CHAPTER XVI. These things have I spoken unto you in Proverbs, but the time cometh when I shall no more speak unto you in Proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father. At that day ye shall ask him my name. And I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you. For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world. Again I leave the world, and go to the Father.

His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now we are sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee. By this we believe that thou camest from God.

Jesus answered them, Do you now believe? Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.

" The passage we have now read is a very remarkable portion of Scripture for two reasons. On the one hand, it forms a suitable conclusion to our Lord's long parting address to His disciples. It was meet and right that such a solemn sermon should have a solemn ending. On the other hand, it contains the most general and unanimous profession of belief that we ever find the Apostles making.

Now we are sure that thou knowest all things. By this we believe that thou camest from God. That there are things hard to be understood in the passage, it would be useless to deny. But there lie on its surface three plain and profitable lessons to which we may usefully confine our attention.

We learn, for one thing, that clear knowledge of God the Father is one of the foundations of the Christian religion. Our Lord says to His disciples, The time cometh when I shall show you plainly of the Father. He does not say, We should mark, I will show you plainly about myself. It is the Father whom he promises to show.

The wisdom of this remarkable saying is very deep. There are few subjects of which men know so little in reality as the character and attributes of God the Father. It is not for nothing that it is written, No man knoweth the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son shall reveal him. Matthew 11.27 The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. John 1.18 Thousands fancy they know the Father because they think of Him as great and almighty and all-hearing and wise and eternal, but they think no further.

To think of Him as just, and yet the justifier of the sinner who believes in Jesus, as the God who sent His Son to suffer and die, as God in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, as God specially well pleased with the atoning sacrifice of His Son, whereby His law is honored, To think of God the Father in this way is not given to most men. No wonder that our Master says, I will show you plainly of the Father.

Let it be part of our daily prayers that we may know more of the only true God, as well as of Jesus Christ, whom He has sent. Let us beware alike of the mistakes which some make, who speak of God as if there were no Christ, and of the mistakes which others make, who speak of Christ as if there was no God. Let us seek to know all three persons in the Blessed Trinity, and give to each one the honor due to him. Let us lay hold firmly of the great truth that the gospel of our salvation is the result of the eternal counsels of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and that we are as thoroughly debtors to the love of the Father as to the love of the Spirit or the love of the Son. No one has learned of Christ so deeply as the man who is ever drawing near to the Father through the Son. ever feeling more childlike confidence in Him, and ever understanding more thoroughly that in Christ God is not an angry judge, but a loving Father and Friend.

We learn, for another thing, in this passage, that our Lord Jesus Christ makes much of a little grace, and speaks kindly of those who have it. We see Him saying to the disciples, The Father Himself loveth you, because ye have loved Me, and have believed that I came out from God. How weak was the faith and love of the apostles! How soon, in a very few hours, they were buried under a cloud of unbelief and cowardice! These very men whom Jesus commends for loving and believing, before the morning sun arose, forsook Him and fled. Yet, weak as their graces were, they were real and true and genuine. They were graces which hundreds of learned priests and scribes and Pharisees never attained, and, not attaining them, died miserably in their sins.

Let us take comfort in this blessed truth. The Savior of sinners will not cast off them that believe in Him because they are babes in faith and knowledge. He will not break the bruised reed or quench the smoking flax. He can see reality under much infirmity, and where He sees it, He is graciously pleased. The followers of such a Saviour may well be bold and confident. They have a friend who despises not the least member of his flock, and casts out none who come to him however weak and feeble, if they are only true.

We learn, for another thing, in this passage, that the best Christians know but little of their own hearts. We see the disciples professing loudly, Now thou speakest plainly, now we are sure, now we believe. brave words these, and yet the very men that spoke them, in a very short time, were scattered like timid sheep, and left their master alone. We need not doubt that the profession of the Eleven was real and sincere. They honestly meant what they said, but they did not know themselves. They did not know what they were capable of doing under the pressure of the fear of men and of strong temptation. They had not rightly estimated the weakness of the flesh, the power of the devil, the feebleness of their own resolutions, and the shallowness of their own faith. All this they had yet to learn by painful experience. Like young recruits, they had yet to learn that it is one thing to know the soldier's drill and wear the uniform, and quite another thing to be steadfast in the day of battle.

Let us mark these things and learn wisdom. The true secret of spiritual strength is self-distrust and deep humility. When I am weak, said a great Christian, then I am strong. None of us, perhaps, have the least idea how much we might fall if placed suddenly under the influence of strong temptation. Happy is he who never forgets the words, Let him that thinketh he standeth, take he lest he fall. And, remembering our Lord's disciples, prays daily, Hold thou me up, and then I shall be safe.

We learn, lastly, from this passage, that Christ is the true source of peace. We read that our Lord winds up all His discourse with these soothing words, These things I have spoken unto you, that ye might have peace. The end and scope of His parting address, He would have us know, is to draw us nearer to Himself as the only fountain of comfort. He does not tell us that we shall have no trouble in the world. He holds out no promise of freedom from tribulation while we are in the body. But He bids us rest in the thought that He has fought our battle and won a victory for us. Though tried and troubled and vexed with things here below, we shall not be destroyed. Be of good cheer, is his parting charge. Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.

