GOD’S LOVE MANIFEST
Stuart M Webster
John 2: 1-11; 9: 1-12, 25 (from “one”), 35-38; 21: 1-14
The time of the glad tidings is a most glorious time. It is a time when God would rejoice to manifest or make known to His creature the fulness and greatness of His love. We sang at the outset -
God is sending out the message
Of His wondrous love and grace
(Hymn 219).
That is the character of what God would have you to know this afternoon in the glad tidings -
Sends it from the highest glory,
Radiant in the Saviour's face.
That is the One that God would desire to make known to you this afternoon in the glad tidings. I trust we all may have our eyes open to see the radiancy and the glory of what shines in the face of Jesus.
I have a simple thought in relation to these three scriptures as to what is manifest. In the first scripture, at the commencement of the public service of our Lord Jesus, it speaks of this great sign, “This beginning of signs did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested his glory”. I trust we may see something of the glory of that One, the greatness of that One. In the second scripture in relation to the blind man, he was brought into wondrous blessing, which we all are as accepting the overtures of the love and grace of God. It says, “that the works of God should be manifested in him”. How glorious that God would take up such as you and me as vessels of mercy, that His work may be manifested in us.
In the last scripture that we read, it speaks of the Lord Jesus manifesting Himself to His own having been risen from among the dead, and what they find is that the Lord Jesus was able to sustain them for everything. And so it is with us, beloved, whatever time may be left to us, the Lord would rejoice to manifest Himself to us and bring in what is needed to sustain us and maintain us until He comes. How glorious the glad tidings are when God is speaking in the overtures of His love and grace.
This first scripture refers to a day when the Lord Jesus commenced His public service here at a wedding in Cana of Galilee; and there was a deficiency at that occasion. There are a couple of things I would just like to draw out. The mother of the Lord Jesus says, “They have no wine. Jesus says to her, What have I to do with thee, woman? mine hour has not yet come”. Think of the One that was there, the greatness of the One that was there. The Lord Jesus was born of woman, and yet as He came out in His public service what He would draw our affections to is that He is the blessed Son of God. He was sent of God, the One that came here as a blessed Man. Oh the wonder of it, that God would come here as a blessed Man! The mother of Jesus was His relation according to nature, and we can understand her affection for Him, but what we are drawn to is the greatness of the One that was here, the blessed Son of God. He says, “What have I to do with thee, woman? mine hour has not yet come”. The One that was here was an altogether different kind of Man.
Think of the glory of the One that was here and the way that He had come. We touched on it this morning at the Lord’s supper, how the Lord Jesus came into Manhood, humbling Himself. How glorious to contemplate such a one humbling Himself; a brother remarked after the morning meeting that only the Lord was able to do that, to humble Himself in this way. It says He was “found in figure as a man”, Phil 2: 8. Oh the wonder of it, and here He was at the commencement of His public service. I trust we all may have our eyes open to see the glory and the greatness of the One that was there.
We are told that “there were standing there six stone water-vessels, according to the purification of the Jews”. That may link on with what we had in the reading today; there was that which was according to the law, but, as was evident in this occasion, there was a deficiency. Man was not able to fulfil the law, whereas the Lord Jesus could say, “I am not come to make void, but to fulfil”, Matt 5: 17. Here is the One that was come to fulfil the law, and as coming in, He was able to provide that which was for the satisfaction and enjoyment of those that were here. I do not want to go into the detail of it, but the feast master says, “thou hast kept the good wine till now”. Think of all that had gone before, think of all the great men that were before, especially the prophets speaking of our Lord Jesus; it says, “thou hast kept the good wine till now”.
The scriptures tell us what was to be seen in that blessed One as He was found amongst men. The Lord Jesus did a great miracle here in turning the water to wine - never had such a thing been done before, never has it been done since. It was a great miracle, but what I want to draw to your heart’s attention is the One that manifested His glory; the Person that was there, and His greatness . We can read throughout the gospels of the great acts of power that the Lord Jesus did in coming into contact with men, the great healing power seen in that One, all manifesting His glory. At one point it had to be said, “What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?”, Matt 8: 27. Think of the Creator God there, manifesting His glory. In another place it could be said, “Never man spoke thus”, John 7: 46. Think of the words of grace that were proceeding out of the mouth of the Lord Jesus in His public testimony here. Have you had your eyes opened to see the glory of that One, the One that God presents to you, that Man alone, Jesus alone.
Have you seen Him in all His glory and greatness? Think of His pathway of full committal to His God and Father. As we get in John 17, He says, “I have glorified thee on the earth”, v 4. What glory there is to be seen in Him, who could say, “now glorify me, thou Father”, v 5. His Father was so satisfied with that blessed One that He glorified Him, and has given Him that place of pre-eminence in glory, as we sang -
Sends it from the highest glory,
Radiant in the Saviour's face.
Beloved hearers, do you know that One? Have you had your eyes opened to see the glory that is manifested in Him, the greatness of His Person? There is no other one besides Jesus; there is no other Man to be presented to you this afternoon than God's beloved Son.
We read of this blind man in John 9. It speaks of him being blind from birth, no doubt speaking of the condition that we are all in as in the condition of sin. The psalmist says, “in iniquity was I brought forth, and in sin did my mother conceive me”, Ps 51: 5 The Lord Jesus, and the Lord Jesus alone, was able to provide what was needed for this man, and so it is with us, beloved. The work of Jesus alone is the only means by which we can know salvation, what it is to be saved from our lost state, saved from our sins; it is because of the work of Jesus.
