Dec. 27, 2018: St. John the Apostle and Evangelist

Dec. 27, 2018: St. John the Apostle and Evangelist

John, the youngest of Christ's apostles, would certainly qualify as one of the most fascinating characters in Scripture. He anonymously penned the Gospel that most people consider their favorite. He identified himself only as the “disciple whom Jesus loved.” He took the other Gospel accounts of Jesus the Messiah and wrote as if to say, “You've heard what Jesus did, now let me show you who He really was.” Thus John shows us the cosmic Christ who created the world, died to redeem it, and lives to reclaim it. 

The apostle John's life includes unbelievable moments of courage and greatness. Of the twelve, only John stayed near for the crucifixion, and he became the recipient of the capstone of Scripture: the Revelation. He walked in the inner circle with Jesus to places like the Mount of Transfiguration and the resurrection chamber of Jairus' daughter (Luke 8: 51), yet between those mountaintops John experienced many long years when others stood in the limelight. From this disciple we gain an intimate and personal perspective of both Jesus and of a beloved follower.

[As you read the writings of St. John] I hope you'll make the discovery that he did so long ago—the discovery that affection counts for more than ambition. That loving and being loved by Jesus matters more than all that the world can obtain or contain. 

John was free to love because he was so utterly convinced that he was loved himself. “We have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him” (1 John 4: 16). Leave it to John to pen these words. How differently would each follower live if we characterized ourselves above all else as the beloved disciple of Jesus Christ? Our water would be turned to wine and our joy made complete. Oh, how we would long for the day when we see our Bridegroom face-to-face—the living, breathing Son of God! 

John lived to be a very old man. We have no idea how many years he lived beyond his exile. The earliest historians indicate, however, that the vitality of his spirit far exceeded the strength of his frame. His passionate heart continued to beat wildly for the Savior he loved so long. John took personally the words God poured through him. They did not simply run through the human quill and spill on the page. John's entire inner man was indelibly stained by rhema ink. 

In closing, read some of the words obviously inscribed on his heart from that last earthly night with Jesus: This is My command: love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you slaves anymore, because a slave doesn't know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from My Father. You did not choose Me, but I chose you. I appointed you that you should go out and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you. This is what I command you: love one another. (John 15: 12-17)

John lived the essence of these verses. He ended his life a true “friend” of Christ, for he took on God's interests as surely as Elisha took on the cloak of Elijah. Early church fathers reported that long after John lacked the strength to walk, younger believers carried the beloved disciple in a chair through crowds gathered for worship. His final sermons were short and sweet: “My little children, love one another!” He poured his life into love. Christ's love. The focus of his final days captures the two concepts I've learned above all others in this journey: 

-Christ calls His beloved disciples to forsake ambition for affection. John moved from his “pillar” position in the Jerusalem church to relative obscurity. Better to pour out our lives in places unknown than to become dry bones in the places we've always been. 

- Only disciples who are convinced they are beloved will in turn love beyond themselves. Actively embracing the lavish love of God is our only means of extending divine love to injured hearts. We simply cannot give what we do not have.

By Beth Moore

John: 90 Days with The Beloved Disciple