DIVINE APPEARINGS (1)
[p. 149] DIVINE APPEARINGS (1)
1 Corinthians 15:5 - 8; Acts 26:12 - 16; John 14:18 - 23
JT What has exercised one a good deal is that the dispensation is maintained in freshness by divine manifestations. Nothing is more essential than that we should be preserved in freshness, and one has had before him the appearings of the Lord. The divine intent obviously was that those active in the dispensation should know the Lord through personal contact. It was the divine intent that there should be personal representation here, for without personal representation of Christ — that is, in those who know Him through intimacy — we cannot have a general or corporate representation of Christ. So these appearings, as they are called, were intended to stamp the persons involved with the sense of who the Lord is, and what He is. This would work out in their ministry, in their influence, and in their example.
GA Would the representation of the dispensation that you were speaking of stand very definitely in contrast to what had gone before, and, if so, what would be the reason?
JT Of course there were wonderful foreshadowings of the present time. We see particularly from Abraham onwards that Jehovah maintained a personal contact with those who were to represent Him. We have the statement, “The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham”. Acts 7:2. Well, He intended in that appearing to impress him, and no doubt did impress him, but I apprehend that these appearings in the Old Testament were through angelic means. Although Jehovah Himself is said to have been there, as in the case of the appearing to Abraham in Genesis 18, yet the medium is, I judge, angelic. Now the appearings are in One who is Himself divine, so that in the period before He ascended, after He rose,
[p. 150] He made prominent the evidences of His personal love. He showed unto them His hands and His side. So that we have to do with One who, although He is the Mediator, is at the same time personally divine, and has rights over us. So that the appearings, I think, are more personal than mediatorial. They denote His personal interest in the saints, and that interest continues, and the personal service involved in it continues.
JBS In Acts 1 He presents Himself living to them. Does that indicate that it is to be a living dispensation, a dispensation of spiritual life, and He presents Himself, so that there might be correspondence with Himself?
JT That is right. In each of the gospels we have a different view presented, and the appearings are mentioned to support that view. In John, taking them backwards — which, I think, is the right way now, seeing that we are in a day of failure — He is said to have appeared three times, the end in the third manifestation being the recovery of leading ministers — Peter himself, first of all. In Luke, it is to recover two apparently insignificant ones as far as gift or service may be considered. They are not distinguished ones. One of them is called Cleopas — called, as if not well known amongst the saints. The name of the other is not given, possibly his wife. They were on their way to Emmaus, which means an obscure place. So Luke would remind us in this personal service of the Lord that every saint is in view — the weakest and most obscure. Mark emphasises the unbelief of the brethren — every one of them, women and all; because He would impress us with the need of faith in the ministry. Things are all available to those that believe. “These signs shall follow them that believe”, Mark 16:17 not necessarily apostles, but “them that believe”. He emphasises the importance of faith, especially in those who preach — that we should be concerned that [p. 151] we believe what we preach. In Matthew it is to impress us with administrative ability as it shone in Christ, so they are to make disciples of all the nations. It is not “if they could”, but it is imperative — make disciples of all the nations. The power that is inherent in the One that reveals Himself to them is unlimited. It is all power in heaven and on earth. “I am with you alway”, He says. “Make disciples of all the nations, baptising them to the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”. Matthew 28:19. There is no power that can stand against that — the power that is in the hands of the Lord. All power in heaven and on earth. When we come to Acts 1, it is to impress us with a living person. He appeared unto them, living, or alive; and He charged them by the Spirit. We do not get anything like that in the gospel — it is what He did personally. But now He is doing it by the Spirit, because He would prepare them for the dispensation of the Spirit, to make room for the Spirit. So that when we come to this chapter in Corinthians, I think we have six appearings recorded, and then in Paul’s conversion we have further appearings announced — “In the which I will appear unto thee”, He says. We have a record of the details of one, and then there would be others, so that Paul’s ministry, above all the others, I apprehend, was marked by personal contact with the Lord.
JS I suppose the point is, it depends upon our contact with the Lord?
JT That is what I thought. It maintains one in freshness and in variety in his service, because nothing impresses you more than the freshness and variety of the Lord’s own personal ministry. And John, who has the estimate of one who is loved, says, “If they should be written ... the world itself could not contain the books”. John 21:25. So that there is abundance with the Lord, and He deals it out as we are prepared to receive [p. 152] it.
