Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 16:7

Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.

7. I tell you the truth ] ‘I’ is again emphatic; ‘I who know, and who have never misled you.’ Comp. Joh 14:2.

It is expedient ] So Caiaphas had said (Joh 11:50) with more truth than he knew; so also the taunt at the crucifixion, ‘Himself He cannot save.’ ‘That’ here = ‘in order that’ (S. John’s favourite particle, ). Comp. Joh 16:2 and Joh 12:43.

I go away ] There are three different Greek verbs in Joh 16:5 ; Joh 16:7 ; Joh 16:10, and our translators have not been happy in distinguishing them. The verb in Joh 16:5 ; Joh 16:10 should be I go away: here for ‘I go away’ we should have I depart, and for ‘I depart’ we should have I go My way. In the first the primary idea is withdrawal; in the second, separation; in the third, going on to a goal.

the Comforter ] The Advocate (see on Joh 14:16). The Spirit could not come until God and man had been made once more at one. In virtue of His glorified and ascended Manhood Christ sends the Paraclete. ‘Humanity was to ascend to heaven before the Spirit could be sent to humanity on earth.’

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

It is expedient for you … – The reason why it was expedient for them that he should go away, he states to be, that in this way only would the Comforter be granted to them. Still, it may be asked why the presence of the Holy Spirit was more valuable to them than that of the Saviour himself? To this it may be answered:

1. That by his departure, his death, and ascension – by having these great facts before their eyes they would be led by the Holy Spirit to see more fully the design of his coming than they would by his presence. While he was with them, notwithstanding the plainest teaching, their minds were filled with prejudice and error. They still adhered to the expectation of a temporal kingdom, and were unwilling to believe that he was to die. When he should have actually left them they could no longer doubt on this subject, and would be prepared to understand why he came. And this was done. See the Acts of the Apostles everywhere. It is often needful that God should visit us with severe affliction before our pride will be humbled and we are willing to understand the plainest truths.

2. While on the earth the Lord Jesus could be bodily present but in one place at one time. Yet, in order to secure the great design of saving men, it was needful that there should be some agent who could be in all places, who could attend all ministers, and who could, at the same time, apply the work of Christ to people in all parts of the earth.

3. It was an evident arrangement in the great plan of redemption that each of the persons of the Trinity should perform a part. As it was not the work of the Spirit to make an atonement, so it was not the work of the Saviour to apply it. And until the Lord Jesus had performed this great work, the way was not open for the Holy Spirit to descend to perform his part of the great plan; yet, when the Saviour had completed his portion of the work and had left the earth, the Spirit would carry forward the same plan and apply it to men.

4. It was to be expected that far more signal success would attend the preaching of the gospel when the atonement was actually made than before. It was the office of the Spirit to carry forward the work only when the Saviour had died and ascended; and this was actually the case. See Acts 2. Hence, it was expedient that the Lord Jesus should go away, that the Spirit might descend and apply the work to sinners. The departure of the Lord Jesus was to the apostles a source of deep affliction, but had they seen the whole case they would not have been thus afflicted. So God often takes away from us one blessing that he may bestow a greater. All affliction, if received in a proper manner, is of this description; and could the afflicted people of God always see the whole case as God sees it, they would think and feel, as he does, that it was best for them to be thus afflicted.

It is expedient – It is better for you.

The Comforter – See the notes at Joh 14:16.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Joh 16:7

It is expedient for you that I go away

The absenteeism of Christ

1.

The words must have been very startling to the apostles. They had doubtless come to consider the personal presence of Christ indispensable. He was the principle of cohesion among them, and His departure would be the signal for the dissolution of the brotherhood. He, moreover, gave them what influence they possessed in the nation; for without Him they were but a band of ignorant fishermen.

2. Now if these words were true in the case of the apostles, they are true for all time. The absenteeism of Christ is a help rather than a hindrance to the religious life.

I. It is, of course, true that THE DEATH OF ANY GOOD MAN IS SO FAR A LOSS TO THE WORLD. It is the withdrawal of a beneficent influence. How grand, then, it would have been, to have had Him, the worlds greatest blessing, making one everlasting pilgrimage round the globe. But

1. Such perpetual residence here would have limited His moral influence. No man is understood till he is dead. Absence is the condition of correct insight. Presence either blinds us to greatness, or produces flattery, or that familiarity which begets indifference. It is to be feared that, had Christ remained for ever on the earth, the blindness of the Jews who saw no beauty in Him to make Him desired, would have been repeated by each succeeding generation. We labour under an incapacity for seeing a hero in the man whose hand we can shake. The fault, no doubt, lies in us who live so much in our senses, and look only on the surface of the life. That the valet cannot see a hero in his master is more likely to be due to the valets blindness than to the masters defects. We might have gained in physical happiness from Christs perpetual presence, but that would have been but a poor compensation for the loss of reverence, and the inspiring lift our whole nature has received from the ascended and invisible Christ. Why, the physical boon itself would have been but parochial and temporary. And thereon would have arisen dissatisfactions and jealousies.

2. Christs perpetual residence here would have been against the growth of the religious life. Instead of living for Christ and God in our hearts, we should have lived for them only in our senses. We should never have hungered for the hour of religious meditation, but rather have complained that He had long delayed to appear in our streets. Newspapers would have been searched to learn His whereabouts; shiploads of the stricken would have travelled the deep, and longed impatiently for the port of their destination; and the rest would have lived on in the restless hope that He would pass their way before they died. Who would have thought of submitting with obedient heart to the afflictions of Providence, of seeking out their Divine purpose when one word from Christ would remove them all at once? Would men ever think of spiritual fellowship with Christ when physical fellowship might be had? Is it not far better that, instead of being the monopoly of a favoured few, He should be ever near to all who call upon Him; that, instead of gazing on Him as a man without, we should feel Him in the background of our hearts?

3. Had Christ dwelt for ever on the earth the good and the bad would have had equal experience and perception of Him. His absence from the earth was indispensable to His manifesting Himself to His people in another way than He could unto the world.

4. Christs perpetual residence here would have made impossible the expected distribution of His spirit in the hearts and lives of men, and through all the political, moral, and social organizations of the globe.

II. You will see the expediency of Christs departure from the earth, if you consider that HIS CONTINUED RESIDENCE HERE WOULD HAVE SECURED US NO ADDITIONAL BLESSING, except, indeed, relief from physical ills; and, if you admit that these are productive of moral good, and work in us a recompensing glory, it is questionable if their arbitrary removal would have been an unmixed blessing. All the good Christ could do for the world might be summed up under these points

1. In His sacrificing Himself for sin. And here it will be obvious that the satisfactoriness of His death could in but a small measure depend upon any condition of time. As soon as the hour had struck when He would be accepted as our Substitute, it would have availed nothing to have deferred the hour of His triumphal return to God.

2. In impressing on the worlds imagination an ideal of saintliness and nobleness of character that would make for righteousness and protest against evil through all generations. Into the doing of this the condition of time, in a greater measure, did enter; but when He had reached the age at which He spoke of the expediency of His departure, this end had been attained. He has left no more precious legacy behind Him than the memory of what He was. (J. Forfar.)

The departure of Christ

This departure

I. HAS SECURED TO THE CHURCH HIS CONSTANT PRESENCE. While dwelling here as our Saviour He was not ubiquitous. This was sometimes an apparent loss. Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. How this wail would have extended itself had He remained. Europe would have cried for Him when He was teaching the millions of Asia, &c. No Church now mourns an absent Lord. When faith looks for Him it sees Him. When love yearns for Him it feels Him near. Only when these are feeble do we seem to be forsaken and alone. We have then one friend to whose memory no tablet will ever be erected, and no tear shed; for the strong arm will never cease to hold us securely, and the loving heart will not fail to keep alive our affection with the fire of its abiding love.

II. PREVENTED, TO A GREAT EXTENT, THE GROWTH OF A SPURIOUS AFFECTION FOR HIM. We have known Christ after the flesh. Many have an affection for His person without regard to His character and work. It is one thing to weep over Christs sufferings, and quite another thing to weep over our sins. Blessed are they who can say, Whom having not seen we love. Their affection is not less strong, while probably it is more spiritual than it would have been had He remained on earth.

III. ENABLES US TO UNDERSTAND HIM BETTER THAN WE COULD HAVE DONE HAD HE REMAINED. Why are we more ready to garnish the graves of dead saints than to praise the virtues of living ones? Not always because we are envious. Mainly, perhaps, because just as we may get too near a magnificent pile of architecture, and thus lose sight of the exquisite harmony of the whole. No man was more unknown than Christ. Even His attached friends misunderstood His plainest teachings. It was well that He went away. Things dimly seen before, shone with unclouded radiance after His departure.

IV. SECURED THE OUT-POURING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. It is very probable that this was the chief cause of His departure. Their views of the Holy Spirit were very indistinct. Nevertheless, the language of Christ concerning Him had kindled a strong desire for His presence. Now they learn the price which must be paid for His advent. If I go not away, &c. How essential the Spirit was to them, and to the interests of the kingdom, all their subsequent history shows. And there never has been an age in which the Church could afford to dispense with His presence. If this were the only reason for the departure of Christ, we could not murmur. We have not lost our Lord. He takes of the things of Christ, and shows them unto us. He strengthens our faith in Him, deepens our love to Him, enlarges our desires after Him, sanctifies our communion with Him. (H. B. Robinson.)

Christs departure and Pauls abiding

(text, and Php 1:24):–Jesus thought that His disciples would gain by losing Him, and Paul thought that his friends could not do without him. A singular contrast–reverses what might have been expected. How strange it must have seemed to them that they, poor sheep in the midst of wolves, would be better without the Shepherd! And the strangeness is brought more home to us by that word of Pauls in which we recognize the familiar tone of love that cannot face the thought of leaving a lifes work half done and dear ones unhelped. The contrast rests on the absolute difference between the work of Christ and that of all other teachers, friends, and guides, and so may help us to grasp the unique relation which He and it sustain to the world. It was expedient that Christ should go away, for

I. CHRISTS DEATH IS HIS WORK. It was needful that Paul should abide, for Pauls death was the end of his. Pauls words show us how those speak who know that their departure will do nothing to advance the purposes to which they have given themselves. Christs are intelligible only in the light of the great truth that He came to give His life a ransom for the many, and that His death has a substantive value all its own.

II. HIS WORK GOES ON AFTER HIS DEATH, WHILE THAT OF OTHERS CEASES. When Paul dies he can no more help his brethren. True, he may leave a holy memory. The great personalities of the world may, in a certain figurative sense, be said to rule the nations from their urns. But that reverberation from the past prolonged into the present is but a poor shadowy thing. Christs work to-day is no mere influence flowing from activities long since terminated. It is real and continuous–a present putting forth of present power.

III. CHRISTS PERSONAL RELATION TO US IS WHOLLY INDEPENDENT OF HIS BODILY PRESENCE. His departure aided in the apprehension of His true character and nature. Like some star, that, as long as it is low on the horizon and shrouded by mist, may be mistaken for some earthborn light, but is known for what it is as it climbs the sky, He was discerned when unseen far better than when here. When He ascended to the Father, that withdrawal from the touch of sense gave Him to the touch of faith, and these desolate disciples were nearer Him when the cloud received Him out of their sight. The true personal bond that knits men to Christ is actually helped by His absence. Jesus Christ, whom having not seen ye love, is held in the inmost hearts of millions. That is a phenomenon in the history of human affections altogether unique, and standing in the strongest contrast to the feelings with which the most enthusiastic admirers regard the mightiest among the dead. For love, there must be, or must have been, personal intercourse. With earthly teachers and guides that is only possible whilst they live; so their abiding in the flesh is needful for us. With Jesus Christ, who died–yea, rather, who is risen again–it is possible now for us all; therefore it was our gain that He went away, departing for a season, that we might receive Him for ever. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Christ going away

Our Lord here represents the complex whole of His death and ascension as being His own voluntary act. He goes. He is neither taken away by death nor rapt up to heaven in a whirlwind, but He goes into the region of the grave and thence to the throne. Contrast His ascension with that of Elijah. One needed the chariot of fire and the horses of fire to bear him up into the sphere, all foreign to his mortal and earthly manhood; the other needed no outward power to lift Him, nor any vehicle to carry Him, but slowly, serenely, upborne by His own indwelling energy, and rising as to His native home, He ascended up on high, and went where the very manner of His going proclaimed that He had been before. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

We need not lament Christs departure into heaven

Men long for Christ on earth. Christ in heaven is not only faint and dim, but they think a heavenly Being cannot have earthly love. There may be more purity, they think, in heavenly love than in earthly, but less heartiness, and heartiness is what they long for. Now, Christ returned to heaven that He might love more, not less. This was a part of the glory which He had laid aside and was to take again. On earth His soul stood but in the bud. He went to a fairer clime that He might blossom, and now the heavens and the earth are full of the fragrance of His love. Incarnation was limitation. Ascension was expansion. There was not room enough for such a heart while in the body. It came as a seed, and grew, but we saw only the sprouting and the leaves.
Death ripened it back again to the golden fulness of a heavenly state. (H. W.Beecher.)

The departed Christ

The Saviour declared to His disciples that He must leave them. On Him their whole souls had rested. He epitomized to them everything that was sacred; they had forsaken occupation, and had suffered contumely for following this man; and now He was about to be taken from them; and everything in their knowledge, affection, understanding, rebelled against it. They could not comprehend it either in its relations to Him or to themselves. And yet He said, It is for your own interest that I go away. That, I think, touches the universal feeling of wonder in men.

I. Is there one of you who has not pondered the question, WHY DID CHRIST LEAVE THE WORLD? Having once come into it, and brought life and immortality to light, why did He not abide here?

1. There are multitudes who think that if they could but once have seen Jesus, or laid their hand on His, or heard from Him the history of His life and His instructions, that it would have begotten in them a certainty, an enthusiasm, and a power which would have carried them through a thousand sloughs that otherwise must have engulphed them.

2. Then, again, men think that if once they could pour out their souls allegiance to Christ, in His very presence, they could go on all their lives long worshipping and rejoicing in Him. They think it would lay the foundations of piety so strong, that all doubts would flee from them for evermore.

3. Then there is a large number who feel that if Christ were enthroned in Jerusalem, around that sacred Centre would be formed the Church circle in an unbroken unity, and that all the shattered particles of shining truth would be gathered together.

4. Then, again, there is the feeling of certainty which men seek for. This leads men to feel that if they could have a determiner of controversies, it would be a great and desirable thing. They say, True, we have the Bible; but how can the Bible be a determiner of controversies, when there are a dozen different and warring sects that draw their proofs from it? There is the vicegerent in Rome; and men say, oftentimes: We do not believe in a great many things that are claimed in regard to the papacy; but, after all, it is a good thing to have somewhere a centre of faith–one that can determine and put an end to controversies. I cannot deny that, at the first blush, there is some justification for these fancies; but they will not bear examination. Gods way is always the best.

II. SUPPOSE OUR MASTER HAD REMAINED UPON EARTH, ABIDING IN JERUSALEM

1. How many of the race could have seen Him? The ocean may know ways of circulating its waters; the atmosphere may change and go from place to place without vehicle or expense; but there is no grand current by which the human race may be thus carried hither and thither. So the tribes of the earth would find it difficult to go to a certain place and see the Saviour if He were on earth. Moreover, the mere social and physical disturbances would be enormous. It would break up the household, destroy social intercourse, and subject men to untold perils, and toils, and wastes, and expenses, to say nothing of the destruction of vast multitudes of the human race–witness those fearful pilgrimages in the East, and their fatal results, in famines, slaughters, and the dreaded Asiatic cholera.

2. But let us rise above these considerations of mans physical circumstances, and go higher. Do you suppose that you would feel any better satisfied if you had seen Christ? When the disciples were with Christ were they more strong and more powerful than afterwards? You know they were not. The inspiration that lifted them above common humanity came by faith, and not by sight. There are realms of knowledge which cannot be reached by vision, and which must be reached by the Spirit. Therefore the Saviour says, It is expedient, &c.

3. But, again, would there be any more certainty of unity if Christ could yet be referred to? There are men who say: If we only had some one in Jerusalem who should be supreme over the Church throughout the world saying: This is the exact way–walk ye in it, how much better it would be! Would it be any better? Why, we do not want mere likeness, sameness, absence of conflict. We have that–in the graveyard; and the race would be but little better than dead men if such unity were to exist, and men did not need to think, to exert themselves, or to make mistakes, which are always incident to investigation and endeavour. Some people are all the time trying to set aside the Divine providence by doing for a man what it was designed that he should do for himself. A Church formed on such principles would be like Babbages calculating machine. All that would be necessary would be to turn a crank, the wheels being of just such a diameter, and with just such cogs, but having no volition, no life, individuality, Divinity! I cannot conceive how anybody who has an idea of how the providence of God is unfolding, and has unfolded the world, should stumble on that as the way in which he ought to unfold it. But it is thought that, at any rate, it would determine controversies to have one who could speak authoritatively. Did the disciples believe just what Christ told them? Did the most learned and educated men in the time of the Saviour believe what He taught them? Did not the mind act the same then as it does now? and was it not necessary for men to get at the truth by unfolding themselves, and by educating their inward nature to the thing taught them? And if Christ had lived two thousand years, He would down to this day have taught only those who were competent to understand, by reason of their growth. The earth would have always followed the same law that He pointed out to them then, and we should, have had to learn by stages, and rise accordingly. But we should not even then have come to unity. Even in the consideration of physical truths there is but very little absolute unity. And when you take social and moral truths, still more when you take spiritual truths, they are of such a nature that they report themselves to each individual according to his conformation.

III. CHRIST SAID that it was expedient that He should go away, and THAT IF HE DID NOT GO THE COMFORTER WOULD NOT COME. Blessed word! because if there is anything that we need in this world, it is comforting. There are gods of love, of wine, of war, of government and law, but the world needs a God to comfort it. The Holy Spirit; the One who stands over against those subtle elements in the human soul–which we call the spiritual instinct or sentiment–comes to take the place of Christ, and open the doors of the understanding through the highest intuitions, and give light and direction to our interior nature, and enable us to triumph over death, and crown us sons in the kingdom of God. And this is infinitely better than that Christ should have continued on the earth in His physical form. Now, how blessed it is to feel that the heaven is filled by one who is interpreted to our spirit by historical sympathies as he never could have been interpreted to us in Jerusalem, where He would have had to walk the streets, to eat and drink and sleep as men do. In the spiritland there is not a long days journey between us and Him. The distance is not even so great as that which must be gone over to send a letter from the post-office in New York to the post-office in Brooklyn. No thought emerges from your soul that does not go instantly to Him. There are no distances in spirituality. (H. W. Beecher.)

Jesus invisible

I. LET US SUPPOSE THAT THE SON OF MAN HAD CONSENTED TO REMAIN UPON THE EARTH. He could not thus remain except to die daily, or to be for ever triumphant. On which of these two alternatives must we fix? You know too well.

1. Jesus Christ always equally entitled to be loved, will always be equally hated; so that were Jesus Christ to appear successively in different countries, each of them would in its turn be moistened with His blood. If it accords with piety to believe that the Son of God died once, the just for the unjust, it is impious to believe that the blessed seed of the woman was more than once to allow His heel to be bruised by the angel of darkness.

2. Let us hasten then to reject this alternative, and conceive that He has to enjoy an everlasting triumph. He has conquered; He has put infidelity completely to flight. Jesus reigns King of all the earth. He has no more enemies or rivals. Still this kingdom, glorious as it appears, is but a place of exile. The subjects of this King have an advantage over Him. The servant is more than his Master. For Jesus Christ having suffered once, what can those around Him have to suffer? A single look from Him crowns them with glory. There is no longer either difficulty to be surmounted or struggle to be maintained. It is no longer by fire that men are saved, nor by much tribulation that they enter into glory. Religion is no longer a sacrifice; the blessing of the narrow way, and the kingdom of heaven taken by violence, are henceforth only empty sounds. It only remains to ask why earth is not already transformed into heaven?

II. LET US NOW LISTEN TO JESUS CHRIST. Let us see in what this expediency consists.

1. If I go not away, the Comforter will not come, &c. Remain with us, Lord, and we will be comforted. Such would perhaps have been our answer. Who can console better than Jesus? Jesus absent is only one misery more. Jesus might have answered, Are you consoled? does My presence suffice you? No; and yet I am in the midst of you. Thus it appears you still require the Comforter. Two consolations compose the whole new man.

(1) Faith. To believe is to repose entirely on the infallibility and faithfulness of God. It is, consequently, to go forward with unflinching eye, and meet coming events as we would meet God Himself; to live in the Spirit; to renounce the domination of the senses; to prefer the invisible, which is eternal, In regard to what specially concerns Jesus Christ, it is to bless God that the Word was made flesh, but not to regard Jesus Christ, although perfect man, as an ordinary individual, whose presence is indissolubly attached to the body. Now, such was the disposition of the disciples, and such is human nature, that had Jesus Christ remained upon the earth, faith would have remained for ever in an infant state. Its case would have been that of a young bird whose parent will not permit it to try its wings. Men would have reposed on the corporeal presence of Christ; not upon His spiritual, which is His real presence. The magnificent developments of the Christian Church would thus be strangled in the birth; or, to speak more properly, there would be no Christian Church; if by the Church we mean the assembly of those who walk by faith, and live in the Spirit.

(2) Love in the Spirit. To love spiritually is to love as God loves and wishes to be loved. All in love that is only nature, instinct, taste, self-complacency, disappears or is subordinate. Love, purified and made Divine, rises and attaches itself to what is invisible and immortal. Now almost all the world loves Jesus. How is it possible not to love Him! But no man of the world could have more love for Him than the son of Jonas; and do we not know that Jesus deserved to be loved otherwise? The affection of Peter was not spiritual; that of the world for Jesus is, if possible, still less so. It is a human attachment which Jesus does not count sufficient. But this attachment remained human so long as Jesus Himself remained in a human condition. The visible, corporeal, limited person, behoved to disappear, in order to make room for the idea which it represented, and at the same time concealed.

2. If faith and spiritual affection are the life of the Church, it was for the advantage of the Church that Jesus should go away. This has been well proved by fact. Where was the Church before the departure of Jesus? Nowhere; not even in the bosom of that college of apostles who we have reason to believe knew Jesus far less, and loved Him less completely than a poor Christian peasant now knows and loves Him. Why had His lessons less affect on the apostles than those of the apostles themselves afterwards had on others? The facts cannot be disputed. Before the departure of Jesus there was no Church, but there is one immediately after.

3. Could we venture to maintain that it was good for the disciples that Christ should go away, and yet bad for us? The situation, and wants, are still the same, and we cannot dispense with the painful privation. No Christian, however, consents to it willingly. The resolution to do so depends on the measure of his spirituality. But nothing is more universal or more natural than regret for not having seen Jesus Christ. Many imagine that they could do all with Jesus Christ were He to become visible, that there would then be neither doubt nor fear, that they would thenceforth be all ardour for the service of their great Master. But after reflection how can they continue to use this language?

(1) What is the human body? A living statue. An image of the presence of a moral being, to which through the body are addressed all the feelings which this being can inspire. This organization, however, does not constitute the man. This we all admit when we refuse to estimate a mans worth by his body, and make it wholly depend on his intellect and will. Moreover, in our attachments we rise superior to the impressions which body can produce upon body. An affection on which neither the external decay of the object loved, nor its absence, nor death, would have any power, would justly be entitled to the highest honour. If any being should be loved purely, it is undoubtedly the Son of God. If the Son of God appeared in the flesh, it was not to make us adore His corporeal presence, but to be man like us, and submit to death. He has given this as a support to our love; but our love should attach itself to that in Him which thinks, invites, and loves.

(2) But let us reply to those who exclaim, Oh how strong we would be if we could only see Jesus Christ! Alas! how many saw Him at full leisure, and remained weak! So would it be with you were Jesus Christ to communicate the Holy Spirit, which was given to the first disciples only under the condition of His own absence. The mere aspect of a great personage, the mere report of his presence, has sometimes, on grave emergencies, exercised a decisive influence. But however great the results might be, they were human. But spiritual effects demand a spiritual cause, and the fact of Christs corporeal presence, considered in itself, is not so. There is nothing spiritual in it. This absence of a visible Christ is regarded as a privation, a loss. But it is the flesh itself, it is the charm of the present life that makes us deem it so. Jesus Christ, though absent, is not absent. In giving us His Spirit He gives Himself.

4. Enough of this, you say, None of us have the idea of making Christ dwell a second time in the sad darkness of this life. But if you presume not to claim the visibility of Jesus Christs personal presence, you wish visible signs of His invisible presence. If the signs for which you call are only those fruits of the Spirit, which constitute and manifest Christianity, assuredly you are right; and it is these signs of the presence of Jesus Christ you ought in the first instance to ask from yourselves. But there is another desire less pure, Make us gods to walk before us. Anything which will give a tangible shape to the spiritual kingdom which Jesus Christ came to establish on the earth.

(1) In the first rank are the institutions and customs which time has consecrated in the bosom of the Christian Church. These circumstances, which are wholly external and are not the Church itself, we so overvalue that we mistake them for the Church; if certain barriers, words, sounds, happen to fail, we think it is the Church herself that fails, and our heart melts within us, and we can scarcely help exclaiming, They have taken away my Lord, &c.

(2) Sometimes we consider Jesus Christ to be represented by men who are devoted to His service. Every Christian, in a certain sense, represents Jesus Christ. The error lies in making a mere man the object of feelings which are due only to our Lord, and in regarding any instrument of whatever nature as necessary. And when the righteous hand of God throws down this idol and breaks it to pieces, when this man, supposed necessary, has disappeared, all has disappeared with him.

