been very worldly minded was awakened, but for some time concealed his feelings, even from his wife, who was a praying woman. She left him one evening in charge of his little girl of three years of age. After her departure his anxiety of mind became so great that he walked the room in his agony. The little girl noticed his agitation, and inquired, “What ails you, pa?” He replied, “Nothing,” and endeavoured to quiet his feelings, but all in vain. The child looked up sympathizingly in his face, and inquired, with all the artlessness and simplicity of childhood, “Pa, if you were dry, wouldn’t you go and get a drink of water?” The father started as if a voice from heaven had fallen on his ear. He thought of his thirsty soul famishing for the waters of life; he thought of that living Fountain opened in the gospel; he believed, and straightway fell at the Saviour’s feet. From that hour he dates the dawning of a new light, and the beginning of a new life.
The patience of Christ
It was the last day of the feast of tabernacles. It was the eighth day which was spent as a Sabbath, but the Saviour did not cease to preach because the festival was almost over. Till the last day He continued to instruct, to invite, to entreat. It is but one instance out of many of the Saviour’s pertinacity of lovingkindness. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Faith is easy
Drink! That is not a difficult action. Any fool can drink; in fact, many are great fools because they drink too much of poisonous liquors. Drink! Thou canst surely do that. Thou hast only to be as a spunge that sucks up all that comes near it. Put thy mouth down and suck up that which flows to thee in the river of Christ’s love, open wide thy soul and drink in Christ, as the great northern whirlpool sucks in the sea. If any man thirst let him receive Christ. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The spirit dwelling in, and flowing from, the Christian man
Now was the time of the autumn heats. The effects of the harvest rains had long passed. The crops were just removed from the face of the ground. Above was the burning Syrian sun. Beneath--as with us, now--was the scorched and arid soil. All was dust, and weariness, and heat. It was the time of a great festival--the great autumnal feast of tabernacles, commemorative of the fruits of the earth now gathered in.
I. Here you may observe we have AN INVITATION--“Jesus stood, and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let Him come unto Me, and drink.”
1. There seems to me something emphatic in that word, “stood.” It expresses in a teacher the attitude of prominence, energy, aggression. It was well suited to High, who, as tie was there placed amidst that perishing throng, came “to seek, and to save that which was lost.”
2. And the voice is still more marked than the attitude. “Jesus stood and cried.” This term is applied to those who arc labouring under some strong passion or affection of the mind, whether of grief, fear, desire, or other. Here it expresses earnestness and energy. At least, let ministers shew by their manner that they have a deep interest in the salvation of those they address.
3. But from the attitude, and the voice, turn we to the words themselves, to the gracious invitation of the Lord. Whom does He address? Those who thirst. A large class, as many will testify. For they who thirst include all who are not satisfied.
(1) There, for example, are they who are disappointed. On them life opened fairly and brightly, but its horizon became overcast. Full of joyous anticipation they sprang forward with alacrity in the race of life. But unlooked for difficulties arose, They experienced treachery and falsehood. Life to them lost its charm. They found not what they sought. They thirsted, but were not satisfied.
(2) Then there are the prosperous who cannot be satiated with prosperity. In their fulness they are empty; in their joyfulness they are sad; pleasure pleases not; slumber soothes not.
(3) And there are those, too, who, having tried to slake the thirst of their undying souls with dying things, and discovering their error, are now seeking in things heavenly, unfailing sources, and perennial fountains. These do not, now, thirst for the creature. They have found out their error, and plainly see that the creature cannot satisfy. Now to these, and to all others, unsatisfied, anxious, craving, desiring, thirsting, Jesus cries, “Come unto Me, and drink.” And it is thus that Jesus meets the cravings of our humanity; His providence supplies our bodily wants. “As thy day, so shall thy strength be.” In the same way man’s intellect meets in his God, that on which it can repose. Who should satisfy mind but He who made mind! But, oh! the storms and tempests of thought! Then there is the way in which the Saviour meets man’s spirit. The heart of man must have something whereon to repose, something to love, something wherewith to sympathize. The Saviour in His humanity here meets the heart of man.
II. Nor must we omit to notice THE EXTENT OF THE LORD’S INVITATION--“Any man.” “If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink.”
III. Having thus spoken of this invitation of our Lord, we have now to notice HIS PROMISE, WITH JOHN’S COMMENT THEREON.
1. “Water.” Refreshment and purification are presented to us in this figure.
2. “Living water.” Not stagnant, much less putrescent. Life belongs to the Christian; and this life he must seek to impart to others.
3. “Rivers of living water.” Here are presented to us ideas of depth, copiousness, perpetuity. Eternal life in believers is not to be scant, or shallow. A joyous and abounding river, it is to flow with waters exuberant and vivifying to all around.
4. They are “flowing waters.” “Out of Him shall flow rivers.” The Spirit which God has given is not to be restrained.
IV. But in WHAT MANNER may this water of the Spirit in a man be said to flow out of him?
1. One main method of the manifestation of the Spirit has already been alluded to--by the words of our mouth. But we would not restrain the symbol of these flowing waters only to a man’s words.
2. His actions also may be included. The Christian’s life should be a continual call to turn from the path of death.
3. Influence we would also name as another most effective mode of making these waters flow to the benefit of our fellow-men. Influence! Influence voluntary, and involuntary! How wide its extent, and how incalculable its power!
V. We have expounded and illustrated the text. Let us conclude by some INSTRUCTIONS drawn from it.
1. See the diffusive character of the dispensation of the gospel I A man is not made partaker of the Spirit of God for His own mere individual salvation, but for the salvation of others also.
2. But let us be careful to avoid a common error. The water of life must be put in us for our own salvation before it can flow out of us for others’ good. It is not like the spider’s web which she spins out of herself.
3. But how encouraging the promise, “He that believeth on Me, out of him shall flow rivers of living water.” Christ here expressly declares that if we believe on Him we shall be made partakers of His Spirit.
4. Holy gracious the invitation! “If any man thirst let him come unto Me, and drink.” If our lips are to feed others, those lips shall themselves be first fed.
5. Contrast here these living waters of the soul with that perishing water of Shiloah of the ceremonial before alluded to. Here is the contrast between religion spiritual and religion ceremonial--between sacraments (or signs) and the things by them signified. The Jewish populace saw nothing but the water--heeded for the most part nothing but the ceremony. (M. Brock, M. A.)
The affinity between God and man in regard of man’s wants and God’s fulness
1. This saying of our Lord’s produced among some the conviction that He was the Christ (John 7:40-41). We gather from hence that it met some instinct of the human heart. He struck a note which vibrated in their inmost souls. What was the secret of this effect. It was no doubt that many of the audience felt that they were spiritually athirst, that there was a craving in them after light, truth, love which nothing on earth met. They felt that He was making an offer of which hey had need to avail themselves. They are convinced of His claims by offering them exactly what they had felt the want of.
2. In order to the existence of love between two parties, there must be a secret affinity between them in virtue of which one supplies what the other needs. Take the case of friendship between the sexes. The man needs sympathy and confidence, which the woman supplies; the woman needs support, protection, counsel, which it is the man’s part to furnish. This principle lies also at the foundation of commercial intercourse. A. produces what B. wants, and B. what A. wants; and this mutual want draws both together. The same mutual interdependence is observable in nature. Plants are fed by the light and air of heaven, and return the perfumes which some of them exhale. It is so with man and God.
I. MAN HAS AN URGENT NEED OF GOD. When this makes itself felt he cries, “My soul is athirst for God,” and then he is arrested by the offer of the Son of God, “If any man thirst,” etc. Of course all things need God for their continuance, but man has needs which distinguish him from the inferior creation.
1. His understanding is never satisfied with the truth it contrives to reach.
(1) There is nothing more interesting than discovery. It is as if God had proposed to us in nature and life certain enigmas, and had challenged human ingenuity to the solution of them. But observe how, upon a discovery being made, it loses its interest, and we immediately go in quest of fresh truth. Just as the pleasure of hunting is not derived from the game which is caught, but from the excitement of the pursuit, so with the quest of truth. You see this restlessness in the pursuit of religious as well as scientific truth. The inbred curiosity of the mind, which desires above all to know where it is precluded from knowledge, is the fruitful source of heresies and fantastic speculations.
(2) But is there nothing corresponding to this restless thirst? Is the mind to fret itself for ever and never reach the goal? Is there no highest truth in which the understanding may at length acquiesce? Not so. The Scriptures say that God is Light, and that in Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. When, therefore, man displays an insatiable desire to know, he should remind himself that God is its only satisfaction, and this Light is to be enjoyed, not by any painful straining of reason, but by entire submission of the will to God’s will.
2. Man craves after Infinite Good.
(1) This is attested
(a) By the mischievous excesses of intemperance. The instinct that prompts man to this is peculiar to him. There is nothing of it among the lower creatures. The real account of it is that by the constitution of his mind man thirsts after a good he finds in no created object. The instinct misdirected by the Fall, goes astray. Having a hungry spirit, he makes a desperate effort to extract from bodily enjoyments what may appease its cravings, but the body, like a people, is impoverished and enfeebled by excessive taxation.
(b) But there are more refined ways in which men endeavour to satisfy this craving. They seek preeminence of ability or position or wealth; the flattering speeches which are a sort of homage to superiority--how dear are these things to the soul! Not that the soul rests on them; having tasted them it immediately craves for new enjoyments, a wider reputation, a higher pre-eminence.
(c) The best of earthly good with which the spirit seeks to satisfy its thirst is human sympathy. It plants for itself a domestic and social paradise, but the trees, alas I like Jonah’s gourd, are apt to be smitten. And, independently of this, no mere natural affection can satisfy the craving for love.
(2) But the Creator can satisfy every craving. Do we long after a joyous exhilaration of the Spirit which shall tide us over our difficulties? “Be not drunk with wine … but be filled with the Spirit.” Do we thirst after esteem? Human esteem is but a taper; the real sunlight of the soul is the smile of
God’s approbation. Is pre-eminence our aim? He is the Fountain of Honour. Do we long for sympathy? He is Love.
II. DOES GOD DEPEND ON MAN? Yes, as a field of display for the Divine perfections. God longs to surround Himself with intelligent and joyous creatures to lavish on them the resources of His infinite goodness. Here we may catch a glimpse of the reason why evil was permitted. To be bounteous to creatures retaining their integrity is a very inadequate effect of God’s goodness. Mercy could never have poured itself forth, had there not been vessels of mercy to receive it. And vessels of mercy could never have existed had there been no transgression. We may therefore recognize between God and man a natural reciprocity. He is the only Being who can satisfy the deep wants of the soul. And from His intrinsic goodness He longs to satisfy them. (Dean Goulburn.)
Christ our fountain head
I. CHRIST THE CLOVEN ROCK.
1. The smitten rock. Moses smote and Christ was smitten to save a perishing people.
2. The spring of life flowing therefrom.
3. Its inexhaustible fulness (John 4:14). The spring in the desert is now dry.
4. Its wonderful adaptability. Tropical suns cannot evaporate it, nor Polar breezes freeze it. It is adapted to every climate, and wise and foolish, rich and poor, must drink and cleanse themselves here.
II. THE SINNER AND THE FOUNTAIN.
1. The sinner thirsts. Life is a desert, provoking craving for satisfaction.
2. His consciousness of it. Desire for higher, purer experiences will awake in every rational soul. Then do what he will he cannot reason it away.
3. Its evidences. Man’s endeavour to find rest somewhere; unnatural activity of mind and body; oft a desperate effort to drown the voice of God.
4. False waters.
(1) Wilful blindness.
(2) So-called innocent pleasures.
(3) Sinful indulgence--Marahs, or Dead Seas.
5. The thirst assuaged.
(1) By recognizing the terrible malady of sin.
(2) By confessing guilt.
(3) By coming to the fountain. The first draught allays the burning fever of the soul.
III. THE BELIEVER AND THE FOUNTAIN.
1. The disciple’s thirst. Every draught creates a new longing. He thirsts for a sanctified life, for Christian work, for victory over sin, for conformity to Christ.
