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MAY  1  WEDNESDAY

These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killleth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me. But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you. But now I go my way to him that sent me; and none of you asketh me, Whither guest thou? But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart.    John 16, 1- 6.

Thoughts on John’s Gospel (155)

The Lord prepared His disciples for the circumstances in which they would find themselves after His departure. The hatred that He had borne would be transferred to them because they were His witnesses. In spite of the presence of the Son of God on earth and His revelation of the Father in all His love and goodness, men had no knowledge of either the Father or the Son. When Jesus had ascended into heaven, the disciples were left in the midst of those who had rejected the testimony of the Son of God. These scoffers were so ignorant as to God and His counsel that they even imagined they would be doing Him a service, if they  persecuted and killed the disciples. Saul of Tarus was on such enemy of Jesus (Act 26, 9 - 11).

It was only a matter of days before the disciples were to experience the truth of what the Lord was telling them. With their thoughts directed to the perilous time when he would no longer be with them, their hearts were full of sadness. They were little aware of what was to befall the Lord Himself!

(to be continued next Sunday)