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Yesterday’s post has the readings for the Seventh Sunday of Easter, Exaudi Sunday, for Year B, the exegesis for the First Reading and the exegesis for verses 6 through 12 of today’s Gospel.
Today’s post concludes with John 17:13-19, our Lord’s prayer for His disciples, the eleven remaining Apostles in particular (emphases mine):
17:13 But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves.
17:14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.
17:15 I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one.
17:16 They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.
17:17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
17:18 As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.
17:19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.
Commentary comes from Matthew Henry and John MacArthur.
Jesus prayed, saying that He would be returning to His Father, so He spoke these things in the world so that they — His disciples — may have His joy complete in themselves (verse 13).
John MacArthur explains this joy, alluding to the Holy Trinity:
We don’t ever hear about Jesus laughing, but the Scriptures clearly tell us He wept. There was joy set before Him. And it’s the same with us; the joy is ahead of us. There are tastes of it here, but full joy, “My joy made full,” that is the joy that is equal to Christ in its fullness, that is future.
In chapter 16, you might look also at verse 20, “Truly, truly, I say to you – ” Jesus said, “ – you will week and lament, you will weep and lament. The world will rejoice, they’ll be happy to persecute you. You’ll weep and you’ll cry, but your grief will be turned into joy. Whenever a woman – it’s like a woman in labor. She has pain because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she’s no longer remembering the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world. Therefore, you too have grief now. But I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.” Verse 24 he adds, “Until now you’ve asked for nothing in My name. Ask and you’ll receive, so that your joy may be made full.”
The answers to prayer that the Lord gives us, the answers to prayer continue to elevate our joy. When we see the Holy Spirit – and He’s referring to the Holy Spirit there – come and take up residence in our heart, and give us love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control – all the fruit of the Spirit, we have a taste of heavenly joy. But the full joy is yet in the future, it’s yet in the future.
Please notice He says “My joy – ” in chapter 17, “ – that My joy may be made full in them.” In chapter 14, verse 27, He gave us what He called “My peace.” In chapter 16, He gave us “My Spirit.” He says several times that “I give unto them life – ” verse 3, this is eternal life, “ – that you may know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
We have His life, we have His peace, we have His Spirit, we have His joy … All of that is ours because we are in Him, we are in Christ, understanding the promises, understanding the protection, understanding all that He has for us in the future, and all that He does for us in the present secures our joy. And all of this is ours at the highest divine level because we are in Christ.
This is a stunningly wonderful realization. They’ve heard the Lord make all these promises, and now they hear the Lord praying for them to the Father to secure their eternal glory, to make them one, and to fill them with His own joy, joy based not on the present but on the promises of God in the future. We have His life, we have His love, we have His joy, we have His peace, because we are in Him and He is in us. We talked about that last time. We’ve literally been drawn into the life of the Trinity, and it’s all motivated by love, it’s all motivated by love, motivated by love. And so He intercedes for us, for our spiritual security, our unity, our felicity, or our joy.
Matthew Henry gives us a practical application:
We are here taught, [1.] To found our joy in Christ: “It is my joy, joy of my giving, or rather joy that I am the matter of.” Christ is a Christian’s joy, his chief joy. Joy in the world is withering with it; joy in Christ is everlasting, like him. [2.] To build up our joy with diligence; for it is the duty as well as privilege of all true believers; no part of the Christian life is pressed upon us more earnestly, Phil 3 1; 4 4. [3.] To aim at the perfection of this joy, that we may have it fulfilled in us, for this Christ would have.
Jesus said that He had given His disciples God the Father’s word and, as such, the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as He does not belong to the world (verse 14).
Henry gives us gems of wisdom here:
Here we have,
(1.) The world’s enmity to Christ’s followers. While Christ was with them, though as yet they had given but little opposition to the world, yet it hates them, much more would it do so when by their more extensive preaching of the gospel they would turn the world upside down. “Father, stand their friend,” says Christ, “for they are likely to have many enemies; let them have thy love, for the world’s hatred is entailed upon them. In the midst of those fiery darts, let them be compassed with thy favour as with a shield.“ It is God’s honour to take part with the weaker side, and to help the helpless. Lord, be merciful to them, for men would swallow them up.
(2.) The reasons of this enmity, which strengthen the plea. [1.] It is implied that one reason is because they had received the word of God as it was sent them by the hand of Christ, when the greatest part of the world rejected it, and set themselves against those who were the preachers and professors of it. Note, Those that receive Christ’s good will and good word must expect the world’s ill will and ill word. Gospel ministers have been in a particular manner hated by the world, because they call men out of the world, and separate them from it, and teach them not to conform to it, and so condemn the world. “Father, keep them for it is for thy sake that they are exposed; they are sufferers for thee.” Thus the psalmist pleads, For thy sake I have borne reproach, Ps 69 7. Note, Those that keep the word of Christ’s patience are entitled to special protection in the hour of temptation, Rev 3 10. That cause which makes a martyr may well make a joyful sufferer. [2.] Another reason is more express; the world hates them, because they are not of the world. Those to whom the word of Christ comes in power are not of the world, for it has this effect upon all that receive it in the love of it that it weans them from the wealth of the world, and turns them against the wickedness of the world, and therefore the world bears them a grudge.
Jesus prayed that God not take believers out of the world but to protect them from the evil one (verse 15) — Satan.
Jesus repeated that His followers do not belong to the world, just as He does not belong to it (verse 16).
MacArthur says:
He prays for our immunity – or if you like safety better. You could even use the word “invincibility.” But let’s say immunity because we know what that means. That means to be impervious to some threat. The threat? A powerful threat, verses 14-16: “I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they’re not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” He prays that we would be immune to the deadly, damning threats of Satan. “I have given them Your word. I have spoken only divine truth to them, which the world rejected.”
Chapter 1, verse 11, “He came to His own, His own received Him not.” He was in the world, the world was made by Him, the world knew Him not.” The world has rejected all the way along. We see that repeatedly in chapter 5 where our Lord says, “You are of your father, the devil; and so when I speak the truth, you reject the truth because there’s no truth in you, and you follow your father who’s a liar. But I have given them, these who are Yours and you gave to me, these who have heard and understood and believed the truth, I have given them Your word. The result is the world has hated them because they’re not of the world, even as I’m not of the world. They’re treated like Me.”
That statement, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world,” is repeated in verse 16. “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” This is amazing. Another way to say that would be, “They are as I am.”
When we talk about being in Christ, we are talking about something that just seems to have an endless amount of rich possibility. And here’s another one: “They are as I am.” What a statement. “They are as I am righteous, because they’re in Me. They are as I am at peace, because they’re in Me. They are as I am filled with joy, because they’re in Me. They are as I am, hated by the world, because they’re in Me.” That’s why Paul said his wounds, essentially, were the marks of Christ. People were trying to bruise and beat Christ. He wasn’t here, so they do it to those who are His.
Henry has more:
Observe, [1.] That Jesus Christ was not of this world; he never had been of it, and least of all now that he was upon the point of leaving it. This intimates, First, His state; he was none of the world’s favourites nor darlings, none of its princes nor grandees; worldly possessions he had none, not even where to lay his head; nor worldly power, he was no judge nor divider. Secondly, His Spirit; he was perfectly dead to the world, the prince of this world had nothing in him, the things of this world were nothing to him; not honour, for he made himself of no reputation; not riches, for for our sakes he became poor; not pleasures, for he acquainted himself with grief. See ch. 8 23. [2.] That therefore true Christians are not of this world. The Spirit of Christ in them is opposite to the spirit of the world. First, It is their lot to be despised by the world; they are not in favour with the world any more than their Master before them was. Secondly, It is their privilege to be delivered from the world; as Abraham out of the land of his nativity. Thirdly, It is their duty and character to be dead to the world. Their most pleasing converse is, and should be, with another world, and their prevailing concern about the business of that world, not of this. Christ’s disciples were weak, and had many infirmities; yet this he could say for them, They were not of the world, not of the earth, and therefore he recommends them to the care of Heaven.
Jesus prayed that God would sanctify His disciples in the truth, for God’s word is truth (verse 17).
Henry explains what this short verse means:
He desires they may be sanctified,
1. As Christians. Father, make them holy, and this will be their preservation, 1 Thess 5 23. Observe here,
(1.) The grace desired—sanctification. The disciples were sanctified, for they were not of the world; yet he prays, Father sanctify them, that is, [1.] “Confirm the work of sanctification in them, strengthen their faith, inflame their good affections, rivet their good resolutions.” [2.] “Carry on that good work in them, and continue it; let the light shine more and more.” [3.] “Complete it, crown it with the perfection of holiness; sanctify them throughout and to the end.” Note, First, It is the prayer of Christ for all that are his that they may be sanctified; because he cannot for shame own them as his, either here or hereafter, either employ them in his work or present them to his Father, if they be not sanctified. Secondly, Those that through grace are sanctified have need to be sanctified more and more. Even disciples must pray for sanctifying grace; for, if he that was the author of the good work be not the finisher of it, we are undone. Not to go forward is to go backward; he that is holy must be holy still, more holy still, pressing forward, soaring upward, as those that have not attained. Thirdly, It is God that sanctifies as well as God that justified, 2 Cor 5 5. Fourthly, It is an encouragement to us, in our prayers for sanctifying grace, that it is what Christ intercedes for for us.
(2.) The means of conferring this grace—through thy truth, thy word is truth. Not that the Holy One of Israel is hereby limited to means, but in the counsel of peace among other things it was settled and agreed, [1.] That all needful truth should be comprised and summed up in the word of God. Divine revelation, as it now stands in the written word, is not only pure truth without mixture, but entire truth without deficiency. [2.] That this word of truth should be the outward and ordinary means of our sanctification; not of itself, for then it would always sanctify, but as the instrument which the Spirit commonly uses in beginning and carrying on that good work; it is the seed of the new birth (1 Pet 1 23), and the food of the new life, 1 Pet 2 1-2.
2. As ministers. “Sanctify them, set them apart for thyself and service; let their call to the apostleship be ratified in heaven.” Prophets were said to be sanctified, Jer 1 5. Priests and Levites were so. Sanctify them; that is, (1.) “Qualify them for the office, with Christian graces and ministerial gifts, to make them able ministers of the New Testament.” (2.) “Separate them to the office, Rom 1 1. I have called them, they have consented; Father, say Amen to it.” (3.) “Own them in the office; let thy hand go along with them; sanctify them by or in thy truth, as truth is opposed to figure and shadow; sanctify them really, not ritually and ceremonially, as the Levitical priests were, by anointing and sacrifice. Sanctify them to thy truth, the word of thy truth, to be the preachers of thy truth to the world; as the priests were sanctified to serve at the altar, so let them be to preach the gospel.” 1 Cor 9 13, 14. Note, [1.] Jesus Christ intercedes for his ministers with a particular concern, and recommends to his Father’s grace those stars he carries in his right hand. [2.] The great thing to be asked of God for gospel ministers is that they may be sanctified, effectually separated from the world, entirely devoted to God, and experimentally acquainted with the influence of that word upon their own hearts which they preach to others. Let them have the Urim and Thummim, light and integrity.
Jesus said that, just as God sent Him into the world, so He has sent His disciples into the world (verse 18).
MacArthur tells us that Jesus was speaking of the Great Commission:
Our Lord is saying, “Look, the world has hated them, they’re not of the world, I’m not of the world. I’m not asking you to take them out of the world. Can’t do that, can’t take them out of the world.” Why? Verse 18, “Because as You sent Me into the world, I’ve sent them into the world.”
You can’t take them out of the world because people can’t believe unless they hear; and they can’t hear unless there’s a preacher, and they’ve got to fulfill the Great Commission, right, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”
Henry elaborates:
Now here,
(1.) Christ speaks with great assurance of his own mission: Thou hast sent me into the world. The great author of the Christian religion had his commission and instructions from him who is the origin and object of all religion. He was sent of God to say what he said, and do what he did, and be what he is to those that believe on him; which was his comfort in his undertaking, and may be ours abundantly in our dependence upon him; his record was on high, for thence his mission was.
(2.) He speaks with great satisfaction of the commission he had given his disciples “So have I sent them on the same errand, and to carry on the same design;” to preach the same doctrine that he preached, and to confirm it with the same proofs, with a charge likewise to commit to other faithful men that which was committed to them. He gave them their commission (ch. 20 21) with a reference to his own, and it magnifies their office that it comes from Christ, and that there is some affinity between the commission given to the ministers of reconciliation and that given to the Mediator; he is called an apostle (Heb 3 1), a minister (Rom 15 8), a messenger, Mal 3 1. Only they are sent as servants, he as a Son. Now this comes in here as a reason, [1.] Why Christ was concerned so much for them, and laid their case so near his heart; because he had himself put them into a difficult office, which required great abilities for the due discharge of it. Note, Whom Christ sends he will stand by, and interest himself in those that are employed for him; what he calls us out to he will fit us out for, and bear us up in. [2.] Why he committed them to his Father; because he was concerned in their cause, their mission being in prosecution of his, and as it were an assignment out of it. Christ received gifts for men (Ps 68 18), and then gave them to men (Eph 4 8), and therefore prays aid of his Father to warrant and uphold those gifts, and confirm his grant of them. The Father sanctified him when he sent him into the world, ch. 10 36. Now, they being sent as he was, let them also be sanctified.
Jesus concluded this portion of His intercessory prayer for the disciples by saying that He was sanctifying Himself for their sakes, so that they might be sanctified in truth (verse 19).
Henry explains the significance of Christ’s words:
Here is, (1.) Christ’s designation of himself to the work and office of Mediator: I sanctified myself. He entirely devoted himself to the undertaking, and all the parts of it, especially that which he was now going about—the offering up of himself without spot unto God, by the eternal Spirit. He, as the priest and altar, sanctified himself as the sacrifice. When he said, Father, glorify thy name—Father, thy will be done—Father, I commit my spirit into thy hands, he paid down the satisfaction he had engaged to make, and so sanctified himself. This he pleads with his Father, for his intercession is made in the virtue of his satisfaction; by his own blood he entered into the holy place (Heb 9 12), as the high priest, on the day of atonement, sprinkled the blood of the sacrifice at the same time that he burnt incense within the veil, Lev 16 12, 14. (2.) Christ’s design of kindness to his disciples herein; it is for their sakes, that they may be sanctified, that is, that they may be martyrs; so some. “I sacrifice myself, that they may be sacrificed to the glory of God and the church’s good.” Paul speaks of his being offered, Phil 2 17; 2 Tim 4 6. Whatever there is in the death of the saints that is precious in the sight of the Lord, it is owing to the death of the Lord Jesus. But I rather take it more generally, that they may be saints and ministers, duly qualified and accepted of God. [1.] The office of the ministry is the purchase of Christ’s blood, and one of the blessed fruits of his satisfaction, and owes its virtue and value to Christ’s merit. The priests under the law were consecrated with the blood of bulls and goats, but gospel ministers with the blood of Jesus. [2.] The real holiness of all good Christians is the fruit of Christ’s death, by which the gift of the Holy Ghost was purchased; he gave himself for his church, to sanctify it, Eph 5 25, 26. And he that designed the end designed also the means, that they might be sanctified by the truth, the truth which Christ came into the world to bear witness to and died to confirm. The word of truth receives its sanctifying virtue and power from the death of Christ. Some read it, that they may be sanctified in truth, that is, truly; for as God must be served, so, in order to this, we must be sanctified, in the spirit, and in truth. And this Christ has prayed for, for all that are his; for this is his will, even their sanctification, which encourages them to pray for it.
May all reading this enjoy a blessed Sunday as we look forward to remembering the first Pentecost in a week’s time.
The Seventh Sunday of Easter is May 12, 2024.
This particular day is also referred to traditionally as Exaudi Sunday, so called because of the traditional Introit, taken from Psalm 17:1. The two first words in Latin are ‘Exaudi Domine’ — ‘Hear, Lord’.
Because it follows Ascension Day, when Jesus physically leaves His disciples, I have read that it is a sad Sunday in the Church year. The faithful recall the forlorn disciples, among them the Apostles, who saw Christ’s ascent into Heaven and then awaited the arrival of the Holy Spirit.
Readings and exegeses for Ascension Day, which this year was on Thursday, May 9, are as follows:
Readings for Ascension Day (same regardless of Lectionary year)
Readings for Exaudi Sunday, Year B, can be found here.
The exegesis for the First Reading, Acts 1:15-17, 21-26, is here; the disciples cast lots for a replacement for Judas. Matthias was chosen over Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus.
We do not know much about St Matthias. Some historians say he preached in Ethiopia and died there. Others say he died of old age in Jerusalem. Another group of scholars believe he was martyred in Jerusalem: stoned then beheaded.
Whatever the case, Matthias remains a popular name in France and Germany.
St Matthias is venerated in Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and Lutheran churches, each of which has a different feast day for him.
The Gospel reading is as follows (emphases mine):
John 17:6-19
17:6 “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
17:7 Now they know that everything you have given me is from you;
17:8 for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.
17:9 I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours.
17:10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them.
17:11 And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.
17:12 While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled.
17:13 But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves.
17:14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.
17:15 I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one.
17:16 They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.
17:17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
17:18 As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.
17:19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.
Commentary comes from Matthew Henry and John MacArthur.
John 17 is comprised of the prayers that Jesus prayed after the Last Supper while He awaited His arrest. John’s is the only Gospel with such a detailed account, not only of these prayers, but in the accounts of our Lord’s final discourse from John 13 through John 16.
Many commentators, including both Henry and MacArthur, call this chapter ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ because only Jesus as the Great High Priest was able to pray it. What we consider The Lord’s Prayer — ‘Our Father, which art in heaven’ — is the prayer Jesus gave to us.
Henry describes the intercessory prayers in John 17 for us:
This chapter is a prayer, it is the Lord’s prayer, the Lord Christ’s prayer. There was one Lord’s prayer which he taught us to pray, and did not pray himself, for he needed not to pray for the forgiveness of sin; but this was properly and peculiarly his, and suited him only as a Mediator, and is a sample of his intercession, and yet is of use to us both for instruction and encouragement in prayer. Observe, I. The circumstances of the prayer, ver 1. II. The prayer itself. 1. He prays for himself, ver 1-5. 2. He prays for those that are his. And in this see, (1.) The general pleas with which he introduces his petitions for them, ver 6-10. (2.) The particular petitions he puts up for them [1.] That they might be kept, ver 11-16. [2.] That they might be sanctified, ver 17-19. [3.] That they might be united, ver 11 and 20-23. [4.] That they might be glorified, ver 24-26.
… Sursum corda was anciently used as a call to prayer, Up with your hearts, up to heaven; thither we must direct our desires in prayer, and thence we must expect to receive the good things we pray for.
The exegesis for verses 20 through 26, in which Jesus prays for all believers, can be found here; these are read on the Seventh Sunday of Easter, Exaudi Sunday, in Year C.
MacArthur says:
From beginning to end, this chapter is the Lord’s Prayer; He prayed it. It is pure prayer, and it is for us, it is for us. It is the Lord Jesus praying for us, praying for His people. And because it is for us, it is an incomprehensible privilege to have this prayer written down in Scripture. The eleven disciples heard Him pray these words. But in the purposes of God, they were written down so all believers through all time could also hear. This is a firsthand opportunity to hear what’s on the Lord’s heart for His people. This prayer was prayed deep into Friday morning in the darkness as the disciples walked toward the garden of Gethsemane where our Lord would pray, and be tempted, and overcome that temptation, and then be arrested by a crowd led by Judas; and later on that Friday, He would be crucified.
These are the last hours before the cross, and this is when He prays that prayer. He has said everything He wanted to say to the disciples in the upper room earlier on Thursday night when they were celebrating Passover and when He was instituting the Lord’s Table, and then He said even more things as they left the upper room and walked through Jerusalem and beyond Jerusalem, headed toward the garden of Gethsemane. He’s now through speaking, and what He’s been saying – recorded in 13, 14, 15, and 16 of John – is promises; promise, after promise, after promise, after promise: promises of peace, promises of joy, promises of blessing, promises of persecution, promises of death, promise of all promises – the Holy Spirit would come, and the Holy Spirit would fulfill in them all the promises that our Lord gave.
The legacy of Jesus is given to His disciples and to us in chapters 13 through 16. And now in chapter 17, He prays that God the Father will fulfill all these promises, and fulfill them in an ultimate way by bringing His own to heaven. These are the Lord’s final words to the eleven before His death, and what we have here is a preview of His new heavenly ministry which is about to begin.
In today’s verses, Jesus prays for His disciples, particularly the eleven remaining Apostles, Judas having left already. We will see a reference to him in verse 12.
Jesus prayed to His Father that He had made His Father’s name known to those whom He was given from the world; Jesus acknowledges that they were His Father’s people, that God gave those people to Him and that they have kept His word (verse 6).
Henry explains:
Whom he did pray for; not for angels, but for the children of men. 1. He prays for those that were given him, meaning primarily the disciples that had attended him in this regeneration; but it is doubtless to be extended further, to all who come under the same character, who receive and believe the words of Christ …
1. The charge he had received concerning them: Thine they were, and thou gavest them me (v. 6) …
Now,
(1.) This is meant primarily of the disciples that then were, who were given to Christ as his pupils to be educated by him while he was on earth, and his agents to be employed for him when he went to heaven. They were given him to be the learners of his doctrine, the witnesses of his life and miracles, and the monuments of his grace and favour, in order to their being the publishers of his gospel and the planters of his church. When they left all to follow him, this was the secret spring of that strange resolution: they were given to him, else they had not given themselves to him. Note, The apostleship and ministry, which are Christ’s gift to the church, were first the Father’s gift to Jesus Christ. As under the law the Levites were given to Aaron (Num 3 9), to him (the great high priest of our profession) the Father gave the apostles first, and ministers in every age, to keep his charge, and the charge of the whole congregation, and to do the service of the tabernacle. See Eph 4 8, 11; Ps 68 18. Christ received this gift for men, that he might give it to men. As this puts a great honour upon the ministry of the gospel, and magnifies that office, which is so much vilified; so it lays a mighty obligation upon the ministers of the gospel to devote themselves entirely to Christ’s service, as being given to him,
(2.) But it is designed to extend to all the elect, for they are elsewhere said to be given to Christ (ch. 6 37, 39), and he often laid a stress upon this, that those he was to save were given to him as his charge; to his care they were committed, from his hand they were expected, and concerning them he received commandments. He here shows,
[1.] That the Father had authority to give them: Thine they were. He did not give that which was none of his own, but covenanted that he had a good title. The elect, whom the Father gave to Christ, were his own in three ways:—First, they were creatures, and their lives and beings were derived from him. When they were given to Christ to be vessels of honour, they were in his hand, as clay in the hand of the potter, to be disposed of as God’s wisdom saw most for God’s glory. Secondly, They were criminals, and their lives and beings were forfeited to him. It was a remnant of fallen mankind that was given to Christ to be redeemed, that might have been made sacrifices to justice when they were pitched upon to be the monuments of mercy; might justly have been delivered to the tormentors when they were delivered to the Saviour. Thirdly, They were chosen, and their lives and beings were designed, for him; they were set apart for God, and were consigned to Christ as his agent. This he insists upon again (v. 7): All things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee, which, though it may take in all that appertained to his office as Mediator, yet seems especially to be meant of those that were given him. “They are of thee, their being is of thee as the God of nature, their well-being is of thee as the God of grace; they are all of thee, and therefore, Father, I bring them all to thee, that they may be all for thee.”
[2.] That he did accordingly give them to the Son. Thou gavest them to me, as sheep to the shepherd, to be kept; as patients to the physician, to be cured; children to a tutor, to be educated; thus he will deliver up his charge (Heb 2 13), The children thou hast given me. They were delivered to Christ, First, That the election of grace might not be frustrated, that not one, no not of the little ones, might perish. That great concern must be lodged in some one good hand, able to give sufficient security, that the purpose of God according to election might stand. Secondly, That the undertaking of Christ might not be fruitless; they were given to him as his seed, in whom he should see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied (Isa 53 10, 11), and might not spend his strength, and shed his blood, for nought, and in vain, Isa 49 4. We may plead, as Christ does, “Lord, keep my graces, keep my comforts, for thine they were, and thou gavest them to me.“
2. The care he had taken of them to teach them (v. 6): I have manifested thy name to them ... Observe here,
(1.) The great design of Christ’s doctrine, which was to manifest God’s name, to declare him (ch. 1 18), to instruct the ignorant, and rectify the mistakes of a dark and foolish world concerning God, that he might be better loved and worshipped.
(2.) His faithful discharge of this undertaking: I have done it. His fidelity appears, [1.] In the truth of the doctrine. It agreed exactly with the instructions he received from his Father. He gave not only the things, but the very words, that were given him. Ministers, in wording their message, must have an eye to the words which the Holy Ghost teaches. [2.] In the tendency of his doctrine, which was to manifest God’s name. He did not seek himself, but, in all he did and said, aimed to magnify his Father. Note, First, It is Christ’s prerogative to manifest God’s name to the souls of the children of men. No man knows the Father, but he to whom the Son will reveal him, Matt 11 27. He only has acquaintance with the Father, and so is able to open the truth; and he only has access to the spirits of men, and so is able to open the understanding. Ministers may publish the name of the Lord (as Moses, Deut 32 3), but Christ only can manifest that name. By the word of Christ God is revealed to us; by the Spirit of Christ God is revealed in us. Ministers may speak the words of God to us, but Christ can give us his words, can put them in us, as food, as treasure. Secondly, Sooner or later, Christ will manifest God’s name to all that were given him, and will give them his word, to be the seed of their new birth, the support of their spiritual life, and the earnest of their everlasting bliss.
3. The good effect of the care he had taken of them, and the pains he had taken with them, (v. 6): They have kept thy word, (v. 7) they have known that all things are of thee (v. 8); they have received thy words, and embraced them, have given their assent and consent to them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and have believed that thou didst send me. Observe here,
(1.) What success the doctrine of Christ had among those that were given to him, in several particulars:—
[1.] “They have received the words which I gave them, as the ground receives the seed, and the earth drinks in the rain.” They attended to the words of Christ, apprehended in some measure the meaning of them, and were affected with them: they received the impression of them. The word was to them an ingrafted word.
[2.] “They have kept thy word, have continued in it; they have conformed to it.” Christ’s commandment is then only kept when it is obeyed. Those that have to teach others the commands of Christ ought to be themselves observant of them. It was requisite that these should keep what was committed to them, for it was to be transmitted by them to every place for every age.
[3.] “They have understood the word, and have been sensible on what ground they went in receiving and keeping it. They have been aware that thou art the original author of that holy religion which I am come to institute, that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.” All Christ’s offices and powers, all the gifts of the Spirit, all his graces and comforts, which God gave without measure to him, were all from God, contrived by his wisdom, appointed by his will, and designed by his grace, for his own glory in man’s salvation. Note, It is a great satisfaction to us, in our reliance upon Christ, that he, and all he is and has, all he said and did, all he is doing and will do, are of God, 1 Cor 1 30. We may therefore venture our souls upon Christ’s mediation, for it has a good bottom. If the righteousness be of God’s appointing, we shall be justified; if the grace be of his dispensing, we shall be sanctified.
MacArthur adds that it is interceding for us that marks Jesus Christ out from any other priest, since they all die. Yet, Jesus lives and reigns at the right hand of God the Father and intercedes for us always, throughout history, thereby making him the great High Priest:
Now, I want to say something that you may at first not understand. We look at His cross work, the work on the cross, and we elevate that, and rightly we should. We look at the resurrection and we exalt Him for His resurrection, and rightly we should. But He has a more glorious work. It is the work of intercession that is the truest and fullest expression of the atonement …
Yes, Christ died to pay our debt of sin; but even more importantly, He lives to bring us to glory. He lives to make intercession. Hebrews 7:25, “He ever lives to make intercession for His people.”
The apostle Paul understood that intercession was more than atonement. Look at Romans, chapter 5. Romans, chapter 5 – familiar words – verse 8, “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Then notice the next phrase: “Much more then.” Wait a minute. How can anything be more than that? How can anything be much more than that? But he says, “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be being saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be being saved by His life.”
What is much more than His death? His life. His death provides the sacrifice for sin, but He ever lives to make intercession for us to bring us to glory. That’s the much more. That’s the much more. He goes on interceding for us.
Jesus continued, saying that the disciples know that everything that He has been given comes from His Father (verse 7).
Jesus said that the words God the Father gave Him He gave to them; they received those words and know, in truth, that He came from the Father, and they believed that God sent Him (verse 8) to the world.
MacArthur tells us what this means:
That essentially is what ministry is about. That is our Lord giving us a model of ministry. He came so that they would know the truth, so that they would receive the truth, so that they would understand the truth and believe the truth. This is a model of how ministry should be. They believed.
They believed that Jesus worked by the power of God. They believed that Jesus had come from God. They said, “We know You’re the Holy One of God.”
They believed that everything He did was according to the will of God, everything He said was the Word of God. They believed that His miracles were done by the power of God, and they were full of the compassion of God. They believed that everything He ever taught had divine authority because it was from God. They believed that Jesus was holy, that every day He ministered to sinners and yet never sinned. They believed that He had regular constant communion with God the Father, and that everything He did expressed the will of the Father. They believed that He was the divine Son of the Father, and they heard the Father give that testimony at the transfiguration and at the baptism.
They knew that everything He possessed was from God. His nature was from God, His words were from God, His works were from God. They received, therefore, all His words as true; and they understood, therefore, His divine origin that He came from the Father; and they believed in His divine mission up to now. They believed that He had been sent by the Father, that He came from heaven, that He is the eternal Son of God. They believed that.
Jesus then made a specific intercession, asking on His disciples’ behalf and not on behalf of the world but only for those whom God gave Him because they are God’s (verse 9).
Here we have the Doctrine of Election, or predestination. Not everyone is destined to be saved. That said, we do not know who is to be saved, therefore, we must go and preach the Gospel in whatever way we are called to do.
Jesus said that all of His people are God’s people and all of God’s people are His people, and He — Jesus — has been glorified in them (verse 10).
Henry elaborates:
All mine are thine, and thine are mine. Between the Father and Son there can be no dispute (as there is among the children of men) about meum and tuum—mine and thine, for the matter was settled from eternity; all mine are thine, and thine are mine. Here is,
(1.) The plea particularly urged for his disciples: They are thine. The consigning of the elect to Christ was so far from making them less the Father’s that it was in order to making them the more so. Note, [1.] All that receive Christ’s word, and believe in him, are taken into covenant-relation to the Father, and are looked upon as his; Christ presents them to him, and they, through Christ, present themselves to him. Christ has redeemed us, not to himself only, but to God, by his blood, Rev 5 9, 10. They are first-fruits unto God, Rev 14 4. [2.] This is a good plea in prayer, Christ here pleads it, They are thine; we may plead it for ourselves, I am thine, save me; and for others (as Moses, Exod 32 11), “They are thy people. They are thine; wilt thou not provide for thine own? Wilt thou not secure them, that they may not be run down by the devil and the world? Wilt thou not secure thy interest in them, that they may not depart from thee? They are thine, own them as thine.”
