“HE MANIFESTED HIMSELF THUS”
John 21:1-3 (to “We also come with thee”),14
I was thinking, dear brethren, of this manifestation and the gain of it. It is interesting how John, by the Spirit of course, so many years after they occurred, recalls these manifestations and the way the Lord was manifested each time. It raises the question with us as to whether we can recall what happened even last Lord’s day. John says, “And he manifested himself thus”. Well, how did the Lord manifest Himself last to the saints in Birmingham or in Malvern? With John the manifestation is distinct and he gives us the impression that the Lord is very ready to manifest Himself: he says it “is already the third time”. Whether it was week by week we do not know, but the Lord did manifest Himself the third time although, dear brethren, they had all gone a little astray.
I think we have to allow – I suggest it and I would submit it for the brethren’s judgment – for the Lord’s sovereignty in manifestation, because this third time they had all come under a lead, or an influence, that was not what it should have been. They not only came under the influence of it but they said, ‘We will go too’. I do not think that is unknown in our experience. Still, the Lord manifested Himself to them and it does seem to me, beloved, that we should not have too much difficulty, on the basis of this scripture, as to whether the Lord did manifest Himself to us in a past decade. At one of the previous manifestations at least one of the twelve was missing, and John recalls these facts and they are recalled for us by the Spirit for our teaching. Each one was distinct; you can hardly think of the Lord coming in in exactly the same manner and leaving exactly the same impression. There is no lack with Him; there is an abundance, beloved, of what he would convey to us, impressions of His glory, of some particular aspect of His work, some particular facet of what He is to the Father, maybe, what He is as Firstborn among many brethren. I would like to be able to say more definitely, ‘He manifested Himself thus’.
But He came; how long it was between the second and third we do not know but it was long enough for Peter to feel again the pull of the sea. That is a well-known thing of course. A poet wrote some lines on ‘Sea Fever’:
‘I must go down to the seas again,
To the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship
And a star to steer her by’.
We all have a ‘pull’, beloved, and we should face it and we should identify it and discover whether it is pulling us in the right direction; whether it is pulling us closer to Christ and to His things or whether it is pulling us away. It may be legitimate. It may be something that in measure we have to fill out, but we have to watch any influence that may pull us away from what is really our chief interest. Beloved, let it be so, our chief interest. Did not the psalmist speak about that (see Ps.137:6)?
Well, Peter did succumb, but he did not succumb again after this, I think. The Lord manifested Himself the third time and subsequently He went on high and Peter and the others remained at Jerusalem. For ten whole days Peter stayed there. I think it might be right to say that this third manifestation had the effect of settling Peter. It says, “where were staying” (Acts 1:13): in that upper room they stayed. The Lord did not come, the Spirit had not come, and for ten days they waited. I love to think of this, beloved. Peter in Jerusalem, landlocked, and for those ten days he withstood the pull of the sea. He stayed in the upper room, and I would suggest that he had received the benefit of the Lord’s manifesting Himself the third time.
So a manifestation is to have an effect on us, a permanent and abiding effect. I am not saying it is not also to have a special effect on the week; I think it is, I think one would see that if one were more ready to discern it. The Lord would give a pointer: the way He manifests Himself would be a pointer for the week because He sees ahead, even if we do not; but it is also to have an abiding effect. So that the next time He comes, we are, so to speak, more in tune, more ready, more in spiritual form, more alert to discern Him and say, ‘Yes, it was certainly thus that He came’. One feels how nebulous one can be. ‘Yes, we had a good impression’. What was it? We have to stop and think. “He manifested himself thus”. May we be helped to receive clear and definite and distinct impressions as the Lord comes amongst us, for His name’s sake.
Birmingham
27 March 1978
Norman T Meek
(Copied from ‘Raising the Level’ p.237-239)