THE LORD'S COMING TO HIS OWN AS SEEN IN THE FOUR GOSPELS (5)
THE LORD’S COMING TO HIS OWN AS SEEN IN THE FOUR GOSPELS (5)
John 20: 16 - 31; John 21: 1 - 14; John 14: 15 - 23
JT It will be observed that there are three manifestations recorded in chapters 20 and 21 during the period we have been considering, the forty days between the resurrection and the ascension of Christ. And then in chapter 14 we have a manifestation promised after the Holy Spirit should come, so that manifestations are continued. Chapter 14 brings in something that is not in the synoptical gospels and the promise here is to have special place with us at the close of our readings on the present subject. What comes in in the interval of the forty days should enter into the whole dispensation, though now it is not in a corporeal sense but in a spiritual sense, for the Spirit having come is an intimation of these continued promised manifestations. The brethren will notice that women come into this first manifestation and we have already had a considerable amount on that side, that is to say, the place sisters have in this great subject. John speaks very specially of Mary of Magdala by herself and she is seen as a learner, calling the Lord “Rabboni” in verse 16, stressing the idea of teaching, but of teaching by Him, ‘My teacher’ is the real force of the term, showing how successful the teaching is in the assembly or at least amongst those who are of it, and how all other teachings that are not in accordance with the teaching of Christ are to be excluded from the circle contemplated. John has this in mind, undoubtedly, in view of the last days and the novelties that would be introduced which are now damaging many, such as Christian Science and Faith Healing and many other heretical systems. There is rigid exclusion of the Jews here; that is the way John contemplates the setting: “the doors shut where the disciples were, through fear of the Jews”. Incongruous indeed it would be to introduce any other teaching into the circle in which Christ was actually at that time, or into the upper room where were the eleven and the Lord’s mother and the brethren and sisters. It would be out of the question to allow any teaching to be introduced save what is of Christ. And His authority was represented in the eleven so that the converts, we are told in Acts 2, “persevered in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles”, which would be very exclusive, and “in breaking of bread and prayers”. I thought it well to call attention to these things as showing that it would be proper to look for the exclusion of everything else but what is of Christ, as it is said in Colossians 3: 11, “Christ is everything, and in all”.
LES The way in which Mary addresses the Lord as “Rabboni” would be an evidence that she could be adjusted; she was teachable in spirit.
JT Yes, she was very ready to listen to what He said. Notice how John stresses this point, the first two followers Jesus had called Him “Rabbi”, which means they had teaching in their minds, and then further on in this gospel it says, “they shall be all taught of God” (chapter 6: 45).
LES Would the word ‘Rabboni’ suggest more than the matter being merely in the mind but something really to be viewed formatively?
JT It would involve affections too because it is said that the Lord first called her “Woman” in verse 15, and then in the next verse it says, “Jesus says to her, Mary”. There is some suggestion in teaching of personal interest and affection involving confidence.
LES I was thinking of the great distinction between the two words, ‘Rabbi’ and ‘Rabboni’; in the Hebrew the latter suggests that it is her [p. 474] matter.
JT There is a link in that way between Paul and this woman in that the Lord spoke to Paul in the Hebrew tongue, indicating His consideration of him as of Mary here. But the message given to her is on a higher level involving the heavenly side of the position, abstractly, of course, but still on the heavenly side.
JD In relation to what you are saying as to the exclusive character of the teaching having a bearing on the present moment of the testimony, do you not think there is something in the fact that she turned around? It would apply to many saints who are still in the systems of men, they must turn around.
JT Quite so, it requires movement in order for something spiritual to be conveyed. John himself in Patmos had to turn back, he heard a voice behind him and turned to see it.
CHH The fact that John stresses the teaching of the water of life more than any other writer would show that it is particularly applicable as an antidote to the increasing darkness.
JT He stresses the love of the truth in his epistles and this would lead to refusal of all that is not of the truth. The fact is to be observed that heresies or sects are generally built up on one feature of the truth, whereas in John the Lord says of the Spirit of truth, “He shall guide you into all the truth” (chapter 16: 13). We want that, otherwise we are just another sect and we are not ready to say “Rabboni”, for the Lord is the truth; He says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life”, John 14: 6. John tells us that the Lord says this and also in his epistle he tells us that the Spirit is the truth (1 John 5: 6), so that we have to keep in our minds, as coming into the circle of christianity, that Christ is the truth objectively and the Spirit is the truth subjectively in us. A love of the truth will introduce a complete preference for all truth and an acknowledgement of all truth. Take [p. 475] one idea, that of baptism, it has been used to build up a baptist sect; or take the Epicureans, they have built up epicureanism, and so on. These sects go on and in time they come to be out-and-out apostasy, but in each it is the taking of one idea which is a right one in principle and stressing it at the expense of the rest of the truth; thus it becomes misleading and is sure in time to be linked up with error.