(2.) The foundation on which this plea is grounded: All mine are thine, and thine are mine. This bespeaks the Father and Son to be, [1.] One in essence. Every creature must say to God, All mine are thine; but none can say to him, All thine are mine, but he that is the same in substance with him and equal in power and glory. [2.] One in interest; no separate or divided interests between them. First, What the Father has as Creator is delivered over to the Son, to be used and disposed of in subserviency to his great undertaking. All things are delivered to him (Matt 11 27); the grant is so general that nothing is excepted but he that did put all things under him. Secondly, What the Son has as Redeemer is designed for the Father, and his kingdom shall shortly be delivered up to him. All the benefits of redemption, purchased by the Son, are intended for the Father’s praise, and in his glory all the lines of his undertaking centre: All mine are thine. The Son owns none for his that are not devoted to the service of the Father; nor will any thing be accepted as a piece of service to the Christian religion which clashes with the dictates and laws of natural religion. In a limited sense, every true believer may say, All thine are mine; if God be ours in covenant, all he is and has is so far ours that it shall be engaged for our good; and in an unlimited sense every true believer does say, Lord, all mine are thine; all laid at his feet, to be serviceable to him. And what we have may be comfortably committed to God’s care and blessing when it is cheerfully submitted to his government and disposal: “Lord, take care of what I have, for it is all thine.“
5. He pleads his own concern in them: I am glorified in them—dedoxasmai. (1.) I have been glorified in them. What little honour Christ had in this world was among his disciples; he had been glorified by their attendance on him and obedience to him, their preaching and working miracles in his name; and therefore I pray for them. Note, Those shall have an interest in Christ’s intercession in and by whom he is glorified. (2.) “I am to be glorified in them when I am gone to heaven; they are to bear up my name.” The apostles preached and wrought miracles in Christ’s name; the Spirit in them glorified Christ (ch. 16 14): “I am glorified in them, and therefore,” [1.] “I concern myself for them.” What little interest Christ has in this degenerate world lies in his church; and therefore it and all its affairs lie near his heart, within the veil. [2.] “Therefore I commit them to the Father, who has engaged to glorify the Son, and, upon this account, will have a gracious eye to those in whom he is glorified.” That in which God and Christ are glorified may, with humble confidence, be committed to God’s special care.
Jesus then prayed about His future: the Crucifixion, the Resurrection and the Ascension.
He asked that, as He was no longer in the world but on His way to the Father, yet His disciples would continue to be in the world, that God protect them in His name, so that they may be one just as He and the Father are one (verse 11).
There we have the Doctrine of the Trinity, even if the Holy Spirit is not mentioned in that verse.
MacArthur says:
The Father loves the Son infinitely and eternally; and because we are in the Son, He loves us infinitely and eternally. We are as accepted as the Son is accepted: “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” And we are in Him, loved as He is loved. That is our justification, that is our sanctification, and that is our glorification. How amazing is it to be loved by God as He loves His own Holy Son.
And let me stop and just say something about Christianity that you need to understand. You might not think that the Trinity is an important doctrine, but it is absolutely foundational to everything that is true about God. John says in 1 John, “God is love.” If God was only a solitary, singular person, that could not be a part of His eternal nature, because there would be no one to love.
… the triune God is eternal love, and has loved eternally within the Trinity.
If Jesus was a created being, God would love us like He loved Jesus, another created being. But Jesus is not a created being. He is the eternal Son, the eternal second member of the Trinity. God loves us like He loves His Son. This is a love beyond anything that any creature will ever experience.
With that infinite, holy, perfect love, He loves His Son, and He loves us in His Son. This is salvation fullness. This is life. This is blessing. This is glory. So when Christ goes into the heavenly Holy of Holies and comes before the Father, as He does continually, we are there in the throne room with Him. We are there in Him.
Henry discusses the world and our Lord’s prayer that His disciples be preserved in it as they go about His work:
Now the first thing Christ prays for, for his disciples, is their preservation, in these verses, in order to which he commits them all to his Father’s custody. Keeping supposes danger, and their danger arose from the world, the world wherein they were, the evil of this he begs they might be kept from. Now observe,
I. The request itself: Keep them from the world. There were two ways of their being delivered from the world:—
1. By taking them out of it; and he does not pray that they might be so delivered: I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world; that is,
(1.) “I pray not that they may be speedily removed by death.” If the world will be vexatious to them, the readiest way to secure them would be to hasten them out of it to a better world, that will give them better treatment. Send chariots and horses of fire for them, to fetch them to heaven; Job, Elijah, Jonah, Moses, when that occurred which fretted them, prayed that they might be taken out of the world; but Christ would not pray so for his disciples, for two reasons:—[1.] Because he came to conquer, not to countenance, those intemperate heats and passions which make men impatient of life, and importunate for death. It is his will that we should take up our cross, and not outrun it. [2.] Because he had work for them to do in the world; the world, though sick of them (Acts 22 22), and therefore not worthy of them (Heb 11 38), yet could ill spare them. In pity therefore to this dark world, Christ would not have these lights removed out of it, but continued in it, especially for the sake of those in the world that were to believe in him through their word. Let not them be taken out of the world when their Master is; they must each in his own order die a martyr, but not till they have finished their testimony. Note, First, The taking of good people out of the world is a thing by no means to be desired, but rather dreaded and laid to heart, Isa 57 1. Secondly, Though Christ loves his disciples, he does not presently send for them to heaven, as soon as they are effectually called, but leaves them for some time in this world, that they may do good and glorify God upon earth, and be ripened for heaven. Many good people are spared to live, because they can ill be spared to die.
(2.) “I pray not that they may be totally freed and exempted from the troubles of this world, and taken out of the toil and terror of it into some place of ease and safety, there to live undisturbed; this is not the preservation I desire for them.” Non ut omni molestia liberati otium et delicias colant, sed ut inter media pericula salvi tamen maneant Dei auxilio—Not that, being freed from all trouble, they may bask in luxurious ease, but that by the help of God they may be preserved in a scene of danger; so Calvin. Not that they may be kept from all conflict with the world, but that they may not be overcome by it; not that, as Jeremiah wished, they might leave their people, and go from them (Jer 9 2), but that, like Ezekiel, their faces may be strong against the faces of wicked men, Ezek 3 8. It is more the honour of a Christian soldier by faith to overcome the world than by a monastical vow to retreat from it; and more for the honour of Christ to serve him in a city than to serve him in a cell.
2. Another way is by keeping them from the corruption that is in the world; and he prays they may be thus kept, v. 11, 15. Here are three branches of this petition:—
(1.) Holy Father, keep those whom thou hast given me.
[1.] Christ was now leaving them; but let them not think that their defence was departed from them; no, he does here, in their hearing, commit them to the custody of his Father and their Father. Note, It is the unspeakable comfort of all believers that Christ himself has committed them to the care of God. Those cannot but be safe whom the almighty God keeps, and he cannot but keep those whom the Son of his love commits to him, in the virtue of which we may by faith commit the keeping of our souls to God, 1 Pet 4 19; 2 Tim 1 12. First, He here puts them under the divine protection, that they may not be run down by the malice of their enemies; that they and all their concerns may be the particular care of the divine Providence: “Keep their lives, till they have done their work; keep their comforts, and let them not be broken in upon by the hardships they meet with; keep up their interest in the world, and let it not sink.” To this prayer is owing the wonderful preservation of the gospel ministry and gospel church in the world unto this day; if God had not graciously kept both, and kept up both, they had been extinguished and lost long ago. Secondly, He puts them under the divine tuition, that they may not themselves run away from their duty, nor be led aside by the treachery of their own hearts: “Keep them in their integrity, keep them disciples, keep them close to their duty.” We need God’s power not only to put us into a state of grace, but to keep us in it. See, ch. 10 28, 29; 1 Pet 1 5.
[2.] The titles he gives to him he prays to, and them he prays for, enforce the petition. First, He speaks to God as a holy Father. In committing ourselves and others to the divine care, we may take encouragement, 1. From the attribute of his holiness, for this is engaged for the preservation of his holy ones; he hath sworn by his holiness, Ps 89 35. If he be a holy God and hate sin, he will make those holy that are his, and keep them from sin, which they also hate and dread as the greatest evil. 2. From this relation of a Father, wherein he stands to us through Christ. If he be a Father, he will take care of his own children, will teach them and keep them; who else should? Secondly, He speaks of them as those whom the Father had given him. What we receive as our Father’s gifts, we may comfortably remit to our Father’s care. “Father, keep the graces and comforts thou hast given me; the children thou hast given me; the ministry I have received.“
(2.) Keep them through thine own name. That is, [1.] Keep them for thy name’s sake; so some. “Thy name and honour are concerned in their preservation as well as mine, for both will suffer by it if they either revolt or sink.” The Old Testament saints often pleaded, for thy name’s sake; and those may with comfort plead it that are indeed more concerned for the honour of God’s name than for any interest of their own. [2.] Keep them in thy name; so others; the original is so, en to onomati. “Keep them in the knowledge and fear of thy name; keep them in the profession and service of thy name, whatever it cost them. Keep them in the interest of thy name, and let them ever be faithful to this; keep them in thy truths, in thine ordinances, in the way of thy commandments.” [3.] Keep them by or through thy name; so others. “Keep them by thine own power, in thine own hand; keep them thyself, undertake for them, let them be thine own immediate care. Keep them by those means of preservation which thou hast thyself appointed, and by which thou hast made thyself known. Keep them by thy word and ordinances; let thy name be their strong tower, thy tabernacle their pavilion.”
(3.) Keep them from the evil, or out of the evil. He had taught them to pray daily, Deliver us from evil, and this would encourage them to pray. [1.] “Keep them from the evil one, the devil and all his instruments; that wicked one and all his children. Keep them from Satan as a tempter, that either he may not have leave to sift them, or that their faith may not fail. Keep them from him as a destroyer, that he may not drive them to despair.” [2.] “Keep them from the evil thing, that is sin; from every thing that looks like it, or leads to it. Keep them, that they do no evil,” 2 Cor 13 7. Sin is that evil which, above any other, we should dread and deprecate. [3.] “Keep them from the evil of the world, and of their tribulation in it, so that it may have no sting in it, no malignity;” not that they might be kept from affliction, but kept through it, that the property of their afflictions might be so altered as that there might be no evil in them, nothing to them any harm.
Jesus said that He had protected those whom God had given Him, guarding them (as would the Good Shepherd), and not one of them was lost except for the one destined to be lost — Judas — so that Scripture might be fulfilled (verse 12).
MacArthur explains, also referring to verse 11, with our Lord’s plea for the Apostles’ preservation:
Back in the 10th chapter of John and verse 27, there’s a reminder of this in some of the most familiar words of our Lord: “My sheep – ” My sheep, My sheep “ – hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” “They’re Mine and they’re Yours. You owned them; they were Yours; You gave them to Me. I have held them. Now, Father, You hold them; You guard them; You keep them. You and I are one. While I was with them – ” He says “ – on earth, I was keeping them. The ones that belonged to You, and now to Me, I was keeping them.” Keep means “to watch over protectively.” We’re going to see an illustration of that in chapter 18 that may be the most remarkable illustration of that promise or that purpose of Christ in the whole of the gospels.
When in chapter 18, they come to arrest Jesus, they want also to arrest the disciples. The Lord never lets that happen; He protects them from that, because theoretically, it could have destroyed their faith. But He will never let anything that could do that happen. We’ll see that in chapter 18.
He is about to suffer. He is about to come under the weight and burden of sin, and take His hands away from His disciples; and the Father needs to guard them for those hours. And then when He comes back to heaven, the Father needs to continue to guard them, which He promises to do through the Holy Spirit, whom He gives to every believer.
“I guarded them,” He says in verse 12. That’s phulass, it means “to protect from outside threats.” It’s used in Luke 11 of a strong man guarding a house. It’s used in Acts 28 of soldiers guarding Paul. “I guarded them; I kept them. I now need You, Father, to take over and guard them. And by the way, while I was guarding them – ” He said “ – none of them perished.”
Now, if the sentenced ended there, we’d have a problem: “None of them perished.” We’d all be saying, “Wait, wait a minute. There’s only eleven here. There’s Judas. What about Judas? What about Judas? Isn’t Judas proof that a disciple, a visible associate of Jesus, a preacher for God, can be lost? Isn’t Judas the prototype of a believer who is saved and then loses salvation because he turns and rejects the Lord he once confessed?”
If our Lord didn’t say anything here about Judas, we would have a serious dilemma. So to make sure that never happens, He injects into this otherwise magnificent and beautiful prayer, this one ugly, dark, black note in the whole prayer; it’s the only one. “I guarded them, and not one of them perished.”
Not one of what? Not one of whom? “None of the ones You have given Me perished. None of them. None of the ones who were Your and now are Mine perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.” Judas was never a son of God, he was always a son of perdition.
Son means “nature.” Perdition is the word for “destruction, waste, ruin.” He was a son of ruin. It’s used in Matthew 7:13, “The broad road leads to destruction.” He is a son of destruction, not a son of God. He is an outsider.
Back in the 6th chapter of John at the end of the chapter, Jesus us with the disciples, and Peter says, “‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.’ Jesus answered them, ‘Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?’ He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, for he was one of the twelve that who was going to betray Him.”
There was a devil there from the beginning, a son of perdition, never a son of God. You say, “Well, isn’t this a terrible blight on the plan?” No. This was the plan so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.
Back in chapter 13 on that very same evening in the upper room, Jesus said, “I do not speak of all of you – ” 13:18 “ – I know the ones I have chosen. I know the ones I have chosen. I know the ones – ” in 17 “ – the Father has given Me; but it is that the Scripture may be fulfilled – ” Psalm 41:9 “‘ – He who eats My bread has lifted up his heel against Me.’ From now on I’m telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am, that am God, because I know about Him what you don’t know, and I know what he will do. He is a son of perdition, he is a devil.”
That same night in the upper room, Satan entered into Judas. Judas was nonetheless treated with love by the Lord that same night. Chapter 13, Judas was treated as the honored guest, given the first piece of bread to dip in the sop, as they called it, the meal. Judas is guilty on his own. The fact that Scripture prophesied he would do this is not a determinism, he did what he chose to do.
Listen to Matthew 26:24, “‘The Son of Man is to go, just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if had not been born.’ And Judas, who was betraying Him said, ‘Surely it is not I, Rabbi?’ Jesus said to him, ‘You have said it yourself.’” So our Lord says, “I’ve guarded them. None of them has been lost, none of them have perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.”
Part 2, covering verses 13 through 19, continues tomorrow.
The Sixth Sunday of Easter is May 5, 2024.
Readings for Year B can be found here.
The Gospel is as follows (emphases mine):
John 15:9-17
15:9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.
15:10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.
15:11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
15:12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
15:13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
15:14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.
15:15 I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.
15:16 You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.
15:17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.
Commentary comes from Matthew Henry and John MacArthur (as indicated below).
Today’s reading continues last week’s, John 15:1-8, in which Jesus spoke of Himself as the vine, His Father as the vinegrower and us as the branches.
He warned that those who do not abide in Him are like withered or dead wood on the vine; they are good for nothing but burning.
This was to explain to the eleven remaining Apostles that Judas had betrayed Him, which came as a surprise to them because they thought that Judas was one of them. However, he was not.
Jesus said (John 15:5):
15:5 I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.
It is worthwhile discussing this more before examining today’s verses. John MacArthur preached five sermons on today’s verses but they also clarify what went before.
MacArthur addresses fruitfulness in the Christian life, which is an obligation to our Lord:
Yes, we all bear the fruits of righteousness, but we don’t all have much fruit, and we all need to have more fruit.
We say, “How do you do that?” Well, it’s not a matter of human effort. It’s about abiding in Christ. Now, let me make a simple point out of this. The more you focus on Christ, the more fruitful you become. The more you focus on yourself, the less fruitful you become. Lose yourself in the glory of Christ. That’s 2 Corinthians 3:18. As you gaze at His glory, you move from one level of glory to the next to the next to the next by the Holy Spirit, until you literally become like Him.
In his next sermon, MacArthur says that the way we focus on Christ is by abiding in Him the way He abides in us:
Abide: I know that is kind of an old word and it sort of has spiritual overtones. It’s simply the Greek verb men, don’t walk away from Christ. Stay; remain. Don’t leave. Don’t defect. Don’t become an apostate. This is His word to the 11 remaining disciples: “Continue to believe. Continue to be faithful.”
This is a call to anyone and everyone who is attached to Christianity and could be in danger of departing. If it happens, 1 John 2:19 says, “They went out from us because were not of us.” Don’t do that; don’t defect.
Hebrews 10 says, “The severest punishment in hell will belong to those who were close to Christ and turned their back on Him because they trampled underfoot the blood of the covenant and counted it an unholy thing.” If you’re in any sense like Judas, connected to Christianity, don’t walk away. Many had done that. Chapter 6, there was a wholesale exodus of people who were called disciples who walked no more with Him. Judas is no solitary figure, even in the gospel of John, but he is the archetypal defector.
… He gives promises to those who stay. What is the value of abiding? Why should I stay? Well, the passage starting in verse 4 and going down to verse 11 lists a series of promises to those who remain, who stay, and they’re basic.
… This is kind of Christianity 101. The first benefit … is salvation, salvation, eternal life. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have – ” what? “ – eternal life” …
What is salvation? It is having the life of God in you, the eternal life of God. The eternal life of God is not separate from God, and so salvation is stated in that 4th verse in these words: “Abide in Me, and I in you, and I in you.” Or, in verse 5, the abiding branch: “I in him.” “I in you.”
… the Trinity lives in a believer. The Trinity takes up residence in a believer.
… So when somebody asks you, “What does it mean to be a Christian?” you tell them it means that “the triune God of the universe – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – has taken up residence in me.”
… Bottom line: only as you abide in Him and He abides in you can you bear much fruit, much fruit.
This fruit then, according to verse 8, becomes the proof that you’re a disciple. That’s what verse 8 says: “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” So that is the only way we know that we are disciples of Christ that are genuine, that we are branches connected to the vine. Our Lord said on another occasion, “By their fruit, you will know them. A good tree doesn’t produce bad fruit; a bad tree doesn’t produce good fruit. Good tree, good fruit.”
MacArthur then describes the characteristics of good Christian fruit:
First of all, fruit is genuine repentance, based on Matthew 3:8. Fruit is genuine repentance – a genuine, honest, penitence concerning sin. Sorrow over sin, not sorrow over the consequences of sin. There is that kind of sorrow. But sorrow over the reality of sin. A true and real sorrow over sin – the sorrow of repentance. That, of course, is a very foundational fruit. If the Lord is at work in you, if you are connected to Christ, if His life is flowing through you, there will be an honest repentance.
Now, we are told to bear fruit in this section, to bear more fruit, and that God is glorified when we bear much fruit. There is a progression here that is very important for us to understand …
… As we abide in Christ, and as we yield to Christ, and as we increase in the knowledge of Christ, our fruitfulness increases. By every means of grace, by every means of grace, our abiding is deeper and wider and higher and richer, and we become more fruitful …
Secondly, spiritual attitudes. Another kind of fruit – first repentance – another kind of fruit: spiritual attitudes. Galatians 5:22, “The fruit of the Spirit is – the fruit of the Spirit who dwells in us is – ” this is the product, this is the manifestation of the life of the Trinity in us, “ – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”
Those are attitudes, are they not? Those are attitudes. Those aren’t acts, those aren’t behaviors, they’re what’s behind behaviors. So here, clearly, fruit is virtuous, spiritual attitudes. And, by the way, all of them, all of them were perfectly manifest in Jesus Christ. So we could say it is fruit in us to manifest the very characteristics of Christ – not in the perfection with which He possessed them, but those same virtues we pursue.
In Ephesians 5:9 it says, “Fruit is all goodness and righteousness and truth.” That’s internal: a love for goodness – being good to people; a love for righteousness – honoring God. A love for truth as revealed in Scripture …
Thirdly, another kind of fruit – and I’m just taking you to scriptures that demonstrate this – a third and very important aspect of fruit: go to the 13th chapter of Hebrews for just a moment; Hebrews, chapter 13, verse 15. Here is instruction that, “Through Him – ” that is through Christ. Without Him we can do nothing, right? Again, it’s, “Through Him.” He is mentioned in verse 12 as “the one who sanctified His people through His own blood.” “Through Him – ” who lives in us, the true vine from which we draw our life. “Through Him then, let us – ” once in awhile, every Sunday? “ – continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.”
That’s worship …
You can’t worship until you’ve been redeemed. You can’t worship until you’ve repented and been saved …
“So let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.” See that little phrase “give thanks”? That’s probably not the best translation of the Greek. The Greek is the word homologe. Logeó is a Greek verb meaning “to speak” or “to say,” from which we get logos. Homo, H-O-M-O in English means “the same,” the same. Homogeneous, the same.
So what it’s saying is this: “Offer God a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that save the same, to His name.” What does that mean? What do we do in worship? We give back to God the very same things that He has reveals to us about Himself. This is what worship is. It is saying back to God everything that He has revealed to us as being true about Himself. All of that is in Scripture.
… True praise then is saying back to God all His attributes as revealed in Scripture. You go through the Scripture from beginning to the end; the attributes of God are scattered all across the pages of Holy Scripture. The more you know the Bible, the more you know about the nature and character and essential being of God. The more you know who He is and what His attributes are, the more you can say back to Him, “God, you are the Creator, You are the Sustainer, You are the Redeemer. You are all-wise, all-knowing, all-sufficient, all-powerful. You are unchanging. You are gracious, loving, kind. You are just, holy, pure” …
The second thing is to say back to God not only what He has revealed about His nature, but what He’s revealed about His works. So when you go through the psalms, you read things like, “You are the God who did this. You are the God who brought Your people out of Egypt. You are the God who parted the Red Sea. You are the God who led Israel through the wilderness. You are the God who brought us into the Promised Land. You are the God who protected us at the Passover,” et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
You come into the New Testament: “You are the God who has redeemed us through the offering of Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, whom You put on the cross and then raised from the dead.” In other words, that is the sum and substance of praise. It is to say back to God with a grateful, thankful heart, all that God has revealed He is and all that He’s revealed He has done; that’s praise. So your praise then is essentially confined by the divine revelation. The more you know about the Word of God, the more you know about God and what He’s done. And the more you know about what He is and what He’s done, the purer your praise is. That’s fruit. That’s the fruit of your lips – worship …
Let me give you another component, a fourth – Philippians, chapter 4 – and this just kind of digs down a little deep in a more specific way. In Philippians, chapter 4, the apostle Paul was obviously in need, very difficult times for him, and dear friends sent him gifts. They sent him supplies, food; and he was extremely grateful. In fact, in verse 16 of Philippians 4, he reminds them that when he was in Thessalonica, they sent a gift more than once for his need. They were very, very generous and loving toward him …
He saw that gift, that expression of love, as spiritual fruit produced through them by the indwelling God. It is the similar significance of chapter 15 of Romans: “Macedonia and Achaia – ” 15:26 “ – have been pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem.” These Gentile churches were sending money to Jerusalem for poor believers. They were pleased to do so. They’re indebted to them; for if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual things, they’re indebted to minister to them also in material things.
In other words, the gospel came through the Jews and came first to them, and then through them; and so the Gentiles are sending a gift. Verse 28: “Therefore, when I have finished this, and have put my seal on this fruit of theirs, I’ll go on my way to Spain.” He saw the Gentiles sending money to poor Jews in Jerusalem as spiritual fruit. So we could add something else to the list: spiritual fruit is contributions to those in need, contributions in those in need …
Then we give you a fifth element of fruit: 1 Corinthians 14, 1 Corinthians 14. Yeah, you know what’s going on in 1 Corinthians 14 – some of you do – chaos in the Corinthian church with tongues and all kinds of chaos, as everybody was doing whatever they wanted in the services. Paganism had encroached in the worship, and so Paul wants to call a halt to all this nonsense, all this meaningless talk. So he says in verse 14, “If I pray in a language, another language, my spirit prays, my mind is unfruitful. If I’m praying in a language I don’t know, my mind is not engaged” …
So you want to be fruitful, say things that edify. That’s another kind of fruit – communication that edifies, communication that blesses, communication that instructs. It may be in a prayer, it may be in a teaching environment, it may be in a conversation, it may be in a counseling or discipling setting.
Now, another one [sixth] … pure conduct, pure behavior.
… Philippians 1:11, “Being filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ.” Or, Colossians 1:9-10. It says essentially the same thing, “so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respect, bearing fruit in every good work, bearing fruit in every good work.”
One final one [seventh]: bringing people to Christ – that’s fruit, that’s fruit – bringing people to Christ …
The apostle Paul wanted to go to Rome, in Chapter 1 of Romans, for one purpose – Romans 1:13, “that I may obtain some fruit among you, even as among the rest of the Gentiles. And I’m under obligation to the Gentiles, barbarians, wise, foolish. For my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you who also are at Rome because I’m not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, the Jew first, and also the Gentile” …
That is, I think the most wonderful fruit because it’s the end product of everything else. If you live a life that resents and resists sin, if you live a life that pursues holiness, if you live a life of worship, if you live a life with the right kind of spiritual attitudes, if you live a life that does good to others, shows love to them and manifests general righteousness, your life will have a powerful testimony. And when you say the triune God lives in you, there will be something to support that claim. That makes the gospel attractive, and the Lord will use you to lead others to salvation …
“If these qualities are yours – ” 2 Peter 1:8 “ – and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you lacked these things, you’re blind, short-sighted, forgotten your purification from your former sins. So be diligent, brethren, all the more, to make certain about His calling and choosing you. And as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; but you will know that an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.”
In his next sermon, MacArthur discusses answered prayer (John 15:7):
15:7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
MacArthur says:
There are two qualifiers here. Qualifier Number One: “If you abide in Me,” if you are a true believer, if you are a true branch, if you have a permanent union with Jesus Christ in which His life is coming through you …
… second condition, verse 7 “ – and My words abide in you, and My words abide in you” …
Why does He say that? Because to be a believer, you have access to God. To be a believer, you have the promise your prayers will be answered. But also to know that your prayer is going to be answered, you have to know something about God. You have to pray within the framework of God’s revelation.
So Jesus says that second condition is that – to borrow Paul’s language in Colossians 3, “that the word of Christ dwells in you richly.” You understand from Scripture who God is, what He desires.
… You’re asking in the framework of the name of Christ, the name of God, the purposes of God …
So, I remind you that this is an incredible, incredible promise from the Lord that whatever you ask consistent with His person, purpose, and plan, He will do. Your prayer should demonstrate, 2 Corinthians 10:5 that “every thought has been taken captive to the obedience of Christ.” You pray within the framework of divine purpose.
You might even say this: “Father, this I ask because this could be what You desire for Your glory, this could be what You desire for Your kingdom, this could be what You desire to exalt Your Son, this could be what You desire to show the power of Your Holy Spirit.” That’s the principle, always with a view to the divine name, the divine plan, the divine purpose, the divine person. This is what James calls “the prayer of a righteous man.”
MacArthur then gives us a concrete example of assurance, promised in John 15:8:
15:8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.
MacArthur says:
The hardworking vinedresser finds His glory in the fruitful vine.
I remember meeting a gentleman, a nearly 90-year-old gentleman who grows grapes up in the Central Valley and he wanted to show me his operation – one of the largest grape growers in California – and I thought he would take me to an office and show me whatever. I got up there, got in a pickup truck, bounced along through some ruts and ended up ankle-deep in dirt, walking down one row, after another, after another, while he reached in and pulled out the grapes. He showed me the fruit of his labor by showing me the grapes, and he explained to me every kind of grape. He found that if I wanted to know about him, I didn’t need to see his pickup truck and I didn’t need to see his office, I needed to see his fruit; and then I needed to eat it, which was an incredibly wonderful experience.
This is what the Father does. The Father is glorified when He goes down the rows of His children and when He sees the fruit. God’s glory is in the display of His own fruitfulness through us. God is gloried when we bear fruit. It’s like Matthew 5:16, “Let your light so shine before men.” It’s a different metaphor, same idea. “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and – ” do what? “ – glorify your Father who’s in heaven.” That glory goes to God.
It’s a simple as this: for a believer, for a true believer, you are not the explanation for your life, you’re not it. People may poke around to try to figure out why you are the way you are. There isn’t a human answer. There isn’t a human answer. There’s no human explanation for me being who I am. I am not the explanation of my life. God in me is the explanation of my life …
Now, the benefit of this, incredible benefit, just an incredible benefit – back to that same verse, verse 8, “and so prove to be My disciples.” The benefit is I know I’m a believer. How do I know I’m a believer? How do I know that? Because I can’t explain my life. I can’t explain my love. I can’t explain my peace, my joy, my knowledge, my wisdom, my understanding, my usefulness. I can’t explain me humanly – can’t. I can’t. Something is going on in me that has no explanation on a human level. So I look at my life and I have assurance that I’m a true branch because I see all this fruit ...
Go to 2 Peter 1. Peter talks about virtue here. First of all in verse 4, 2 Peter 1:4, he says, “We have become partakers of the divine nature, escaping the corruption in the world by lust.” So we’ve been transformed. We’re out of the corrupt, into the incorruptible. We have become partakers of the divine nature. That’s God in us, the eternal life in us. And as a result of that, as a result of that, we have been delivered from the corruption in the world by lust …
What do we do? We cultivate that in us. And the result? If that happens, “if these qualities – ” look at verse 8 “ – are yours and are increasing – ” more fruit, much fruit, “ – they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” You look at your life, and you go out and you do ministry, and you’re diligent in testing your faith, and stepping out on faith, and being morally pure and excellent and having sound knowledge, and exercising self-control, and persevering in the truth, and obedience and godliness and brotherly kindness and love. If you pursue those things, you will be neither useless nor unfruitful; and so you will look at your life and you’ll say, “Look at my life: look at the usefulness, look at the fruitfulness.”
With that, we move on to today’s verses, where Jesus talks about abiding in Him and obedience to Him through the commandment to love one another.
He said that, as the Father loved Him, so I have loved you — in reality, beyond all human comprehension — therefore, abide in that love (verse 9).
Jesus then said that we abide in His love when we obey His commandments, just as He Himself obeyed His Father’s commandments and abides in His love (verse 10).
Matthew Henry explains:
Christ, who is love itself, is here discoursing concerning love, a fourfold love.
I. Concerning the Father’s love to him; and concerning this he here tells us, 1. That the Father did love him (v. 9): As the Father hath loved me. He loved him as Mediator: This is my beloved Son. He was the Son of his love. He loved him, and gave all things into his hand; and yet so loved the world as to deliver him up for us all. When Christ was entering upon his sufferings he comforted himself with this, that his Father loved him. Those whom God loves as a Father may despise the hatred of all the world. 2. That he abode in his Father’s love, v. 10. He continually loved his Father, and was beloved of him. Even when he was made sin and a curse for us, and it pleased the Lord to bruise him, yet he abode in his Father’s love. See Ps 89 33. Because he continued to love his Father, he went cheerfully through his sufferings, and therefore his Father continued to love him. 3. That therefore he abode in his Father’s love because he kept his Father’s law: I have kept my Father’s commandments, as Mediator, and so abide in his love. Hereby he showed that he continued to love his Father, that he went on, and went through, with his undertaking, and therefore the Father continued to love him. His soul delighted in him, because he did not fail, nor was discouraged, Isa 42 1-4. We having broken the law of creation, and thereby thrown ourselves out of the love of God; Christ satisfied for us by obeying the law of redemption, and so he abode in his love, and restored us to it.
