Thomas Coke

JESUS! In Word and Song

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WEEK 23

PREPARING DISCIPLES FOR HIS DEATH

JESUS prepares His disciples at the Passover meal and on the way to the Garden of Gethsemane: “He wants to prepare them for what is about to happen. The New English Bible characterizes the five chapters of John, chapters thirteen through seventeen, as ‘farewell discourses.’”1

In the first ‘farewell discourse,’ JESUS gives an example of how to treat each other by washing His disciples’ feet. (John 13).

“The whole matter of Christ’s death and resurrection was not grasped by the twelve. The reason may have been that they were enamored with other ideas about the Messiah and how His earthly rule would operate.”2

“Ignoring the Lord’s repeated instruction that He was going to Jerusalem to die, the disciples still thought the physical manifestation of the kingdom was about to appear and were busy maneuvering for the places of prominence in it.”3

[T]hey were thinking about who was the greatest of them, so that none was willing to stoop to wash feet. When Jesus moved to wash feet, they were shocked. Through this action Jesus taught the lesson of selfless service.4

“As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you” (John 20:21 ESV). “The Sent One (Jesus) has now become the Sender, commissioning his followers to serve as his messengers and representatives.”5

[T]hey shall know that Christ continues in them, communicates his power to them, and has not forsaken them by his resurrection, by his abiding and conversing with them for forty days after, by his going to heaven to prepare a place for them, by his sending his Spirit to them, and by his indwelling presence, to administer every degree of comfort, light and power, which would be requisite to render their afflictions supportable, their own souls holy and happy, and their ministry successful.6

 “We must learn from the four Gospels and for a doctrinal exposition of it we must turn to the Epistles. ‘Abide in Me,’ ‘learn of Me,’ ‘follow Me,’ are the contents and summing-up of the Christian statute-book.”7

Only those willing to carefully assess the cost and invest all they had in His kingdom were worthy to enter. This speaks of something far more than mere abandonment of one’s material possessions; it is an absolute, unconditional surrender.8

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ENDNOTES

(23) I Go Prepare a Place

            1. Thomas Lane Butts, “Jesus Prepares the Disciples,” 18 February 2012, Ministry Matters, 12 February 2021 https://www.ministrymatters.com/all/entry/2477/jesus-prepares-the-disciples.

            2. John MacArthur, One Perfect Life (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2012) 339.

            3. MacArthur, 340.

            4. MacArthur, 403.

            5. ESV Study Bible, English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2001, ESV Text Edition: 2011) 2070.

            6. Thomas Coke, “Commentary on John 14:20,” 1801-1803, Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible, 12 February 2021 https://www.studylight.org/commentary/john/14-20.html#verse-tcc.

            7. Horatius Bonar, God’s Way of Holiness (Pensacola, FL: Mt Zion Publications) 86.

            8. John MacArthur, One Perfect Life (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2012) 305.

            9. “ . . . if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:3 ESV).

            10. “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do . . .” (John 14:12 ESV).

            11. “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth . . .” (John 16:13 ESV).

            12. “He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you” (John 16:14 ESV).

            13. “A dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest” (Luke 22:24 ESV).

            14. “Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet . . .” (John 13:5 ESV).

            15. “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13 ESV).

            16. “I am the vine; you are the branches . . .” (John 15:5 ESV).

            17. “ . . . take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33 ESV).

JESUS! In Word and Song

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WEEK 19

THE CRUCIFIXION

“And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts” (Luke 23:48 ESV).