2. His need for the fountain. Only near the fountain can he live and grow.
3. Its reflecting power. Here he learns to know himself; what he ought to be and what he is.
4. Its purifying power.
5. The visits to that fountain the thermometer of the Christian’s inner life. (H. Dosker.)
Come and drink
I. THE TIME. The last and great day of the feast when Israel’s joy, in appearance, was at the fullest, and when there seemed least need of any other joy.
II. THE PLACE. Jerusalem--the Temple. What need of anything else than what the Temple afforded: particularly through the teachings of this feast.
III. THE GIVER. The Son of God, and not merely a prophet, who knew what they needed, and what He had to give; Himself God’s own gift. To Himself He, as ever, turns their eye. “Come unto Me.” Feasts, altars, sacrifices, doctrines, ceremonies, were all vain.
IV. THE GIFT. Living water; the Holy Spirit; a gift sufficient to fill the soul of the emptiest, and to quench the thirst of the thirstiest, and then to overflow upon others. There are two gifts of God which stand alone in their priceless greatness--the gift of His Son and the gift of His Spirit.
V. THE PERSONS. Not heathen and irreligious, but religious Jews, engaged in Divine worship. Before it was to the Samaritan that He presented the living water. In Revelation 22:1-21. it is to Jew and Gentile alike. So also in Isaiah 55:1-13. But here the thirsty one is the Jew. His rites and feasts cannot quench his thirst, which calls for something more spiritual and Divine. So to those who frequent the sanctuary--who pray and praise outwardly--the Lord now speaks. External religiousness may help to pacify conscience, but it does not confer happiness. Only Christ can do that.
VI. THE LOVE. It is all love from first to last. In love Christ presents the full vessel of living water, and presses to their parched lips. (H. Bonar, D. D.)
Christ’s call to thirsty souls
1. These are bold words, and they would be as false as bold if He who speaks them were no more than man. Shall a mere man presume to invite, not a small number for knowledge and sympathy--that we might understand--but the whole race for the satisfaction of their most vehement and spiritual ideas. The presumption would be as blasphemous as absurd. But He who thus speaks has a right to speak, and is conscious of it.
2. All human desire and need is expressed in the one word “thirst.” Consider the different kinds of thirst, and see how coming to Christ will satisfy them.
I. The lowest and commonest of all, the thirst for HAPPINESS.
1. A man may come with a desire which is not gracious, but simply natural, since every creature desires to be happy, and which is universal, since no man is perfectly satisfied, and drink the cooling waters of the gospel. Those who limit the invitation to the graciously thirsty undo the grace they seek to magnify, and take all the freeness from the gospel. The words “any man” shatter such a fancy in pieces. Let him come with the feeling he has. It may be inward disturbance, brooding fear, gnawing heart pain, weariness of disappointment, inner longing--whatever it be he is welcome.
2. If he does not see how Christ can be of any service let him trust Him as he would a man who has the credit of being trustworthy, so far as to try His specific. Two men once followed Jesus because they heard another speak well of Him. They did not know very well what they wanted, so they asked Him about His home. He gave an answer He is giving to all the thirsty, “Come and see.” They went, and never left Him more.
3. But coming so, a man soon begins to be conscious of higher desires.
II. Thirst for RIGHTEOUSNESS. If the desire for happiness is to be fruitful it will and must take this form.
1. A moral creature can never be happy without rectitude. If a man has the feeling “let me be happy, but let me enjoy the pleasures of sin,” he either does not come or coming does not drink. The thirst therefore continues, and becomes a pain.
2. But to come to the righteous one is to see righteousness and to become conscious of unrighteousness.
3. Can I be right, and How? How can these stains be cleansed? Christ alone can answer these questions, and satisfy this great desire. His blood cleanses. His righteousness avails. It is to be in them as a principle as well as on them as a garment.
III. The thirst for LOVE--the love that shall love us, and the love that shall go out to those who love us. When this desire is fully aroused it will not rest until it finds Jesus Christ. It is but a little way when you can say, “He or she loves me,” “I am loved of husband, wife, parents, friends.” This will never satisfy an immortal nature. Take the earthly love that is good and pure. It is the gift of God. Rut that you may have that faculty fully developed take first the love that passest knowledge.
IV. There is a thirst profounder and vaster which Christ alone can satisfy--the thirst for LIFE. The others may be traced back to this. It is the deep organic desire which has been implanted by its Author for its perpetuation. Every man has it. The shrinking from annihilation is instinctive. Out towards the realm of life it stretches imploring hands. But where? Reason cannot demonstrate its existence; imagination cannot find it in her loftiest flight. Philosophy says, “You give me no data, and I can give you no conclusion.” Ah, yes! no data; for the departed never return. And yet we thirst for them; and, if we are Christians, we are sure we shall see them again. But how? By His word who is the Life, and drinking of Him we live indeed. “Any man.” That is you. (A. Raleigh, D. D.)
I. MAN AS A THIRSTY CREATURE. Every man thirsts.
The soul’s thirst satisfied in Jesus
1. Constitutionally. Not as accidentally excited, but as made by God to thirst. It is in our nature to thirst.
(1) For life. In deep sorrow we may cry, “O that Thou wouldst hide me in the grave!” In unrest we may say, “I would not live alway.” With heaven opened, we may desire to depart and be with Christ. But Satan spake truly, “All that a man hath will he give for his life.”
(2) For pleasure; according to our idea of felicity and our capacity for bliss. Man is not naturally a lover of misery.
(3) For activity. Men are net naturally lazy.
(4) For society. The results of the solitary system in our prisons show that the desire for association is constitutional.
(5) For knowledge. The subjects upon which we seek information vary; but all men desire to know.
(6) For power, from the moment in which we seize and shake the rattle to the hour in which we dispose of our property.
(7) For the esteem and love of others.
(8) For the possession of objects of beauty.
(9) For God. That this thirst is natural is proved by the fact that religion of some kind is universal. There is not a nation of Atheists.
2. There are derived thirsts, dependent upon the particular condition of the individual, and grafted on the natural thirst. Thus a desire for wealth may arise from a thirst for enjoyment, or power, or honour, or social connections. A thirst for freedom may arise from desire for activity, and for religious unity by desire for religious enjoyment. Any natural thirst creates others.
3. The natural, and many of the artificial, thirsts would have existed had man kept his first estate; but the entrance of sin has produced depraved thirsts. Sin itself is a morbid thirst, and actual sin is the offspring of such thirst (James 1:14-15). Covetousness, envy, etc., are depraved thirsts.
4. The return of man to God and his salvation by Christ involve new thirsts. There is the thirst
(1) Of the quickened spirit for particular religious knowledge.
(2) Of the penitent for pardon.
(3) Of the new born for righteousness.
(4) Of the child of God for being filled with all the fulness of God.
5. There are a few facts connected with these thirsts that we may not overlook.
(1) Those thirsts which are natural cannot be evil in themselves; and those which, being artificial, are lawful expansions of the natural are equally good.
(2) The influence of our thirsts is most extensive and important. In some cases our thirst is a ruling passion; but in all cases they govern thought, prompt the imagination, affect the judgment, awaken or quiet the emotions, guide the will, lead to action, and form our characters.
(3) Most potent, therefore, are they. A man is raised or cast down, destroyed or built up by his thirsts.
(4) When a man is sick, he needs not medicine irrespective of its nature, but the specific for his particular disease. Poisoned food is more dangerous than continued hunger. He is blessed, not whose thirsts are for the moment slaked, but whose thirsts are slaked at Divine fountains.
II. JESUS CHRIST AS THE FOUNTAIN OF SUPPLY. Take the invitation in connection
1. With our lawful natural thirsts. We thirst
(1) For continued life, and Jesus says, “Come unto Me and drink” (1 Corinthians 15:21-22; John 11:25-26).
(2) For activity, and Jesus says, “Come,” etc. (John 14:12).
(3) For enjoyment, and Christ gives joy in every gift, and promises it in every promise, and makes every duty its instrument (Matthew 5:1-8; John 16:24; 1 Peter 1:8).
(4) For power, and Jesus makes His disciples the salt of the earth, the light of the world, and kings and priests unto God.
(5) For society, and Christ satisfies it (Hebrews 12:22-23).
(6) For the love of others, and Christ directs streams of kindness to every one who comes to Him by means of His new commandment (John 13:34-35).
(7) For knowledge, and Jesus is Himself the Truth, in the knowledge of whom standeth our eternal life (John 17:3).
(8) For God, and He manifests God’s name to us, and shows us the Father.
2. If we here speak of depraved tastes, it must be to say that they who thirst morbidly cannot come to Christ and drink; but they may come to Him and be cured of their evil craving. As the thirst of a fever may be removed by a physician, so sinful thirsts may be removed by our Saviour.
3. The thirsts of the returning prodigal and repentant sinner are specially recognized in these words (Psalms 51:1, Psalms 51:8-9; Luke 18:18; Mark 2:5, Mark 5:34; John 8:11).
4. All the thirsts of the God-born spirit are here recognized.
Conclusion: From these words
1. We might preach humanity, and show what is in man. We might exhibit him as a dependent, receptive, desiring being; that he is not like his Maker, self-sufficient.
2. But we will rather preach Christ. Here we see
(1) The knowledge which He had of human nature. He knew the thirsts of the multitude in whose midst He spake.
(2) His recognition of all that pertains to man. His words and works meet most entirely all human needs. They are not like flowers given to the starving,.or gauze raiment to the naked in winter; but like bread to the hungry and clothes to the beggar.
(3) But what must be the resources of one who is justified in speaking thus? Can any individual be a fountain of supply to every man? There is One continually named by the sacred writers who is a Sun, Fire, Door, Rock, Bread, Fountain. To Him, who can be represented by these figures, any man may surely come and drink. No creature imparts all, or even many, kinds of good; but God is the spring of all that is beneficial, and Christ is the manifested God. To how few of our thirsty fellows can any of us say, “Come to me and drink”? But Jesus says that, and standing in the centre of all time, as in the midst of all men. Did we need proof of the Deity of Jesus Christ we have it here.
(4) But what shall we say of His love? “Any man.” The man may be Atheist or idolater, broken-hearted because all his cisterns are broken, be conscious that he deserves only to die with thirst; yet Jesus means him.
(5) But the thirsty have to come. The sole condition is coming, and the only limit to the ministrations of the Saviour is our receptivity. (S. Martin.)
Man’s thirst quenched by Christ
1. An artist once painted a famous picture for an altar-piece, and called it the Fountain of Life. It represents the Sacrificed Redeemer stretched in His mother’s arms. From the rock beneath their feet flow the abundant waters of salvation, which are received into a great cistern. Saints, martyrs, apostles, evangelists, are drinking of the water, or filling their vases and handing them to each other. From the cistern flows a stream into a lower place, where a family of poor, humble people are drinking with grateful looks. Then the stream flows away among meadows, where the little children can reach it, and they are taking up the precious water in their tiny hands, and drinking it with smiling lips. We can all see the meaning of that picture, which tells us that the salvation of Jesus is for all who will accept it, high and low, young and old, rich and poor. (H. J. W. Buxton.)
