The sermon teaches that Christ’s manifestation to His people is a gracious, experiential disclosure of His person and glory, distinct from the world’s general awareness of Him. Spurgeon connects this manifestation with love, obedience, holiness, suffering, consolation, and anticipation of heaven. He strongly emphasizes divine sovereignty: grace is freely given and cannot be demanded as a debt. The sermon culminates in an evangelistic and devotional appeal to see Christ first as the merciful Savior at Calvary, before encountering Him as the Judge.
Theological center: Jesus Christ sovereignly manifests the Father and grants special experiential fellowship to His people by undeserved grace.
Applications: Seek Christ’s manifestations · Look to Christ at Calvary · See Christ as Savior before Judge · Rest in divine sovereignty
Primary texts: John 14:22-23 · John 14:8-10
“Judas said unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that you wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?” John 14:22 WHAT a blessed Master Jesus Christ was! How familiar did He allow His disciples to make themselves with Him! Though He was the Lord of life and glory, the great and mighty one, as well as the man of Nazareth, yet see how He talks with His poor disciples, the fishermen, just as if He had been one of the same class and order with themselves! He was none of your dignitaries who pride themselves on that dignity—none of those ecclesiastics who love to carry much of formality about them, and to walk above other men, as if they were not indeed their fellows. But He talks to His disciples just as a father would to his children—even more kindly than a master might to his…