(3) The successes of Christianity are also a kind of visible Christ to us. We are willing not to believe Him absent so long as we see His religion honoured and multitudes thronging His churches. Our faith takes courage at the sight; but how readily it is shaken, when, in consequence of any great change in the condition of society, enmity grows bold. It seems as if this host of enemies had carried Jesus Christ away.

5. But Jesus Christ, who cannot permit us either to serve Him as an idol, or to put idols in His place, or to seek indubitable evidence of His presence anywhere but in ourselves, as of old, withdraws to a mountain. By this new retreat He extinguishes the bright light which He had kindled; He obliges us to seek Him on the mountain, in other words, in our faith, and constrains us to look at Him with other eyes than those of flesh. Let us with all the strength which God has given resist the dangerous temptations of that lust of the eye, which, from our carnal nature, we carry even into the purest of religions. (A. Vinet, D. D.)

Christs going away our gain

I. BY HIS DEPARTURE HIS LOCAL PRESENCE WAS CHANGED INTO AN UNIVERSAL PRESENCE. As God, He dwells with us through the Holy Ghost, by His essence, presence, and power. As Man He is always with us in all the truth of His Incarnation. His character–His pity, gentleness, patience, long-suffering, love, tenderness, compassion–is shed abroad throughout all His Church. The kingdom of Christ is the kingdom of the Man Christ Jesus; and the reign of His will, human as well as Divine, is His kingdom. And there are even deeper things than these. The mystery of the Incarnation is not a mere isolated fact, terminating in the personality of the Word made flesh, but the beginning and productive cause of a new creation of mankind. By the same omnipotence which wrought the union of the Godhead and the manhood in the womb of the blessed Virgin, the humanity of the Second Adam is the immediate and substantial instrument of our regeneration and renewal. The Church is Christ mystical–the presence of Christ, by the creative power of His Incarnation, produced and prolonged on earth.

II. HIS DEPARTURE CHANGED THEIR IMPERFECT KNOWLEDGE INTO THE FULL ILLUMINATION OF FAITH. While He was with them, and taught them by word of mouth, their hearts were slow of understanding. Their minds were earthly, and interpreted all things by the rules of earth and sense. But when the Comforter came all things were brought back to their remembrance. Old truths and perplexing memories received their true solution. Words they had mused upon in doubt were interpreted; sayings they had thought already clear were seen to have profounder meanings; a fountain of light sprung up within them, an illumination cast from an unseen teacher unfolded to their consciousness the deep things of God and of His Christ. Their very faculties were enlarged; they were no longer pent up by narrow senses and by the succession of time, but were lifted into a light where all things are boundless and eternal. A new power of insight was implanted in their spiritual being, and a new world rose up before it; for the Spirit of truth dwelt in them, and the world unseen was revealed.

III. HIS DEPARTURE CHANGED THE PARTIAL DISPENSATIONS OF GRACE INTO THE FULNESS OF THE REGENERATION. Our nature, which He had made sinless, deathless, and divine, from the time of His ascension into heaven was glorified. The Second Adam began to give of His own spiritual nature, to multiply the lineage of His elect, and to gather His mystical family into one universal body. The agent In this Divine work is the Holy Ghost dwelling in us. The Incarnation raised man to a higher life, and laid a higher law upon us: the coming of the Holy Ghost endowed man with power to walk in that higher and more perfect path. (Archdeacon Manning.)

Christs ascension the Churchs gain

I. THERE IS A NATURAL SENSE IN WHICH LOSSES OFTEN PROVE TO BE GAIN IN THE END. We gain wisdom and knowledge and experience by losses; and we unquestionably gain a very much clearer mental and spiritual vision. And so, perhaps, in this natural and human sense it would be in one way expedient for the disciples to lose their Lord–inasmuch as the loss of Him would tend to open their eyes to a juster and truer estimate of His Person and character. On this very night Philip gave sad evidence of how little he and the others even yet understood of Him. Have I been so long time with you and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? was the Saviours reply to Philips request that He would show to them the Father. To the very end of His life it was still true of the disciples that they understood not what things they were that He sake unto them, and what He did they knew not either as yet–but should only know hereafter. Was this, then, what our Saviour meant in the text when He said It is expedient for you that I go away:–You will be able, after I am gone, to balance and weigh the things that I have said and done better than you can at present, and so, by the exercise of your calmer judgment, arrive at a juster estimate of Me? This would certainly be a consequence of His departure–but it was not this He meant by the words He used.

II. IF FAITH, HOPE, AND CHARITY ARE THE THREE GRACES WHICH MAKE UP THE SUM OF A CHRISTIAN CHARACTER, HOW VERY MUCH THAT CHARACTER MUST BE STRENGTHENED BY THE GREATER EXERCISE OF THESE SEVERAL GRACES. When the Lord they loved was taken away from them, then their faith would be called into action as it had never been before, for faith begins where sight ends; when they ceased to see the Lord with the natural eye then the spiritual vision–which is only another name for faith–would have to be entirely depended upon. And so, too, with their hope. No longer would they be looking for a temporal and earthly fulfilment of Gods promises. The hope they had been hitherto entertaining of earthly honour for their Lord, and the restoration of an earthly kingdom to His chosen people, would henceforth give place to a wider and better and further-reaching hope. Their treasure henceforth would be in heaven, and they would surely experience in their own case the truth that they had long since heard and learnt by rote–that where a mans treasure is there will his heart be also.

III. IF I GO NOT AWAY THE COMFORTER WILL NOT COME UNTO YOU–but if I depart I will send Him unto you. Do we understand this? Is it that the Holy Spirit is kinder, more loving, more powerful than He who sends Him? Ah no, we know that the Three Persons are at the same time One God–One in power, and in holiness, and in love. The meaning has already been partly stated. It is better for the Church–it is better for each one of us its members–to walk by faith than to walk by sight. It is better, and it is the work of God the Holy Ghost to lead us on to this higher life. So long as Jesus was present upon earth there could not fail to be something earthly and carnal in the attachment of His disciples to Him; but when He was departed the Holy Ghost would teach men a more spiritual attachment. (John Crofts.)

Expediency

I. THINGS ARE NOT OF NECESSITY AS THEY APPEAR AT FIRST SIGHT. We are very short-sighted, and we judge just by what is within range of our vision. How should human sight perceive that it ever could be expedient for the well-loved Jesus to depart? Surely nothing could compensate for that; and yet He says it is for their advantage. Let this be a lesson to us, not to be too hasty in taking things at first sight. Let us not say, when, perhaps, we are on the very road to blessing, all these things are against me. It is necessary that we keep our minds in a state of readiness to admit possibilities.

II. THE VALUE OF UNDERLYING AND DEFERRED BLESSINGS IS OFTEN FAR GREATER THAN THAT, OF WHAT WE HAVE LOST, OR ARE ABOUT TO LOSE. The full ear of corn is of much more value than the single grain from which it sprang, from whose death it took its life; but who would have believed as a theory, that it was only under this condition it could come. What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. God is continually sowing for us seed which we would never sow for ourselves, because we could not bear to see it die.

III. THINK OF GODS ACTION ON THE WHOLE MATTER. We can never deal with the whole of a matter. All human affairs are like spheres, they can be illumined only on one portion of their surface at a time. Some of them revolve so slowly, that it requires more than a lifetime for a man to see their whole surface. Events are happening to us now, which are the legitimate consequences of certain actions of our youth; or even of our parents; or of their parents; and God is engaged in the whole matter. Is it not an immense relief that we can leave God to deal with things as a whole–that we need not strain ourselves, in endeavouring to compass things beyond our grasp.

IV. CONNECT GOD DIRECTLY WITH EXPEDIENCY. Expediency implies suitability of action to circumstances, of means to accomplish an end–that end being what seemed meet unto Him. Man recognizes the meaning of the word, and thinks he acts upon it; but being evil, he often forgets moral principles; moreover, he is so ignorant, he often chooses wrong means; he thinks it is not expedient to do such and such a thing, whereas it is the very thing he should have done; and he does the very thing, which, as it turns out, he should not have done. But with God there are no mistakes; and so, there is no miscarrying; there is absolute righteousness in Him; and so, in His dealings towards us, and others, there can be no wrong. He does the right thing, with the right motive, in the right way, at the right time. There are two considerations, which will help us very much to fall in with Gods arrangements with faith and comfort.

1. The persuasion, that when He deems such and such a mode of action expedient, He sees the end from the beginning. We do not know in what a beginning will end, He does.

2. The belief that He sees the real suitability of operative causes–how certain things are calculated to bring about certain ends. We often think we see this. But all life is full of the history of sad mistakes in this respect. Unforeseen and disturbing influences have come in. The means we put in motion did not go far enough, or they went too far, or, perhaps, were beside the mark altogether. But when God is in action, all this is put far away; and if the causes which He sets in motion are in anyway trying to us, we maybe certain that they will produce the end He desires. And so, though we cannot see it at the time, our heaviest trials are for the best. They are only means to an end. They are expedient. (P. B. Power, M. A.)

Christ more useful within the veil

The high priest was more useful to them within the veil than outside of it; He was doing for them out of sight what He could not accomplish in their view. I delight to think that my Lord is with the Father. Sometimes I cannot get to God, my access seems blocked by my infirmity; but He is always with God to plead for me. Let us joy and rejoice that our covenant Head is now in the bosom of the Father, at the fountain-head of love and grace, and that He is there on our behalf.

Expedient absence

It is better for us that Christ should be in heaven than with us upon earth. A woman had rather have her husband live with her than go to the Indies; but she yieldeth to his absence when she considereth the profit of his traffic. (T. Manton.)

The expediency of Christs absence

All departures are painful and trying, e.g., the boy to business; the girl to marriage; the friend to sea; the relation over the river of death. Glad that this is true of Christ; that He felt the going away, and needed comforting. But, in His case, that was true which is so often true still–the one who went was the Comforter. His was no ordinary going. He was more to the disciples than they realised.

I. IT WOULD PROVE TO BE A PRESENT SPIRITUAL POWER. Our Lord comforted by giving a two-fold assurance:

1. He would really be always with them.

2. He would give His Spirit to be always with them. But this is confusing, until our hearts learn to hold both these forms of truth in harmony. Our Lord, while here, was always trying to glorify His spiritual relations; and so preparing for the time when His relations should be all spiritual. Is it not infinitely comforting to be assured that temporal relations shall, by and by, give place to those which are spiritual? The comparative value of the temporal and the spiritual we learn in the progress of life. The child-Christian wants a Christ of the flesh. The matured Christian wants a Christ of the spirit. And just that Christ gone away has become. He was outside us; He is in us now. We hear of the scene on Olivet, and we say, He is gone. We hear of the scene at Pentecost, and we say, He has come again to abide with us for ever.

II. IT LOCALISES OUR CONCEPTION OF HEAVEN. The human Christ went to a place, and prepares a place. This is enough, Jesus is there; and Jesus knows.

III. IT GIVES US GROUND FOR CHERISHING A HIGH HOPE. Resting upon the promise He has left. Our sorrow is the seeming separation; our everlasting joy shall yet be conscious union, under conditions that involve no separation. One day we shall be ever with the Lord. We may reverently fit the influence of Christs departed saints into Christs own words (as in text). Few of us but have dear friends, not lost, but gone before. And they seem to whisper in our souls, and say, It is expedient for you that I go away. We cannot see it. We are like the women at the sepulchre. And yet those who are gone away–1. Do become a present spiritual power to us. By going their characters get glorified, so as to be to us

(1) Holy example;

(2) call; and

(3) impulse.

They live ever in our souls. Among the very highest of the spiritual forces moving us in the godly life, we put the influence of the white-robed host, the sainted dead.

2. They localize heaven for us.

3. They keep alive in our souls a great hope. I shall go to Him, but He shall not return to me. The hope of reunion, where they go no more out for ever. (Weekly Pulpit.)

Expediency of the Ascension

The Ascension was expedient because

I. IT SECURED AN ADEQUATE SENSE OF THE TRUE PLACE AND DIGNITY OF MAN AMONG THE CREATURES OF GOD. There are great studies, which, as they are sometimes handled, tend to create a degraded idea of man.

1. Look, says the astronomer, at the North Star, the light which falls on your eye left that star some thirty years or more ago; and yet this light travels at a rate of 200,000 miles a second. Or, look at the Milky Way, a collection of worlds more numerous than the sands on the sea-shore, separated often from each other by distances which our figures cannot express, and among these are stars whose light must have taken even thousands of centuries in order to reach us on this earth. Or, look at that Dog Star, Sirius. When it was first known that our own sun was moving round some other centre, just as our earth moves round him, it was a shock to the thought; but this giant sun, Sirius, compared with which our own sun is but a pigmy, is himself in motion around some other central orb, the size and place and distance of which exhaust the capacities of imagination. And then our friend turns our thoughts upon this little home of ours. Astronomy has told man many things, and among others, his insignificance.

2. Comparative physiology takes us into its museums, and we see ranged before us the skeletons of apes. Look at the lower types (so it is said) of the human family; at the Aztecs and the Papuans; and then say how you can trace a sharp line of demarcation between this animal and that animal.

3. Or again, we picture to ourselves a scene which takes place inevitably after a great battle; and as our thought lingers over the ghastly ruin, chemistry passes by, and it suggests that after all all is well, and that these buried and disfigured forms will presently be resolved into their constituent elements; and that the value of man may be appreciated when we have discovered what remains after a human body has been submitted to the verdict of a chemical student. Certainly most of us do not readily acquiesce in these theories of human life. Our reason tells the astronomer that there is a moral as well as a material world, and that bulk and distance are not the main tests of greatness; and it tells the comparative anatomist that no similarity of his skeletons can possibly obliterate the vast interval which parts a being with self-reflecting consciousness, and free will from a being which is governed only by instinct; and as for the chemist, whether he is in the cemetery or in the laboratory, reason protests to him that his analysis begs the tremendous question, whether the most important and vital part of man has ever been before him to be analysed at all. But the Christian falls back upon a distinct fact, which enables him to listen with interest and with sympathy to all that the astronomer, &c., may have to tell him, and withal to preserve the robust faith in the dignity of man. He believes in the ascension of our Lord into heaven. Somewhere in space he knows there is at this moment, associated with the glories of the self-existing Diety, a human body and a human soul. Ay, it is on the throne of the universe. No other creature of God shares that incomparable dignity.

II.
IT MAKES ROOM FOR FAITH IS CHRIST.
It is, of course, conceivable that our Lord might have willed to prolong His life upon the earth through the centuries of Christian history.
Had He done so, there would have been no questions as to the seal and centre of authority in the Christian Church, or as to the true area and contents of the Christian creed; there would have been ever before the eyes of men a living example of what the Christian character was meant to be; and perhaps the conversion of the world would have been completed long ere this.
But one thing is certain, that if Christ had continued to be visibly present, there would have been no room for true faith in Him.
Trust in Christ there might have been; we trust our friends, our elders; but faith is the evidence of things not seen.
Think what this would have meant for Christendom.
Why is it that so great a place is assigned to faith in the New Testament? Because faith is the apprehension of an object with ever-increasing clearness on the part of the whole soul, of its thought, of its heart, of its determination.
And such an apprehension of a perfect object means vast moral leverage. We become, more or less, like that on which we continually fix our attention. If we look persistently downwards then we become earthly; if we look upwards then the light of heaven is reflected in oer souls. For this there would have been no room if our Lord had not ascended; the world would only have known Christ after the flesh, would have concerned itself with His outward and human form, rather than with His true and essential divinity, and it therefore was expedient that He should go away, as promoting the moral effect and power of faith.

III. IN THE INTERESTS OF WORSHIP. What is the idea of God which we gain from nature Courage, energy, and intelligence–nature certainly suggests these; but benevolence is in the back-ground of its suggestion respecting its author and its master. It is cold, thin, superficial; like the clear sunlight on a frosty day in January, there is no warmth, no colour, no character about it; it may provoke intellectual interest, admiration, wonder, but not passion of any kind, not devotion, not worship. But we Christians approach God not only through external, non-human nature, but through man. Man, unlike nature, has moral character. When the Old Testament would teach us the awful attributes of the self-existent, it draws upon the ordinary language of human passion and human experience, it describes a being with human feelings of anger, of pity, of jealousy, of love. The revelation through man is a higher revelation; it is one of moral character. The Lord is long-suffering, &c. But here, of course, human nature, as we know it, if taken on the average as a guide to the true character of God, may easily mislead us. It is expedient that perfect humanity should thus be associated on the throne of heaven with the infinite and the eternal. And thus, in the worship of the Church, inspired on the one hand, by an awful sense of the inaccessible majesty of God, and, on the other, by a trustful, tender passion, which has its roots in the consciousness of a human fellowship, with its awful object, we find that which we find nowhere else on earth, and we understand the words, It is expedient for you that I go away. And a last reason for the expediency

IV. IN CONNECTION WITH HIS WORK OF INTERCESSION. A question which Christians ought to ask themselves more often than they do is this–What is our Lord doing now? At His ascension He sat down at the right hand of God. It is the posture not merely of the enthroned Monarch of Heaven; it is the posture of the omnipotent Priest. He does not stand to plead; still less does He prostrate Himself, side by side with those highest beings who are ranged around the throne. He sits in His wounded but glorified humanity as the one permanent sacrifice which will for ever avail before the eyes of the All Holy. Therefore, if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, &c. This uninterrupted action of our glorified Redeemer should surely be more in our minds. What was He doing when we were born? Interceding. What will He be doing at the moment when we shall be leaving it? Interceding. How was He engaged during the long hours of last night, or when we arose from sleep this morning? What will He be doing when we again lie down to rest? What is He doing now, while I am speaking for Him, and while you are listening? The answer is ever the same. Now, this intercession is the very strength of our Christian life. We claim its power in every prayer when we say, Through Jesus Christ our Lord. We associate our poor feeble prayers with His majestic pleading. It is the knowledge that this great work proceeds uninterruptedly, that makes hope and perseverance possible when hearts are failing, when temptation is strong, when the sky is dark and lurid. Surely it is expedient for you and me that He should go away. (Canon Liddon.)

Our Lords ascension the Churchs gain

1. Selfishness is never less attractive than when it would leave its imprint on theology. Yet we are not unfrequently confronted by systems in which the satisfaction of the believer is made the centre of a theological panorama, while the revealed nature or economies of God are banished to its circumference. In this way the self-sustaining, infinite, Supreme Being comes to be regarded as chiefly interesting on account of the satisfaction which He yields to the subjective yearnings of a finite and created soul But the manifested glory, the vindicated honour of Jesus Christ must take rank before all other considerations in regard to the Ascension: at length that life of humiliation is over, and the Bridegroom of the Church girds His sword upon His thigh, as becomes the Most Mighty, and according to His worship and renown.

2. This, then, is our first tribute of love and duty to the mystery of to-day, and we may now turn to that other and very different point of view which is sanctioned by our Lord in the text. No words that ever fell from the lips of Christ can have at first seemed to those faithful souls who heard them to verge more closely than these on the confines of paradox. Could it be expedient for men who are still pilgrims upon earth that their Guide should be taken from them? For pupils who are still ignorant that their great Teacher should desert them? For spiritual children, still so deficient in the Christian character, that they should be deprived of Him who taught by example even more persuasively than He taught by precept? He might have said expedient for the spirits of the just made perfect, to whom, after overcoming the sharpness of death, He was about to open the kingdom of heaven; for the angels who had for thirty-three years been ascending and descending upon the Son of Man, and who had now higher ministries in store for them: for Myself, who, after finishing the work that was given Me to do, am to be glorified by the Father with that glory which I had with Him before the world was. But He does say, for you. My brokenhearted, despairing disciples, it is expedient for yon, that I, your Teacher, Friend, Guide, Strength, should leave you. Wherein then, it may be asked, did this expediency lie?

I. THERE WAS A KIND OF NATURAL EXPEDIENCY IN THE ASCENSION, grounded on that law of the human mind which makes the appreciation of present blessings so very difficult. Most men look back with affection on the years of their childhood; and nations have always surrounded their early annals with an atmosphere of poetry. So limited are our powers, that generally speaking, observation must have ceased before reflection can begin to do its work. Had Christ continued to live visibly upon earth, the spiritual force of the Church might have been expended in an indefinitely prolonged observation. The strength even of saintly souls might have been fatally overtaxed. If Jesus is to be seen by His creatures in His relative and awful greatness, He must be withdrawn. Even on the night before the Passion, St. Philip asks a question, which proves that he does not yet know who Jesus really is. What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter, was an announcement of the self-same principle. He was to be comprehended when He was gone. The life of Christ on earth had first to be brought to a close, ere it could be dropped as a seed that would spring up and bear fruit into the heart of redeemed humanity. And each teacher that has unfolded and enforced the meaning of that life, has, in adding to the illuminated thought of Christendom, attested the truth of our Masters words–It is expedient, &c.

II. THE LIFE OF THE SOULS OF THE APOSTLES JUST HAVE BEEN QUICKENED BY THE DEPARTURE OF THEIR LORD. Faith, hope, and charity are the threefold cord that links the living spirit with its God. These graces were dwarfed in the apostles. Their belief did not materially differ from the creed of the devout Jew. Their hopes were centred on an earthly throne. Their charity was discoloured by the presence of a subtle element of sense, which dimmed its spiritual lustre. Christ left them, and behold, they find springing up within themselves a new and vigorous life. By leaving them our Lord has made room for the full play and power of faith. (1Pe 1:8).

Hope, too, rivals in its growth the growth of faith. It reaches forth into an eternal future. And when Christ was seated at the right hand of God, love, as a matter of course, would seek simply and constantly those things that are above, and not the things upon the earth.

III. But if the apostles had been altogether left to their own resources, could they have formed so true an estimate of His life, as by their writings to rule the thought and kindle the enthusiasm of all ages? Were faith, hope, love, thrown out, as plants of native growth, from the rich soil of their natural hearts? Are the Epistles of St. Paul, or is the character of St. John to be explained by their natural gifts, educational antecedents, contact with the Redeemer, the circumstances and directions of their lives? Surely not. Even though the Pentecostal miracle had not been recorded, some supernatural interference must have been assumed, in order to account for the apostolic character, and the apostolic writings. Of itself the departure of our risen Lord would neither have permanently illuminated the reflections of the Church, nor yet have quickened the graces of its separate members. WE MUST WAIT UNTIL PENTECOST IF WE WOULD ENTER INTO THE FULL EXPEDIENCY OF THE ASCENSION. Pass the eye over that last great discourse, and mark how it bears with repeated effort and significance upon the statement of the text (chap. 14:3, 12, 16, 26; 15:26, 27; 16:7, 10, 13). While Christ tarried here, His apostles who saw and conversed with Him were further, immeasurably further, from Him than we may be, if we will. To them He was still an external example–voice, force. Christ in us is the hope of glory. Our ascended Lord has sent down upon us that promised and gracious Friend, whose office it is to unite us to Himself. Therefore, united to Christ, man is no longer an isolated unit; he is a member of that spiritual organization which is Christs Body. If we feel the expediency of the Ascension, we are men of prayer. In heart and mind we ascend thither where prayer is not an effort but an atmosphere. It is the instinctive breathing of an informing spirit, the voice of children, who, without doubt or questioning, throw themselves into their Fathers arms. Can we realize, each one for himself, what is involved in this expediency of our Lords ascension? Not if we forget the sharp distinction which exists, and which will exist for ever, between the very highest, noblest, purest, truest efforts of nature, and the heavenly action of the Spirit of grace. We shall never understand the expediency of the Ascension, if we forget that we are the subjects of a spiritual dispensation, in which forces more extraordinary are at work, and results more wonderful are produced than any which fall under the cognizance of sense (1Co 2:7-9). The Ascension reminds us of a life which is higher than this world. So much higher, so much more blessed and glorious is the life of grace, that One who loved us men with the truest and purest affection, yet withdrew Himself, as on this day, from our sight in order to enable us, if we will, to live it. (Cannon Liddon.)

Gain in the Saviours loss

1. The parting of friends is always a sad thing; for many things may come to prevent a meeting again. But partings sometimes are among the very saddest things: parting of those who are very dear: of the playmates of childhood: of those who hitherto have kept close together in the race and the warfare of life, but who are now to be severed by long years. And why is it then, that emigrants, e.g., are yet content to part? Because they feel it is better so; that they are leaving a country which will not yield bread, for another where there is work and bread for all. And the friends who remained behind knew all that too.

2. The thing to which people most naturally have recourse to blunt the pang of parting is some such thought as is suggested in the text. The dying wife tries to persuade the husband that it is far better as it is. The reckless and graceless young man, reclaimed by a kindness and a wisdom that were half angelic, as he feels life ebbing away, says: Perhaps it is as well I should go home pretty soon. And just with that simple and natural thought did the blessed Redeemer seek to console His disciples.

3. Now we often say and hear such words as these, when they express rather what is wished than what is felt and believed; when we could give no sufficient reason, save that one sheet-anchor of the weary and disappointed heart, the wise and kind decree of God. But it is not merely in this general view, and merely by way of saying a kind word that might cheer up somewhat in a trying hour, that Jesus said this. His departure was the condition of anothers coming, who would more than make up for His loss. Precious indeed, then, must that other be!

4. Now we must all feel that although it is our privilege to love each of the three Persons in the Trinity; still the Saviour we cannot choose but single out for special love. And we should hardly be able to persuade ourselves that even the coming of the Comforter could make up for His absence. But all that He declared was, that for believers so situated as the disciples He was addressing, it was advantageous that the Comforter should be present with them, even at the price of His own departure.

