The next chapter, while rendering a fresh testimony to the resurrection of
Jesus, gives us-to verse 13-a picture of the millennial work of Christ;
from thence to the end, the especial portions of Peter and John in
connection with their service to Christ. The application is limited to the
earth, for they had known Jesus on earth. It is Paul who will give us the
heavenly position of Christ and the assembly. But he has no place here.
Led by Peter, several of the apostles go a fishing. The Lord meets them in
the same circumstances as those in which He found them at the beginning,
and reveals Himself to them in the same manner. John at once understands
that it is the Lord. Peter, with his usual energy, casts himself into the
sea to reach Him.
Observe here, that we find ourselves again upon the ground of the historic
Gospels-that is to say, that the miracle of the draught of fishes
identifies itself with the work of Christ on earth, and is in the sphere of
His former association with His disciples. It is Galilee, not Bethany. It
has not the usual character of the doctrine of this Gospel, which presents
the divine Person of Jesus, outside all dispensation, here below; raising
our thoughts above all such subjects. Here (at the end of the Gospel and of
the sketch given in chapter 20 of the result of the manifestation of His
divine Person and of His work) the evangelist comes for the first time on
the ground of the synoptics, of the manifestation and coming fruits of
Christ's connection with earth. Thus the application of the passage to this
point is not merely an idea which the narrative suggests to the mind, but
it rests upon the general teaching of the word.
Still there is a notable difference between that which took place at the
beginning and here. In the former scene the ships began to sink, the nets
broke. Not so here, and the Holy Ghost marks this circumstance as
distinctive: Christ's millennial work is not marred. He is there after His
resurrection, and that which He performs does not rest, in itself, on man's
responsibility as to its effect here below: the net does not break. Also,
when the disciples bring the fish which they had caught, the Lord has some
already there. So shall it be on earth at the end. Before His manifestation
He will have prepared a remnant for Himself on the earth; but after His
manifestation He will gather a multitude also from the sea of nations.
Another idea presents itself. Christ is again as in companionship with His
disciples. "Come," says He, "and dine." There is no question here of
heavenly things, but of the renewing of His connection with His people in
the kingdom. All this does not immediately belong to the subject of this
Gospel, which leads us higher. Accordingly it is introduced in a mysterious
and symbolical manner. This appearance of Christ's is spoken of as His
third manifestation. I doubt His manifestation on earth before His death
being included in the number. I would rather apply it to that which, first,
after His resurrection, gave rise to the gathering together of the saints
as an assembly; secondly, to a revelation of Himself to the Jews after the
manner of that which is presented in the Song of Songs; and lastly here to
the public display of His power, when He shall already have gathered the
remnant together. His appearing like the lightning is outside all these
things. Historically the three appearances were-the day of His
resurrection; the following first day of the week; and His appearance at
the sea of Galilee.
Afterwards, in a passage full of ineffable grace, He entrusts Peter with
the care of His sheep (that is, I doubt not, of His Jewish sheep; he is the
apostle of the circumcision), and leaves to John an indefinite period of
sojourn upon earth. His words apply much more to their ministry than to
their persons, with the exception of one verse referring to Peter. But this
demands a little more development.
The Lord begins with the full restoration of Peter's soul. He does not
reproach him with his fault, but judges the source of evil that produced
it-self-confidence. Peter had declared, that if all should deny Jesus, yet
he at least would not deny Him. The Lord therefore asks him, "Lovest thou
me more than do these?" and Peter is reduced to acknowledge that it
required the omniscience of God to know that he, who had boasted of having
more love than all others for Jesus, had really any affection for Him at
all. And the question thrice repeated must indeed have searched the depths
of his heart. Nor was it till the third time that he says, "Thou knowest
all things; thou knowest that I love thee." Jesus did not let his
conscience go until he had come to this. Nevertheless the grace which did
this for Peter's good-the grace which had followed him in spite of
everything, praying for him before he felt his need or had committed the
fault-is perfect here also. For, at the moment when it might be thought
that at the utmost he would be re-admitted through divine forbearance, the
strongest testimony of grace is lavished upon him. When humbled by his
fall, and brought to entire dependence upon grace, all-abounding grace
displays itself. The Lord commits that which He most loved to him-the sheep
whom He had just redeemed. He commits them to Peter's care. This is the
grace which surmounts all that man is, which is above all that man is;
which consequently produces confidence, not in self, but in God, as One
whose grace can always be trusted in, as being full of grace and perfect in
that grace which is above everything, and is always itself; grace which
makes us able to accomplish the work of grace towards-whom?-man who needs
it. It creates confidence in proportion to the measure in which it acts.
