John 12:20-33 And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast:… These Greeks are — I. ILLUSTRATIONS OF A UNIVERSAL TRUTH — that those who live up to the light they have will be gradually led on to more. 1. They were proselytes, or at least companions of those who feared God, or they would not have been here. They had given up heathenism, and this step was, according to God's moral government, rewarded by another. A desire came into their hearts, awakened, no doubt, by the resurrection of Lazarus, to become acquainted with Christ. 2. There are differences of opinion how people become Christians. Some say there is first a giving up of what is wrong and false, then an intermediate stage in which one feels nothing and is nothing, and then truth taking occasion by the vacuum enters the mind. Others say there is no middle state. But the true theory is, "the wind bloweth where it listeth." In the majority of cases, however, truth comes in and expels falsehood, just as there is no parenthesis between light and darkness, but the moment that it ceases to be dark it is light, and the moment that light has begun darkness is over. II. EXAMPLES OF A UNIVERSAL CRAVING. Theirs was the language — 1. Of the whole Old Testament dispensation. The cherubim bending over the mercy seat, as if to look into the mysteries of the ark, were emblems of all the Mosaic ages. The expected Messiah, the desire of all nations, was the point to which all faces turned. "Many prophets and righteous men," etc. As the appointed time drew on the desire was intensified. Simeon and Anna, the Magi and the Greeks, were representatives of the whole Jewish and Gentile world. And during Christ's life, the crowds that thronged His steps bore testimony to the feeling, and Zacchaeus was probably not the only man whose pious curiosity was rewarded. 2. Of the Christian Church in regard to Christ's Second Advent. 3. Of penitents under a sense of sin groping their way toward the light. 4. Of Christians who have lost the glimpses they once enjoyed, and are now passing under clouds. 5. Of the dying Christian passing home. (J. Vaughan, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast:WEB: Now there were certain Greeks among those that went up to worship at the feast. |
    |