5. But the thought naturally suggests itself, Why might the Church not have had both? Now, we must just take Christs word for it, that this cannot be. For some good reason we cannot have both together. Note two or three considerations

I. THE CHOICE LAY BETWEEN CHRIST AS HE THEN WAS, A PERSON DWELLING IN A HUMAN BODY, AND A DIVINE SPIRIT CAPABLE OF BEING UNIVERSALLY PRESENT AT THE SAME TIME. Christ, dwelling in flesh, could be only in one place at a time; while the Comforter, unbound by fleshly trammels, could be in a thousand places, working on a million hearts all at once. And for the grand end of carrying on the government of a Church that is to overspread the world, it was better to have one Divine Being, equally present, working with equal energy everywhere, than even to have Christ Himself dwelling in visible form in some favoured spot, and by the very fact of His being visible there, making those disciples in distant countries who saw Him not, feel as though they were so far overlooked. It is the fancy of Popery, but it is not the purpose of the Redeemer, to have one fixed, localized, visible centre of the Christian Church. If sacred places can even yet warm the Christians heart, it is not that Christ is nearer us there than here. And when we call it to mind, how the cares and duties of life tie most of us to one little spot of this world; when we think how vainly most of us might wish to make a pilgrimage of thousands of miles, even though that pilgrimage should bring us into the visible presence of our God, shall we Rot be thankful for the presence here of a Sanctifier and Comforter, who can make our very soul His home.

II. Each Person in the Trinity has His own share in the great task of preparing man for heaven; and A CERTAIN WORK HAS BEEN APPOINTED TO THE HOLY SPIRIT. Now, when we think of the things which it is the Spirits occupation to do, we see that this world is the place where they must be done. The Spirits work lies mainly with a suffering, struggling, sinful, tempted, imperfect Church. Placed and tried as we are, it is just the Holy Spirit we need; and so it is just the Holy Spirit that we get. We shall need Him less, with reverence be it said, when we shall have entered upon the immediate presence of our God. It is by the working of the Blessed Spirit that we are born again, sanctified, comforted, taught to pray. There is not a point in the souls better life, there is not an emergency in the Christians earthly pilgrimage, at which the Blessed Spirit does not come in, the very thing we need. (A. K. H. Boyd, D. D.)

Christ in heaven better than Christ on earth

Christ in heaven instead of on earth means

I. CHRISTS PERSON NEARER.

II. CHRISTS CHARACTER CLEARER. One is apt to think the men of Christs day were much more advantageously situated for judging of Christs Divinity than we are. Yet what were the facts of the case? Now if Christ had never gone away

1. We should want the highest proof, which we now have, of His divinity: viz., His resurrection and ascension.

2. We should feel, and that too increasingly, the difficulty of the Jews. They were acquainted with His parentage, with His upbringing, and with His daily life. Would we have round it easy to believe? The abundance of Christs miracles would make them cease to be miracles; the gracious words becoming so common would lose their power; the very character of Jesus would come to be regarded as a product of the earth. What were helps to the men of Christs day would become no inconsiderable hindrances to us.

3. Having Christ in our midst, we should have the difficulty, which is felt by every age, of judging of its great mens characters while they are yet alive. Great men are better appreciated by after generations than by their contemporaries. Sometimes, too, those who die beneath a cloud of shame have their names vindicated by posterity. Many examples might be given, but none more illustrious than that of Christ, who eighteen centuries ago was executed as a malefactor, but now is worshipped throughout the world as God.

III. CHRISTS WORK SURER. Of course Christ came to reveal the Father; to fulfil the law; to destroy the works of the devil; to bring life and immortality to light; to open heaven for believers. But while these are essential parts of the work of Christ, Scripture invariably assigns the central position to the Cross. All the others are rightly seen only when beheld as radiating from it; as thus–Christs sacrificial death upon the cross was the highest revelation of the Father (Joh 3:16; Ro 1Jn 3:16); the perfect pattern of duty (1Jn 3:16; 1Pe 2:21); the absolute destruction of death (Heb 2:14-15); the certain opening of heaven to believers (Heb 9:12). And all these because it was all expiation of the guilt of men (Eph 5:2, &c.).

Yet, of this work the surest evidence would have been wanting had Christ continued on the earth. Had He postponed His dying we should certainly have had the promise of the Father as our guarantee that the work would be accomplished: had He died and risen, but remained on earth, we should have had the double witness of His own word and of the testimony of those who had seen Him. But that evidence would have gradually become obscure by the passing years. His visible presence would always be felt to be a difficulty in assenting to the truth of His decease. But now, Christ having gone away to His Fathers throne, we have, so to speak, been supplied with a sublime public certificate that His great redeeming work has been accomplished.

IV. CHRISTS CHURCH RICHER; that is, by the presence of the Holy Spirit. In Christs view the dispensation of the Spirit was a higher gift than the mission of the Son; higher relatively, as being an onward step in the development of redemption and the enjoyment of salvation. What the materials of a building are to the building and the architect; what the light is to the vision which we have by means of the light; what the wisdom in a book is to the same wisdom when apprehended by the mind; what the external revelation of nature is to the intelligent appreciation of it; what the Mosaic economy, with its code of precepts and system of sacrifice, was to the spiritual interpretations and applications thereof, which were given by the prophets; that was the work of Christ to the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit takes of the things that are Christs and shows them to the soul. Christ revealed the Father to men; the Spirit reveals the Father in men. Christ gave to men a pattern of life; the Holy Ghost enables men to imitate as well as understand. Christ gave Himself to be a sacrifice for human sin; the Spirit helps men to believe in, and rest upon, that sacrifice. See also Joh 16:8.

V. CHRISTS HEAVEN DEARER. To bring to light the reality of a future life was one of the specific objects of Christs mission. He came to speak of it in His teachings; to purchase it by His sufferings; to reveal it by His resurrection; to open it and take possession of it for His people by His triumphant ascension. Obviously, then, Christs departure into heaven has given the world the surest proof that a heaven exists, and invested it with the strongest and sweetest charm for His people. Christ would not be long absent from the sorrowing disciples before they would come to feel in this respect the benefit of His departure. It would humanize heaven for them. It would no longer seem to them a strange place. Those who have Christian friends there know how that blessed home is all the dearer on that account.

How much, then, should heaven be enhanced by the presence of Christ. Conclusion: What should be the souls attitude towards this absent Saviour? Whom having not seen we love, &c. Faith. Love. Joy. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.)

The greatest trials leading to the greatest blessings

I. THE GREATEST TRIAL MAY PROVE THE GREATEST BLESSING.

1. The departure of Christ was felt to be a most grievous trial. Sorrow hath filled your heart. The Sun of their souls was sinking beneath the horizon and their world left in darkness and desolation.

2. The advent of His Spirit would be the greatest blessing. He was the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, &c. He would enter the inner temple of their nature, reproduce all the impressions that Christ had made, and abide with them for ever. Thus it is and ever will be with the good. Our light affliction, &c.

II. THE GREATEST TRIAL MAY BE NECESSARY TO THE GREATEST BLESSING. It seemed expedient in order

1. To give a more real meaning to the life of Christ. Never does the life of a loved friend come with such meaning and might as when death has removed him. He then assumes lovelier forms, and wields a more potent influence. So with Christ. When He ceased to be seen without, He became formed within them the Hope of Glory.

2. To dissipate all their material and local perceptions of Him. His departure tended at once to spiritualize and universalize their conceptions of Him.

3. To stimulate them to study the eternal principles of duty. So long as our teacher is with us we are contented to have our duty pointed out to us. Like children, we shall be controlled by verbal rulers and voices from without. But when he is gone there is a sphere and stimulus for the use of our faculties. How inferior is the mind moving by prescriptive rules to one ruled by universal principles.

4. To throw the soul upon the help of its own faculties. Man only grows as he works his own faculties and becomes self-reliant. Up to a certain point parental watchfulness is indispensable; beyond that it becomes an evil. It is a kind law, though painful, which requires the child to withdraw from the parental roof, and rely upon himself. So with the disciples. What a marked change occurred in them after the Ascension. The principle before us admits of a wide application. It may be necessary for a man to lose friends, property, health, liberty to prepare him for eternal life.

III. THE GREATEST TRIALS AND THE GREATEST BLESSINGS ARE ALIKE UNDER THE DIRECTION OF CHRIST.

1. The greatest trial. I go away. No compulsion; Christ was free. I have power to lay down My life.

2. The greatest blessing. I will send, &c. Him, not It–a Person, not an influence. Our destiny is in the hands of Christ. Let us trust in Him. The whole of our life is made up of loss and gain; but if we are His, He takes away a good thing to give a better. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

The work of the Holy Spirit

I. THE EXPEDIENCY OF CHRISTS DEPARTURE. How could they, poor sheep, be better off in the midst of wolves without a shepherd? A few things remembered may make it a little clearer.

1. The Master has a work to do for us in heaven. His work was not all done on Calvary. His intercession is the sequel and continuation of redemption.

2. His departure prepared the way for the coming of the Holy Spirit.

3. Be could not be with them in the fullest sense unless He left them.

4. His departure raised and spiritualized their conceptions.

5. His departure made them better men. Even after three years with Jesus they were but children in understanding and power. We have their portraits before and after His departure, and so changed are they that one could hardly believe them the same men.

II. THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. This is twofold.

1. Upon the world (Joh 16:8-11). The Master mentions three distinct points as to which the Spirit will reprove or convict the world: sin, righteousness, judgment. Then, resuming each point separately, He shows more particularly what the Spirit will do. The first work of the Holy Spirit is to convince of sin–of all sins, but chiefly of the sin of rejecting Christ. All sin has its root in unbelief, and the most aggravating form of unbelief is the rejection of Jesus Christ. This is the one great, comprehensive, all-inclusive sin of ungodly men. He next convinces the world of the righteousness of Gods whole dispensation, but especially of Christs personal righteousness. The world accounted Jesus guilty. It would also be the special function of the Spirit to keep alive the idea of judgment. He teaches the world moral and spiritual discernment, and vivifies their views of the final judgment.

2. The mission of the Holy Spirit among believers. As He turns to His disciples Jesus says: I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. But they are told of a Guide who shall lead them into all truth. (G. W. Brown.)

Death the interpreter

The advantage to a great cause in the death of its great leader. This is a paradox, but there are many paradoxes that are true.

1. In the first place we never come to know any man while he is with us. The worlds best judgments of men are formed after their death. Christ Himself was not known while He lived. His twelve disciples, while they were in fellowship and companionship with Him and walking by His side, resting even on His bosom, never realized that He was the Son of God. You know that the mother always loves best the child that is dead. It is not because the child that is dead was better than all the children that are living, but because death brings the loved ones nearer to us than life ever brings them. You will never know your wife till she has gone from you. We never realize the meaning of Good-morning until we have said Good-bye.

2. The great truths are never apprehended while the great teachers of those truths are living to expound them. The death of a great teacher deepens and disseminates the knowledge of the truth. It was so with the death of Christ. It has been so with the death of every great teacher since Christ died. And the death of a great leader not only deepens the knowledge of the truth, it disseminates that knowledge. The Reformation is a great deal broader than Luther; and Calvinism is a great deal larger than John Calvin; Methodism is immeasurably more than Wesley; and, in a true sense, Christianity is more than Jesus of Nazareth–not more than Christ, but more than Jesus of Nazareth. There are some persons who look forward with hope to a second coming, in fleshly and visible presence, of Christ. They want to see Jesus of Nazareth descend again to earth, enthroned and crowned, sitting at Jerusalem. This would limit Christianity instead of broadening it, weaken instead of strengthening it, decrease instead of adding to its power. No great truth can be fully made manifest in a single narrow life; and every individual life is narrow. So long as the great leader lives the truth is caged; when the cage is destroyed has the bird liberty to fly out to carry its song everywhither?

3. But, yet more than that, as truth is greater than the teacher, so life and spirit is greater than any manifestation of that life and spirit. Life is more than truth. It is truth vitalized. The life of piety is more than any mans piety. The life of love is more than any one love. Mother-love? It is infinitely more than the love of any one mother. Patriotism? It is immeasurably broader than the service of any one patriot. The history of the Christian Church is the history of the unfoldings of successive developments of Christian truth, Christian experience, in and through Christian lives. (Lyman Abbott, D. D.)

The gift of Pentecost

I. THE GREAT DOCTRINE WE COMMEMORATE. The disciples, as yet, knew only the foundation truth of the unity of the Godhead. Doubtless the All-wise, who has evermore proportioned His revelations to the needs and capacity of His creatures, knew that this great truth was all that they as yet were fitted profitably to receive. For this master-truth, when mans corruptions had multiplied false gods, the Jewish Church was to enshrine and to transmit; and it may be that the full knowledge of the Trinity might have weakened their special witness for the indivisible Unity of God. Now to men trained up to view this as the key-stone of their whole religious system, the trial of faith required to receive the doctrine of the Trinity must have been so great, that nothing but the direct illumination of the Holy One could make them able to receive it. They had indeed been accustomed to hear of the Spirit of God (Gen 1:2; Exo 31:3; Nu 1Sa 10:10; 1Sa 19:20; 2Ch 15:1). And yet they were amongst those who did not so much as know whether there were any Holy Ghost. They doubtless thought of Gods Spirit as of His inward being, or as the breath of His mouth; it was with them but another name for His essence, power, or influence. But the truth, as it was revealed by the Spirit, was

1. That in the Unity of the indivisible Godhead there were not only the Persons of the Father and the Son, but also that of the Holy Ghost.

2. That though the Holy Ghost is One God with the Father and the Son, yet is He not either the Father or the Son.

3. That this was no mere revelation to man of the one Godhead under a threefold aspect, but that it was an eternal and necessary condition of the Godhead itself.

4. That whilst as touching time there was neither before nor after in relation to the three blessed Persons, there was between themselves a priority of order; in that the everlasting Father was the fountain of being; for that the Son was from the Father, whilst the Father was not from the Son; and that the Holy Ghost was from the Father and the Son.

5. His special office in the work of mans salvation. They now learned

(1) That whilst every Person in the Godhead contributed to that salvation, yet that the Father is the Creator; the Son the Redeemer, the Holy Ghost, the Paraclete, the Advocate, the Comforter, is the Sanctifier of all the elect.

(2) That although the work of the Redeemer, so far as it depended upon His personal presence upon earth, was perfectly accomplished, yet that still He had much to do for those whom He had died to save. For He had to ascend into the highest heaven, that there He might plead the sacrifice He had once for all offered, and administer from the Fathers right hand the rule of the mediatorial kingdom.

(3) That as the first-fruits of that rule, there was poured out upon the Church on earth the gift of the Holy Ghost.

II. THIS GREAT DOCTRINE IS FULL OF PRACTICAL CONSEQUENCES.

1. It is this which makes the Church of Christ to be what it is. All the attributes, powers, and blessings of the Church are the consequence of this presence of the Holy Ghost. It is through this that Christ the Lord is ever with it; that it has gifts of light, and understanding, and power, and holiness; that its members are a true living unity; that its prayers mount up acceptably to God; that the Sacraments and means of grace are made real. It is of the utmost moment that again and again we remind ourselves of these great truths, for everything around us tends to rob us of their reality.

(1) The world, though it bears the Christian name, has no real belief in any special presence of the Holy Ghost; and we cannot mix with it without being tempted to take up even unawares its tone of unbelieving thought.

(2) Even within the Church itself this temptation re-appears in the most subtle forms. Formality creeps over us even as we worship, and then we rest in the outward and visible as if it had some virtue of its own. Nor is the reaction from this less common or less dangerous. We meet daily with those who seek to get rid of formalism by decrying the forms through which God the Holy Ghost acts. Hence it happens that even whilst seeking for spirituality, men come to deny the reality of that spiritual Presence which alone can make them spiritual.

2. Its light colours the whole of those lives which each one of us is leading in the Church of the redeemed. It is in this presence and under these influences that our lives are being spent. And see how it must affect them.

(1) What a character does it give to our sins ! How deadly is the defilement which keeps men unclean though surrounded by such a cleansing power! Think what your life has been, and remember that in all its innumerable incidents you have been acting under the very pressure of the hand of the Holy Ghost. Through all those hours of youth and tenderness, by all the hallowing agencies of Christian homes, the Sanctifier has co-operated for your salvation. By all the secret avenues of your soul have His blessed influences acted on you. By hopes and fears, by aspirations and depressions, in sorrow and in joy, in the hour of pain and in the bounding glow of health, He who for Christs sake is in Christs Church present with us, has been dealing with your inmost spirit. What are you, and what ought you to be? All has been done for you which could be done without destroying that mysterious power of will with which the Almighty has endowed you. What must allowed impurity, malignity, envy, harshness, evil imaginings, evil speakings, be in us with whom the Paraclete is present! Yea, and what must mere earthliness, coldness in devotion, the unbelieving eye, the careless touch of heavenly mysteries, the absence of contrition, the lack of faith, dulness of soul beneath the Saviours Cross, dulness of heart and affection in the sight of Bethlehem, Gethsemane, and Calvary,–what must these things be in those who even here are in Gods very temple, and under the hand of the Eternal Spirit.

(2) But further, whilst Whitsuntide is so eminently a humbling time, yet what season is fuller of thoughts of hope and comfort. For though here, if anywhere, we see the true evil of an earthly life, yet we see also how we may escape from it. Only let us strive to realize His special presence who is the Lord and Giver of life; only, using humbly, faithfully, and simply the instruments of His presence. (Bp. S. Wilberforce.)

The Paraclete

Just as we have sometimes seen the setting sun, surrounded by dark and gloomy clouds, and about to plunge into still darker and gloomier, break out for a moment and pour a final flood of light over mountain and sea, so this Sun of the World, about to set amid sombre clouds, sheds upon His Church a glorious beam of light to enlighten and comfort for ever. Notice

I. THE DESCRIPTION HERE GIVEN OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. Comforter is a word peculiar to St. John (Joh 14:16; Joh 14:26; Joh 15:26; Joh 16:7; 1Jn 2:1), and means one called to be beside another. In Greek and Roman courts of law it was the custom for an accused person to be accompanied by influential friends. These were not advocates in our sense of the term, paid professionals, but men who out of friendship came to stand by their friend in his time of need, to help him by encouragements and suggestions, and if necessary to take his place. Jesus had hitherto been all this. Now He was going away in order that another Paraclete might take His place, and

1. As the paraclete stood by his friend in the hour of trial, so does the Spirit by us. We are not left alone to face our difficulties and afflictions. I will not leave your orphans. The Church is not left alone to face her trials and dangers. The Lord will help her, and that right early.

2. As the paraclete suggested to his friend what was best for his defence, so does the Holy Spirit to us. Take no thought what ye shall speak, &c. So these fishermen went everywhere, standing before kings, meeting the defenders of deeply-rooted religions and overthrowing them. So also with ourselves. We are not left to go a warfare at our own charges. Ye have an unction from the Holy One.

3. As the paraclete pleaded for his friend, so does the Holy Spirit for us. Christ pleads for us in heaven; the Spirit pleads in our hearts (Rom 8:1-39.).

II. THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE DEPARTURE OF JESUS AND THE COMING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. It is the atonement of Christ that gives His Church a right to the Spirits presence and the Spirits grace. The atonement was not completed till Christ had gone away. In accordance with this we read Joh 7:39) that the Spirit was not given because Jesus was not glorified. Not, however, that the Spirit was entirely absent from the Old Testament Church. He strove before the flood, inspired the prophets, &c.; but in His plenitude and power, He did not come till Jesus had gone. Conclusion: Let us

1. Be encouraged by this word of the Master.

2. Realize the blessedness here conveyed. (T. Hamilton, D. D.)

The ministry of the Comforter

1. The teaching of Christ respecting the ministry of the Holy Ghost is so peculiar as to raise the inquiry, Where was the Holy Ghost during the earthly ministry of the Son of Man? Throughout the Old Testament there are the clearest testimonies as to His personal service, and yet Christ speaks of the descent of the Spirit as a new and special gift. Was His ministry suspended? It may be suggested that the fulness of the Spirit had not been realized in the ancient church, which is undoubtedly true; yet it is sufficient to account for the treatment of His descent as a new visitation. The answer would seem rather to be, that the Holy Ghost was in Jesus Christ himself, and could not be given to the Church as a distinctively Christian gift until the first period of the Incarnation had been consummated in the Ascension if I depart I will send Him unto you.

2. Christ gives a specific definition of the work of the Holy Ghost. That His work admitted of definition is itself significant; and that the Son of Mary should have presumed to define it is a marvellous instance of His spiritual dominion, if it be not a covert yet daring blasphemy. Let us now see with what simplicity and decisiveness Christ defines and limits the functions of the Holy Ghost.

I. HE SHALL NOT SPEAK OF HIMSELF. Why not? Because He would be speaking an unknown tongue. We cannot understand the purely spiritual. Whatever we know of it must come through mediums which lie nearer our own nature. The whole ministry of God is an accommodation to human weakness. When He would teach truth He must needs set it in the form of fact: when He would show Himself, it must be through the tabernacle of our own flesh; when He would reveal heaven, He must illustrate His meaning by the fragments of light and beauty which are scattered on the higher side of our own inferior world. The Holy Ghost does not speak of Himself, because there must be a common ground upon which He can invite the attention of mankind.

II. HE SHALL GLORIFY ME. The common ground is the work of the Man Christ Jesus.

1. What is meant by glorifying Christ? We know what is meant by the sun glorifying the earth. The sun does not create the landscape. Yet how wonderful is its work! Everything was there before, yet how transfigured by the ministry of light! In this respect, what light is to the earth, the Holy Ghost is to Christ. The work of the Spirit is revelation, not creation. He does not make Christ, He explains Him. The sun in doing all his wonderful work does not speak of himself; he will not, indeed, allow us to look at him. The Holy Ghost, in like manner, does not speak of himself. He will not answer all our inquiries respecting His personality. We cannot venture with impunity beyond a well-defined line. Yet whilst He Himself is the eternal secret, His work is open and glorious. His text is Christ. From that He never strays. The Christian student sees a Christ which he did not see twenty years ago. This increasing revelation is the work of the Holy Ghost, and is the fulfilment of Jesus Christs own promise. This is an incidental contribution towards the completeness and harmony of the mystery that is embodied in Christ Jesus. The beginning and the end are the same–equal in mystery, in condescension, in solemn grandeur. Thus: That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost–this is the beginning; He shall not speak of Himself, He shall glorify Me; this is the end. The incarnation of the Son of God was the work of the Holy Ghost: how natural that the explanation of the Son of God should be the work of the same minister! As He was before the visible Christ, so He was to be after Him, and thus the whole mystery never passed from His own control.

2. The life of the Son of Man, as written in the Gospels, needs to be glorified! He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief: He made Himself of no reputation: upon all this chasm we need a light above the brightness of the sun. When that light comes, the root out of a dry ground will be as the flower of Jesse and the plant of renown, and the face marred more than any mans will be the fairest among ten thousand and altogether lovely. Such is the wizardry of light!

3. This claim to be glorified by the Holy Ghost is without precedent in human history. That is a fact which ought to have some value attached to it. It is the kind of claim which an imposter would have avoided. Besides, for such a man, or for any man indeed, to have had such an idea is most marvellous. Had He merely committed His case to the care of time and the judgment of posterity, He would have taken the course of ordinary sagacity; but instead of that He expressly stated that the Holy Ghost would glorify His person, and complete His meditation on the earth. The work of the Holy Ghost was to be infinitely more than a work of mere explanation: it was to move forward to the very point of glory, even the glory which the Son of Man had with His Father before the world began. Having spoken of the ministry of the Holy Ghost in relation to Himself, our Lord proceeds to speak of it in relation to His disciples.

III. HE WILL GUIDE YOU INTO ALL TRUTH.

1. Not He will add to the number of miracles which you have seen at My hands, but I am the Truth; He will glorify Me, He will show you all My riches. Our Lord Himself did not guide His disciples into all truth, nor have men even yet been so far guided. Truth is an infinite quantity. At first it may seem to be compassable, but it recedes as it is approached; yet it throws the warm rays of promise upon every honest and loving pilgrim to its shrine. Our Lords expression is comprehensive,–not only into truth that is distinctively theological, but into all truth,–scientific, political, social, religious. Is truth not larger than the formal church? Our Lord does not open one department of truth and refuse the key of others. It is not to be supposed that any one man is to be guided into all truth. Some possessions are put into the custody of the whole race. No single star holds all the light. No single flower is endowed with all the beauty. What man is there who knows all things? Every honest student has some portion of truth that is in a sense his own, and every eye sees at least a tint which no other vision has seen so clearly as itself. Men make up man, churches make up the Church, truths makes up Truth, and it is only by a complete combination of the parts that the majesty and lustre of the whole can be secured.

2. The Spirit of Truth as such is to guide into all truth. The quantity is unlimited; the method assumes consent and co-operation on the part of man. A reference to Old Testament history will show how grave is the error which limits it to thinking and service which are supposed to be purely theological. It may indeed show that theology is the all-inclusive term, holding within its meaning all the highest aspects and suggestions both of speculative and practical science. Can anything be farther from theology, as popularly understood, than stone-cutting or wood-carving? Can any two spheres be much more widely sundered than those of the preacher of the gospel and the artificer in iron and brass? Apparently not. But the biblical testimony sets the inquiry at rest (Exo 31:2-5). Bezaleel was an inspired theologian. More than this, and apparently still farther away from the theological line: I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, &c. Then, intermediately at least, may stand the agriculturalist, of whose treatment of the earth is said: This also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working. The rulers and soldiers of Israel were qualified for their work by the Spirit of the Lord. The ministration of the Spirit is various: by it Moses was made wise, Bezaleel was made skilful, and Samson was made strong (1Co 12:11).