Rem The teaching here is in connection with the heavenly side of the truth.
JT Mary is led on by Christ Himself.
JWD Would what the Lord opened up to Mary in saying, “Touch me not”, suggest that He is going through as the last Adam, a quickening spirit?
JT I think He would set her up in identification with Himself but not in the relation that she wanted to continue in an earthly setting. He really elevates her as speaking to her by name. “Jesus says to her, Woman, why dost thou weep? Whom seekest thou? She, supposing that it was the gardener, says to him, Sir, if thou hast borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus says to her, Mary”. He called her by name; He had called her “Woman” but now there is evidence of something morally greater linked with her personally. She turns around, touched by that, and says to Him in Hebrew, “Rabboni, which means Teacher”. Then “Jesus says to her, Touch me not”, as if to convey to her that all links from now on are to be in the light of the new or heavenly position, “for I have not yet ascended to my Father”, “Not yet” suggests that He is on His way to heaven, but the point is that heaven states the time. The Lord is going to that position and it implies a great movement and Mary is to be brought into it and to be linked with Christ in that setting. The word ‘yet’ implies, Wait a while, until the saints are brought into it too. That is, she is not to be linked with Christ by herself, but as involving Ephesian teaching: “God ... has raised us up together”, Ephesians 2: 6.
LES The position in Ephesians 4 would bear on this: “Until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, at the full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ” (verse 13).
JT It would indeed, because the setting there is the point, “Wherefore he says, Having ascended up on high, he has led captivity captive, and has given gifts to men”. And from that position the ministry is proceeding, so we can see in some measure how unpardonable it is to bring in any innovations or anything of man’s influence into that circle. Man’s ideas and thoughts built into it have resulted in what christendom is today.
AD Would there be a link with the antichrist? John’s epistle speaks of the appearing of the antichrist already in the world.
JT And there we get the word ‘unction’ which is peculiar to that epistle; it is a word to be noted: “Little children, it is the last hour, and, according as ye have heard that antichrist comes, even now there have come many antichrists, whence we know that it is the last hour. They went out from among us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have surely remained with us, but that they might be made manifest that none are of us. And ye have the unction from the holy one, and ye know all things. I have not written to you because ye do not know the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is the antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son has not the Father either; he who confesses the Son has the Father also. As for you let that which ye have heard from the beginning [p. 477] abide in you, if what ye have heard from the beginning abides in you, ye also shall abide in the Son and in the Father”, 1 John 2: 18 - 24. And then it says in verse 27, “And yourselves, the unction which ye have received from him abides in you, and ye have not need that any one should teach you; but as the same unction teaches you as to all things, and is true and is not a lie, and even as it has taught you, ye shall abide in him”. So that we, as christians, are addressed as ‘little children’ in this particular part of the chapter and are set up in independency of antichrist, and of his teaching which includes all these kinds of things that we have been speaking of. The unction is protection; it guards the spiritual idea of the circle of the saints, and what is in mind is not simply a group of saints but the whole assembly.
Rem Mary turned around.
JT It indicates that something definite is in mind because there is a complete turn from what she had been engaged with. John in Revelation had to turn back, not that he was in a wrong position at all but the state of the assembly required that there should be a turning back, as in Paul’s history when he wished to go to be with the Lord but decided to remain on account of the saints.
JD What is the thought in the Lord using a sister to carry this wonderful message to the brethren? Why did He not go Himself?
JT That is a good question, and requires the close attention of the sisters. How solemn to think that in the new order of things a sister may be so influential with her husband and family and the brethren, and how damaging she may be if not abiding in the truth! Because women are liable to be led into things more easily than men, and I think John has this in mind in writing to “the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth”, 2 John 1.
Ques “They went out from among us, but they were not of us”, 1 John 2: 19. Would it not bring deep assembly exercise when one leaves us?
JT Yes, just so. A young christian is not to leave the circle of the saints. The Lord had to do with such persons Himself; John tells us that from a certain time many of His disciples went away and walked no more with Him. The Lord challenges those who remain, saying, “Will ye also go away? Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast words of life eternal”, John 6: 67, 68. That is the position in John, for we are dealing with John’s ministry.
