Click or tap book name
Use <control> drag to
scroll
Bible Notes - Tabernacle Commentaries
About
Links
Home
"
Navigator
John 14:30
Comments
There is even a lesson on love implicit here in the example of Christ: ‘I will not talk much with you.’ He has only a little more to say. Chapter 15, chapter 16, and the great high priestly prayer in chapter 17, and then his instruction to his disciples is finished.What does that refer to? Well, the arrest party was already being convened, and he knew it. The disciples did not, but he was God, he knew what was going on. Judas was already instructing them how he would point out Christ to them. The plot was being laid. He would betray him with a kiss. There was being assembled a great band of soldiers, of temple police, Levite police and many of the Sanhedrin council also, and they were gathering with lanterns and clubs and sticks and other weapons, so the Scriptures elsewhere tell us, and they were setting out to go the spot where Judas knew Christ would go. And so he says, shortly before he ends his instructions to the disciples, ‘for the prince of this world cometh.’ Satan is behind Judas. Satan has entered into him, and he appears to have entered also into the chief priests, and they have convened the soldiers and the temple police. The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.’ Literally the Greek is – he possesses nothing in me. Does that seem a curious thing for Christ to say? No, he means it. The prince of this world, the prince of the power of the air, Satan possesses not the smallest part of me. He has no foothold in my life. He has no handhold on my life. There is nothing in my life, Christ might say, that Satan has a claim on. I have never given anything to him or given way to him or responded to any temptation large or small. I have yielded nothing. And included in this is the sense – he possesses not the tiniest bit of power over me. I can avoid this arrest party easily, but it is out of obedience to my Father that I am going ahead. So he sets an example to us of love here. He loves the Father. He was with the Father when the decision was made. It was his decision equally with the Father, and now he is on earth subordinating himself as our representative, he is going to obey the Father.
Application
Questions
If they are just setting out to arrest him, why does not the Lord go somewhere else this coming night? Why is it necessary for him to go to the place where Judas thinks he will go? Why does he not lead the disciples somewhere else and that will completely thwart the arrest party? Because he is going voluntarily to Calvary. Because it is the will of the Father and the Spirit and the Son. The three persons of the Godhead have determined in eternity that Calvary will take place, that Christ will be roughly arrested, bound, tried, executed. His enemies had never been able to take him before but now he will allow it.
Outline
Purpose
Introduction