It speaks here of the Lord Jesus spitting upon the ground and making mud as ointment. It is, no doubt, referring to the down-stooping love of Jesus, the way that He has gone to provide that blessed remedy for each one of us. Think of the way that the Lord Jesus has gone, that path leading up to the cross, where He took upon Himself the whole question of sin. Blessed be His name, the Lord Jesus has fully exhausted the judgment of God against sin so that God has a holy and a righteous basis to come out towards you and me. Have you availed yourself of the work of Jesus? Do you know what it is to come to the cross and believe that the Lord Jesus has died for you? Do you believe that He has shed His precious blood that you can know what it is to have your sins forgiven? We were reading of it yesterday, of how it is spoken of in the Old Testament in relation to the passover lamb, how the children of Israel were to take the blood and put it on the door-post and lintel; and the word is “when I see the blood, I will pass over you”, Exod 12: 13. Think of God's valuation of the blood of Jesus, the only means by which we can know what it is to have our sins washed away. I trust we are all sheltering under the precious blood of Jesus. If you come to the Lord Jesus, owning Him as your Saviour, you will come into untold blessings that God has in mind for you. Paul says that He has “blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ” (Eph 1: 3); what blessings are ours! I trust we all know what it is to respond to the overtures of love and grace of God: how precious to think that we might all be vessels of mercy in whom the works of God can be manifested.
This blind man was questioned as to who had given him sight, and He could answer, “One thing I know, that, being blind before, now I see”. Dear young one, dear older one, is it one thing you know? Lay hold of it in your soul that Jesus in His love has gone to death for you, and you can avail yourself of Him as your Saviour. In one sense this man did not need to know anything else but the love of the Lord Jesus.
I read on to bring out how the works of God proceed in this man so that he became a worshipper. He made this great confession in relation to his having had to do with Jesus. How solemn it is that he was cast out, and maybe that is how we find it in this world: as we confess the Lord's name we may come under reproach. But the Lord Jesus had His eye on this man and He has His eye upon you. And you can prove what this man found - it says that the Lord Jesus found him; and He says, “dost thou believe on the Son of God? He answered and said, And who is he, Lord, that I may believe on him? And Jesus said to him, Thou hast both seen him, and he that speaks with thee is he. And he said, I believe, Lord: and he did him homage.”. The works of God were becoming manifest in that vessel of mercy; he not only came to know the Saviour, Jesus, he came to know Him as his Lord, as he says, “I believe, Lord: and he did him homage”. He became a worshipper, and that is what God desires with us in the glad tidings, as the Lord says earlier in this book in relation to the woman of Sychar’s well, “for also the Father seeks such as his worshippers”, John 4: 23. That is what God’s desire is in the glad tidings, and it is as becoming worshippers that the works of God become manifest in us. What a wondrous testimony there is just in this room, of vessels of mercy in whom the works of God can be manifested. I trust you have availed yourself of the Saviour; then, as I say, lay hold in faith of that precious work and know what it is to have Jesus as your Lord and to become “such as his worshippers”.
I read at the end of John where the Lord Jesus has gone into death. He went into death as the mighty Victor; He could not be held by its power; and He is now a risen Man out of death. It speaks here of how the Lord Jesus “manifested himself” to His disciples. They were those that had been with the Lord Jesus in His pathway here and they had an attachment to Him. It is a solemn matter to think of how Simon Peter, as taking his eye off the Lord Jesus for a time, could say, “I go to fish”. You may say that he returns to his previous occupation, but again the Lord Jesus had His eye upon these disciples here. It says, “This is already the third time that Jesus had been manifested to the disciples, being risen from among the dead”. How the Lord Jesus would rejoice to manifest Himself to each one of us. It says this is “already the third time”; you get a sense from the way in which John is writing that the Lord Jesus could not hold Himself back from making Himself known to His lovers . As we read through the passage the disciples had gone out to fish in their ship, and they were not able to draw anything through the night. But when the Lord Jesus comes into their circumstances, there was that which was over and above what they required, how precious. So it is, beloved, as the Lord manifests Himself to us in our circumstances, He will bring in what is needed to sustain us and maintain us.
The Lord Jesus had made Himself known to Mary having risen from among the dead: what wondrous, glorious things the Lord Jesus manifested to her. He could say to her, “I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”, John 20: 17. What manifestations the Lord Jesus would rejoice to make to us. The Lord Jesus manifested Himself again to these disciples in the previous chapter where they were, having shut the doors through fear of the Jews. The Lord Jesus manifested Himself to them and what He was able to bring in was peace to that company. And so it is still, beloved; I think we had a sense of it this morning, as the Lord Jesus rejoiced to manifest Himself to us, bringing in all that is needed: the peace, the joy, the liberty that we are able to enter into.
The Lord Jesus always desires to manifest Himself and, as manifesting Himself to us, He brings in everything that will sustain us until He comes. What a blessed One we have to do with in the glad tidings! I trust we have all had our eyes opened to see the glory and greatness of that One, the glory and greatness of the work that He has accomplished to the full glory and satisfaction of His God and Father. May we lay hold of in faith that precious work, and become a vessel of mercy where the work of God will be manifested.
I close by referring to a verse in Colossians 3: 4: “When the Christ is manifested who is our life, then shall ye also be manifested with him in glory”. How precious! What precious words, beloved,
May it be the portion for each one of us, for His Name’s sake.
Grangemouth
18th August 2024