THE HOLY SPIRIT AS THE COMFORTER
[p. 129] THE HOLY SPIRIT AS THE COMFORTER
JT The point of the chapter seems to be the office of the Holy Spirit as the Comforter in relation to the world. The world would be exposed in all its true character by the demonstration — the public demonstration — of the Holy Spirit in the saints. His presence would demonstrate that the Jews and the world were guilty; firstly, that there was sin with them, “because they believe not on me”, secondly, “of righteousness because I go to my Father”, thirdly, “of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged”. Thus the disciples were at a great advantage when He came, in the fact that He would bring all this about in a public way. Instead of the Jews having the advantage, they would be in the position of the condemned, and Christ would be vindicated.
The chapter suggests the vindication of suffering ones, those who suffer for God. The apprehension of these things would mean an immense advantage for the Lord’s people suffering in this world. He would justify their position to them.
PL I suppose chapter 17 would give us the priestly service of Christ, and chapter 16 the Comforter’s mission.
JT Yes; we have Christ on the one hand, and the Holy Spirit on the other, and we have every reason to be confident of victory. Acts 2 shows that the world was condemned.
Ques How would it be a public demonstration?
JT The coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was an evidence that God had accepted Christ. The Jews had professed to believe in God, but they refused to accept Christ. The Lord was rejected in that way, and went down into death without God interfering for Him. They said, “He calls for Elias”, but Elias did not come to help Him. The inference was, He was not of God, or God would have saved Him. The question was whether God would come in and approve Christ by raising Him from the dead.
[p. 130] Well, the resurrection took place before the eyes of men; the empty sepulchre was a testimony that He had been raised. They told lies about that to cover up the great defeat that they had suffered. The Roman watch was at the tomb, but they became as dead men when the angel appeared. They gave bribes to cover up their defeat, but no one could cover up Christ’s victory when the Holy Spirit came in. We hear “every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born”. Everybody at Jerusalem heard what was said. Again they sought to obscure their defeat by saying, “These men are full of new wine”. But Peter stands up, and denies it. The enemy’s defeat was final. Then he proceeds to explain the resurrection of Christ, and His ascension. “Being by the right hand of God exalted”. God had exalted Him; the presence of the Holy Spirit was proof conclusive of it.
PL In joy, they bring a man into the world, so to speak. They have travail in anguish, but Christ is reproduced in them.
JT These passages have reference to the people of God who are in the world, but apart from it in their souls in the power of the Spirit. And you notice it is not a babe, but a man.
The Holy Spirit is the testimony to victory. The saints may overcome the world, and know it. The world may not accept the judgment. It makes no difference whether or not the criminal accepts the sentence passed against him; he is guilty. On their part, the saints have the Spirit of glory and of God resting upon them.
The apostles did not seek to evade suffering. They suffered, but then they suffered as justified persons and as victors. Thus there was great moral power in their souls.
Ques “Of righteousness because I go to my Father?” Why is it the “Father”?
JT The thought of God revealed as Father stands in relation to God known in grace, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father”; “The world hath not known thee”. In spite of the fact that He was to be seen here in grace, the world failed to respond, and thus the world is marked [p. 131] off as unrighteous. Jesus is with the Father; that is the testimony of righteousness, and the vindication of what Jesus had been on earth. What He was as Man merited that He should go to the Father, and the world not believing on Him is proved unrighteous.
Rem “Thou hast loved righteousness and hast hated lawlessness”.
JT As with the Father, Christ is invested with all administrative authority. The world leaves God out; it is marked by disregard of the Father. The Holy Spirit coming in has brought in demonstration of that. Righteousness is now with the Father; no one would seek it in the world. But He is righteous, taking note of every little thought or act for Him. The Father’s discriminations are infinitely accurate (see Hebrews 6: 10). This helps you to suffer here. Christ has been here, was refused, and is now with the Father, so that the pathway in the world is one of suffering. But it is the path of those who are proven to be victors. That is an immense thing. I was thinking of Paul and Silas as a very remarkable illustration of that. “At midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God”. They knew there was no righteousness with the jailer, nor in the imperial system, but there was righteousness with God. Jesus, who had been here, and proved what righteousness is, was with the Father.
Ques Was it on account of the apostle’s following a course of righteousness that he was brought into reproach and suffering?
JT Yes, surely. It was also the occasion of God’s approach to Europe with the glad tidings. But they had a sense that righteousness was with God. Their prayers are interspersed with praise. Then God acts in power. The prison is shaken, and the jailer is about to commit suicide, all disclosing what the world really is. But then God was there, and the jail was turned into a temple. There was priestly service and praise there. The point with the apostle was to get at this “man of Macedonia”. The earth quaking seems to have terrorized the jailer, but Paul’s voice allayed his fear. Paul says, “Do thyself no harm”; that is not the [p. 132] voice of the world. There is sympathy and consideration, and the man is moved by it. He dresses the stripes of the suffering men himself and bestows respect upon them which he never exercised before in dealing with prisoners. It shows the man had changed; it shows the effect of righteousness. Grace in the apostle had affected him.
Ques Is your thought that the demonstration is carried on through the people of God in the power of the Spirit?
JT Yes. Peter’s epistle, when speaking of the government of God says, “If any man suffer as a christian” there is evidence that Christ is with them in it. And the sufferers are victors. Paul was set for destruction, but the Lord says, “I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake”.
Ques Why is it we are so slow to walk here for the Lord in that way? We do not find saints suffering much.