CHH Would the unction affect us inwardly and the anointing outwardly?
JT ‘Unction’ is a peculiar word. It is “from the holy one” which alludes to the Spirit undoubtedly, but in a peculiar way; only John uses it. His ministry is the last that we have in mind to look into at this time and he is very strong, by the Spirit of God, as regards the ‘isms’. It is definitely in his mind that these ‘isms’ have to be faced and refused.
Ques As we work out these abstract thoughts in our localities is our preservation seen in working out the heavenly side of the truth together?
JT Quite so. We are indwelt by the Spirit, the unction, and we know all things by Him.
Ques Referring to the ‘isms’ do you classify them as antichristian?
JT That is the drift of them, though not classified yet, except perhaps paganism and atheism. There is in them the working of antichristian features because they shut out the Spirit. We have that well-known tract entitled, The Notion of a Clergyman: Dispensationally the sin against the Holy Ghost, which suggests the idea of the antichrist abstractly, and so it is with me if I have the clerical idea. The Lord says that if a word is spoken against [p. 479] the Son of man it will be forgiven but if it is spoken against the Spirit it will not be forgiven in this age nor in the coming one.
Ques Is the teaching of James 5 applicable today?
JT It is well to notice that it is linked with the assembly: “Is any sick among you? let him call to him the elders of the assembly, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord”. Then the committing of sins is linked with this too, “and the prayer of faith shall heal the sick”. It is not anyone’s prayers that are spoken of, it is those of the elders, and James links them with the assembly. If we disregard the assembly we are in danger of allowing Christian Science which is downright apostasy. There is some truth in it and what is true is not new because the truth is always the truth, but what is new in it is not true and therein lies the mistake, in mixing what is true and what is not true.
AB What is the import of Mary’s saying, My Teacher? Does it suggest the principle of taking character from the Teacher? The Lord says in John 13: 14, “If I therefore, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another’s feet”. Mary says, My Teacher, as if taking character from Him, and then she is not characterised by much talk; she does not make herself prominent at all.
JT Quite. The first thing she says is that she had seen the Lord: “Mary of Magdala comes bringing word to the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had said these things to her”. She is not simply repeating the message to them but there is moral ground in her, so that it says that she brought word that she had seen the Lord and that He had said these things to her; it was a personal communication to her. What greater moral ground could there be than that? So she had authority [p. 480] with her and they listened to her. How beautiful! Then verse 19 supports what she had said with a manifestation: “When therefore it was evening on that day, which was the first day of the week, and the doors shut where the disciples were, through fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and says to them, Peace be to you”. No doubt the moral significance in the closed doors would be the outcome of Mary’s message; what they had was so precious that it must not be contaminated or adulterated, like the pure nard kept by Mary of Bethany free from contamination; in John is not said to be in a box but yet is kept pure and unadulterated; it represents the loving of our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption. That is, there is nothing brought in but what is true; what is seven-eighths true and tinged with man’s thoughts is not pure; the truth is to be kept in incorruption.
JD Would the fear of the Jews be experienced in any measure today?
JT The Jew idea is a form of the doctrine of Nicolaitanes which comes down to us in the third church of Revelation 2. It is properly the same clerical principle as is hated by the Ephesians, and that is what we have to do to it too, because it is the idea of forming sects and is greatly supported in christendom in all its ramifications, but it is not far away from Babylon.
JD In the address to the Philadelphian church the Lord says, “I make them of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews, and are not, but lie; behold, I will cause that they shall come and shall do homage before thy feet, and shall know that I have loved thee”, Revelation 3: 9.
JT Well, these seem to be the things that the Lord Himself would have John turn back to look over, and the Lord tells him to write in a book about all these matters which He is going [p. 481] to rebuke.
RRT The Lord says to Mary, “Touch me not, for I have not yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”. The assembly is really intimated to Mary in that expression ‘my brethren’. She is not told to go to any sister or brother in relation to this matter but to the assembly, “my brethren”.
JT Bringing them all in.
CHH The climax of John’s teaching is the presentation of the truth in manifestations.