JS Would the exercise be on the lines of looking for His appearing? It says, “Unto them that look for him shall he appear”. I thought, perhaps, we anticipated that in reality — future actuality. But those who get these touches or these appearings are those who look for Him.
JT Just so. I was thinking of it in the Acts particularly — “In the which I will appear to thee”, There would be some feature of the truth in each appearing.
JS Do you mean he has communications?
JT Quite. I thought in Paul’s ministry there would be not only the first appearing, of which he speaks here in Acts 26, but a subsequent one, “In the which I will appear to thee”. One can understand how the apostle would be looking for these appearings as he proceeded in his service.
JS It would not be that you disregarded or abandoned your calling in life, or anything of that kind. The Lord appeared to Gideon whilst he was threshing wheat. The looking is rather an attitude you would carry with you at all times.
JT Just so.
AH Does the effect of the appearings come out in the apostle’s writings?
JT I think so. If you take up his epistles you see how he progressed, how new features were added, would you say?
AH I thought so, but I would like help. You quoted in Acts 26 that He would appear to him; but I was wondering whether we get the effects of it in connection with his writings.
JT Well, I think you can discern development in Paul’s epistles, even in his addresses in the Acts. If you take, for instance, his remarks to the Ephesian elders — how, in chapter 20, he speaks about the whole counsel of God and how the affections of Christ work out in his lowly mind and house-to-house service.
[p. 153] and how he says to the elders: “Shepherd the assembly of God which he has purchased with the blood of his own”. Acts 20:28. What a high conception he has of the cost of the assembly as he speaks of it as that which has been purchased by the blood of God’s own — as if God had given all that He cherished for it!
GE That spiritual apprehension of things should mark us in our pathway.
JT I think there should be development with us, and freshness and variety. That is the divine intent in our being here. I think that these six appearings, as we have remarked elsewhere, are constructive; that is, they are not mere haphazard, because, doubtless, there were many other appearings. There are some that he does not mention, but which the gospels record. These are evidently mentioned with purpose, with spiritual intent, and, as I said, they are constructive, and from that point of view they tend to establish what we have been remarking, as much as any other appearings. We have first Cephas. Now, in Luke it is Simon. He “hath appeared unto Simon”, Luke 24:34 because Luke contemplates the man in responsibility — the actual man who failed. He denied the Lord. It is grace. It was abounding grace on the part of the Lord to appear to him first. It is in keeping with Luke. But in this record it is Cephas, because it is not to call attention to His grace here, but that he had in mind the spiritual material that Cephas represents. The word denotes material — a stone — which renders the divine dispensation permanent and stable.
JS In regard to the variety, I thought of what it says in Mark. The Lord appeared in another form. I thought that each occasion left its own peculiar impression.
JT Yes. It occurred to me lately that these six appearings of Paul’s that he records, viewed constructively, set out the whole dispensation. We [p. 154] have, as one might say, almost every phase of the dispensation stamped by an appearing. First the spiritual element, taken account of in Peter (Cephas), and then the twelve, meaning that as the spiritual element is taken account of you have the administrative feature, and, as the administrative feature — that is the twelve — is taken account of, you have the affections of the saints stamped, and, as it were, co-ordinated in an appearing to five hundred brethren at one time. Think of the effect of the appearing of the Lord to five hundred brethren at once. What a unifying, stimulating, co-ordinating effect such an appearing would have on five hundred brethren, and some of them remained, as he says, until the time he wrote, so that the effects still continued, because an appearing to five hundred would certainly take on different characteristics to an appearing to the leading apostle, or an appearing to the twelve.
JBS Does it indicate five hundred impressions?
JT I think it does. They would all have the same opportunity. Think of the influence that these five hundred brethren would exert as they went abroad to their households, and to their businesses.
AH-e Does that imply that the dispensation is marked by growth in these impressions of this divine Person, beginning with His appearing to Cephas, and then to the twelve, and then to the five hundred? Is that something that has been progressive?
JT Yes, I think so. I think that is how the Lord maintains the dispensation in freshness and under His own hand, and with His own impress upon it. Do not you think it is very nice to think of the five hundred impressed thus?