I think that the Lord's words apply to the sheep already known to Peter;
and with whom only Jesus had been in daily connection; who would naturally
be before His mind, and that in the scene which we see this chapter puts
before us-the sheep of the house of Israel.
It appears to me that there is progression in that which the Lord says to
Peter. He asks, "Lovest thou me more than do these?" Peter says, "Thou
knowest that I have affection for thee." Jesus replies, "Feed my lambs."
The second time He says only, "Lovest thou me?" omitting the comparison
between Peter and the rest, and his former pretension. Peter repeats the
declaration of his affection. Jesus says to him, "Shepherd my sheep." The
third time He says, "Hast thou affection for me?" using Peter's own
expression; and on Peter's replying, as we have seen, seizing this use of
his words by the Lord, He says, "Feed my sheep." The links between Peter
and Christ known on earth made him fit to pasture the flock of the Jewish
remnant-to feed the lambs, by shewing them the Messiah as He had been, and
to act as a shepherd, in guiding those that were more advanced, and in
supplying them with food.
But the grace of the loving Saviour did not stop here. Peter might still
feel the sorrow of having missed such an opportunity of confessing the Lord
at the critical moment. Jesus assures him that if he had failed in doing so
of his own will, he should be allowed to do it by the will of God; and as
when young he girded himself, others should gird him when old and carry him
whither he would not. It should be given him by the will of God to die for
the Lord, as he had formerly declared himself ready to do in his own
strength. Now also that Peter was humbled and brought entirely under
grace-that he knew he had no strength-that he felt his dependence on the
Lord, his utter inefficiency if he trusted to his own power-now, I repeat,
the Lord calls Peter to follow Him; which he had pretended to do, when the
Lord had told him he could not. It was this that his heart desired. Feeding
those whom Jesus had continued to feed until His death, he should see
Israel reject everything, even as Christ had seen them do; and his own work
end, even as Christ had seen His work end (the judgment ready to fall, and
beginning at the house of God). Finally, what he had pretended to do and
could not, he would now do-follow Christ to prison and to death.
Then comes the history of the disciple whom Jesus loved. John having, no
doubt, heard the call addressed to Peter, follows also himself; and Peter,
linked with him, as we have seen, by their common love to the Lord,
inquires what should happen to him likewise. The Lord's answer announces
the portion and ministry of John, but, as it appears to me, in connection
with the earth. But the Lord's enigmatical expression is, nevertheless, as
remarkable as it is important: "If I will that he tarry till I come, what
is that to thee?" They thought, in consequence, that John would not die.
The Lord did not say so-a warning not to ascribe a meaning to His words,
instead of receiving one; and at the same time shewing our need of the Holy
Spirit's help; for the words literally might be so taken. Giving heed
myself, I trust, to this warning, I will say what I think to be the meaning
of the Lord's words, which I do not doubt to be so-a meaning which gives a
key to many other expressions of the same kind.
In the narrative of the Gospel, we are in connection with the earth (that
is, the connection of Jesus with the earth). As planted on earth at
Jerusalem, the assembly, as the house of God, is formally recognised as
taking the place of the house of Jehovah at Jerusalem. The history of the
assembly, as thus formally established as a centre on earth, ended with the
destruction of Jerusalem. The remnant saved by the Messiah was no longer to
be in connection with Jerusalem, the centre of the gathering of the
Gentiles. In this sense the destruction of Jerusalem put an end judicially
to the new system of God upon earth-a system promulgated by Peter (Acts 3);
with regard to which Stephen declared to the Jews their resistance to the
Holy Ghost, and was sent, as it were, as a messenger after Him who was gone
to receive the kingdom and to return; while Paul-elected from among those
enemies of the good news still addressed to the Jews by the Holy Ghost
after the death of Christ, and separated from Jews and Gentiles, in order
to be sent to the latter-performs a new work that was hidden from the
prophets of old, namely, the gathering out of a heavenly assembly without
distinction of Jew or Gentile.