JT And the first appearing is connected with Mary exclusively, but then the Lord came to where there were closed doors. You might say there was not much there, but there is no condemnation in John, nothing at all is wrong; everything is right in these manifestations from the abstract view. God is entitled to present things abstractly and John seems to be the one selected to deal with the abstract. Then the next one is eight days after; it is to the same persons and they are inside on the same principle, as it says, “And eight days after, his disciples were again within, and Thomas with them. Jesus comes, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst and said, Peace be to you”. He is still in the midst and the whole company is right; Thomas is not right but he does not represent them and the Lord is going to make him right. We have to see not only that we are dealing with christianity in John but that these comings or manifestations are including the light of what is connected with Israel and its recovery. In these closing moments of the Lord’s path we have to see what is going on, for what is presented can be used at any time in christianity, even what is represented in Thomas, because it is to rebuke materialism — a great thing to keep out! It was there at the beginning and in this second appearing it is there and [p. 482] Thomas is with them. Where was he at the previous manifestation?
RRT In verse 19 “Jesus came and stood in the midst”, and in verse 26 “Jesus comes, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst”. What is in view in these two comings?
JT The connection is with what we were looking at yesterday, “the midst” suggesting something definite as being in the midst of particular persons, although it is said elsewhere that He was in “their midst”. There is such a thing as this and I believe it has the universal position in mind, Jesus standing in relation to that.
Rem The Lord in His dealings with Thomas would help us in not generalising matters but getting to the detail of what is in mind.
JT I think that he is in the Lord’s thoughts and the Lord is intimating that He knew of the disturbance in this man’s mind, “Then he says to Thomas, Bring thy finger here and see my hands; and bring thy hand and put it into my side”. The Lord is showing him that He knew about him and what he had said, and that He would deal with him. He knew about Peter too, but He did not bring up Peter’s case in the midst in the way in which He brought up Thomas’s. Besides representing the Jewish element, Thomas affords an example of how the Lord would bring up a serious matter to be tried in the midst, not by Himself but in the midst.
JWD Is the first manifestation really a suggestion of His appearing now after the Lord’s supper to those in the light of what is both local and universal?
JT I think that is right; it is on a higher level, where Christ is appreciated.
JWD His coming is not mythical but actual.
JT Just so; as the Lord comes to His own here, if He is there He is there in that sense. And the [p. 483] setting merges from the local to the universal position, indeed the eternal position is in mind too.
JD Speaking of the results of these manifestations connected with Thomas, is it not remarkable to see, looking at it from a dispensational viewpoint, that the remnant knows only “My Lord and my God”?
JT This matter of coming casually among the brethren is a very important consideration. It is remarkable that Thomas does not allude to the message that Mary brought; he is really lowering the ground. He is not at the first manifestation and here he says, “My Lord and my God”. The Lord did not tell Mary to speak in that way; the message He sent was, “I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”. But Thomas would materialise the thing; he was very deliberate in this too. Nevertheless the Lord saw to it that he was brought in, though on a lower level. As applied to us now Thomas is the loser, but he also represents another dispensation on a lower level. God will not leave Himself without a witness; He must have this as a result of His work. But the first message to Mary given by the Lord Jesus is most precious and covers our dispensation. Thomas is on individual lines and materialises things, and he is an unbeliever, a most terrible thing! And to think that these things are found amongst those who were so honoured and favoured! The Lord knew, as He came to His disciples, that there was materialism and unbelief and scepticism found in one of the apostles, but He was going to use him as symbolical of another world on a lower level. He missed the first manifestation and there will never be another like that! There are only three manifestations in this section and all are different; he has missed the best one and so he will be a loser for ever [p. 484] in consequence.
LES The effort of the enemy is to make us compromise in regard of the position of the testimony at any current moment. He would reduce the position to the lower level.
JT He would. When Thomas sees the Lord he is going to say, “My Lord and my God”. But what about the Father? The disciples would say, When that message came to us Thomas was not with us. Very well, Thomas, you are on a lower level and a loser, but still true as far as this position is concerned.
JD At the first appearing nothing like that was said, but “The disciples rejoiced therefore, having seen the Lord”.
JT Showing how thoroughly indeed they had received the message. Thomas does not indicate that he knows anything at all about it.
RRT Thomas missed a great thing, the best thing, for the Lord breathed into them the Holy Spirit.
JT And he is out of the commission that is given the others; he is really not in it at all: “And having said this, he breathed into them, and says to them, Receive the Holy Spirit, whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted to them; whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained”.
JWD Would the manifestation and commission have taken place if Thomas’s unbelief and materialism had been present?
