Where’s the John?

Intro to The Gospel According to John

Follow the Leader at DIA

Heading to DIA today. When we are headed out, I have Logan and Arabelle. They are actually great to fly with. I can walk along and, with reasonable confidence and the occasional head-check, I know that they are following me. They know me. They know my voice.

Flying back with Dylan, Scotlyn and Paisley, I am going to be a bit more nervous. The girls know me… but not in the same instinctive way that my kids do. They will probably recognize my voice, but will they be able to pick it out almost subliminally in the noise of an airport the way my kids are tuned and trained to hear my voice?

And one of those girls is a little… mischievous. And I may end up chasing little blondies across the airport. And then when I catch her, and people give me dirty looks, I’ll just say “she’s not even my child!” and see how that goes.

Discipleship – How do we follow? Who do we follow?

It sounds easy… but how do we actually go about it?

Who Are We Following?

We are interested in discipleship… because we are interested in following Jesus. That, after all, is the heart of our mission as Next Step Church, as disciples of Jesus… that is what Christian is supposed to mean.

In the end, we are not following Jesus’ teaching… though we care deeply about his teaching, it isn’t just what he said that interests us. It is who he was and is, has always been and will always be.

So whenever we turn to Scripture, it isn’t just about remembering what happened. It is about getting to know who he is through what he has done. And, as the Holy Spirit breathes life into the Word to reveal the Word, getting to know Him in our life now.

And so we turn to John.

Why John?

Home of the most famous verse in Scripture: John 3:16

Well, what is this book? Much ink has been spilled.

Author

Unanimous early testimony that “the Evangelist” was the apostle John, the son of Zebedee.

John 21:20-25

20 Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who also had leaned back against him during the supper and had said, “Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?” 21 When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?” 22 Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!” 23 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?”

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.

25 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.

Traditional view is that it was written in Ephesus. (No other location has support of church Fathers).

John possibly died in Ephesus? (Eusebius) so that’s a cool transition as we move from Ephesus. Very natural.

But that isn’t why “John”.

Purpose

It comes down to why John wrote his gospel. Likely at least Mark and Luke were circulating around before John wrote his account. Likely John had read these. There are parallels, but probably because Mark and Luke and Matthew covered the breadth of Jesus’ ministry, and especially his ministry in Galilee, John doesn’t focus on all the same things they include.

His gospel is deep, and profound and incredibly focused. Focused in many ways more narrowly than Matthew, Mark and Luke.

John’s own purpose statement:

John 20:30-31

30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

John the disciple spent years, probably 3 years following in the footsteps of the Master. And then, with the gift of the Holy Spirit, the birth of the church, the sending of the disciples, the unleashing of the gospel, John the disciple becomes John the apostle.

And functionally, for John, this becomes John the Preacher.

John the Preacher. Years of teaching, of preaching from the words of Jesus.

Here is what I realized about the man I followed. What I discovered then. What I have discovered since.

And John has, I think, almost 40 years of ministry, of personal growth, and, particularly, of reflection upon that time with Jesus. He has understood so much that he did not understand then.

Over and over again, “we misunderstood so much at the time”… but we get it now.

And most particularly, John has learned Who his Master is.

And that is the focus of his account of Jesus’ life and ministry.

John focuses on who Jesus is. Jesus as Messiah, Jesus as Son of God and Son of Man. Jesus as the self-revelation of God. In John we find the “I Am” statements that give us the Holy Spirit shivers.

He speaks in light of the Resurrection.

We see this in the way he starts his gospel:

John 1:1-5

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made…

Calm down John! There is no slow intro with him, no leading up to the meat of it. He is passionate and just starts in with one of the most complete and profound and high claims of who Jesus is. He is going to repeat that and prove it, how Jesus demonstrated and taught and lived and died it.

John knew who Jesus was and is… and wants you to know it too.

We see it in his purpose statement in John 20. We see it in the way he begins his letter. We see it in, probably writing later, we see this same passion in him in the first Johannine letter:

1 John 1:1-4

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— 2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

John knew who Jesus was and is. He wants other people to know to. He writes an evangelistic gospel. A gospel to reveal Jesus in all his glory, in light of the Resurrection. All the I Ams, all the goodness. There is no surprise ending here.

All the understanding of decades of discipleship, preaching, Holy Spirit inspired understanding – poured here into his account of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

John knew who Jesus was and is. He wants you to know too. In order to follow you have to know who you are following.

It isn’t enough to know about Jesus, you have to know Jesus.

It isn’t enough to memorize his words, you have to follow and obey his words… and you only do that if you believe in him and trust him… and love him.

And that is the final piece. John knew who Jesus is… and defined himself in relationship to Jesus.

The disciple whom Jesus loved

John never names himself in his account. But over and over again, one disciple is left unnamed. And when a name is required, we hear this: the disciple Jesus loved.

Or the beloved disciple.

This is John. John the Son of Zebedee, John the Apostle.

Now we know that Jesus had his inner 12, his closest disciples, the ones he poured himself into the most in his teaching ministry.

And we know that Jesus had an inner circle of 3: Peter, James and John. When Jesus reserves a table of 4, that’s the 4.

And we could read this “beloved disciple” stuff as John being Jesus’ besty. His absolute favorite. Peter gets a lot of press… but John was really the beloved one.

I don’t think that’s it. I think John expresses this: Jesus loves me. This I know. Because he told me so. And he showed me so. And I’m going to write it in the Bible so I can tell you so.

John knew who Jesus is… and that Jesus loved him. And that was the most important thing about him. Not the most important thing about Jesus, there was a lot to say about Jesus. The most important thing about John.

I am the beloved disciple.

The School of Discipleship

So as we study through the book of John, we want to know what John knew.

Who Jesus is.

Who does Jesus reveal himself to be? How did John discover it in what Jesus said and did. What did discipleship look like then, how did it come to fruition later, and how can we walk in John’s footsteps as he walked in Jesus’ footsteps.

But may those words come alive in us, that we encounter Jesus ourselves, that we know Him even as we learn about Him.

I challenge you, as the best possible start to this series, take this week to read the gospel of John. Before bed, in the morning, one solid hour to read it straight through… but get the scope of it. We are going to do the deep dive story by story… I want you to see the forest. Get the 10,000 foot view.

May we get to know who Jesus is.

And may we echo the self-understanding, the self-identity of John.

And may we understand, at the very ground of our being, that we are beloved disciples.