“The people who had acted under the influence of the priests now yielded to superior influences and began to experience change of sentiment.”1 “Both Jew and Gentile left Calvary that evening heavy-hearted, self-condemned, and ill at ease.”2

The people who came to behold this melancholy spectacle, were wonderfully affected when Jesus gave up the ghost. They had been insistent, with loud voices, to have him crucified; but now that they saw the face of the creation darkened with a sullen gloom during his crucifixion, and found his death accompanied with an earthquake, as if nature had been in an agony when he died, they rightly interpreted these prodigies to be so many testimonies from God of his innocence. 3

God Himself had foreordained the very minutest details of how Jesus would die. Dying was Christ’s consummate act of submission to the Father’s will. Jesus Himself was in absolute control. Yet it was not Jesus alone, but everyone around Him—His enemies included—who fulfilled precisely the details of the OT prophecies. These events display [God’s] divine soverteignty.4

“[T]he cross ‘disarmed’ the demonic ‘powers’ and forged the final triumph over Satan.”5

[I]f we lived more in the atmosphere of the cross sin would lose its power, and every grace would flourish. When we draw very near to Him and have fellowship with Him in His sufferings we raise a hue and cry against the sin which slew Him, and resolve to be revenged upon it by departing from it ourselves.6

“The cross is that holy implement with which we make war with sin till it be utterly destroyed.”7 And this is how we “make war with sin:” “A disciple must deny himself (die to self-will), take up his cross (embrace God’s will, no matter the cost), and follow Christ.”8

“[P]ut off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph 4:22, ESV).

The believer relives the death and resurrection by putting to death the old self and putting on the new. In one sense this is a past act, experienced at conversion. Yet this is also a present act, experienced in the corporate life of the church. In other words, both at conversion and in spiritual growth, the believer must relive the cross before experiencing the resurrection life. The Christian paradox is that death is the path to life!9

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ENDNOTES

(19) CHRIST Surren’dring All

            1. J.W. McGarvey and Philip Y. Pendleton, “Commentary on Luke 23:48,” 1914, The Fourfold Gospel, 11 February 2021 https://www.studylight.org/commentary/luke/23-48.html#verse-tfg.

            2. J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 2007) II:481.

            3. Thomas Coke, “Commentary on Luke 23:48,” 1801-1803, Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible, 11 February 2021 https://www.studylight.org/commentary/luke/23-48.html#verse-tcc.

            4. John MacArthur, One Perfect Life (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2012) 436.

            5. Grant Osborne, “Cross, Crucifixion,” 1991, Holman Bible Dictionary, 18 June 2021 https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hbd/c/cross-crucifixion.html.

            6. Charles Spurgeon, Spurgeon’s Sermons on New Testament Men (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1994) 106-107.

            7. Spurgeon, 107.

            8. ESV Study Bible, English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2001, ESV Text Edition: 2011) 1841.

            9. Grant Osborne, “Cross, Crucifixion,” 1991, Holman Bible Dictionary, 18 June 2021 https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hbd/c/cross-crucifixion.html.

            10. J. Lathrop, “Commentary on Luke 23:48,” 1905-09, The Biblical Illustrator, 11 February 2021 https://pro.studylight.org/commentary/luke/23-48.html#verse-tbi.

            11. W. Landels, “Commentary on Luke 23:48,” 1905-09, The Biblical Illustrator, 11 February 2021 https://pro.studylight.org/commentary/luke/23-48.html#verse-tbi.

            12. Charles Spurgeon, “Commentary on Luke 23:48,” 1905-09, The Biblical Illustrator, 11 February 2021 https://pro.studylight.org/commentary/luke/23-48.html#verse-tbi.

            13. James Nisbet, “Commentary on Luke 23:48,” 1876, Church Pulpit Commentary, 11 February 2021 https://pro.studylight.org/commentary/luke/23-48.html#verse-cpc.

            14. J. Lathrop, “Commentary on Luke 23:48,” 1905-09, The Biblical Illustrator, 11 February 2021 https://pro.studylight.org/commentary/luke/23-48.html#verse-tbi.

            15. W. Landels, “Commentary on Luke 23:48,” 1905-09, The Biblical Illustrator, 11 February 2021 https://pro.studylight.org/commentary/luke/23-48.html#verse-tbi.