JT The Lord comes in for us so that there may be no such thing amongst us; He would come in to adjust such a state as is represented by Thomas here.
JWD Matters are adjusted that are local as well as universal in the way the Lord definitely links on with us.
JT Luke says that the Lord stood there, but this is a higher plane morally and would go on into eternity. It is, I would think, what is to characterise christianity, His being in the midst, and it corresponds [p. 485] with Acts 20, the love chapter of that book. It is a chapter full of Paul and what he represents, a state which goes on into eternity. We are not told where he had been in those three years at Ephesus, but he had become very familiar with the upper level, had indeed come through the upper districts to get there and in this love chapter is proceeding on the line of the universal and heavenly position.
Ques What is the meaning of verse 23?
JT It is the prerogative belonging to the disciples; they are not here formally called the assembly because John does not use that word except in Revelation, but the link is with the disciples as persons who form the assembly. We require spirituality for such matters, as Galatians 6 says, “Ye who are spiritual restore such a one”; that suggests persons of the assembly. The disciples are not said to be that here, but it is the persons who are in mind in this book; it emphasises personality and those who are trustworthy, and the Lord is trusting them with these things. He says, “Receive the Holy Spirit”, and then He commits to them the power to remit sins, not to retain first but to remit first. We have the Spirit of Christ in dealing with matters and when that is in mind we think of the remitting first.
LES Is the point we have spoken of in relation to Thomas seen in Zephaniah 3: 17, “Jehovah thy God is in thy midst”?
JT That is the thought exactly; you can see what a level we are on. How God would impress us with it! It is open to us. And thus we maintain the outlook we have spoken of in relation to Thomas and to those in the next chapter in their outward move; the result is that one hundred and fifty-three fishes are brought in, referring to the gentiles. We are to note that spirit in relation to the recovery of Israel and then in the bringing in of the nations, the great [p. 486] fishes.
JD Do you think the Lord was rebuking Thomas here? “Jesus says to him, Because thou hast seen me thou hast believed: blessed they who have not seen and have believed”. The Lord had the faith period in mind.
JT He had. That is our position; we partake of the blessing attaching to the faith period, whereas the Jews come in in the sight period and their position is not so great; the nations would be represented in the one hundred and fifty-three great fishes. The Lord is seen in each case; there are three distinct appearings in these two chapters, on the down grade from the top to the bottom; that is, from the highest position of the assembly to the position of the nations in the millennial day.
AB Thomas was not at the first manifestation and he discredits anything that the disciples tell him in relation to it; when one discredits what the brethren say the Lord has to do with him.
JT We cannot but see that it is a most distinct position of unbelief. It is very solemn, and a warning to any one of us that we may become an unbeliever in this sense, because he was a real man, and an apostle. The points to discern in his case are unbelief and materialism, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and put my finger into the mark of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe”.
JWD There is great encouragement in the first manifestation and great instruction for us today in the second and third in the idea of the lower levels all flowing from the enjoyment of the higher level.
JT These three manifestations are prophetic and are at the same time of great importance to believers in Christ. They take place after He arose and have in view the Spirit as having come; John 14 opens this up. We learn from these three manifestations in the end of the gospel how to appraise the manifestations [p. 487] in John 14, and so the Lord says there, “If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will beg the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may be with you for ever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see him nor know him; but ye know him, for he abides with you, and shall be in you”. And then, “I will not leave you orphans, I am coming to you”. The manifestations of verses 20 and 21 are contingent on the Spirit and properly belong to christianity; hence the importance of keeping our skirts clean and being governed by righteousness and holiness so that He can come to carry out His thought for us, “I will not leave you orphans, I am coming to you” — it does not say how many times or when, it is left with us to know when to look for this manifestation and to know where it might happen, but the fact is that He has promised to come; we are never to be left. The Lord addresses us in a fatherly way in this gospel, and in the other gospels too; twice in this gospel, in chapters 13 and 21, He says “Children”. The word ‘children’ is used by Him not as God the Father would use it but in the sense of having a moral right to each one. Paul and John use the same expression of the brethren; the Lord, however, is a divine Person, but nevertheless employing this term. He answers to the idea of everlasting Father or Father of the age (Isaiah 9: 6). In the millennium He will in a relative sense look after things in a fatherly way and the same thing applies to His relations with us; He regards us in a fatherly way as to affections and protection. So that is what is in mind in the words in John 14, “I will not leave you orphans”; we are never to be in that state. I would not say that we are not sometimes so from our viewpoint, but it will never be so from His viewpoint; He never intended that and so He says, “I am coming to you”.