II. Concerning his own love to his disciples. Though he leaves them, he loves them. And observe here,
1. The pattern of this love: As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. A strange expression of the condescending grace of Christ! As the Father loved him, who was most worthy, he loved them, who were most unworthy. The Father loved him as his Son, and he loves them as his children. The Father gave all things into his hand; so, with himself, he freely giveth us all things. The Father loved him as Mediator, as head of the church, and the great trustee of divine grace and favour, which he had not for himself only, but for the benefit of those for whom he was entrusted; and, says he, “I have been a faithful trustee. As the Father has committed his love to me, so I transmit it to you.” Therefore the Father was well pleased with him, that he might be well pleased with us in him; and loved him, that in him, as beloved, he might make us accepted, Eph 1 6.
MacArthur says:
His love is poured out on us, and that the deluge basically is connected to our obedience. The more you obey, the more you are lavished with divine love. And who is the example of obedience? Verse 10: “Just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.” Jesus perfectly obeyed the Father, and the Father poured out perfect divine love on Him. The more like Christ we are, the more of God’s love we experience. The more we follow the obedience of Christ, the more lavish the love of God becomes on us.
Jesus said that He told the Apostles these things so that His joy would be in them and that their joy would be made complete (verse 11).
MacArthur tells us about the blessing of joy:
“These things – ” meaning everything He’s just said in the previous ten verses. “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be made full. If there’s any love in me, it’s Christ’s love. If there’s any peace in me it’s His peace. If there’s any joy in me, it’s His joy, because I’m a partaker of the divine nature. “I’m saying all these things to you so that you may have My joy and that your joy may be made full.” That’s good news for the eleven.
… This is living, as the Scripture says, “with joy unspeakable, joy unspeakable – joy that can’t even be articulated.” He says in chapter 16, verse 22, “You have grief now – ” to them he says, “ – but I’ll see you again and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.”
All these things are permanent: a permanent salvation, a permanent sanctification, permanent access to the throne of God for all that is necessary, permanent assurance, permanent love, permanent joy. John picked up on that when he wrote his first epistle, chapter 1, verse 4, he said, “These things I write that your joy may be full.”
Jesus then gave the remaining Apostles — and us — His commandment: to love one another as He has loved us (verse 12).
MacArthur says that this love comes from holy example:
The Father loves the Son, the Son loves the Father. The Father and the Son love us. We are to love them and love each other. Love defines this relationship.
Jesus went on to define this holy love, which is a demanding love, one which He showed us on the Cross: ‘No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends’ (verse 13).
Today, the only time this is really demonstrated is in the military. It is no wonder that infantrymen refer to themselves as a ‘band of brothers’. Furthermore, they obey their superiors’ commands. Christian love operates on that same type of obedience.
MacArthur gives us a real life example:
This is an extreme friendship. It is an extreme friendship. You say, “By what definition?” By the definition of verse 13 – look at that: “Greater love has no one than this, than one lay down his life for his friend.” That’s extreme. You say, “I’m your friend? Okay, let’s see how far you go with that. You’re going to die for me? You’re going to push me off the tracks and let the train run over you? It’s that kind of friendship?”
I’m reading an interesting book. Part of it’s about a man that I’ve known through the years who was a Green Beret in Vietnam, and I wanted to read more of his story; and in reading this book, one of the main characters in the book, it takes us back to the Vietnam War, and the horrors and the slaughters that were going on there. There’s a story of a man named Benavidez who would, by all accounts seemed a very insignificant individual, but whose heroism was just absolutely beyond comprehension.
On one occasion when his friends who were part of his unit were trapped in the jungle, trapped by a massive force of Vietcong, and when all rescue attempts had been forwarded and helicopters had crashed and men were dying all over the place, he asked to jump onboard with a final effort to go in. And didn’t have a weapon – nothing but a little dagger. And this kind of non-descript little guy from Texas only grabbed one thing. And he heard that his friends – some of them – there were 12 of them to start with: 5 were dead, 7 were left, and they were all wounded. And he had heard that they were wounded because a radio report came out. And he grabbed the nearest thing, which was a medical pack. They couldn’t put him down because they were afraid to lower the helicopter down to the gunfire. So he said, “That’s okay.” And the side of the helicopter with the open door, he threw out the bag and then he jumped out all alone without a weapon, and went searching for his buddies to deliver medical aid to them in the middle of an unbelievable firefight.
The rest of the story you’ll have to read for yourself. The heroism is epic obviously. We get that, we honor that, we respect that, and we know that’s what our Lord’s saying. This is axiomatic, right? “Greater love as no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” We get that. That’s not a spiritual truth, that’s just reality, right? That’s axiomatic; that’s a self-evident truth. That’s the most you can do for somebody is give your life. I mean we get excited when we hear about somebody who wants to give up a vital organ to save the life of somebody else; we get that sacrifice. We read about these kinds of things throughout history.
I’m sorry to say we read about them seemingly less and less in the world in which we live, but we get that. That’s an extreme form of friendship. So it’s one thing for you to say you’re my friend, you know, “I’m your friend, but don’t ask me to, you know, change my schedule really.” Okay, there’s a kind of friendship; I’ll buy that, I can accept that, you know. Send me a Christmas card, that’s okay. It doesn’t go beyond that.
But we’re talking extreme terminology here. This is an extreme slavery where we do everything that our commander tells us to do; we do it joyfully. This is an extreme kind of friendship where we literally are willing to give our lives. Look, that’s what Jesus said, right, “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his – ” what? “ – his cross.” That’s an execution. It might be that.
Paul said, “Look, in my life, I die daily. Every day could be my last day getting the gospel to people. My life is always on the line.” So the Lord says this is an extreme relationship that we have with Him. It is an extreme kind of slavery where we obey everything, and extreme kind of friendship where we give up our lives. And He’s our model – go back to verse 10: “If you keep My commandments, you’ll abide in My love just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.” He’s the model of perfect obedience. He did everything the Father willed Him to do. He’s the perfect model of obedience.
He’s also the perfect model of sacrifice. Go down to verse 13: “Greater love had no one than this, than one lay down his life for his friends.” And that is exactly what He does. That’s exactly what He does. He gives His life for us. He is our model. He didn’t give His life only as an example, He gave His life as an atonement; but it was an example.
Jesus then said that the Apostles — and we — are His friends if we do as He commands us to do (verse 14).
Both our commentators refer here to what was known in ancient times as ‘the king’s friend’, a trusted servant. In the Roman world, this person would have been a very high-ranking slave.
Henry tells us:
“If you approve yourselves by your obedience my disciples indeed, you are my friends, and shall be treated as friends.” Note, The followers of Christ are the friends of Christ, and he is graciously pleased to call and account them so. Those that do the duty of his servants are admitted and advanced to the dignity of his friends. David had one servant in his court, and Solomon one in his, that was in a particular manner the king’s friend (2 Sam 15 37; 1 Kings 4 5); but this honour have all Christ’s servants. We may in some particular instance befriend a stranger; but we espouse all the interests of a friend, and concern ourselves in all his cares: thus Christ takes believers to be his friends. He visits them and converses with them as his friends, bears with them and makes the best of them, is afflicted in their afflictions, and takes pleasure in their prosperity; he pleads for them in heaven and takes care of all their interests there … he is a friend that loves at all times.
MacArthur tells us about ancient Rome:
Well, at the court of Roman emperors … there were some slaves who had risen very high, and they had become friends of the king, friends of the emperor, friends of Caesar. Everybody understood that.
Look, kings need slaves. There were slaves who had access to the king because they were so trusted, because they were so faithful. They had so much fidelity; they were so dutiful. They were so concerned to do what they were told to do, they had risen through the social ranks until they were trusted enough to be made the intimate friends of the king. We read about these slaves that they had the right to enter the king’s bed chamber so that they were the last ones to see him at night and the first ones to see him in the morning. They cared for his most intimate needs at a very personal level. They were so well-acquainted with him that they literally were trusted with his life, with his life. They had become protectors of his life. They would know his fears because they were intimately acquainted with him in all informal situations. They would know his thoughts. They would know his hopes, his joys, his ambitions.
Very likely, they would know his plans. They would know far more about this king than anybody who met him on a formal level. Any statesman, any politician, any noble, or any general wouldn’t know what these intimate friends of the king knew. These slaves who took his sandals off and put on his bedclothes, and were there in the morning to bring him out of bed, to help him prepare for the day. They knew more than his wives knew, because marriage was a convenience, and concubines were only for sexual pleasure, and children were not necessarily given the attention of their important fathers anyway.
One could say that these were the intimate people in the life of a monarch. They were the closest, most personal, private people in his world; and they had to be trusted. They had to be trusted with his life. They had to be trusted with his thoughts. They had to be trusted with his plans. They had to be trusted with his goals and objectives. And if you were a friend to the king, if you were a slave who was a friend, you were of all men most specially favored; and you can understand why.
By the way, the word “friend” in the Greek is philos. It’s from the Greek verb phile which means “to love, to love, to have affection for.” Jesus says, “You are My friends – slaves who are loved. You are slaves who know Me most intimately.”
Jesus then referred to servanthood.
MacArthur says that there is evidence that the original Bible manuscripts used the word ‘slave’ rather than ‘servant’:
Now, when we talk about slaves who are friends, we’re entering into a concept that is alien to even the evangelical world. It was back in 2010 that I wrote a book, and the title of the book was Slave. Some of you’ve seen that book; maybe some of you have looked at it – Slave. I had a hard time getting the publisher to accept the title. I had an even harder time getting them to accept the fact that I was going to expose a cover-up, a long-standing cover-up – a cover-up of centuries, trying to cover up the fact that Christians are slaves. I wrote the book to expose the cover-up, the effort that had gone on for centuries to hide this essential reality that we as Christians are slaves of Christ – slaves who are very intimate friends of the King …
The true reality of Christ’s lordship has been all but obscured and eclipsed through the centuries by the translators of the New Testament, and even the Old, who have tampered with the word “slave.” It really is an amazing cover-up – amazing, amazing. But let’s start with “Jesus is Lord.” That is the Christian confession. It is the word kurios, kurios. That’s the word “lord.” It means “one who has power, ownership, and absolute authority; one who has power, ownership, and absolute authority.” That’s a lord. It’s used 750 times in the New Testament, and its meaning is not in question.
There is a synonym to kurios. The synonym is despots, despots, which means “absolute ruler,” from which you get the English word “despot.” We use it as an adjective. Somebody’s a despotic ruler, we mean they are a unilateral dictator. That’s what despotés means. Jesus, in the little book of Jude, is called “Master and Lord – ” verse 4 “ – despotés and kurios.”
When the New Testament refers to Jesus, it primarily refers to Him as Kurios, Lord. For example, our Lord is referred to 94 times in the book of Acts; 92 of the 94, He is called Lord; 2 He is called Str, Savior. The lordship of Christ is clearly declared throughout the entire New Testament. He is kurios, sovereign ruler. He is despotés, absolute ruler. So when you say, “Jesus is Lord,” you’re not identifying Him merely as deity – although He is that. You’re not identifying Him in some sort of abstract way as the most important religious figure. When you say “Lord,” that’s slave talk, that’s slave talk. You are saying, “He is the Master with absolute power and absolute dominion.” That word would be used to describe a slave owner: “He is Lord” …
… verse 24 of Luke 9, “Whoever wishes to save his life will – ” what? “ – lose it.” You let go of all of it. You’re not in charge anymore. You’re not in control; that is most basic. Lord, despotés – master, lord, ruler. Very bold, very strong words. A master and a sovereign with absolute dominion; that is slave talk.
And by the way, wherever there was a kurios, there were slaves. Wherever there was a despotés, a master, there were slaves. If you were lord, then you were lord because you had slaves. And if you were a slave, you were a slave because you had a lord, or a master. One axiomatically implies the other.
No one is lord over nobody, and no one is a slave of no one. If Jesus is Lord and you call Him Lord, then He has a right to ask you the question of Luke 6:46, “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord,’ and do not what I say?” because Lord means absolute monarch. So Point Number 1: Jesus is Lord, Kurios – 750 times again that is used in the New Testament. It is inescapable what it means. It means He’s in charge. That’s Point 1.
Point 2: Christians are slaves. Christians are slaves. We are slaves to our Lord. Again, I remind you, the Bible doesn’t condone slavery. It doesn’t establish slavery. It doesn’t condemn slavery. It recognizes that it is and has been a social construct, and it assaults every unrighteous abuse of every kind of relationship, including that one. But the recognition, however, that that may be, for some people, the best of all possible relationships because you are bought and owned, and cared for, and protected, and provided for, and rewarded, and loved. There’s a security in that that doesn’t exist outside of that. But in the case of the spiritual reality, Jesus is Lord Kurios.
We are slaves, doulos. Have you heard that, doulos? What does doulos mean? Slave. It’s all it means. Please, that’s all it means. Doulos means slave. It appears 130 times in the New Testament; 130 times the word “slave” appears in the New Testament.
Now, I know you’re going to run to your New Testament, you’re going to look for all 130. I want to warn you, you won’t find them. You will not find them. You can get your concordance out and you’re not going to find them. Why? Because almost all of those are translated by a different word. They are translated “servant” or “bondservant.” Why? The word means “slave.” That’s all it means; that’s all it’s ever meant.
A slave is someone who is bought and owned. A slave was somebody who had no personal rights, no legal standing, couldn’t go to court, couldn’t own property – no freedom, no autonomy. That’s very different than being a servant. A servant is someone who does something – serves. A slave is someone who is something.
There are six words in the Greek language for servant, and they describe all kinds of functions that people do. A non-slave could serve; a slave could serve. Service doesn’t talk about the reality of your situation, it only talks about your function. But when you use doulos, if they wanted to translate servant in the New Testament in English Bibles or any other, they could translate servant six different ways because how the word is used kind of described its character.
One word for servant is diaknos which means “a table waiter.” Another word for servant is huprets which means an under rower, somebody who pulled oars in a ship. It could be used metaphorically for people who served. But doulos does not describe any function, it describes a relationship …
A slave is somebody who is dependent, obligated, subject to an alien will other than his own. It is not the word “servant.” Doesn’t describe a function. But sad to say, I don’t care what version you have – even up to the ESV, NAS, whatever – starting way back with the Geneva Bible, way back with the Geneva Bible, way back in the Middle Ages, there was a certain stigma about slavery. So translators sort of moved away from slave to servant; had less stigma.
One very interesting article in a theological journal back in 1966 says this: “By the end of the 13th century, slavery disappeared from northwestern Europe. Slavery, therefore, was known to the 17th century Englishmen, at least at the beginning of that century, not as an intimate accepted institution, but rather as a remote phenomenon. Slavery in their minds evoked the extreme case of a captive in fetters or chains, so they doubtless wanted to avoid the implication of cruelty inherent in that imagery. But in so doing, they have unwittingly diminished the force of the actual biblical term.”
So they decided to play fast and loose with a word that means slave, and you will find doulos translated slave as we found it in John 15 because here, it is referring to an actual slave as an illustration. Whenever it refers to an actual slave, or an illustration of a slave, or an inanimate kind of slavery – like slavery to sin or slavery to God, Romans 6 – they’ll translate it “slave.”
Whenever it refers to a believer, there’s an equivocation on that and it ends up being usually some form of servant. Sometimes, some have translated it bond-slave, but it’s all arbitrary. So what has happened is you read through your New Testament and you get the idea that we are servants of God, we are servants of the Lord, we are servants of the Lord – that’s how we think.
Truth is, we are what? Slaves, slaves. I did my very best with a long, drawn out plea with the translators of the ESV, the newest translation, to please translate doulos “slave,” plain and simple.
To show you how embedded this idea is in the Old Testament, which is Hebrew, there’s a Hebrew word ebed. It is a word for slave. It appears 800 times in the Old Testament, 800 times. In the King James Version, once translated slave. There’s just this running away from the reality of the idea of slavery. But slavery is what God wanted to communicate through those words because it describes our relationship to Christ.
I’m not free under Christ, am I? My freedoms are defined by Him. My duties are defined by Him. My convictions are defined by Him. My words are defined by Him. My actions are defined by Him. My relationships are defined by Him. Everything in my life is defined by Him. I have yielded up – when I said, “Jesus is Lord,” I have yielded up unqualified submission to the control and commands of the Lord.
Jesus said that He did not call the Apostles servants any longer because the servant does not know what the master is doing; therefore, He has called them friends, because He had made known to them everything that He had heard from His Father (verse 15).
Henry explains the verse, using the word ‘servant’, which, as MacArthur says, is in the KJV:
Christ loved his disciples, for he was very free in communicating his mind to them (v. 15): “Henceforth you shall not be kept so much in the dark as you have been, like servants that are only told their present work; but, when the Spirit is poured out, you shall know your Master’s designs as friends. All things that I have heard of my Father I have declared unto you.” As to the secret will of God, there are many things which we must be content not to know; but, as to the revealed will of God, Jesus Christ has faithfully handed to us what he received of the Father, ch. 1 18; Matt 11 27. The great things relating to man’s redemption Christ declared to his disciples, that they might declare them to others; they were the men of his counsel, Matt 13 11.
Then Jesus mentioned the Doctrine of Election, saying that the Apostles — and we — did not choose Him but that He chose them and us; furthermore, He appointed the faithful to go and bear fruit, lasting fruit, so that the Father will give them whatever they ask in His name (verse 16).
That statement recalls the aforementioned John 15:7.
Addressing the election of the faithful, MacArthur refers to the master and slave relationship involved:
… if you are a slave and a friend, and you have the privilege of this extreme slavery and extreme friendship, let me tell you something: you didn’t choose this. It’s against everything in your nature – everything, against everything. It’s not a voluntary organization, and that is why in verse 16 you read so unambiguously, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you.”
Now anybody who doesn’t understand that is not trying. That’s not obscure. And it’s very extensive. “What do you mean, chose me for what?” “Chose you to be slave and friend. Chose to disclose everything I heard from My Father so that you would be an intimate friend and there would be no secrets.” In other words, salvation. “I chose you,” that’s the Greek verb ekleg, from which we get the word “elect.” It’s the doctrine of election. “I chose you to be My slaves who are friends, and I made known to you all the truth.” That is salvation. But it doesn’t end there.
Then He says this: “And appointed you that you would go.” This is not just salvation, this is a commission, this is a commission. “I appointed you that you would go.” It’s the Greek verb tithmi, to set, to establish, to fix, to ordain. Very strong. In other words, when you were chosen to be a slave who is an intimate friend, when you were chosen to this extreme slavery, extreme friendship, it was with a view to fulfilling a commission; and it is a commission to go.
This is like a preview of the Great Commission, isn’t it? It’s a preview of the Great Commission: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” “I appointed you that you that you would go.” And then also, to make sure that you would have everything you need – end of verse 16: “Whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He may give it to you. So I have chosen you for salvation, I have chosen you for a commission, I have chosen you for a provision; and with that salvation and that commission and that provision, your life will have an eternal impact.”
Henry elaborates on asking the Father for something in His Son’s holy name:
Probably this refers in the first place to the power of working miracles which the apostles were clothed with, which was to be drawn out by prayer. “Whatever gifts are necessary to the furtherance of your labours, whatever help from heaven you have occasion for at any time, it is but ask and have.” Three things are here hinted to us for our encouragement in prayer, and very encouraging they are. First, That we have a God to go to who is a Father; Christ here calls him the Father, both mine and yours; and the Spirit in the word and in the heart teaches us to cry, Abba, Father. Secondly, That we come in a good name. Whatever errand we come upon to the throne of grace according to God’s will, we may with a humble boldness mention Christ’s name in it, and plead that we are related to him, and he is concerned for us. Thirdly, That an answer of peace is promised us. What you come for shall be given you. This great promise made to that great duty keeps up a comfortable and gainful intercourse between heaven and earth.
Jesus concluded by saying that He was giving those commands so that the Apostles — and we — may love one another (verse 17).
Henry refers us back to verse 12 to emphasise the importance of this commandment:
We must keep his commandments, and this is his commandment, that we love one another, v. 12, and again, v. 17. No one duty of religion is more frequently inculcated, nor more pathetically urged upon us, by our Lord Jesus, than that of mutual love, and for good reason. 1. It is here recommended by Christ’s pattern (v. 12): as I have loved you. Christ’s love to us should direct and engage our love to each other; in this manner, and from this motive, we should love one another, as, and because, Christ has loved us. He here specifies some of the expressions of his love to them; he called them friends, communicated his mind to them, was ready to give them what they asked. Go you and do likewise. 2. It is required by his precept. He interposes his authority, has made it one of the statute-laws of his kingdom. Observe how differently it is expressed in these two verses, and both very emphatic. (1.) This is my commandment (v. 12), as if this were the most necessary of all the commandments. As under the law the prohibition of idolatry was the commandment more insisted on than any other, foreseeing the people’s addictedness to that sin, so Christ, foreseeing the addictedness of the Christian church to uncharitableness, has laid most stress upon this precept. (2.) These things I command you, v. 17. He speaks as if he were about to give them many things in charge, and yet names this only, that you love one another; not only because this includes many duties, but because it will have a good influence upon all.
This reading has given us much to ponder in the days ahead.
Incidentally, Eastertide is soon coming to an end. Ascension Day is this coming Thursday, and Pentecost follows ten days later.
The Fifth Sunday of Easter is April 28, 2024.
Readings for Year B can be found here.
The Gospel is as follows (emphases mine):
John 15:1-8
15:1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower.
15:2 He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.
15:3 You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you.
15:4 Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.
15:5 I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.
15:6 Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.
15:7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
15:8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.
Commentary comes from Matthew Henry and John MacArthur.
John MacArthur begins by emphasising the supremacy of Holy Scripture:
The Bible is the authority, the only authority, the only book that God wrote. It contains 66 books – 39 books in the Old Testament, which is the revelation of God before Christ; 27 books in the New Testament, the revelation of God since the coming of Christ, together makes up the 66 books of the Bible.
In the Bible, God speaks. It is His Word. When we come together, we don’t come together to hear men speak, we come to hear God speak. The responsibility then of the pastor and the preacher is to take the message from God and bring it to the people. I’ve always seen myself, not as a chef, but as a waiter. My responsibility is not to create the meal, but try to get it to the table without messing it up. And that is the responsibility which I try to discharge, as we all do whenever we open Scripture.
So as we come to the 15th chapter of John, like anywhere else in the Bible, we are listening to God. The writer is the apostle John. But the writer is also God, the Holy Spirit who inspired every word that John wrote. Because of this, the Bible is without error, it is accurate, and it is authoritative. When the Bible speaks, God speaks. And when God speaks, we listen, because God says to us what we must know.
The Bible should dominate every life and all of human society, for in it is contained all necessary truth for life in time and eternity. And when a nation or a person rejects the Bible, they have rejected God, and the consequences are dire, dire. Those who listen to God through His Word are given life and blessing, now and forever.
As I have said before, John’s Gospel is my favourite book of the New Testament. Hebrews is a close second because, even though it was written for a Jewish audience, it explains the essential tenets of Christianity. In the words of Reformed church members, it will enable you to ‘know what you believe and why you believe it’.
John’s Gospel has the most complete account of the Last Supper and our Lord’s final discourse to the Apostles. It starts in John 13 and finishes with our Lord’s prayers for the Twelve and for His people in John 17. Those are chapters one can read over and over again poring over every word.
Matthew Henry gives us a synopsis of John 15:
It is generally agreed that Christ’s discourse in this and the next chapter was at the close of the last supper, the night in which he was betrayed, and it is a continued discourse, not interrupted as that in the foregoing chapter was; and what he chooses to discourse of is very pertinent to the present sad occasion of a farewell sermon. Now that he was about to leave them, I. They would be tempted to leave him, and return to Moses again; and therefore he tells them how necessary it was that they should by faith adhere to him and abide in him. II. They would be tempted to grow strange one to another; and therefore he presses it upon them to love one another, and to keep up that communion when he was gone which had hitherto been their comfort. III. They would be tempted to shrink from their apostleship when they met with hardships; and therefore he prepared them to bear the shock of the world’s ill will. There are four words to which his discourse in this chapter may be reduced; 1. Fruit, ver 1-8. 2. Love, ver 9-17. 3. Hatred, ver 18-25. 4. The Comforter, ver 26, 27.
MacArthur tells us more:
And so we come to the 15th chapter of John. Just to set the stage a little bit, starting in chapter 13 and running through chapter 16, we find ourselves on Thursday night of Passion Week, the last week of our Lord’s ministry. Thursday night was an important night. He gathered with the 12 disciples to celebrate the Passover on that Thursday night when the Galilean Jews would celebrate it.
They met together in a kind of secret place that we call upper room, and our Lord spent that night telling them many wonderful things, giving them many, many promises. As that night moved on, our Lord exposed Judas as the traitor, and dismissed him. And Judas left to go meet the leaders of Israel to arrange for the arrest and subsequent crucifixion of the Lord Jesus. By the time we come to chapter 15, Judas is gone, and only the 11 are left, and they are true disciples.
But as we come to chapter 15, they’re no longer in the upper room. It is deep into the dark of night. But chapter 14 ends with Jesus saying this: “Get up; let us go from here.” Apparently at that time, they left the upper room, Jesus and the 11, and they began their walk through Jerusalem, headed out the east side of the city to a garden where our Lord would pray in prayer so agonizing that He sweat as it were great drops of blood. And while He was praying, they would fall asleep. And into that garden later would come Judas, and the Roman soldiers, and the Jewish leaders to arrest Him. And there, Judas would kiss him; the betrayal would take place; and the next day, He would be crucified.
As they leave the upper room and walk through the darkness of Jerusalem, our Lord continues to speak to them, and what He says to them is recorded in chapters 15 and 16. Of all these things that He says, nothing is more definitive than the first eight verses of chapter 15. Our Lord here gives not really a parable – although I guess in the broadest sense could be considered a parable because it is an illustration. It’s really a word picture, a metaphor, a simile.
Remember Henry’s words about Christ’s desire to see the Twelve continuing to believe in Him and not turn to the Judaism of the day.
Therefore, Jesus said that He is the vine and that God is the vinegrower (verse 1).
Henry offers a brilliant analysis of this well known verse:
The doctrine of this similitude; what notion we ought to have of it.
1. That Jesus Christ is the vine, the true vine. It is an instance of the humility of Christ that he is pleased to speak of himself under low and humble comparisons. He that is the Sun of righteousness, and the bright and morning Star, compares himself to a vine. The church, which is Christ mystical, is a vine (Ps 80 8), so is Christ, who is the church seminal. Christ and his church are thus set forth. (1.) He is the vine, planted in the vineyard, and not a spontaneous product; planted in the earth, for his is the Word made flesh. The vine has an unsightly unpromising outside; and Christ had no form nor comeliness, Isa 53 2. The vine is a spreading plant, and Christ will be known as salvation to the ends of the earth. The fruit of the vine honours God and cheers man (Judg 9 13), so does the fruit of Christ’s mediation; it is better than gold, Prov 8 19. (2.) He is the true vine, as truth is opposed to pretence and counterfeit; he is really a fruitful plant, a plant of renown. He is not like that wild vine which deceived those who gathered of it (2 Kings 4 39), but a true vine. Unfruitful trees are said to lie (Hab 3 17. marg.), but Christ is a vine that will not deceive. Whatever excellency there is in any creature, serviceable to man, it is but a shadow of that grace which is in Christ for his people’s good. He is that true vine typified by Judah’s vine, which enriched him with the blood of the grape (Gen 49 11), by Joseph’s vine, the branches of which ran over the wall (Gen 49 22), by Israel’s vine, under which he dwelt safely, 1 Kings 4 25.
2. That believers are branches of this vine, which supposes that Christ is the root of the vine. The root is unseen, and our life is hid with Christ; the root bears the tree (Rom 11 18), diffuses sap to it, and is all in all to its flourishing and fruitfulness; and in Christ are all supports and supplies. The branches of the vine are many, some on one side of the house or wall, others on the other side; yet, meeting in the root, are all but one vine; thus all good Christians, though in place and opinion distant from each other, yet meet in Christ, the centre of their unity. Believers, like the branches of the vine, are weak, and insufficient to stand of themselves, but as they are borne up. See Ezek 15 2.
MacArthur points out the importance of the words ‘I am’, which God used to define Himself:
The divine nature of the Lord Jesus Christ is here declared in verse 1: “I am the true vine,” He says. And in verse 5 again: “I am the vine.” How is this a claim to deity? Because of the verb “I am.”
Back in Exodus, chapter 3, when Moses came before God in the wilderness and asked His name, God said, “My name is I Am That I Am.” The tetragrammaton: the eternally existent one; the one of everlasting being; the always is, and always was, and always will be one. Theologians call it the aseity of God, the eternal being of God. He is the I Am.
Throughout His preaching, teaching, healing, discipling ministry, Jesus continually declared that He is God, He is God. He said things like, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.”
John’s Gospel, the theme of which is Christ’s deity, has several examples of this, some of which follow:
In a context of discussion about the Sabbath, He reminds them that, “The Sabbath doesn’t apply to God because God is at work all the time; and the Sabbath doesn’t really apply to Me either because I, like God, am at work all the time.” They were infuriated that He would make such a claim. That was in chapter 5 of John’s gospel.
Later in chapter 8 Jesus said, “If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing. It is My Father who glorifies Me of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ And therefore if God, who is your God, glorifies Me as God, you ought to also glorify Me.” And again they were offended at such perceived blasphemy.
In chapter 10, He even said it more concisely: “I and the Father are one, one in nature and essence.” In that same chapter, chapter 10 and verse 38, He said, “Though you do not believe Me, believe the works that you may know that the Father is in Me and I in the Father.”
All through His life and ministry, He claimed that He is God. Every time Jesus said, “My Father,” which He said many, many times – every time He said, “My Father,” He was underscoring that He had the same nature as God. And His Jewish audience did not miss the claim. They were not at all confused.
In fact, in chapter 5, verse 18, this is what we read: “For this cause, therefore, the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but was also calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.” They understood that that is exactly what He was doing, exactly. And one of the ways that He did that was by taking to Himself the name of God “I Am” and applying it to Himself.
There’s a series of those claims throughout the gospel of John. He says, “I am the Bread of Life. I am the Living Bread that came down from heaven. I am the Light of the World. I am the Door, I am the Shepherd, the Good Shepherd. I am the Resurrection and the Life. I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” And then He makes the stunning, inescapable claim, chapter 8, verse 58, “Before Abraham was born, I am eternally existing.”
Jesus told the Apostles that God the Father removes every branch from Him that bears no fruit; every branch that bears fruit, He prunes so that it bears more fruit (verse 2).
Gardeners will understand that reference immediately. We prune dead wood from plants so that the healthy parts grow more abundantly. Some people prune their first rosebuds so that their rose bushes produce even more buds that will flower a short time later.
