660
THE .KING’S BUSINESS
heart : “Wilt thou lay down thy life for me?” He questions, and as He questions, those eyes so searching yet so tjender, looked Simon through and through, and He tells Simon what He sees. Very ten derly it is true, and yet very faithfully— “Wilt thou lay down ,thy life for me? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, -the cock shall not crow until thou hast denied me thrice.” Ah ! how often Jesus must in this same way meet our well-meaning but shallow professions of consecration and love. > Saturday', July 22 . John 14 : 1 - 3 . The fourteenth chapter of John is the richest vein in the most remarkable gold mine in the world, the Bible. The first .clause of verse one is the keynote of the chapter, especially of verses 1 to 27. Verse one begins and verse twenty-seven closes with the same words, “Let not your heart be troubled.” All in between might fitly be entitled “Thoughts for the Comfort and Encouragement of Believers during the Absence of their Lord.” The remainder of verse one contains Jesus’ infallible pre scription for heart trouble, “believe in God, believe also in me.” The one who truly believes in God and believes in Jesus Christ will never be troubled in heart (Isa. 26:3 ; Ps. 23:4; Phil. 4:6, 7). We can take our choice between believing hearts and trou bled hearts. When faith comes in, anxiety goes out. Any man or woman who is trou bled over business, over ill health, over their work, over Their personal affairs, or over the affairs of others, or over affairs of any kind, just to that extent does not believe in God, nor in Jesus Christ. Just so far as you rest in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ the Son, all anxiety van ishes. The one who feeds often upon John 1:l-27, and believes, and bears in mind what Jesus here says, will be delivered from all fear and anxiéty during his earthly pil grimage and warfare. Jesus would have His disciples free from all heart commo tion, and in the words of verse one and thè words that follow, provides this blessed
freedom. Verse one contains the keynote of all. In the remainder of the verses a number of specific comforting thoughts follow. Note carefully befpre you leave verse one that J esus demands the same faith in Himself that we put in God. (This comes out more clearly in the American Revision, which is the correct translation of what' Jesus said). A tremendous demand this, and if Jesus is not God mani fest in the flesh, a blasphemous demand. God tells us in Jeremiah 17:5 that “cursed is the man that trusteth in man” (R. V.), but Jesus here demands that we trust in Him just.as we trust in God, and there fore assumes that He is God, or else asks us to bring a curse upon our heads. Of the various thoughts that Jesus gives us for our comfort during His absence, the first is that the Father’s house is a large place, with room enough for us all, as well as for Jesus. The word translated “mansions” means literally, “abiding places.” Here we have no abiding place, we are pil grims, but there are abiding places for every one who is in Christ. The Lord tells His disciples that heaven, the “Father’s house,” is a large place with room enough for us all, so we need not be broken hearted over His departure for the separation is not and cannot be permanent. The second comforting thought that He gives them is that He Himself is going ahead in their interest to get His Father’s house ready for them. “Oh, where is Jesus?” our lonely hearts often cry. . “Getting a place ready for you,” is His tender reply. Some' one has remarked that “it must be mag nificently fitted up : for it has already taken ’ the Son of God Himself more than eighteen centuries to do it.” But now comes the third comforting'thought, the sweetest in many respects of them all, “I will come again, and receive you unto myself.” In other words, not only is Jesus at present engaged in preparing a place for us, but some day He is coming back personally to take us to that place, and temporary sep aration is to be succeeded by eternal reunion. “I come again,” says Jesus. He does not send for us, He comes Himself,
Made with FlippingBook HTML5