3. Upon the Church itself this promise of guidance into all truth should exert a healthful influence, especially in the direction of enlarging and refining its charity. The danger is that the Church should be content with a limited range of dogma and purpose when it is invited to the mastery and enjoyment of a kingdom that cannot be measured. Men of the most inquisitive mind should be encouraged by the Church to lead the van of inquiry, and subject every doctrine and every spirit to a cross-examination which to minds of an opposite type may become wearisome and even vexatious. The Church should extend to its adventurous sons who go out to shores far away and to lands unmapped and unclaimed, the most ardent and loving recognition. Even when they return with hopes unfulfilled and with banners torn by angry winds, proving the abortiveness of their chivalry, or the mistake of their method, they should be hailed with a still tenderer love. To such men the promise of being guided into all truth becomes a personal torture. They yearn for its fulfilment: they are straitened until it be accomplished.

IV. HE WILL SHOW YOU THINGS TO COME. Such a promise would seem to imply that secret communications about the future will be made to the Church; yet this construction must be admitted with extreme caution, for men would in some cases mistake prejudices and frenzies for inspiration, and in others they would inflict needless trouble upon themselves and upon society at large. Limited to the immediate hearers of our Lord, of course the promise is exhausted and the results are to some extent recorded in apostolic history; but it cannot be so limited. Merely to show things to come in the sense of prevision is a blessing greater in appearance than in reality; but to prepare the mind for things to come–to show the mind how to deal with new and perplexing circumstances is an advantage which cannot be expressed in human terms. Whatever the premised announcement may include, it must involve this supernatural preparedness of mind and heart, or it will merely excite and bewilder the Church. Whatever may come, and with what violence soever its coming may be attended, the Church will be prepared to withstand every shock and surmount every difficulty. Out of this assurance comes rest; the future is no longer a trouble; the clouds that lie upon the remote horizon will be scattered by the brightness of the image of God.

V. HE SHALL BRING ALL THINGS TO YOUR REMEMBRANCE, WHATSOEVER I HAVE SAID UNTO YOU. There is an inspiration of memory. Readers of the Gospels must have been surprised by the minuteness of recollection which is shown in their pages. Conversations are reported; little turns of dialogue, which seem to be merely artistic, are not omitted; records of occasions on which the disciples were actually not present, and of which they could only have heard from the lips of the Lord Himself, are presented with much particularity and vividness: how, then, was this done, and especially done by men who certainly were not conspicuous for the kind of learning which is needful for the making of literary statements? The explanation of this artless art, and this tenacious memory, is in this promise. (J. Parker, D. D.)

Of the sending of the Holy Ghost

1. He did go, and He did send, and on this day, so between the text and our feast there is the reciprocation that is between the promise of the sending and the sending of the promise.

2. There seems to be a question here, whether best the Comforter come or not come? This question grew out of whether Christ best go or not. But Christ resolves this: if they were against the Ascension they were also against a feast which they might not miss out of their calendar, and persuades them to accept the Ascension in hope of Whitsun-tide: one to make amends for the other. This is usual. After Christmas, the poor estate of Christs birth, there comes Epiphany with a star and great mens oblations as by way of compensation; after Good Friday Easter, &c.

3. But Ascension Day, though to Christ a day of glory, could not but be a day of sorrow for the disciples. For

(1) To part with any friend is a grief–even though he be a Demas.

(2) And if any friend, how much more such a one as Christ!

(3) And if such a friend at any time, much more now (Joh 16:2)!

4. Men often grieve, however, at what is for their good. Therefore Christ says, I tell you the truth. Your hearts are full of sorrow because your heads are full of error. Your loss will be your gain.

I. THE INCONVENIENCE OF THE SPIRIT NOT COMING.

1. The absolute necessity for His advent. In both the main works of the Deity all three Persons co-operate. As in creation not only the Word of

God was required, but the motion of the Spirit to give life; and as in the genesis so in the palingenesis. It was necessary not only that the Word should take flesh, but flesh also receive the Spirit to give the life of grace to the new creature. So we baptize into all Three.

2. Most expedient is it that the work of our salvation should be brought to full perfection. If the Holy Ghost came not, Christs coming can do us no good. Christ said It is finished, but only in respect of the work itself. In regard of us and making it ours it is not finished if the Spirit come not too. For

(1) A word is of no force, though written, (i.e., a deed)

till the seal be added: that makes it authentic. Christ is the Word, the Spirit, the Seal.

(2) The will of the testator even when sealed is still in suspense till administration be granted. Christ is the Testator of the New Testament; the administration is the Spirit.

(3) The purchase is made, the price paid, yet is not the state perfect unless there be investiture. Christ has purchased, but the investiture is by the Spirit.

3. As nothing is done for us, so nothing is done by us if He come not. The means avail nothing.

(1) Not baptism; no laver of regeneration, without renewing of the Holy Ghost.

(2) No preaching neither; for that is but a letter that killeth, except the Spirit come and quicken it.

(3) No Lords Supper; for the flesh profiteth nothing, if the Lord and Giver of Life be away.

(4) No prayer; for unless the Spirit helps our infirmity and make intercession within us, we neither know how nor what to pray.

II. THE NECESSITY OF CHRISTS GOING. But why not Christ stay and the Holy Spirit come? Or if He go, come again with Him. Surely He and Christ are not incompatible. Christ was conceived by the Holy Ghost. At His baptism the Spirit rested upon Him. We shall enjoy both together by and by: Why not now? It was necessary that Christ should go.

1. On the Holy Ghosts part. Otherwise He could not come as He should. The stay of Christ would have been a hindrance of the manifestation of His

Godhead. His signs and wonders would not well have been distinguished from Christs, and would probably have been ascribed to Christ.

2. On Christs part. Otherwise it had been an impeachment to Christs equality with the Father. For He not going to send Him, but staying here, the sending of the Spirit would have been ascribed to the Father alone.

3. On the apostles part.

(1) For His bodily presence. It is often good for some that their meat be taken, and yet meat is the stay of their life; or for their blood to be taken, yet blood is natures treasure and holds us in life; or for light to be taken, in some disease of the eyes, yet light is the comfort of life. The loving mother withdraws herself from her child when the child grows foolishly fond of her. For the same reason Christ withdrew. So strangely fond the disciples grew of Him that nothing but His carnal presence would quiet them Joh 11:21). And a tabernacle they must needs build Him to keep Him on earth still; and ever and anon they dreamed of a temporal kingdom and chief seats there. These feelings were by no means to be cherished. They were not to continue children but to grow to mans estate, and so they had to be weaned from the presence of Christs flesh, and to say, If we have known Christ after the flesh, &c. (2Co 5:16).

(2) For His spiritual presence. This is expedient

(a) When men grow faint in seeking, and careless in keeping Him Son 3:1). It was meet that Christ should go to teach them to rise and seek, to watch and keep Him better.

(b) When men grow conceited and overweening of themselves and their own strength, and say with David, I shall never be moved, as if they had Christ pinned to them; and with Peter (Mat 26:33). Christ goes to teach them to see and know themselves better, that we may be humble, and being humble receive the Holy Ghost who comes to give grace to none but the humble (Bp. Andrewes.)

The superlative excellence of the Holy Spirit

I. THE BODILY PRESENCE OF CHRIST MUST HAVE BEEN EXCEEDINGLY PRECIOUS. How precious those alone can tell who love Christ much. Love always desires to be in the company of the thing beloved, and absence causes grief. Have we not some of us been looking for years for the personal advent of Christ. Think of the advantage it would be in the instruction of His people. No mystery need puzzle us if we could refer all to Him. There would be no discouragement to the Church henceforth in her work of faith and labour of love. Christ would take the personal supervision of His universal Church. He would create unity. Schism would cease to be, and heresy would be rooted out. But I question whether the pleasure of this thought may not have had a leaven of carnality in it, and whether the Church is yet prepared to enjoy the corporeal presence of her Saviour, without falling into the error of knowing Him after the flesh. It may be it shall need centuries of education before the Church is fit to see Him.

II. THE PRESENCE OF THE COMFORTER IS VERY MUCH BETTER THAN THE BODILY PRESENCE OF CHRIST.

1. The bodily presence of Christ would involve many inconveniences which are avoided by His presence through the Holy Spirit.

(1) Christ, being most truly man, must inhabit a certain place; but the Holy Spirit is everywhere, and through that Holy Spirit Christ keeps His promise, Where two or three are met together in My name, &c.

(2) Access to Christ, if He were here in His corporeal personality, would not be very easy to all believers. Even at the present moment there are some millions of true saints upon earth–what could one man do, even though that one man were incarnate Deity, in our day for the comfort of all of these? Why, we could scarcely expect to have our turn once in the year. But we can now see Jesus every hour and every moment of every hour.

(3) Christs presence in the flesh would involve another difficulty. Busy scribes would be always taking down Christs words; and, if in the short course of three years our Saviour managed to do and to say so much that if all had been written the world itself could not have contained the books which would have been written, I ask you to imagine what a mass of literature the Christian Church would have acquired if she had preserved the words of Christ throughout these 1800 years. But now we have a book which is finished within a narrow compass, and the poorest man in England believing in Christ, who is present through His Spirit may, in a short time, understand with all saints what are the heights and depths, and know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge.

2. If Christ were still present in the flesh, the life of faith would not have such room for its display as it now has. The least faith the most show. The Romish Church, which has little enough of true faith, provides everything to work upon the senses. The presence of Christ Jesus here would be the bringing back of the saints to a life of sight, and in a measure spoil the simplicity of naked trust. Happy day will it be for us when faith enjoys the full fruition of her hopes in the triumphant advent of her Lord; but His absence alone can train and educate her to the needed point of spiritual refinement.

3. The presence of Christ would materially affect the character of Gods great battle against error and sin. Suppose that all men who would oppose Christ were suddenly devoured, why then it would be rather a battle between physical greatness and moral evil, than a warfare in which only spiritual force is employed on the side of right. But now that Christ has gone the fight is all between spirit and spirit; between the Holy Spirit and Satan; between truth and error; between the earnestness of believing men and the infatuation of unbelieving men. Now the fight is fair. Physical force is left to our enemies, we ask it not. Why? Because by the Divine working we can vanquish error without it.

4. Christ must be here in one of two ways–suffering, or not suffering. If He be a suffering Christ, then we should suspect that He had not finished His work; and, if He be an unsuffering Christ, then it would look as if He were not a faithful High Priest made like unto His brethren.

III. THE PRESENCE OF THE COMFORTER IS SUPERLATIVELY VALUABLE.

1. We may gather this first from the effects which were seen upon the day of Pentecost. Here was an omen of what the Spirit of God is to be to the Church.

(1) When He comes like the wind, it is to purge the moral atmosphere, and to quicken the pulse of all who spiritually breathe.

(2) Then the Spirit came as fire. The Church wants fire to quicken her ministers, to give zeal and energy to all her members. Having this fire she burns her way to success.

(3) Then there came from the fire-shower a descent of tongues. Though we can no longer speak with every man in his own tongue, yet we have the keys of the whole world swinging at our girdle if we have the Spirit of God with us. There is no reason in the nature of the gospel, or the power of the Spirit, why a whole congregation should not be converted under one sermon. There is no reason in Gods nature why a nation should not be born in a day. The great prophetic event occurred on the day of Pentecost.

The success given was only the first fruits–Pentecost is not the harvest. You must expect and pray for greater things.

2. Without the Holy Spirit no good thing ever did or ever can come into any of your hearts–no sigh of penitence–no cry of faith–no glance of love–no tear of hallowed sorrow.

3. No good thing can come out of you apart from the Spirit. Do you desire to preach?–how can you unless the Holy Ghost teaches your tongue? Do you desire to pray? Alas! what dull work it is unless the Spirit maketh intercession for you! Do you desire to subdue sin? Would you be holy?–you cannot without the Spirit! Conclusion: If these things be sol. Let us, who are believers in Christ, so reverence the Spirit as not to grieve Him or provoke Him. You who are unconverted–never despise Him. Remember, there is a special honour put upon Him in Scripture–All manner of sin and of blasphemy, &c.

2. Let us, viewing the might of the Spirit, take courage to-day. Our fathers bore their testimony in the stocks and in the prison, but they feared not for the good old cause, because they knew that the Spirit of God is mighty and will prevail. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The preference due to the Holy Spirit

I. THE RELATION BETWEEN CHRISTS BODILY PRESENCE AND THE SPIRITS INFLUENCE WITH THE CHURCH.

1. Before Christ came the Spirit was little known. In all ages it is true that while Christ is the only foundation, the Spirit is the only architect of religion. But if before the Incarnation Christ was dimly seen, can we wonder that the Spirit was not clearly known? Yet as many received salvation by a Messiah whom they scarcely descried in the distance, they received Him by the grace of that Spirit whose operations they felt rather than understood.

2. While Christ was on the earth the Spirit was better known, but known as resting on the Head rather than descending on the body of the Church. Nothing, in all the preceding ages, could be compared with this for clearness. How natural, after the manifestation of the Spirit at Christs baptism, was it for Christ to begin His ministry by selecting this text–The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, &c. The very name, Messiah–Christ–is derived from the sacred unction which Christ here claims to Himself. What a display of the Spirits influence was given in the person and ministry of Christ! Still, this was in the Head rather than in the body of the Church, for the Spirit was not yet received, because Jesus was not yet glorified, For what do we see of the work of the Spirit on man in general during the ministry of Christ on earth? It is true that we read of above five hundred brethren. But what are a few hundreds, or even thousands, as the fruit of such a ministry as that of Jesus Christ? But, alas t we read of no grand effusions of the Spirit accompanying the preaching of our Saviour. Though Christ spake as never man spake, His audience never cried–What shall we do to be saved? And when the unbelieving multitude vociferated, Away with Him, crucify Him! there was no counter-cry from an opposing mass who had received life at His lips. No; it was necessary first to show what the Spirit does in the Person of Him from whom the grace descends to us; that the anointing should flow from the Head to the members.

3. But when Christ departed to heaven, then the Spirit descended on the whole Church. For there were sufficient reasons why the Spirit of grace should not descend before.

(1) It was not fit that the choicest blessing which heaven can shed on men should be granted while the guilt of their sins remained unatoned for. But now He hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

(2) It was fit that Christ should go away to heaven, and from thence should bestow this best of blessings. As our kings date their highest royal acts, and issue their proclamations of grace, from our royal palace at St. Jamess, it behoved the King of grace to ascend up on high, in order to give from His heavenly throne gifts to the rebellious.

(3) While Christ was as our king, it should be remembered that He was to be a priest on His throne, and from His throne Christ, our priest and king, has shed forth that influence which has shown the fulfilment of this promise.

II. THE PREFERENCE DUE TO THE SPIRITS INFLUENCE

1. The value of Christs bodily presence is implied when it is said to be expedient for us that He should go away. While He was on earth He was its treasure and its joy. Christ Himself said, Blessed are your eyes that they see, &c. The hope of seeing Christ after death makes even that bitter thing sweet. Can we wonder, then, that the disciples who saw Him on earth were reluctant to part with this grateful sight? Nor do we wonder that the hope of His speedy re-appearance should prove a fascinating lure to many who are as much mistaken as the disciples were.

2. The superior value of the Spirits presence.

(1) The bodily presence of Christ was confined to one spot–the presence of the Spirit is universal.

(2) The bodily presence of Christ belongs to the order of means that strike the senses, but the presence of the Spirit is that of an agent who affects the heart and attains the end. If Christ were to appear on earth, He must either come in His glory or lay it aside. Were He to come in His glory could we endure it? Paul could not see for the glory of that Light, and John fell at His feet as dead. Must He, then, lay aside His glory and become again of no reputation? What! has He not had enough of this? But on any supposition Christs bodily presence might act on our bodies, whereas His Spirit operates upon our spirits. Many, therefore, saw Christ while on earth, only to their more aggravated condemnation. Even those who repented because they saw Christ were told not to glory but to blush. Had Christ continued on earth our imperfect religion would regard Him with a mixture of debasing carnal emotions from which we are, by His absence, kept free, saying, Henceforth know we no man after the flesh, &c. Now we are no longer in danger of intruding upon Him with unseemly familiarity, nor are we exposed to the repulse, Touch me not; but by the Spirits pure and heavenly influences we are elevated towards the Saviours throne by a flight altogether spiritual and Divine.

(3) It is more honourable, both to Christ and to His Spirit, that the Son should depart and send His Spirit down. If this can be shown, it will follow that it is expedient for us.

(a) The Head cannot be glorified without shedding lustre on the members; nor can the members see the Head exalted, without feeling a sense of exaltation and delight. While Christ dwelt here He was the Fathers servant. So much humiliation and infirmity entered into His sojourn here, that He might well chide His friends for wishing to detain Him in it, saying, If ye loved Me ye would rejoice, &c. But now He has prayed, and has been heard, Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self, &c. When He quitted earth for heaven, He exchanged the condition of a servant for that of a king. From the seat of glory He sent down His Spirit as His advocate, as well to glorify Christ as to call and sanctify us. The Paraclete should be regarded as conveying the idea of a patron and counsellor, to vindicate

Christs rights, and display His glory, and animate the spirits of men to rise to lofty and delightful ideas of the Saviour.

(b) This is more honourable to the Spirit too. Would not the splendour of the glorified Redeemer take off mens attention from the operations of the Spirit of grace? But should the Spirit be robbed of his honours? Is it not, then, fit that He should work by means less splendid and fascinating–by the ordinary preaching of the Word–by those who have the treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be seen to be of God, and not of man?

III. THE NECESSITY OF ENFORCING THE PREFERENCE DUE TO THE DIVINE SPIRIT.

1. We are exceedingly prone to dote on that which strikes the senses in preference to that which affects the heart. Has not the fatal apostasy of Rome originated in this infirmity of our nature? Perhaps there is scarcely one unconverted person here that does not fancy he would behove if he saw Christ in the flesh. Even the infidel says, If I saw Jesus Christ as you represent Him, I would hail Him as my Saviour. But did that sight convert the Jews?

2. We as much undervalue the Spirits influence. You have something better than that which you so fondly fancy would vanquish all your love of sin, and triumph over your unbelief. There are more mighty resources provided for us than if the Son of God were to come down. For the Holy Ghost is now sent to be an advocate to plead His cause with the world, and convince it of Christs righteousness, and grace, and dominion, and saving power. Conclusion:

1. Beware, lest having lost Christs presence, you live without the Spirits influence.

2. Aspire to join the spirits of just men made perfect, who, enjoying both these blessings, are at the summit of bliss. (J. Bennett, D. D.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 7. It is expedient – that I go away] In other places he had showed them the absolute necessity of his death for the salvation of men: see Mt 20:19; Mt 26:2; Mr 9:31; Mr 10:33, Lu 9:44; Lu 18:32. This he does not repeat here, but shows them that, by the order of God, the Holy Spirit cannot come to them, nor to the world, unless he first die; and consequently men cannot be saved but in this way.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

He doth not say it was expedient for him, though this was truth; for his human nature was not till his ascension glorified, as afterward, Joh 17:5; but he saith it was expedient for them. The saints may desire a dissolution, but it is for their own advantage, Phi 1:23. Christ desires it for their advantage; because the Holy Spirit could not come upon them (as in the days of Pentecost) until he by his death had made reconciliation for iniquity; and God had so ordered the counsels of eternity, that Christ should first die, rise again, and ascend into heaven, and then he would pour out his Spirit upon all flesh, as one eminent fruit of Christs meritorious death and passion, Act 2:32,33; Eph 4:11. We are not able to give certain reasons of the counsels of God; but the reasonableness of them in this very particular may easily be concluded: that the sending of the Spirit might appear to be the fruit of Christs death: that the Messiahs influence upon the sending of him jointly with the Father, might appear; for he was to be sent from Christ glorified, Joh 7:39; that the Spirit might glorify Christ, as we have it, Joh 16:14; for (saith that verse) He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you: and that the world might better understand the mystery of the Trinity. The Father was by all owned to be in heaven. The Son ascended up to heaven in the presence of many witnesses. The Spirit descended from heaven with great majesty and glory, as may be read. Act 2:2,3.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

7. It is expedient for you that I goaway

My Saviour, can it everbe

That I should gain bylosing thee?

KEBLE.

Yes.

for if I go not away, theComforter will not come unto you, but if I depart, I will send himunto you(See on Joh 7:39;Joh 14:15).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Nevertheless, I tell you the truth,…. Christ was truth itself, and could say nothing else; but he makes use of this way of speaking, to raise the attention of his disciples, and to engage their belief of what he was about to say, and of which they were not easily persuaded; which was, that however overwhelmed they were with grief and sorrow, because of his going away from them, a greater truth he could not tell them, than that this would be to their real good and advantage:

it is expedient for you that I go away; Christ’s death here, as in many other places in these discourses of his, is signified by going away, a departure, taking a sort of a journey, such an one as indeed is common to all mankind; death is the way of all the earth, and which Christ took by agreement with his Father; a dark way is the valley of the shadow of death, and so it was to Christ, who went away in the dark, under the hidings of his Father’s face; it is a man’s going to his long home, and a long journey it is, till he returns in the resurrection morn; though it was a short one to Christ, who rose again the third day. The phrase supposes the place and persons he went from, this world and his disciples; and the place and persons he went unto, the grave, heaven, his Father, the blessed Spirit, angels, and glorified saints; and is expressive of the voluntariness of his death; he was not fetched, or thrust, and forced away, but he went away of himself; and is a very easy and familiar way of expressing death by, and greatly takes off the dread and terror of it; it is only moving from one place to another, as from one house, city, or country, to another; and shows, that it is not an annihilation of a man, either in body or soul, only a translating of him from one place and state to another. Now the death of Christ was expedient, not only for himself, which he does not mention; he being concerned more for the happiness of his people than of himself; but for his disciples and all believers; for hereby a great many evils were prevented falling upon them, which otherwise would; as the heavy strokes of divine justice, the curses and condemnation of the law, the wrath and vengeance of God, and eternal death, ruin, and destruction; as well as many good things were hereby obtained for them; as the redemption of their souls from sin, law, hell, and death; peace; reconciliation, and atonement; the full and free forgiveness of all their sins, an everlasting righteousness, and eternal life. Moreover, Christ’s going away was expedient for his people; since he went to open the way for them into the holiest of all, by his blood; to take possession of heaven in their name and stead; to prepare mansions of glory for them; to appear in the presence of God for them; to be their advocate, and make intercession for all good things for them; to transact all their business between God them; to take care of their affairs; to present their petitions; to remove all charges and accusations; and to ask for, and see applied every blessing of grace unto them. The particular instanced in, in the text, of the expediency of it, is the mission and coming of the Spirit:

for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him to you. The Spirit of God in some sense had come, before the death of Christ; he had appeared in the creation of all things out of nothing, as a joint Creator with the Father and Son; he was come as a spirit of prophecy upon the inspired writers, and others; the Old Testament saints had received him as a spirit of faith; he had been given to Christ as man, without measure, and the disciples had been partakers of his gifts and graces; but he was not come in so peculiar a manner as he afterwards did; as the promise of the Father, the glorifier of Christ, the comforter of his people, the spirit of truth, and the reprover of the world: there are reasons to be given, why the Spirit of God should not come in such a manner before, as after the death of Christ. The order of the three divine persons in the Trinity, and in the economy of man’s salvation, required such a method to be observed; that the Father should first, and for a while, be more especially manifested; next the Son, and then the Spirit: besides, our Lord has given a reason himself, why the Spirit “was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified”, Joh 7:39; And the coming of the Spirit as a comforter, and the spirit of truth, was to be through the intercession, and by the mission of Christ; and therefore it was proper he should go away first, in order to send him; add to all this, that if Christ had not gone away or died, there would have been nothing for the Spirit to have done; no blood to sprinkle; no righteousness to reveal and bring near; no salvation to apply; or any of the things of Christ, and blessings of grace, to have taken and shown; all which are owing to the death of Christ, and which show the expediency of it: the expediency of Christ’s death for the mission of the Spirit to his disciples, is very conspicuous; for hereby they were comforted and supported under a variety of troubles; were led into all truth, and so furnished for their ministerial work; and were made abundantly successful in it, that being attended with the demonstration of the Spirit and of power.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

The Expediency of Christ’s Departure; The Promise of the Spirit.

      7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.   8 And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:   9 Of sin, because they believe not on me;   10 Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more;   11 Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.   12 I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.   13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come.   14 He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you.   15 All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you.

      As it was usual with the Old Testament prophets to comfort the church in its calamities with the promise of the Messiah (Isa 9:6; Mic 5:6; Zec 3:8); so, the Messiah being come, the promise of the Spirit was the great cordial, and is still.

      Three things we have here concerning the Comforter’s coming:—

      I. That Christ’s departure was absolutely necessary to the Comforter’s coming, v. 7. The disciples were so loth to believe this that Christ saw cause to assert it with a more than ordinary solemnity: I tell you the truth. We may be confident of the truth of everything that Christ told us; he has no design to impose upon us. Now, to make them easy, he here tells them,

      1. In general, It was expedient for them that he should go away. This was strange doctrine, but if it was true it was comfortable enough, and showed them how absurd their sorrow was. It is expedient, not only for me, but for you also, that I go away; though they did not see it, and are loth to believe it, so it is. Note, (1.) Those things often seem grievous to us that are really expedient for us; and particularly our going away when we have finished our course. (2.) Our Lord Jesus is always for that which is most expedient for us, whether we think so or no. He deals not with us according to the folly of our own choice, but graciously over-rules it, and gives us the physic we are loth to take, because he knows it is good for us.