JS Yes. Suggestive of a great deal of wealth.
JT See the rank and file of the brethren are so disposed to leave matters with those who are leading, such as Cephas, and the twelve, but the Lord says everyone has his part to fulfil. So that, as a brother,
[p. 155] I apprehend Him in a different light, because nothing can be more delightful here than brethren with the impress of Christ on them.
AH Cephas and the twelve would be merged in the five hundred brethren.
JT They would all be brethren, because in Acts 1 “the crowd of names” Acts 1:15 was about one hundred and twenty. That would include all the apostles. The names would mean, I think, one hundred and twenty varieties of life. Then the twelve were taken out from those.
GE Would the dispensation that you are speaking of cover the present day, the Spirit’s day?
JT That is what I was thinking of — to bring it down to our own time, because the Lord would maintain a living link with us now, and it is on the principle of John 14. It comes down to any individual that loves the Lord and keeps His commandments. That is how the link is maintained.
GE Is that why the Lord signalises that “if a man love me he will keep my words”?
JT That is it. It is available now to you or to me.
HM It speaks of being good stewards of the manifold grace of God. The all-varied graces that have come out in the Lord Jesus as a Man down here, God desires them continued, and if that is to be so there must be spiritual manifestations.
JT Quite. And then, again, the all-varied wisdom of God in the assembly — all is dependent on these things. Well, then, you have after the brethren what I think fits in with our own times in a way — that is James. I think it refers to the well-known James, one who exerted a great personal influence on moral grounds obviously.
GA And by that do you imply that each of the epistles is the fruit of an appearing?
JT Well, I Suppose in a way each would set [p. 156] out some feature of the truth, as, for instance, Galatians sets out “Sonship”. That would hinge on some appearing of the Lord in that light.
WW You would say that is rather borne out by the fact that in connection with Peter walking on the water, he would never lose the sense of that? I suppose it would be developed in his epistle?
JT That is so. But James reminds us of what one individual may do who knows the Lord — one person. He says that Elias was a man of like passions as ourselves, and he prayed that the heavens should be shut up, and they were shut up for three years and six months. That is what one man may do who knows the Lord. One angel was enough to smite 185,000 men. Shamgar, we are told, slew six hundred Philistines with an ox goad. And so in a host of other illustrations we have in the Old Testament what one man can do who knows the Lord, and who has an appearing. And so he says Elias was a man of like passions as ourselves, and he prayed, and the heavens were shut up; and then he prayed again because it would not do for Christianity to remain at the judgment side, but would bring in the blessing. And the heavens gave rain, and the earth brought forth its fruit — that is, you have a definite end for God as a result of one man. So that, however bad things are, we are never at a loss. One man who is with God can do a great deal. But, then, that one man is not to rule Christendom; so that the next appearing is to all the apostles. He cannot rule all the saints: — you must have all the authority of the Lord — all the apostles. Not the twelve now, but the apostles. The same persons, of course, but the number twelve means administration, and the word “apostles” signifies representation and authority. I often wondered why it should say the twelve, and then the apostles, but I can see now clearly enough. The danger for James after a great exploit would be [p. 157] to acquire undue authority and influence, and hence the balance is maintained by an appearing to all the apostles. Some of them we never hear of again, after they are named. We only hear of two or three, but they all represented the authority of the Lord, and He appeared to them all. So that we have to pay respect to all the apostles. That would mean today that every man, a brother, who has spiritual power, moral weight, among the saints, has to be respected as well as the brother who does the exploits. It maintains a good balance.
JS I thought perhaps it might indicate the necessity of having what is of real value in the background. Many of the apostles did not come to the front like Peter. Evidently this would indicate they were available to the Lord as a kind of background.
JT So that every brother who has moral weight, I apprehend, is to be respected according to the moral weight and influence he exerts for God among the saints.
GA I think that is very practical and heart-searching. I would like to ask whether what you presented to us earlier today would stand related to what is before us this evening. Can we expect an appearing in a way that is available to us now apart from practical exercise? One would cherish the possibility of such a thing, but one would crave to know how it is to be gained.