Henry says:
That the Father is the husbandman, georgos—the land-worker. Though the earth is the Lord’s, it yields him no fruit unless he work it. God has not only a propriety in, but a care of, the vine and all the branches. He hath planted, and watered, and gives the increase; for we are God’s husbandry, 1 Cor 3 9. See Isa 5 1, 2; 27 2, 3. He had an eye upon Christ, the root, and upheld him, and made him to flourish out of a dry ground. He has an eye upon all the branches, and prunes them, and watches over them, that nothing hurt them. Never was any husbandman so wise, so watchful, about his vineyard, as God is about his church, which therefore must needs prosper.
II. The duty taught us by this similitude, which is to bring forth fruit, and, in order to this, to abide in Christ.
1. We must be fruitful. From a vine we look for grapes (Isa 5 2), and from a Christian we look for Christianity; this is the fruit, a Christian temper and disposition, a Christian life and conversation, Christian devotions and Christian designs. We must honour God, and do good, and exemplify the purity and power of the religion we profess; and this is bearing fruit. The disciples here must be fruitful, as Christians, in all the fruits of righteousness, and as apostles, in diffusing the savour of the knowledge of Christ. To persuade them to this, he urges,
(1.) The doom of the unfruitful (v. 2): They are taken away. [1.] It is here intimated that there are many who pass for branches in Christ who yet do not bear fruit. Were they really united to Christ by faith, they would bear fruit; but being only tied to him by the thread of an outward profession, though they seem to be branches, they will soon be seen to be dry ones. Unfruitful professors are unfaithful professors; professors, and no more. It might be read, Every branch that beareth not fruit in me, and it comes much to one; for those that do not bear fruit in Christ, and in his Spirit and grace, are as if they bore no fruit at all, Hos 10 1. [2.] It is here threatened that they shall be taken away, in justice to them and in kindness to the rest of the branches. From him that has not real union with Christ, and fruit produced thereby, shall be taken away even that which he seemed to have, Luke 8 18. Some think this refers primarily to Judas.
(2.) The promise made to the fruitful: He purgeth them, that they may bring forth more fruit. Note, [1.] Further fruitfulness is the blessed reward of forward fruitfulness. The first blessing was, Be fruitful; and it is still a great blessing. [2.] Even fruitful branches, in order to their further fruitfulness, have need of purging or pruning; kathairei—he taketh away that which is superfluous and luxuriant, which hinders its growth and fruitfulness. The best have that in them which is peccant, aliquid amputandum—something which should be taken away; some notions, passions, or humours, that want to be purged away, which Christ has promised to do by his word, and Spirit, and providence; and these shall be taken off by degrees in the proper season. [3.] The purging of fruitful branches, in order to their greater fruitfulness, is the care and work of the great husbandman, for his own glory.
MacArthur says similarly:
There are branches attached to Him. They’re all attached. All the branches are attached. But the ones that don’t bear fruit are cut off, dried, and burned. So who are they? Let me remind you of the context. This all begins back in chapter 13 in the upper room, and it’s pretty clear that there are two types of disciples in that upper room …
I don’t really think there’s a lot of mystery about the two branches. What did Jesus have in His mind that night? They had just left the upper room. The drama that took place there over Judas, the exposure of Judas, the disciples, when Jesus said, “One of you will betray Me,” they said, “Is it I? Is it I? Is it I?” which is to say they had no idea it was Judas.
There was nothing manifestly obvious in the life and character and behavior of Judas that would have distinguished him as a false disciple. He was visibly attached, and for all intents and purposes, looked like everybody else, did what everybody else did. But, clearly, there were two kinds of people in that room that night. There were those who bore fruit and there was that one who did not. There were those who remained abiding in, remaining in, attached to the vine; and there was that one who’s cut off …
Judas had that very night just a few hours before walked away from Jesus terminally, finally. He is what the Bible would call an apostate, an ultimate defector. He had been for three years close, so close that people didn’t even know there was no life. Judas now was on his way to the leaders of Israel to set up the deal to arrest Jesus to get his 30 pieces of silver, and to go from there to hang himself, and catapult into hell.
This is the reality of that night, and this has to be what’s behind our Lord’s thinking and speaking here. He needs to explain to these men Judas. Wouldn’t it seem natural to you that in this intimate talk with the beloved 11 that are still with Him, that they’re all still trying to process Judas. He was high profile. He was the one who carried the money, trusted. They were trying to figure out just, “How did it happen? Who is he? How does he fit? What’s going on?” and our Lord gives us an explanation.
He says, “There are branches that have an outward appearance of attachment, but bear no fruit. They’re taken away and they’re burned.” And He has to be thinking of Judas. Judas, who was in close connection to Him, has left on his way to eternal hell. And, in fact, the Bible says he went to his own place. It says it would have been better for him if he’d never been born, Mark 14.
MacArthur clears up a point of confusion about people like Judas losing their faith and, therefore, their salvation. The truth is that Judas never had faith — or fruit — to begin with:
I’ve had some discussions with people around the world about this passage, and folks have said to me, “Well, this is proof that you can be in Christ, you can be attached to Christ, and you can lose your salvation.” The Bible does not teach that, and the words of our Lord Jesus, in the gospel of John, are very explicit: “My sheep hear My voice – ” using another metaphor “ – and I know them and they follow Me. And I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father are one. Together, we hold those who belong to our flock.”
In John 6, Jesus said, “All that the Father gives to Me will come to Me and I’ll lose none of them.”
Ultimately:
This is not talking about believers, fruit-bearing branches that all of a sudden are cut off and thrown into hell. This is talking about people who are attached, but there’s no life because there’s no fruit.
Jesus told the eleven Apostles that they had been cleansed by the word that He had spoken to them (verse 3).
In the King James Version it reads:
3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
Henry explains what Jesus meant. Part of that meaning also relates to Judas:
Now you are clean, v. 3. [1.] Their society was clean, now that Judas was expelled by that word of Christ, What thou doest, do quickly; and till they were got clear of him they were not all clean. The word of Christ is a distinguishing word, and separates between the precious and the vile; it will purify the church of the first-born in the great dividing day. [2.] They were each of them clean, that is, sanctified, by the truth of Christ (ch. 17 17); that faith by which they received the word of Christ purified their hearts, Acts 15 9. The Spirit of grace by the word refined them from the dross of the world and the flesh, and purged out of them the leaven of the scribes and Pharisees, from which, when they saw their inveterate rage and enmity against their Master, they were now pretty well cleansed. Apply it to all believers. The word of Christ is spoken to them; there is a cleansing virtue in that word, as it works grace, and works out corruption. It cleanses as fire cleanses the gold from its dross, and as physic cleanses the body from its disease. We then evidence that we are cleansed by the word when we bring forth fruit unto holiness. Perhaps here is an allusion to the law concerning vineyards in Canaan; the fruit of them was as unclean, and uncircumcised, the first three years after it was planted, and the fourth year it was to be holiness of praise unto the Lord; and then it was clean, Lev 19 23, 24. The disciples had now been three years under Christ’s instruction; and now you are clean.
Jesus then told the Apostles to abide in Him in the same way He abided in them; just as a branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides on the vine, neither could they bear fruit unless they abided in Him (verse 4).
Henry says:
2. In order to our fruitfulness, we must abide in Christ, must keep up our union with him by faith, and do all we do in religion in the virtue of that union. Here is,
(1.) The duty enjoined (v. 4): Abide in me, and I in you. Note, It is the great concern of all Christ’s disciples constantly to keep up a dependence upon Christ and communion with him, habitually to adhere to him, and actually to derive supplies from him. Those that are come to Christ must abide in him: “Abide in me, by faith; and I in you, by my Spirit; abide in me, and then fear not but I will abide in you;” for the communion between Christ and believers never fails on his side. We must abide in Christ’s word by a regard to it, and it in us as a light to our feet. We must abide in Christ’s merit as our righteousness and plea, and it in us as our support and comfort. The knot of the branch abides in the vine, and the sap of the vine abides in the branch, and so there is a constant communication between them.
MacArthur goes further, saying that Jesus was referring to Israel as a corrupted, wild vine that did not abide in Him:
All the life comes from the vine. It emphasizes belonging. If you are connected, you belong. And I think all of that is true. But there’s another, much more important reason why He says, “I am the true vine,” and that is because there was a defective vine.
There was a corrupted vine. There was a degenerate vine. There was a fruitless vine. There was an empty vine. Who? Israel, Israel. That’s right. The covenant people of God, the Jewish people.
Israel is God’s vine in the Old Testament. In Isaiah 5, Israel as presented as a vine. God says, “I planted My vine, My vineyard in a very fertile hill,” Isaiah 5. And that chapter, verses 1-7, goes on to talk about everything God did to give them all that was necessary for them to bring forth grapes. They produced beushim, sour berries, inedible, useless. Israel was the vine. And that metaphor carried through the history of Israel during the Maccabean period between the Old and the New Testament.
The Maccabeans minted coins, and on the coin was a vine illustrating Israel. And on the very temple, Herod’s massive temple, there was a great vine that literally had been carved and overlaid with gold, speaking of Israel as God’s vine. God’s life flows through the nation. That was a symbol of Israel. There’s much in the Old Testament. Psalm 80 – sometime you can read Psalm 80 in its fullness – but Psalm 80 tells us the tragedy of Israel’s defection as a vine.
Just listen to a few of the words from Psalm 80: “God removed a vine from Egypt, bringing Israel out of bondage in Egypt. Drove out the nation’s, planted the vine – ” like Isaiah 5 “ – cleared the ground before it, took deep root, filled the land. The mountains were covered with its shadow. The cedars of God with its bows, it was sending out its branches. It shoots to the river.” Then this: “Why have You broken down its hedges, so that all who pass that way pick its fruit? A bore from the forest eats it away. And whatever moves in the field feeds on it.”
God planted Israel and then turned on Israel in judgment. Psalm 80 then says, “O God of hosts, turn again now, we beseech you. Look down from heaven and see, and take care of this vine, even the shoot which Your right hand has planted. It is burned with fire. It is cut down.” Yeah, that’s Israel, that’s Israel. Ezekiel said it is an empty vine, no fruit. Isaiah says it produces sort of toxic, useless, inedible results.
Israel had been the stock of blessing. Israel had been planted by God. His life would come through Israel to all who attached to Israel. But Israel was unfaithful, idolatrous, immoral, and God brought judgment. That’s what the Old Testament lays out for us.
The disciples, like all the other Jews, thought, “Hmm, I’m Jewish. I’m connected to God.” Israel, the people of God, the Jewish people, are the source of divine blessing: “I am a Jew; I was born a Jew. I’m the seed of Abraham; I’m connected to God.” Not so.
Our Lord comes along and says, “If you want to be connected to God, you have to be connected, not to Israel, but to me. I am the true vine, althinos. I am the true vine. I am the perfect vine. Through Me, the life of God flows.”
Paul understood that. He said Israel has all the privileges in the book of Romans. They have a form of godliness, but they have no life. They don’t know God. They’re alienated from God. He’s the true vine.
Jesus used the word ‘abide’ again in the three verses that follow.
Again, Jesus said that He was the vine and the Apostles — and we — are the branches; He repeated that those who abide in Him and He in them bear much fruit, because apart from Him they can do nothing (verse 5).
Henry tells us:
So necessary is it to our comfort and happiness that we be fruitful, that the best argument to engage us to abide in Christ is, that otherwise we cannot be fruitful. [1.] Abiding in Christ is necessary in order to our doing much good. He that is constant in the exercise of faith in Christ and love to him, that lives upon his promises and is led by his Spirit, bringeth forth much fruit, he is very serviceable to God’s glory, and his own account in the great day. Note, Union with Christ is a noble principle, productive of all good. A life of faith in the Son of God is incomparably the most excellent life a man can live in this world; it is regular and even, pure and heavenly; it is useful and comfortable, and all that answers the end of life. [2.] It is necessary to our doing any good. It is not only a means of cultivating and increasing what good there is already in us, but it is the root and spring of all good: “Without me you can do nothing: not only no great thing, heal the sick, or raise the dead, but nothing.” Note, We have as necessary and constant a dependence upon the grace of the Mediator for all the actions of the spiritual and divine life as we have upon the providence of the Creator for all the actions of the natural life; for, as to both, it is in the divine power that we live, move, and have our being. Abstracted from the merit of Christ, we can do nothing towards our justification; and from the Spirit of Christ nothing towards our sanctification. Without Christ we can do nothing aright, nothing that will be fruit pleasing to God or profitable to ourselves, 2 Cor 3 5. We depend upon Christ, not only as the vine upon the wall, for support; but, as the branch on the root, for sap.
Jesus warned that whoever does not abide in Him is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned (verse 6).
If those words suggest eternal damnation and hell to you, you would be correct.
Henry says:
This is a description of the fearful state of hypocrites that are not in Christ, and of apostates that abide not in Christ. [1.] They are cast forth as dry and withered branches, which are plucked off because they cumber the tree. It is just that those should have no benefit by Christ who think they have no need of him; and that those who reject him should be rejected by him. Those that abide not in Christ shall be abandoned by him; they are left to themselves, to fall into scandalous sin, and then are justly cast out of the communion of the faithful. [2.] They are withered, as a branch broken off from the tree. Those that abide not in Christ, though they may flourish awhile in a plausible, at least a passable profession, yet in a little time wither and come to nothing. Their parts and gifts wither; their zeal and devotion wither; their credit and reputation wither; their hopes and comforts wither, Job 8 11-13. Note, Those that bear no fruit, after while will bear no leaves. How soon is that fig-tree withered away which Christ has cursed! [3.] Men gather them. Satan’s agents and emissaries pick them up, and make an easy prey of them. Those that fall off from Christ presently fall in with sinners; and the sheep that wander from Christ’s fold, the devil stands ready to seize them for himself. When the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul, an evil spirit possessed him. [4.] They cast them into the fire, that is, they are cast into the fire; and those who seduce them and draw them to sin do in effect cast them there; for they make them children of hell. Fire is the fittest place for withered branches, for they are good for nothing else, Ezek 15 2-4. [5.] They are burned; this follows of course, but it is here added very emphatically, and makes the threatening very terrible. They will not be consumed in a moment, like thorns under a pot (Eccl 7 6), but kaietai, they are burning for ever in a fire, which not only cannot be quenched, but will never spend itself. This comes of quitting Christ, this is the end of barren trees. Apostates are twice dead (Jude 12), and when it is said, They are cast into the fire and are burned, it speaks as if they were twice damned. Some apply men’s gathering them to the ministry of the angels in the great day, when they shall gather out of Christ’s kingdom all things that offend, and shall bundle the tares for the fire.
MacArthur also relates this to Judas:
And then in verse 6, the one that is thrown away, dried up, gathered, cast into the fire and burned? Who are the fruitless branches, and the other, who are the fruitful branches who bear the fruit, verse 2, verse 5, and verse 8? Who are they? Well, let me recreate for you the context. The context is a very simple context. This isn’t our Lord among many people. This isn’t our Lord in the midst of the crowd. When He says “you”, He’s directing His words at the Twelve. In fact, in particular at this point, He’s directing His words at the eleven remaining, Judas having been dismissed …
Judas is the branch that doesn’t stay. Judas is the branch that doesn’t remain. Judas is the branch that doesn’t abide.
John also spoke of such people in his Epistle:
Now, just a reference again to something else that John wrote over in 1 John chapter 2 and verse 19 – very important statement, speaking of people who defect, who do not abide, who do not stay – “They went out from us, but they were not really of us.” John knows this now from what he learned about our Lord’s words in John 15 and the experience of Judas and others. “They went out from us,” and it’s still happening in his experience as an apostle, “but they were not really of us; if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.” And then down in verse 24, “As for you,” he writes – he says now the same thing that our Lord said to the disciples that night – “As for you, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. This is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life.” “You abide in Me, and I’ll abide in you.” John is reiterating what he heard on that Thursday night and is recorded for us in John 15.
Jesus then talked about prayer, saying that if we abide in Him and His words abide in us, we may ask for whatever we wish and it will be done for us (verse 7).
That does rely on the request being a godly one.
Henry discusses prayer as our means of communication with Christ:
See here, [1.] How our union with Christ is maintained—by the word: If you abide in me; he had said before, and I in you; here he explains himself, and my words abide in you; for it is in the word that Christ is set before us, and offered to us, Rom 10 6-8. It is in the word that we receive and embrace him; and so where the word of Christ dwells richly there Christ dwells. If the word be our constant guide and monitor, if it be in us as at home, then we abide in Christ, and he in us. [2.] How our communion with Christ is maintained—by prayer: You shall ask what you will, and it shall be done to you. And what can we desire more than to have what we will for the asking? Note, Those that abide in Christ as their heart’s delight shall have, through Christ, their heart’s desire. If we have Christ, we shall want nothing that is good for us. Two things are implied in this promise:—First, That if we abide in Christ, and his word in us, we shall not ask any thing but what is proper to be done for us. The promises abiding in us lie ready to be turned into prayers; and the prayers so regulated cannot but speed. Secondly, That if we abide in Christ and his word we shall have such an interest in God’s favour and Christ’s mediation that we shall have an answer of peace to all our prayers.
Jesus concluded by saying that His Father is glorified by the Apostles’ — and our — bearing much fruit and becoming His disciples (verse 8).
Henry elaborates:
If we bear much fruit, [1.] Herein our Father will be glorified. The fruitfulness of the apostles, as such, in the diligent discharge of their office, would be to the glory of God in the conversion of souls, and the offering of them up to him, Rom 15 9, 16. The fruitfulness of all Christians, in a lower or narrower sphere, is to the glory of God. By the eminent good works of Christians many are brought to glorify our Father who is in heaven. [2.] So shall we be Christ’s disciples indeed, approving ourselves so, and making it to appear that we are really what we call ourselves. So shall we both evidence our discipleship and adorn it, and be to our Master for a name and a praise, and a glory, that is, disciples indeed, Jer 13 11. So shall we be owned by our Master in the great day, and have the reward of disciples, a share in the joy of our Lord. And the more fruit we bring forth, the more we abound in that which is good, the more he is glorified.
On the subject of abiding, MacArthur concludes with an answer to people who ask if we have a personal relationship with Christ:
Rather than saying, “I have a personal relationship with Jesus,” which sounds kind of like you’re somebody special, you would be better off to say, “Well, God, the eternal God, holy God, the Creator God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit live in me.” What!? But that is essentially exactly what our Lord is saying, and it’s a trinitarian presence, staggering reality. Now, I grant you that the glorious manifestation of the children of God of Romans 8 has not yet been manifest, has not yet been made visible. That won’t happen until we’re glorified. So in the meantime, we are veiled, right? We are veiled. The world doesn’t see us. It is important to know who we are, so I am, I am literally a body in which God lives. He lives in me. The Lord has come to live in me …
How do you talk about yourself as a believer? You talk about yourself as the residence of God, the temple of God. Listen to what John says over in 1 John, building on these truths. “You are from God, little children,” verse 4, 1 John 4:4, “and have overcome them;” – Listen to this – “because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.” You worry about Satan in the world? Don’t worry about Satan in the world. “Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.” Verse 13, “By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us.” How do we know that? “Because He has given us of His Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him.” Verse 16, “We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”
I wish we’d start talking like this, right? To abide is to remain, and for all who remain, they give evidence of a genuine salvation, and how is that defined? It is defined as God living in us. God living in us, taking up residence. Colossians 1:21 says, “You were formerly alienated” – from God – “hostile, engaged in evil deeds. He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach—if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel.” If you remain, if you stay, if you abide, He abides in you. This is an incredibly stunning reality. You think about the condescension of our Lord to take on a human body, but He took on a sinless human body. What kind of condescension is it for the triune God to take on a sinful body, take up residence in us?
With that, may I wish everyone reading this a happy and blessed Sunday.
The Fourth Sunday of Easter is April 21, 2024.
Readings for Year B can be found here.
An exegesis for the Gospel, John 10:11-18 (the Good Shepherd), is also available.
The First Reading is as follows (emphases mine):
Acts 4:5-12
4:5 The next day their rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in Jerusalem,
4:6 with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family.
4:7 When they had made the prisoners stand in their midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?”
4:8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders,
4:9 if we are questioned today because of a good deed done to someone who was sick and are asked how this man has been healed,
4:10 let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead.
4:11 This Jesus is ‘the stone that was rejected by you, the builders; it has become the cornerstone.’
4:12 There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.”
Commentary comes from Matthew Henry and John MacArthur.
At this point, those assembled in the room for the first Pentecost have received the Holy Spirit, not least the Twelve (Matthias replaced Judas).
Peter and John preached at the temple daily. They also healed a man who was lame from birth (Acts 3:1-10):
The Lame Beggar Healed
3 Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour.[a] 2 And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate to ask alms of those entering the temple. 3 Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. 4 And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” 5 And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. 6 But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” 7 And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. 8 And leaping up he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. 9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10 and recognized him as the one who sat at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, asking for alms. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
Peter then preached boldly about healing in the name of Jesus Christ and talked about the people’s and the rulers’ denial of the Messiah, calling for Him to be put to death. He also preached about our Lord’s resurrection (Acts 3:14-16):
14 But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, 15 and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. 16 And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus[c] has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.
As a result, the Jewish hierarchy arrested Peter and John and imprisoned them.
That provides the backdrop to today’s verses.
The next day, the Jewish rulers, elders, and scribes — the Sanhedrin — assembled in Jerusalem (verse 5).
Matthew Henry says they were eager to put a stop to the preaching, the healing and the message about the Resurrection:
… they adjourned it to the morrow, and no longer; for they were impatient to get them silenced, and would lose no time …
The judges of the court. (1.) Their general character: they were rulers, elders, and scribes, v. 5. The scribes were men of learning, who came to dispute with the apostles, and hoped to confute them. The rulers and elders were men in power, who, if they could not answer them, thought they could find some cause or other to silence them. If the gospel of Christ had not been of God, it could not have made its way, for it had both the learning and power of the world against it, both the colleges of the scribes and the courts of the elders.
MacArthur discusses the Sanhedrin:
The scribes, the elders, and the rulers, along with the high priest, made up the Sanhedrin, and the Sanhedrin was the high ruling council of Israel.
This is the Supreme Court of the Jews. And even in the Roman times, they had the right to arrest. It had 70 members, and then the high priest was ex-officio president, so there were 71. And it included the priests and the scribes – you remember the scribes were the ones who were the experts in the law – and the elders, who were from the people. And then it included, in addition, the people from the priestly family, and they were really a motley bunch, to say the least.
MacArthur says that the temple had a rota, a scheduled rotation of priests, so that they served only on certain days. When the days came for a priest to serve, they were his time to shine, as it were:
… there were 24 courses of priests in the Levitical order, and there were so many priests that they divided into 24 courses, and of those courses, only certain priests ministered every week. So, when the priests were ministering in the temple, that meant it was their week, and you waited a long time for your week, and when your week finally came, it was a big deal. And least of all, did you want all of this commotion going on during your week, that you’d waited so long for?
And so here, in the middle of the week of these particular priests, all of this hubbub is going on, and they’re really concerned. This is religious opposition. And remember as I said earlier, persecution of the church often comes from religious groups, still even often from Judaism. All right, second person that we meet is the captain of the temple, the sagan, and this is the head of the temple police. Here is the political opposition. In some parts of the world, there is political opposition against the church.
The other factor in stopping Peter and John was the possibility of falling foul of the Romans governing the city. Rome did not tolerate civil disorder. The Jewish hierarchy had a love-hate relationship with the Romans:
Now, the Roman government was very tolerant, but against disorder publicly, they were merciless. And so, he wasn’t about to get himself in a position where there was a riot, or he would really be in trouble. Then we meet the most important group, and that is the Sadducees. Now, you say, “What are the Sadducees?” Well, within the framework of Israel there were many groups. There were the Pharisees, and there were the Zealots, and so forth, and one interesting group was the Sadducees. Now, we don’t really know where that name comes from; some say from Zadok, but there’s really no way to tell.
But Sadducees were a religious and a political group, so they combined the worst of both in their persecution. They were the power sect in Israel. They were the religious liberals. They were the high priestly family; all the high priests at this point were Sadducees. They were the opposition party to the Pharisees, like the Republicans and the Democrats, with a religious flavor. They were the opposition. Now, the opposition of the Pharisees dominates the gospels, and the opposition of the Sadducees dominates the book of Acts, so both of them get into play.
It’s also very interesting that they were very wealthy. The Pharisees tended not to be wealthy; they tended to be extremely wealthy. They were also the collaborationist party. They were the ones who were always scratching Rome’s back for the mutual scratch, you know. They really didn’t care that much about the common people; they only cared about maintaining the status quo, and keeping their power and their prestige in Israel.
So they maintained a collaborationist attitude with Rome, kept on friendly terms with Rome, in order to maintain their prestige, power, and their comfort. They were a small group, very minority, but were greatly dominant in the political influence of Israel. They didn’t care for anything about religion, other than the fact that it was social custom, and so they were strict liberals. They were strict social religionists.
Among those assembled were Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family (verse 6).
Henry tells us:
The names of some of them, who were most considerable. Here were Annas and Caiaphas, ringleaders in this persecution; Annas the president of the sanhedrim, and Caiaphas the high priest (though Annas is here called so) and father of the house of judgment. It should seem that Annas and Caiaphas executed the high priest’s office alternately, year for year. These two were most active against Christ; then Caiaphas was high priest, now Annas was; however they were both equally malignant against Christ and his gospel. John is supposed to be the son of Annas; and Alexander is mentioned by Josephus as a man that made a figure at that time. There were others likewise that were of the kindred of the high priest, who having dependence on him, and expectations from him, would be sure to say as he said, and vote with him against the apostles. Great relations, and not good, have been a snare to many.
MacArthur has more:
Verse 6 introduces Annas, and you remember Annas, who was the high priest formerly, but had been deposed by the Romans. He was the senior ex-high priest, but he really ran the show. He was the power behind the scenes. In fact, when Jesus was taken in the Garden of Gethsemane in John 18, they immediately took Him to Annas, because Annas was really the power of the whole structure in Israel. He was a Sadducee. Now, he had a son-in-law by the name of Caiaphas, who was Roman-appointed high priest, and he was as bad as Annas was.
Then it says “John, and Alexander.” Now, it’s very difficult to know who they are; there’s no way to know. But it is interesting that Annas did have five sons, one of his sons named Jonathan, and some of the manuscripts read Jonathan instead of John, so it may have been his son. And some say that Alexander is a form of Eleazer, and Eleazer is a known son of Annas. So perhaps they were two sons of Annas, perhaps we’re reading into it; that, we just really don’t know. But anyway, they were of the kindred of the high priest.
They had Peter and John — ‘the prisoners’ — brought before them and asked (verse 7), ‘By what power or by what name did you do this?’
The hierarchy were always concerned about authority, something about which they asked Jesus. Of our two former fishermen, Peter and John, MacArthur says that the head Jews despised them:
Theirs was the prerogative of teaching, and nobody else had the right, and least of all, to walk right in the temple where all of these teachers were, stand up, and teach contrary truth to that truth which they had been teaching. They were really upset because these two were teaching. Who were they to teach? They’re not approved …
… They weren’t versed in Jewish theology. “These guys are not even Jewish theologians,” they said. “They’re ignorant of rabbinic law. They haven’t been to the proper schools. How can they know anything?”
You remember they accused Jesus of the same thing. “Who is He that’s saying all of this? He’s never been to our school. Where’s He getting His information?” And then Jesus answered, “I get it directly from God.” Oh, you know, school is a little extraneous. And secondly, it says not only were they ignorant in terms of Jewish theology, but the second word, ignorant, means that they are commoners; they are not professionals, they are strictly amateurs. “Who are these uneducated amateurs?” That’s exactly what they’re saying.
And to make it even worse, they were from Galilee, which, of course, was the ultimate in despising. And so, they had no right to step into the narrow world of the instructors, and stand up in the very temple, and teach doctrines contrary to their own. And they were mad, because they did not agree with their theology. Now, whenever you stand up in the face of opposition, and you proclaim a truth that they deny, you’re going to get in trouble, and so they were angry. They had every reason to be, from their perspective, because they needed to preserve their own position.
Also:
They “preached through Jesus the resurrection,” but they were preaching Jesus, and that, they hated. They had determined that Jesus was a blasphemer, and here they were back, announcing all over town that Jesus was Messiah, and you all have killed your Messiah. Now, that is not real popular stuff. And you try announcing that today in the midst of a congregation of Jewish people, and you’re going to find some reaction.
Peter proclaimed, “Jesus is Messiah,” and he indicted the whole nation of Israel for missing the Messiah, and he got a reaction. So, they didn’t like that he taught, and they didn’t like what he taught. And thirdly, they didn’t like the resurrection idea. He “preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead.” He kept announcing that Jesus was alive. Well, that’s a fearful thought. I mean, if they have executed their Messiah, and He’s back alive again, that’s scary for them, because what would hinder Him from moving right out to bring about the vengeance that they would justly deserve?
And let’s be honest enough to think that they knew they were hypocrites. I don’t think they covered that up very well. I’m sure they knew they were hypocrites in their hearts, and they probably took a second thought, and thought, “Well, maybe we did blow it. Maybe we did execute our Messiah. Boy, if we did and He’s alive again, this is bad news. Better to shut these guys up.” Apart from the fact that the Sadducees’ theology did not permit a resurrection, which irritated them to death. And do they didn’t like the fact that they taught, and they didn’t like the truths that they taught, and so they reacted.
MacArthur describes the scene:
Now, they got together in their council and their Sanhedrin, and they brought in Peter and John. Now, this is a tough pill for them to swallow, because they’re still not rid of Jesus, you see. He’s still the issue. Verse 7 says, “And when they had set them in the midst” – now, that’s interesting, because they usually assembled – in the precincts of the temple, there was an inner place called the Hall of Hewn Stones. And they sat in a semi-circle, and they faced the president, who sat out here, and they always stuck the prisoner in the middle.
So, when it says, “They put them in the midst,” that gives you a good idea, even, of the picture of Peter and John standing here, with a semi-circle of the 70, and the president behind them. Now, this is so exciting. Do you know what God had just done? God had just given them the wonderful opportunity to preach to the Sanhedrin. This is a good case of Satan overdoing it. Satan does this all the time. He gets himself into real trouble. By persecution, he opens avenues that are never opened any other way.
Do you know that there was no way that they could have set up an afternoon to present the gospel to the Sanhedrin? There was no way possible to preach to those men, except this way. That’s why I say in the design of God, to submit is the whole key. They submitted, and God put them right where He wanted them. It’s a fantastic thing. God allows them to carry their testimony to the Sanhedrin itself. What an opportunity. And precisely why we must be submissive in persecution.
Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, addressed them, beginning with, ‘Rulers of the people and elders’ (verse 8).
Henry explains:
Peter, who is still the chief speaker, addresses himself to the judges of the court, as the rulers of the people, and elders of Israel; for the wickedness of those in power does not divest them of their power, but the consideration of the power they are entrusted with should prevail to divest them of their wickedness. “You are rulers and elders, and should know more than others of the signs of the times, and not oppose that which you are bound by the duty of your place to embrace and advance, that is, the kingdom of the Messiah; you are rulers and elders of Israel, God’s people, and if you mislead them, and cause them to err, you will have a great deal to answer for.”