Christ’s satisfactions full and real
Not like a shallow brook, that runs in winter and is dry in summer; but a fountain that the frost never binds, and that the hot, thirsty day never drinks dry, that is ever full and ever flowing. In the regions of the burning desert they tell me that skeletons lie thick, not only in the paths to the fountains, but lie ghastly white and withering, with the naked skulls looking over the banks into the very waters. With the tongue cleaving to the roof of the mouth, they press on, guided by the green pasture that lifts its head above the sand, and shows where the fountain is. They drank the water in anticipation, but will they reach it? Alas! with what horror in their eyes they gaze on the empty bed, and fight with man and beast for some muddy drops that but exasperate their thirst! The desert whirls around them; they stagger, they fall; hope expires, and they expire themselves; and by and by the sky drops, lightnings flash, thunders peal, and rain pours down, and the water rises in that fountain, and plays in mockery with the tresses of dead beauty, and kisses the faces of the dead. Such things happen. But see you yen cross standing up yonder? It marks a fountain where never man went in vain. No dead souls lie around that cross. Calvary was once a Golgotha--a “place of skulls.” It is so no longer. Where men once went to die, men now go to live; and a man never went for mercy there, and for grace to help, and found none. There is now in America a great revival; there was in my own country a great revival. God send us all such revivals I In every church and every country there are times and seasons of revival, when the peace of believers is like a river in glorious flood, rolling beneath bank and ridge; like the sea in a storm, when it sends its waters beyond its common bounds, and overflows the boats that lie highest and driest on the beach. But at all times and in all seasons, I say, that if you will search you will find fulness of mercy to pardon and “grace to help in time of need.” The supply, in fact, is inexhaustible. I know mountains have been exhausted of their gold, mines of their diamonds, and the depths of ocean of their pearly gems; but the riches of mercy and of grace in Christ are inexhaustible. They are no less to you than to those who went before you, and there will be no less for those who come after you; and when unborn millions have come, and the world’s last man, with a dying sun above him add a reeling earth beneath him, comes up to that blessed Fountain, oh! he will find it as full as it is this day, in its fulness inviting you to wash and be clean, to drink and live, to believe and be forgiven. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)
He that believeth on Me
I. THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT IS INTIMATELY CONNECTED WITH THE WORK OF CHRIST. It is a great pity when persons preach the Holy Spirit’s work so as to obscure the work of Christ--e.g., by holding up before the sinner’s eye the inward experience of believers, instead of lifting up the crucified Saviour, to whom we must look and live. It is an equal pity when Christ is so preached that the Holy Spirit is ignored, as if faith in Christ prevented the necessity of the new birth. The two works are so joined together that
1. The Holy Spirit was not given until Jesus was glorified. The original has it simply “was not.” Of course this does not mean that He was nonexistent, for He is eternal; but that He was not in fellowship with man to the full extent He now is, and could not be till the redeeming work of Christ was finished. You read of the prophets, etc., that the Spirit of the Lord came upon them and moved them, but He did not dwell in them. His operations were a coming and a going. They knew not the “communion of the Holy Ghost.” But since Christ’s glorification, the Spirit is in His people, and abides with them for ever.
2. The Holy Spirit was given after the ascension of Christ unto His glory, to make that ascension more renowned. “When He ascended on high … He gave gifts to men.” Those gifts were men in whom the Spirit dwelt, and who preached the gospel to the nations. The shedding of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost was the glorification of the risen Christ upon earth. What grander celebration could there have been?
3. The Holy Spirit was given as an evidence of our Divine Master’s acceptance, the gift being a consequence of Christ’s finished work.
4. It is the Spirit’s work to bear witness of Jesus. “He shall take of Mine.” Hence He comes to convince of sin, to reveal the sacrifice for sin; of righteousness, that we may see the righteousness of Christ; of judgment, that we may be prepared to meet the Judge. He has not come, and never will, to teach a new Gospel.
5. It is by the gospel of Jesus that the Spirit works in the hearts of men. “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”
6. The Spirit’s work is to conform us to the likeness of Christ, not to this or that human ideal.
7. Evermore it is for the glory of Jesus that the Spirit works--not for the glory of a church, or a sect, or a man “He shall glorify Me.”
II. THE HOLY SPIRIT’S OPERATIONS ARE OF MARVELLOUS POWER. They are
1. Inward. The rivers are to flow out of the midst of a man, from his heart and soul, not from his mouth; the promised power is not oratory, talent, show.
2. Life-giving “living water.” When the man speaks, prays, acts, there shall be going out of him emanations which are full of the life of grace and godliness.
3. Plentiful Not a river, but “rivers.”
4. Spontaneous. “Shall flow.” No pumping is required--the man does not want exciting and stirring up. Does the sun make a noise that men may be aware of his rising? No, he shines and says nothing about it. So does the Christian.
5. Perpetual: not like intermittent springs.
III. THESE OPERATIONS ARE EASILY OBTAINED.
1. By believing in Jesus. It is faith which gives us the first drink and causes us to live, and the more abundant blessing of being ourselves made fountains come in the same way. With Christ is the residue of the Spirit.
2. By prayer. “If ye being evil,” etc. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Christians are not ponds, but spring-heads
I have heard of William Gadsby, that, travelling on a coach one day, he asked two heretical divines to tell him how a sinner is justified in the sight of God. “No,” said they, “you don’t catch us is that fashion. Whatever answer we gave you would be repeated all over Manchester within a week.” “Oh,” he says, “then I will tell you. A sinner is justified in the sight of God by faith in the blood and righteousness of Christ. Go and tell that all over Manchester and all over England as quickly as you like; for I believe nothing that I am ashamed of.” (C. H.Spurgeon.)
Believers are springs of living water
One summer day, a few years ago, strolling for rest and pleasure near the mouth of the Columbia river, where there is a large rise and fall of the tide, I came, at low tide, upon a splendid spring of pure, fresh water, clear as crystal, gushing up from between the rocks that two hours before had formed a part of the river’s bed. Twice a day the soiled tides rise above that beautiful fountain and cover it over; but there it is, deep down under the salt tide, and when the tide has spent its force and gone back again to the ocean’s depths, it sends out its pure waters fresh and clear as before. So if the human heart be really a fountain of love to Christ it will send out its streams of fresh, sweet waters, even into the midst of the salt tides of politics or business. And the man who carries such a fountain into the day’s worry and struggle, will come again at night, when the world’s tide has spent its force, with clean hands, sweet spirit and conscience void of offence towards God and man. (Sunday School Chronicle.)
Believers have a perennial spring within them
The Christian has a fens perennis within him. He is satisfied from himself. The men of the world borrow all their joy from without. Joy wholly from without is false, precarious, and short. Like gathered flowers, though fair and sweet for a season, it must soon wither and become offensive. Joy from within is like smelling the moss on the tree, it is more sweet and fair, and I must add that it is immortal. (H. G. Salter.)
As the Scripture hath said.
The reference is not to any one isolated passage, but to the general tenor of such passages as Isaiah 58:11;Zechariah 14:18, taken in connection with the original image Exodus 17:6; Numbers 20:11). (Bp. Westcott.)
Out of His belly shall flow rivers of living water
Water an emblem of the Spirit
Why has He called the grace of the Spirit by the name of water? Because by water all things subsist; because of water are herbs and animals created; because the water of the showers comes down from heaven; because it comes down one in form, yet manifold in its working. For one fountain watered the whole of the garden Genesis 2:10), and one and the same rain comes down upon all the world; yet it becomes white in the lily, and red in the rose, and purple in the violets and pansies, and different and varied in each several kind; so it is one in the palm tree, and another in the vine, and all in all things; being the while one in nature, not diverse from itself; for the rain does not change, when it comes down, first as one thing, then as another, but adapting itself to the nature of each thing, which receives it, it becomes to each what is suitable. Thus also the Holy Ghost being One, and of one Nature, and undivided, divides to each His grace “according as He will,” and in the name of Christ works many excellencies. For He employs the tongue of one man for wisdom; the soul of another He enlightens by prophecy; to another He gives power to drive away devils; to another He gives power to interpret the Divine Scriptures. He invigorates one man’s self-command; He teaches another the way to give alms; another He teaches to fast and exercise himself; another He teaches to despise the things of the body; another He trains for martyrdom: diverse in different men, yet not diverse from Himself (John 4:14, John 5:4; 1 Corinthians 12:11). (S. Cyril.)
The abundance and vitality of the Spirit’s operations
Rivers, not river, to show the copious and overflowing power of grace; and living water, i.e., always moving; for when the grace of the Spirit has entered into and settled in the mind, it flows freer than any fountain, and neither fails, nor empties, nor stagnates. The wisdom of Stephen, the tongue of Peter, the strength of Paul, are evidences of this. Nothing hindered them; but like impetuous torrents they went on, carrying everything along with them. (Chrysostom.)
Diversity of the Holy Spirit’s operations
There is one Spirit, but divers operations; one fountain, many rivers. Moses mighty” in miracle, Isaiah glorious in prophecy, apostles convincing in eloquence, Paul powerful in reasoning. A Howard for benevolence, a Luther for reformation, a Calvin for theology, a Huss and a Jerome for martyrs. No place having one believer is without a living well. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.)
The Holy Ghost was not yet given.--The addition of the word “given” expresses the true form of the original, in which “Spirit” is without the article. When the term occurs in this form, it marks an operation or manifestation, no gift of the Spirit, and not the personal Spirit (comp. John 1:33, John 20:22; Matthew 1:18; Matthew 1:20; Matthew 3:11, Matthew 12:28; Luke 1:15; Luke 1:35; Luke 1:41; Luke 1:67; Luke 2:25; Luke 4:1). (Bp. Westcott.)
“Because that Jesus was not yet glorified” (comp. John 16:7; John 20:17). The necessary limitations of Christ’s historical presence with the disciples excluded that realization of His abiding presence which followed on the Resurrection. It is impossible not to contrast the righteousness of this utterance with the clear teaching of St. John himself on the “unction” of believers (1 John 2:20, etc.), which forms a commentary gained by later experience upon the words of our Lord. (Bp. Westcott.)
The fulness of the Spirit the gift of the glorified Christ
The Holy Ghost was not yet with men in such fulness of influence on their minds, hearts, and understandings, as the Spirit of adoption and revelation, as He was after our Lord ascended up into heaven. It is as clear as daylight, from our Lord’s language about the Spirit, in John 14:16-17, John 16:7-15, that believers were meant to receive a far more full and complete outpouring of the Holy Spirit after His ascension than they had received before. It is a simple matter of fact, indeed, that after the Ascension the apostles were quite different men from what they had been before. They both saw, and spoke, and acted like men grown up, while before the Ascension they had been like children. It was this increased light and knowledge and decision that made them such a blessing to the world, far more than any miraculous gifts. The possession of the gifts of the Spirit, it is evident, in the early Church was quite compatible with an ungodly heart. A man might speak with tongues and yet be like salt that had lost its savour. The possession of the fulness of the graces of the Spirit, on the contrary, was that which made any man a blessing to the world. (Bp. Ryle.)
The glorification of Christ
This is the first distinct reference to the glorification of our Lord. The conception is characteristic of this Gospel John 1:14; John 2:11), and includes in one complex whole the Passion with the triumph which followed. Thus St. John regards Christ’s death as a victory (John 12:32), following the words of our Lord, who identified the hour of His death with the hour of His glorification (John 12:23, etc.). In accordance with the same thought, Christ spoke of Himself as already “glorified” when Judas had gone forth to his work (John 13:31); and so He had already received His glory by the faith of His disciples before He suffered (John 17:10). In another aspect His glory followed after His withdrawal from earth (John 17:5; John 16:14).:By the use of this phrase the Evangelist brings out clearly the absolute Divine unity of the work of Christ in His whole “manifestation” (1 John 3:5; 1 John 3:8; 1 John 1:2), which he does not (as St. Paul) regard as distinct stages of humiliation and exaltation. (Bp. Westcott.)
The Holy Spirit must be received by us
The sea enters into the rivers before the rivers can enter into the sea. In like manner God comes to us before we can go to Him, and heaven enters into our souls before we can enter into heaven. (Drelincourt.)
The Holy Spirit sustains the inward life of believers
Grace in the saints is not like light in the sun, that springs from itself, but like the light of a lamp that is constantly fed with supplies of oil, otherwise the weak light will faint and die. (H. G. Salter.)
