The Lord Jesus, ever careful for the wellbeing and feelings of His beloved friends, has delivered words of comfort and encouragement to His soon to be bereft disciples. Speaking these things ‘being yet present’ implies His imminent departure from them. The Lord has spoken of mansions prepared for them in His Father’s house. He has promised to supply them with power by sending the Holy Spirit to comfort them and intimated how He Himself, with His Father, will come to dwell in them. Though spoken personally to the disciples these present spiritual graces and eternal heavenly promises are every believer’s possession.

In matters of grace and faith it is important to distinguish between conditions and characteristics, or what the Lord requires of us and what He gives to us. Let me explain. All believers love the Lord. Love for God and the Lord Jesus Christ is a characteristic of every child of God because the Lord implants love in the renewed desires of a converted soul. We love Him because He first loved us and we are inspired to do so by the indwelling presence of God the Holy Spirit. Love to God is the foremost fruit of the Spirit and it is an innate feature of a regenerated, believing soul. 

From the earliest days of the church’s witness believers were persecuted and punished for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. No sooner had the Lord returned to heaven following His Resurrection than His disciples took up the Lord’s message and began to preach it widely and boldly in Jerusalem. Sometimes thousands were converted in a day and the church grew rapidly. We are told the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

In John 13, prior to the passover, the Lord Jesus Christ told his disciples of his impending betrayal, arrest, death and departure. He told them, ‘Whither I go ye canst not follow me now’. This was a great puzzle to the disciples and a very great disappointment. They still expected the Lord to overthrow the Roman empire, restore the glory of Israel, reign in power and establish an earthly kingdom in which they, his followers, would be highly honoured. Peter, spokesman for them all, insisted he was ready to die to make it happen. 

David teaches us what all believers discover in this life: iniquity curtails our spiritual joy and unconfessed sin deprives the soul of fellowship with the Lord. This was David’s experience. It seems likely David had not known the joy of the Lord for some time, perhaps a year. For sure, the Lord never wholly removes His Spirit from a believer or cuts him off from union with Christ, nevertheless, the felt gladness of grace can be lost. When the Holy Spirit convinced David of his sin the beloved psalmist began to feel the cold state of his soul.

In recent weeks we have watched with dismay as David, King of Israel, fell deeply into sin  and gave ‘great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme’. David committed adultery with Bathsheba, a local girl, betrayed and murdered her husband, Uriah, and along with him caused the death of several other soldiers caught up in the king’s devious scheme. It has been painful to witness David’s shame and be reminded that the best of men are but sinful men at their best.