II. THAT THE DISCIPLES HAD THE FULLEST OPPORTUNITY OF TESTING THE REALITY OF OUR LORD'S RESURRECTION (vers. 39-43). The evidences of (1.) sight, (2.) touch, (3.) partaking of food. III. THAT THIS DEMONSTRATED RESURRECTION WAS A FULFILMENT OF AN ANCIENT DESIGN AS WELL AS OF HIS OWN WORDS (ver. 44). IV. THAT THIS RESURRECTION WAS ATTENDED BY SPIRITUAL ILLUMINATION. "He opened their understandings," &c. V. THAT THIS RESURRECTION WAS A DIVINE NECESSITY. it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise." "Thus VI. THAT THIS RESURRECTION WAS FOR THE SALVATION OF MANKIND. VII. THAT THE APOSTLES WERE CONSTITUTED WITNESSES OF THIS FOUNDATION FACT OF CHRISTIANITY. LESSONS. SECOND MORNING LESSON. THE RECOGNITION OF LOVE. "THEREFORE THAT DISCIPLE WHOM JESUS LOVED SAITH UNTO PETER, IT IS THE LORD" (John xxi. 7). WHO recognised Him first on the shores of the lake? It was the quick, loving eye of St. John. Who was the first to reach the Saviour on the sloping banks? It was St. Peter. The first was the quick recognition of love, and the second showed the earnestness of true zeal. Manifold are the gifts of Christ's servants. Look, however, now at St. John's loving recognition. I. "IT IS THE LORD WHO HAS GIVEN THIS UNEXPECTED BLESSING. How astonished they were at their fortune after toiling all night! II. "IT IS THE LORD" WHO IS WITH US IN THE NIGHT OF CARE. III. "IT IS THE LORD WHO IS WITH US IN THE NIGHT OF DOUBT. IV. "IT IS THE LORD WHO STANDS ON THE SHORES OF ETERNITY IN THE NIGHT OF DEATH. SECOND EVENING LESSON. THE RISEN SAVIOUR'S DEMANDS OF HIS DISCIPLES. (John xxi. 15-17). I. HE DEMANDS THE LOVE OF HIS DISCIPLES. "Lovest thou Me?" II. HE DEMANDS HIS DISCIPLES' CARE OF HIS FLOCK. III. HE DEMANDS REPEATED ASSURANCES OF AFFECTION. First Sunday after Easter, EPISTLE. "GOD HATH GIVEN TO US ETERNAL LIFE; AND THIS LIFE IS IN HIS SON (1 John V. II). THE grandeur and the simplicity of this language are equally deserving of admiration. The words are simple, but the thoughts are deep. If there is vagueness in St. John's language, there is beauty, sometimes rising to sublimity. I. THE GIFT. 1. Life has two meanings-it is physical, according to common usage; or spiritual, as in the discourses of Jesus and in the writings of John and Paul. Here the life is that of the Spirit. 2. Immortality has two meanings. It may mean perpetuity of existence, but its proper and Scriptural employment is to designate the perpetuity of the higher and spiritual life, which consists in unity with Christ. "The gift of God is eternal life." II. THE GIVER. The blessing in question cannot be earned, and cannot be deserved; if enjoyed at all, it must be through the liberality of God, from whom alone it can proceed. A free, spontaneous, and unpurchased gift, this is one worthy of the Giver of every good gift and every perfect gift. He alone can give it; for eternal life cannot be bestowed by a finite being. And when His favour is conferred, He cannot give less than this. Such a gift is worthy of such aGiver. III. THE MEDIATOR THROUGH WHOM THIS GIFT IS BESTOWED. "His Son." 1. Eternal life is literally and absolutely in God's Son. "In Him was life." He said, "I am the life." "But of His fulness have all we received." 2. Eternal life is by Christ's resurrection to those who are one with Him. They not only die with Him unto sin; they rise with Him, and live with Him, and that for ever. 3. Eternal life is sustained by the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in His people. 4 Eternal life is commenced with the new birth, is continued by the "means of grace," and is perfected in the state where death is unknown. OVERCOMING THE WORLD. "WHATSOEVER IS BORN OF GOD OVERCOMETH THE WORLD AND THIS IS THE VICTORY THAT OVERCOMETH THE WORLD, EVEN OUR FAITH. WHO IS HE THAT OVERCOMETH THE WORLD, BUT HE THAT BELIEVETH THAT JESUS IS THE SON OF GOD?" (1 John v. 4, 5). THE being born of God accounts for the commandments of God not being grievous; but still there must be a conflict even for the holiest child of God on earth in keeping these commandments, through indwelling sin and the hostile influence of the world outside. I. THE WORLD AN ENEMY TO BE OVERCOME. The world here represents whatever makes God's born children disposed to regard His commandments as grievous. In this aspect 1. It is an enemy; always an enemy; a bitter and implacable enemy; never more an enemy than when we are trying to overcome it. It tempts us to disloyalty and disobedience and suspicion; would array us against our Father; resents all devotion to Him. It is no enemy when we will be friends with it. 2. It is an enemy to be overcome. To conquer it involves fighting-ceaseless, wearisome, desultory fighting. Only thus is it overcome. It is not overcome (1.) by compromise; it refuses a divided allegiance, and you cannot love God and the world, or serve two masters. Compromise only makes the world more imperious in its exactions. It is not overcome (2.) by fleeing from it; we cannot get rid of the world's evil by going out of the world. Physical isolation does not free us from the subtle and pervasive spirit of the world, or shut it out of our hearts. Only facing it resolutely and fighting it manfully will issue in victory. II. THE SECRET OF VICTORY OVER THE WORLD lies in two things-one the potential, the other the actual cause of victory. 1. Regeneration, the being born of God and having His life implanted in the soul, creates for us the closest sympathy with God, and invests us with a power which is stronger than the world, and with a holy nature which the world cannot destroy, with a loyalty and love which the world cannot undermine. Regeneration potentially secures victory in every instance; is the pledge and seed of triumph without exception or exemption. No one born of God can ever fail to conquer the world. 2. Faith is the actual weapon which regeneration enables us to wield. (1.) Faith and victory are identified as if one and the same thing, so close is their connection, and so certain is faith to conquer. (2.) Faith alone overcomes. None but a believer can subdue the world, and no believer can fail. (3.) Faith must have as its specific object all that is implied in Jesus being the Son of God, and so be in sympathetic fellowship with Him and His history and destiny as the Son of God, His view of God's commandments, and His victory over the world. THE CHRISTIAN'S BATTLE AND VICTORY I. THE ENEMY the Christian must fight. 1. The enemy is the world. Not the world as God made it, but the world as it has become by its fall from 2. The enemy is around us as well as in us. is worse than the world around us. II. THE WEAPONS of the Christian warfare. God. The world in us 1. The weapon is faith, "even our faith," faith in the divine witnesses. 2. It is faith in the triune God. Granted that these words are of extremely doubtful genuineness, they express a truth most clearly revealed in God's Word, and therefore may be profitably summarised in these words of the Epistle, "There are three that bear record," &c. 3. It is faith in the sacrificial merits of Him who came by water and by blood. 4. It is faith in the Word of God's Son in the Gospels. III. THE VICTORY in the Christian warfare. 1. It is a continual victory. 2. It will soon be an everlasting victory. |