JD “He that loves me shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him”. Would the Lord assure us of individual divine visitation in a broken day?
JT Yes, it is a great encouragement. The individual is assured of the visitation, so that we may take John himself on Patmos as an illustration of how the Lord comes to one. John was keeping his commandments and words and he was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day; the Lord’s authority was affecting him. He learns that things have changed since the beginning of the church’s history, that failure has taken place, and the Lord says, as it were, I know that you are in the Spirit and looking towards heaven, but I want you to see this condition which I am going on with outwardly and will restore in principle, and to be with Me in it. So the Lord calls him from behind, meaning that he had to turn back from where he was, changing his outlook for the moment. Heaven was evidently in his mind and so this called for sacrifice on John’s part. He says, “I John, your brother and fellow-partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and patience, in Jesus”. The Lord brings him back to view this position of failure, as if He says, I am concerned about the conditions in these assemblies and I want you to be with Me. The Lord would say to any one of us, I can use you. I would like my outlook to be universal in relation to what the Lord is doing. We see what the Lord can do with John as representing that idea in this chapter, and in our day the Lord can take certain men who are keeping His commandments and can tell them of what He is doing. If we are available and useful to the Lord He says, I will use you.
Rem “In that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you”.
JT “In that day” contemplates the Spirit’s day; it is not the Jewish day, Thomas’s day, but our day,
[p. 489] the day of the Spirit. The great thought that John has in mind is the present dispensation, that of the Spirit, and the Lord would say, You are to know what I am in My Father’s affections and what you are in My affections. That refers to persons in the present dispensation, the economy in which are the Father and the Son and the saints. The Father, Son and Spirit all coming to be with us, these are the possibilities of the Spirit’s day and the Lord would press them upon us now.
JWD It is not the assembly convened which governs the present manifestations in relation to service.
JT This scripture makes it very general, the word ‘assembly’ is left out and the phrase ‘sons of God’ is left out too, all to make room for what is at the present time, the conditions in the day of the Spirit, conditions facing any young brother or sister today. These words are used specially because of conditions and divine Persons can manifest themselves in them. Other scriptures teach us certain things in relation to the assembly, but John is not dealing with that.
Ques Is the quality of love that which warrants these manifestations? “I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you”.
JT He is in the Father’s affections and He says, You are in my affections. We are in His affections and He is in our affections, so the realm is there, the place where love abides.
CHH Would “I in you” suggest testimony?
JT Yes, it would be seen in us.
Ques What is meant by the last verse of this chapter, “Rise up, let us go hence”?
JT The Lord says that to them. John’s gospel is distinct from the other gospels; chapters 13 to 17 are recorded by him alone. How full chapter 17 is!
[p. 490] At the end of chapter 14 there is a break, “Rise up, let us go hence”, the Lord having already said that the ruler of this world comes; that means that something is going to happen; the Lord is moving on now, and then chapter 15 points to the vine, really the earthly dispensation, and chapter 16 brings out the position of the disciples. “These things I have spoken unto you that ye may not be offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues; but the hour is coming that every one who kills you will think to render service to God”. This is the position of the disciples as having to suffer and to be killed on His account; then chapter 17 is His prayer to the Father. What is in mind in this section from chapter 14 on is evidenced in the present day, the Spirit’s day. It is not speaking of what happened during the forty days; it is expressed before that but alludes to the Spirit coming. What happens here after the Spirit comes is the thing we want to get at, so that we might be strengthened.
JD Verse 21 says, “He that has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me”. What would those commandments be?
JT I would say if I were specifying them that they would take in the epistles to the Corinthians, in fact all the Pauline epistles, because they convey the commandments to us, possibly 1 Corinthians especially so. In connection with prophecy we have in 1 Corinthians 14: 37, “If any one thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him recognise the things that I write to you, that it is the Lord’s commandment”. That is the way really, and the whole epistle is concerned with this; no one need expect to have visitations who does not obey the commandments.
JD The commandments of Christ are not new commandments, they are the commandments Christ gave down here to be carried out as instructed in the [p. 491] epistles.
JT Quite so, that is very important; so you do not force them aside. People cannot rightly say that Paul was not married and so he said things that do not apply now. No one who sets aside one of these commandments gets any manifestations.
RRT “I am coming to you” is not a matter now of His coming and then disappearing.
JT No, His attitude is: “I am coming to you”.