JT Well, you can see in a case like Martha how she would miss the particular feature in which the Lord would shine in her house. He would shine in some way in order to impress her, but how essential it was that she should be restful and free from anxiety and care, so that the fleshy tables of the heart, which are impressionable, should be available to Christ, like writing paper to a writer. You must have the material, and Martha did not afford the material [p. 158] for the Lord, whereas Mary did. Mary was impressionable.
GA Do you think that Mary would have spoken of that occasion that we were looking at today as an appearing?
JT Well, I think she would apprehend as she sat there, as the Lord was speaking. She was listening to what He was saying. He was not merely entertaining her with incidents of His life; He was speaking from the fulness of His heart, and He would always speak with design, that design being to impress the listener. She would never forget that opportunity.
AH Speaking of James — I suppose you would suggest he did something outstanding, and, then, in the apostles there would be mutual support — nothing outstanding, especially in that connection.
JT Each one represents an element of authority. We have to be on our guard, I think, against undue influence of those who do exploits. They are to be regarded according to what they do, but a complete representation of the Lord’s authority must ever be before us, so that everyone has his own weight. It may be he has only power to rule five cities, and another has power to rule ten, but he has power to rule five; he has acquired that.
WP What do you mean by doing exploits?
JT Such as Elias did. There are others, as I said, many others, in the Old Testament recorded, such as Samson’s great exploits, and the mighty men of David.
WP I was wondering how they came down today.
JT There are those who do exploits in our time. There have been men who have done exploits (and we have gained by them), who have stood up against the Philistines, and defended the plot — that is, [p. 159] recovered truth.
WP Preserved a little food for the people of God.
JT Just so. But God never deviates from the truth of the dispensation; that is, there must be rule, and so after the appearing to James you have the appearing to all the apostles, and then to Paul himself, which, I think, is unique, because it is an appearing directly out of heaven. Possibly, the others were all before He went up, but this is directly out of heaven, and it is the most interesting of all.
GA Would you connect this at all with 1 Corinthians 11?
JT Well, I was thinking of that. The Lord’s supper was delivered to Paul from heaven, you might say. How fresh it would be in his mind, as handed over to the Corinthians! The Lord must have appeared to him in some way in delivering him that. So that he had it, not second-hand, but first-hand.
GE Would it not be the Lord from heaven communicating His mind to the apostle regarding the Supper?
JT Well, I thought that, and He would appear in connection with that to the apostle.
GA Would He appear as One who desired to be remembered?
JT I thought that. So that it extends down in a peculiar way to us.
HM We would greatly desire these spiritual manifestations. Would you say a little more as to the conditions on our side?
JT Well, I think, when it comes down to us now, that John 14 is the light that governs the position. “He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him”.
GE That stands good for the whole period.
JT Yes, it does.
HM I was thinking, too, of those who got [p. 160] a special manifestation, a special glimpse of the Lord on the mount of Transfiguration, and Mary at the grave. There were those who were not there. The disciples had been attached to Him, had followed His lowly pathway here, and shared His rejection, and so He decides that, as their hearts are attached to Himself, He will give them a special glimpse of Himself. Mary missed Him, too, and He must manifest Himself to a heart that misses Him.
JT I think Mary Magdalene, in John 20, is a model from John’s point of view, because Peter and John went to their own homes — that is, they are compared with her. They did not, come up to her. Mary remained at the sepulchre weeping, and as she wept she looked into the sepulchre and saw two angels sitting — the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. She got that much to begin with for her affections. I think John singles her out as a model, and then she turns round and sees Jesus, and thinks He is the gardener, and says, “If thou hast borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away”. John 20:15. The Lord brings all that out; it is to bring out what is inside, so as to show us how an appearing takes place. And then He calls her by name. He says “Mary”. How beautiful the link established between Him and her! And she says, “Rabboni” which is to say “Master!” She owns His authority and right over her, and then He says, “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren”. John 20:17. There, I think, you have the effect of a manifestation. You go to the brethren with it. The result of that is for the brethren, and the brethren are maintained in freshness by individuals who are true. It is a great service.
GA Do you imply that the moral outcome of an appearing is that you go to the brethren?
JT That is the Lord’s intent. I think it is for [p. 161] the brethren — it is, of course, for yourself, but they are to get the good of it.