Peter put it to the Sanhedrin that they were accusing him of wrong by his doing a good deed to someone who was sick and asking how the healing occurred (verse 9).
Henry says:
He justifies what he and his colleague had done in curing the lame man. It was a good deed; it was a kindness to the man that had begged, but could not work for his living; a kindness to the temple, and to those that went in to worship, who were now freed from the noise and clamour of this common beggar. “Now, if we be reckoned with for this good deed, we have no reason to be ashamed, 1 Pet 2 20; ch. 4 14, 16. Let those be ashamed who bring us into trouble for it.” Note, It is no new thing for good men to suffer ill for doing well.
Peter then gave an abridged sermon encompassing his previous messages: all the people of Israel should know that the man was healed ‘by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead’ (verse 10).
Of the brevity, MacArthur tells us:
Now, apparently in this message, which is only 92 Greek words, it embodies all of the apostolic preaching characteristics.
Henry gives us this analysis:
[2.] He transfers all the praise and glory of this good deed to Jesus Christ. “It is by him, and not by any power of ours, that this man is cured.” The apostles seek not to raise an interest for themselves, nor to recommend themselves by this miracle to the good opinion of the court; but, “Let the Lord alone be exalted, no matter what becomes of us.” [3.] He charges it upon the judges themselves, that they had been the murderers of this Jesus: “It is he whom you crucified, look how you will answer it;” in order to the bringing of them to believe in Christ (for he aims at no less than this) he endeavours to convince them of sin, of that sin which, one would think, of all others, was most likely to startle conscience—their putting Christ to death. Let them take it how they will, Peter will miss no occasion to tell them of it. [4.] He attests the resurrection of Christ as the strongest testimony for him, and against his persecutors: “They crucified him, but God raised him from the dead; they took away his life, but God gave it to him again, and your further opposition to his interest will speed no better.” He tells them that God raised him from the dead, and they could not for shame answer him with that foolish suggestion which they palmed upon the people, that his disciples came by night and stole him away. [5.] He preaches this to all the bystanders, to be by them repeated to all their neighbours, and commands all manner of persons, from the highest to the lowest, to take notice of it at their peril: “Be it known to you all that are here present, and it shall be made known to all the people of Israel, wherever they are dispersed, in spite of all your endeavours to stifle and suppress the notice of it: as the Lord God of gods knows, so Israel shall know, all Israel shall know, that wonders are wrought in the name of Jesus, not by repeating it as a charm, but believing in it as a divine revelation of grace and good-will to men.”
Then Peter said that Jesus is ‘the stone that was rejected by you, the builders; it has become the cornerstone’ (verse 11).
That is a very familiar line from Scripture, as MacArthur reminds us:
Peter doesn’t back off, and they knew they were spiritual hypocrites, and the lingering fear that perhaps He was Messiah must have begun to eat inside. And then, as if to dig a deeper hole for them, he says this. In verse 11, he quotes Psalm 118:22, right out of their own prophecy.
Because their question was, “Well, if this is the Messiah, He wouldn’t be dead and brought back again. We don’t see that.” And so, he quotes, “This is the stone which was set at naught of you builders, which has become the head of the corner.” “You know, your own Psalm 118:22 said there would be a stone to be the cornerstone, but the builders would reject it, but it would be brought back to be the head of the corner. That’s a prophecy of the death, resurrection of Messiah. It’s right there. You’ve got it all.”
Buildings had cornerstones. In fact, they’ve found some from the original temple – or one of the temples, I should say – that measures 38 feet in length. They would run up to the corners. They were tremendous things. And one that wasn’t perfect would be thrown away, because everything else would be imperfect all the way up. They had to have a perfect cornerstone. And so the prophecy simply says Jesus will be the cornerstone, but the builders would reject it, thinking it imperfect, but God would bring it back, and make it the corner.
That’s exactly what happened with Jesus. They threw it away. “That’s not our cornerstone.” God raised Him from the dead, and stuck Him right back in, created a new temple – Ephesians 2:20 – the church. And in Matthew 21:42, our Lord even claimed to be that stone. And in Romans 9:31-33, Paul said He was that stone.
Henry gives us superb advice in Christian apologetics:
Probably St. Peter here chose to make use of this quotation because Christ had himself made use of it, in answer to the demand of the chief priests and the elders concerning his authority, not long before this, Matt 21 42. Scripture is a tried weapon in our spiritual conflicts: let us therefore stick to it.
Peter concluded by making a powerful statement: ‘There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved’ (verse 12).
Henry impresses this verse upon us:
We are undone if we do not take shelter in this name, and make it our refuge and strong tower; for we cannot be saved but by Jesus Christ, and, if we be not eternally saved, we are eternally undone (v. 12): Neither is there salvation in any other. As there is no other name by which diseased bodies can be cured, so there is no other by which sinful souls can be saved. “By him, and him only, by receiving and embracing his doctrine, salvation must now be hoped for by all. For there is no other religion in the world, no, not that delivered by Moses, by which salvation can be had for those that do not now come into this, at the preaching of it.” So. Dr. Hammond. Observe here, First, Our salvation is our chief concern, and that which ought to lie nearest to our hearts—our rescue from wrath and the curse, and our restoration to God’s favour and blessing. Secondly, Our salvation is not in ourselves, nor can be obtained by any merit or strength of our own; we can destroy ourselves, but we cannot save ourselves. Thirdly, There are among men many names that pretend to be saving names, but really are not so; many institutions in religion that pretend to settle a reconciliation and correspondence between God and man, but cannot do it. Fourthly, It is only by Christ and his name that those favours can be expected from God which are necessary to our salvation, and that our services can be accepted with God. This is the honour of Christ’s name, that it is the only name whereby we must be saved, the only name we have to plead in all our addresses to God. This name is given. God has appointed it, and it is an inestimable benefit freely conferred upon us. It is given under heaven. Christ has not only a great name in heaven, but a great name under heaven; for he has all power both in the upper and in the lower world. It is given among men, who need salvation, men who are ready to perish. We may be saved by his name, that name of his, The Lord our righteousness; and we cannot be saved by any other. How far those may find favour with God who have not the knowledge of Christ, nor any actual faith in him, yet live up to the light they have, it is not our business to determine. But this we know, that whatever saving favour such may receive it is upon the account of Christ, and for his sake only; so that still there is no salvation in any other. I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me, Isa 45 4.
MacArthur says:
People always say, “Well, you can get saved a lot of ways.” We were in Israel, went up to Haifa, and they’ve got the Bahaism Temple up there, and it has nine doors to God: Muhammadism, Confucianism, Buddhism, every kind of ism there is. And that isn’t true; there aren’t nine doors to God. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes unto the Father” – what? – “but by Me.” There is no other name. There is no salvation in any other. There is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.
And Peter is saying, in effect, “People, if you don’t turn to Jesus, you will be damned. There is no other way.” People always accuse Christians of being narrow. We’re not narrow, friends; any more narrow than the word of God. Unfortunately, the word of God is the most narrow book ever written. It’s always right, and never wrong, and anything that contradicts it is wrong. It is only in His name. They said to them – they said to him, “Who healed that man?” And he said, “Jesus did.” And he uses the same word for healing the man that is used when it says it made him well.
How did you make this – the end of verse 9. “What means he is made well,” is the same word as salvation, and so he does a play on words. This man was physically healed by Jesus, and you’ll never be spiritually healed, unless it’s by Him. He’s the only way. There’s no salvation in any other. The word salvation means deliverance from sin. No other name, no other name. I close with this, very quickly. In February 1959, at the South Pole, 17 men in Operation Deep Freeze Number Four, took their spare time and built a 16-foot-square chapel.
And on that chapel they put a sign, called The Chapel of All Faith. The structure contained an altar, over which they had a picture of Jesus, a crucifix, a Star of David, and a lotus leaf representing Buddha. The inscription on the wall read, “Now it can be said that the earth turns on the point of faith.” An all-faiths altar was recently dedicated at a university – it’s called an inter-religious center – at one of the Midwestern universities. The altar, it revolves. One is for Protestant, one for Catholic, one for Jewish, and then there’s one miscellaneous that’s adaptable to any religion.
That’s just exactly what the Bible says is so wrong. It would have been very easy for Peter and John to have mumbled innocuous platitudes about religion, and won the smiles of all, and the early church would have been immediately acquitted from the world’s hatred by a reasonable, broad-minded, downgrading of Jesus Christ. But not so, not so. This is it. Be submissive, be Spirit-filled, and boldly use it as an opportunity to preach the gospel.
MacArthur has an important message about persecution.
First, the early persecutions were physically brutal and fatal:
The first persecution, for example, broke out under Nero Domitius, the sixth Emperor of Rome, and about the time A.D. 67, which isn’t too long after the church began. And Nero contrived all kinds of punishments for Christians; he sewed some up in the skins of wild animals, and then turned hungry dogs loose on them. He used others, dressed in wax shirts and attached to trees, to be lit as torches in his garden. The next persecution under Domitian was perhaps even more inventive. Christians were imprisoned. They were put on racks, they were seared, they were broiled, they were burned.
They went through scourging, stoning, and hanging. Many were lacerated with hot irons, others thrown on the horns of wild bulls. In the fourth persecution, beginning in about 162 A.D., some Christians were made to walk with already-wounded feet over thorns, nails, sharp shells; some were scourged until their flesh was gone, others were beheaded, and so it went. Under the eighth persecution at Utica, 300 Christians were placed alive around a lime kiln and told that they were to make offerings to Jupiter or be pushed in. Unanimously they refused, and all 300 of them perished in the lime.
Lime, which is used in making traditional (old fashioned) plaster, is a highly caustic substance, so their skin would have been burnt through a chemical reaction. It is horrifying to contemplate.
Secondly, while people in parts of Africa and parts of Asia still undergo shocking physical torture and horrifying deaths for their Christian belief, today’s persecution in the West makes the Church and her followers into laughing stocks instead:
Satan’s persecution, as time has progressed, has become all the more subtle than it was then. It’s not nearly as obvious how it is that Satan persecutes today. And incidentally, today, apparently much more successfully, Satan’s techniques are working. Now, our text records for us the first persecution. This is the beginning of the steady stream of persecution that has gone on since the commencement of the church. In one way or another, the Christian church is always under persecution. It is not always political.
It is sometimes personal. It is sometimes religious. It sometimes comes from illegitimate Christianity. That is the greatest persecutor of evangelical Christianity is probably liberal Christianity, at least in the American situation. In one way or another, then, the church has suffered persecution ever since what we’re going to see in Acts, chapter 4, began at all. And as I said, persecution is subtle today. It’s not what it used to be. Satan usually directs the persecution today not at the physical body, but at the ego.
He directs his persecution at pride, or acceptance, or status, et cetera, and it’s really very effective. He doesn’t threaten the Christian by saying, “If you witness, I’ll cut your head off.” He threatens the Christian by planting within his mind the fact that if you witness you might lose your job, or your status, or somebody might think you’re strange. In these days, persecution has a tremendous effect, in a very subtle way. The form of persecution in the early church made heroes out of those who died.
And it came to be such a normal thing for Christians to die that many Christians developed a martyr complex, and just went around trying to put themselves into positions where they could be martyred. I mean, they wanted to belong, you know? But today, the persecution that comes is more effective; it doesn’t make heroes out of anybody. And it’s a sad thing; while the church today is not being killed physically, the church has succumbed to a kind of living spiritual death …
In fact, by letting them all live in an insipid kind of godless Christianity, he has a greater effect than if he wiped them all out, and had to face the issue again that the seed of the church is the blood of the martyrs. And so, Satan, whose persecution in the past has slaughtered Christians physically, has found it much more effective to kill the church by making it complacent, indolent, fat, rich, socially oriented, and accepted. And insipid, as it’s watered down its theology to accommodate the world; much more effective than if all Christians were boiled in oil.
Now, there are some places in our world where persecution does reign, physical persecution. Even some places here in America. But one way or another, Satan is antagonistic to the church. He persecutes the church. Obviously, and flagrantly, and blatantly physically, or subtly, by the persecution to become involved in the world, to strip off that which offends, in order that you might maintain your prestige, your status, or whatever it is that you desire from your ego. Now, Jesus, in John, chapter 15, warned the church in the statement to His disciples that they might as well expect persecution.
In verse 18 of John 15, we read this: “If the world hate you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own.” You see, that’s why, John says, “Love not the world.” What happens when a Christian falls in love with the system is, the system no longer really is hindered by this guy, they are no longer offended by this guy, and Satan has accomplished a greater persecution than if you had taken that guy and killed him, physically, because he has destroyed his effect. In fact, he has made him a negative …
Peter went on a step further, in 1 Peter 2:21, and said this – and this is an important statement. He, in effect, said we should expect it. “For hereunto were you called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps.” If you confront the world, the world will react violently, one way or another. Now, you may succumb to the persecution of Satan, so that you fiddle out and kind of get laid by the wayside, long before you ever confront the world, because you’re really doing that to save your ego from being persecuted.
But Paul said to Timothy, 2 Timothy 3:12, “You” – pardon me – “Yea, and all that live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.” Now, that’s a very clear statement. “Yea, and all that live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.” You say, “Well, you know, I go along, and I don’t suffer persecution.” Read the verse again. “All that live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.” If you’re not suffering persecution, why aren’t you? Because you’re not living godly in Christ Jesus, just that simple.
If you live the kind of life that God intends you to live in Christ, you will by the very nature of that life butt heads with the world, and when I say world, I mean the system. If you are not suffering some persecution, you have either fallen right into the flow of the system so that they don’t know the difference, or they haven’t discovered yet who it is that you really are; you have hidden it well. But you begin to live openly and godly in the world, and you’re going to bang heads with Satan, and with his establishment.
You begin to confront the world, and the persecution is automatic. Now, we see this in the early church. First of all, it looks so great. You know, we always say, “If you really live a Christian life, the world will be drawn to you.” Sure, they’ll be drawn to the beauty of your person, but as soon as they find out what it is, then, all of sudden, that which draws them to you – unless they come to Christ – turns to be a negative. The early church, for example, in chapter 2 and 3, everything looked real positive.
Chapter 2, the world was amazed at them, and they found favor with all the people, and everything looked great. And all of a sudden, they found out what it was they stood for, and everything shifted gears mighty fast. Now, in chapter 3, you’ll remember that Peter had gone with John to the temple, and there he had healed a lame man. A crowd had gathered together in the courtyard. Peter and John had stood in Solomon’s portico, up off the floor, a little bit, of the courtyard, and he and John had between them the lame man, and Peter began to preach …
That’s the kind of confrontation that brings hostility. But that’s the kind of confrontation that God expects us to be involved in. It is not that kind of a mealy-mouth hiding, in order to protect our ego, our status, and our prestige, and our name among the world. The response to what Peter did was very interesting. Look at verse 4 of chapter 4, and we’ll kind of begin to look at our text. “But many of them who heard the word believed.” Now, that’s what we’re trying to effect. We’re not trying to hide, because if we hide, not only do we not suffer, but nobody gets saved, either; that’s the problem.
Sure, you say, “Well, if I do that, I’m liable to get really messed up.” That’s right. You’re liable to get messed up, and somebody else is liable to get straightened out, and your life is expendable, my friend; so is mine. True? My life is expendable for the sake of somebody else. As soon as I start trying to live to protect my ego, and to protect my status, and to protect my prestige, then my life has become self-centered, and it’s no good to God or to anybody else.
If I’m not willing to confront the world for the sake of the salvation of those in the world, then I don’t have, really, anything to offer God or anybody else, and I’m only kidding myself. Now, it says in verse 4 that “Many of them who heard the Word believed, and the number of the men was about five thousand.” Now, the word was about should be translated came to be five thousand men. That means this is the total of men; at this point, this is the membership roll of the church. This is the male volume, anyway.
And there are two words for men in the Greek, two really most dominant words: anthrōpon or anthrōpos, and that word has to do with man generically, man as a race. Then the other one is andros, or here, ton andrōn, plural. This means man as opposed to female, and it would be best translated males. And so, what it says is this, “And the number of the men came to be,” or “the number of the males came to be five thousand.” That means, in addition to that, they were probably at least another five thousand women, and children.
That’s a large church for such a fast beginning, and you never hear another listing of how many from here on out. It grew so fast from this point, that it got past the possibility of keeping an accurate count. But many believed, and that was the reaction. Now, that was worth the price that Peter paid. It’s always worth the price to confront the world, that God may do His work. If we never confront the world, we’d blow it, because it is to the world that we are sent with the gospel.
You say, “Well, I might lose my job.” Praise the Lord, so lose your job – who cares about your job? I mean, God can handle you. He can provide everything you need, and promises that He will. Now, this doesn’t mean you’re to be a lousy employee, and waste all your time preaching the gospel; you better reread Ephesians. You’re to work like you ought to, and give an honest day’s work for an honest day’s earning. But wherever you are in this world, they ought to know that you stand for Jesus Christ.
Today’s Church in the West also has many lukewarm believers:
If trial – watch it – and persecution on a personal level is God’s way of maturing a Christian – and it is, if you read James 1 – then trial and persecution on a whole church-wide level is God’s way of maturing His whole church, and building it up.
Persecution always results in growth – mark that. That has to be the beginning thing, because that’s your commitment to do what’s right, even if persecution is involved. Persecution results in growth for many reasons. Number one, it strips off all of the dead weight. If you’re a part of a group of people that are having to lay their lives on the line for Jesus Christ, then we’re only going to have people in that group who are willing to do that, right?
And part of the problem of the church today are all the tares that’s sown among the wheat, and the easiest way to get rid of the tares is just to make the wheat pay the price, or make the church pay the price of total discipleship. And the tares will just drop off, because they’re not really that committed, and don’t want to get that involved. And so, as a church is persecuted, it is purified. The waste is stripped off, false believers leave, the strong are left, and God works freely through them.
… In James, chapter 1, you know, he says, “Count it all joy when you fall into trials and temptations.”
That’s a wonderful opportunity to grow. That’s the way you grow, is by going through the test, you see. If we live godly in the world, we will suffer persecution. If we suffer persecution, we ought to be happy, because persecution will make us grow, and it will reach others for Christ, and that’s what we’re all about. True? But somewhere, you’ve got to make the commitment that you’re willing to do that; make your life expendable, rather than to hide and protect yourself. So, we look forward to persecution with great anxiety and great joy, for righteousness’ sake.
… Second principle – in dealing with persecution, be submissive to it – secondly, be filled with the Spirit, verse 8: “Then Peter” – what’s the next word? – “filled with the Holy Spirit, said unto them.” Now, you see, the key to anything in the Christian life is the power of the Holy Spirit, right? And Peter at this point has yielded to the Spirit of God. It’s an aorist passive. It indicates, perhaps, that he was already ready, because he was already filled with the Spirit.
… The Spirit – the filling of the Spirit is simply when a believer walks in obedience to the Word and the Spirit, you see. Peter had already taken the steps to be Spirit-filled, because he was obedient. He had preached, and he had submitted as God had brought the persecution, and that was under the control of the Spirit, at that point. That’s why it’s an aorist passive; it had already been done. It is simply submission, is all it is.
Submission to the triune God is the only way to salvation.
May all reading this enjoy a blessed Sunday.
The Third Sunday of Easter is April 14, 2024.
Readings for Year B can be found here.
The Gospel is as follows (emphases mine):
Luke 24:36-48
24:36 While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
24:37 They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost.
24:38 He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?
24:39 Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”
24:40 And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.
24:41 While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?”
24:42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish,
24:43 and he took it and ate in their presence.
24:44 Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you–that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.”
24:45 Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures,
24:46 and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day,
24:47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
24:48 You are witnesses of these things.
Commentary comes from Matthew Henry and John MacArthur.
The verses in Luke 24 preceding today’s — Luke 24:13-35 — are the account of the road to Emmaus, the reading for the Third Sunday of Easter in Year A.
Last week we had our Lord’s encounter with Thomas the Apostle — John 20:19-31 — who initially doubted then believed. That took place a week after today’s appearance by the risen Christ, which took place on the day of His resurrection.
Each Gospel has an account of the day of the Resurrection. Matthew Henry tells us:
Five times Christ was seen the same day that he rose: by Mary Magdalene alone in the garden (John 20 14), by the women as they were going to tell the disciples (Matt 28 9), by Peter alone, by the two disciples going to Emmaus, and now at night by the eleven, of which we have an account in these verses, as also John 20 19.
‘The eleven’ was the way of referring to the Apostles after Judas’s betrayal and subsequent suicide. Yet, Thomas was absent from the encounter described in today’s verses. He did not show up until the following week, John 20:19-31.
Of these various appearances, John MacArthur says that even those closest to Jesus doubted whether He could rise from the dead:
The resurrection is so critical that each of the four gospel writers focus on the reality of the resurrection. And as I’ve been telling you, they focus on proofs. They all four look at the empty tomb as an evidence of the resurrection, a pretty good one. They all four look at the angelic testimony, the testimony of an unmistakable angel from heaven. They all look at the witness of the women who saw Jesus personally: Mary Magdalene and the other women. And they all include as an evidence of the reality of the resurrection the unbelief of the disciples and the apostles, because one of the arguments is going to be, and always has been through history, the resurrection didn’t happen, but the followers of Jesus wanted it to happen so badly that they virtually actualized it in their own minds. They made it in to a reality because of such strong wish that it would come to pass. It was as if it happened because they wanted it so badly. All four gospel writers tell us there wasn’t one person among the disciples or the apostles who even believed Jesus would rise from the dead. They not only didn’t want it, they didn’t expect it, they didn’t even believe it.
Each of the gospel writers then looks at these evidences – each of them from a little different angle, looking at different incidents of those things, but all looking at these evidences. Each of them give eyewitness accounts where unbelief was turned to faith. Each of them tells us how people were transformed when they met the risen Christ, whether it was John telling us about Mary Magdalene, or Matthew telling us about the women on the road, or Luke telling us about His appearance to Simon, or Luke telling us here about His appearance, as does John, in the upper room to the gathered eleven and the others. They all show us what a massive transformation took place when the risen Christ appeared.
These appearances, these experiences sealed the faith of the apostles, who then went out preaching the resurrection with proof. And they saw many believe, and the church established on the day of Pentecost with three thousand, and then five thousand, and tens of thousands more as the church began to move to what it is even this day, two thousand years later.
While those gathered were talking about what happened on the road to Emmaus, Jesus Himself stood among the ten Apostles and said to them, ‘Peace be with you’ (verse 36).
Wishing someone peace was a common greeting among the Jews of the day. However, Matthew Henry explains that Jesus had a deeper meaning in this context, that of forgiveness:
Observe, 1. The comfort Christ spoke to them: Peace be unto you. This intimates in general that it was a kind visit which Christ now paid them, a visit of love and friendship. Though they had very unkindly deserted him in his sufferings, yet he takes the first opportunity of seeing them together; for he deals not with us as we deserve. They did not credit those who had seen him; therefore he comes himself, that they might not continue in their disconsolate incredulity. He had promised that after his resurrection he would see them in Galilee; but so desirous was he to see them, and satisfy them, that he anticipated the appointment and sees them at Jerusalem. Note, Christ is often better than his word, but never worse. Now his first word to them was, Peace be to you; not in a way of compliment, but of consolation. This was a common form of salutation among the Jews, and Christ would thus express his usual familiarity with them, though he had now entered into his state of exaltation. Many, when they are advanced, forget their old friends and take state upon them; but we see Christ as free with them as ever. Thus Christ would at the first word intimate to them that he did not come to quarrel with Peter for denying him and the rest for running away from him; no, he came peaceably, to signify to them that he had forgiven them, and was reconciled to them.
Recall that only the Apostle John was present at the Crucifixion and was with Mary, our Lord’s earthly mother, at the foot of the Cross.
On the greeting, MacArthur adds another aspect:
I think it was probably more than that as well; I think it was peace in the ultimate sense. He came as the Prince of Peace. He came to bring peace to men of good will. And through the resurrection, He accomplished that peace. It’s peace every way you could look at it.
That peace is being one with God, a peace that can be attained only through a belief in His Son, the risen Christ.
They were startled and terrified, thinking that they had seen a ghost (verse 37), or ‘spirit’, in some translations.
Henry looks at the Greek used:
2. The fright which they put themselves into upon it (v. 37): They were terrified, supposing that they had seen a spirit, because he came in among them without any noise, and was in the midst of them ere they were aware. The word used (Matt 14 26), when they said It is a spirit, is phantasma, it is a spectre, an apparition; but the word here used is pneuma, the word that properly signifies a spirit; they supposed it to be a spirit not clothed with a real body. Though we have an alliance and correspondence with the world of spirits, and are hastening to it, yet while we are here in this world of sense and matter it is a terror to us to have a spirit so far change its own nature as to become visible to us, and conversable with us, for it is something, and bodes something, very extraordinary.
After the Resurrection, Christ had His glorified body, something all believers will have when they join Him in glory forever on the Last Day.
That said, MacArthur reminds us that His glorified body was not the shock element here:
Mary just thought He was the gardener, right? And the women on the road just said, “We met Him and it was Him.” And the disciples said, “He just walked up, and we started talking together,” and there was nothing apparently, dramatically, shockingly supernatural about Him, His appearance. The resurrect[ed], glorified body of Christ was adaptable.
The shock was His sudden appearance:
He just “whoosh” is there in a locked room; that’s the shock …
And they were startled, ptoeō is the Greek verb. It means “to be suddenly startled.” And then emphobos from which we get phobias, fears. It means “to be in a continued state of fear.”
They were stunned and startled and shocked into a condition of terror. That is a natural reaction. If you’re sitting there and we’re having this service, and somebody instantly appeared there, you’d be startled too, or here, or anywhere. It wouldn’t really be a matter of what they look like, it would just be a matter of “where did they come from?” that would generate the shock.
They thought they must be seeing a ghost. Now they’d never seen a ghost. But maybe there was then like there is now this belief that ghosts exist; or certainly spirits exist, demonic spirits exist, angelic spirits exist. It couldn’t be a material being. It couldn’t be a human, being because where would He come from; humans can’t do that. So it was a fairly reasonable conclusion to say that “this must be a spirit; this must be some kind of a vision.”
Jesus asked why they were afraid and why doubts arose in their hearts (verse 38).
Henry nails it on the head with regard to being troubled:
Observe here, (1.) That when at any time we are troubled, thoughts are apt to rise in our hearts that do us hurt. Sometimes the trouble is the effect of the thoughts that arise in our hearts; our griefs and fears take rise from those things that are the creatures of our own fancy. Sometimes the thoughts arising in the heart are the effect of the trouble, without are fightings and then within are fears. Those that are melancholy and troubled in mind have thoughts arising in their hearts which reflect dishonour upon God, and create disquiet to themselves. I am cut off from thy sight. The Lord has forsaken and forgotten me. (2.) That many of the troublesome thoughts with which our minds are disquieted arise from our mistakes concerning Christ. They here thought that they had seen a spirit, when they saw Christ, and that put them into this fright. We forget that Christ is our elder brother, and look upon him to be at as great a distance from us as the world of spirits is from this world, and therewith terrify ourselves. When Christ is by his Spirit convincing and humbling us, when he is by his providence trying and converting us, we mistake him, as if he designed our hurt, and this troubles us. (3.) That all the troublesome thoughts which rise in our hearts at any time are known to the Lord Jesus, even at the first rise of them, and they are displeasing to him. He chid his disciples for such thoughts, to teach us to chide ourselves for them. Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou troubled? Why do thoughts arise that are neither true nor good, that have neither foundation nor fruit, but hinder our joy in God, unfit us for our duty, give advantage to Satan, and deprive us of the comforts laid up for us?
MacArthur adds another pertinent observation:
What He’s doing is demanding that they look at the evidence; trustworthy people. “Use your minds.”
Jesus told them to look at His hands and His feet — the wounds were still there, even in His glorified state — and said that a ghost does not have the flesh and bones that He has (verse 39).
Henry points out that Jesus asked the Apostles to use their senses to discern whether He was real or a spirit:
He lays down this principle—that a spirit has not flesh and bones; it is not compounded of gross matter, shaped into various members, and consisting of divers heterogeneous parts, as our bodies are. He does not tell us what a spirit is (it is time enough to know that when we go to the world of spirits), but what it is not: It has not flesh and bones. Now hence he infers, “It is I myself, whom you have been so intimately acquainted with, and have had such familiar conversation with; it is I myself, whom you have reason to rejoice in, and not to be afraid of.” Those who know Christ aright, and know him as theirs, will have no reason to be terrified at his appearances, at his approaches. [1.] He appeals to their sight, shows them his hands and his feet, which were pierced with the nails. Christ retained the marks of them in his glorified body, that they might be proofs that it was he himself; and he was willing that they should be seen. He afterwards showed them to Thomas, for he is not ashamed of his sufferings for us; little reason then have we to be ashamed of them, or of ours for him. As he showed his wounds here to his disciples, for the enforcing of his instructions to them, so he showed them to his Father, for the enforcing of his intercessions with him. He appears in heaven as a Lamb that had been slain (Rev 5 6); his blood speaks, Heb 12 24. He makes intercession in the virtue of his satisfaction; he says to the Father, as here to the disciples, Behold my hands and my feet, Zech 13 6, 7. [2.] He appeals to their touch: Handle me, and see. He would not let Mary Magdalene touch him at that time, John 20 17. But the disciples here are entrusted to do it, that they who were to preach his resurrection, and to suffer for doing so, might be themselves abundantly satisfied concerning it. He bade them handle him, that they might be convinced that he was not a spirit. If there were really no spirits, or apparitions of spirits (as by this and other instances it is plain that the disciples did believe there were), this had been a proper time for Christ to have undeceived them, by telling them there were no such things; but he seems to take it for granted that there have been and may be apparitions of spirits, else what need was there of so much pains to prove that he was not one?
Jesus then showed them His hands and feet (verse 40) as further proof.
MacArthur says:
The nature of the glorified body is that it can be whatever it wants to be, whatever it needs to be. They aren’t bones like the bones before His death, they are the structure that keeps His actual corporeal form together. There’s flesh, but it’s not like His former flesh. It’s something different, it’s eternal; it cannot die.
Well, He’s asking them to look, to touch. “And when He had said this,” – verse 40 – “He showed them His hands and His feet.”
Henry reminds us of ancient heresies that misinterpreted Christ’s glorified nature. Sadly, these are with us again today:
There were many heretics in the primitive times, atheists I rather think they were, who said that Christ had never any substantial body, but that it was a mere phantasm, which was neither really born nor truly suffered. Such wild notions as these, we are told, the Valentinians and Manichees had, and the followers of Simon Magus; they were called Doketai and Phantysiastai.
Returning to today’s Gospel, the Apostles experienced a mix of emotions. They were joyful, yet still disbelieving and wondering, as Jesus asked whether they had anything to eat (verse 41).
