John: Man Of Love Series

INTRODUCTION

A little 4-year-old African girl had been sold as a slave. She had never known what love was. Even her name, Keodi, meant “Nobody loves me!”

When she grew to be about 10 years old, her body became covered with ugly sores. The natives turned her out and would have nothing to do with her. But some kind missionaries took Keodi in and put clothes on her.

At first, she could not believe anyone loved her. She went about saying, “I am only Keodi; nobody loves me.” The missionaries told her that Jesus loved her, and tried to teach her what love meant. Then she looked down at her dress, clean body, and bandaged sores, and said, “Is this love?” They told her that it was.

Love is shown by kindness and giving. God showed His great love to us by giving His dear and only Son to die for us. Jesus showed His love for us by giving His life for us. He did not only say He loved us, but He showed His love by suffering in our place. We show His love for us through our service for Him, as well as our love for others through ministry to them in God’s name.

BACKGROUND

Our series on Unlikely Heroes brings us today to another young man too ordinary to perhaps carry the hero’s cape upon his back. His name was John, a common name among Jewish boys, and so he was called “John, son of Zebedee” to distinguish him from other Johns. His mother was Salome, who may have been a sister to Mary, mother of Jesus. He also appears to have had an acquaintance with the High Priest.

He and his older brother, James, were fishermen, as was their father. They worked their fishing trade in tandem with two other men, Peter and Andrew, in the town of Bethsaida, near Capernaum, on the Sea of Galilee. But this family was of some means, for we find that their father owned a fishing vessel and had hired servants. His mother was said to have ministered to Jesus out of her own resources. Also, John had his own house, for it was there that John took Jesus’ mother, Mary, and cared for her.

John was a disciple of John the Baptizer before following Jesus. When Jesus came, calling Peter, Andrew, James, and John to follow him, like the others he left his occupation as a fisherman to become a “fisher of men.”

There was, however, one trait that would set this man apart from the other twelve disciples of Jesus, and would, in fact, come to be his rule of life. That trait was love, and would turn this improbable protagonist into a hero to many.

John as you know, wrote five of our New Testament books. He wrote a loosely biographical, somewhat theological, treatise on the life of Jesus, three small epistles, and the book of Revelation. Our starting text for today will be a passage from his first epistle, 1 John 4:7-12. This Scripture will reveal just how important love was to the man who would come to be called “the Beloved Apostle” and “the Apostle of Love.” READ

I find concerning John that …

I. He Had a Loyal Love for Jesus Christ

Jesus first met Jesus through John the Baptizer, of whom he was a devoted disciple. When John declared of Jesus, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” in John 1:29, John immediately began to follow this man from Galilee. This shows a loyal love for Jesus as “the way, the truth, and the life.”

From what appears to be eyewitness accounts in John 2-5, John must have accompanied Jesus for some time before resuming his trade back home. When Jesus visited their place of business and called them to follow, John, like the others, did not hesitate.

John, because of his loyal love for Jesus, would become one of Jesus’ inner circle, along with James, his brother, and. Peter. They would have the privilege of watching Jesus raise a little girl from the dead, behold His glory when He was transfigured on the mount, and hear His agonizing prayer in the Garden of Gethsemene.

So loyal was his love for Jesus that on five different occasions in his gospel he refers to himself as the disciple “whom Jesus loved” (13:23; 19:26; 20:2; 21:7, 20). We are told in John 13:23 that on the night in which they all partook of the Passover meal, John “was reclining at table at Jesus’ side,” which was the place of honor.

As Jesus hung on the cross, concern for His mother’s well-being was evident, and seeing his loyal and loving disciple close by, he made an urgent request. John records in John 19:26-27, “When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, behold, your son!’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother!’ And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.”