It is a wonder of divine mercy that the holy Lord God has stooped to speak to sinful men. Twice in these verses the Lord Jesus tells His disciples, ‘These things have I spoken unto you’. God’s creatures should listen when their Maker speaks. We ignore Him at our peril. A day is coming when the Lord will say ‘Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire’ and no one will resist. Until then Paul says, ‘to you is the word of this salvation sent’. May God give us ears to hear the Saviour when He says ‘these things have I spoken unto you’. 

We ought not to forget joy. There is joy in the Lord and a joy from the Lord that belongs to all believers, a joy the world knows nothing of and no man can take away. Paul says, ‘Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice’ and here the Lord Jesus promises His disciples that in a little while their joy will be full. As believers in Christ our cup is running over. The joy of the Lord is given in good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over.

It is instructive to observe the care taken by the Lord to inform and prepare His disciples for the difficulties they soon would face. He explains what is going to happen, why it will happen and the reason for telling them now. The time is fast approaching when they will be opposed, expelled from the synagogue, even slain in the name of God. They will be persecuted because the religious Jews are ignorant of God and devoid of faith in Christ. He is telling them now to prepare them for it. Such things are to be expected. The Lord’s people ought not to be surprised and need not be offended. 

It is the Lord Jesus Christ who tells His followers that if we are men and women of faith then we are not of this world. In Jesus Christ you and I are already heavenly people according to His gift of grace in the new creation. This is another wonderful statement to thrill our hearts from the lips of the Master. Once we were of this world. We were born into it, tutored under its direction and followed its paths. Like Adam, the first man, we were of the earth, earthy.

Pause and consider this opening verse, ‘As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you’. It is a great and precious discovery to every redeemed sinner that Christ’s love for His Bride is analogous to the Father’s particular and infinite love for His own dear Son. We may, on the basis of this statement alone, reject the foolish and unbiblical notion of the universal love of God for every individual. The Father declared His love and divine pleasure for His Son and the Lord Jesus tells us He has the same love and pleasure for His Church.

It seems likely this sermon in John 15 and 16 was spoken by the Lord as He reclined with His disciples after their Passover meal and following the institution of the Lord’s supper. The cup containing the fruit of the vine may have suggested this comparison of the true vine and its branches. The Lord uses this symbolism to describe His union with His Church. Allusions to God’s vine, the plant of Renown and the Branch are common in the writings of the Old Testament prophets where they are applied to the Messiah. Here they are claimed by the Lord Himself.