JT That is a good question. We are more or less disposed to look for an easy path. Christianity is set up in victorious persons, appointed to suffer for it. He has ordained it thus in His government, and it works out for the saints’ blessing, and enhancement of the testimony. We must be near the Lord Jesus Christ to bear suffering. He has led the way.
Rem Perhaps if we had the sense of His love, and the position we have been set in in the world, we should be more ready to walk in accord with the Lord’s mind.
JT God has many ways in the world, but suffering is a mark of royalty. The purple in the tabernacle is a royal colour. “If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him”. The apostle Paul speaks of his as a light affliction, which was but for a moment, and yet what suffering he had to bear! Many of the Old Testament saints had to suffer severely before they were allowed to hold a very exalted position. David is one and Joseph is another example. The great thing to begin with is victory. There is no question of want of power. The Lord has endowed us with that in the gift of the Holy Spirit.
It says the prisoners were listening to them in the prison. They would be struck with their sense of triumph. It was [p. 133] all working out the will of God. Paul had the sense of that. We must never allow the least suggestion in our hearts of weakness on the part of God. It is a question of His will. Peter tells us that it is His government towards us. If we are only submissive, it is wonderful what He can do for us. “Our light affliction ... worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen”. Yes, that is it. It is said of the faithful Moses, “He endured, as seeing Him who is invisible”.
This chapter is full of victory. And what a blessed thing it is that the Lord would have us victors too according to our measure.
Rem If we accept the path, we shall get the benefit of the Spirit?
JT Yes, He will support us, and as being with us, He will take of the things of Christ and show them to us, and glorify Christ in us. Christianity begins with victory. What we endure is simply the appointment of His will, not an evidence of His weakness. We shall find His power in the path.
Rem “The time cometh” it says in the second verse. I suppose that is the present time.
JT Yes; after the Spirit came. So that He prepared them for it. “Unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake”. First, it is God’s appointment, then it is your privilege. We ought really to delight in it, to think that we are set in such a path.
Rem Timothy is exhorted to take his share in suffering. Suffering is there, but we may want to shirk it. Are we going in for a path of ease, or the path that means suffering?
JT Suffering has a great purifying effect upon us. It becomes the furnace in which God develops in us the gold. “More precious than of gold that perisheth”. If the soul is sustained in moral strength through the ministrations of the Spirit, it will not shirk the suffering. And it will not be a case of ‘I shall have to put up with it’. They “prayed, and sang praises unto God”. They rejoiced that they were [p. 134] counted worthy. If we suffer we shall also reign with Him.
Ques What puts you on that line of righteousness? To be “counted worthy to suffer”. What enables you to take things up like that?
JT In suffering you enjoy things as you never have before. Nowadays, there is a little revival of the Spirit and power of Pentecost. I am sure it is so; as you realize the extent of the victory, you will be able to take up the path of suffering — suffering for righteousness. And the more one progresses, the more one sees that it is only light affliction. It is “for a moment” and “not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed”. The apostle says, “I count all things but loss”. He was giving things up for Christ’s sake.
There is no greater position morally than that of christianity. May we accept the suffering as the divine will and as a privilege. The apostle says, “Thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, ... persecutions, afflictions ... what persecutions I endured”, not ‘what came upon me’, but which he endured. He went through them with God. There was a witness to Christ in going through them. “As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long”, but “we are more than conquerors”. Not only one day in the week, but all the day long. “We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter”. Just lined up in the market and branded for the slaughterhouse. That was the attitude of the apostle. And he never complained once, but was counting upon God all the time.
There is another feature, which comes out in Acts 14:22, that “we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom”. God is not glorified in the actual pain or inconvenience you endure, but in the way you stand it. The suffering brought out the preciousness of the offering.
So in our chapter, the first thing is victory, and then the Holy Spirit to aid us in the position. Then the end of the chapter develops what Christ will be to us. “Your sorrow shall be turned into joy”. The Lord is in the prospect of victory and of joy. Then how His gentleness and tenderness is marked in this chapter! What pains He takes too to [p. 135] assure them of the position, that they might be prepared for suffering, and get the gain of the Spirit; that they had the Father’s love and His love. No one could take their joy from them, because it was the joy of known relationships and divine love brought to them by the Spirit. “All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you”. What a range of things that is! “All things”. That we might be here a victorious people. “The unsearchable riches of the Christ”.
“The Father” brings in the thought of peculiar affection. The One who would provide the very best things, enrichment and glory — all spiritual things; it does not need the Holy Spirit for material things. But He would open up spiritual relationships, spiritual blessings.
Ques “Do ye now believe?”
JT That is a very testing question, as to how much we believe. “That thou camest forth from God”. Then there is more than that; that He went back to God. What does that involve? It involves what He was as Man, and all that should be developed from that.
“Because I go to the Father”, I think, relates to the brevity of our time here. It is but for a moment.
Ques What about the verse that says “I will see you again”?
JT That would have an historical and also a present bearing. It is something we may look for now. As we are in the good of the Spirit, in how wonderfully real a way the Lord often comes before us, so that we instantly realize it is He. “I will not leave you orphans”. So that I would not make it entirely future. It is a mark of christianity that the Lord comes to us, and our hearts rejoice.
Chapter 20 opens up the new order of things, the system and sphere of things in which the Lord sees His saints, according to chapter 16, verse 22, and in which they rejoice with Him. The soul passes through the daily suffering, but there is the joy of seeing Him. The church’s history is one of weeks. The first day of the week begins a new chapter; it all centres around the Lord Himself. “He shall glorify me”.