Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Character Study--John (Pt. 3)

The final installment of a Character Study on the Apostle John. Enjoy!!

Lesson 3—John the “Beloved Disciple”

Welcome to our final installment in the series of lessons on the Apostle John. The past two weeks, we have spent time looking at the life of the Apostle John and how it was affected by his encounter with Jesus Christ. The first week, we looked at the call of John by Jesus, found in Matthew 4. We saw that John was a family man, found with his brother and father. We saw that he was a fisherman, found in the boat “mending their nets.” Finally, we saw that he was called by Jesus to be a follower—and that Jesus would make him into a “fisher of men.” John’s response, as we saw in the first week, was to leave everything—his job, his boat, his father—and follow after Jesus.

Then, last week, we saw that even though John was a follower of Jesus, that did not mean he always acted like his Teacher. We saw in three accounts from Luke 9:46-56 that John still struggled and failed at wrestling with the sin in his heart. We first saw his failure in the area of pride when he argued with the rest of the disciples over who was the greatest in Jesus’ kingdom. Next we saw that John failed in the area of jealousy, when he forbade someone from working in the name of Jesus because he was not a part of Jesus’ core group of disciples. Finally we saw that John failed in the area of anger, when he (along with his brother) desired to call down fire upon a city for its rejection of Jesus. Jesus’ response in each one of these areas of failure was to rebuke John—not out of anger, but out of love. We will see that it had that impact on John in this final lesson.

Tonight, we will see that John was transformed by his encounter with Jesus Christ. The passage that we will look at to best exemplify this change will be John 21:20-25. Starting with verse 20, it says, “Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who had been reclining at table close to him and had said, ‘Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?’ When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, ‘Lord, what about this man?’ Jesus said to him, ‘If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!’ So the saying spread abroad among the brothers that this disciple was not to die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but, ‘If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?’

This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true.

Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”[1]

In this passage, we will see two specific ways in which John’s encounter with Jesus changed him—that he counted himself a “beloved disciple,” and that he counted himself a faithful witness. John’s encounter with Jesus changed him in many ways other than these two, but these two changes exemplify a heart-level change for the Apostle John.

The first area in which John had a heart change, was that he called himself “the disciple whom Jesus loved”. Now, many modern scholars would like to challenge that this “beloved disciple” was not the Apostle John. According to D.A. Carson and Douglas Moo, “Some think that John the son of Zebedee probably in some way stands behind the tradition in the fourth gospel but that the material went through lengthy adaptations…. Others think that the influence of John the son of Zebedee is more immediate and pervasive: he did not actually write the book but caused it to be written, perhaps through an amanuensis who enjoyed certain liberties of expression and who might appropriately be called the evangelist.”[2] Thomas Lea and David Black state, “The key issue concerning authorship hinges on the identification of the ‘beloved disciple’ in the Gospel…. In 21:24-25 he is identified as the one who ‘wrote these things.’ If we assume that writing involves the production of the material, and that ‘these things’ is a reference to the entire book and not merely to chapter 21, then the beloved disciple is the author of the fourth Gospel.”[3] So, who is this “beloved disciple”? According to John 21, it has to be one of the seven disciples who were with Jesus at that time. It is highly unlikely that the unknown disciples would be the author because it probably would not have received the universal credibility it did in the early Church if this were the case. Peter, Nathanael, and Thomas are mentioned by name in verse 2, so these cannot be the beloved disciple either. James, son of Zebedee could not have been it because he died fairly early in the life of the Church and the end of the book says that there was a rumor about the beloved disciple living until Jesus’ return. This leaves only one disciple who can possibly be the beloved disciple—John the son of Zebedee.[4] Carson and Moo note that Irenaeus, an early Church father, said that he remembered that Polycarp had spoken of his conversations with the Apostle John and that Polycarp had spoken of the “eyewitness accounts” he had received from those who had seen the risen Jesus. Not only that, but Clement of Alexandria also speaks of the Apostle John writing the Gospel which bears his name.[5] So, we see that both from internal (i.e. the Gospel itself) and external (i.e. Church history) evidence, the authorship of the fourth Gospel points toward the Apostle John. This means that John was the one, in John 13, who leaned upon Jesus at the last supper. But why would he call himself the “beloved disciple”? Doesn’t that seem a little proud of him? Not at all, when you remind yourself of what we studied last time. John was named by Jesus a “Son of Thunder,” and I think he understood the implications of that nickname. Yet, he saw how Jesus had shown him such tender love—at his calling, at the last supper, at the cross—that he couldn’t even refer to himself as anything other than a name which reflected the intensely gracious love which Jesus had shown toward him—the “disciple whom Jesus loved”.