Henry explains their emotional state:
It was their infirmity that they believed not, that yet they believed not, eti apistounton auton—they as yet being unbelievers. This very much corroborates the truth of Christ’s resurrection that the disciples were so slow to believe it. Instead of stealing away his body, and saying, He is risen, when he is not, as the chief priests suggested they would do, they are ready to say again and again, He is not risen, when he is. Their being incredulous of it at first, and insisting upon the utmost proofs of it, show that when afterwards they did believe it, and venture their all upon it, it was not but upon the fullest demonstration of the thing that could be. But, though it was their infirmity, yet it was an excusable one; for it was not from any contempt of the evidence offered them that they believed not: but, First, They believed not for joy, as Jacob, when he was told that Joseph was alive; they thought it too good news to be true. When the faith and hope are therefore weak because the love and desires are strong, that weak faith shall be helped, and not rejected. Secondly, They wondered; they thought it not only too good, but too great, to be true, forgetting both the scriptures and the power of God.
MacArthur says similarly, citing the phraseology from his Bible version:
… in verse 41, it’s so interesting: “And while they still could not believe it for joy,” – what is that? What do you mean you can’t believe it for joy? We have a phrase for that: “Something is too good to be true.” That was it.
You know, they have no expectation of this, and now it’s dawning on them that this is actually the risen Christ, and it is true, and it’s too good to be true. It’s like the old, “I’m pinching myself because this can’t be happening to me.” There’s a conflicted mind here. This is not possible, this is not expected; but here it is.
Henry looks at our Lord’s request for something to eat, or ‘meat’, as his version states:
For their further conviction and encouragement, he called for some meat. He sat down to meat with the two disciples at Emmaus, but it is not said that he did eat with them; now, lest that should be made an objection, he here did actually eat with them and the rest, to show that his body was really and truly returned to life, though he did not eat and drink, and converse constantly, with them, as he had done (and as Lazarus did after his resurrection, who not only returned to life, but to his former state of life, and to die again), because it was not agreeable to the economy of the state he was risen to.
The Apostles gave him a piece of broiled fish (verse 42) — some versions, such as Henry’s, add ‘honeycomb’ — which He took and ate in their presence (verse 43).
Henry says:
They gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of a honey-comb, v. 42. The honey-comb, perhaps, was used as sauce to the broiled fish, for Canaan was a land flowing with honey. This was mean fare; yet, if it be the fare of the disciples, their Master will fare as they do, because in the kingdom of our Father they shall fare as he does, shall eat and drink with him in his kingdom.
MacArthur dispels the myth that Jerusalem had no access to fish:
… the critics say, “Well, this proves the inaccuracy of the Bible, because fish were not available in Jerusalem.” Well, that is a stretch. But there are articles actually on how we know this is not true, because there were no fish in Jerusalem, despite the fact that one of the gates leading into the city is called the “Fish Gate,” according to Nehemiah 3:3 and Nehemiah 12:39, because that’s where the fishermen from the sea brought the fish through to the city. And, by the way, there were people of Tyre, according to Nehemiah, who lived in Jerusalem who were fish importers. Of course there were fish there, and they had cooked it and they gave it to Him, and He ate it.
MacArthur explains how Jesus in His glorified body could eat:
Now how are we to understand this body? It can be seen. It can be heard, because it can speak. It can be touched. It can eat. It’s a combination of what is natural and supernatural.
Here’s the way to understand it. His supernatural, glorified body was able to conform to any realm and any reality. If it needed to be earthly, it could be earthly. If it needed to be heavenly, it could be heavenly. If it needed to be physical, it could be physical. If it needed to be spiritual, it could be spiritual. If it needed to be transcendent, it could be transcendent. If it needed to be earthy, it could be earthy.
It could stand one moment on the Mount of Olives, have a conversation with the disciples, and in an instant, disappear into a cloud and go into the infinite heaven beyond the end of the infinite universe into the presence of God infinitely faster than the speed of light. It could do a quantum leap …
… that’s the power of God, and that power is displayed in the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. He can be outside and be inside; He can be in Emmaus, He can be here; and yet He can eat a fish if He needs to. Its adaptability is what the mark of the glorified body is.
Jesus then reminded the Apostles of Scripture and what He had told them before He died: ‘that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled’ (verse 44).
Henry explains:
The insight he gave them into the word of God, which they had heard and read, by which faith in the resurrection of Christ is wrought in them, and all the difficulties are cleared. (1.) He refers them to the word which they had heard from him when he was with them, and puts them in mind of that as the angel had done (v. 44): These are the words which I said unto you in private, many a time, while I was yet with you. We should better understand what Christ does, if we did but better remember what he hath said, and had but the art of comparing them together. (2.) He refers them to the word they had read in the Old Testament, to which the word they had heard from him directed them: All things must be fulfilled which were written. Christ had given them this general hint for the regulating of their expectations—that whatever they found written concerning the Messiah, in the Old Testament, must be fulfilled in him, what was written concerning his sufferings as well as what was written concerning his kingdom; these God had joined together in the prediction, and it could not be thought that they should be put asunder in the event. All things must be fulfilled, even the hardest, even the heaviest, even the vinegar; he could not die till he had that, because he could not till then say, It is finished. The several parts of the Old Testament are here mentioned, as containing each of them things concerning Christ: The law of Moses, that is, the Pentateuch, or the five books written by Moses,—the prophets, containing not only the books that are purely prophetical, but those historical books that were written by prophetical men,—the Psalms, containing the other writings, which they called the Hagiographa. See in what various ways of writing God did of old reveal his will; but all proceeded from one and the self-same Spirit, who by them gave notice of the coming and kingdom of the Messiah; for to him bore all the prophets witness.
He opened their minds to understand what the prophets had foretold (verse 45).
Henry gives us an excellent analysis:
In his discourse with the two disciples he took the veil from off the text, by opening the scriptures; here he took the veil from off the heart, by opening the mind. Observe here, [1.] That Jesus Christ by his Spirit operates on the minds of men, on the minds of all that are his. He has access to our spirits, and can immediately influence them. It is observable how he did now after his resurrection give a specimen of those two great operations of his Spirit upon the spirits of men, his enlightening the intellectual faculties with a divine light, when he opened the understandings of his disciples, and his invigorating the active powers with a divine heat, when he made their hearts burn within them. [2.] Even good men need to have their understandings opened; for though they are not darkness, as they were by nature, yet in many things they are in the dark. David prays, Open mine eyes. Give me understanding. And Paul, who knows so much of Christ, sees his need to learn more. [3.] Christ’s way of working faith in the soul, and gaining the throne there, is by opening the understanding to discern the evidence of those things that are to be believed. Thus he comes into the soul by the door, while Satan, as a thief and a robber, climbs up some other way. [4.] The design of opening the understanding is that we may understand the scriptures; not that we may be wise above what is written, but that we may be wiser in what is written, and may be made wise to salvation by it. The Spirit in the word and the Spirit in the heart say the same thing. Christ’s scholars never learn above their bibles in this world; but they need to be learning still more and more out of their bibles, and to grow more ready and mighty in the scriptures. That we may have right thoughts of Christ, and have our mistakes concerning him rectified, there needs no more than to be made to understand the scriptures.
How true that is.
Jesus reminded the Apostles of what the Old Testament says — ‘it is written’ — that ‘the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day’ (verse 46), and ‘that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem’ (verse 47).
Henry says:
Thus it was written in the sealed book of the divine counsels from eternity, the volume of that book of the covenant of redemption; and thus it was written in the open book of the Old Testament, among the things revealed; and therefore thus it behoved Christ to suffer, for the divine counsels must be performed, and care taken that no word of God fall to the ground.
Repentance is a constant theme running through both Old and New Testaments. Old Testament prophets died for preaching that message. So did Christ. The prophets and our Lord died in Jerusalem.
MacArthur gives us one of many examples of the need to repent from the Old Testament then moves on to the continuing theme with faith in Christ:
Verse 47: “So that repentance for the forgiveness of sins can be proclaimed in His name.” What is the provision that transforms? It is the forgiveness of sins. The gospel message to be proclaimed across the world, folks, is just one simple message: repent and ask for the forgiveness of sins in the name of Christ. That’s it.
We say, “You know, we want people to be saved.” And the obvious question is, “Saved from what?” From their sins, and the punishment of those sins that is everlasting in hell. This is our only message. We don’t have a social message. There are social implications in the gospel, because godly people behave differently. We don’t have an economic message. We don’t have an educational message. We have one message: forgiveness of sins. That’s it. And that’s what was laid out at the beginning.
Let me show you something, just quickly, and we’ll end with this, but this is a good place to make a break. Back in chapter 1, verse 77 … in the prophecy of Zachariah, which sets the course of the Book. “He is coming” – this Son of God, the Messiah – “to give to His people the knowledge of salvation.” Okay? How they going to get that? How are they going to be saved? “By the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God.”
The Christian gospel is this: God is merciful, God will forgive your sins; and that provision is in Christ. That’s the way it starts in the book of Luke, and that’s the way it ends. So when John the Baptist comes along in chapter 3, who is the forerunner to the Messiah and the child born to Zechariah, verse 3 of chapter 3, “He came into all the district around the Jordan preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”
Or chapter 4, Jesus comes on the scene. And Jesus is preaching repentance, and He gives one message in Nazareth in the synagogue, and verse 18 He quotes from Isaiah 61: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me. He’s anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor, sent Me to proclaim release to the captives,” – those who are captive to sin – “sight to the blind” – those that are blinded by sin – “set free the oppressed,” – those that are oppressed by sin …
‘All nations’ in verse 47 pertains to the Gentiles.
Henry tells us:
They are here told, [1.] That they must preach this among all nations. They must disperse themselves, like the sons of Noah after the flood, some one way and some another, and carry this light along with them wherever they go. The prophets had preached repentance and remission to the Jews, but the apostles must preach them to all the world. None are exempted from the obligations the gospel lays upon men to repent, nor are any excluded from those inestimable benefits which are included in the remission of sins, but those that by their unbelief and impenitency put a bar in their own door.
Henry explains why Jesus told the Apostles to begin preaching in Jerusalem:
And why must they begin there? First, Because thus it was written, and therefore it behoved them to take this method. The word of the Lord must go forth from Jerusalem, Isa 2 3. And see Joel 2 32; 3 16; Obad 21; Zech 14 8. Secondly, Because there the matters of fact on which the gospel was founded were transacted; and therefore there they were first attested, where, if there had been any just cause for it, they might be best contested and disproved. So strong, so bright, is the first shining forth of the glory of the risen Redeemer that it dares face those daring enemies of his that had put him to an ignominious death, and sets them at defiance. “Begin at Jerusalem, that the chief priests may try their strength to crush the gospel, and may rage to see themselves disappointed.” Thirdly, Because he would give us a further example of forgiving enemies. Jerusalem had put the greatest affronts imaginable upon him (both the rulers and the multitude), for which that city might justly have been excepted by name out of the act of indemnity; but no, so far from that, the first offer of gospel grace is made to Jerusalem, and thousands there are in a little time brought to partake of that grace.
This was Luke’s version of the Great Commission, more fully expressed in Matthew 28:18-20:
18 Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’
Jesus told the Apostles, ‘You are witnesses of these things’ (verse 48).
MacArthur draws our attention to Peter’s sermons in the Book of Acts, which attest to this witness:
It’s about all the personal proclamation of the gospel that goes on in that early church.
Peter’s first sermon, he says in verse 32, “This God, this Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses.” Chapter 3, verse 15: “You put to death the Prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses.” They were eyewitnesses, incredible eyewitnesses; and there were hundreds of them.
Chapter 5: “He is the one to whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior to grant repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins; and we are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit,” he says. Chapter 10 of Acts, verse 39, the same emphasis on personal witness: “We are witnesses of all the things He did both in and of the Jews in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, we are witnesses. We are witnesses that God raised Him up on the third day. And He became visible not to all the people, but to witnesses who were chosen beforehand, who ate and drank with Him. We are witnesses.”
And there were others in Acts who gave the same testimony:
Chapter 13, verse 31; chapter 22, verses 15 and 20; chapter 26:16; they’re all saying, “We’re witnesses. We’re witnesses. We’re witnesses.” And they wrote down the eyewitness account in Scripture; and we are witnesses to the accuracy and inspiration of the eyewitness account; and God still advances His kingdom through personal witness. It’s still, in my mind, the most powerful tool for evangelism, because it’s undergirded by the credibility of a transformed life. This is God’s plan, God’s agency: human witness.
The next verse, which the Lectionary omits is about the first Pentecost, the descent of the Holy Spirit:
49 I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.’
Here, too, is a prophecy that would be fulfilled. Henry reminds us:
Christ’s ambassadors must stay till they have their powers, and not venture upon their embassy till they have received full instructions and credentials. Though, one would think, never was such haste as now for the preaching of the gospel, yet the preachers must tarry till they be endued with power from on high, and tarry at Jerusalem, though a place of danger, because there this promise of the Father was to find them, Joel 2 28.
May all reading this enjoy a blessed Sunday.
The Second Sunday of Easter is April 7, 2024.
This particular Sunday, which features the Gospel reading of the encounter between Thomas the Apostle and Jesus regarding His wounds, is traditionally known as Quasimodo Sunday, taken from the Latin Introit:
Quasi modo geniti infantes, rationabile, sine dolo lac concupiscite.
This translates to: ‘As newborn babes, desire the rational milk without guile’ and is intended for those baptised the week before.
You can read more about Quasimodo Sunday here. The Victor Hugo character got his nickname because he had been left abandoned as a child at Notre Dame Cathedral on that particular day.
Readings for Year B can be found here.
An exegesis for the Gospel, John 20:19-31, is also available.
The First Reading is as follows (emphases mine):
Acts 4:32-35
4:32 Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common.
4:33 With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.
4:34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold.
4:35 They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.
Commentary comes from Matthew Henry and John MacArthur.
These verses from Acts, which St Luke wrote, discuss the poor church in Jerusalem after the first Pentecost, at which time the Jews celebrated the Feast of Weeks, or Shavuot, along with Passover being one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals, the third of which was the autumn Feast of Booths (Tabernacles), Sukkot. There were a many pilgrims present for Shavuot, meaning that there were Hellenist (Greek) Jews from distant lands, hence the foreign languages spoken at Pentecost. Having witnessed Pentecost, they remained in Jerusalem afterwards. As such, the new congregation was not solely made up of permanent residents of Jerusalem.
The group was so Spirit-filled that they were of one heart and soul; no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common (verse 32).
Matthew Henry explains:
Behold, how good and how pleasant it was to see how the multitude of those that believed were of one heart, and of one soul (v. 32), and there was no such thing as discord nor division among them. Observe here, 1. There were multitudes that believed; even in Jerusalem, where the malignant influence of the chief priests was most strong, there were three thousand converted on one day, and five thousand on another, and, besides these, there were added to the church daily; and no doubt they were all baptized, and made profession of the faith; for the same Spirit that endued the apostles with courage to preach the faith of Christ endued them with courage to confess it. Note, The increase of the church is the glory of it, and the multitude of those that believe, more than their quality. Now the church shines, and her light is come, when souls thus fly like a cloud into her bosom, and like doves to their windows, Isa 60 1, 8. 2. They were all of one heart, and of one soul. Though there were many, very many, of different ages, tempers, and conditions, in the world, who perhaps, before they believed, were perfect strangers to one another, yet, when they met in Christ, they were as intimately acquainted as if they had known one another many years. Perhaps they had been of different sects among the Jews, before their conversion, or had had discords upon civil accounts; but now these were all forgotten and laid aside, and they were unanimous in the faith of Christ, and, being all joined to the Lord, they were joined to one another in holy love. This was the blessed fruit of Christ’s dying precept to his disciples, to love one another, and his dying prayer for them, that they all might be one. We have reason to think they divided themselves into several congregations, or worshipping assemblies, according as their dwellings were, under their respective ministers; and yet this occasioned no jealousy or uneasiness; for they were all of one heart, and one soul, notwithstanding; and loved those of other congregations as truly as those of their own. Thus it was then, and we may not despair of seeing it so again, when the Spirit shall be poured out upon us from on high.
John MacArthur says:
The first and beautiful thing about it was that there was a real spiritual participation, not just that they all belonged to the same organization – not an organizational thing at all, but a real thing – they had one heart and one soul.
They felt what everybody felt unitedly. They thought unitedly, they were like one big brain, they were in the truest sense, the body. They had one heartbeat and one soul … And you notice that they don’t number them anymore; it’s getting too big to even number, so many are coming to Christ.
You say, “Well, what was it that was bringing them in?” It was this fantastic testimony of love and unity. Jesus had said, in John 13, “Here’s a new commandment I’m going to give you, love one another,” and He said, “by this shall all men know that you’re my disciples. They’ll be drawn to you if they see your love.” And they did, and they were. And in John, chapter 17:21, Jesus said, “If you’ll only be one, the world will know that God sent Me.” And they were one, and the world knew, and the world watched, and many believed.
And so, the church had grown to the place where they don’t even number it anymore, and as big as it was, over 20,000 people, they were one. You say, “It’s impossible.” No, it’s not. It’s not impossible. You say, “What made them one?” Two things: a preoccupation with each other, and a preoccupation with taking the gospel to the lost. They were so busy worrying about the needs of each other, they couldn’t have cared less about their own glory, and their own self-esteem, and their own satisfaction.
They were so busy running around making sure everybody else’s need got met that they couldn’t have cared less about themselves. Secondly, they were too busy winning the world to Jesus to bother with trivialities. They had two priorities that Jesus had given them, get together and reach the world. That’s all He ever said for them to do. Just be one and reach the world. And they were too busy doing that to get lost in anything else. And so, there was a kind of genuineness, and a kind of unity that has never existed since in the church.
Just as Henry laments the loss of this unity in his final sentence in his above analysis, so does MacArthur in our era. Yet, neither despairs, because, given the right mindset, this beautiful spiritual unity could happen again one day. MacArthur says:
One heart, one soul. Oh, how different it would be today; how different! You say, “Well, how do you get that unity?” And we’ve talked about it so many times, only just a review, quick. Unity comes from love, love comes from humility, humility comes from a correct evaluation of yourself, the right spiritual knowledge. If you really see who you are in relation to Jesus Christ, there’s only one thing you can be: humble. And if you’re really humble, there is only one thing you can do: really love.
And if you really love, there’s only one thing that comes out of it: unity. And they had it. And they were preoccupied with each other, and with winning the world. They were too busy winning the world to worry about their own needs and their own selves, and so consequently, everybody was caring for everybody else, and you didn’t have to care for yourself. What a beautiful kind of preoccupation; oh my, how rich and how sweet their fellowship must have been, and how ours could be, if we ever got to the place where we understood our two priorities.
Love and care for each other and reach the world, and let everything just drop.
With great power the Apostles gave the testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all (verse 33).
Of the Apostles’ testimony about the Resurrection, Henry says:
The doctrine they preached was, the resurrection of Christ: a matter of fact, which served not only for the confirmation of the truth of Christ’s holy religion, but being duly explained and illustrated, with the proper inferences from it, served for a summary of all the duties, privileges, and comforts of Christians. The resurrection of Christ, rightly understood and improved, will let us into the great mysteries of religion. By the great power wherewith the apostles attested the resurrection may be meant, 1. The great vigour, spirit, and courage, with which they published and avowed this doctrine; they did it not softly and diffidently, but with liveliness and resolution, as those that were themselves abundantly satisfied of the truth of it, and earnestly desired that others should be so too. Or, 2. The miracles which they wrought to confirm their doctrine. With works of great power, they gave witness to the resurrection of Christ, God himself, in them, bearing witness too.
At that point, Peter had already cured a lame man in his 40s (Acts 4:22).
It should also be noted that Jerusalem’s leaders were still against our Lord, now ascended to heaven, and preaching about Him, so active opposition met the Apostles and the congregation.
Nevertheless, preaching and conversions continued.
Henry has this to say about the grace that abounded:
The beauty of the Lord our God shone upon them, and all their performances: Great grace was upon them all, not only all the apostles, but all the believers, charis megale—grace that had something great in it (magnificent and very extraordinary) was upon them all. 1. Christ poured out abundance of grace upon them, such as qualified them for great services, by enduing them with great power; it came upon them from on high, from above. 2. There were evident fruits of this grace in all they said and did, such as put an honour upon them, and recommended them to the favour of God, as being in his sight of great price. 3. Some think it includes the favour they were in with the people. Every one saw a beauty and excellency in them, and respected them.
There was not a needy person among them, for as many that owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold (verse 34).
Henry explains that the believers had no interest in materialism, the love of things in this world:
These believers were so taken up with the hopes of an inheritance in the other world that this was as nothing to them. No man said that aught of the things which he possessed was his own, v. 32. They did not take away property, but they were indifferent to it. They did not call what they had their own, in a way of pride and vainglory, boasting of it, or trusting in it. They did not call it their own, because they had, in affection, forsaken all for Christ, and were continually expecting to be stripped of all for their adherence to him. They did not say that aught was their own; for we can call nothing our own but sin. What we have in the world is more God’s than our own; we have it from him, must use it for him, and are accountable for it to him. No man said that what he had was his own, idion—his peculiar; for he was ready to distribute, willing to communicate, and desired not to eat his morsel alone, but what he had to spare from himself and family his poor neighbours were welcome to. Those that had estates were not solicitous to lay up, but very willing to lay out, and would straiten themselves to help their brethren. No marvel that they were of one heart and soul, when they sat so loose to the wealth of this world …
Henry, citing Dr Lightfoot, an esteemed scholar of his day, also points out that the year of the first Pentecost was also a Jubilee year. As such, the sale of property fetched even more than it would have done normally:
Dr. Lightfoot computes that this was the year of jubilee in the Jewish nation, the fiftieth year (the twenty-eighth since they settled in Canaan fourteen hundred years ago), so that, what was sold that year being not to return till the next jubilee, lands then took a good price, and so the sale of those lands would raise the more money.
MacArthur has more:
It doesn’t say that Peter made an edict that all people admit that all they had was everybody’s.
It says this: “Neither said any of them that any of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.” They all said it. They all said, “Hey, whatever I have belongs to you if you need it.” You see, they had the right view of money, and they had the right view of possessions. You know what God’s view of it is? Whatever you have, in total, doesn’t belong to you. That’s principle number one. None of it. You say, “Wait a minute, I paid for it; 36 months I paid for it,” right? Let me tell you something. It’s not yours.
It isn’t yours. You say, “Whose is it?” It’s God’s, and it belongs to every other one who is His, if they need it …
They said, “Nothing that I have is mine; it all belongs to God, and consequently it all belongs to whoever’s His, who needs it.” Oh, that’s a terrific concept. So practical …
… you can always tell a man’s depth of love for Christ by what he sacrifices financially; that’s a measure of his life, because that’s where his Christianity gets right down to the real nitty gritty. You say, “That’s a pretty mundane concept.” I know, that’s just the point. That’s just the point. And you see, when we saw, in Acts 2, the church being born, you’ll remember that we saw there were a lot of pilgrims that came to Jerusalem, right?
And when they came to Jerusalem, they hadn’t any homes, and they hadn’t any support, and so they had a community of people who’d moved in on them who needed supply. Secondly, I’m sure they were some of those people who lost their jobs and certain things that they had for income. There were poor people all over the place in Jerusalem, and most of the believers were poor. And so, the rich were able to supply the needs of those that were poor, because they didn’t think that anything they owned belonged to them.
That’s a great concept. Whatever I have belongs to anybody who needs it, and at any moment when I know there’s a need, I should be able to liquidate everything I have to supply that need. And then you know what’ll happen? God will reap the harvest, and pour it back to me so much I won’t even be able to contain it. But I don’t do it for that reason. Look at verse 34, “Neither was there any among them that lacked.” You know, not one guy had anything that he needed? They just kept supplying – “for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold.”
Everybody went out and said, “Hey, I don’t need all that property over there. God’s going take care of me, and look over here. These folks, they have needs. I’ll just sell the land, and I’ll just bring it here, and you guys, let them meet their needs.” Now, that’s practical Christianity: practical. Now, that’s not communism; it doesn’t mean they sold the house they live in. It doesn’t mean that they gave up everything, and they all became poor and doled it out on an equal basis; not at all.
It means that when there were needs, they met the needs, and if it meant that they had to sell their property to do it, they did it. And don’t you think for a minute that God doesn’t want you to have any money. “God gives you all things richly to enjoy,” 1 Timothy 6 says, and the context there is money. He’s given you money ‘cause it’s a wonderful blessing. Now, if you love it, it’s going to mess you up, because the love of money is the root of all evil, right? Not money, and you can love it and have none of it, or you could have a whole lot of it, and not love it.
But it’s the love of it that’s the root of all evil. Jesus put it this way, and it couldn’t be more simple: “You cannot serve God and money.” Never met a man yet who had a goal in his mind to make money who was worth much to God. You can’t do it. But I never met a man who was really plugged in and Spirit-filled who didn’t have his money all out on the table for anybody who needed it. It’s always the way. Oh, what a wonderful attitude that early church had. Nobody really had any needs, because everybody was just pouring it in.
The well-off believers laid what they had at the Apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had needs (verse 35).
Henry praises this, as one would expect, but adds a warning about charitable disbursements:
Observe, The apostles would have it laid at their feet, in token of their holy contempt of the wealth of the world; they thought it fitter it should be laid at their feet than lodged in their hands or in their bosoms. Being laid there, it was not hoarded up, but distribution was made, by proper persons, unto every man according as he had need. Great care ought to be taken in the distribution of public charity, [1.] That it be given to such as have need; such as are not able to procure a competent maintenance of themselves, through age, infancy, sickness, or bodily disability, or incapacity of mind, want either of ingenuity or activity, cross providences, losses, oppressions, or a numerous charge. Those who upon any of these accounts, or any other, have real need, and have not relations of their own to help them—but, above all, those that are reduced to want for well doing, and for the testimony of a good conscience, ought to be taken care of, and provided for, and, with such a prudent application of what is given, as may be most for their benefit. [2.] That it be given to every man for whom it is intended, according as he has need, without partiality or respect of persons. It is a rule in dispensing charity, as well as in administering justice, ut parium par sit ratio—that those who are equally needy and equally deserving should be equally helped, and that the charity should be suited and adapted to the necessity, as the word is.
MacArthur points to the Offertory, when the collection plate is taken up to the altar for blessing and distribution. Catholics do not do that, which is fine, but Protestants — depending on the denomination — either see the offering blessed or see it blessed and placed on the altar for the remainder of the service.
MacArthur refers to this and adds another warning about charity:
… they brought it into a common store, gave it to the apostles, and the apostles dispensed it. That’s where we have the basis, or the initiation, really, of the kind of giving we do in the church, where the money is brought, it is placed into the hands of those who are the teaching pastors and elders, and they are responsible for distributing it as the needs arise. This is New Testament; this is biblical. And I think you need to be careful.
I think there are so many people who fall into the pattern of wanting to give their money only when they can determine its destiny, you know? They say, “Well, I want to buy that thing,” or “I want to give for that thing,” or “I want to give this over to this person,” or they want to pass their money out, only so that it goes where they think it ought to go. I don’t think that’s the truest kind of biblical giving. Also, I think that very often in that there’s the danger, then, of seeking a reward on a very superficial basis, the applause of men.
Whereas that secret kind of faithful giving, where you just bring it, and lay it there, and let it be distributed as God directs the man responsible, that’s the purest kind of giving. And I think that keeps you away from the danger of self-satisfaction or glory in the kind of giving you do, and that’s just a little footnote.
MacArthur concludes:
Money is not evil, as I said, but you can use it for God’s glory, or it can become a problem, and an inducer of evil. Well, the early church had it right, they had the right attitude toward money. You remember what Paul said, “Godliness with contentment is great gain.”
May all reading this enjoy a blessed Sunday.
Happy Easter, everyone! He is risen!
The readings for Easter Day are many. Year B’s are here.
Also available are an exegesis for another Epistle, Acts 10:34-43 (Peter’s preaching to Cornelius and his household), and the following Gospel accounts of the Resurrection: John 20:1-18, Luke 24:1-12 and Matthew 28:1-10.
Today’s Epistle for Year B is as follows (emphases mine):
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
15:1 Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand,
15:2 through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you–unless you have come to believe in vain.
15:3 For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures,
15:4 and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures,
15:5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
15:6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died.
15:7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.
15:8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
15:9 For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them–though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.
15:11 Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.
Commentary comes from Matthew Henry and John MacArthur.
John MacArthur’s sermons for this reading are from 1977, so I was astonished to read the fifth paragraph below in his first sermon on these verses:
Christians, down through the ages, have banked their destiny, have banked their destiny, have banked their life, have banked their hope on the fact that the shameful death of Jesus Christ was not the last word, but that he arose and triumphed over death, and that when He said, “Because I live, ye shall live also,” He granted to anyone who comes to Him by faith the same resurrection hope.
And it was this belief, and this belief alone, frankly, that turned the heartbroken followers of a crucified rabbi into the courageous martyrs of the early Church. It was the resurrection that gave birth to the fellowship of the saints that became the Church.
And they found, in those early years, that they could imprison them, and they could chastise them, and they could beat them, and they could verbally assault them, and they could invent ways to persecute them, and they could even kill them, but they could never make them deny the reality of the resurrection. It has always been, and will always be the cornerstone of the Christian faith.
And because that is true, the most fierce blows struck at Christianity, in its history, have been struck at the point of the resurrection. Because if you wipe out the resurrection, you get rid of everything: you eliminate salvation; you eliminate the deity of Christ; you eliminate eternal life; you eliminate the consequence of death. You just wipe it all out. And so, the resurrection is always under attack.
Some of you picked up the morning Times on Monday, after hearing our message on the resurrection last Sunday. On the front page you saw that article which stated that all Christian scholars agree that there is no resurrection. L.A. Times. And that this is something that’s just the wishful thinking of a few ancient fundamentalist fuddy-duddies who have long since lost touch with the reality of the truth.
Dear, oh dear. That’s nearly 50 years ago.
Matthew Henry explains concisely the problems that the Corinthians had with a bodily resurrection, which has been assured throughout Scripture, particularly the Old Testament. Incidentally, ancient Jews believed in bodily resurrection:
It is the apostle’s business in this chapter to assert and establish the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, which some of the Corinthians flatly denied, v. 12. Whether they turned this doctrine into allegory, as did Hymeneus and Philetus, by saying it was already past (2 Tim 2 17, 18), and several of the ancient heretics, by making it mean no more than a changing of their course of life; or whether they rejected it as absurd, upon principles of reason and science; it seems they denied it in the proper sense. And they disowned a future state of recompences, by denying the resurrection of the dead. Now that heathens and infidels should deny this truth does not seem so strange; but that Christians, who had their religion by revelation, should deny a truth so plainly discovered is surprising, especially when it is a truth of such importance. It was time for the apostle to confirm them in this truth, when the staggering of their faith in this point was likely to shake their Christianity; and they were yet in great danger of having their faith staggered. He begins with an epitome or summary of the gospel, what he had preached among them, namely, the death and resurrection of Christ. Upon this foundation the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead is built. Note, Divine truths appear with greatest evidence when they are looked upon in their mutual connection. The foundation may be strengthened, that the superstructure may be secured.
Paul refers to the teaching on the Resurrection that he had given to the Corinthians previously, which, he says, they in turn received and in which they stand (verse 1).
In older translations, the word ‘now’, more easily understood as a transition from the Apostle’s previous message from 1 Corinthians 14, says ‘moreover’.
Paul goes on to say that that belief is causing them to be saved, provided that they hold on to it, unless they have believed in vain (verse 2).