      2. It was therefore expedient because it was in order to the sending of the Spirit. Now observe,

      (1.) That Christ’s going was in order to the Comforter’s coming.

      [1.] This is expressed negatively: If I go not away, the Comforter will not come. And why not? First, So it was settled in the divine counsels concerning this affair, and the measure must not be altered; shall the earth be forsaken for them? He that gives freely may recall one gift before he bestows another, while we would fondly hold all. Secondly, It is congruous enough that the ambassador extraordinary should be recalled, before the envoy come, that is constantly to reside. Thirdly, The sending of the Spirit was to be the fruit of Christ’s purchase, and that purchase was to be made by his death, which was his going away. Fourthly, It was to be an answer to his intercession within the veil. See ch. xiv. 16. Thus must this gift be both paid for, and prayed for, by our Lord Jesus, that we might learn to put the greater value upon it. Fifthly, The great argument the Spirit was to use in convincing the world must be Christ’s ascension into heaven, and his welcome here. See Joh 16:10; Joh 7:39. Lastly, The disciples must be weaned from his bodily presence, which they were too apt to dote upon, before they were duly prepared to receive the spiritual aids and comforts of a new dispensation.

      [2.] It is expressed positively: If I depart I will send him to you; as though he had said, “Trust me to provide effectually that you shall be no loser by my departure.” The glorified Redeemer is not unmindful of his church on earth, nor will ever leave it without its necessary supports. Though he departs, he sends the Comforter, nay, he departs on purpose to send him. Thus still, though one generation of ministers and Christians depart, another is raised up in their room, for Christ will maintain his own cause.

      (2.) That the presence of Christ’s Spirit in his church is so much better, and more desirable, than his bodily presence, that it was really expedient for us that he should go away, to send the Comforter. His corporal presence could be put in one place at one time, but his Spirit is every where, in all places, at all times, wherever two or three are gathered in his name. Christ’s bodily presence draws men’s eyes, his Spirit draws their hearts; that was the letter which kills, his Spirit gives life.

      II. That the coming of the Spirit was absolutely necessary to the carrying on of Christ’s interests on earth (v. 8): And when he is come, elthon ekeinos. He that is sent is willing of himself to come, and at his first coming he will do this, he will reprove, or, as the margin reads it, he will convince the world, by your ministry, concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment.

      1. See here what the office of the Spirit is, and on what errand he is sent. (1.) To reprove. The Spirit, by the word and conscience, is a reprover; ministers are reprovers by office, and by them the Spirit reproves. (2.) To convince. It is a law-term, and speaks the office of the judge in summing up the evidence, and setting a matter that has been long canvassed in a clear and true light. He shall convince, that is, “He shall put to silence the adversaries of Christ and his cause, by discovering and demonstrating the falsehood and fallacy of that which they have maintained, and the truth and certainty of that which they have opposed.” Note, Convincing work is the Spirit’s work; he can do it effectually, and none but he; man may open the cause, but it is the Spirit only that can open the heart. The Spirit is called the Comforter (v. 7), and here it is said, He shall convince. One would think this were cold comfort, but it is the method the Spirit takes, first to convince, and then to comfort; first to lay open the wound, and then to apply healing medicines. Or, taking conviction more generally, for a demonstration of what is right, it intimates that the Spirit’s comforts are solid, and grounded upon truth.

      2. See who they are whom he is to reprove and convince: The world, both Jew and Gentile. (1.) He shall give the world the most powerful means of conviction, for the apostles shall go into all the world, backed by the Spirit, to preach the gospel, fully proved. (2.) He shall sufficiently provide for the taking off and silencing of the objections and prejudices of the world against the gospel. Many an infidel was convinced of all and judged of all, 1 Cor. xiv. 24. (3.) He shall effectually and savingly convince many in the world, some in every age, in every place, in order to their conversion to the faith of Christ. Now this was an encouragement to the disciples, in reference to the difficulties they were likely to meet with, [1.] That they should see good done, Satan’s kingdom fall like lightning, which would be their joy, as it was his. Even this malignant world the Spirit shall work upon; and the conviction of sinners is the comfort of faithful ministers. [2.] That this would be the fruit of their services and sufferings, these should contribute very much to this good work.

      3. See what the Spirit shall convince the world of.

      (1.) Of sin (v. 9), because they believe not on me. [1.] The Spirit is sent to convince sinners of sin, not barely to tell them of it; in conviction there is more than this; it is to prove it upon them, and force them to own it, as they (ch. viii. 9) that were convicted of their own consciences. Make them to know their abominations. The Spirit convinces of the fact of sin, that we have done so and so; of the fault of sin, that we have done ill in doing so; of the folly of sin, that we have acted against right reason, and our true interest; of the filth of sin, that by it we are become odious to God; of the fountain of sin, the corrupt nature; and lastly, of the fruit of sin, that the end thereof is death. The Spirit demonstrates the depravity and degeneracy of the whole world, that all the world is guilty before God. [2.] The Spirit, in conviction, fastens especially upon the sin of unbelief, their not believing in Christ, First, As the great reigning sin. There was, and is, a world of people, that believe not in Jesus Christ, and they are not sensible that it is their sin. Natural conscience tells them that murder and theft are sin; but it is a supernatural work of the spirit to convince them that it is a sin to suspend their belief of the gospel, and to reject the salvation offered by it. Natural religion, after it has given us its best discoveries and directions, lays and leaves us under this further obligation, that whatever divine revelation shall be made to us at any time, with sufficient evidence to prove it divine, we accept it, and submit to it. This law those transgress who, when God speaketh to us by his Son, refuse him that speaketh; and therefore it is sin. Secondly, As the great ruining sin. Every sin is so in its own nature; no sin is so to them that believe in Christ; so that it is unbelief that damns sinners. It is because of this that they cannot enter into rest, that they cannot escape the wrath of God; it is a sin against the remedy. Thirdly, As that which is at the bottom of all sin; so Calvin takes it. The Spirit shall convince the world that the true reason why sin reigns among them is because they are not by faith united to Christ. Ne putimus vel guttam unam rectitudinis sine Christo nobis inesse–Let us not suppose that, apart from Christ, we have a drop of rectitude.–Calvin.

      (2.) Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and you see me no more, v. 10. We may understand this, [1.] Of Christ’s personal righteousness. He shall convince the world that Jesus of Nazareth was Christ the righteous (1 John ii. 1), as the centurion owned (Luke xxiii. 47), Certainly this was a righteous man. His enemies put him under the worst of characters, and multitudes were not or would not be convinced but that he was a bad man, which strengthened their prejudices against his doctrine; but he is justified by the spirit (1 Tim. iii. 16), he is proved to be a righteous man, and not, a deceiver; and then the point is in effect gained; for he is either the great Redeemer or a great cheat; but a cheat we are sure he is not. Now by what medium or argument will the Spirit convince men of the sincerity of the Lord Jesus? Why, First, Their seeing him no more will contribute something towards the removal of their prejudices; they shall see him no more in the likeness of sinful flesh, in the form of a servant, which made them slight him. Moses was more respected after his removal than before. But, Secondly, His going to the Father would be a full conviction of it. The coming of the Spirit, according to the promise, was a proof of Christ’s exaltation to God’s right hand (Acts ii. 33), and this was a demonstration of his righteousness; for the holy God would never set a deceiver at his right hand. [2.] Of Christ’s righteousness communicated to us for our justification and salvation; that everlasting righteousness which Messiah was to bring in, Dan. ix. 24. Now, First, The Spirit shall convince men of this righteousness. Having by convictions of sin shown them their need of a righteousness, lest this should drive them to despair he will show them where it is to be had, and how they may, upon their believing, be acquitted from guilt, and accepted as righteous in God’s sight. It was hard to convince those of this righteousness that went about to establish their own (Rom. x. 3), but the Spirit will do it. Secondly, Christ’s ascension is the great argument proper to convince men of this righteousness: I go to the Father, and, as an evidence of my welcome with him, you shall see me no more. If Christ had left any part of his undertaking unfinished, he had been sent back again; but now that we are sure he is at the right hand of God, we are sure of being justified through him.

      (3.) Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged, v. 11. Observe here, [1.] The devil, the prince of this world, was judged, was discovered to be a great deceiver and destroyer, and as such judgment was entered against him, and execution in part done. He was cast out of the Gentile world when his oracles were silenced and his altars deserted, cast out of the bodies of many in Christ’s name, which miraculous power continued long in the church; he was cast out of the souls of people by the grace of God working with the gospel of Christ; he fell as lightning from heaven. [2.] This is a good argument wherewith the Spirit convinces the world of judgment, that is, First, Of inherent holiness and sanctification, Matt. xii. 18. By the judgment of the prince of this world, it appears that Christ is stronger than Satan, and can disarm and dispossess him, and set up his throne upon the ruin of his. Secondly, Of a new and better dispensation of things. He shall show that Christ’s errand into the world was to set things to right in it, and to introduce times of reformation and regeneration; and he proves it by this, that the prince of this world, the great master of misrule, is judged and expelled. All will be well when his power is broken who made the mischief. Thirdly, Of the power and dominion of the Lord Jesus. He shall convince the world that all judgment is committed to him, and that he is the Lord of all, which is evident by this, that he has judged the prince of this world, has broken the serpent’s head, destroyed him that had the power of death, and spoiled principalities; if Satan be thus subdued by Christ, we may be sure no other power can stand before him. Fourthly, Of the final day of judgment: all the obstinate enemies of Christ’s gospel and kingdom shall certainly be reckoned with at last, for the devil, their ringleader, is judged.

      III. That the coming of the Spirit would be of unspeakable advantage to the disciples themselves. The Spirit has work to do, not only on the enemies of Christ, to convince and humble them, but upon his servants and agents, to instruct and comfort them; and therefore it was expedient for them that he should go away.

      1. He intimates to them the tender sense he had of their present weakness (v. 12): I have yet many things to say unto you (not which should have been said, but which he could and would have said), but you cannot bear them now. See what a teacher Christ is. (1.) None like him for copiousness; when he has said much, he has still many things more to say; treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid in him, if we be not straitened in ourselves. (2.) None like him for compassion; he would have told them more of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, particularly of the rejection of the Jews and the calling of the Gentiles, but they could not bear it, it would have confounded and stumbled them, rather than have given them any satisfaction. When, after his resurrection, they spoke to him of restoring the kingdom to Israel, he referred them to the coming of the Holy Ghost, by which they should receive power to bear those discoveries which were so contrary to the notions they had received that they could not bear them now.

      2. He assures them of sufficient assistances, by the pouring out of the Spirit. They were now conscious to themselves of great dulness, and many mistakes; and what shall they do now their master is leaving them? “But when he, the Spirit of Truth, is come, you will be easy, and all will be well.” Well indeed; for he shall undertake to guide the apostles, and glorify Christ.

      (1.) To guide the apostles. He will take care,

      [1.] That they do not miss their way: He will guide you; as the camp of Israel was guided through the wilderness by the pillar of cloud and fire. The Spirit guided their tongues in speaking, and their pens in writing, to secure them from mistakes. The Spirit is given us to be our guide (Rom. viii. 14), not only to show us the way, but to go along with us, by his continued aids and influences.

      [2.] That they do not come short of their end: He will guide them into all truth, as the skilful pilot guides the ship into the port it is bound for. To be led into a truth is more than barely to know it; it is to be intimately and experimentally acquainted with it; to be piously and strongly affected with it; not only to have the notion of it in our heads, but the relish and savour and power of it in our hearts; it denotes a gradual discovery of truth shining more and more: “He shall lead you by those truths that are plain and easy to those that are more difficult.” But how into all truth? The meaning is,

      First, Into the whole truth relating to their embassy; whatever was needful or useful for them to know, in order to the due discharge of their office, they should be fully instructed in it; what truths they were to teach others the Spirit would teach them, would give them the understanding of, and enable them both to explain and to defend.

      Secondly, Into nothing but the truth. All that he shall guide you into shall be truth (1 John ii. 27); the anointing is truth. In the following words he proves both these:– 1. “The Spirit shall teach nothing but the truth, for he shall not speak of himself any doctrine distinct from mine, but whatsoever he shall hear, and knows to be the mind of the Father, that, and that only, shall he speak.” This intimates, (1.) That the testimony of the Spirit, in the word and by the apostles, is what we may rely upon. The Spirit knows and searches all things, even the deep things of God, and the apostles received that Spirit (1Co 2:10; 1Co 2:11), so that we may venture our souls upon the Spirit’s word. (2.) That the testimony of the Spirit always concurs with the word of Christ, for he does not speak of himself, has no separate interest or intention of his own, but, as in essence so in records, he is one with the Father and the Son, 1 John v. 7. Men’s word and spirit often disagree, but the eternal Word and the eternal Spirit never do. 2. “He shall teach you all truth, and keep back nothing that is profitable for you, for he will show you things to come.” The Spirit was in the apostles a Spirit of prophecy; it was foretold that he should be so (Joel ii. 28), and he was so. The Spirit showed them things to come, as Act 11:28; Act 20:23; Act 21:11. The Spirit spoke of the apostasy of the latter times, 1 Tim. iv. 1. John, when he was in the Spirit had things to come shown him in vision. Now this was a great satisfaction to their own minds, and of use to them in their conduct, and was also a great confirmation of their mission. Jansenius has a pious note upon this: We should not grudge that the Spirit does not show us things to come in this world, as he did to the apostles; let it suffice that the Spirit in the word hath shown us things to come in the other world, which are our chief concern.

      (2.) The Spirit undertook to glorify Christ, Joh 16:14; Joh 16:15. [1.] Even the sending of the Spirit was the glorifying of Christ. God the Father glorified him in heaven, and the Spirit glorified him on earth. It was the honour of the Redeemer that the Spirit was both sent in his name and sent on his errand, to carry on and perfect his undertaking. All the gifts and graces of the Spirit, all the preaching and all the writing of the apostles, under the influence of the Spirit, the tongues, and miracles, were to glorify Christ. [2.] The Spirit glorified Christ by leading his followers into the truth as it is in Jesus, Eph. iv. 21. He assures them, First, that the Spirit should communicate the things of Christ to them: He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. As in essence he proceeded from the Son, so in influence and operation he derived from him. He shall take ek tou emou—of that which is mine. All that the Spirit shows us, that is, applies to us, for our instruction and comfort, all that he gives us for our strength and quickening, and all that he secures and seals to us, did all belong to Christ, and was had and received from him. All was his, for he bought it, and paid dearly for it, and therefore he had reason to call it his own; his, for he first received it; it was given him as the head of the church, to be communicated by him to all his members. The Spirit came not to erect a new kingdom, but to advance and establish the same kingdom that Christ had erected, to maintain the same interest and pursue the same design; those therefore that pretend to the Spirit, and vilify Christ, give themselves the lie, for he came to glorify Christ. Secondly, That herein the things of God should be communicated to us. Lest any should think that the receiving of this would not make them much the richer, he adds, All things that the Father hath are mine. As God, all that self-existent light and self-sufficient happiness which the Father has, he has; as Mediator, all things are delivered to him of the Father (Matt. xi. 27); all that grace and truth which God designed to show us he lodged in the hands of the Lord Jesus, Col. i. 19. Spiritual blessings in heavenly things are given by the Father to the Son for us, and the Son entrusts the Spirit to convey them to us. Some apply it to that which goes just before: He shall show you things to come, and so it is explained by Rev. i. 1. God gave it to Christ, and he signified it to John, who wrote what the Spirit said, Rev. i. 1.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

It is expedient for you ( ). Present active indicative of , old verb to bear together. See 11:50 where the phrase is used by Caiaphas “for us,” here “for you” ( ethical dative).

That I go away ( ). Subject clause the subject of , and second aorist active subjunctive of . The reason () for this startling statement follows.

If I go not away ( ). Third-class condition with and the negative with as before.

Will not come ( ). Strong double negative with second aorist active subjunctive of . The Holy Spirit was, of course, already at work in the hearts of men, but not in the sense of witnessing as Paraclete which could only take place after Jesus had gone back to the Father.

But if I go ( ). Third-class condition again ( and the first aorist passive subjunctive of ).

I will send (). First person future as in 15.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

It is expedient [] . From son together, and ferw to bear or bring. The underlying idea of the word is concurrence of circumstances. Go away [] . The different words for go should be noted in this verse, and ver. 10. Here, expressing simple departure from a point.

Depart [] . Rev., go. With the notion of going for a purpose, which is expressed in I will send him.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

THREE-FOLD PURPOSE OF SPIRIT TOWARD THE WORLD V. 7-11

1) “Nevertheless I tell you the truth;” (all’ ego ten aletheian lego humin) “But I tell you all the truth,” disclose to you all, my true comrads my witnesses. My chosen ones, my church, this because I see and know the end, the whole end, the whole, to your advantage.

2) “It is expedient for you that I go away:” (sumpherei humin hina ego apeltho) “It is to your benefit that I should go away,” to your advantage, to you my church people, who are to do my work while I am away in my Father’s estate, preparing an estate residence for each of you all, Joh 14:1-3; 1Co 2:9; Joh 20:21-22.

3) “For if I go not away,” (ean gar me apeltho) “For if I do not go away,” as it is in the will of the Father, to my Father, to commune with Him as person-to-person, as I have told you that I would, Joh 14:1-3; Joh 14:16-18.

4) “The Comforter will not come unto you;” (ho parakletos ou me elthe pros humas) “The Comforter (paraclete) does not or will not come to you all by any means,” unless and until I do go to the Father, Joh 14:16; Joh 14:19-21; Joh 14:25-27.

5) “But if I depart,” (ena de poreutho) “Yet if I go away,” as I will, as I have told you, again and again.

6) “I will send him unto you.” (pempso auton pros humas) “I will send him to you all,” in and on behalf of my Father, which He did, Luk 24:49; Act 2:1-4. The universal presence of the Holy Spirit, in and through the personal, physical, restricted presence of Christ, would be on earth, as indicated, Joh 16:8-11, as follows:

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

7. Yet I tell you the truth. That they may no longer wish to have him present before their eyes, he testifies that his absence will be advantageous, and makes use of a sort of oath; for we are carnal, and consequently nothing is more difficult than to tear from our minds this foolish inclination, by which we attempt to draw down Christ from heaven to us. He explains where the advantage lies, by saying that the Holy Spirit could not be given to them, if he did not leave the world. But far more advantageous and far more desirable is that presence of Christ, by which he communicates himself to us through the grace and power of his Spirit, than if he were present before our eyes. And here we must not put the question, “Could not Christ have drawn down the Holy Spirit while he dwelt on earth?” For Christ takes for granted all that had been decreed by the Father and, indeed, when the Lord has once pointed out what he wishes to be done, to dispute about what is possible would be foolish and pernicious.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(7) Nevertheless I tell you the truth.The words He is about to utter are words of strange sound for the ears of disciples, and He prefaces them by an appeal to His own knowledge and candour in dealing with them, as in Joh. 14:2. The pronoun bears the weight of the emphasis, I, who know all.

It is expedient for you that I go away.There is no cause, He would say, for the deep sorrow which has filled your hearts. It is for your advantage that I, as distinct from the Paraclete, who is to come, should go away (Joh. 14:16). Yes; for those who had left all to follow Him; for those who had none to go to but Himself (Joh. 6:68); for those whose hopes were all centred in Him, it washard and incomprehensible as the saying must have seemedan advantage that He should go away.

For if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you.Better, . . . the Advocate will not come unto you. (Comp. Excursus G.) For the connection between the departure of Christ and the coming of the Advocate, comp. Notes on Joh. 7:39, and Act. 2:33. We may not fathom the deep counsels of God in which the reason of these words is to be found; but the order fixed in these counsels was that the Son of Man should complete His work on earth, and offer the sacrifice of Himself for sin, and rise from the dead, and ascend to the Fathers throne, before the Advocate should come. The Son of Man was to be glorified before the Spirit was to be given. Humanity was to ascend to heaven before the Spirit could be sent to humanity on earth. The revelation of saving truth was to be complete before inspiration was to breathe it as the breath of life into mans soul. The conviction of sin, righteousness, and judgment could only follow the finished work of Christ.

But if I depart, I will send him unto you.Our translators have sought to show the distinction between the words used in the earlier clauses, I go away, and that used here, I depart; but probably few English readers will have observed it. The former word means, I go away from you, the latter, I go away to the Father. For the thought of this clause, comp. Note on Joh. 14:16; Joh. 15:25.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

The struggle of the Spirit with the world, Joh 16:7-15.

At once as a consolation and as a prophecy of the future dispensation, our Lord now declares that it is expedient FOR THEM, that he should depart. Why? Because the Christian dispensation is, according to God’s plan, to be, not the dispensation of Christ’s bodily presence, but the dispensation of the Spirit. Christ came and gave that dispensation its start; but the Spirit must give it its development, its maturity, its consummation, until Christ come again and affix its judgment end. The bodily must give place to the spiritual. There must be an invisible Saviour, for the same reason that we have an invisible God; namely, that the souls of men may have room for faith and be developed into growth by faith. That invisible Saviour must be above, that men’s souls may be developed upward, and not downward, heavenward, and not earthward. Men, upon these low grounds of earthly nature, must grow up, and form their probationary character, not under a living present corporeal teacher, but under the impregnating power of a spiritual influence, rendering an elevating faith necessary, as shaping their personality to a firm and solid piety and fitness for heaven. Christ must therefore go, in order that the Spirit may come.

What was obscure to these apostles time has rendered plain to us of the present age. We can now understand that it was God’s great plan, that, once for all, Christ should come as a Saviour in a most miraculous manner; that then he should ascend and leave the world under the secret ministration of the Spirit, with the co-operation of mere human agency, even unto the end. Human agency, Christ being corporeally withdrawn, aided by the Spirit, must establish his Church, gather in the Gentiles, convert the world, and prepare for the consummation at the judgment day. Thus it accorded with the laws of human history that miracle should be limited to the least possible space, and that men, from the Ascension to the Advent, should be allowed to work out their own mission and probationary destiny while probation lasts.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

7. I tell you the truth The solemnity of the affirmation arises from the fact that in their present state of mind the information was difficult to believe. Our Lord solemnly assures them that there is no contingency or mistake in the idea that his departure, however sorrowful, was necessary in itself, and best even for them. Expedient for you go away This pregnant phrase, go away, included all the circumstances the cross, the atonement, the resurrection, and the ascension, with the perpetual intercession at God’s right hand ensuing.

If Comforter will not come The epoch had arrived in God’s redemptive plan in which, by passing through his atoning death and glorification, the Son of God should purchase his right to have his elect and to establish his Church, endowing it with the blessed Spirit. God the Father would not grant that Spirit until his well-beloved Son had performed the condition. At the price of his life did the Redeemer purchase his glorious headship over his Church.

If I depart I will send When the blessed Son ascended to the right hand of God he was fully entitled to send to his Church below, and through it to the world, the blessed Gift. If, therefore, Christ goes not, the Spirit comes not.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

“Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is expedient for you that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Paraclete will not come to you. But if I go I will send him to you.”

So now He will show them where He is going. He is going to the place from where He can send the Holy Spirit to them. And He points out that this means that, although it may not seem like it, His departure will be best possible thing for them. For until He has offered Himself for the sins of many (Mar 10:45) they cannot know the full work of the Spirit acting in the world. Thus His departure will not be the disaster that they think, but will be a springboard into the future, a preparation for glorious success. It will not the final tragic end to a promising ministry. Up to now they have been at school. Now they are to graduate and begin the task for which He has trained them, assisted by the greatest power of all time.

We should note the emphasis on the fact that the Holy Spirit cannot become the major player until Jesus has gone. There could not be separate activities of the Triune God on earth which conflicted with each other. Whilst Jesus was present the concentration had to be on Him. But now that He was going the outstanding work of the Spirit prophesied by the prophets could begin.

‘The Paraclete’. The One ‘called alongside’ (parakaleo) to help. The revealer of truth (Joh 14:16-17; Joh 14:26). The One Who will make real to them the continued presence of the risen Jesus (Joh 16:14), and will make His truth known to them (Joh 14:26; Joh 16:13). And particularly here, along with Joh 15:26, the One Who will minister through them to the world.

‘If I do not go –.’ Until He has offered Himself for the sins of the world the work of God will be limited. Once He has gone the full flow can begin.

‘I will send him to you.’ Jesus Himself has the authority to send the Holy Spirit to them. Indeed He will minister the Holy Spirit to them Himself (see Joh 20:22). Once again He assumes that He has divine authority.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Joh 16:7. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth; Though you have not asked the reasons of my going away, I will declare them to you. It is necessary even on your account that I depart; because, if I do not ascend into heaven, and take possession of my mediatorial kingdom, the Comforter, by whose assistance, as I told you before, Ch. Joh 15:26 you are to convert the world, and who will in a most eminent degree comfort and sanctify your souls, will not be given you: whereas, if I depart, and take possession of my kingdom, I will send him unto you, as the first fruits of the exercise of my kingly power. The word , (see Ch. Joh 14:16.) signifies not only a Comforter, but an Advocate. Among the Romans, it was usual for those who had any great law-suit, to call their relations and friends to their assistance, who in this office were named advocates. These attended the parties in the court; some assisting them with counsel, others pleading for them, and others barely by their presence giving weight to their cause. Hence the word came not only to signify an advocate, who pleads the cause of another, but a counsellor, a friend, a patron. In this passage the Holy Ghost is called , or advocatus, in the largest sense; because he was to espouse the apostles’ cause, to accompany them wherever they went, to defend them from the attacks of their enemies, and to plead for them by their apologies, which he inspired them to deliver in their own behalf; and by the miracles which he enabled them to work in confirmation of their mission; so that he was in the properest sense their friend, counsellor, advocate, patron, and protector. See 1Jn 2:1.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Joh 16:7 . Nevertheless , how should you raise yourselves above this ! How is my departure your own gain! By its means the Paraclete indeed will be imparted to you as a support against the hatred of the world.