JESUS! In Word and Song

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WEEK 6

JESUS IS FULLY GOD, FULLY MAN

Christ possesses the fullness of the divine nature and attributes (Col 1:19). In Greek philosophical thought, matter was evil; spirit was good. Thus, it was unthinkable that God would ever take on a human body. [The Apostle] Paul refutes that false teaching by stressing the reality of Christ’s incarnation. Jesus was not only fully God, but fully human as well.1

“Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself being born in the likeness of men” (Phil 2:5-7 ESV).

“Our Lord emptied Himself, but the Father gave to His self-emptied Son the fullness of His Spirit. He did not cease to be God, but He became in all things human and was subject to such conditions as were possible to human nature possessed of His Spirit.”2

Fully GOD: “Jesus did not give up any of his divine attributes at the incarnation. He remained in full possession of all of them. For if he were to ever give up any of his divine attributes, he would cease being God.”3

Fully man: “He was not only a man in appearance and likeness, but in reality, having the same common nature, distinguished by the same specific differences, but united to his own eternally divine nature.”4 “Jesus did not cease to be fully human after the resurrection. He will be a man forever as he represents redeemed humanity for all of eternity.”5

[A]ll proceeds from the Father, through the Son, and is by the Holy Spirit. It was the Spirit who formed Christ’s human nature, and directed the whole tenor of His earthly life. Nothing was undertaken but by the Spirit’s directing. The right use of the faculties of His soul owed their exercise to the Holy Spirit who fully controlled Him.6

Just as JESUS, the Son of Man navigated life on earth, so must I. “Jesus’ humanity means he is a true example and pattern for human character and conduct. ‘For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps’ (1 Per 2:21; cf. 1 John 2:6).”7

The two mysteries which exist in the manhood of Christ exist also in the ransomed soul; the presence of the Spirit, and the union with the Son of God. Each soul in grace is a partaker of the Divine Nature. The pure nature of Christ is the instrument of the Spirit in the soul. [T]ransformation of our nature is being accomplished, and His character gradually impressed.8

“The full flood of my life is in the perfect understanding of God and in the communion with Him that Jesus Himself had.”9

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ENDNOTES

(6) Fully GOD Fully Man

            1. John MacArthur, One Perfect Life (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2012) 18.

            2. Samuel Chadwick, The Way to Pentecost (Fort Washington, PA: CLC Publications, 2000, 2014) 79.

            3. Matt Perman, “How Can Jesus be Both God and Man?” 5 October 2006, desiringGod, 28 January 2021 https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/how-can-jesus-be-god-and-man.

            4. Thomas Coke, “Philippians 2:7,” 1801-1803, Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible. 18 January 2021 https://pro.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/tcc/philippians-2.html.

            5. The ESV Study Bible, English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2001, ESV Text Edition, 2011) 2517.

            6. A. W. Pink, The Holy Spirit (Pensacola, FL: Mt. Zion Publications), http://www.mountzion.org, 32.

            7. The ESV Study Bible, English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2001, ESV Text Edition, 2011) 2518.

            8. W. H. Hutchings, “Commentary on Ephesians 1:17,” 1905-1909, The Biblical Illustrator, 28 January 2021 https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/tbi/ephesians-1.html.

            9. Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest (New York, NY: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1935, Fifty-fifth printing) August 31st.

            10. “For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering” (Hebrews 2:10 ESV).

11. Isaac Watts, The Psalms and Hymns of Isaac Watts (Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 1997) 302. Oliver Holden, Hymn tune: Coronation, 1792.

            12. “Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect . . .” (Hebrews 2:17 ESV).

            13. “For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers,” (Hebrews 2:11 ESV).

            14. “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things . . .” Hebrews 2:14 ESV).

15. Isaac Watts, The Psalms and Hymns of Isaac Watts, Book 1, Hymn XVI, (Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 1997) 302. Oliver Holden, Hymn tune: Coronation, 1792.