Henry explains Paul’s determination to ensure that the Corinthians, influenced by Greek philosophy, believe in bodily resurrection. Just as Christ rose from the dead, so shall we:
1. It was what he constantly preached. His word was not yea and nay: he always preached the same gospel, and taught the same truth. He could appeal to his hearers for this. Truth is in its own nature invariable; and the infallible teachers of divine truth could never be at variance with themselves or one another. The doctrine which Paul had heretofore taught, he still taught. 2. It was what they had received; they had been convinced of the faith, believed it in their hearts, or at least made profession of doing so with their mouths. It was no strange doctrine. It was that very gospel in which, or by which, they had hitherto stood, and must continue to stand. If they gave up this truth, they left themselves no ground to stand upon, no footing in religion. Note, The doctrine of Christ’s death and resurrection is at the foundation of Christianity. Remove this foundation, and the whole fabric falls, all our hopes for eternity sink at once. And it is by holding this truth firmly that Christians are made to stand in a day of trial, and kept faithful to God. 3. It was that alone by which they could hope for salvation (v. 2), for there is no salvation in any other name; no name given under heaven by which we may be saved, but by the name of Christ. And there is no salvation in his name, but upon supposition of his death and resurrection. These are the saving truths of our holy religion. The crucifixion of our Redeemer and his conquest over death are the very source of our spiritual life and hopes. Now concerning these saving truths observe, (1.) They must be retained in mind, they must be held fast (so the word is translated, Heb 10 23): Let us hold fast the profession of our faith. Note, The saving truths of the gospel must be fixed in our mind, revolved much in our thoughts, and maintained and held fast to the end, if we would be saved. They will not save us, if we do not attend to them, and yield to their power, and continue to do so to the end. He only that endureth to the end shall be saved, Matt 10 22. (2.) We believe in vain, unless we continue and persevere in the faith of the gospel. We shall be never the better for a temporary faith; nay, we shall aggravate our guilt by relapsing into infidelity. And in vain is it to profess Christianity, or our faith in Christ, if we deny the resurrection; for this must imply and involve the denial of his resurrection; and, take away this, you make nothing of Christianity, you leave nothing for faith or hope to fix upon.
Paul then recaps what he taught that congregation: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures (verse 3).
There are several prophecies about the Messiah’s death in the Old Testament as well as sacrificial types of Christ. For Good Friday 2024, I have two lengthy exegeses on Isaiah 52 and 53, here and here. Isaiah fully prophesies the Crucifixion and the Resurrection.
Paul says that our Lord was buried and raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures (verse 4).
Henry says:
He died for our sins, according to the scriptures; he was buried, and rose from the dead, according to the scriptures, according to the scripture-prophecies, and scripture-types. Such prophecies as Ps 16 10; Isa 53 4-6; Dan 9 26, 27; Hos 6 2. Such scripture-types as Jonah (Matt 12 4), as Isaac, who is expressly said by the apostle to have been received from the dead in a figure, Heb 11 19. Note, It is a great confirmation of our faith of the gospel to see how it corresponds with ancient types and prophecies.
Paul says that the risen Christ appeared first to Cephas — Peter, Simon Peter — then the Twelve (verse 5).
Henry explains why Paul says ‘Twelve’, even though Judas had committed suicide already:
He was seen of Cephas, or Peter, then of the twelve, called so, though Judas was no longer among them, because this was their usual number …
MacArthur has more:
Verse 5 says, “And He was seen” – literally, He appeared. And we say that because Jesus was never seen by anyone to whom He did not reveal Himself after His resurrection. Mary Magdalene was in the garden. She saw Him. Did she know it was Him? No, she thought it was the gardener, and she didn’t know till He revealed Himself. Two disciples, who had been with Him for three years, walked along on the road to Emmaus. Did they know who He was? They didn’t know who He was until He revealed Himself.
In John 21, He appears on the shore, and they don’t know who He is until He chooses to reveal Himself. Post resurrection, no one saw Jesus as Jesus until He revealed who He was to a select group.
And so, He revealed Himself after His resurrection. And now Paul chronologically lists those revelations. And incidentally, since this is the oldest record of the resurrection, written even before any of the Gospels, this is the first insight into who were the eyewitnesses who saw Him. Number one was Cephas, and that’s Aramaic for rock. Greek for rock is what? Peter. And Luke 24:34 when the road to Emmaus, disciples came along, they reported to everybody else that He was seen by Simon.
MacArthur tells us why Jesus chose Peter, who had denied him three times in the early hours of Good Friday, as Jesus foretold, then wept bitterly afterwards:
Number one, I think God wanted to emphasize what grace is and what love is and what forgiveness is. And aren’t you glad He picks up the unworthy folks? Aren’t you happy about that? I am. Jesus needed Peter for a strategic ministry. You see, He can use crooked sticks as well as He can use straight ones. And He went right to Peter because He needed Peter. And after all, Peter had denied Him, but what had he done immediately after he denied Him? He went out and did what? He wept bitterly. And I think he had a broken heart. And I think the thing that Peter was so left with was that he had denied Jesus, and now Jesus was dead, and he could never make it right. So, Jesus went right to him and met with him.
Now, we don’t know about that meeting, because the Scripture doesn’t tell us about it. It was just a very private meeting. But Peter became eyewitness number one.
You say, “Well, why did they pick Peter out?”
I’ll tell you why. Who was the unquestionable leader among the twelve? Peter. Who had the greatest ministry in the first 12 chapters of the book of Acts? Peter. Who was the guy with the greatest line of credibility, with the greatest believability, with the most clout, with the greatest power, with the greatest impact on the early Church in Jerusalem? Peter. And he picks out the prime witness of the resurrection and says, “Peter believed it; he saw Him.” And they got to say, “Wow, and Peter’s something. What a man.”
Post-resurrection, Peter was indomitable, powerful. Peter believed it.
As for appearing to the Apostles:
You remember that same day it says in John 20:19, “And the same day, it being night, the disciples were in the upper room, the door being shut, and Jesus appeared to them and said, ‘Peace be unto you’”? Immediately, in John 20, after the incident with Peter, and He’s right to the upper room; and He meets the twelve. Now, there’s only 11 now, but “the twelve” became their official title. They were called “the twelve.” Even though there was only 11 because of Judas’ apostasy, they’re called “the twelve.” And so, Jesus went to be with them.
It’s recorded also in Luke 24:33 to 43.
Paul says that Jesus also appeared to 500 people, some of whom were still alive when he wrote to the Corinthians, although some had died (verse 6).
Henry tells us:
… he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once, many of whom were living when the apostle wrote this epistle, though some had fallen asleep. This was in Galilee, Matt 28 10.
MacArthur says:
… he says, “After that, He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once” – at the same time. And he adds this – “of whom the greater part remain to the present time, but some have died.” He says, “Here’s a second line of evidence. Not only” – now watch this – “Not only is the resurrection validated by the character of these witnesses, but by the number of these other witnesses. You’ve not only got the twelve, whose character is impeccable, unquestionable, but you’ve got the mass of 500 people who saw the living Christ.”
So, in one case you have the quality witness; in the other case, you have – what? – quantity witnesses, the great number. Now, where did this occur? Well, some believe it occurred in Jerusalem, because that’s where so many people lived that were associated with the Church. But if you really look at the text in Acts 1, you find there were only 120 disciples in Jerusalem, when the Church was born, gathered in the upper room? There may have been some more, but it seems best to assume that Jesus’ greatest reception was not in Jerusalem, but maybe the greatest crowd of people would have been in Galilee. And in fact, perhaps the sighting of Jesus by the 500 occurred on some hillside in Galilee, when Jesus was in Galilee, as Matthew indicates, in the latter chapters, He would be. So, whatever; but somewhere in Jerusalem perhaps a little less likely, but maybe in Galilee, more likely, Jesus appeared to 500 people at once. That’s a lot of witnesses. You have any case in court that you want to have, and you drag through 500 people who all say the same thing, that’s fairly convincing.
I mean all you needed, according to the Old Testament law, was that something had to be confirmed in the mouth of – what? – two or three. God always goes overboard, everything He does. He just had 497 more than He needed.
And listen to this; this is so great. He says, “The majority of them are still alive. You check it out.” Not only the character of witnesses who would some of them be dead, but the quantity of witnesses, most of whom were still alive. “You can ask them yourself.”
Paul says that Jesus appeared to James, then to all the Apostles (verse 7).
Henry says that the last part of that verse refers to the Ascension:
… he was seen of James singly, and then by all the apostles when he was taken up into heaven. This was on mount Olivet, Luke 24 50. Compare Acts 1 2, 5-7.
MacArthur says that this particular James was His step-brother:
This is James, the brother of our Lord, the one who wrote the epistle of James. The one who became the head of the Jerusalem church in the sense that he was the leader. James, the brother of Jesus – the half-brother – the son of Joseph and Mary.
You say, “Well, what’s so important about this?”
Well, this is a witness of a different kind. Listen to John chapter 7, verse 5, “For neither did His brothers believe in Him.” Now you’ve got the testimony of His own brother who is an unbeliever …
Listen, the importance of this is the fact that here you have a witness right out of His family, who was a skeptic, who has totally been changed, and He is now a believer of the resurrection. Now, James didn’t believe that Jesus was who He claimed. James didn’t believe. John 7:5 says it. Didn’t believe. Maybe when Jesus died, James began to feel a little remorse, and maybe as he knew the circumstances of the death of his half-brother, humanly speaking, maybe he began to feel some admiration for Jesus. And Jesus wanted a witness out of His own family, because, you know, it would be hard. People would say, “Ah, don’t kid us about you resurrecting from the dead. Your own family doesn’t even believe it.”
And so, Jesus sought out James. Jesus appeared to James in resurrection form, and James believed. And James was changed. And James, it says in James 1:1, starts out his letter by saying, “James, a servant of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Well, that’s a big change for an unbeliever.
Now you’ve got not only the testimony of quality men, and of a quantity crowd, but you’ve got the testimony of a skeptic here. And right out of Jesus’ own family, an unbeliever is transformed into one who does believe. The resurrection convinced him when all the rest of the stuff didn’t, apparently. He’d watched Jesus’ life. It didn’t convince him. The resurrection did.
Then, referring to his Damascene conversion, Paul says that Jesus appeared lastly to him — as to one untimely born (verse 8).
Henry’s Bible says:
8 And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.
Why does Paul refer to himself in such a context? Because he was not one of the Twelve. He came later, yet, having been instructed by Christ during his three-day conversion and later in the desert (see Galatians 1 below).
Henry explains:
It was one of the peculiar offices of an apostle to be a witness of our Saviour’s resurrection (Luke 24 48); and, when Paul was called to the apostolical office, he was made an evidence of this sort; the Lord Jesus appeared to him by the way to Damascus, Acts 9 17. Having mentioned this favour, Paul takes occasion from it to make a humble digression concerning himself. He was highly favoured of God, but he always endeavoured to keep up a mean opinion of himself, and to express it. So he does here, by observing, (1.) That he was one born out of due time (v. 8), an abortive, ektroma, a child dead born, and out of time. Paul resembled such a birth, in the suddenness of his new birth, in that he was not matured for the apostolic function, as the others were, who had personal converse with our Lord. He was called to the office when such conversation was not to be had, he was out of time for it. He had not known nor followed the Lord, nor been formed in his family, as the others were, for this high and honourable function. This was in Paul’s account a very humbling circumstance.
MacArthur says:
Paul says, “I saw Him.” When did you see Him, Paul? You weren’t even around, fella. “I saw Him. I was on my way to Damascus.” Read Acts 9. “And I was just going there, and I was breathing out fire and slaughter, and I was going to do my thing. See? And all of a sudden, I got slammed to the dirt, and there in front of me was the blazing, glorious, resurrected Christ. And I said to Him, ‘Lord, what will You have me to do?’”
Paul saw Him. He saw Him, and He was so brilliant, He blinded him. It wasn’t the blinding of darkness; it was the blinding of light, like gazing at the sun. “I saw Him,” he said. He says, “I saw Him as one born out of due time.” Literally, tō ektrōmati, from the word ektrōma which means a premature birth. Ektrōmati is an aborted fetus. Now, that’s interesting. He says, “I saw Him as an aborted fetus, an abortion, a miscarriage.”
What’s he saying? Well, it seems to suggest, initially the Greek word does, that he was born too soon. But the fact is, in relation to the 12 apostles, he wasn’t born too soon; he was born – what? – too late. Well, how do you explain that? Well, perhaps the Greek word can imply that. Some commentators feel that the Greek word simply means an untimely birth, which means he could have been born too early, like a miscarriage;, or too late, retained too long. And maybe the word can mean that. Maybe he’s simply saying, “I was born at the wrong time.” It’s possible that the Greek word could just be a general word meaning a birth at the wrong time, either early or late.
There were also those who hated Paul’s message:
… some commentators say that there may have been some people who called him “the abortion,” because it was a term of derision and despite and hatred. And the people hated him so much for his gospel of grace which counteracted their systems of law.
This is what Paul wrote the Galatians in the first chapter of his letter:
Paul called by God
11 I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. 12 I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.
13 For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. 14 I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. 15 But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being. 17 I did not go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went into Arabia. Later I returned to Damascus.
18 Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephas[b] and stayed with him fifteen days. 19 I saw none of the other apostles – only James, the Lord’s brother. 20 I assure you before God that what I am writing to you is no lie.
21 Then I went to Syria and Cilicia. 22 I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. 23 They only heard the report: ‘The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.’ 24 And they praised God because of me.
Based on his ‘untimely birth’ in faith, Paul says that he is the least of the Apostles, unfit because of his active persecution of our Lord’s followers (verse 9), which, by the way, included Stephen the first martyr.
Henry says:
Note, A humble spirit, in the midst of high attainments, is a great ornament to any man; it sets his good qualities off to much greater advantage. What kept Paul low in an especial manner was the remembrance of his former wickedness, his raging and destructive zeal against Christ and his members. Note, How easily God can bring a good out of the greatest evil! When sinners are by divine grace turned into saints, he makes the remembrance of their former sins very serviceable, to make them humble, and diligent, and faithful.
MacArthur posits that Paul’s past life could have haunted him in his ministry:
… he uses the emphatic pronoun in verse 9, “For I, who am the least of the apostles, I’m not fit to be even called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God.”
Can’t you imagine that all through the life of that dear man, in his mind he saw the visions coming back of the people he had persecuted because they loved Jesus Christ? They were all his brothers, and he’d killed them once. “I didn’t deserve it,” he said. “The least of all.”
Paul then focuses on the free gift of divine grace that saved him, referring to it three times: by the grace of God he is what he is, His grace not having been in vain; he worked harder as an Apostle than the Twelve (Matthias replaced Judas, Acts 1) but acknowledges that was through God’s grace, not his own efforts (verse 10).
Henry points out the Apostle’s humility:
Note, Those who have the grace of God bestowed on them should take care that it be not in vain. They should cherish, and exercise, and exert, this heavenly principle. So did Paul, and therefore laboured with so much heart and so much success. And yet the more he laboured, and the more good he did, the more humble he was in his opinion of himself, and the more disposed to own and magnify the favour of God towards him, his free and unmerited favour. Note, A humble spirit will be very apt to own and magnify the grace of God. A humble spirit is commonly a gracious one. Where pride is subdued there it is reasonable to believe grace reigns.
MacArthur says that the Resurrection converted Paul:
And so, he says, “It wasn’t in vain either. But I labored more abundantly than the rest of the apostles; yet it wasn’t me, but it was the grace of God was with me.” Kopiaō, “I worked to the point of exhaustion. And God gave more abundant fruit to me than He did to anybody else,” he says. “And it wasn’t me; it was God.” He’s not extolling his hard work. He’s saying, “I worked hard, and there was a more abundant response as God’s grace worked.” It’s the idea of results in the “more abundant” rather “effort.” God’s grace did it.
How do you turn a guy going killing Christians into the greatest apostle who ever lived? How do you take somebody who’s doing everything he can to destroy the Church into the greatest proponent of the Church that ever lived? There’s only one thing that could do it. He saw the living Christ. That did it.
Finally, Paul says that, whether it was one of the Twelve or himself, they all proclaim the same — the Resurrection — and so the Corinthians have come to believe (verse 11).
Henry concludes:
… all the apostles preached the same: Whether it were they or I, so we preached, and so you believed. Whether Peter, or Paul, or any other apostle, had converted them to Christianity, all maintained the same truth, told the same story, preached the same doctrine, and confirmed it by the same evidence. All agreed in this that Jesus Christ, and him crucified and slain, and then rising from the dead, was the very sum and substance of Christianity; and this all true Christians believe. All the apostles agreed in this testimony; all Christians agree in the belief of it. By this faith they live. In this faith they die.
MacArthur points out that the scepticism surrounding the Resurrection is a relatively new ‘thing’, as we would say today:
Listen; one of the greatest testimonies to the resurrection is the unity, the uniformity of the common faith of the early Church. There weren’t a few over here who believed in resurrection, and a little segment over here who didn’t. That’s something new, folks. That’s something new. It’s only been in the age of the skeptic that all of a sudden we’ve got some part of the Church that’s the Church believing in resurrection, and some other so-called Christian church that denies it. That’s new.
Trust Scripture. Trust what you read and hear from the Bible.
Jesus Christ is risen indeed and reigns forever.
Without the Resurrection, our faith is in vain.
May all reading this enjoy a blessed and joyous Easter season. It lasts for six weeks.
Palm Sunday is March 24, 2024.
Readings for Year B’s Liturgy of the Palms can be found here. The Lectionary editors give us a Psalm and the choice of one of two Gospels.
My post also includes several posts explaining the importance of what happened on Palm Sunday.
I wrote an exegesis on John 12:12-16 in 2021.
As for an Epistle, may I suggest Philippians 2:5-11, which my Anglican church is using (emphases mine):
Philippians 2:5-11
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 who, being in very nature[a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death –
even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
The alternative Gospel is as follows:
Mark 11:1-11
11:1 When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples
11:2 and said to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it.
11:3 If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.’”
11:4 They went away and found a colt tied near a door, outside in the street. As they were untying it,
11:5 some of the bystanders said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?”
11:6 They told them what Jesus had said; and they allowed them to take it.
11:7 Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it.
11:8 Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields.
11:9 Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
11:10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
11:11 Then he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.
Commentary comes from Matthew Henry and John MacArthur.
As long as they are scriptural, I always enjoy reading different perspectives on our Lord’s life and ministry.
John MacArthur’s 2011 sermon does not disappoint. It shows that, as flawed and human as the crowds were, they played a part in God’s plan for His Son:
The week begins with His arrival in Jerusalem. The year is 30 A.D. by the best chronology, the month is the first Jewish month, Nisan, and the arrival is on the tenth, and the crucifixion is on the fourteenth; and that all matters, because God has established a very firm time table. Importantly, it is the Passover week of that year, and Friday will be the day when tens of thousands of Passover lambs will be slain, none of which can take away anyone’s sin. However, on this Passover, there will be one sacrifice made for sin that will take away the sins of all who have ever believed through all of human history, and it will be the sacrifice of the true Lamb.
The week begins with a very strange event. It begins with what would have to be considered a bizarre event. We call it the triumphal entry; but that is really not an appropriate title to capture what’s going on. I don’t want you to think that this is anything really official. It isn’t official in a Jewish sense, it isn’t official in an earthly sense, and it isn’t official in a heavenly sense.
That is why I’ve titled the message, “The False Coronation of the True King.” There really is no question about Christ, that He is the Messiah, that He is the promised King, that He is the son of David, that He is the one with a right to reign. His lineage checks out, His mother and father both in the line of David. He has all the qualifications. He is the Son of Man, He is the Son of God. He has demonstrated His deity and His full humanity throughout His ministry. He is the true King, but this is a false coronation.
That’s why it’s such a strange event. It is not a true expression of faith. It is not a true expression of praise. It is not a true expression of a claim. And it certainly isn’t God’s coronation any more than it is a true human coronation. What did happen on this day was an odd, bizarre event, not like any other coronation of any king …
Coronations aren’t humble, they aren’t unexpected. They aren’t unplanned. They aren’t unofficial. They aren’t spontaneous. They aren’t superficial. They aren’t temporary. But this one was all of those.
Coronations are not to be reversed in a few days so that the one exalted and elevated becomes rejected and executed, like this one. This was no real coronation. Let it be said, Jesus is the real King, deserving of all exaltation, all honor, all worship, and all praise. So this is the false coronation of the true King.
The true coronation of Christ has two parts: one has already happened, and one has not. The first phase of the coronation of Christ, the true coronation, occurred at His ascension, when He left this earth, as described in the first chapter of Acts, and ascended into heaven. We are told, by the writer of Hebrews, that He took His seat at the right hand of God. This was His first coronation and it was a heavenly coronation. Philippians 2 says that when He arrived, He not only took His seat at the right hand of God, but He was given a name; and the name that He was given is the name Lord which is the name above every name, and everyone in existence bows to that name. He has already had His heavenly coronation. He is reigning at the right hand of the throne of God. He is the sovereign of heaven and the universe. But He’s not yet had His earthly coronation.
Philippians 2 describes His heavenly coronation, Revelation 19 and 20 describe His earthly coronation …
This is neither the heavenly coronation of Christ, nor is it the earthly coronation of Christ. It is not a coronation of Christ at all, it is a mock coronation, it is a false coronation, it is a fraud. There are no formalities here in this coronation. There are no dignitaries. There is no regalia. There is no fanfare …
Now up to this point, Jesus had never allowed such an occasion as this. He had never allowed an open, public demonstration declaring Him to be the Messiah. He had never allowed anything like it. In Galilee on one occasion when there were some people who wanted to press Him into sort of taking authority and acting like a king, He fled the scene, because He knew the implications. And the implications were not positive. It was not the way that He would want to establish His purpose, not by taking authority, wielding power, and establishing the kingdom. That would come, and it will come when He returns. This time He came to die.
He didn’t allow this thing to happen, and the reason is because it would precipitate the aggressive action of the leaders who already wanted Him executed. Understand, from the beginning of His ministry the Jewish leaders wanted to kill Him. It started out that way, because the first act that He did when He got to Jerusalem three years before this was go into the temple and attack the place and dismantle it, and discredit their entire religious system. And then He spent three years discrediting their theology, and undermining their interpretations, misinterpretations of Scripture. It was an all-out assault on false apostate Judaism. They despised Him, they wanted Him dead.
Any kind of massive demonstration that made them think His popularity was expanding would then be a threat to the leaders and would only hurry up their act of murder against Him. So He never let it happen. But here He lets it happen. Here the real planner by divine providence is God, because this is the week He must die; and therefore, their desire to kill Him must be escalated to its fever pitch.
They weren’t really prepared to execute Him on the Passover. In fact, the New Testament tells us they didn’t want to arrest Him and execute Him on the Passover because they were afraid of the people. But they didn’t have a choice. They were so fearful of His escalating power that they sped up their murderous intent, which is exactly the way God wanted it, so that on Friday on the Passover, He would be the Passover Lamb.
This is a false coronation for a purpose that none of them would ever have understood. It is strangely designed by God, not as a legitimate exaltation, but to inflame His enemies at exactly the precise time to get things moving so there would be time for a trial and an execution on exactly the right day. He wanted this display with the greatest possible mass of people, the largest crowd possible, so that His enemies would be severely threatened and would execute Him on the divine schedule.
It is estimated that as many as two million people would be in Jerusalem at a Passover even in ancient days. And one of the ways we get at that is ten years after this, 40 A.D., there’s a record in Jewish history that two hundred and sixty-thousand lambs were slain at that Passover – over a quarter of a million. Usually there was one lamb per ten people. That would put it at 2.6 million people possibly. It was a massive crowd. The crowd around Him must have been in the hundreds of thousands. This was the time and this was the place to allow this to agitate His enemies so that He would die in God’s perfect timing.
Mark tells us that when Jesus and the disciples were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, He sent two of them (verse 1), to the village ahead of them and, immediately upon entry they would find a colt that had never been ridden; they were to untie it and bring it (verse 2).
John MacArthur recaps our Lord’s ministry up unto this point, which culminated in His raising Lazarus from the dead:
The ministry in Galilee finished. The ministry in Judea finished. Final ministry in Perea on the east side of the Jordan completed, a few weeks in Perea. He crosses the Jordan near Jericho, comes through the town of Jericho, which is the base of the mountain from Jerusalem down into the area of the Dead Sea; and from Jericho, the road ascends to Jerusalem. So He passes through Jericho, heals two blind men, one named Bartimaeus; saves them spiritually. Brings into His kingdom the most hated man in town, Zacchaeus the tax collector.
Having gathered those souls to Himself in Jericho, He then ascends the twenty-five hundred-plus feet up into Jerusalem for Passover week. He is accompanied by His apostles and His disciples, and an entourage of people that has been growing, because He is, after all, the miracle worker, and He’s proven that by what happened in Jericho. He is compressed in the middle of a crowd; they’re in front of Him and behind Him and all sides of Him.
The word has circulated throughout that area and will continue to circulate throughout Jerusalem that He raised one, Lazarus, from the dead. And that is a true miracle, because there was plenty of evidence that he was dead. They held his funeral, he had been dead for days, and there’s plenty of evidence that he’s now alive because he lives in Bethany. So the escalation of this information about the miracle worker of Jesus, led by the miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead, has this crowd excited, and they’re following Him. They’re enthusiastic as they ascend the hill, because the Passover is the great event of the year. And they approach Jerusalem. And that’s how Mark begins this final week.
MacArthur gives us the meanings of the names of the two towns:
Bethany is that town, that village two miles east, down the slope from Jerusalem. The old name they think means “house of dates.” Bethphage, on the other hand, is a smaller little tiny village we don’t know anything about. Some people think it means “house of figs,” but it speaks of the agricultural life of the area. Both of them very near the Mount of Olives, which is directly east of the temple mount in Jerusalem. You come up from those villages over the Mount, and then you see Jerusalem. When you’re behind the Mount on the downslope, you can’t even see the eastern part of the city, or any of the city for that matter. So these little towns near the Mount of Olives are the location for this event.
Both our commentators point out the continuing humility that so characterised our Lord’s earthly life.
MacArthur says:
This really is very similar to His birth. In His birth, His mother arrives in Bethlehem in humble obscurity riding on a donkey; here, He arrives in Jerusalem riding on a donkey. Yes, He is the true King, King of kings, Lord of lords, Son of Man, Son of God, Messiah, Savior, and no monarch in all human history remotely compares to the Lord Jesus Christ. There is none so magnificent, powerful, wise, sovereign, just, pure, and holy; and all the elite and all the monarchs of all human history collectively together stacked on top of each other wouldn’t go high enough to touch the hem of His all-glorious garment.
Matthew Henry looks at the fact that Jesus borrowed and did not own things:
This colt was borrowed too. Christ went upon the water in a borrowed boat, ate the passover in a borrowed chamber, was buried in a borrowed sepulchre, and here rode on a borrowed ass. Let not Christians scorn to be beholden one to another, and, when need is, to go a borrowing, for our Master did not.
Jesus gave His designated disciples the following instruction (verse 3), ‘If anyone says to you, “Why are you doing this?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.”’
Note that Jesus returned what He borrowed.
That said, Henry tells us that, even in this simple, humble scene, Jesus shows His power, including omniscience:
… there were several rays of Christ’s glory shining forth in the midst of all this meanness. 1. Christ showed his knowledge of things distant, and his power over the wills of men, when he sent his disciples for the colt, v. 1-3. By this it appears that he can do every thing, and no thought can be withholden from him. 2. He showed his dominion over the creatures in riding on a colt that was never backed. The subjection of the inferior part of the creation to man is spoken of with application to Christ (Ps 8 5, 6, compared with Heb 2 8); for to him it is owing, and to his mediation, that we have any remaining benefit by the grant God made to man, of a sovereignty in this lower world, Gen 1 28. And perhaps Christ, in riding the ass’s colt, would give a shadow of his power over the spirit of man, who is born as the wild ass’s colt, Job 11 12. 3. The colt was brought from a place where two ways met (v. 4), as if Christ would show that he came to direct those into the right way, who had two ways before them, and were in danger of taking the wrong.
MacArthur posits that Jesus knew the colt’s owner believed in Him:
… it does assume one thing, that Jesus knows that whoever is in charge of this animal or owns this animal knows who the Lord is. This must be a believer. This must be someone who has put His trust in the Lord. He doesn’t even give them an explanation, “Just say, ‘The Lord has need of it,’ and immediately he’ll send it back here.”
He knows he’ll respond. He knows where the animal is. He knows who the man is. He knows what the man believes, and He knows what the man will do. That’s divine omniscience. That’s miraculous.
The disciples went away and found a colt tied near a door, outside in the street; as they were untying it (verse 4), some bystanders asked why they were untying the colt (verse 5).
The disciples told them what Jesus had said and allowed them to take the young beast of burden (verse 6).
Meanwhile, MacArthur reminds us that John’s Gospel says that the hard-hearted Jewish hierarchy plotted to kill Lazarus. They could not bear the fact that Jesus resurrected him:
But in John 12, it says, “A large number of Jews came to Bethany the next day.” So on Sunday a large number of Jews came to Bethany. And it says, “They came to see Jesus and Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead.” Now you get the story. The city is swelling with Passover pilgrims. The word is spreading about this guy that was raised from the dead. He is a curiosity. So people are walking the easy two miles because they want to see this man and they want to see Jesus.
This is a problem for the leaders. So John 12 tells us the chief priests took counsel – get this – to kill Lazarus. I mean, how hard-hearted are you when you don’t even deny that the guy was raised from the dead, you just try to kill him again?
Continuing with our reading, the disciples returned to Jesus with the colt and threw their cloaks on it; our Lord sat on the colt (verse 7).
MacArthur reminds us of similar verses from the Old Testament:
And didn’t David ride a mule? And wasn’t Solomon riding a mule even, in 1 Kings chapter 1, on his coronation? Is this supposed to connect Jesus with Solomon and David as a son of David?
Even so, MacArthur says that the main point lies elsewhere — in Zechariah’s prophecy:
But that’s not the main point. Mark doesn’t really tell us why this happened, but Matthew does. Okay? Turn to Matthew 21, Matthew’s parallel account. Matthew tells us why it happened, and it’s not vague.
Verse 4, Matthew 21. Verse 3 says, “If anyone asks you anything, just say, ‘The Lord has need of it.’” Then verse 4, “This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet.” What prophet? Zechariah. Five hundred years before, Zechariah 9:9, Zechariah said, “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold your king is coming to you gentle and mounted on a donkey,’ – not even a donkey, but – ‘even on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden, the foal of a donkey.’”
He will come in fulfillment of prophecy. That’s why I love to call this a faithful, a faithful arrival, a faithful arrival. He comes faithful to the prophet’s words five hundred years, as I said, before the prophet had said, “The people of Jerusalem would hail their Messiah riding on a donkey’s colt.” This is not His true coronation, but this is that event that happened that day in Jerusalem. He comes humbly on a donkey’s colt, because He comes not to reign, He comes to die. He comes not as a sovereign, but as a suffering servant and a Savior.
Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields (verse 8).
