Was A Son Of Thunder, Now The Apostle Of Love. Series

#7~Apostle John: -- Was a son of thunder, now the Apostle of LOVE. ~ 1-18-14

~ John is the brother of James, often referred to as "James the great", I suppose it was to keep from getting the two apostles named "James" confused, the other James was, "James the less", possibly because he was small in statue, he was the son of Alpheaus.

~ Jesus brother James was not an apostle, none of the 4 half brothers believed on Him until after His resurrection, His brother James wrote the epistle of "James" after he became a believer of course. --- And in the book of Acts he was the pastor of the church at Jerusalem.

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~Jesus brother, Judas, wrote the epistle of "Jude".

Jesus had 4 half brothers, "James, Judas, Simon, and José" and at least two sisters. - Matt. 13:55-56.

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~ The gospel of John is the only gospel of the four that does not give a list of the twelve apostles.

~ The name John, or Jonas was a common name of that time, and is still a common name in our time. -- Every one listening today can think of numerous people named "JOHN" -- many of the names we find in the N.T. and some in the O.T. are still being used today. -- My dads name was; PAUL, my mothers name was, NAOMIE, my sons name is, JOSEPH, my mother-in-laws name was, EUNICE, My uncle's name was, JAMES, another uncle was BENJEMIN, a man in our church is named, SAMUAL. --- And all of us I'm sure could all go on and on.

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~ John and James both were apostles, were the sons of Zebedee and Salome, as I pointed out last time when we were talking about "James the great" Salome was the sister of Mary the Lords mother, and this means that James and John were cousins of Jesus, and they were also related to the family of John the Baptist,

* Gabriel said to Mary in; --- [Gabriel, is always the messenger angel.]

>Luke 1: 36 And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren.

-- Mary and Salome, James and John's mother were sisters, so Elizabeth would also be Salome's cousin as well.

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-- John was younger than James; in fact, John was the youngest among all 12 of the apostles.

~ Zebedee, the father of James and John apparently had a successful fishing business, as we're told in MK.1:19-20 that he had hired servants.

~Also Jonas, who was Peter and Andrews's father, was in the fishing business together with Zebedee and son's.

> Luke 5:10 And so was also James, and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon.

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~ In the gospel accounts, James is mentioned before John, probably because James was the elder. -- Only in Luke do we find one exception.

> Luke 9:28 And it came to pass about an eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray.

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~John; in his own Gospel account, refers to himself as "the disciple whom Jesus loved" rather than useing his name.

>John 13:23 Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples, "whom Jesus loved." -- John here is talking about himself.

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~John was nearest of all to Jesus, the words, "the disciple whom Jesus loved" is found 5 times in Johns gospel -- (13:23; 19:26; 20:2; 21:7 & v. 20), - and because of that love, he became known as "the apostle of love".

~The word "LOVE" is found 56 times in the gospel of John, and 51 times in John's three epistles. --107 Times.

~ The word "Light" 25 times in the gospel of John, -- 6 times in Johns epistles.

~ The word "life" 44 times in his gospel--15 times in his epistles.

~ The word "truth" 27 times in John's gospel -- 21 times in his epistles.

~ The word "believe" 98 times in John's gospel -- 8 times in his epistles.

* All of these words are important words when it comes too salvation.

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~ John was in the inner circle of 3 of the disciples, we often read "Peter, James and John"--

~ John wrote the gospel of John, also his three epistles, and while exiled to the island of Patmos by Emperor Domitian around 90-95 A.D., he received and wrote the Book of Revelation. --- Some say that he was boiled in oil but survived, and then exiled too Patmos.

~ He was later freed and it is said that he went to Turkey, perhaps on a mission to establish churches. ~~John was the only one of the 12 that died a natural death...that is by old age and not martyred. --