Many of the people, therefore, when they heard this saying, said, Of a truth this is the Prophet
Christ the Prophet
I. HIS FITNESS AS A PROPHET.
1. Foretold (Deuteronomy 18:15; John 1:45).
2. Typified (Deuteronomy 18:18; Acts 3:22).
3. Anointed (Isaiah 61:1; Luke 4:17-21).
4. Competent (Matthew 11:17; John 3:2; John 3:34).
5. Faithful (John 8:26; John 8:28; John 12:49-50).
6. Wise (Luke 2:40; Luke 2:47, Luke 2:52; Colossians 2:3).
7. Mighty (Matthew 13:54; Luke 4:32).
8. Meek (Matthew 11:29; Matthew 12:17-20).
9. Sympathetic (Hebrews 2:18; Hebrews 4:15).
II. HIS TREATMENT AS A PROPHET.
1. Rejected by His own people (John 1:11).
2. Rejected at His own home (Luke 4:28-30).
3. Rejected before Pilate (John 18:39-40).
4. Followed by multitudes (Matthew 5:1; John 6:2).
5. Believed by many (John 4:41-42; John 17:8).
6. Trusted by some (Acts 7:59; 2 Timothy 1:12).
7. Commended by some (John 1:26-27; John 1:45).
8. All should hear (Deuteronomy 18:15, Deuteronomy 18:18; Hebrews 2:2-3).
9. All should trust Him (Psalms 37:5; 1 Peter 5:7).
III. His LESSONS AS A PROPHET.
1. On sinfulness (John 3:18-19; John 15:22).
2. On salvation (John 3:16; John 5:24).
3. On judgment (Matthew 25:31-32).
4. On reward (John 6:47; Matthew 25:34).
5. On penalty (Matthew 25:41; Matthew 25:46).
6. On heaven (John 14:2-3; Matthew 22:30).
7. On victory (Luke 12:32; Matthew 10:22). This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him Matthew 17:5). (Sunday School Times.)
Christ the cause of division
Even when Jesus preached so sweetly His meek and loving doctrine there was a division among the people (John 7:43). Even about Himself there was a schism. We may not, therefore, hope to please everybody, however true our teaching or peaceful our spirit.
I. THERE WAS A DIVISION AMONG THE NEW DISCIPLES. We may view the parties formed in His day as symbolical of those in our own.
1. Some admitted none of His claims.
2. Others admitted a portion, but denied the rest.
3. Certain admitted His claims, but neglected to follow out the legitimate consequences of them.
4. A few became sincere hearers, going as far with Him as they had yet learned of Him. Let us view persons who have thoughts about Jesus with considerable hope. Though they blunder now, they may yet come right. Let us not frighten away the birds with imprudent haste. Let us pray for those who deny His claims, and resist His kingdom. Let us aid those who come a little way towards the truth, and are willing to go all the way if they can but find it. Let us arouse those who neglect holy subjects altogether,
II. THERE WAS A DIVISION OF BELIEVERS FROM NON-BELIEVERS. This is a great and wide difference, and the more clearly the division is seen the better; for God views it as very deep and all-im- portant. There is a great division at this present hour
1. In opinion; especially as to the Lord Jesus.
2. In trust; many rely on self; only the godly on Jesus.
3. In love. Differing pleasures and aims prove that hearts go after different objects.
4. In obedience, character, and language.
5. In development, growth, tendency.
6. In destiny. The directions of the lines of life point at different places as the end of the journey. This cleavage divides the dearest friends and relatives. This is the most real and deep difference in the world.
III. YET WHEN FAITH COMES, UNITY IS PRODUCED. There is unity among the people because of Him.
1. Nationalities are blended. Calvary heals Babel.
(1) Jews and Gentiles are one in Christ.
(2) The near and the far-off as to spiritual things are brought nigh in Him, who is the one and only centre of grace and truth.
(3) Believers of all nationalities become one Church.
2. Personal peculiarities cease to divide.
(1) Workers for Christ are sure to be blended in one body by their common difficulties.
(2) Position, rank, and wealth give way before the uniting influence of grace.
3. Mental specialities feel the touch of unity. Saints
(1) of varying creeds have an essential union in Christ;
(2) of all the changing ages are alike in Him;
(3) of all styles of education are one in Him;
(4) in heaven will be many as the waves, but one as the sea.
Ambitions, which else would disintegrate, are overcome, and laid at Jesus’ feet. Let us divide, if there be a division. Let us closely unite, if there be real union in Christ. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Division of feeling and opinion about Christ
Here we see our words literally fulfilled. He did not bring “peace, but division” (Luke 12:51). It will always be so as long as the world stands. So long as human nature is corrupt Christ will be a cause of division and difference among men. To some He is a savour of life, and to others of death. Grace and nature never will agree any more than oil and water, acid and alkali. A state of entire quiet, and the absence of any religious division, is often no good sign of the condition of a Church or a parish. It may even be a symptom of spiritual disease and death. The question may possibly be needful in such cases, “Is Christ there?” (Bp. Ryle.)
Various opinions
We often speak of the great changes and revolutions which have occurred in the world. But through the long series there may be traced much that is permanent, so that probably uniformity is as truly the characteristic of human history as variety. It may, e.g., be always ascertained that the same principles have pervaded God’s moral government. It may also be perceived that the elements of human character have throughout been the same. Our text, relating as it does opinions of the Jews regarding our Lord, will give us opportunities of observing this sameness in particular cases. We may be compelled to say that men are what they were eighteen hundred years back, on discovering that modern indifference and unbelief borrows from ancient its form and apology.
I. The first parties introduced are THOSE DISPOSED TO RECOGNIZE CHRIST AS A TEACHER SENT FROM GOD.
1. The cause of this conviction was not any action of Christ’s, but a “saying” of His. Then surely the saying must have been one of extraordinary power, some assertion of Divinity, or some verification in Himself of ancient prophecy too complete and striking to be resisted. No; the wonder-working saying was that of John 7:37, which the Evangelist thought so obscure as to require an explanation. Yet simple as it seems to us and dark as it seemed to St. John, it succeeded at once in wringing the confession that He was a Divinely-sent Teacher.
2. The saying is one of those gracious invitations into which are gathered the whole gospel. It demands a sense of want, a feeling of thirst, but proffers an abundant supply, and by adding a reference to Scripture, which could only be interpreted of some measure of supernatural influence, our Lord intimated that His promise was a spiritual gift, satisfying desires after God and immortality.. Here is the moral thirst which is not to be slaked at the springs of human science and theology. And as there must have been many in the crowd dissatisfied with the traditions of the elders, and feeling a need of higher teaching, the promise would come home as meeting their wants, and the suitableness of the offer would pass as an argument for Christ’s Divine mission.
3. There is no difference here between past days and our own, for the argument is but that based on the self-evidencing power of the Bible. A religion may commend itself either by prodigies wrought in its support, or by the nicety, with which it fits in to the mental and moral constitution, to the wants and cravings of a soul which sought in vain everywhere else for supply. And this latter is the standing witness for the Bible. The sinner, conscious of exposure to the wrath of God, and of inability to ward off destruction, will find in Christ the Saviour he needs, and in the aid of the Spirit the help he wants, so that there will seem to him no room for doubt as to the truth of the gospel.
II. Mix again with the crowd and hearken to SOME OTHER OPINIONS.
1. Those who are inclined to conclude that Jesus is the long promised Christ, find themselves met with objections, formidable because professedly grounded on Scripture (verse 42). There is no attempt to depreciate Christ’s teaching, but there was a fatal argument deduced from prophecy which has expressly fixed the birthplace and lineage of Christ. But this is one of the most surprising instances of ignorance or inattention, if we may go no further. It is hardly possible to imagine a fact more readily ascertainable than that our Lord was born at Bethlehem, and was of the lineage of David; for the massacre of the innocents had made His birth so conspicuous, and now there was no one left but our Lord who could prove Himself to have been born at Bethlehem on the expiration of Daniel’s week of years. Therefore either He was the Messiah, or prophecy had failed. Yet so great was the popular indifference or prejudice, that a statement seems to have gone uncontradicted that the pretended Messiah was a Galilean. He passed as “Jesus of Nazareth,” and this was proof that He was not born in Bethlehem; and men were so glad of some specious excuse for rejecting Him, that they made this shallow falsehood a pretext for rejecting Him. It looked very fine to have Scripture on their side; the devil used the Bible in tempting Christ, and they could now use it in justifying their unbelief. The
“Sword of the Spirit,” like every other, may be used for suicide as well as for war.
2. The like of this is of frequent occurrence amongst ourselves. What is that scepticism which is often met with among the boastful and young? Is it the result of careful investigation? No. The fashionable young man, the orator at some juvenile literary club, gets hold of some objection against Christianity which has a specious sound and formidable look--all the better if it come out of the Bible, in the shape of an alleged contradiction and this is enough; he has his “Shall Christ come out of Galilee?” and with so decisive an argument, why should he trouble to search further? This is our quarrel with him. He wishes to continue deceived. The sceptic, like the Jew, has only to look around him and he would find that Jesus did not come out of Galilee, but out of Bethlehem. God suffered infants to be slain that Jewish unbelief might be inexcusable, and He has raised up giants in His Church whose writings render modern unbelief the same. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
The wonderful nature of Christ’s teaching
His mode of speaking is like that of a prince, who, having been educated in a splendid court, could speak with ease of many magnificent things, at the sudden view of which a peasant would be swallowed up in astonishment, and would find himself greatly embarrassed in an attempt to explain them to his equals at home. (P. Doddridge, D. D.)
Then came the officers.--It is not clear what interval of time elapsed between John 7:32, where we read that the officers were sent by the priests to take our Lord, and the present verse, where we are told of their coming back to their Master. At first sight, of course, it all happened in one day. Yet, if we observe that between the sending them to take our Lord and the present verse there comes in the remark- able verse, “In the last day, that great day of the feast,” it seems impossible to avoid the conclusion that an interval of two or three days must have elapsed. It seems highly probable that the officers had a general commission and warrant to take our Lord prisoner, whenever they saw a fitting opportunity, about the fourth day of the feast. They found, however, no opportunity, on account of the temper and spirit of the crowd, and dared not make the attempt. And at last, at the end of the feast, when the multitude was even more aroused than at first by our Lord’s open testimony, they were obliged to return to those who sent them, and confess their inability to carry out their orders. (Bp. Ryle.)
The return of the bailiffs
I. THE MAJESTY OF JESUS CONFESSED (John 7:47). One almost wishes that the officers had been more specific. Perhaps it was the same qualities that had affected Christ’s listeners from the first.
1. Openness (John 7:26). No greatness, criticism, danger, daunted Him. Before the hierarchs (John 18:20), the hostile mob (John 18:5), and Pilate (John 18:33), He was ever the same resolute and outspoken preacher of the truth.
2. Authority. There was not a solitary realm in which He did not reign supreme--the kingdom of nature (Matthew 8:26; Matthew 14:32), the world of humanity (Matthew 8:8), the empire of devils (Mark 1:27; Luke 4:36),the region of the dead (Matthew 9:25; Luke 7:15; John 11:44), the innermost domain of the conscience (John 8:9).
3. Graciousness (Luke 4:22).
II. THE FRIENDS OF JESUS SILENCED.
1. The bailiffs rebuked (John 7:47-49). They were reminded that they were only menials, who had no right to think, etc.; hearing which, no doubt, crestfallen, they slunk away; let us hope rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer for Him (Acts 5:41) and following up the favourable impression.
2. Nicodemus put down (John 7:50-52). The Sanhedrists could not frown at him as ignorant of the law (John 7:51), but they could sneer at his sympathy with the Galilean Preacher, and stopped his mouth by delicately hinting that he was growing old and did not know his bible as accurately as he should (John 7:52). Exactly so have Christ’s champions in all ages been treated.
III. THE ENEMIES OF CHRIST HARDENED. The hierarchs, determined on Christ’s removal, are henceforth impervious to everything advanced in His favour. The light that was in them became darkness. Lessons:
1. The power of Christ’s words over honest and sincere hearts.
2. The doctrine of Christ an argument for His divinity.
3. The superior religious instincts of the masses as distinguished from the classes.
4. The certainty that Christ and His cause will never lack defenders.
5. The downward course of those who wilfully oppose Christ. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.)
Opposition to the truth
I. GENERALLY SERVES TO ELICIT THE MOST IMPORTANT TESTIMONY IN ITS BEHALF. The officers could have no possible interest in Christ, but were, if anything, prejudiced against Him. Hence their testimony was disinterested. It was
1. To the justice of His claims as a Divine messenger. Unless aided by Divine influence, there was the difficulty the Jews themselves started (John 7:15).