Henry looks at the humble scene, which he says is the example for us to follow as Christians:
The persons that attended, were mean people; and all the show they could make, was, by spreading their garments in the way (v. 8), as they used to do at the feast of tabernacles. All these were marks of his humiliation; even when he would be taken notice of, he would be taken notice of for his meanness; and they are instructions to us, not to mind high things, but to condescend to them of low estate. How ill doth it become Christians to take state, when Christ was so far from affecting it!
On the other hand, MacArthur explains that throwing cloaks or greenery on the ground signified the people’s submission. That would all change by the end of the week, of course, but in that moment:
Why would they spread their coats in the road? That was an old, ancient gesture, a custom that showed submission. “You can walk on me, you can step on me; I’m below your feet.”
Kings were always elevated and people were under their feet. And this was a way to symbolize that: “You can walk all over me; I am submissive to you.” You see it in the coronation of Jehu in 2 Kings chapter 9. “We place ourselves under your authority.” This is an affirmation, at least superficially, “You’re our King. You’re our sovereign” …
They show their fealty to Him by spreading leafy branches under Him. John 12:13 says, “They were palm branches.” And palm branches in the Scripture can be symbols of salvation joy, as they are in Revelation 7:9. Throwing down these branches was a symbol of joy. “You are our deliverer. You are our source of joy.”
They misunderstood our Lord’s purpose in coming to earth to save us from sin:
Their hope for the kingdom was really high; but they had their own view: “Attack the Romans; throw out the Romans. Give us our place in the world, and fulfill all the promises of the Old Testament to us.” And they were all superficial and earthly.
Similarly, MacArthur says that John’s Gospel tells us that our Lord’s disciples understood this scene only later, not at the time:
And His disciples didn’t get it. Did they get the omniscient part? I think they did. Did they get the prophetic part? No. John 12 says, in writing of this very event, John 12:16, “These things His disciples didn’t understand at first; but when Jesus was glorified after His ascension, then they remembered that these things were written about Him, and that they had done these things to Him.” The details, all recorded in the Old Testament, they didn’t understand at the time; but later they understood. This is a faithful arrival, He is fulfilling prophecy.
Jesus also fulfilled a prophecy from the Book of Daniel:
In Daniel 9 we’re given a really important prophecy, Daniel 9:24 to 27, that it’ll be four hundred and eighty three years, sixty-nine weeks of years – sixty-nine times seven, four hundred and eighty three – four hundred and eighty-three years from the decree of Artaxerxes to rebuild Jerusalem, which was in 445 B.C., four hundred and eighty-three years to the arrival of Messiah. If you do the calendar work on that, four hundred and eighty-three years from the decree of Artaxerxes lands you on this day when Jesus came into the city. God’s timing is perfect, down to the clearest detail. It was a faithful arrival, faithful to the divine purpose, prophecy, and timetable.
Continuing with our reading, those ahead of Jesus and those following Him shouted (verse 9), ‘Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!’ Also (verse 10), ‘Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!’
Henry says that this was all part of God’s plan:
It was God that put it into the hearts of these people to cry Hosanna, who were not by art and management brought to it, as those were who afterward cried, Crucify, crucify. Christ reckons himself honoured by the faith and praises of the multitude, and it is God that brings people to do him this honour beyond their own intentions.
MacArthur tells us what ‘Hosanna’ means in Psalm 118:
That’s an exclamatory plea that means, “Save now. Save now. Deliver us now.” And they’re talking about an earthly, political, military deliverance. They’re shouting Psalm 118, verse 26, a psalm of salvation, sometimes called “the conqueror’s psalm,” which a hundred years before, the Jews shouted at Maccabeus because he was triumphing over the Syrians.
Matthew adds, “They said, ‘Hosanna, save now, to the Son of David.’” That’s the most common messianic title. So they were identifying Jesus as the Messiah: “Save now, Messiah. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” That’s the Psalm 118, verse 26, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.”
They said, “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father, David. Hosanna in the highest.” All these are messianic accolades; and they’re shouting at the top of their voice. Luke adds that they even said, “Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.”
This is mob hysteria. They know that these things relate to the kingdom. The kingdom will be a kingdom of salvation. The kingdom will be a kingdom over which the son of David rules. The kingdom will be the kingdom promised to David with all those promises fulfilled. The kingdom will be a kingdom of peace, and the kingdom will be a kingdom of glory. Everything shouted is true, scriptural, borrowed out of the Old Testament, accurate. This is God’s King, but this is not God’s time.
Mark ends his account by saying that Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple but, as it was already late, He and the Apostles went out to Bethany (verse 11), where Lazarus, Mary and Martha lived.
Henry gives us this analysis. It was the following day when Jesus overturned the moneychangers’ tables, which is what follows in Mark’s Gospel:
Christ, thus attended, thus applauded, came into the city, and went directly to the temple. Here was no banquet of wine prepared for his entertainment, nor the least refreshment; but he immediately applied himself to his work, for that was his meat and drink. He went to the temple, that the scripture might be fulfilled; “The Lord whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, without sending any immediate notice before him; he shall surprise you with a day of visitation, for he shall be like a refiner’s fire, and like fuller’s soap,“ Mal 3 1-3. He came to the temple, and took a view of the present state of it, v. 11. He looked round about upon all things, but as yet said nothing. He saw many disorders there, but kept silence, Ps 50 21. Though he intended to suppress them, he would not go about the doing of it all on a sudden, lest he should seem to have done it rashly; he let things be as they were for this night, intending the next morning to apply himself to the necessary reformation, and to take the day before him. We may be confident that God sees all the wickedness that is in the world, though he do not presently reckon for it, nor cast it out. Christ, having make his remarks upon what he saw in the temple, retired in the evening to a friend’s house at Bethany, because there he would be more out of the noise of the town, and out of the way of being suspected, a designing to head a faction.
MacArthur says similarly:
He entered Jerusalem, came into the temple, and looked around at everything. What’s He doing? I’ll tell you what He’s doing. He’s casing the place. He’s planning a strategy for the next day.
And what happened on the next day? Verse 15: “He entered the temple, began to drive out those who were buying and selling in the temple, overturned the table of the money changers, the seats of those selling doves. He wouldn’t permit anyone to carry merchandise through the temple. He began to teach and say to them, ‘Is it not written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations”? You have made it a robber’s den.’ The chief priests and the scribes heard this, began seeking how to destroy Him; for they were afraid of Him, for the whole crowd was astonished at His teaching.”
They’ve got a problem now. He’s attacked them at the very heart, and He’s got this massive crowd all stirred up. All this by God’s design to precipitate His death on Friday. No, He’s just checking it out. He’s just developing the strategy for the next day when He goes in and assaults the place.
When Jesus came to Jerusalem, they were ready to hail Him as their Messiah if He did for them what they wanted. Okay? And when He didn’t, they turned on Him and cried for His blood. He left the end of that day and He went back to His friends at the time of dusk, because once it was dark, there was nothing to be done, and it was late in the day; and He left. But He had made His appraisal of the horrific corruption of the temple religion.
MacArthur concludes with an explanation of the people’s fickleness and a contemporary example of a false coronation:
It wasn’t the Romans He would attack, it was the Jews. It wasn’t pagan idolatry He would attack, it was the worship of Judaism, whose religion had been corrupted, whose praise was selfish and superficial.
Did the people know He had the credentials of Messiah? Yeah; born of the line of David, miracle worker, heal sick people, cast out demons, raises dead people. How could they possibly decide to crucify Him? I’ll give it to you real simple: if Jesus doesn’t do what the sinner wants Jesus to do, the sinner will turn on Him.
Can I tell you something? False coronations like this go on every day, all the time. Just turn on your television to some charismatic TV station and watch all the hoopla about Jesus, and watch all the swaying and groaning and moaning and singing and praising, and then listen to the people say, “Jesus will make you rich. Jesus will heal you. Jesus will give you all your dreams. Jesus will fulfill all your desires.” And I will tell you all the praise and the hoopla will go on until Jesus doesn’t deliver the goods that the fallen sinner wants; and they’ll turn on Him.
That’s a very deadly thing to do and very dishonoring to the Lord. That’s why the prosperity message is so dangerous, it lies. It promises the sinner what the fallen sinner already wants in his corrupt condition. What a true believer wants is what will glorify God, honor Christ, and increase His attractiveness to the people around him. The sinful heart can be very interested in Jesus. The sinful heart can be very, very religious until Jesus attacks that false religion.
MacArthur gives us the correct way to approach Jesus:
… when you crown Christ the true King, when you put your trust in Him, you will, as a true believer, say, “Lord, give me what You would want me to have. Reign in my life according to Your will, not mine”…
May all reading this have a blessed Palm Sunday.
The Fifth Sunday in Lent is March 17, 2024, which also happens to be St Patrick’s Day.
This particular Sunday is also known as Passion Sunday, the beginning of the two-week Lenten period called Passiontide, which encompasses Palm Sunday (next week) and Holy Week. Some traditionalist churches cover crosses and images with dark or black cloth from this Sunday throughout most of Holy Week. Crosses and crucifixes can be uncovered after Good Friday services. Statues remain covered until the Easter Vigil Mass takes place on Holy Saturday.
Readings for Year B can be found here.
The exegesis for the Gospel, John 12:20-33, can be found here.
The Epistle is as follows (emphases mine):
Hebrews 5:5-10
5:5 So also Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest, but was appointed by the one who said to him, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”;
5:6 as he says also in another place, “You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.”
5:7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.
5:8 Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered;
5:9 and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him,
5:10 having been designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.
Commentary comes from Matthew Henry and John MacArthur.
John MacArthur gives us a précis of the Book of Hebrews, author unknown, and one of my New Testament favourites along with John’s Gospel (emphases mine):
The design of the book of Hebrews is very simple. The design of the book of Hebrews is to present the superiority of Christianity over Judaism. Hebrews was written to a group of Jewish believers outside the area of Jerusalem to show them that they had made the right step in receiving Jesus Christ, for in fact Judaism did…Judaism was replaced by Christianity. There are also through the book of Hebrews warnings to unbelieving Jews to know that Jesus Christ is greater than all of the Old Testament figures. The New Testament, the new covenant greater than the Old Testament, the old covenant.
But in the midst of this, there is a very natural question that is going to arise. For to tell a Jew that the new covenant is greater than the old, says something about the priesthood of the old covenant. For the old economy, the Levitical economy, the Old Testament, Judaism, is based on priests taking men’s messages to God. Mediating between men and God. And the first question perhaps that a Jew, with any kind of perception, would ask is this. If this new covenant is better, where is your high priest? Where is that mediator that takes man to God?
And perhaps in somewhat of a deriding sense and unbelieving Jew would say your new religion is deficient in the very first and most vital thing. That is you have no high priest. Perhaps a Jew would say how are your sins going to be pardoned when you have no one offering sacrifices and no one interceding for you? How can you claim that this new covenant supersedes the old and is in every way superior and spells the nullification of the old if you have no high priest? …
… that there is only one mediator, only one high priest, one great high priest, having stated that fact in 4:14, beginning in Chapter 5 and running through the end of Chapter 10, that entire section is the proof that Jesus is, in fact, that great high priest.
And this then takes the heart of the book of Hebrews from 5:1 to 10:39. The largest single portion dedicated to any theme in Hebrews and strategically located in the middle of the book, around which everything else revolves is the proclamation that Jesus Christ is, in fact, a great high priest superior to Aaron or to any other high priest whoever lived. And that Christianity does have a high priest who takes men to God. That’s the purpose of Chapters 5 through 10, the eternal and perfect priesthood of Jesus Christ.
And you see, this is the real key to the supremacy of the new covenant to the old covenant. This is what sets apart Christianity as better than Judaism, because our high priest is so superior. He can do what all of the priests put together in the old economy could not do.
The author explains that Christ did not confer His high priesthood on Himself, rather God the Father did in saying to Him, ‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you’ (verse 5).
Matthew Henry’s commentary says:
Observe here, Though Christ reckoned it his glory to be made a high priest, yet he would not assume that glory to himself. He could truly say, I seek not my own glory, John 8 50. Considered as God, he was not capable of any additional glory, but as man and Mediator he did not run without being sent; and, if he did not, surely others should be afraid to do it …
Thus God solemnly declared his dear affection to Christ, his authoritative appointment of him to the office of a Mediator, his installment and approbation of him in that office, his acceptance of him, and of all he had done or should do in the discharge of it. Now God never said thus to Aaron.
MacArthur says that this verse begins the explanation in Hebrews of Christ’s meeting all the qualifications of that Great High Priest:
And this is a very important question for them [the Jews] to have answered because in their mind, Jesus wouldn’t fit any qualifications for a priest. He was a part of the wrong tribe. He wasn’t born in the right family. And He apparently had not spent His life preparing for this. There’s no indication that He, in any way, fit what they thought were the qualifications, at least the extraneous ones. So it’s important that Jesus Christ be seen as the one qualified to be the priest.
MacArthur explains the Old Testament reference in verse 5:
Jesus Christ was glorified by another, and you’ll notice the verse ends “but He that said unto Him thou art my Son, today have I begotten thee.” Who said that? God said that. Whose chose Jesus to be a high priest? God did. And what’s the first qualification for a legitimate high priest? Had to be chosen by God. It’s interesting too that He quotes Psalm 2:7, that’s a statement from Psalm 2:7, “thou art my Son, today have I begotten thee.” The Holy Spirit throughout the book of Hebrews continues to repeat quotes from the Old Testament because He’s writing to Jews and He wants to put it in context. And so Jesus fits the chief requirement. He’s been called and appointed by God. He didn’t usurp His dignity. He didn’t come to glorify Himself, not at all.
There’s a wonderful statement by Jesus, I think it’s John 8. We studied it some time ago. 54, He says this, John 8:54, “If I honor myself, my honor is nothing. It is my Father that honoreth me.” Isn’t that good? Jesus is saying I have not sought my own glory. And the Bible says He made Himself of what kind of reputation? No reputation. He didn’t seek glory. “And God highly,” what, “exalted Him and gave Him a name above every name.” God glorifies the Son. God invested Jesus with the authority and honor of the high priest. God sat Jesus at His right hand. God said “This day will I make thine enemies thy footstool.” God gave Him the right and the authority to be what He is.
So Jesus Christ fits the first requirement of a high priest. He’s ordained of God.
God also says in another place in Scripture, ‘You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek’ (verse 6), a reference to the priest-king whom Abraham encountered.
Henry points out the Psalm cited in that verse:
Another expression that God used in the call of Christ we have in Ps 110 4, Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedec, v. 6. God the Father appointed him a priest of a higher order than that of Aaron. The priesthood of Aaron was to be but temporary; the priesthood of Christ was to be perpetual: the priesthood of Aaron was to be successive, descending from the fathers to the children; the priesthood of Christ, after the order of Melchisedec, was to be personal, and the high priest immortal as to his office, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, as it is more largely described in the seventh chapter …
MacArthur explains the importance of Psalms 2 and 110:
… this is heavy stuff for the Jew, because the Jew knows Psalm 2:7. And the Jew also knows Psalm 110:4, which is quoted in verse 6. And the Jew knows that that’s referring to the Messiah whose going to be a great king priest. The same God who said, “you’re my Son,” said, “you’re a Priest.” And you’re not a priest after Aaron’s order. You’re a priest after the order of Melchizedek. Now this was a fantastic statement. God, Himself, ordained Jesus to be the high priest and that fulfilled the requirement. Now, you say, well, what is this about Melchizedek and who is he? Well, Melchizedek…we’ll study a lot about Melchizedek when we get to Chapter 7. I’ll give you a little Melchizedekian preview. Melchizedek is spoken of in Psalm 110, because in Psalm 110 the Psalmist is kind of prophesying the coming of Messiah. And He uses Melchizedek as an example of Jesus or a type of Jesus. Because Melchizedek was more than the average run of the mill priest.
In the first place, he had a higher priesthood order than did Aaron. You say when did Melchizedek live? Well, he lived in Genesis 14:18 before Aaron ever got on the scene. His priesthood superseded the priesthood of Aaron. And he had a very interesting priesthood. We’ll get into Chapter 7 and find out about it.
You can read more about Melchizedek in these passages from Hebrews 7:
Hebrews 7:1-3 – God, Jesus, Abraham, Melchizedek, Jewish priesthood, universal priesthood
The author of Hebrews introduces Melchizedek’s universal priesthood, which Abraham recognised. Melchizedek’s priesthood came before God ordained the Jewish system of priesthood.
Key verses:
7 For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, 2 and to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. (Hebrews 7:1-2)
Hebrews 7:4-10 – Melchizedek, Abraham, Jesus, universal priesthood
The author of Hebrews, unknown — yet inspired by the Holy Spirit — says that Abraham, whilst promised great things from God, was inferior to Melchizedek, who was, at the time, a high priest universally and the king of peace. In other words, he foreshadowed Christ …
Key verses:
9 One might even say that Levi himself, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, 10 for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him. (Hebrews 7:9-10)
Hebrews 7:11-14 – Jesus, Melchizedek, universal priesthood, Aaron, Levi, particular priesthood
The author of Hebrews says that Jesus did not come from a line of priests. He came from the tribe of Judah. Yet, he is the Most High Priest, like Melchizedek, to whom Abraham paid a tithe. A change in priesthood — from the Levites (including Aaron) — meant a change in the law and the rules of said priesthood, which reverted to that of Melchizedek: one that was universal, rather than particular to the Jews.
Key verses:
12 For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well. 13 For the one of whom these things are spoken belonged to another tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar. 14 For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests. (Hebrews 7:12-14)
Hebrews 7:15-19 – a new — universal — priesthood, Jesus, Melchizedek
The author of Hebrews, inspired by the Holy Spirit, says that a new priesthood had to be divinely instituted in the order of Melchizedek — a universal priesthood — to replace the imperfect and insufficient one of the Old Covenant.
Key verses:
18 For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness 19 (for the law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God. (Hebrews 7:18-19)
Hebrews 7:20-22 –God, Jesus, oath, priesthood, universal priesthood
God made an oath with His Son to be a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. God did not make an oath with the Levite priests, e.g. Aaron. Therefore, Jesus is the superior priest, now and forever — a guarantor of a better covenant than the Old Covenant: the New Covenant.
Key verse:
22 This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant. (Hebrews 7:22)
The author of Hebrews then discusses our Lord’s suffering at His crucifixion — the last hours of His flesh — where He offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to the one (God) who was able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverent submission (verse 7).
Here, MacArthur gives us the second definition of a high priest as seen through Hebrews — empathy with men:
So first of all then, the true high priest must be called from men by God. Secondly, the true high priest must be sympathetic with men. He must be able to get inside and feel with men. Now this takes us a step passed omniscience. Omniscience knows everything, sympathy feels everything, right? Now Christ didn’t need to learn any information, but as we’ll see over in verse 8, He needed to learn some feeling by His incarnation so that He could be sympathetic beyond being omniscient. True priests had to be sympathetic, that’s verse 2. Look at it. We’ll get back to the end of verse 1, don’t worry. Here’s another very important statement. “Who can compassion” Which just means to suffer with “on the ignorant,” and I’ll explain what that means, “and on them that are out of the way. For He Himself also is compassed with infirmity or a propensity to sin.” Infirmity means a weakness of human nature that makes temptation a real issue. Now what is this saying? Well, compassion, it’s very interesting. The word compassion or as it’s translated here compassion on, means to…I’ll try to give you the clearest translation. It means to bear gently with because you feel it too. Just get the two words to bear gently. A person who is non-compassionate could care less about anybody else’s pain. But this is a priest who must come from men, because he must able to bear gently with the faults of other men knowing that he’s got the same problems. See? A priest must be a man, completely involved in the human situation. He must be all bound up in the bundle of life. He must live with them. He must feel with them. He must know their highs. He must know their lows. And He uses this tremendous word, metriopathane. And it’s a very unique word. It’s a word that you really can’t translate it. It just means to bear gently because you feel it like they feel it, which is a long translation of one word, but that’s the implication of the word.
MacArthur discusses the Greek understanding of deities, who were detached from human experience. This would have been applicable to the culture of the Jews in Greek culture who were the audience for the letter to the Hebrews:
The Greeks had an interesting thing. They said that all virtues were the means between the two extremes. All virtues were the means or the myths between all the extremes. A virtuous man was a man who found his way down the middle of every issue. And it didn’t mean he was the middle of the road man in politics or things like that. It meant in terms of the gamut of emotions and feeling, he was in the middle … something like being in the middle between being irritated and being apathetic.
… the Greeks and even the Jews always felt that God was a little bit on the apathea side, the apathetic. A little bit on the indifferent side and far removed. And He didn’t really feel what they felt. And so here He tells us but a true high priest has got to be in there in the virtuous kind of row but nevertheless feeling the extremes of human emotion and bearing gently with them because He knows what they’re going through. Now that was required of a priest. Now the objects of his gently bearing are interesting. It says that He has this compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way. Now there are several possible ways to translate the oared of the Greek here. Let me give you one that I think may be well what the writer is saying. To have gentle forbearance on those who go astray through ignorance. Did you get that? The implication is they’re ignorant and then they go out of the way. They go astray because of ignorance. Numbers 15:28, I quote, “And the priest shall make atonement for the soul that erreth, when he sinneth unwittingly before Jehovah to make atonement for him and he shall be forgiven.”
Henry exhorts us to follow Christ’s example in heartfelt, earnest prayer and to bear up under hardship just as He did:
(4.) Christ, in the days of his flesh, offered up prayers and supplications to his Father, as an earnest of his intercession in heaven. A great many instances we have of Christ’s praying. This refers to his prayer in his agony (Matt 26 39, and ch. 27 46), and to that before his agony (John 17.) which he put up for his disciples, and all who should believe on his name. (5.) The prayers and supplications that Christ offered up were joined with strong cries and tears, herein setting us an example not only to pray, but to be fervent and importunate in prayer. How many dry prayers, how few wet ones, do we offer up to God!
Then we come to the last part of the verse which says that God heard Christ’s prayers and supplications to Him because they were reverent.
Henry explains and includes a message for us as believers:
(6.) Christ was heard in that he feared. How? Why he was answered by present supports in and under his agonies, and in being carried well through death, and delivered from it by a glorious resurrection: He was heard in that he feared. He had an awful sense of the wrath of God, of the weight of sin. His human nature was ready to sink under the heavy load, and would have sunk, had he been quite forsaken in point of help and comfort from God; but he was heard in this, he was supported under the agonies of death. He was carried through death; and there is no real deliverance from death but to be carried well through it. We may have many recoveries from sickness, but we are never saved from death till we are carried well through it. And those that are thus saved from death will be fully delivered at last by a glorious resurrection, of which the resurrection of Christ was the earnest and first-fruits.
MacArthur has more:
And so the sympathetic high priest is Jesus Christ, who in the days of His flesh felt what we feel. And of course, the climax comes when He offered prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears. What incident in His life does that speak to you about? Does that remind you of the Garden of Gethsemane? Sure. That was the greatest climax of His suffering for there He began to bear the sins of the world didn’t He? There He began to feel the crush of sin upon Him. He began to feel Satan bruising Him, and it hurt. Do you remember the Garden of Gethsemane, the night before He went to the cross? He went into the Garden to pray and He agonized there and He sweat as it were great drops of blood and He cried to the Father. And His heart was grieving and broken at the prospect and the pain of bearing sin. And He felt the power of sin and He felt temptation. He felt everything Satan could throw at Him, and He got it all even on the cross. He felt everything you’ll ever feel.
… He felt the temptation you’ll never feel, right? Because you see, we succumb long before we reach the climax of temptation. So He never succumbed so He ran temptation to its gamut at every point, therefore He suffered temptation that we’ll never, ever suffer. And I used the illustration of your body. You’ll suffer pain to a point, then your body goes into shock and turns off pain. Well, Jesus suffered past the point because He had nothing in His nature that could succumb to sin so He just took ever temptation to its extreme and yet was without sin. So He felt it all.
The word for crying is crouga, and it means a cry which a man does not really choose to utter, but which is wrung out of him, involuntarily in the anguish of … pain. It’s a very distinct word. The gospel tells us His agony was so great that He sweat as it were great drops of blood. And then it says He prayed. He knew what it was like to be in anguish and to pray …
But notice, I want to give you a very important theological footnote. He prayed unto Him that was able to save Him from death. Who is that? God. But I want you to catch that thought here that’s powerful. In the English Bible it says “save Him from death.” In the Greek that’s the word ekt. You know what ekt means? Ekt means out from within. He wasn’t saying God don’t let me die. Why he said “for this hour came I into the world.” He was simply saying Father, once I get into this thing, get me out of it. Do you know what He was praying for? Not that He wouldn’t get to the cross. He was praying for the resurrection.
He says, “He’s praying to Him who is able to save Him ekt death.” Out of death. For when He died He turned Himself over to God. What a tremendous thought. The Messiah prayed to be saved out from within death, out from the power of death. He’s not praying to escape death, for that was He born. He’s praying to be saved from out of death. He’s committing Himself to the Father in His agony. He knows anguish. He feels the pain of all that He’s going through and He commits Himself to God …
And notice it says, “And God heard Him and that He fear.” And the word fear is not fobos, from which we get phobia. Not that He was scared and panicky. When it says He feared, it’s the word ulabia. It’s an interesting word. It means he devoutedly submitted Himself to God in reverence. Just that simple. He recognized God as sovereign and committed Himself to God. So the point then that Spirit makes is that Jesus is qualified to be a sympathetic high priest by His agony, by His tears, His prayers, His suffering, and all of that. He went through every bit of it, every bit of it.
The author of Hebrews says that, although Christ is the Son of God, He learned obedience through what He suffered (verse 8).
Henry discusses the lack of Christ’s privilege in this sense as well as passive and active obedience:
Here observe, [1.] The privilege of Christ: He was a Son; the only-begotten of the Father. One would have thought this might have exempted him from suffering, but it did not. Let none then who are the children of God by adoption expect an absolute freedom from suffering. What Son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? [2.] Christ made improvement by his sufferings. By his passive obedience, he learned active obedience; that is, he practiced that great lesson, and made it appear that he was well and perfectly learned in it; though he never was disobedient, yet he never performed such an act of obedience as when he became obedient to death, even to the death of the cross. Here he has left us an example, that we should learn by all our afflictions a humble obedience to the will of God. We need affliction, to teach us submission.
MacArthur contrasts this with the avoidance most of us use when raising children:
Now notice verse 8. This is a fantastic thought. “Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by things which He suffered.” You know, I don’t think any of us teach our children to be obedient by making them suffer. Do we? We take our kids from the time they’re born and say now don’t do that, now don’t do that. If you do that it’s going to hurt you and we try to avoid, avoid, but they never learn it until the feel it.
You say don’t touch the fire, don’t touch the fire, don’t touch the fire. You’ll get burnt, you’ll get burnt. Whish. Now you know, you get burnt, see. In other words, you learn when you suffer, but our sons we don’t purposely push them into that do we. God pushed Jesus into it. Look what it says, “though he were a,” what, “a Son.” Even though He was God’s Son, He had to learn by suffering. That’s the only way you learn experimentally. Son of God though He was, He was given no exemption from suffering. I think that’s for our so much that He might experimentally feel what we feel so that we know He understands. See?
Even though He was God’s Son, God in human flesh, He was called to suffer and He learned the full meaning of obedience all the way to death in the things in which He suffered. And thus God made Him a perfect high priest.
Having thus been made perfect, Christ became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him (verse 9).
Henry offers this analysis:
By these his sufferings he was made perfect, and became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey him, v. 9. [1.] Christ by his sufferings was consecrated to his office, consecrated by his own blood. [2.] By his sufferings he consummated that part of his office which was to be performed on earth, making reconciliation for iniquity; and in this sense he is said to be made perfect, a perfect propitiation. [3.] Hereby he has become the author of eternal salvation to men; he has by his sufferings purchased a full deliverance from sin and misery, and a full fruition of holiness and happiness for his people. Of this salvation he has given notice in the gospel; he has made a tender of it in the new covenant, and has sent the Spirit to enable men to accept this salvation. [4.] This salvation is actually bestowed on none but those who obey Christ. It is not sufficient that we have some doctrinal knowledge of Christ, or that we make a profession of faith in him, but we must hearken to his word, and obey him. He is exalted to be a prince to rule us, as well as a Saviour to deliver us; and he will be a Saviour to none but to those whom he is a prince, and who are willing that he should reign over them; the rest he will account his enemies, and treat them accordingly. But to those who obey him, devoting themselves to him, denying themselves, and taking up their cross, and following him, he will be the author, aitios—the grand cause of their salvation, and they shall own him as such for ever.
MacArthur emphasises that being ‘made perfect’ means that Christ is ‘perfectly qualified’ to be the Great High Priest, which also brings us to another qualification — being the author of eternal salvation, having made the ultimate sacrifice for sins:
Verse 9 at the beginning says, “And being made,” what, “perfect.” Listen, that word perfect is fantastic. It means complete. It means complete. Jesus went through everything He had to go through so He could be complete. The complete, perfect high priest.
Perfected doesn’t mean His nature changed. Doesn’t mean his person changed, it just means He perfectly was qualified. You got it? Perfectly qualified. He’s perfectly qualified to be the perfect high priest. Now there’s only one other qualification. Besides being chosen by God and being set apart in the sense of sympathetic and understanding, the third thing was He had to make sacrifice for sins. Did Jesus do that? Look at the end of verse 9.
“He became the author of eternal salvation.” Isn’t that a beautiful statement? And what was it that gave Him the right to be that author? His own death. By His death He opened the way of salvation, eternal salvation. All the priests of all time couldn’t provide eternal salvation. They could provide forgiveness momentarily and every day more sacrifice, more sacrifice by one act, by one offering, He perfected forever them that are His.
The word author means the cause or the originator. He became the originator of eternal salvation. That’s some high priest.
The author of Hebrews again refers to Abraham’s king-priest, saying that God designated Christ a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek (verse 10), therefore, not of Aaron.
Henry says that Melchizedek was a type of Christ:
He [the author of Hebrews] declares he had many things which he could say to them concerning this mysterious person called Melchisedec, whose priesthood was eternal, and therefore the salvation procured thereby should be eternal also. We have a more particular account of this Melchisedec in ch. 7.. Some think the things which the apostle means, that were hard to be uttered, were not so much concerning Melchisedec himself as concerning Christ, of whom Melchisedec was the type.
MacArthur sums up these verses and some of the preceding content of Hebrews as follows:
The emphasis is the superiority of the new covenant over the old covenant as seen in the fact that the new covenant has a better mediator. Now, the old covenant was mediated by whom? Angels, true, and it was mediated also by certain men of God, such as Moses, such as Aaron. We find that the new covenant is better, the one involving Jesus Christ, because Jesus is better than angels, better than prophets, better than Moses, better than Joshua, better than Aaron, better than Melchizedek, better than everybody and everything; and on the basis of the fact that Jesus is better than everything, the new covenant is better than the old; and what he’s saying to the Jew is, “Let go of Judaism for Christianity. Let go of the pictures and the types and the…the shadows, and take the substance, the reality in Christ,” you see. This the point of the book. Saying to that individual who is hanging onto the former patterns, “Let go, for Jesus is better than all.”
May all reading this enjoy a blessed Sunday.
Churchmouse Campanologist 