Love to the Uttermost: Expositions of John XIII.-XXI.Meyer, F. B. (Frederick Brotherton)
Religion
Love to the Uttermost: Expositions of John XIII.-XXI.
Meyer, F. B. (Frederick Brotherton)
Bible. John -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
On the day of Pentecost, the hundred and twenty who were gathered in
the upper room, and who, up to that time, had had no corporate
existence, were suddenly constituted a Church, the habitation and home
of the Divine Spirit. What the human body of Jesus was to the second
Person of the Holy Trinity, that the infant Church was to the third;
though it did not represent the whole body, since we must add to those
gathered in the upper room many more in heaven and on earth, who by
virtue of their union with the risen Christ constituted with them the
Holy Catholic Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who
filleth all in all. "This," said the Blessed Spirit, "is My rest
forever; here will I dwell, for I have desired it."
(4) _Each was named before His advent._--"Thou shalt call His name
Emmanuel." "His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty
God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." Thus was the Lord
Jesus designated to loving hearts before His birth.
So also with the Holy Spirit. The last discourses of Jesus are full of
appellatives, each setting forth some new phase of the Holy Spirit's
ministry; some freshly-cut facet of His character. The Spirit of
Truth; the Holy Spirit; the Paraclete; the Spirit of Conviction--such
are some of the names by which He was to be known.
(5) _Each was dependent on another._--Our Lord said distinctly, "The
Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do"; and He
said of the Holy Spirit, using the same preposition, "He shall not
speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak."
What a conception is here! It is as though the Holy Spirit were ever
listening to the Divine colloquy and communion between the Father and
the Son, and communicating to receptive hearts disclosures of the
secrets of the Deity. The things which eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard, God hath revealed unto us by His Spirit; "for the Spirit
searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God."
(6) _Each received witness._--The Father bore witness to His Son on
three separate occasions. On the first, at His baptism, He said, "This
is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased"; on the second, when the
three apostles were with Him on the holy mount, and He received from
the Father glory and honor; and on the third, when the inquiry of the
Greeks reminded Him of His approaching death, and the voice from heaven
assured Him that glory would accrue to the Father through His falling
into the ground to die.
So in regard to the Holy Spirit. Seven times from the throne the
ascended Lord summons those that have ears, to hear what the Spirit
saith to the churches; as though to emphasize the urgent importance of
His message, and the necessity of giving it our most earnest heed, lest
we should drift past it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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