2. To the earnest persuasiveness of His manner. He spoke the truth, but in love. He concealed nothing to soften prejudice, but clothed warnings, etc., so as to win conviction (John 7:46).
3. To the force of His reasoning on conscience. What but this could have induced the officers to risk disapproval?
II. GENERALLY IGNORES MAN’S RESPONSIBILITY FOR HIS BELIEF (John 7:48). We are told that we are not competent to judge for ourselves, and therefore should believe what our superiors bid. Some submit from indolence; others for the sake of a good appearance, “willing to be damned for fashion’s sake, and to go to hell out of compliment to the scribes and Pharisees”; others from policy. How is it that so many of the great ones are arrayed against the truth? Because
1. It is independent of their patronage.
2. It is indifferent to their prejudices.
3. It promises no worldly rewards. Hold to your personal responsibility.
III. Is ESPECIALLY CAREFUL TO CONSERVE ADVENTITIOUS DISTINCTION (John 7:48-49). Truth is levelling in its influence. It debases the great and exalts the humble. It destroys caste. Error, on the other hand, preserves it, for it is essential to its continuance.
IV. FREQUENTLY CALLS OUT THE SYMPATHIES OF ITS SECRET DISCIPLES (John 7:50). If we resolve never to do less for Christ than Nicodemus did, we shall be of service. Whatever we are not able to do, we can prevent a vote of censure on Christ unanimously.
V. IS GENERALLY MARKED BY RIDICULE INSTEAD OF ARGUMENT (John 7:52). This method is often successful, or it would not be employed. Truth revolts from levity.
VI. IS GENERALLY CONDUCTED IN VIOLATION OF EVEN ITS SELFCONSTITUTED STANDARDS. These men, who professed to go by the law and sneered at the people as ignorant of it, were themselves convicted of violating it (Deuteronomy 19:15-18).
VII. WILL FINALLY BE SILENCED AND OVERCOME. The assembly, unable to answer Nicodemus, broke up with every mark of haste and confusion. (J. W. L. M.)
The officers answered, Never man spake like this man
The circumstance
Our Lord’s ministry was now nearly completed; the effects of His example and preaching were so manifesting themselves that the Sanhedrim had become desperate. The prey was about to slip from their grasp, and they must either lose their position or silence the Preacher. They accordingly sent their officers to apprehend Him. They were accustomed to obey such orders, and were selected because naturally possessed of more firmness than sensibility, and because the more insensible by having practised the duties of their office. Like other Jews, they had heard much preaching by their rabbis, and therefore expected to find a ranter. The idea they had must have been that the apprehension cf a fanatical preacher, disturbing the public peace, would be an easy task, and rather a pastime. So they may have gone jocularly on from street to street until they had come to the immense multitudes gathered in and around the Temple celebrating the feast of tabernacles. But the chief interest of that multitude seems to radiate from the vast circumference to Christ as its centre. They press through the throng, and approach the hallowed spot. But what checks their rude steps? Why do they not advance to seize their prey, please their masters, and secure an extra fee? They are confounded, not with fear, but with amazement, reverence, and an unwonted human sympathy. There He stands, incarnate Deity! No fierceness of a mob leader is seen in Him, no cringing to formidable enemies, no caressing the populace. He stands alone and lofty in the meek dignity of a descended God. And they might first have said, “Never man looked like that man.” But they felt the attractive force of the very power that disarmed them. There was a presence that annihilated the authority of Sanhedrims; there was a manifest virtue that acquitted Him at the bar of their consciences.
And before it they laid down their vile commission, and joined the devout and admiring hearers. This added to their wonder and reverence. Surely Moses never spake more according to the mind of God. Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, never spake with more authority than this man. He is a prophet of the living God; and surely the elders of Israel never intended to arrest such a man; and they returned, not with a prisoner, but with a nolle-prosequi, a report that there was no ground of arrest. “Never man spake like this man.” (E. N. Kirk, D. D.)
Similar but contrasted incidents
Plutarch mentions it as a memorable proof of the extraordinary eloquence of Mark Antony, that, when soldiers were sent to kill him, he pleaded for his life in such affecting language that he totally disarmed them of their resolution, and melted them into tears. But these officers are vanquished, not by the forcible arguments of a man pleading for his life, but by hearing one of the ordinary discourses of our Lord, not particularly directed to them, but to the people at large. (G. Burder.)
In the troublous times that closed the great Republic, amongst the men that arose and made themselves masters of the world there was hardly a greater than Caius Marius. The conqueror of Jugurtha, the conqueror of the Cimbri, he was looked upon as the shield and sword of Rome. Six times he sought and six times he obtained the consulship, and bid fair to die as he had lived, the ruthless lord of the eternal city. But God decreed otherwise. A rival appeared upon the scene, and after chequered fortunes Marius had to fly. In the romance of his wanderings we read that he was once put on shore unattended and unarmed. He was seized and flung into prison, and an edict came from Rome that he must die. A Gaulish slave was sent to the dungeon to do the deed. Marius, sitting in a gloomy corner of the prison, with his bloodshot eyes glared on the man, and with his terrible voice demanded, “Canst thou kill Caius Marius?” And the slave, fearing the prisoner more than the gaoler or the judge, flung down his sword and fled away, crying, “I cannot kill Caius Marius.” Put side by side with this story of a sanguinary life the incident of the life the most submissive and self-denying the world has ever seen, and the very likeness of the latter will make the unlikeness of the spirit greater. In both murder was meant. In both the presence and words of the intended victim postponed the murder. In both the assailants turned craven. But the shield that turned the edge of their sword in the one case was terrific rage, in the other placid mercy. (J. B.Figgis, M. A.)
“Never man spake like this man”
1. Jesus was a popular preacher. The synagogue was full when He spoke, and men went out in crowds into the fields to listen to Him.
2. He was a powerful preacher. Extraordinary changes of character were wrought by His sermons. The tax-gatherer left his money.changing and the fisherman his boats to follow Him. All classes were affected by it, from the most cultured and religious to the most abandoned.
3. Whatever theory men may have respecting His person, there can be no doubt that the world has been revolutionized by His teaching. What, then, were the elements of His power?
(1) He spoke to the common in their vernacular, using illustrations from common life, but He never descended from the high place of a noble instructor. The demagogue flatters the prejudices and appeals to the passions of his audience, but Jesus never did this.
(2) He used no arts of elocution. Men did not flock to Him as they flock to an actor. He told them stories, hut they were simple stories, and not dramatically, for He taught sitting.
(3) Nor did He use the arts of rhetoric. He employed no ornament for the sake of ornament. You find nothing that could be called out and recited.
(4) There are no literary classics in His sermons. His was not the power which comes from scholastic learning or position. Men have shrugged their shoulders at lay preaching, but Christ was a lay preacher who had never graduated and become a Rabbi. His style was simple and transparent. Sometimes the waters are so deep that one cannot see the bottom, but they are never muddy.
4. We must look elsewhere for the sources of the eloquence of Jesus. If we look over the history of oratory, we find that three elements enter into it:
I. A GREAT OCCASION. All the great master-pieces were the offspring of great occasions--the orations of Demosthenes, when Greece was battling for its liberty; of Cicero, when the free institutions of Rome were threatened; of Chatham, at the time of the American revolution, Jesus had a great occasion, The world had reached its lowest ebb--politically, intellectually, socially, morally. Yet there was one little province which kept the light of hope burning, one little people who had an expectation of deliverance. A great need and a hope--these formed the occasion of Jesus.
II. A GREAT THEME. The greatest orators, on the greatest occasions, have broken down, because they have ranged themselves on the wrong side and failed to rise to the occasion with a great message. Not so Jesus. He proclaimed “The kingdom of God is at hand.” This was a message of hope, and one which called men with a trumpet-call to battle. In this kingdom all could take part; it was one that was for all, and one that defied the gates of hell. This message is for all the centuries and for today. When the ship was on the sands at Malta the crew did not stop to study the rhetorical form of Paul’s message. When the soldiers in the Shenandoah valley were in flight they did not stop to study the elocution of Sheridan when, waving sword in air, he bade them turn and follow him to victory. And when the world felt the darkness of night resting upon it, it was not the eloquence of drama; it was the eloquence of this great truth--the hope that there is in God and in immortality--that made Christ eloquent then and has made His words eloquent from that day to this.
III. For behind the words was A GREAT PERSONALITY--a personality so great that when He first rose in the synagogue of Nazareth all eyes were fastened upon Him; that when the mob gathered to stone Him as He passed they parted and let Him go; that when they rose to lead Him to the precipice He passed uninjured through them; that when these police came to arrest Him they went away saying, “Never man spake,” etc. This we cannot analyze, and must therefore leave it. (Lyman Abbott, D. D.)
Christ a preacher
as contrasted
I. WITH THE SCRIBES AND PHARISEES.
1. In the spirituality of His instructions. The Jewish teachers and their modern imitators are distinguished by their degrading conceptions of religion, morality, and worship. The Scriptures are made a cumbrous book of court etiquette; the heart is ignored; judgment and mercy pass for trifles as compared with ritual; and theology is turned into hair-splitting casuistry. But what a Teacher is this! With Him a broken heart is a sacrifice; a believing heart a sanctuary; love to God and man all duty.
2. In the dignity of His instructions. Rabbinical teaching, ancient and modern, is gravely puerile, and as you pass from it to Christ’s you pass from a prison to a mountain top. Contrast with His their notions of
(1) Jehovah--the national patron with the Universal Father.
(2) The Messiah--the Jewish conqueror with the Saviour of the world.
(3) The law overwhelmed with traditional burdens and superstitions, with the law as pointing to and fulfilled by Him.
II. THE POETS. Apart from Christ’s influence, their teaching has no concrete reality nor anything to meet the deepest wants of the soul. Which of the non-Christian poets has sung anything calculated to make men holy, bring God near, secure pardon, lift the veil from the tomb, respond to any one of the queries of the human soul? But Christ says, “God is a spirit,” etc. “There is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth.” “In My Father’s house are many mansions,” etc. “Come unto Me all ye that labour,” etc. Where in uninspired poetry shall we find lines like these? Christ was a true poet, but He gave truths adapted to meet the urgent necessities of the soul.
III. THE PHILOSOPHERS.
1. They can do no more than conjecture in regard to religious truth. But here we must have authority absolutely Divine. Socrates confessed this necessity but could not meet it. Christ confessed it and met it. “No man hath seen God at any time,” etc. He did not reason, He affirmed.
2. They can only talk of abstractions, such as deity, laws of nature, etc., good words in their place, and so is “humanity,” and if you should call your friend “humanity,” you would deal with him as philosophers deal with God. But Christ teaches a personal God. Abstract teaching has its place, but to teach therapeutics to a man in a fever is as cruel as to mock at disease. Christ was a practical teacher, and told us not only what to believe, but what to do.
IV. THE PRETENDERS.
1. His claim, the loftiest ever made, was put forth under circumstances which fully attested its genuineness. It was open, in the presence of enemies, without human help. These and other tests would have detected imposture.
2. Imposters chiefly address the senses and the imagination, but Jesus’ whole manner is that of one who would win man’s intelligent confidence, and all He said was to give a basis to intelligent faith. (E. N. Kirk, D. D.)
Christ the standard of preaching
Long before the Messiah appeared it was foretold that He should sustain the office of preacher. “The spirit of the Lord God is upon Me.” Consequently the Jews expected that He would appear in this character. “When Messias cometh He will teach us all things.” This general expectation Christ did not disappoint. As soon as He appeared He drew the attention of admiring multitudes, but His addresses were too galling not to rouse the resentment of the enemies of truth. Hence the incident before us. But, how did Christ preach to make such impressions on those who had resolved to resist Him.