GA You imply, if we have what in principle answers to an appearing we carry to the brethren some fresh impression of Christ, fresh to us, and possibly fresh to them.
WW Is John 14 suggestive: “I will not leave you orphans; I am coming to you”? Is that a little on the same line, perhaps, suggesting the company?
JT I think so. That contemplates the assembly in order, as we say; that was what marked them at the beginning. He says: “He that hath my commandments”. Now you come down to a time when others had them, and did not keep them. So that it is from that passage you quote onwards to the present time. Some had the commandments and did not keep them; others that love Him keep them, and they get the manifestations. In a simple way, it is some impression the Lord gives you. He has His own way of making Himself known to your soul, as loving Him and keeping His commandments, and you want to impart the gain of that to the brethren. I think that is how the Lord supports us now.
HM So that if we have to do with Him individually in that way, and then come into the company, it prepares a way for Him to visit us collectively.
JT Yes. So that you have it as the one who keeps His word. “If a man love me, he will keep my words”; that goes further than the commandment. It means that you keep all He said; every word, of course, is precious to you, and you keep it.
LG Would you say the Lord’s attitude is seen in what is written to Laodicea: “Behold, I stand at the door and am knocking”? Revelation 3:20. He was ready for those who would seek Him.
JT Quite. “If any man hear my voice and open the door”. But in Philadelphia you have the [p. 162] aggregate of those who love Him, and keep His commandments and His word. “Thou hast kept the word of my patience”. Revelation 3:10. There it is not an individual; it is an aggregate of individuals. The Lord clothes the whole assembly with what faithful ones are. So that He goes on to say, “I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie: behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee”, Revelation 3:9.
WP Have you anything more to say about the appearing to Paul?
JT Well, I only referred to it in chapter 26 to show that the appearings were to continue. There is a sort of indication of the whole dispensation in his case, “in the which”, He says, “I will appear to thee”. The Lord is intimating to him that this would not be the only appearing. “There is light in My present appearing to you. Why persecutest thou Me?” The truth of the assembly was in that, but it had to be developed, and the Lord would appear to him in other features, and he was to be a witness of what that was from time to time.
WP Is what we speak of as revelation included in that? Paul received revelation.
JT Quite.
AH-e Would you say the main opportunity for the Lord to grant us manifestations would be at the Supper?
JT I suppose that would be when we are most restful. I always like to hold myself available, sitting down on the first day of the week with the brethren in relation to the whole assembly, and you are for the Lord then. I think that He comes into evidence in one feature and another, so that we are maintained.
A H-e. The Lord manifested Himself on two [p. 163] occasions. Would that suggest to our hearts that the Lord would continue that service?
JT Well, I think that is the though — it is weekly. John 20 gives the weekly manifestations, and I suppose there is a suggestion there of what the company might look for.
AH On one occasion, “The Lord stood with me, and strengthened me”. 2 Timothy 4:17. Would that be an appearing to him?
JT It would, indeed.
JBS Do you get the thought of confirmation in the appearings, too? I was thinking of Jacob — it is recorded that He appeared to him in the way — confirmation of his recovery back to that which God had given him the light of.
JT Quite. But then, when He appeared to him in Bethel, He came down and stood beside him. That was a new thing for Jacob. It was very different for him to look up and see Jehovah on the top of the ladder in heaven, from looking beside him and seeing Him there. I think he had made progress, and the second appearing in Bethel is really a new appearing, so that we have the additional thought of the drink offering there.
JS I thought, perhaps, the Lord sometimes draws near to His people, draws near to us. Peter needed John to say, “It is the Lord”. John 21:7. The Lord was there, but Peter did not perceive Him.
JT Quite.
JS There must be very many times when the Lord draws near to us and we do not know it, and in that sense do not get the good of it; but the Lord is ever active in that way. I suppose there are occasions when John is there and says, “It is the Lord”. John 21:7.
JT Yes, and they are all set in movement.
AH-e You spoke about the drink offering.
Would you say what you have in mind in regard to [p. 164] that?
JT Well, I think it means that Jacob is now conscious that he is for God’s pleasure — the drink offering is for God. It was a new feature in Bethel. In the first appearing at Bethel there was no drink offering — it was a new feature. In chapter 35 you have the drink offering — Jacob was consciously there for God’s pleasure now.