] in the consciousness of this personal guarantee.

] in contradistinction to the Paraclete, who is to come in His place (Joh 14:16 ); expresses the as divinum , as in Joh 11:50 . On the dependence of the mission of the Paraclete upon the departure of Jesus, see on Joh 7:39 .

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.

Ver. 7. I will send him unto you ] This our Saviour often repeats, that they might once take notice of it, as an inestimable favour, that God should pour forth his Spirit upon all flesh, Joe 2:28 . What so precious as spirit? what so vile as flesh? It is received among the Turks, that when Christ said that though he departed, he would send them a Comforter, it was added in the text, And that shall be Mahomet; but that the Christians in malice toward them have razed out those words. Is not this the efficacy of error

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

7. ] refers to the last clause ( notwithstanding, or nevertheless, as E. V.): , to . . . . I Myself tell you the real state of the case.

. implies that the dispensation of the Spirit is a more blessed manifestation of God than was even the bodily presence of the risen Saviour.

Every rendering of this verse ought to keep the distinction between and , which is not sufficiently done in E. V. by ‘ go away ’ and ‘ depart .’ Depart and go would be better: the first expressing merely the leaving them , the second, the going up to the Father.

The before is again emphatic: ‘that I, for my part, should leave you.’

This is a convincing proof, if one more were needed, that the gift of the Spirit at and since the day of Pentecost, was and is something TOTALLY DISTINCT from any thing before that time: a new and loftier dispensation .

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Joh 16:7 . . “But,” or “nevertheless I tell you the truth,” I who see the whole e ent tell you “it is to your advantage” and not to your loss “that I go away”. This statement, incredible as it seemed to the disciples, He justifies: . The withdrawal of the bodily presence of Christ was the essential condition of His universal spiritual presence.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

John

THE DEPARTING CHRIST AND THE COMING SPIRIT

Joh 16:7 – Joh 16:8 .

We read these words in the light of all that has gone after, and to us they are familiar and almost thread-bare. But if we would appreciate their sublimity, we must think away nineteen centuries, and all Christendom, and recall these eleven poor men and their peasant Leader in the upper room. They were not very wise, nor very strong, and outside these four walls there was scarcely a creature in the whole world that had the least belief either in Him or in them. They had everything against them, and most of all their own hearts. They had nothing for them but their Master’s promise. Their eyes had been dimmed by their sorrowful hearts, so that they could not see the truth which He had been trying to reveal to them; and His departure had presented itself to them only as it affected themselves, and therefore had brought a sense of loss and desolation.

And now He bids them think of that departure, as it affects themselves, as pure gain. ‘It is for your profit that I go away.’ He explains that staggering statement by the thought which He has already presented to them, in varying aspects, of His departure as the occasion for the coming of that Great Comforter, who, when He is come, will through them work upon the world, which knows neither them nor Him. They are to go forth ‘as sheep in the midst of wolves,’ but in this promise He tells them that they will become the judges and accusers of the world, which, by the Spirit dwelling in them, they will be able to overcome, and convict of error and of fault.

We must remember that the whole purpose of the words which we are considering now is the strengthening of the disciples in their conflict with the world, and that, therefore, the operations of that divine Spirit which are here spoken of are operations carried on by their instrumentality and through the word which they spake. With that explanation we can consider the great words before us.

I. The first thing that strikes me about them is that wonderful thought of the gain to Christ’s servants from Christ’s departure. ‘It is expedient for you that I go away.’

I need not enlarge here upon what we have had frequent occasion to remark, the manner in which our Lord here represents the complex whole of His death and ascension as being His own voluntary act. He ‘goes.’ He is neither taken away by death nor rapt up to heaven in a whirlwind, but of His own exuberant power and by His own will He goes into the region of the grave and thence to the throne. Contrast the story of His ascension with that Old Testament story of the ascension of Elijah. One needed the chariot of fire and the horses of fire to bear him up into the sphere, all foreign to his mortal and earthly manhood; the Other needed no outward power to lift Him, nor any vehicle to carry Him from this dim spot which men call earth, but slowly, serenely, upborne by His own indwelling energy, and rising as to His native home, He ascended up on high, and went where the very manner of His going proclaimed that He had been before. ‘If I go away, I will send Him.’

But that is a digression. What we are concerned with now is the thought of Christ’s departure as being a step in advance, and a positive gain, even to those poor, bewildered men who were clustering round Him, depending absolutely upon Himself, and feeling themselves orphaned and helpless without Him.

Now if we would feel the full force and singularity of this saying of our Lord’s, let us put side by side with it that other one, ‘I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.’ Why is it that the Apostle says, ‘Though I want to go I am bound to stay?’ and why is it that the Master says, ‘It is for your good that I am going,’ but because of the essential difference in the relation of the two to the people who are to be left, and in the continuance of the work of the two after they had departed? Paul knew that when he went, whatever befell those whom he loved and would fain help, he could not stretch a hand to do anything for them. He knew that death dropped the portcullis between him and them, and, whatever their sore need on the one side of the iron gate, he on the other could not succour or save. Jesus Christ said, ‘It is better for you that I should go,’ because He knew that all His influences would flow through the grated door unchecked, and that, departed, He would still be the life of them that trusted in Him; and, having left them, would come near them, by the very act of leaving them.

And so there is here indicated for us-as we shall have occasion to see more fully, presently,-in that one singular and anomalous fact of Christ’s departure being a positive gain to those that trust in Him, the singularity and uniqueness of His work for them and His relation to them.

The words mean a great deal more than the analogies of our relation to dear ones or great ones, loves or teachers, who have departed, might suggest. Of course we all know that it is quite true that death reveals to the heart the sweetness and the preciousness of the departed ones, and that its refining touch manifests to our blind eyes what we did not see so clearly when they were beside us. We all know that it needs distance to measure men, and the dropping away of the commonplace and the familiar ere we can see ‘the likeness’ of our contemporaries ‘to the great of old.’ We have to travel across the plains before we can measure the relative height of the clustered mountains, and discern which is manifestly the loftiest. And all this is true in reference to Jesus Christ and His relation to us. But that does not go half-way towards the understanding of such words as these of my text, which tell us that so singular and solitary is His relation to us that the thing which ends the work of all other men, and begins the decay of their influence, begins for Him a higher form of work and a wider sweep of sway. He is nearer us when He leaves us, and works with us and in us more mightily from the throne than He did upon the earth. Who is He of whom this is true? And what kind of work is it of which it is true that death continues and perfects it?

So let me note, before I pass on, that there is a great truth here for us. We are accustomed to look back to our Lord’s earthly ministry, and to fancy that those who gathered round Him, and heard Him speak, and saw His deeds, were in a better position for loving Him and trusting Him than you and I are. It is all a mistake. We have lost nothing that they had which was worth the keeping; and we have gained a great deal which they had not. We have not to compare our relation to Christ with theirs, as we might do our relation to some great thinker or poet, with that of his contemporaries, but we have Christ in a better form, if I may so speak; and we, on whom the ends of the world are come, may have a deeper and a fuller and a closer intimacy with Him than was possible for men whose perceptions were disturbed by sense, and who had to pierce through ‘the veil, that is to say, His flesh,’ before they reached the Holy of Holies of His spirit.

II. Note, secondly, the coming for which Christ’s going was needful, and which makes that going a gain.

‘If I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart I will send Him unto you.’ Now we have already, in former sermons, touched upon many of the themes which would naturally be suggested by these words, and therefore I do not propose to dwell upon them at any length. There is only one point to which I desire to refer briefly here, and that is the necessity which here seems to be laid down by our Lord for His departure, in order that that divine Spirit may come and dwell with men. That necessity goes down deeper into the mysteries of the divinity and of the processes and order of divine revelation than it is given to us to follow. But though we can only speak superficially and fragmentarily about such a matter, let me just remind you, in the briefest possible words, of what Scripture plainly declares to us with regard to this high and, in its fullness, ineffable matter. It tells us that the complete work of Jesus Christ-not merely His coming upon earth, or His life amongst men, but also His sacrificial death upon the Cross-was the necessary preliminary, and in some sense procuring cause, of the gift of that divine Spirit. It tells us-and there we are upon ground on which we can more fully verify the statement-that His work must be completed ere that Spirit can be sent, because the word is the Spirit’s weapon for the world, and the revelation of God in Jesus must be ended, ere the application of that revelation, which is the Spirit’s work, can be begun in its full energy.

It tells us, further, and there our eyesight fails, and we have to accept what we are told, that Jesus Christ must ascend on high and be at the right hand of God, ere He can pour down upon men the fullness of the Spirit which dwelt uncommunicated in Him in the time of His earthly humiliation. ‘Thou hast ascended up on high,’ and therefore ‘Thou hast given gifts to men.’ We accept the declaration, not knowing all the deep necessity in the divine Nature on which it rests, but believing it, because He in whom we have confidence has declared it to us.

And we are further told-and there our experience may, in some degree, verify the statement,-that only those, in whose hearts there is union to Jesus Christ by faith in His completed work and ascended glory, are capable of receiving that divine gift. So every way, both as regards the depths of Deity and the processes of revelation, and as regards the power of the humanity of Christ to impart His Spirit, and as regards the capacity of us poor recipients to receive it, the words of my text seem to be confirmed, and we can, though not with full insight, at any rate with full faith, accept the statement, ‘If I go not away, the Comforter will not come to you.’

That coming is gain. It teaches a deeper knowledge of Him. It teaches and gives a fuller possession of the life of righteousness which is like His own. It draws us into the fellowship of the Son.

III. Lastly, note here the threefold conflict of the Spirit through the Church with the world.

‘When He is come He will convict the world’ in respect ‘of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.’ By the ‘reproof,’ or rather ‘conviction,’ which is spoken about here, is meant the process by which certain facts are borne in upon men’s understanding and consciences, and, along with these facts, the conviction of error and fault in reference to them. It is no mere process of demonstration of an intellectual truth, but it is a process of conviction of error in respect to great moral and religious truth, and of manifestation of the truths in regard to which the error and the sin have been committed. So we have here the triple division of the great work which the divine Spirit does, through Christian men and women, in the world.

‘He shall convict the world of sin.’ The outstanding first characteristic of the whole Gospel message is the new gravity which it attaches to the fact of sin, the deeper meaning which it gives to the word, and the larger scope which it shows its blighting influences to have had in humanity. Apart from the conviction of sin by the Spirit using the word proclaimed by disciples, the world has scarcely a notion of what sin is, its inwardness, its universality, the awfulness of it as a fact affecting man’s whole being and all his relations to God. All these conceptions are especially the product of Christian truth. Without it, what does the world know about the poison of sin? And what does it care about the poison until the conviction has been driven home to the reluctant consciousness of mankind by the Spirit wielding the word? This conviction comes first in the divine order. I do not say that the process of turning a man of the world into a member of Christ’s Church always begins, as a matter of fact, with the conviction of sin. I believe it most generally does so; but without insisting upon a pedantic adherence to a sequence, and without saying a word about the depth and intensity of such a conviction, I am here to assert that a Christianity which is not based upon the conviction of sin is an impotent Christianity, and will be of very little use to the men who profess it, and will have no power to propagate itself in the world. Everything in our conception of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and of His work for us depends upon what we think about this primary fact of man’s condition, that he is a sinful man. The root of all heresy lies there. Every error that has led away men from Jesus Christ and His Cross may be traced up to defective notions of sin and a defective realisation of it. If I do not feel as the Bible would have me feel, that I am a sinful man, I shall think differently of Jesus Christ and of my need of Him, and of what He is to me. Christianity may be to me a system of beautiful ethics, a guide for life, a revelation of much precious truth, but it will not be the redemptive power without which I am lost. And Jesus Christ will be shorn of His brightest beams, unless I see Him as the Redeemer of my soul from sin, which else would destroy and is destroying it. Is Christianity merely a better morality? Is it merely a higher revelation of the divine Nature? Or does it do something as well as say something, and what does it do? Is Jesus Christ only a Teacher, a Wise Man, an Example, a Prophet, or is He the Sacrifice for the sins of the world? Oh, brethren, we must begin where this text begins; and our whole conception of Him and of His work for us must be based upon this fact, that we are sinful and lost, and that Jesus Christ, by His sweet and infinite love and all-powerful sacrifice, is our soul’s Redeemer and our only Hope. The world has to be convicted and convinced of sin as the first step to its becoming a Church.

The next step of this divine Spirit’s conviction is that which corresponds to the consciousness of sin, the dawning upon the darkened soul of the blessed sunrise of righteousness. The triple subjects of conviction must necessarily belong to the world of which our Lord is speaking. It must be the world that is convinced, and it must be the world’s sin and the world’s righteousness and the world’s judgment of which my text speaks. How, then, can there follow on the conviction of sin as mine a conviction of righteousness as mine? I know but one way, ‘Not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is of God through faith.’ When a man is convinced of sin, there will dawn upon the heart the wondrous thought that a righteousness may be his, given to him from above, which will sweep away all his sin and make him righteous as Christ is righteous. That conviction will never awake in its blessed and hope-giving power unless it be preceded by the other. It is of no use to exhibit medicine to a man who does not know himself diseased. It is of no use to talk about righteousness to a man who has not found himself to be a sinner. And it is of as little use to talk to a man of sin unless you are ready to tell him of a righteousness that will cover all his sin. The one conviction without the other is misery, the second without the first is irrelevant and far away.

The world as a world has but dim and inadequate conceptions of what righteousness is. A Pharisee is its type, or a man that keeps a clean life in regard to great transgressions; a whited sepulchre of some sort or other. The world apart from Christ has but languid desires after even the poor righteousness that it understands, and the world apart from Christ is afflicted by a despairing scepticism as to the possibility of ever being righteous at all. And there are men listening to me now in every one of these three conditions-not caring to be righteous, not understanding what it is to be righteous, and cynically disbelieving that it is possible to be so. My brother, here comes the message to you-first, Thou art sinful; second, God’s righteousness lies at thy side to take and wear if thou wilt.

The last of these triple convictions is ‘judgment.’ If there be in the world these two things both operating, sin and righteousness, and if the two come together, what then? If there is to be a collision, as there must be, which will go down? Christ tells us that this divine Spirit will teach us that righteousness will triumph over sin, and that there will be a judgment which will destroy that which is the weaker, though it seems the stronger. Now I take it that the judgment which is spoken about here is not merely a future retribution beyond the grave, but that, whilst that is included, and is the principal part of the idea, we are always to regard the judgment of the hereafter as being prepared for by the continual judgment here.

And so there are two thoughts, a blessed one and a terrible one, wrapped up in that word-a blessed thought for us sinful men, inasmuch as we may be sure that the divine righteousness, which is given to us, will judge us and separate us day by day from our sins; and a terrible thought, inasmuch as if I, a sinful man, do not make friends with and ally myself to the divine righteousness which is proffered to me, I shall one day have to front it on the other side of the flood, when the contact must necessarily be to me destruction.

Time does not allow me to dwell upon these solemn matters as I fain would, but let me gather all I have been feebly trying to say to you now into one sentence. This threefold conviction, in conscience, understanding, and heart, of sin which is mine, of righteousness which may be mine, and of judgment which must be mine-this threefold conviction is that which makes the world into a Church. It is the message of Christianity to each of us. How do you stand to it? Do you hearken to the Spirit who is striving to convince you of these? Or do you gather yourselves together into an obstinate, close-knit unbelief, or a loose-knit indifference which is as impenetrable? Beware that you resist not the Spirit of God!

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

Nevertheless = But.

truth. Greek. atetheia. Compare App-175., and see p. 1511.

expedient = profitable. Greek. sumphero. Compare Mat 5:29, Mat 5:30. Act 20:20. Occurs in John here; Joh 11:50; and Joh 18:14. The two last passages indicate what Caiaphas deemed “expedient”.

go away: i.e. openly.

if. App-118.

Comforter. See on Joh 14:16.

unto. Greek. pros. Same as “to” in Joh 16:5.

depart. Greek. poreuomai. Same word as in Joh 14:2. Note the three different words used by the Lord. In this verse, aperchomai twice, translated “go away”, expressing the fact; pareuomai, “depart”, describing the change of sphere from earth to heaven, and in Joh 16:5 hupago, the manner, secretly, viz. by resurrection. It was in this way that Peter could not follow Him then (Joh 13:36).

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

7.] refers to the last clause (notwithstanding, or nevertheless, as E. V.): , to . … I Myself tell you the real state of the case.

. implies that the dispensation of the Spirit is a more blessed manifestation of God than was even the bodily presence of the risen Saviour.

Every rendering of this verse ought to keep the distinction between and , which is not sufficiently done in E. V. by go away and depart. Depart and go would be better: the first expressing merely the leaving them, the second, the going up to the Father.

The before is again emphatic: that I, for my part, should leave you.

This is a convincing proof, if one more were needed, that the gift of the Spirit at and since the day of Pentecost, was and is something TOTALLY DISTINCT from any thing before that time: a new and loftier dispensation.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Joh 16:7. , I) who am not asked by you, and who know not to lie (who am incapable of deceiving you).-, the truth) although ye do not comprehend the truth of this thing, which I tell you. All truth [though it seem painful] is good to the saints.-) It is expedient for you, in respect of the Paraclete (Comforter), Joh 16:7-8, If I depart, I will send Him unto you; and in respect of Myself, Joh 16:16-17, Ye shall see Me, because I go to the Father; and in respect of the Father, Joh 16:23-24, In that day, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it you.-, for) The office of the Paraclete is twofold, viz., towards the world in this place, and towards believers in Joh 16:12-13, He will guide you into all truth.-, , if I depart not; if I go) These verbs differ: the former has more reference to the terminus a quo (the place from which the departure takes place); the latter, to the terminus ad quem (the place to which one goes his way).-, not) It was not suitable that Jesus should be present in weakness, and the Holy Spirit present in power at the same time; ch. Joh 7:39, The Holy Ghost was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified; Act 2:33, Being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this; and it was the province of Jesus to send Him, not to call Him to Himself (whilst still on earth).- ) unto you, not unto the world, although the world shall feel His reproof, Joh 16:8.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Joh 16:7

Joh 16:7

Nevertheless I tell you the truth:-The Father provides for all things; the Son creates or embodies the purposes and provisions of the Father; and the Spirit then gives life and order to this creation, gives law to guide and promote and perfect and multiply the order created by the Father. [This is not an assertion of his veracity, as though they had doubted it, but an intimation of the necessity of its communication, and of the necessity of his departure. And now he proceeds to give grounds for the latter point.]

It is expedient for you that I go away;-[With their false ideas of an earthly political kingdom with Jesus their king, nothing could have seemed harder to receive than this. They might submit to the inevitable, but that the departure of Jesus should be expedient-desirable-this was too hard to receive.]

for if I go not away, the Comforter-[The Holy Spirit, called in the footnote Advocate or Helper.]

will not come unto you;-[Jesus evidently holds this up as a super-eminent gift to obtain which might well justify any sacrifice on their part, even giving up the precious companionship with him which had been the joy of their hearts.]

but if I go, I will send him unto you.-[The death of Christ was necessary to his glorification. For some reason not revealed even Jesus, here upon earth in his natural human condition. could not, or at least did not, confer upon them super- eminent gifts of the Holy Spirit. While he was with them the Holy Spirit reached them through him. In the future the Holy Spirit is to reach the world through them.] The work that Jesus had begun in the disciples could not be completed and perfected unless the Spirit came and completed his work. The work of the Spirit was needed to complete and perfect them to dwell with God and to do the work he had chosen them to do and to fit them to enjoy the home and blessings of God forever. If they had understood these tilings they would have rejoiced at Jesus leaving them since he left to send the Spirit that they might receive the greater blessings.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

An Expedient Departure

Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I go, I will send him unto you.Joh 16:7.

One of the most distinctive things in the story of Christs earthly ministry is the perfect calmness which He manifested in regard to the future course and fate of the disciples He had gathered round Him and of the work He had begun. He has a clear gaze forward: no weight of disappointment for His own career cut short is permitted to dull His apprehension of what lies beyond the time of His departure: no overwhelming heaviness or consuming fever of regret possesses Him so strongly as to cloud His vision of what would happen when the Cross had brought His earthly labours to a close; and His thought leaps over Calvarys torture and the sepulchres darkness to the wondrous processes of spiritual development which would begin with His death.

So untroubled are the clear depths of Christs soul, so unruffled is His sacred quietudeeven here as He is almost entering upon the last experience of pain and lifting the cup of bitterness to His lipsthat He can discern the actual relation between His departure from His disciples and the future Divine visitations which His disciples would know; and He can see that for their perfecting in grace it is expedient that He should go away. Truly, this was the Son of God; for mans thought grows feeble and his face grows pale and his heart beats so loudly as to drown all whispers of hope, when he stands before the great crisis of his life: only to the Christ was it given to preserve the perfect serenity of His soul when the supreme moment came and the last dark shadows stretched themselves across His way.

1. I tell you the truth.One does not wonder that our Lord should feel it needful, for the second time, to assure His bewildered and astounded disciples that He is telling them the simple truth. He had told them of the many mansions of the Fathers house, that He might still the trouble of their hearts at His departure. If it were not so, I would have told you. They would feel the force of His appeal to what they knew of His veracity, exactness, and love. And now again: I tell you the truth. Notwithstanding the sorrow with which My going away has filled your hearts, it is better for you that I should goan assertion more difficult to believe than even that about the many mansions.

2. It is expedient for you that I go away.Is not the expression used by the Lord something stronger than we should venture to use if we had not His own authority for it? Literally, It is profitable for you. There is no ambiguity in the word. It is found several times in the Gospels, and always with the same meaning. It is expedient for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not thy whole body be cast into hell. If the case is so, it is not expedient to marry. Whoso shall cause a little one to stumble, it is expedient for him that he should be drowned in the sea. It is expedient for you that one man should die for the people. Of two possible alternatives, that one is preferable which is introduced by the word, it is expedient. And in the phrase before us, the two alternatives are the departure and the visible presence of the Lord. It is expedient for you that I go away. It is better for you that I should go and send the Comforter than that I should stay with you in closest earthly fellowship for ever. Better for the world that Jesus should be removed from the eyes of men than that He should lead them to Himself by the magic of His words and the wonder of His works!

Why did Jesus go away? We all remember a time when we could not answer that question. We wished He had stayed, and had been here now. The childrens hymn expresses a real human feeling, and our hearts burn still as we read it:

I think, when I read that sweet story of old,

When Jesus was here among men,

How He called little children as lambs to His fold

I should like to have been with them then;

I wish that His hands had been placed on my head,

That His arms had been thrown around me,

And that I might have seen His kind look when He said,

Let the little ones come unto Me.

Jesus must have had reasons for disappointing a human feeling so deep, so universal, and so sacred. We may be sure, too, that these reasons intimately concern us. He did not go away because He was tired. It was quite true that He was despised and rejected of men; it was quite true that the pitiless world hated and spurned and trod on Him. But that did not drive Him away. It was quite true that He longed for His Fathers house and pined and yearned for His love. But that did not draw Him away. No. He never thought of Himself. It is expedient for you, He says, not for Me, that I go.1 [Note: H. Drummond, The Ideal Life, 63.]

I

The Departure of Jesus

Christ has to recall His disciples from the contemplation of their own impending loss to the great gift which should follow upon that going which they deplored, but which they so little understood. He had shielded them hitherto, and the thought that that shelter was to be removed filled their hearts with sorrow. So full were they of their loss that no one asked how this departure affected Him, and thus they were in danger of missing the abiding significance of His departure for themselves. There are three words for going away used over and over again in these chapters, and there is a fruitful study to be found in the changes rung on these bells of sweet accord. Let it suffice to say that departure from the point of view of mere separation passes into the idea of a journey, and thence into that of a goal to be reached, a going home.

1. It was that parting hour of mysterious thoughts, of agonized affections, which is sometimes experienced when we are sure that death stands at the door and waits; when but a few minutes are given for parting words and loving reciprocations. Only, their Master was in the fulness of life and health. But for this mysterious assurance they could not have thought of His death. He reiterated it in their incredulous ears, and poured out mysterious and lofty consolationsgreater thoughts, more spiritual sanctities, more loving sympathies than had ever fallen from His lips before. They were awed and perplexed as well as sorrowful.

2. Then His departure was the disappointment of their greatest hopes. Upon their Jewish standing-ground all their hopes of His Messianic Kingdom were frustratedthey trusted that it had been he who should have redeemed Israel; and now He tells them that, instead of sitting upon the throne of His father David, He is about to die. Not only were they losing more than affection ever lost before, but the fabric of their most cherished hopes lay in ruins at their feet. And it seems to have produced in them a stupor of feeling almost approaching to paralysis. Does none of you even ask Me whither I go? Hath sorrow so entirely filled your heart because I have spoken these things? Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. Whatever sorrow My going away may cause you, it will be to you a transcendent blessing. If I go not away, the Comforter will not come to you, but if I depart I will send Him unto you; and when He is come He will work mightily in men, convincing them of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. You cannot understand now the things that I have to say to you concerning this great mission of the Holy Spirit. I can only assure you of its truth and greatness and blessing. It will be to you more than even My personal presence with you.