I. Christ was a PLAIN Preacher. His ideas lay clear in His own mind. He was master of every subject on which He preached. He knew the whole character and counsel of Gee, the frame and constitution of the human mind, the circumstances of all mankind. Upon these subjects He expressed Himself in a style which was not only intelligible but agreeable to persons of every capacity. Sensible that figurative language is the voice of nature, He made free use of images, not borrowed from the arts which are confined to the learned few, but from the air, light, water, etc., which were familiar to all. Hence “the common people heard Him gladly.”
II. Christ was a SEARCHING Preacher. He knew the heart, and so was able to speak to the heart. This gave His preaching irresistible force, and men felt their whole souls to be naked before the all-seeing eye, and as they will feel at the day of judgment. Christ never drew a bow at a venture, but always sent His arrows home. Witness His dealings with the Pharisees, the rich young man, Martha, the woman taken in adultery, etc.
III. Christ was a SENTIMENTAL Preacher. His teaching was replete with interesting truths which not only enlighten the mind, but find the nearest passage to the heart. He urged, e.g., the necessity of disinterested love upon all His followers as the essence of true religion.
IV. Christ was a MOVING Preacher. He is the most moving Preacher, and possesses the power of persuasion in the highest degree, who is best able to convey His own views and feelings to the minds of His hearers. This Christ was able to do, and was thus able to move the minds of His hearers with whatsoever passions He wished to excite. What could equal His language to hardened hypocrites, and what could be more melting than His invitations to penitents! (N. Emmons, D. D.)
The teaching of Jesus Christ
I. ITS OBJECT. There is a primary sense in which Christ taught as never man taught, viz., in that He was Himself its object. Others, even the greatest, convey the truth, but are not that truth. Jesus alone could say, “I am the Truth.” The whole of Christianity is in Christ, neither He nor His disciples taught any other. The two terms of the religious problem are God and man. To know them is the whole of religious truth.
1. An apostle said, “Show us the Father.” Christ responded, “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” All that we can know of God Christ has taught, or rather shown us. All His perfections and all His works.
2. In the same way all concerning man, his true nature and high destiny, we see in Him who is the perfect man.
3. Not only so, but He reveals the true relations of God and man. He is the Mediator between the two. On the one hand, by the fact of His mediation He manifests man’s fall and his inability to save himself, and on the other, the love of the Father who gave His Son that whosoever believeth in Him, etc.
4. All that we can know of the work of salvation is bound up in the person of Christ. He is “made unto us wisdom and righteousness,” etc.
5. Christian morality, through sanctification, is entirely referred to Him.
6. As to the future, all depends on Christ, who will raise the dead, judge the world, and bring His own to glory. Are we not justified in saying with Paul, “God forbid that I should glory,” etc. Let us beware of withering this living teaching by our abstractions! Every doctrine, if separated from Christ, is smitten with barrenness.
II. The incomparable excellence of Christ’s teaching results also from its PERFECT FORM. The perfection of human words is measured by the fidelity with which they manifest the human soul. A man may be very eloquent and yet his words be a brilliant lie, because not in harmony with his moral state. Perfectly sincere words are perfect words, and they are only so when it can be said: As are the words so is the life. If this be the case our text is justified, for never was man sincere like Christ. He lived His words and spoke His life. His life was the perfect life of love, and His words were the perfect language of Divine love.
1. The love of Christ rested on His humility, and never man spake like this Man in respect to humility. Compare His words with the despotic authority or pompous solemnity of the Jewish doctors. Their teaching was like their persons, clothed with long robes and phylacteries, and sitting in Moses’ seat. Christ sat not on the benches of a Jewish school, had no official title, spake in the streets or by the sea side, and rendered homage to truth without exercising compulsion. And what could be more simple than His words. They were free from all solemn form. No doctor ever taught more in the style of a layman. He spoke as a friend to friends, without any rhetorical embellishment, and without aiming at effect. The simplicity of Christ’s words is what constitutes their perfection, By resting on external authority He would have confessed that His doctrine needed foreign aid; by enveloping it in solemn forms He would have suggested a doubt of its intrinsic value. Christ knew that nothing is so beautiful or powerful as truth, and He wished that it should appear alone in His teaching.
2. Christ’s love was especially characterized by mercy, which is love to the unfortunate and the poor, and the merciful character of Christ’s teaching is evinced by its popularity. It was admirably suited to the wants of the simple and ignorant many. For Christ never admitted that distinction between the profane and the initiated which is always found in the religions and philosophy of antiquity, but rather gave special attention to the former. Not that He rejected the enlightened; but He knew that a doctrine which suits the poor is a truth for poor and rich, ignorant and learned alike. He could speak, then, to the people without fear of restricting His mission; and who has ever spoken to them like the Saviour? In bringing the truth to the feeblest reason Christ took nothing from the truth, nor subjected it to any alteration. It is very easy to gain the goodwill of men if we flatter their errors and their prejudices, but Christ never employed that accommodation which is treason against the cause of God. If then He rejected this we can only explain the popularity of His teaching by the form He gave to it. He ever found means to connect the truth with some feeling, idea, or fact in harmony with itself. And so He made constant appeals to conscience, conviction of sin, need of deliverance, sorrow and suffering. Nor was He content to rest on general dispositions, He knew what was wanted by each, and He addressed to each the precise teaching that was made for him. Recall the numerous persons who conversed with the Saviour. You will not find a word that is not the most affecting that could have been pronounced. Is He talking to fishermen? He says, “I will make you fishers of men.” Is He addressing a doctor of the law? He makes constant allusion to his dignity. Is He speaking to a great multitude that He has just satisfied with food? He discourses of the bread of life. It was with the same design that Christ multiplied His admirable parables. None of His hearers, after listening to Him, could look on the external world without reading His doctrines there afresh, something to raise the thoughts to God. Never man spake like this man because never man loved our poor humanity like Christ.
3. The teaching of Christ was full of love also in that it was essentially creative and fertilizing to the mind of His hearers. A teacher not impelled by love does not tolerate spontaneity of thought in his disciples; but Jesus’ method was to give men a glimpse of the precious mine of truth that they might dig and search for themselves. He did not hurry anything, wishing to prepare the new bottles for the new wine, and pour it into them drop by drop. With what gentleness did He endure their slowness of understanding and weakness of faith.
4. The words of Christ were the expression of perfect love, because never was there addressed to man language so consoling as His. (E. DePressense, D. D.)
Our Lord as a Teacher
No one can read His discourses without seeing that He differs generically from all other teachers. He is an order by Himself (John 3:11-13).
I. Compare Him with SOCRATES, whom we know well, and have a full record of his teaching and methods. Like our Lord his one aim was moral improvement. His end in discovering truth was conduct. To know, with him, was but the way to live. But when we come to his method it contrasts sharply to that of Jesus. For he affirmed nothing, professed himself ignorant, but thought that by inquiry and consideration it might be possible to find out what ideas were just and what were false, and so to establish a sound healthy knowledge that might be the guide to a sound and healthy life. But he dreaded to say “I have the truth” about anything. This is the method of Acts 17:27. Our Lord’s method is at the opposite pole. It is calm, convincing affirmation. It is entirely unparalleled. It is the word of One who does know; who has not to argue and inquire, but to declare. Its simplicity arises from absolute certainty. Agnosticism, notwithstanding, this is the teaching for which the world yearns, and which can only meet the world’s needs.
II. COMPARE HIM WITH MOHAMMED. Christ dealt only with the highest spiritual truth--with ideas and principles of conduct alone. He did not occupy Himself in marking out safe paths for men; He gave them light that they might see their way (Matthew 11:1-5; John 10:24). This is in striking contrast with Mohammed’s method. The chances are that if any one had asked him, “Speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me,” he would have had a revelation about it. The Koran is full of private direction and legislation, and it is that which has crippled the free development of Mohammedan society. Men go to it, not for principles of guidance, but for particular precepts. With Christ there is always a breadth which transcends the need of the moment, and furnishes a principle which is good for all times. This is the reason for the largeness of the development of Christendom. Christ tells us not what to do, but how to be. Mohammed’s words are full of direction. Christ’s of inspiration. (J. Baldwin Brown, B. A.)
Christ the incomparable Teacher
BECAUSE IN HIM
I. DOCTRINE AND TEACHER ARE ONE. Other teachers are different from what they teach, and never make themselves the object of their own instruction. Christ is the sole Teacher who is able to say, “I am the Truth,” and as such the substance of His own teaching. Christ’s purpose was not to give a right conception of God, or to lead men to rightly know themselves. We have this in the Old Testament. His purpose was to reconcile men to God. Hence He required not faith in God--this the Jews had long ago--but in Himself.
II. DOCTRINE AND LIFE PERFECTLY HARMONIZE. This can be said of no other. However careful the teacher, his life falls behind his teaching. He could alone say, “Which of you convinceth Me of sin?” When He said, “Be ye perfect as your Father,” etc. He could also say, “I and My Father are one.” If He exhorted to resignation He said, “Thy will be done.” His requirement of self-denial was illustrated in His actual bearing of the cross. Of His new commandment He was the model, “As I have loved you.” He went about doing good to those who rejected Him, to enforce the duty of doing good to those who hate us, and prayed, “Father, forgive them,” that we might pray for our persecutors.
III. THE DOCTRINE AND THE GROUNDS OF THE DOCTRINE COINCIDE. Other teachers convince their scholars by proofs, and prophets by “Thus saith the Lord”--Christ simply says, “Verily, verily, I say unto you.” He is the ground of His teaching just as certainly as when the Lord God confirms His words by saying, “As surely as I live.”
IV. HIS DOCTRINE AND ITS EFFECTS ARE IN FULLEST UNISON. Every teacher aims at this, but no one fully reaches it. As the husbandman often finds that his seed does not germinate, so there are many whose teaching has not the desired results. One does not speak intelligibly, another wants impressiveness, a third dies prematurely. But Christ speaks so that even fishermen understand Him; so attractively that crowds press upon Him, and authorities envy Him; so irresistibly that friends cannot be turned from Him by threats. And now He speaks through a thousand tongues, in pulpits, schools, and homes. You who are burdened, do you not find rest in Christ’s teaching? You who suffer, comfort? You who are guilty, pardon? You who are dying, triumph? Verily the result of Christ’s teaching is not to be doubted. Conclusion: If, then, after eighteen centuries we are compelled to confess that, despite all the wonderful advances in knowledge, never man spake like Christ, it must be clear that He was more than a child of man. Were He only this we must have outstripped Him. (R. Nesselmann.)
Incomparableness of Christ’s teaching in
I. ITS MANNER. It was this which struck His hearers when on the mount Matthew 7:29). It is no less striking to us who compare the “I say unto you” with the prophetic “thus saith the Lord.”
II. ITS MATTER. “Never man spake”
1. Such wise words. There have been many wise men, but as Solomon excelled all the children of the East, so may we say of the great Teacher “a wiser than Solomon is here.” His words were those of one who “knew what was in man.” How admirably does He lay open human hearts! With what Divine skill did He answer all questions I How suitably and readily--His enemies being judges (Luke 20:39).
2. Such holy words! He never spoke one that was idle or unprofitable.
3. Such gracious words (Psalms 45:1-17; Luke 4:1-44.)!
III. ITS EFFECT (Luke 4:32).
1. It was a wonder-working voice which Jesus uttered. Devils fled before it, diseases vanished; it called the dead out of their tombs; the winds heard it and were still, the fig-tree and was withered. Yet what was so wonderful as its effect upon men’s consciences! What terror and confusion it struck into His enemies (John 18:4), etc.!
2. It wrought wonders in those whom it called to mercy.
(1) Of conviction (John 4:29; Hebrews 4:12; 1 Corinthians 14:24-25).
(2) Of conversion (John 5:25). Look at the manner in which thedisciples were called.
(3) Of consolation (Matthew 14:26-27).
Conclusion: What, then, is our duty?
