John The Revealer Series

Cowboy 4 John The Revealer

If someone were to sum up your life with just one or two words what would those words be? We all have loved ones that have since passed away and we still hold their memories close to our hearts. Whenever you think about those loved ones what is the one word that seems to keep coming back to you time and time again? I lost my father in April of 2004 and there are not too many days that go by that I don’t think of him. The one characteristic that most often comes to my mind is his sweetness. My dad was a very sweet and kind person, mostly very quiet but never had an unkind word to say about someone. During the last years of his life he suffered with Alzheimer’s disease so he would often go back to his childhood. The amazing thing about this disease of the memory is it would magnify his sweetness. Mom took very good care of dad and would take him with her everywhere she went. Dad would always follow along quietly and would watch her wherever she went. At the end of my days I hope the characteristic my family will remember of me is my passion for the people who don’t know Jesus.

John would have made a great cowboy because he is a master of telling stories and painting word pictures. Cowboys love to talk about their predictions for the future and will describe events and places so vividly you can imagine being there. You can get twenty cowboys together in a room and you will hear forty opinions on the future weather because so much of their livelihood revolves around rain. The book of Revelation is a book of the future, the things that will take place when God prepares the earth to receive Him as physical King. John paints some very graphic images using words and is very specific on several items that happen during the end of times, specifically during a seven year period of great tribulation.

This chapter is devoted to disciple named John which according to John he was the “disciple whom Jesus loved.” John is one of the three closest disciples of Jesus; the other two being Peter and James. Peter, Andrew, James and John were all fisherman (Luke 5:9) and business partners. John’s dad was Zebedee and his mother was Salome, who was very close to her boys. John is responsible for writing four books in the New Testament: the Gospel of John, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John and Revelations. John was the pastor in a town called Ephesus and probably wrote the first three books from that city. The fourth book was written when John was banished on the island of Patmos. John died around the year A.D. 100. According to “Foxes Book of Martyrs:” John The "beloved disciple," was brother to James the Great. The churches of Smyrna, Pergamos, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea, and Thyatira, were founded by him. From Ephesus he was ordered to be sent to Rome, where it is affirmed he was cast into a cauldron of boiling oil. He escaped by miracle, without injury. Domitian afterwards banished him to the Isle of Patmos, where he wrote the Book of Revelation. Nerva, the successor of Domitian, recalled him. He was the only apostle who escaped a violent death .

Most of the accounts found in the gospels about John usually include his brother James. We see James and John asking Jesus to sit on His left in Right in His kingdom. When John was an elderly man, it was said that he constantly repeated the phrase, "Little children, love one another!" He did that because he believed it was the Lord’s most important commandment. John mentions Jesus’ statement “Love one another” four times in his gospel, the other writers never use that phrase. John uses “Love one another” five times in 1 John and once in Second John. John never mentions his own name in the Gospel of John, however you will find the name John mentioned but it always refers to John The Baptist.

The events that shaped John’s ministry, both during and after Jesus’ ministry, seem to center around love. The famous verse found only in his book, John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him will be saved.” John’s gospel goes into great detail concerning the arguments with the Jewish leaders and teachers the other gospels barely touch. Conflict and love are what appears to shape the thinking of John the disciple. If love is the first word to describe John, unity would be the second. Some of John’s favorite words and ideas are light, life, love, believe and truth.