Let us lean back our souls on these comfortable words and take courage. The storms of trial and persecution may sometimes beat heavily on us, but let them only drive us closer to Christ. The sorrows and losses and crosses and disappointments of our life may often make us feel sorely cast down, but let them only make us tighten our hold on Christ. Armed with this very promise, let us, under every cross, come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Let us often say to our souls, Why art thou cast down? and Why art thou disquieted? And let us often say to our gracious Master, Lord, didst not thou say, Be of good cheer? Lord, do as thou hast said, and cheer us to the end. Notes.

John chapter 16 verses 25 to 33.

Verse 25. These things, Proverbs.

Our Lord seems here to begin winding up and concluding his discourse. The expression, these things, seems to me to apply to all he has been saying since Judas went out and he was alone with the eleven. All these things I have been saying to you in language which you have not been able fully to understand, insomuch that I seem to have been speaking to you in parables or proverbs, The Greek word rendered proverb is only used five times in the New Testament, and in John chapter 10 verse 6 it is translated parable. Besser observes here, from the very first words of our Lord's farewell discourse, in my father's house are many mansions, up to the words concerning the travailing woman, the heavenly purport of the discourse is enwrapped in various similes and parables. Do we not learn, here, that ministers must not refrain from telling their hearers many truths which at the time they do not fully comprehend, in the hope that they will seek more knowledge and comprehend afterwards the meaning of the things taught?

But time cometh, Father. I believe the time here mentioned must be the time between our Lord's resurrection and ascension, the great forty days when He taught the eleven disciples more fully than He had taught them before, and spoke more openly of the things of His Father. I say this with diffidence, but I can see no other time to which our Lord could refer excepting this. It is evidently some personal instruction that He means, and not instruction by the invisible agency of the Holy Ghost. The time is very close at hand when my sacrifice on the cross, having been accomplished, and my resurrection having taken place, I will show you openly and plainly the things concerning my Father, who I am and what my relation to Him, and will no longer use parables and figures to convey my meaning. The promise may possibly include the continual teaching of the Holy Spirit, which our Lord would give His disciples after His ascension, but the language seems rather to point to direct teaching from our Lord's own mouth. Moreover, it is an hour that cometh in the Greek and not a continual period of time. So in verse 32, the hour means a time close at hand.

Verse 26, At that day, ask him my name. I believe this sentence must mean, in the day following my resurrection, when the full nature of my mission and office is at last understood, you will begin to pray and ask in my name. Hitherto you have not done it. When I have risen from the dead and opened your understandings, you will begin to do it. I see insuperable objection to any other view. The day spoken of cannot be the day of Christ's second advent, because prayer will not be needed then. Nor yet can it be the whole period of time between Christ's first and second advent, because the passage which it is here bound up with belongs specially to the apostles. See verse 27. There remains in my judgment no reasonable explanation except the one already given.

And I say not, Pray, Father, you. The meaning of this sentence seems to be, it is not necessary to say that I will pray the Father to hear you and grant your requests. Not only shall I, of course, do this, but my Father also will willingly hear your prayer. This is the most natural meaning of the passage in my judgment. It is singular that the Greek word rendered pray at the end of the verse is the same that is used to signify ask questions or make inquiry in verse 23. But it is worth notice that the word seems specially used when our Lord is described as praying to the Father. See John chapter 17, verse 9, chapter 15, verse 20.

Verse 27, for the Father himself, etc. This verse is a continuation of the encouragement contained in the verse before. You need not doubt the Father doing for you all that you ask in my name, because he loveth you for having loved me and believed my divine mission. He loves all who love me and believe on me. See John chapter 14 verse 23. Anton paraphrases the verse, You need not so think of my intercession as if the Father were not himself well disposed, but must first be coerced into kindness. No. He himself loveth you, and himself ordained my intercession."

We should notice here how graciously our Lord acknowledges the grace there was in the disciples with all their weakness. When myriads of Jews regarded Jesus as an imposter, the eleven loved him and believed in him. Jesus never forgets to honor true grace, however much it may be mingled with infirmity.

Verse 28, I came forth, etc. This verse seems a farewell summary of the true nature of our Lord's office and mission. It grows out of the last clause of the preceding verse. You have believed that I came out from God. In so believing you have done well, for so it is. For the last time I repeat that my mission is divine. I came forth from the Father and came into the world to be man's Redeemer, and now, my work being finished, I am about to leave the world and go back again to my Father. This deep sentence contains more than at first sight appears. It points backward to our Lord's persecution. It points forward to His resurrection and ascension into glory. Augustine, quoted by Burgon, remarks, When Christ came forth from the Father, He so came into the world as never to leave the Father, and He so left the world and went unto the Father as never to leave the world.

