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No.16.
Chapter 16:
pp. 95 - 99
"These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended" (John 16: 1).
The Greek word, skandalizo for `offended' has the alternative meaning in a
concordance of `cause to stumble'. In our dictionaries the English counterpart is
`scandalize' stated to mean "offend moral feelings, sense of propriety, or ideas of
etiquette". Our Lord knew the course that the closing days of His ministry were to take,
crucifixion and the dispersal and persecution of His followers. Our Lord knew too, the
immediate world's verdict on these events:
"For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: But we preach Christ
crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block (skand), and unto the Greeks foolishness; but
unto them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the
wisdom of God" (I Cor. 1: 22-24).
The Jews expected a Messiah Who would release them from subservience to the
Romans and maintain their place and authority in their nation's affairs (John 11: 48). All
the aspects of our Lord's humble entry into the world and His witness as His Father's
Servant (Phil. 2: 7; Isa. 42: 1) were so different from the Jew's expectation that it
`scandalized' them.
It was to prepare His disciples for the imminent confusing events that He repeated His
forecast of what they could expect. Christ's words in chapter 15: dwelt on these matters
too. Here was assurance to His disciples that the Father had all things under His control.
"These things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I
told you of them" (16: 4).
What greater comfort and assurance could He have given them than His
announcement of the coming of the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth?
"When He, the Spirit of Truth is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall
not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will
show you things to come" (16: 13).
If only Christians would more fully realize it, the whole spiritual life of the believer to
maturity is bound up with having the indwelling Spirit of Truth opening the Scriptures to
him and `bringing to his remembrance' the things he has read in the Word of God and
making them illumine every facet of life to which they have relevance.
Here is God's appointed way whereby we may progressively get to know Him and His
Son:
"He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you. All
things that the Father hath are Mine: therefore said I, that He shall take of Mine, and
shall show it unto you" (16: 14, 15).