There is also a second name which we can give to John based on this passage—and the Gospel of John in general—and that is faithful witness. This can be found in verse 24, “This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true.” R.V.G. Tasker offers this as a possible interpretation of this verse, “The author of the whole Gospel is here saying in effect to his readers, though in a curiously indirect manner: ‘I have described myself in this Gospel as “the disciple whom Jesus loved”. I bear constant witness in my teaching to the truths which I have embodied in this book; and I and the other leaders of the church where I am writing know that my testimony is true.’ On the whole this may be said to be the traditional interpretation.”[6] I believe that this speaks more faithfully to the nature of John as the author of the Gospel than any other interpretation of this verse. We see that John, who has witnessed Jesus from the beginning of Jesus’ ministry as one of His disciples, is now faithfully and truthfully writing down the details which he found to be particularly memorable about the ministry of Jesus. John 19:35 says, speaking of the crucifixion of Christ, “He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe.”[7] This verse speaks on John’s own behalf that he knows his message is true. Now, in chapter 21, we see that John calls forth witnesses to verify that his message is true by the use of the word “we”. John was a faithful witness of all that he reported. Also, noted in verse 25 is the fact that John did not report all that Jesus had done. He reported those things which would compel people toward belief in Jesus as the Son of God, according to John 20:31. This was the point of John’s Gospel—not to set out every detail of every minute of Jesus’ life, but to put forth Jesus as the Son of God, and give evidence of the same. To that extent, John can be called a faithful witness of all that he wrote in his Gospel.

Throughout these three lessons, as we have taken a look at the impact which Jesus had on John’s life, I hope that we can see the great practicality of all that we have learned as well. I hope that we don’t just think of this as a story of “some guy who lived way back when,” but that we will see that John’s life is just one picture of the grace and love of Jesus Christ which is powerful enough to change the human heart and soul. God’s grace shown toward us as we gaze on Jesus compels us to want to be more like Christ. I pray that we would see ourselves as “disciples whom Jesus loved,” just as John did. I pray that as John answered the call to personal discipleship, we would answer that call too. I pray that as John still battled with sin throughout his time following Jesus that we would never cease to battle against the remaining sin in our own hearts. Finally, I pray that as John was changed by his encounter with Christ, we would all be changed daily by our encounter with the Gospel daily. I pray that God would change us in the same way that he changed one called the “Son of Thunder” into the disciple who penned the words, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.”[8] May this be our heart’s attitude toward God and one another from this point on! Amen!

Bibliography

Arnold, Clinton E. Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002.

Augsburger, Myron S. The Communicator's Commentary: Matthew. Waco: Word Books, 1982.

Calvin, John. Commentary on Matthew, Mark, Luke Volume 2. Public Domain.

Carson, D. A., and Douglas J. Moo. An Introduction to the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 2005.

Elwell, Walter A. Evangelical Dictionary of Theology. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2001.

France, R.T. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries: Matthew. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1985.

Gill, John. An Exposition of the New Testament. Public Domain, 1746-8.

Henry, Matthew. Commentary on the Whole Bible. e-Sword, 1706-1721.

Lea, Thomas D., and David Allan Black. The New Testament: Its Background and Message. Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 2003.

Tasker, R.V.G. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries: John. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995.



[1] Jn. 21:20-25 (English Standard Version)

[2]Carson, D. A., and Douglas J. Moo. An Introduction to the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 2005. pg. 241

[3] Lea, Thomas D., and David Allan Black. The New Testament: Its Background and Message. Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 2003. pg 157

[4] Ibid, pg. 157

[5] Carson, D. A., and Douglas J. Moo. An Introduction to the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 2005. pg. 230-31

[6] Tasker, R.V.G. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries: John. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995. pg 234

[7] Jn. 19:35 (English Standard Version)

[8] I Jn. 4:7-12 (English Standard Version)

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