1. To hear and obey (Hebrews 12:25; John 12:48;Proverbs 1:24).
2. To imitate (Ephesians 4:29). (A. Roberts, M. A.)
The incomparable ministry
The text is one of the truisms of Christianity, but the confession came from men who were not the disciples, nor particularly the audience of Jesus. They were a band of ignorant men, the mere police of the Sanhedrim. And it is remarkable that not a word was spoken by Christ directly to them why they should not execute their mission. What was said was said to the multitude at large upon subjects entirely independent of His guilt or innocence. The purpose of their coming is simply ignored. There were but two brief utterances after their arrival which the Evangelist has written down, and while it would be an improbable supposition that they were all that gave occasion for the confession, yet they were specimen utterances. They belonged to very different fields of thought and speech, and together go far towards giving an idea of Christ’s teaching as a whole.
I. (John 7:33-34.) Try to hear with the ears of these men, and to imagine the impression. Must not any one have said, “What an independence of human enmity and human power.” “A little while I am with you, and then I go,” asking no questions, dreading no interference. The officers heard, and felt themselves impotent. This man speaks that He doth know; He has His own times and seasons; Sanhedrim and Procurator are alike nothing to Him. But is there not a deeper awe behind? We shall seek Him and not find Him. “Ye will be wanting Me one day. When terrified Jerusalem is crying for pity I shall be beyond the reach not only of violence, but of sight and access. Oh! in this day of your merciful visitation, be ye gathered under My wings.” “Never man spake like this man,” were it but for the DIGNITY. We were born to have some one over us; may it be the right one! Other voices, counterfeiting the true Voice, have had an easy sway. But there is a Voice which moves heaven and earth, and if that Voice makes itself heard in the living world, in conscience we feel that if we had been sent by ten Sanhedrims we, too, should exclaim “never man spake it!”
II. (John 7:37.) Well He knew what was in man when He addressed this language to common humanity. If any man thirst, be it for comfort, rest, knowledge, holiness, or love, let Him come unto Me. Strange words these for these rough police- men to listen to when they came to apprehend this Man for a malefactor. And yet so simple were the words, so strong, so directly did they make appeal to the man within the man, finding him out in memory and conscience, reminding him of so many cisterns of human or sinful desire broken, awakening so many recollections of better impulses and higher aspirations, that they could not lay hands on Him.
III. Dignity alone might be coldness, and tenderness effeminancy, but DIGNITY AND TENDERNESS combined are an irresistible strength; and He who could utter both these sayings had a key to man’s heart as God made it, and as man had corrupted it is sure of a hearing.
1. “A little while,” etc., He says to us, and it is well to hear Him sometimes speak in that tone. It is not true to represent Him as a mere humble suitor. The Voice which pleads is the Voice which made and which shakes heaven, and as He speaks now from heaven in heaven we must seek Him.
2. The dignity of Jesus is the one thought, and if He speaks of that it is to give energy to His tenderness. I will not affront any man by supposing that he thirsts not. He may tell me that he is satisfied--but all in the deep of their several hearts are athirst in one way or another. To how few of us is life as we would have it. Many delights once possessed have been lost. But there is a keener thirst, that of the spirit for the conscious love of its Maker. This Christ can quench. Try Him. (Dean Vaughan.)
The unrivalled eloquence of Jesus
The constables could not take Jesus for He had fairly taken them. Note by way of preface
1. That it is a sure sign of a falling Church when its leaders call in the aid of the secular arm. The Church which cannot maintain itself by spiritual power is dying, if not dead.
2. That in the end the spiritual power will baffle the temporal. The officers are fully armed, the preacher has no weapons, and yet they cannot arrest him. What stays their hand? It has come to be a combat between body and mind, and mind prevails. Abel may be killed, but from the ground his blood continues to cry. Martyrs have a greater power in their graves than in their pulpits.
3. That God can get testimonies to the majesty of His Son from the most unlikely places. Civil authorities do not employ the most refined and intellectual as officers, and the priests would naturally select those least likely to be affected by Christ’s teaching. Yet these rough, brutal men felt his matchless oratory. Not only as in the case of Saul can God direct a high character into the right path. He makes the wrath of men to praise Him, and compels adversaries to do Him homage. Let us note
I. THE PECULIAR QUALITIES of our Lord’s eloquence, as among kings, He is the King of kings, among priests the great High Priest, among prophets the Messiah, so is He the Prince of preachers, the Apostle of our profession. Christ spoke
1. Clearly, and yet His matter is profound. Did ever man speak so simply? Even little children gathered round Him. He never gives forth dark sayings that His hearers may credit Him with vast learning and profound thinking. And yet there is in His teaching a depth that genius cannot fathom, but all the while He speaks in short sentences, with plain words and homely illustrations. The common people with their common sense heard Him gladly,
2. With authority. He was a master dogmatist. It was not, “It may be so,” but “Verily, verily,” etc. And yet side by side with this there was an extraordinary self-sinking. He never assumed official dignity.
3. Faithfully, yet tenderly. Even Nathan could not be more true to human conscience. “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,” etc. There was no mincing matters because wickedness was associated with greatness, no excusing sin because it put on sanctimoniousness. He neither fawned on the great nor pandered to the populace. Perhaps no preacher ever used more terrible words with regard to the fate of the ungodly. Yet He did not break the bruised reed. What a Son of Consolation He was!
4. Zealously, yet prudently. He was full of ardour, never preached a cold, dull sermon. Yet His fervour never degenerated into wildfire. He was not afraid of the Herodians, yet how quietly did He allow them to walk into the trap. He was ready to meet the Sadducees, but He was on His guard so that they could not entangle Him in His speech.
5. Lovingly. He was full of tenderness even to tears, but was far removed from that effeminacy which some times passes for Christian love. He was manly all through.
6. His preaching was remarkable for its co-mingling of all the excellencies which are found separate in His servants. He addressed the head and the heart. He aroused the conscience, but was also great in the arts of consolation.
7. The main aspect of His eloquence, however, was that it was the vehicle of the greatest truths.
II. PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS of this eloquence.
1. Do you remember when you first heard Him speak? Recall
(1) His words of pity. “Come unto Me,” etc.
(2) His words of persuasion. “Turn ye, turn ye,” etc., “Come now let us reason together.”
(3) His words of power, “Awake thou that sleepest.”
(4) His word of pardon.
2. Since we heard His pardoning voice, we have heard many a time
(1) His word of promise.
(2) His word of consolation.
(3) His word of fellowship.
3. There are some words spoken long ago which have been so quickened by His presence that we number them among our personal recollections. “I have loved thee with an everlasting love’; “It is I, be not afraid,” etc., etc.
III. PROPHETIC ANTICIPATIONS.
1. AS long as you live you are to speak for Jesus, but your hope for His kingdom lies in His voice. And we expect Him to speak more loudly yet, for “the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth.”
2. We expect Him to speak sweetly to us in the hour of death. “Fear not, for I am with thee.”
3. In paradise.
4. At the judgment. “Come ye blessed of My Father.” Will He say that to you, or “Depart ye cursed.” Anyhow your confession will be then if not now, “Never man spake,” etc. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The words of Jesus
I. HIS TRIBUNE. Those whose words have moved mankind have for the most part addressed an audience in some chamber selected for the suitability of its construction or for the sanctity of its associations. Not so with the words of Jesus. His tribune was the plank of Peter’s boat, the portico of Jerusalem, any place on which He chanced, to any person whom He met. He not only sought the people, but let the people seek Him; and some of His most striking utterances were addressed to a single auditor. The great orators of Notre Dame called their sermons “conferences.” But they are no such thing, for Lacordaire or Hyacinthe had it all to himself, like the least of us. But the Master’s sermons were “conferences” in truth. He let the people interrupt Him by their questions, by bringing their sick, by leading their little ones to His arms. And yet, in spite of these defects of His audience-chamber, and difficulties with the audience, the golden silence made the silver speech the brighter.
II. CHRIST’S TEXTS are a marvel of beauty for their appositeness. The well of Sychar suggests a sermon on the water of life; the feeding of the five thousand and a reference to the fall of the manna, a discourse of the bread of life; the water in the priest’s pitcher a promise of the outpouring of the Holy Ghost. A corn-field was probably in sight when He said, “Behold, a sower went forth to sow.” And a vine may have trellised the window of the upper room, or a vineyard grown on the sunny slopes beneath, when He said,” I am the True Vine.” Thus would the attention of His auditors be riveted while Jesus spoke; they would leave Him astonished and delighted, and they would never forget words founded on facts before their eyes.
III. CHRIST’S TOPICS were as varied as His texts were timely, and the variety was as striking as the timeliness. Some distinguished preachers have really only one topic, and, begin where they will, you soon find them on their favourite subject. But Jesus of Nazareth had no beaten paths, or rather all paths were alike familiar to His feet. A very short index often suffices for a very large volume, but it would require a catalogue of some length to tabulate all the subjects on which even our four brief Gospels tell us that Jesus had something to say. Natural as the singing of the lark was His speech; but His strain, like the lark’s, was never monotonous. The many-stringed harp of human life was in His hands, and He touched every chord, in turn. He has words to speak about Divine love, and words also about human charity. He has something to tell about the holiness of heaven, and something also about the happiness of earth: much about the Jerusalem above, and much about the earthly Zion. But how can we select where every stone is a gem, or to cull where every flower is an exotic? Enough that He touched upon everything in turn, and everything He touched turned to gold.
IV. CHRIST’S MODE OF TREATMENT; we find this as varied as the topics. Sometimes there is the orderly succession of thoughts, built up into a harmonious whole, as in the sermon on the Mount. At other times there is a beautiful carelessness. Just as flowers and forest trees, creepers and mosses, are intermingled in nature, so amid stupendous subjects of appalling grandeur dealt with in the Master’s teaching we find minute touches of gentleness and grace, which give the play of light and shade to the whole.
1. “He taught as one having authority.” He spake as one who dwelt in very deed in the secret place of the Most High. To the question “How hath this man letters, having never learned?” the answer is “My doctrine is not Mine, but His that sent Me.” We do not wonder now that “never man spake like this man.”
2. A very human interest belongs to the words of Jesus from the fact that they are full of illustration. Sometimes it is parable all worked out, like a broad lace of gold, sometimes mere metaphor, like a golden thread flashing through a silken mantle, but at all times instance or illustration is ready to relieve the dry details of doctrine or precept. Since His words were so sparkling, no wonder that “the common people beard Him gladly.”
3. His words affect every faculty in succession.
(1) He speaks to the intellect, His hand the while digging wells in the surface of the earth, in which you can see the stars by day.
(2) He speaks to the heart, striking off appeal after appeal with a fervour that makes His words, not as the cold steel of the armoury, but the flashing iron of the forge.
(3) He speaks to the conscience a simple word, like a seemingly harmless wire, conveying an electric thrill to the soul.
4. Christ addressed mankind in many and varied capacities, but His versatility made Him equal to every occasion.
(1) lie spoke as a king, and never monarch “spake like this man,” whether he is sending his subjects to the field, putting the sword into one hand and the cup of sorrow into the other, or welcoming them home from the war and garlanding their brows with the joy of their lord.
(2) He spoke as a legislator, and never lawgiver spake like this man. Few but lawyers read law books; even the legal parts of the books of Moses are sealed to most men. But the second Moses has given His laws in such language that, while statesmen learn wisdom from their pages, little children linger over their lines. His code was suited to His own age and suitable to every age succeeding.
(3) He spoke as a teacher of morals, and never moralist “spake like this man.” When He told men to mark the secrets of their hearts as the seeds of sin He put His hand upon the plague spot which physicians for ages had been seeking in vain. And when He opened His mouth and taught them, saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit”--the mourners, the meek, the merciful--a new era dawned upon mankind.
(4) He spoke as a teacher of wisdom, and never philosopher “spake like this man.” His apostles, though they knew it not, were the esoteric disciples of a school destined to outlive the most celebrated of antiquity. How few now care to read “Aristotle,” who wrote elaborate treatises, compared with the number of those who love to linger over the reported utterances of Jesus Christ, who never wrote a line I
(5) He spoke as a brother born for adversity, and never friend “spake like this man.” Do you yearn for sympathy? “Come unto Me all ye that labour,” etc. Do you ask for society? “Lo, I am with you alway.” Do you seek for intimacy? “I have not called you servants … but friends.” Do you pant for love? “Greater love hath no man than this.” And His promises are as full as His heart is large. Is your concern about earthly need? “The very hairs of your head, they are all numbered.” About heavenly grace? “I am come that ye might have life.” About death? “I am the Resurrection and the Life.” About eternity? “Where I am there shall also My servant be.”
(6) He spoke as a revealer of secrets, and never prophet “spake like this man,” for man never before or besides had such tidings to tell. He came, He said, because “God so loved the world.” He came to die, giving “His life a ransom for many,” shedding His blood “for the remission of sins.”
Conclusion:
1. Go to Him as a child of sin. A sinner went to Him once, and she came away amazed that He who was incarnate purity should notice her. Would not she say, “Never man spake like this man “? And if you, sinner, go you will say the same.
2. Go to Him as a child of sorrow. Jairus went to Him bereaved, and he came away comforted. Mary of Magdala went in trouble, and she.came away at peace. Mary of Bethany went weeping, and she came away rejoicing. The woman who had an issue of blood went trembling, and she came away triumphing. You go too, sufferer, and see if He has not reserved a blessing for thee that shall make thee say, “Never man spake like this man.”
3. Go to Him as a child of man, and He will teach you about earthly duty; for He has words for parents, words for children, words for masters, words for servants, words for friends, words for enemies; and for all words such as “never man spake.”
4. Go to Him as a child of God, and He will teach you about the beginning of the spiritual life, the progress of the spiritual life, and the perfection of the spiritual life, till at length, tired of leaving you to listen at a distance, He shall take you to Himself, and there as He leads you unto living fountains of waters, while you drink in every word you will exclaim, “Never man spake like this man.” (J. B. Figgis, M. A.)
The testimony of sceptics
Is this the tone of an enthusiast or of a mere sectary? What sweetness, what purity of manners! What touching grace in His instructions! What elevation in His maxims! What profound wisdom in His discourses! What presence of mind, what acuteness, what justness in His replies! What empire over His passions! Where is the man, where is the sage who knew in this way how to act, suffer, and die? What prejudice, blindness, or bad faith does it require to compare the son of Sophroniscus with the Son of Mary! What distance between the two? They say that Socrates invented ethics; but others practised morality before he taught it. Aristides was just before Socrates described justice; Leonidas died for his country before Socrates taught the duty of patriotism; Sparta was temperate before Socrates praised sobriety; Greece abounded in virtuous men before he defined virtue. But Jesus--where did He find the lofty morality of which He alone gave both the lesson and the example? Prom the midst of a furious fanaticism proceeds the purest wisdom; among the vilest of the people appears the most heroic and virtuous simplicity. If Socrates lives and dies like a philosopher, Jesus lives and dies like a God. (J. J.Rosseau.)
The benefit of hearing the truth
It is good to come to the Word, though with ill intent; they that come to see only, as Moses did to the bush, may be called as he was. They that come to sleep may be taken napping, as Latimer saith. They that come to catch may be caught as those in the text. (J. Trapp.)
Christ’s matchless teaching
He spake with grace, and with gravity: they were all oracles that He uttered; honey-drops that fell from Him. Of Christ it might better be said than ever it was said of Crassus the Roman orator, “Caetaros a Crassa semper omnes illo autem die etiam ipsum a sese superatum.” (J. Trapp.)
The power of Divine truth
There went a man out of this place one evening who was spoken to by one of our friends, who happened to know him in trade, and had him in good repute. “What I have you been to hear our minister to-night?” The good man answered, “Yes, I am sorry to say I have.” “But,” said our friend, “why are you sorry?” “Why,” he said, “he has turned me inside out, and spoiled my idea of myself. When I went into the Tabernacle I thought I was the best man in Newington, but now I feel that my righteousness is worthless.” “Oh,” said the friend, “that is all right; you will come again, I am sure. The Word has come home to you, and shown you the truth: ye will get comfort soon.” That friend did come again, and he is here to-night: he takes pleasure in that very truth which turned him inside out; and he comes on purpose that the Word of the Lord may search him, and try him, and be to him as a refiner’s fire. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
I knew a man who was of a fierce temper, a troubler to his own household when he happened to fall into his fits; he was so passionate at times that I should not like to tell all the wild things which he would do. I have seen that man since conversion, and he has had things to test him which might, as we say, have provoked a saint, but he bore them patiently, and in a manner which I desire to imitate. The lion has become a lamb, he is gentle and tender; no one could think that he was the same man; indeed, he is not, for grace has made him a new man in Christ Jesus. We have seen persons revelling in licentiousness, who sinned greedily, who could not be satisfied with any common sin; but they have heard the gospel, and become chaste and even delicate in purity, so that the very mention of their former crimes has shocked them and made them weep. Such persons have manifested a watchful care against the fault in which they once delighted. They have been afraid to go near their old haunts, or to mix with their old companions. What has wrought this? What teaching must that be which accomplishes such marvels? (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Then answered the Pharisees, Are ye also deceived?
The opponents of the truth
We have here a dramatic sketch of the opposition to Christ and His gospel, which may stand, in part, or as a whole, for every subsequent scene in which error has been pitted against the truth.
I. THE DEBATERS.
1. Their respective standings.
(1) Unequal. The officers were no match for the Sanhedrim in point of social position, religious profession, wealth, and learning. How often in this great controversy has there been a clean cleavage between the masses and the classes, and how often has God chosen, as here, the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty? etc.
(2) Equal. Nicodemus was the peer of his colleagues in all respects, and Christianity has seldom wanted defenders as completely equipped as their opponents, ready to fight them with their own weapons, and to meet them on their own ground.
2. Their qualities
(1) Interest and disinterestedness. The Jewish authorities had everything to lose by the success of Christ. The occupants of Moses’ seat must needs tremble when the seat itself was undermined. The officers, on the other hand, had nothing to gain, except the anger of their masters, and the possible deprivation of their offices; while Nicodemus, from his preeminent position, was in greater danger. These two forces have been conspicuously displayed all through the great struggle. But in every religious crisis the truth has triumphed over the powerful vested interests by which it has been opposed.
(2) Bigotry and candour. Selfishness blinds the eyes to the clearest evidence. The officers related simple facts, Nicodemus recited an incontestible principle. Both were plain, and were urged with obvious sincerity. But the chief priest would not see. The same fault marks the opponents of truth in all ages. There are sincere sceptics, men who cannot see, but these are never antagonists.
(3) Ignorance and knowledge. The Pharisees had not heard these particular words, and had therefore not felt their power. Hence their controversial weakness, which showed itself in the blind rage which ever characterizes the defenders of a lost cause. As for the principle of equity stated by their colleagues, while not theoreti- cally ignorant of it, they were practically unacquainted with it, for they never used it. But both the officers and Nicodemus were fortified with experimental know- ledge, and it is with this weapon that Christianity has invariably conquered. There is no getting over the argument, “Once I was blind, but now I see.”
II. THE METHODS OF DEBATE.
1. As between the Sanhedrim and the officers. To the plain unwarranted report of the latter, the former oppose
(1) An imputation of intellectual weakness. “Are ye also deceived?” This is the standard calumny against Christians. They have weak heads, and so are imposed upon by specious arguments, or unread, and so led astray for want of knowledge. In some circles to be a Christian is quite synonymous with deficiency of intellect and susceptibility to delusion.
(2) An assumption of infallibility--a characteristic of unbelief all through the ages. How can Christianity be true when the “modern, advanced,” “progressive,” “ripe,” thinker does not believe in it?
(3) Scurrilous abuse (John 7:49)--the time-honoured method of argument when there is no case; the well-worn weapon of anti-Christianity.
2. As between the Sanhedrim and Nicodemus. The latter appeals to a simple principle of equity. To this the former oppose
(1) A base insinuation. To belong to Galilee was about the grossest insult that could be perpetrated on a Jewish gentleman--but Christians are by this time accustomed to be accounted the offscouring of the earth. The offence of the Cross, so far as outward profession is concerned, has well-nigh ceased, but let a man in certain circles put its principles into practice, or venture to assert them, and what epithets, such as “fanatic,” “humbug,” “canter,” will be hurled at his head!
(2) A gratuitous assumption. Nicodemus had not said that a prophet had or would arise out of Galilee; nor had Christ asserted a Galilean origin.
Because a man has lived in a certain locality that is not to say that he was born there. How often has the opponent of Christianity fought an enemy of his own making? How many caricatures of the Trinity, the atonement, heaven, hell, etc., pass muster as Christian doctrines, and are criticized as such?
(3) The closure (John 7:53). The Sanhedrim having spoken there was an end of all discussion--a convenient course frequently adopted since. Christianity is not afraid of a patient hearing, but its opponents are. (J. W. Burn.)
Nicodemus saith unto them
Nicodemus
1. A timid but honest inquirer after truth (chap. 3.).
2. A calm and decided advocate of justice (chap. 7.).
3. A heroic confessor of the Lord bringing grateful offerings (John 19:39). Here he meets their boasts
(1) That no ruler believes in Jesus.
(2) That they were zealous for the law. (J. P. Lange.)
Boldness best
Nicodemus got little favour from the Pharisees, though his favourable feeling towards our Lord was so cautiously expressed. This is generally the case with those who act timidly as he did. People may just as well be out-spoken and bold. (Musculus.)
Nicodemus and the Sanhedrim
Nicodemus does not announce himself a believer in Jesus but he lays down a general principle sanctioned by the law of Moses (Exodus 23:1); and by the law of nature. His cautious answer may have been dictated by a constitutional timidity, or by a hope that if the Pharisees would only have the fairness to examine the doe- trine and the claims of Jesus before they condemned Him they would not wish to condemn Him; that, like the officers who were sent to apprehend Him, they too would be filled with admiration for Him. But the Pharisees, who are blinded by envy and spite, see not the want of truth, or the falsehood as well as the irrelevancy of their answer to Nicodemus. Many prophets had come out of Galilee. But if not, that was no reason why prophets should not still arise in Galilee. Deborah the Prophetess was from the country of Galilee. She dwelt between Ramah and Bethel in Mount Ephraim (Judges 4:1-24.). Anna the Prophetess was from Galilee, of the tribe of Asher (Luke 2:36). The prophet Jonah was of Gathhepher, a town of Lower Galilee in Zebulun (2 Kings 14:25). There is also a general consent among commentators that the Prophecies of Hosea were delivered in the kingdom of Israel. It was also anciently believed that Hosea belonged to the tribe of Issachar, which would be included in the more modern district of Galilee. Nahum was born in Elkosh, a small village in Galilee; hence he was called Nahum the Elkoshite (John 1:1), The Prophet Elijah the Tishbite was born, according to some, in Thisbe, in the tribe of Naphtali, in Galilee; according to others in Gilead, on the east side of the Jordan. Elisha was born at Abel-Meholah, in the northern part of the valley of the Jordan. Though neither of these were strictly in the district called Galilee, they were neither of them in the country of Judaea, or in the kingdom of Judah, but both in the kingdom of Israel. Nicodemus simply asks that they should hear Him before they condemn Him. The answer of the Pharisees shows that they had already condemned Him, and unheard. It was impossible, they said, that He could be the Christ, because the Christ should come from Bethlehem, in Judah, and Jesus was born in Galilee. (F. I.Dunwell, B. A.)
Grace cannot remain hidden
Good blood will not belie itself: love, as fire, will not be long hid. Croesus’ dumb son could not but speak to see his father ready to be slain. Nicodemus, though hitherto a night-bird, now shows himself for Christ in a council. Nicodemus was but a slow scholar, Judas was a forward preacher; yet at last, when Judas betrayed Christ in the night, Nicodemus faithfully professed Him in the day. (J. Trapp.)