3. Why, then, was it expedient for them that He should go away?

(1) Absence is better than presence under certain conditions.The influence of the absent is not only sometimes stronger in its degree, it is always purer in its kind, than the influence exerted by presence. Sometimes, dimly, we have been conscious of the truth enshrined in these words. We have recognized the fact that the influence of absence leaves its spirit; and the more we think why we are here, the more we understand it. We are made to be tried, proved, tested, and the conditions of our trial are, or seem to be, whether we will do what is right when we are left to ourselves.

When was it that this or that man began to be so increasingly enterprising and energetic, to take a higher range, to produce his best, to be so wonderfully useful? When, perhaps, the outward support, the soothing praise, the popularity he had enjoyed, ceased to be his; when this and that pleasant prop upon which he had rested was removed. How it set free and drew out the forces latent in him, and made him thenceforth the braver, better, more efficient workman that he was capable of being! Many are the instancesmore than we know, doubtlessin which greater and higher achieving, or beautiful developments of character and gift, have been largely due to some painful loss. Not seldom has such loss helped to promote superior performance, to give us noble labours and famous accomplishings with which otherwise the world might never have been blessed. And all that we want often, in order to our becoming more useful or more successful, in order to our attaining the heights that remain afar off, and that we vainly wish we could reachall that we want often, is not that something should be added to us which we have not, but that we should just lose something. While we are crying fretfully, Oh that such and such things were mine of which others are possessed! then would I conquer and do grandly, the hindrance is not in what is withheld from us, but in what cleaves to usin some little indulged weakness, in some infirmity or false habit of ours, simply to get rid of which would be our transformation into new creatures; would leave us armed and equipped for speedy triumph. Have we not known men concerning whom we have thought, What might they not be and do, if only they could lose a little, here and there?

As the wind extinguishes a taper but kindles the fire, so absence is the death of an ordinary passion, but lends strength to the greater.1 [Note: Maxims of La Rochefoucauld, 54.]

Even the holiest influences may deaden spiritual activity. St. Paul himself finds it necessary to detach himself, and though he had known Christ after the flesh, henceforth to know Him so no more. So for those disciples it was worth while to lose Jesus, if they might find for themselves the way into that spiritual world in which they had seen Him moving. For He did not come to be adored by men who could never reach His secret. It was His will that those who had been given Him should be with Him where He was.1 [Note: J. Kelman, Ephemera Eternitatis, 140.]

(2) But Jesus would be with them still, though not in bodily form.If we would feel the full force and singularity of this saying of our Lords, let us put side by side with it that other one, I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. Why is it that the Apostle says, Though I want to go, I am bound to stay? and why is it that the Master says, It is for your good that I am going, but because of the essential difference in the relation of the two to the people who are to be left, and in the continuance of the work of the two after they had departed? St. Paul knew that when he went, whatever befell those whom he loved and would fain help, he could not stretch a hand to do anything for them. He knew that death dropped the portcullis between him and them, and, whatever their sore need on the one side of the iron gate, he on the other could not succour or save. Jesus Christ said, It is better for you that I should go, because He knew that all His influences would flow through the grated door unchecked, and that, departed, He would still be the life of them that trusted in Him; and, having left them, would come near them by the very act of leaving them.

When Christ went up to Heaven the Apostles stayed

Gazing at Heaven with souls and wills on fire,

Their hearts on flight along the track He made,

Winged by desire.

Their silence spake: Lord, why not follow Thee?

Home is not home without Thy Blessed Face,

Life is not life. Remember, Lord, and see,

Look back, embrace.

Earth is one desert waste of banishment,

Life is one long-drawn anguish of decay.

Where Thou wert wont to go we also went:

Why not to-day?

Nevertheless a cloud cut off their gaze:

They tarry to build up Jerusalem,

Watching for Him, while thro the appointed days

He watches them.

They do His Will and doing it rejoice,

Patiently glad to spend and to be spent:

Still He speaks to them, still they hear His Voice

And are content.1 [Note: C. G. Rossetti, Poems, 170.]

(3) He would be nearer than before.Our first thought may perhaps be, Who can be so near Jesus now as the Apostles were during all the time that He went in and out among them? Yet these same men found themselves far nearer Him after He had gone away. In the days of His flesh He had sat with them; but after His ascension He not only seemed to hover round them, and brood over them, but He sent His Spirit to dwell within them. And thus believers now, seeing that they possess the indwelling Spirit, are really much nearer the Lord Jesus Christ than Peter and James and John were during the time from the baptism of John, unto that same day that He was taken up from them.

But God is never so far off

As even to be near;

He is within: our spirit is

The home He holds most dear.

To think of Him as by our side

Is almost as untrue

As to remove His throne beyond

Those skies of starry blue.

So all the while I thought myself

Homeless, forlorn, and weary,

Missing my joy, I walked the earth,

Myself Gods sanctuary.2 [Note: F. W. Faber.]

(4) And He would be nearer, not to them only, but to all.Upon Wesleys tablet in Westminster Abbey may be read that proud word of his: I look upon all the world as my parish. The qualifying words have no place on the tablet: Thus far I mean, that, in whatever part of it I am, I judge it meet, right, and my bounden duty to declare, unto all that are willing to hear, the glad tidings of salvation. Wesleys heart was as big as the world, but he could only be in one little corner of it at once; even there he could speak only to those that were willing to hear. What limitations are these! The Spirits parish is the world. Every corner of it, every soul in it, owns His presence, and none can fence himself off from His approach or shut up the avenues by which conviction may come home.1 [Note: J. Telford, The Story of the Upper Room, 184.]

Suppose Jesus were still in the Holy Land, at Jerusalem. Every ship that started for the East would be crowded with Christian pilgrims. Every train flying through Europe would be thronged with people going to see Jesus. Every mail-bag would be full of letters from those in difficulty and trial, and gifts of homage to manifest mens gratitude and love. You yourself, let us say, are in one of those ships. The port, when you arrive after the long voyage, is blocked with vessels of every flag. With much difficulty you land, and join one of the long trains starting for Jerusalem. Far as the eye can reach, the caravans move over the desert in an endless stream. You do not mind the scorching sun, the choking dust, the elbowing crowds, the burning sands. You are in the Holy Land, and you will see Jesus! Yonder, at last, in the far distance, are the glittering spires of the Holy Hill, above all the burnished Temple dome beneath which He sits. But what is that dark seething mass stretching for leagues and leagues between you and the Holy City? They have come from the north and from the south, and from the east and from the west, as you have, to look upon their Lord. They wish

That His hands might be placed on their head;

That His arms might be thrown around them.

But it cannot be. You have come to see Jesus, but you will not see Him. They have been there weeks, months, years, and have not seen Him. They are a yard or two nearer, and that is all. The thing is impossible. It is an anti-climax, an absurdity. It would be a social outrage; it would be a physical impossibility.2 [Note: H. Drummond, The Ideal Life, 66.]

(5) But again, it was expedient that He should go away in order that they might he weaned from thoughts of earthly greatness.For Christ in heaven is and must be infinitely greater to the soul and heart of men than even He could be, seen by us with our bodily eyes on earth, living with us, and belonging to this earthly state of things which is for the present lifeinfinitely greater even than if He had been with us in the glorified body which He had after His resurrection, and in which He appeared and conversed with His disciples during the forty days before He ascended. It is because His Kingdom is not of this worldit is because He came to open and draw up mens hearts to what is infinitely above this world, and anything that ever belonged to itit is because He came to teach, and to give them what eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, of the good things which God hath prepared for them that love himit was for this that, having shown Himself in the world, He did not stay in it. If He had stayed in it, our thoughts would have been towards Him, as still belonging to this world. We see how difficult it was to wean the thoughts of His own disciples from hopes and expectations of earthly greatness. Wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? was their question when He had risen. How much more difficult it would have been if He had still continued with them, in human form, even though glorified! How could that lifting up of their minds to what was spiritual and eternal have been accomplished? How could they have been taught those great lessons of inner and spiritual religion, if the great Object of their faith was still visibly present with them, and as one of them? How could they have been made to feel as they did, that the Kingdom of God was within them, that man has to deal and commune with his God in the secret reality and truth of his heart and spirithow could they have been made to unlearn all that was outward and visible in their religious thoughts, and have had the eyes of their understanding opened to eternal truths, and to a religion that was all of heaven and in heavenif they still could find, and see, and hear on earth the form and voice of the greatest of their teachers?

Many of us must recall the parable of an Alpine sunset. We gaze on the vast bare rocks and snow-slopes transfigured in a flood of burning light. In a moment there falls over them an ashy paleness as of death, cold and chilling. While we strive to measure our loss a deepening flush spreads slowly over the mountain sides, pure and calm and tender, and we know that the glory which has passed away is not lost even when it fades again from our sight. So it is with the noblest revelations which God makes to us. They fill us at first with their splendid beauty. Then for a time we find ourselves, as it were, left desolate while we face the sadnesses of an unintelligible world. But as we gaze the truth comes back with a softer and more spiritual grace to be the spring of perpetual benediction.1 [Note: B. F. Westcott, Lessons from Work, 110.]

(6) He went away that henceforth we may walk by faith, not by sight.In that one word faith we get at the root of the whole matter. If His Presence were not unseen, if we had certainty as to action and a fixed rule with no possibility of deviation, faith would not, it could not, even exist on its higher side, for faith is realization of things hoped for and insight into things invisible; it sees what is out of sight as though it were hereit sees Him in His invisible Presence, and it brings a far greater blessing than sight: Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

Faith is the one characteristic which raises man above the animal, above the naturalwithout which he cannot please God or be of any use to men. It sees in darkness, it believes without evidence, it is certain of the impossible, it is the highest reflection of Divine power within men. Faith as a moral faculty puts you face to face with the treasures of the universe; and where others see nothing, you see everything; where others see only bands of Syrians, you see the angels of God; where others see a blind force, you see the workings of a right loving Will, overruling all things. And you are rich for the sight; you grow, you increase, you become more and more conscious of the possibilities of your own life and of the universe, and you grow into the possibilities which you see. But without faith, you grovel through a purblind, naked, starved, diseased existence, seeing emptiness everywhere, because you are so empty; seeing darkness in every noble deed, because you are so dark; seeing all things dead or dying, because you have no life in you, with no soul for greatness in man or in the history of your race, with no enthusiasm, no stirring within you at great and enthralling sights, but dull, barren, poor, weak, and that because you have no faith, no insight, and therefore no goodness.2 [Note: R. Eyton, The True Life, 67.]

(7) Last of all, He must go that the Spirit may come.And the Spirit could not come until Christ was glorified. In a comment upon our Lords words about the fountains of living water, which were to spring up in those who believed on Him, St. John says: This spake he of the Spirit, which they that believed on him were to receive: for the Spirit was not yet given; because Jesus was not yet glorified; and this comment is but a brief and explicit statement of a truth which is wrought into the very substance of the New Testament. That a new and higher form of spiritual life has appeared in Christian times than appeared in the times before our Lord, is certain. This life is attributed to the coming of the Holy Spirit. Can we discover why it is that the Spirit did notcould notcome, till Christ was glorified?

What is meant by our Lord being glorified? It means infinitely more than we can know; but at least it means this, that when our Lord returned to the Father, His human nature, in all its capacities and powers, was wonderfully expanded and exalted. Even while He was on earth His human life, as it was gradually developed and as it rose, through righteousness and patient suffering, to a higher and still higher perfection, was more and more completely penetrated with the Divine life of the Eternal Word. It still remained human; but, in it and through it, that eternal life, which was with the Father, was manifested to men. When He returned to the Father He did not cease to be man, but it would appear that His human life was wholly transfigured by the life of the Eternal Son, who was in the beginning with God and who was God.

It is expedient for you that I go away. Yes! we understand Him now. It is expedient that perfect humanity should thus be associated on the Throne of Heaven with the Infinite and the Eternal. If we are to give our hearts and wills to the Author and End of our existence, if Christian worship is to be not a coldly calculated compliment, but the outcome of a pure and soul-consuming passion, it is well that on the heights of heaven there should throb to all eternity a human heartthe Sacred Heart of Jesus; and that in the adoration which we pay Him we should know that we are expending the inmost resources of our natures at the feet of the One Being who has upon them the claim, if I may dare speak thus, of relationship as well as the claim of Deity. And thus in the worship of the Church, inspired on the one hand by an awful sense of the inaccessible majesty of God, and on the other by a trustful, tender passion which has its roots in the consciousness of a human fellowship with its awful Object, we find that which we find nowhere else on earth, and understand the words, It is expedient for you that I go away.1 [Note: H. P. Liddon, Sermons on Some Words of Christ, 336.]

II

The Coming of the Spirit

Christs going away was a provision for the future life. The absent Lord prepares a place there; the absent Object of faith educates the souls of the faithful to possess and enjoy it. But He provides for the life that now is. And His going away has to do with the present as much as with the life to come.

One day when Jesus was in Pera, a message came to Him that a very dear friend was sick. He lived in a distant village with his two sisters. They were greatly concerned about their brothers illness, and had sent in haste for Jesus. Now Jesus loved Mary and Martha and Lazarus their brother; but He was so situated at the time that He could not go. Perhaps He was too busy, perhaps He had other similar cases on hand; at all events, He could not go. When He went ultimately, it was too late. Hour after hour the sisters waited for Him. They could not believe He would not come; but the slow hours dragged themselves along by the dying mans couch, and he was dead and laid in the grave before Jesus arrived. You can imagine one of His thoughts, at least, as He stands and weeps by that grave with the inconsolable sisters,It is expedient that I go away. I should have been present at his death-bed scene if I had been away. I will depart and send the Comforter. There will be no summons of sorrow which He will not be able to answer. He will abide with men for ever. Everywhere He will come and go. He will be like the noiseless invisible wind, blowing all over the world wheresoever He listeth.1 [Note: H. Drummond, The Ideal Life, 72.]

1. The Spirit comes to continue Christs ministry. The spiritual and distinctive ministry of the Holy Spirit follows the personal and Messianic ministry of the Christ. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are represented as conditioned upon the mediatorial work of the Christ. The Father purposes human redemption; the Son, by His atoning work, enables the righteous forgiveness of sin; and the Holy Spirit quickens spiritual life in forgiven men. The dispensation of the Father is followed by the dispensation of the Son; the dispensation of the Son by the dispensation of the Spirit.

The development of Christian experience, throughout all its changes, depends upon one unchanging personality. The Christ was to depart and the Comforter was to come, but the Comforter was to come as the messenger of the departing Christ. If I go, I will send him unto you. There is no real brokenness in spiritual experience, in spite of what seem to us to be variations in its intensity or gaps in its record or occasional hours in which its life has lain in trance: behind it all has been and is to-day the power of the ever-living Christ. And this is the one great fact to which we must come back for security when our faith in Divine things is like to fail because we do not always see them with the same clear sight, and because they do not always thrill us with the same sweeping currents of joythe fact that in whatever way holy things may touch us, it is Christ who brings them near, that whether they rouse a passion of holy rapture or draw out the quieter sensibilities lying hidden in our souls, it is Christ who orders their attendance upon us; that the outward spiritual ministries which excited the earliest stirrings of our faith, and the inward spiritual ministries by which we live to-day, have all been under Christs control.1 [Note: H. W. Clark, Laws of the Inner Kingdom, 68.]

2. The outward is changed to the inward. The Divine presence and teaching, and redeeming death of the Son were, so to speak, outside the man. Hence but little spiritual result followed Christs personal ministry. He made but few disciples: the Spirit was not yet given. Though He had done so many mighty works among them, yet did they not believe on Him. He promised, therefore, a still greater ministry than His owna life-giving Power, who should quicken religious feeling within them, who should be, not an outward teacher, but an indwelling life-giver and sanctifier; and who should do His mighty spiritual work by taking the things of Christ and showing them unto us. Henceforth the Spirit would work in the hearts of men, not through the partial and imperfect truths of the old Jewish dispensation, but through the new and transcendent truths of Christs incarnation and atonement.

The Day of Pentecost was simply the special manifestation, the formal inauguration of the dispensation of the Spirit. Henceforth, men were to be taught by purely spiritual ideas, and were to be made holy by purely spiritual forces. Miracles and prophesyings were to cease; the personal teaching and example of Christ were withdrawn; the atoning death was accomplished; and Christ ascended to heaven. The revelation of Gods truth and love was completed; and henceforth only spiritual forces were to work in the hearts of men.

At first the inner life depends largely upon stimulus from without: the soul lies to a great extent inactive unless some external influence rouses it from its sleep; and, in the early days of our Christian discipleship, it is often the more public, the more outward, channels through which Christs influence comes down that best satisfy our hearts need and most perfectly fill our craving for consciousness of the Masters presence. We go back in memory to the far-off time and the distant land which He blest by His benignant life, and we seem to walk with Him then and there, to hear the word of healing or forgiveness coming upon the sufferers who saw His human face; we enter into converse about Him with those who are like-minded, and in that friendly interchange of thought we find our joy quickened and our peace made deeper; and by many outward helps such as these the things of Christ are made more real to us and set into contact with our inner life. But slowly the soul reaches its own vision; the necessity for any outward aids to realize the presence of Christ grows less, because in the new strength of the inward sight we behold Him companying with us; and while the external means which formerly assisted us to a consciousness of His nearness are still there and still to a certain extent useful in their place, yet we no longer depend upon them to wake our spiritual apprehension or to raise our Christian emotion to its needed heat. The old things go away, and it is expedient that they should: the ministry of the Divine works directly upon our deepest lives, without the interposition of any intermediate agencies. We look for our Christ, not to any memories of far-off years, not to any words that others speak, not to any light that breaks upon others faces like the out-shining of His glorynot, at any rate, primarily to these things; we find and touch Christ by the immediate out-reaching of the soul.1 [Note: H. W. Clark, Laws of the Inner Kingdom, 64.]

3. The work of the Spirit is not only to continue Christs work; it is to commend Christ.

(1) The disciples did not know Christ till the Spirit came. It is a law of our nature that we lose in the breadth and accuracy of our knowledge by too close and continuous physical proximity to the object of knowledge. This is true as regards both things and persons. We cannot see the beauties of a great painting by

standing close to the canvas. The tourist enjoys best the sights which he has seen during his tour as memory and imagination recall them after he has returned home. We learn to appraise our greatest blessings at their proper valuesuch blessings as health, youth, gospel privilegesonly after they have been withdrawn from us.

Now, in like manner, the Lords absence has brought to His Church the gain of better knowledge of Him. The Apostles knew their Master better, and appreciated Him more, after His departure than they had done during all the time that He went in and out among them. As a vehicle of Christian teaching His presence with them did not after all accomplish very much. For they saw the Son of Man in His personal poverty, in His human weakness, in His extreme humiliation. It was too hard for them to realize that that wayworn and weary Man, who clung to them for sympathy even when He inspired and attracted, was indeed the Mighty God. So long as He was among them, they really did not know Him. They could not understand the simplest truths about Himself which He taught themfor instance, the fact that He was to die as a martyr, and to rise again from the dead.

But how different these same men became after their Master had gone away! The Comforter came to them at Pentecost, and all their dulness passed from them. The scales fell from their eyes; or rather, they became full of eyes within. Their language now is: Though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. They knew Him not now in the carnal aspect of Him, but in His new life-giving power.

You know that the mother always loves best the child that is dead. It is not because the child that is dead was better than all the children that are living, but because death brings the loved ones nearer to us than life ever brings them. You will never know your wife till she has gone from you. We never realize the meaning of Good-morning until we have said Good-bye. The hand-shake and the sad farewell bring hearts nearest to one another. So the world never knows its great men while they live. We have many illustrations of this. While he lived, Abraham Lincoln was the most hated man of all Americans throughout the South. The moment that man who counted himself Abraham Lincolns enemy, but proved unwittingly a friend to his memory, shot him, that moment the South began to recover its reason, and to-day the martyred President is honoured South as well as North.1 [Note: L. Abbott, Signs of Promise, 44.]

(2) They did not understand His teaching till the Spirit came and interpreted it. When He went away, the blessing that He promised as more than compensation for His presence was that they should enter into the significance of His past companionship with them, that the Spirit should bring to their remembrance whatsoever He had said unto them, and, in the light of His death and exaltation, become the Interpreter of all the deeper things which in their natural intercourse with Him their eyes had not been open to perceive.

When the Comforter came, all things were brought back to their remembrance. Old truths and perplexing memories received their true solution. Words they had mused upon in doubt were interpreted; sayings they had thought already clear were seen to have profounder meanings; a fountain of light sprang up within them, an illumination cast from an unseen teacher unfolded to their consciousness the deep things of God and of His Christ. Their very faculties were enlarged: they were no longer pent up by narrow senses and by the succession of time, but were lifted into a light where all things are boundless and eternal. A new power of insight was implanted in their spiritual being, and a new world rose up before it; for the Spirit of truth dwelt in them, and the world unseen was revealed.

The great truths are never apprehended while the great teachers of those truths are living to expound them. The death of a great teacher deepens and disseminates the knowledge of the truth. It was so with the death of Christ. It has been so with the death of every great teacher since Christ died. For the truth is always greater than the individual expounder of itdeeper, higher, broader, larger. The death of the teacher deepens the knowledge of the truth. While he lives, multitudes of men are attracted by his own personality, by the peculiar form in which he puts the truth, by the amplitude of illustration, by the vehemence of utterance and strength of conviction, by qualities that are in himself; and those qualities, while in one sense they interpret, in another sense they obscure, the truth. No man realizes this like the man who is trying to interpret a great truth to mankind. In him it dwells; in him it burns as a fire. He seeks to fling open the doors of his heart that men may look in and see, not him, but the truth that is the power within himself; and he is perplexed and humiliated and distraught and sorrow-stricken that men will not see the truth, but will look only at him, at his words, at his figures, at his illustrations, at his genius, at his gestures. But when he has gone, and these outward interpretations and semblances begin to fade from their memory, that which they really obscured, but which they seemed to interpret,or for the time did really though imperfectly and obscurely interpret,that begins to dawn upon them. The truth grows larger, deeper, in their apprehension; they look beyond the man to feel that the utterance was made eloquent by the truth within him; that the truth was the real inspiration.1 [Note: L. Abbott, Signs of Promise, 45.]

4. The Spirit conies to make us able to witness for Christ. The work of the Spirit is wrought through Christians. His work is our work; and because He works through us, and not in ourselves only, our work becomes possible. We are called upon to make known in act and word that men are made for fellowship with God; that even in the tumults and disorders of life the Divine law can be fulfilled and alone brings rest; that Christ and not the Evil One is the rightful sovereign of all. This is the interpretation of Christs life which the Spirit gives through the Church, through us.

Is not the trouble with most of our witnessing for God that it is inconstant and inconsistent, lacking unity as well as continuity? What is our hope but the indwelling Spirit of Christ, to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, to inspire every word and deed by His love? Then will broken lights blend in steady shining, the fractional be summed up in the integral, and life, unified and beautified by the central Christ, radiate Gods glory, and shine with Divine effulgence.2 [Note: M. D. Babcock, Thoughts for Every-Day Living, 9.]

An Expedient Departure

Literature

Abbott (L.), Signs of Promise, 41.

Allon (H.), The Indwelling Christ, 187.

Bernard (J. H.), Via Domini, 199.

Church (R. W.), Village Sermons, 3rd Ser., 163.

Clark (H. W.), Laws of the Inner Kingdom, 57.

Dale (R. W.), Christian Doctrine, 124.

Davies (J. P.), The Same Things, 126.

Drummond (H.), The Ideal Life, 61.

Eyton (R.), The Glory of the Lord, 36.

Eyton (R.), The True Life, 61.

Holdsworth (W. W.), The Life of Faith, 71.

Jerdan (C.), For the Lords Table, 323, 333.

Kelman (J.), Ephemera Eternitatis, 138.

Liddon (H. P.), Sermons on Some Words of Christ, 325.

Maclaren (A.), The Holy of Holies, 267.

Manning (H. E.), The Teaching of Christ, 181.

Murphy (J. B. C.), The Journey of the Soul, 100.

Telford (J.), The Story of the Upper Room, 181.

Thom (J. H.), Laws of Life after the Mind of Christ, 2nd Ser., 380.

Tipple (S. A.), Sunday Mornings at Norwood, 284.

Westcott (B. F.), Lessons from Work, 96.

Westcott (B. F.), Peterborough Sermons, 85.

Wilmot-Buxton (H. J.), Mission Sermons for a Year, 235.

Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible

I tell: Joh 8:45, Joh 8:46, Luk 4:25, Luk 9:27, Act 10:34

It: Joh 11:50-52, Joh 14:3, Joh 14:28, Rom 8:28, 2Co 4:17

the Comforter: Joh 7:39, Joh 14:16, Joh 14:17, Joh 14:26, Joh 15:26

but: Psa 68:18, Luk 24:49, Act 1:4, Act 1:5, Act 2:33, Eph 4:8-13

Reciprocal: 2Ki 2:9 – Elisha said Mar 2:20 – be taken Luk 24:52 – with Joh 3:34 – for God Joh 14:12 – because Joh 14:13 – will Joh 20:13 – why Joh 20:22 – Receive Act 5:32 – and so 2Co 8:10 – expedient 2Co 12:1 – expedient Gal 4:6 – the Spirit Eph 1:13 – holy Phi 1:24 – General 1Th 1:5 – in the Tit 3:6 – through 1Pe 1:12 – with Rev 22:1 – proceeding Rev 22:17 – the Spirit

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

CHRIST AND HIS PEOPLE

It is expedient for you that I go away.