The destruction of Jerusalem put an end to one of these systems, and to the
existence of Judaism according to the law and the promises, leaving only
the heavenly assembly. John remained-the last of the twelve-until this
period, and after Paul, in order to watch over the assembly as established
on that footing, that is, as the organised and earthly frame-work
(responsible in that character) of the testimony of God, and the subject of
His government on the earth. But this is not all. In his ministry John went
on to the end, to the coming of Christ in judgment to the earth; and he has
linked the judgment of the assembly, as the responsible witness on earth,
with the judgment of the world, when God shall resume His connection with
the earth in government (the testimony of the assembly being finished, and
it having been caught up, according to its proper character, to be with the
Lord in heaven).
Thus the Apocalypse presents the judgment of the assembly on earth, as the
formal witness for the truth; and then passes on to God's resumption of the
government of the earth, in viewof the establishment of the Lamb upon the
throne, and the setting aside of the power of evil. The heavenly character
of the assembly is only found there, when its members are exhibited on
thrones as kings and priests, and when the marriage of the Lamb takes place
in heaven. The earth-after the Seven Churches-has no longer the heavenly
testimony. It is not the subject, either in the seven assemblies, or in the
properly so-called prophetic part. Thus, taking the assemblies as such in
those days, the assembly according to Paul is not seen there. Taking the
assemblies as descriptions of the assembly, the subject of God's government
on earth, we have it until its final rejection; and the history is
continuous, and the prophetic part immediately connected with the end of
the assembly: only, in place of it, we have the world and then the Jews.
[see note #71]
The coming of Christ therefore, which is spoken of at the end of the
Gospel, is His manifestation on earth; and John, who lived in person until
the close of all that was introduced by the Lord in connection with
Jerusalem, continues here, in his ministry, until the manifestation of
Christ to the world.
In John, then, we have two things. On the one hand, his ministry, as far as
connected with dispensation and with the ways of God, does not go beyond
that which is earthly: the coming of Christ, is His manifestation to
complete those ways, and to establish the government of God. On the other
hand, he links us with the Person of Jesus, who is above and outside all
dispensations, and all the dealings of God, save as being the manifestation
of God Himself. John does not enter upon the ground of the assembly as Paul
sets it forth. It is either Jesus personally, or the relations of God with
the earth.
[see note #72]
His epistle presents the reproduction of the life of Christ in ourselves,
guarding us thus from all pretensions of perverse teachers. But by these
two parts of the truth, we have a precious sustainment of faith given to
us, when all that belongs to the body of testimony may fail: Jesus,
personally the object of faith in whom we know God; the life itself of God,
reproduced in us, as being quickened by Christ. This is for ever true, and
this is eternal life, if we were alone without the assembly on earth: and
it leads us over its ruins, in possession of that which is essential, and
of that which will abide for ever. The government of God will decide all
the rest: only it is our privilege and duty to maintain Paul's part of the
testimony of God, as long as through grace we can.
Remark also that the work of Peter and Paul is that of gathering together,
whether it be in circumcision or the Gentiles. John is conservative,
maintaining that which is essential in eternal life. He relates the
judgment of God in connection with the world, but as a subject that is
outside his own relations with God, which are given as an introduction and
exordium to the Apocalypse. He follows Christ when Peter is called,
because, although Peter was occupied, as Christ had been, with the call of
the Jews, John-without being called to that work-followed Him on the same
ground. The Lord explains it, as we have seen.
Verses 24, 25 are a kind of inscription on the book. John has not related
all that Jesus did, but that which revealed Him as everlasting life. As to
His works, they could not be numbered.
Here, thanks be to God, are these four precious books laid open, as far as
God has enabled me to do so, in their great principles. Meditation on their
contents in detail, I must leave to each individual heart, assisted by the
mighty operation of the Holy Ghost; for if studied in detail, one might
almost say with the apostle that the world would not contain the books that
should be written. May God in His grace lead souls into the enjoyment of
the inexhaustible streams of grace and truth in Jesus which they contain!