Verse 29. His disciples said, etc. The words of the disciples seem to be a reference to our Lord's statement in the 25th verse that the time was coming when he would no more speak in proverbs but show them plainly concerning the Father. The eleven appear to catch at that promise. Even now thou art speaking to us more plainly than we have ever heard thee speaking before, and not in figurative language.

Verse 30. Now we are sure, etc. This is a peculiar verse. It is hard to see what there was in our Lord's statement in verse 28 to carry such conviction to the minds of the eleven and to make them see things about their master so much more clearly than they had seen them before. But the precise reason why words affect men's minds and they hold on their attention at one time and not at another is a deep mystery and hard to explain. The very same truths which a man hears from one mouth and is utterly unimpressed come home to him with such power from another mouth, that he will declare he never heard them before. Nay more, the very same speaker, who is heard without attention one day, is heard another day teaching the very same things with the deepest interest by the same hearers, and they will tell you they never heard them before.

The words, We are sure, are literally, We know. They mean, We know now that thou knowest all things concerning thyself, thy mission, and the Father. The words, Thou needest not that any man should ask thee, mean, Thou hast told us so plainly who and what thou art, that there is no need for anyone to ask thee questions or seek further explanation. The words, By this we believe, must mean, We are convinced and persuaded by the statement thou hast just made. In verse 28.

Verse 31. Jesus answered, Now believe. In this verse, Our Lord warns the eleven of their self-ignorance. Never do we find our Lord flattering His disciples. Warnings against self-confidence need to be continually pressed on believers. Nothing is so deceptive as feeling and excitement in religion. We know not the weakness of our hearts. Alfred thinks that, Do ye now believe? should not be rendered as a question but an affirmation. You now believe, I know. The Greek admits of either view, I prefer the question.

Verse 32. Behold the hour, leave me alone. In this sentence our Lord reveals to His confident hearers the amazing fact that they, even they, would in a very short time forsake Him, desert Him, run away, and fail in faith altogether. Behold, He begins, to denote how wonderful it was. The hour cometh Yea, is now come. This very night, before the sun rises, the thing is immediately going to take place. Ye shall be scattered like sheep fleeing from a wolf, one running one way and another another. Every man going off to his own things, his own friends, or his own house, or his own place of refuge. Ye shall leave me alone. Ye will actually allow me to be taken off by myself as a prisoner to the high priest and to Pontius Pilate, and not so much as one of you will stand by me. How little the best of believers know of their own hearts, or understand how they may behave in times of trial. If any men were ever fully and fairly warned of their coming failure, the disciples were. We can only suppose that they did not understand our Lord, or did not realize the magnitude of the trial coming on them, or fancied that He would work some miracle at the last moment for His deliverance. The Greek phrase rendered, his own, means literally, his own things. It may either be, his own business, or as the margin renders it, his own home.

And yet, not alone, with me. In this teaching, and touching sentence, our Lord reminds his disciples that their desertion would not deprive him of all comfort. And yet, when you are scattered, and have left me, I am not entirely alone because the Father is always with me.

We need not doubt that one great need of the sentence was to teach the disciples where they must look themselves in their own future trials. They must never forget that God the Father would always be near them and with them, even in the darkest times. A sense of God's presence is one great source of the comfort of believers. The last promise in Matthew before the Ascension was, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Matthew 28. John Huss, the famous martyr, who was burned at Constance, is said to have drawn special comfort from this passage during the lonely imprisonment which preceded his death.

These Things, Peace
In this concluding verse our Lord sums up the reasons why he has spoken the things contained in this whole discourse. these things I have spoken for this one great end, that you may have inward peace by resting your souls on me and keeping up close communion with me. It is one great secret in our religion to draw all our consolation from Christ and live on Him. He is our peace." Ephesians chapter 2 verse 14.

In the world tribulation,
Here our Lord tells the eleven plainly and honestly that they must expect trouble and persecution from the world. He does not conceal that the way to heaven is not smooth and strewed with flowers. On the contrary, all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 12. To keep back from young beginners in religion the cross and the battle is not teaching as Christ taught.

But be good cheer, overcome world.
Here our Lord winds up all by bidding the disciples to take courage, cheer up, be confident, and go forward without fear. The world in which they lived was a vanquished enemy. He, their master, had overcome the world. This means, I believe, not merely that he had given them an example of successful fighting by overcoming the fear of the world and the flattery of the world, but something far more important. He had overcome the prince of this world, and was just about to win his final victory over him on the cross. Hence his disciples must remember that they were contending with an enemy already sorely beaten. You need not fear the world, because I am just leading captive its king and about to triumph over him on the cross.

Luther, quoted by Besser, here remarks, Thus is the good night said and the hand shaken. But very forcibly does he conclude with that very thing around which his whole discourse has turned, Let not your heart be troubled, be of good cheer. No devout commentator, I think, can leave this wonderful chapter without deeply feeling how little we understand of the depth of Scripture. There are many words and sentences in it about which we can only give conjectures and must admit our inability to speak positively. Nowhere in Scripture, I must honestly confess, do commentators appear to me to contribute so little light to the text as in their interpretation of this chapter. End of section 20