Joh 16:7

We are almost tempted to wonder whether He could not have remained with us, as He remained with the disciples during those forty days. Then, perhaps, when our hearts were heavy we might have hoped to meet Him just where the road is lonely, or just when our only chance seems to be to lose ourselves in the hard solace of daily work. So we wonder and dream; but His words are clear, It is expedient for you that I go away.

I. If He had remained we could hardly have dissociated Him from the limits of space and time.We should have learned to associate Him with certain places, with certain moments, with certain material experiences; and the general level of our lives would be all the lower and the lonelier because once perhaps we had seen Him, and now for the rest of our lives there would seem so little left for us except the perplexing uncertainty as to where or how we might ever meet again. The sense of general absence would be more real than the glow of an occasional appearance. There would grow upon us a restlessness and unquiet born of the doubt as to when we might see Him and where we might expect Him. And the future would be dark; there would be no great forward look of the soul, since all the stimulus and inspiration of our being would be the places and the hours of earth.

II. The moral distance from Him would become intolerable.Perfection is a desperate vision to those who have little but their own skill and their own strength to help them. And if Christ were here to-day and gone to-morrow we could hardly help telling over between each visit the dreary tale of our own failure. At each arrival, even if in our lifetime He should not seldom return to us, the shock would be repeated of our startling unlikeness to Himself. And so we should be tempted to rest the real weight of our soul upon something less than Himself. Not many of us can endure for very long the strain of high spiritual exaltation. The reaction sets in as soon as we have to face the daily round and the drudgery of the common task. And even if we continued to persevere in His track, we should be tempted to depend, not upon Him, but upon some truth about Him. We might, perhaps, take some principle of His teaching which we thought we could grasp, some rule which the average disciple might, perhaps, hope to keep, but He Himself would dwell apart, to our mind and conscience, in a world of His own, far away from the interest and struggle of our daily pilgrimage.

III. It is expedient for us that He has gone to the Father.We need some form in which to think of God. Abstract words, like providence, and wisdom, and goodness, convey very little to us until they are illuminated by the life and colour of some character in whom we can recognise what they mean. But if the life and character of Christ on earth is not merely the supreme effort of some human soul exalted to the highest by virtue of some rare and unique development of human nature, if this life is the revelation of God Himself, so far as He can be expressed in human conditions and for human mindsif we can be sure of this because Christ has not merely disappeared from earth, but has been welcomed into His own place in Heavennow we can tell what God is like. Gods providence and wisdom and goodness, Gods mercy and judgment, have received their interpretation, and, instead of dazing our souls and hearts by wondering how we can rise to any idea of the Almighty, we can simply take our Lords own words to build our faith upon: He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.

IV. It is expedient for us that we see Him no more; for He is ascended not into some distant region, but into the invisible; not into a higher world of space, but into the loftiest state. After all, it is the invisible which comes nearest to us. The spirit within us is never stirred, except by some spiritual reality, which may indeed use some outward sign to call attention to its presence, but which remains itself for ever unseen. It is in the power of invisible spirit that a friend gets home into our hearts and dwells there. We gain some impression of him from his words and his acts, from his form and gesture; but it is that strange, mysterious power of life which we call his personality which attracts us, and wakes our own spirit into an answer, until at last he becomes a real part of our own selves.

So it is in the region of spirit, in a real spiritual experience within our own souls, that Christ makes His Presence felt. It is no dream, but the blessed experience of many a man, that Christ is actually living in him, and he in Christ.

Rev. H. P. Cronshaw.

Illustration

There is undeniably much that is deep and mysterious about the contents of this verse. We can only speak with reverence of the matter it unfolds. It seems clearly laid down that the Holy Ghosts coming down into the world with influence and grace was a thing dependent on our Lords dying, rising again, and ascending into heaven. It seems to be part of the eternal covenant of mans salvation that the Son should be incarnate, die, and rise again; and that then, as a consequence, the Holy Spirit should be poured out with mighty influence on mankind, and the Gentile nations be brought into the visible Church, and Christianity spread over a vast portion of the world. This seems plainly taught, and this we must simply believe. If any one asks why the Holy Ghost could not be poured down without Christs going away? it is safest to reply that we do not know.

(SECOND OUTLINE)

THE GUIDANCE OF THE SPIRIT

If what men most need is a Visible Ruler and Guide, a Ruler Who plainly declares His will to all the world, a Guide Whose counsel can never be misunderstood, then it is not too much to say that the Ascension of Jesus is the most perplexing and disheartening episode in the history of mankind. For His departure removed from the eyes of men the Eternal Wisdom, the very Light of the world.

I. Men throughout the Christian centuries have longed with an unceasing longing for such guidance; and some have persuaded themselves that it is, indeed, still offered to those who sincerely seek.

(a) Such a guide, infallible, authoritative, impossible to mistake, has been found by some in the voice of the Church. The desire for such guidance is, in truth, entirely natural to every one who feels the difficulties of life, whether of belief or of conduct. The most powerful force which draws men and women into the bosom of the great Latin Church is the promise which she unfalteringly offers of such infallible direction. And yet we ask ourselves, What guidance can she possibly promise which would not have been offered, if it were indeed so best for men, by Him Whom she worships as Master and Lord? It is expedient for you that I go away. The unmistakable voice of the Lord is a lesser gift than the secret stirring of His Spirit. Must not that be still more true of the voice of the Church?

(b) Or, once more, the guidance of the Bible alone, if we could be sure that we should always interpret it aright, would indeed be sufficient for us. But men who sincerely believed themselves to follow it have been led into many strange and divergent paths. The diversity of the many Christian bodies who reverently esteem Holy Scripture sufficiently shows that it is a guide which, though given to us by the Supreme Himself, does not so plainly lead that we may not mistake its guidance. It is expedient for you that I go away. The unmistakable voice of the Incarnate Word is a lesser gift than the striving of His Spirit. Must not that be true also of the written Word?

II. Does this mean, then, that guidance was no longer needed, that self-discipline is the best, that self-reliance breeds the strongest character, that the men whose nature the Lord took upon Him when He came down from heaven for their redemption are in the end left to themselves to work out their own salvation? Nay! The gifts of God are none the less real that they are, for the most part, unseen. Guidance and strength are placed within mans reach, though reason and faith be taxed to the utmost to perceive the one, to appropriate the other. The Church and the Bible alike have guidance and strength for us, not their own, but of God, which we shall not reject, if we be wise, because we do not always in our blindness perceive the Divinity of the Spirit from Whom they come. Visible guidance is withdrawn that invisible grace may issue in fruitful and patient service.

Dean J. H. Bernard.

Illustration

There are certain weaknesses in human nature which explain in part the need for discipline in a condition where the Masters voice is not ever in our ears to keep us in the right way. Our Lords method of educating men was not the method of spiritual direction which demands the blind obedience of the judgment as of the will. But certainly it is not self-reliance which Jesus commends to us in the striking words which follow the text. It is trust in Him, though unseen, and in His Spirit which is ever at work in the world and in the Church to guide and to confirm.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

The Ministry of the Spirit

Joh 14:26-30; Joh 16:7-13

INTRODUCTORY WORDS

Christ came to His own, and His own received Him not. The Holy Spirit came to His own, seeking to bring every possible spiritual gift and blessing, but His own have received Him not. Many believers are seeking to paddle their own canoe, and to work out their own will, wholly forgetting the Spirit and His ministry.

There is nothing that comes in the life of the believer, whether in the way of victory in his walk, power in his work, or guidance in his way, apart from the Spirit of God.

We made our beginning in the Spirit, for we were begotten of the Holy Ghost. We must continue to walk in the Spirit, if we would know spiritual success in our life. It is not in a man to order his own steps. The natural man cannot understand the things of the Spirit. A Christian, apart from the Holy Spirit, is just as helpless as is a branch apart from the vine.

When we consider the life of Christ, we observe that He was born of the Spirit; He was anointed of the Spirit; He was filled with the Spirit; He was led of the Spirit; He went about doing good in the Spirit; He was raised from the dead by the Spirit; and He gave His final command for the evangelization of the world in the Spirit.

When we consider how Christ commanded the disciples to tarry in Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high, we begin to realize our utter dependency upon the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit came to meet the need of the believer. God sent Him because He knew that we could not walk without Him. It is for this cause that we believe that, ever and anon, we should stop to ponder the work and ministry of the Holy Spirit.

We recognize that the Spirit of God came to take of the things of Christ, and show them unto us; however, unless we recognize the Spirit, and give ear to His voice, He can show us nothing by way of revelation.

We are sure that the Holy Spirit came to give us the enduement of power in service; and therefore, unless we have the anointing of the Spirit we cannot have the power which we so much need in order to serve.

We know that the Spirit of God came to renew our mind, and to teach us spiritual things, therefore, if we fail to listen to His voice we cannot understand the mystery of God.

The Holy Spirit is just as necessary to our spiritual life as the air which we breathe is to our physical life.

I. IT IS THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT TO CONVICT (Joh 16:7-10)

1. The Holy Spirit came to convict the sinner of his sin. The minister of the Gospel is absolutely shut up to God the Spirit, when he desires to see the old time conviction of sin falling upon his audience. Every human argument, every tear-producing story, and every human manipulation must utterly fail to bring men to a sense of their sin, unless the Holy Ghost is present to empower our word and work with convincing, reproving, and convicting power.

(1) The Holy Ghost convicts men of sin, because they believe not in Christ. Conviction of sin is not merely a sinner’s sense of self-corruption. It is, pre-eminently, his sense of separation from God by his rejection of Christ.

All mankind knows that, morally, they are corrupt. The Spirit comes to show a sinner, lost in iniquity, that his chief need is a Saviour; while his chief sin is his unbelief in the Lord Jesus Christ.

(2) The Holy Ghost will convict men of righteousness, because Christ has gone to the Father. The Spirit shows the guilty and sin-pressed soul that the way to righteousness is now open through the Lord Jesus: God’s sinless sacrifice for sin has ascended, and has been proclaimed a Saviour.

The unsaved may know himself a sinner and feel his sin, without realizing that righteousness is possible in the ascended Lord. The Holy Spirit came to convince him that a new walk, and a new righteousness is possible in Christ Jesus.

(3) The Holy Ghost will convict men of judgment because the prince of this world is judged. The Spirit will convince the heart of the wicked, that he will see his own undoing and judgment, because Satan has been judged.

It was at the Cross that Christ met principalities and powers and triumphed over them openly. It was in the ascension that Christ Jesus passed up through these powers of darkness and sat down with them beneath His feet.

When the sinner sees that the good of this world has met his defeat, and awaits his casting down into the abyss, and his final casting down into the lake of fire; the Spirit will convince him that he needs to sever himself from obeisance and obedience to a defeated devil.

2. The sinner should not resist the Holy Spirit. When the Spirit convicts the sinner of his sin, until he sees the villainy of his heart; and, when his sin in the rejection of Christ lies heavily upon him; he must not resist the Spirit’s call, lest he find himself cast off from God without hope in this age, or in the age to come.

II. IT IS THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT TO WALK ALONG WITH THE CHILD OF GOD (Joh 14:26, f.c)

1. Christ said that the Comforter would come. The word “Comforter” comes from a Greek word “Paracletos,” which anglocized, is “Paraclete.” The word “Paraclete” means, “at your side.”

It was the purpose of the Father, then, to send us One to walk with us in our journey through life. He was to walk at our side in order to be our Guide, our Comforter, our Teacher.

You remember as Rebecca journeyed across the desert sands, Eliezer of Damascus, Abraham’s faithful servant, rode by her side. Rebecca would have been very loathe to take the journey through the desert alone. She was comforted, encouraged, and aided, however, in every possible way by the man who journeyed with her.

It is thus, also, that God has given us a Companion to journey with us through the wilderness of this world. He is with us as Heaven’s official Guide in our Heavenly pilgrimage.

Can you imagine the message which Eliezer bore home to the heart of Rebecca as they journeyed along? He spoke of Isaac. He elaborated on the greatness of Abraham; and showed that Isaac was Abraham’s son and heir. So, also, does the Holy Spirit elaborate on the glories of Christ. He tells us of the Father and of the Son.

2. What should be the believer’s attitude to the Comforter? The believer should give ear to the Spirit. He should listen with all intentness, that he may catch every word which is freely given him from God.

The believer should do more than that. He should give audience to the Spirit, but he should also obey the voice of the Spirit.

You remember the Scripture which reads, “As the heart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God.” The word “panteth” carries the thought of “following hard after.” That is just what we should do-we should follow hard after the Holy Ghost.

III. IT IS THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT TO TEACH THE CHILD OF GOD (1Jn 2:27)

1. It is impossible for the mind of man to comprehend the things of God. The Word of God is plain in this matter. “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

We who are sent forth to preach Christ are to preach Him, not in the wisdom of words, lest the Cross of Christ should be made of none effect. We have received not “the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.”

The Apostle Paul said that he spoke “wisdom among them that [were] perfect”; however, he quickly added, “Yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world.” Paul spoke the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory.

2. It is possible for the Spirit of God to teach us the deep things of God. It is true that the natural ear hath not heard, nor the eye seen, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him; “But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.”

The words of our text do not mean that the one who is taught of the Spirit may not himself teach others. They do mean that man, in his own wisdom, cannot teach the child of God. They also mean that the child of God is not dependent upon men to teach him, but the anointing which he received of God will teach him.

We have known some dear old saints who were very ignorant in worldly lore, and yet, they knew more in the realm of spirituals than the wisest of men not taught of God.

IV. IT IS THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT TO TRANSFORM THE BELIEVER (2Co 3:18)

1. The Holy Spirit came to fashion us into the glory of the Lord; He wants to make us like Christ. This is not the work of a moment. Paul spoke of dying daily. Our text says, “We * * are [transformed] * * from glory to glory.”

The chief desire of every believer’s heart should be to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our ambition should be to go on to perfection. We should never be satisfied until we have reached the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. This is a particular ministry of the Holy Ghost.

Jesus Christ was transfigured, until the fashion of His countenance was altered, and His raiment was white and glistening. This is exactly in line with what the Holy Spirit wants to do in us.

We are all familiar with Rom 12:1-2, where we are taught to present our bodies a living sacrifice unto God. It is there that we are admonished by the Spirit: “Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” The word transformed is the same as the word transfigured.

God wants us to walk as children of the light. He wants us to put off the flesh, and to walk in the Spirit. He wants us, as a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a peculiar people, to show forth the praises of Him who hath called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.

2. Since the Holy Ghost seeks to fashion us into the glory of the Lord, we must not grieve Him. What is it that grieves the Spirit? He came to form Christ in us, and when we permit anything to dominate our lives which is contrary to the life of Christ in the believer, we grieve the Spirit. It is for this cause that we read, “Wherefore putting away lying.”

“Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.”

“Let him that stole steal no more.”

“Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth.”

“Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice.”

V. IT IS THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT TO EMPOWER THE BELIEVER FOR SERVICE (Act 1:8)

1. A great task is committed to saints. We are the salt of the earth. We are the witnesses of God. We are commissioned to go unto the ends of the earth making disciples. We are told to preach the Gospel to every creature.

This commanded service is a great undertaking, and there are many obstacles. The heart of man is set in him to do evil. Satan is seeking to catch away every seed of Gospel Truth which we attempt to sow.

As we face the command of God, we realize our utter inability. Of ourselves we can do nothing. We are dependent wholly upon God.

2. A great promise is given to saints. The Lord Jesus said, “All power is given unto Me in Heaven and in earth.” He also said, “Go,” and, “Lo, I am with you.”

Not only this, but the Lord Jesus commanded His disciples to tarry in Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high. He taught, “Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.”

God has not sent us forth on a mission for Him, and left us weaklings unable to accomplish His commanded work. He will back up, with all of the authority of Heaven, those who go forth obedient to His voice.

3. A great warning is given to saints. In Thessalonians we read, “Quench not the Spirit.” The thought is of the Spirit as a great fire; and the warning is, do not quench the fire. In other words when the Holy Spirit calls us into fellowship with Him, in any ministry, we must stand ready to undertake for God. Even though we have but five loaves and a few fishes, we must bring them to the Lord, trusting in Him to multiply them.

If we are ignorant, we must look to His wisdom; if we are weak, we must trust His power; if the way seems dark, we must wait on Him for light.

AN ILLUSTRATION

The sad results of resisting the Spirit is set forth in the following story.

One day my telephone rang and a lady said, “Can you come down and visit my husband? He is very, very sick. The doctors say he will die, and he is not a Christian.” I said, “All right, I will come down,” I went and stood by the bed-the man had double pneumonia-and I said, “Old boy, I am sorry you are so sick.” After a while, as the Lord helped me, I talked of the Lord Jesus, and he said, “Here and now I receive Him, and I will tell you what I will do, If the Lord will restore me, I will forsake my sin, and I will come down and join your church, and be baptized.” Moreover he said, “I do receive Christ right now.”

I went on to my prayer-meeting that night, and said, “Brethren, I had a wonderful revival in a sick-room today. Mr. B——– told me he was saved, and he promised me that if the Lord would make him well, he would come down and join our church. Let us pray for him.” In a few days I went again to see Mr. B—. He was out of danger. On my third visit, I found him sitting out on the wood-pile, in the back yard. He loved good horses, and loved fine chickens, and he was out on the wood-pile, watching his chickens. I sat down beside him, and said, “Old boy, I am glad you are getting well. You will soon be ready to come to church.” He said, “Brother Neighbour, I am going to keep my promise, and unite with your church, and be baptized, a week from this next Sunday.” A couple of weeks went by, he did not come. One day I saw him on the street riding a beautiful, black steed. I hailed him and said to him, “Wait a minute, old boy.” Then I said, “I thought you were coming on and live for Christ.” He said, “Oh, Brother Neighbour, I will come.” But he didn’t come.

Week after week passed. Then, one day, as I was walking down the street, a groceryman, a member of our church, said to me, “We are going to have a sudden death in this city.” I said, “Who do you think is going to die?” He said, “The man that promised you all sorts of things, when he thought he was dying. As sure as you live, he will die shortly. The Word of God says: ‘He that being often reproved, and hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy.'” I do not believe a week had passed until I heard that man’s wife, over the telephone. She said, “Oh, Brother Neighbour, come, come, B——– is dead. He was at a banquet in the hotel and he fell over dead. Oh, Brother Neighbour, he is lost, he is lost, he is lost.” I went up and tried to comfort her. I think that was the saddest funeral I ever attended. They had to take the body to another town for interment, and on the train his wife collapsed a number of times. At the grave she said, “Oh, I could stand it, but he is not saved; I know he is lost. Oh, Brother Neighbour, he is lost.”

Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water

7

This verse through 15 forms the Anal link in the chain that was suggested at chapter 14; 16, 17. This passage gives a more itemised statement of what was to be accom-plished by the Spirit through the apos-tles. I shall comment on the present verse, also the others in their order. Expedient means “to help or be profit-able,” according to Thayer. As long as Jesus was with the apostles in person, the Comforter or Holy Spirit would not come to them, for it was not the Father’s will that two persons of the Deity should be working personally on the earth at the same time. That being true, It was necessary for Jesus to “retire from the scene and give way to the other. The Spirit would come to stay with the apostles throughout their work, which would give Him the opportunity to accomplish certain ends that it was not intended for Christ to da

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Joh 16:7. Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Advocate will not come unto you; but if I go, I will send him unto you. Sorrow filled the hearts of the disciples at the thought of the departure of their Lord. Now, therefore, in these His crowning teachings, not only must their sorrow be dispelled, but they must be sent forth with the joyful assurance that, so far from His departures being a just cause of sadness, it is rather that which shall secure to them the most glorious strength in their conflict with the world, and the final possession of the victory. The great truths set forth, then, in the deeply-important verses on which we now enter are: (1) That the departure of Jesus is the indispensable condition of the bestowal of the Holy Spirit; (2) That through such bestowal the world with which the disciples must contend shall become to them not only a conquered, but a self-convicted, foe. The first of these truths comes before us in Joh 16:7, the second in Joh 16:8-11. The first thing to be observed in the former verse is that in it, along with Joh 16:5, no fewer than three different words are used to express the idea of going away or going. Between the first two there is probably little difference, although the second may bring less markedly into view than the first the mere thought of departure. The third, in the words if I go, is distinguished from both of them in that it distinctly expresses not so much the thought of departure as that of going to the Father (comp. chaps. Joh 14:2-3; Joh 14:12; Joh 14:28, Joh 16:28). The glorification of Jesus, then, is here clearly in view; and this passage teaches the same lesson as chap. Joh 7:39, that upon that glorification the bestowal of the power of the Spirit was dependent (comp. on chap. Joh 7:39). Not that the Holy Spirit had been given in no degree before. He had certainly wrought in Judaism, and had even been the Author of all the good that had ever appeared in heathenism: but He had not been given in power, had not been the essential characteristic of an era in which He had made only scattered and isolated manifestations of His influences. It was to be different now. The era to begin was the era of the Spirit, in which He was to breathe a new life into the world. Various reasons may be assigned why this gift of the Spirit could be bestowed only after Jesus was glorified; but we omit them for the sake of that which seems to us the main consideration upon the point. The end of all Gods dealings with man is that he shall be brought into the closest and most perfect union with Himself, and that, in order to this, He shall be spiritualised and glorified. This is effected through Him who took human nature into union with the Divine, and the end of whose course is not the Incarnation, but His being made the first-born among many brethren so spiritualised, so glorified. Only, therefore, when this end is reached is Jesus, as not only Son of God but Son of man (chap. Joh 3:14-15), in full possession of the Spirit: only then is He so set free from the conflicts and the troubles of the time of His sufferings (Heb 2:10; Heb 5:8) that His Own spiritual power and glory are illimitable and unconditioned; only then can He bestow in His fulness that Spirit which, as the essential characteristic of His Own final, perfect state, is to raise us to the similar end which the purpose of God contemplates with regard to us. In this sense the Holy Spirit not only was not but could not be given so long as Jesus was on earth, unglorified. But then, when, as Son of man glorified, and still, because Son of man, in closest fellowship with us who are men, He should have in Himself all the power of the Spirit,then would He be ableand how could they who knew His love doubt that He would be willing?to pour forth upon His disciples that Spirit of glory and of God which should make them more than conquerors over all their adversaries. Surely it was expedient for them that He should go away, and, in going away, go to the Father. Nay, it was better for them that He should go away than that He should remain; for not only was this fulness of the Spirit connected with His glorified condition, but the disciples, instead of leaning upon Him as they had done, would gain all that strengthening of character which flows from working ourselves rather than having work done for us by another.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

In these words our Saviour urges his disciples to submit to his departure, as that which would make way for his sending the Comforter to them; which he assures them, would be of more advantage to them than his own stay and continuance amongst them.

Thence learn, that the presence of the Holy Spirit with us is a greater comfort and advantage to us than the presence of Christ in the flesh amongst us.

The benefit of Christ’s conversation was great; but the advantage of the Spirit’s renovation and holy inspiration is much greater; the one encourages and incites us to be holy, but the other quickens and enables us to be holy.

Therefore well might Christ say, It is expedient, or highly necessary and advantageous, for you, that I go away. He subjoins a reason: If I go not away, the Comforter will not come; but if I depart, I will send him to you.

Whence we learn, that Christ’s ascension was indispensibly necessary, in order to the Spirit’s mission; the Spirit could not have descended, if Christ had not first ascended; the Spirit could not come, but by the gift and mission of the Mediator.

Now the sending of the Spirit being a part of Christ’s royalty, as mediator, it was not convenient that the Spirit should be sent, till Christ was crowned, and sat down on his throne in his kingdom: then the Spirit was to make application to us, of the redemption purchased for us.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Joh 16:7-8. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth I acquaint you with the case just as it is, and tell you the reasons of my going away, though you have not asked them. It is necessary even on your account that I should depart, because, if I go not away, and enter upon my mediatorial office, the Comforter By whose assistance, as I told you, you are to convert the world, will not visit you: whereas, if I depart And take possession of my kingdom; I will send him unto you As the first-fruits of the exercise of my kingly power, to answer all the great and glorious purposes for which you and my church shall need him. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, &c. Greek, , &c.; rather, he will convince the world concerning sin, and concerning righteousness, and concerning judgment. So Dr. Campbell, who interprets the passage as follows: Concerning sin That is, their sin in rejecting me, whereof the Spirit will give incontestable evidence, in the miracles which he will enable my apostles to perform in my name, and the success with which he will crown their teaching. Concerning righteousness That is, my righteousness, or innocence, the justice of my cause; of which the same miraculous power, exerted for me by my disciples, will be an irrefragable proof, convincing all the impartial that I had the sanction of Heaven for what I did and taught, and that, in removing me hence, God hath taken me to himself. Concerning judgment That is, divine judgment, soon to be manifested in the punishment of an incredulous nation, and in defence of the truth. Dr. Whitby gives nearly the same interpretation of this important paragraph; remarking that the original word, , here used, signifies both an advocate and a comforter; he observes, in explanation of the terms, He performed the part of an advocate in respect of Christ and his gospel, by convincing the world of sin in their not believing on him, and of the righteousness [the innocence and holiness] of Christ; and by confirming the apostles testimony of him, by signs and miracles, and various gifts imparted to them, Heb 2:4; 1Jn 5:6-8; and by pleading their cause before kings and rulers, and against all their adversaries, Mat 10:18-19; Luk 21:15; Act 6:10. In respect of the apostles and the faithful he also did the part of a comforter, as being sent for their consolation and support in all their troubles, filling their hearts with joy and gladness, and giving them an inward testimony of Gods love to them, and an assurance of their future happiness, Rom 8:15-16.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

16:7 {2} Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.

(2) The absence of Christ according to the flesh is profitable to the Church in that it causes the Church to be wholly dependant upon his spiritual power.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes