40 Days_Jesus and John
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Throughout the fourth gospel, the author identifies himself as the "Beloved Disciple." We will discuss why he does so and whether the author of the disciple who Jesus appears to in John 21 is, in fact, John the son of Zebedee or someone else. This sermon asks a key question: What does it mean to be a "beloved disciple of Jesus."
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40 Days_Jesus and John
- 3. HULK SAVED YOUR LIFE… AND YOU STILL CALL HIM NAMES! YOU STILL CHALLENGE HULK?
- 4. “Hi, welcome to Elmo’s World. Elmo’s so happy to see you. Guess what Elmo’s thinking about today.”
- 6. Jimmy and misunderstandings kind of clash.” “Jimmy doesn’t like misunderstandings.
- 7. “No one would be tougher on ISIS than Donald Trump” “You wouldn’t be hearing about immigration if it weren’t for Donald Trump”
- 8. ILLEISM (n.); [ILL-ee-izm] the act of referring to oneself in the third person.
- 10. First Point Beloved by Jesus
- 11. At the Last Supper (Jn. 13) 23 One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at table at Jesus' side, 24 so Simon Peter motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. 25 So that disciple, leaning back against Jesus, said to him, “Lord, who is it?”
- 12. At Calvary (John 19) 26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” 27 Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
- 13. After the Resurrection (Jn. 20) 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.”
- 14. At the Empty Tomb (Jn. 20) 8 Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed;
- 15. John 11:5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
- 16. Second Point Favored by Jesus
- 18. At the Sea of Galilee (Jn. 21) 7 That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, “It is the Lord!”
- 19. John 21:2 2 Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together.
- 20. John 21 18 Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.”
- 21. John 21 19 (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”
- 22. John 21 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?”
- 23. John 21 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!”
- 24. John 21 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?”
- 25. Two Key Truths 1. There is a difference between favor and favoritism.
- 26. Two Key Truths 1. There is a difference between favor and favoritism. 2. There is a difference between favor and fairness.
- 28. Third Point Inspired by Jesus
- 29. John 21 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.
- 30. John 21 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.
- 31. The Important Question Are you a beloved disciple?
- 32. GEFC’s Vision Statement Prayerfully seek, serve, disciple and love others, in Christ’s name.
Editor's Notes
- Today is day 27 in our 40 day journey through the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus. Throughout this series we have been looking at Jesus’ appearances to his disciples after the empty tomb. We have also been zooming in on the one-on-one or one-on-few encounters where possible. These reveal so much about Jesus’ relationship with His followers and His purpose for our lives. That’s where it becomes very practical for us, given the fact that we too seek to grow in our relationship with Jesus and want to discover His purpose for our lives. So, these 40 days are an opportunity for us to gain insight and connect with Jesus on a deeper level.
- Today we are going to focus on Jesus’ post-resurrection interactions with John. However, before we launch into this topic, I want to take you on a brief journey down memory lane, extending from my childhood to current events. Look for a pattern in the next few slides.
- One of my favorite cartoons as a child was the Marvel comics of the Hulk. The Hulk said things like this… “HULK SAVED YOUR LIFE… AND YOU STILL CALL HIM NAMES! YOU STILL CHALLENGE HULK?”
- I was too old for Sesame Street. It debuted in 1969 when I was 10 years old. And I was 20 when this guy first appeared. But in my late thirties my kids took me on a tour of Elmo’s World. He spoke like this… ““Hi, welcome to Elmo’s World. Elmo’s so happy to see you. Guess what Elmo’s thinking about today.” That wasn’t the best Elmo impersonation. If you want a really good one, ask Nate or my son Erik. They do an impersonation that is scary good.
- Five years before Elmo’s World, one of the funniest movies debuted… Mel Brooks “Blazing Saddles.” One of my favorite characters was this weak-minded tough guy named Mongo. His most memorable line has become iconic… “I don’t know… Mongo only pawn in game of life.”
- And as a native New Yorker, I was a Seinfeld fan. I think next to the Soup Nazi, my favorite extra-character was an odd speaking character named Jimmy. After being denied a date by Elaine because of a misunderstanding, he replied “Jimmy doesn’t like misunderstandings. Jimmy and misunderstandings kind of clash.”
- Now let’s jump to real life. In the tradition of Bob Dole, Donald Trump makes statements like these… “You wouldn’t be hearing about immigration if it weren’t for Donald Trump”; “No one would be tougher on ISIS than Donald Trump” Each of these characters share an odd speech pattern that is shared by others like soccer star Pele, basketball star LeBron James, baseball great Bo Jackson, painter Salvador Dali and Julius Caesar… to name a few. Do you recognize the pattern? That’s right… they speak of themselves in the third person… as if they were speaking about someone else. This week I learned that there is actually a name for this…
- It’s called Illeism and the folks that speak in this manner are called illeists. Sometimes this pattern of speech develops for practical reasons. For example, baseball and football pro, Bo Jackson, was a stutterer as a child and struggled to say the word “I”, so he began using his name instead. With some, it seems to be rooted in social status… like the illeist “we” employed by the Queen of England… “We are not amused.” That royal we is used intentionally to set her apart… sort of like saying “me and my majesty… we are not amused.” Many have noted that we find a lot of illeists in the worlds of sports, politics and celebrity, three realms typified by larger than life egos. Some illeists are narcissists. Let me introduce you to one more famous illeist.
- The Apostle John. John’s gospel is filled with an illeist phrase. In fact, this odd third person self-reference leads to my first point.
- Beloved by Jesus. This was John’s common self-reference. He loved to identify himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved. Let’s spend a few minutes and look at some of these references in context.
- We first encounter this third personal self-reference in the thirteenth chapter of John. Jesus is eating his Last Supper with the disciples. In verse 23 John writes: 23 One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at table at Jesus' side, 24 so Simon Peter motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. 25 So that disciple, leaning back against Jesus, said to him, “Lord, who is it?” The position of this disciple underscores the close relationship that existed. There is nothing sexual about this moment, despite modern attempts to read that into this text. Jews ate meals together from a reclining position. Some would be located close, others more distant. Those closest often enjoyed the closest of relationship. So, this disciples position testifies to the fact that he and Jesus were close friends. He was in Jesus’ inner circle of relationship. Some scholars assert that we don’t know the identity of this disciple. They would say that we assume that it is John, but that we don’t know for certain. In fact, in academic circles, they will refer to this gospel as “the fourth gospel” rather than “John’s gospel.” Let’s look at a few of the other occasions where we see the “beloved disciple.”
- We find this disciple at Calvary. Look at John 19:26: 26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” 27 Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home. As you know, the rest of Jesus’ male disciples fled. We do not find them at the foot of the cross. But here is another indication of the agape selfless love of this disciple and Jesus. He assumes great risk. The Pharisees are blood thirsty at this time. They are determined to wipe out Jesus and His followers. But this disciple is at the foot of the cross, openly identifying himself with the man on the cross. Jesus chooses him to care for his mother. It’s a sensible choice that demonstrates His trust and love.
- A few weeks ago, we focused on the foot race to the empty tomb. And here again, in John 20 verse 2 we see Peter identified by name, together with “the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved.”
- And then again, in verse 8, a reference to who won the foot race. And the winner is the “other disciple”, clearly a reference back a few verses to the “one whom Jesus loved.” Theologians have actually proposed several other candidates for the “beloved disciple.” One is Lazarus. Lazarus first appears in John chapter 11. In verse 5 the author of this gospel writes:
- Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Additional evidence is set forth: The story of Lazarus is only told in the fourth gospel. If Lazarus is the author of this gospel, then it would explain why this is the one gospel to include this miracle. Lazarus was already a target. His position at the foot of the cross would place him under no additional danger. And as a wealthy man of social rank, he would not be an easy target… especially given the enthusiasm that the crowd had for him. The term “beloved disciple” first appears in chapter 13 of the fourth gospel, after the account of Lazarus’ resurrection. Those who do not accept that John is the author of the fourth gospel are drawn to the possibility of Lazarus. There are more speculative theories. Some assert that the beloved disciple was an unnamed priest. Because he is known to the Jewish interrogators, he would have had the opportunity to be present at the interrogations of Jesus after his arrest. Others assert that Mary Magdalene is the beloved disciple. Some assert that DaVinci’s Last Supper painting ascribes a female looking face to the Apostle assumed to be John. Dan Brown’s DaVinci Code is an example of this idea that Jesus not only loved Mary but married her and had children. I bet that most of us in this room didn’t realize that there was such a debate over the identity of this disciple. Was someone other than John the beloved disciple, or was it John using Illeism for some reason? I believe that we will be able to answer this question by looking at the last chapter in the fourth gospel. Which leads to my second point.
- Favored by Jesus. The phrase, the beloved disciple, seems like a conceit to us. Imagine if one of us started calling himself or herself, the GEFC member whom Jesus loves. How would the other disciples receive this. In the final chapter of the fourth gospel, we will see several more instances of this phrase “the beloved disciple” and we will see someone begin to react negatively to this term. And I think we will have to answer another question. Was this a problem and did Jesus feed the problem? Did Jesus have favorites? We see this in the family of Jacob. He had his favorite wife… Rachel. And he had his favorite sons, Rachel’s sons, Joseph and Benjamin. This preferential treatment bred hatred between Joseph and his half-brothers. Jacob’s favoritism almost cost Joseph his life and did cost him his freedom for a long time. Was Jesus guilty of this same behavior? Or is there a difference between showing favor and favoritism? Hold onto that question.
- In John 21 Jesus appears to seven of His disciples. Previously, Jesus told his disciples to go to Galilee and that he would appear to them there. Obviously, they have done so. We see a hint of the later authorship of the fourth gospel. Notice that in verse one the Sea of Galilee is being called the Sea of Tiberius. Tiberius is dead. He has become like Ronald Reagan is today… that period where you are gone but remembered… that point where they start naming airports and aircraft carriers after you, or in the first century, bodies of water. The fishermen in the group of seven propose gathering some food and killing some time doing what they do best… fishing. The whole group decides to work together. At the break of day a man asks them if they have any fish. Discouragingly they reply, “No.” Then comes a familiar retort… “Cast your nets on the other side, followed by an even more familiar outcome… a truly miraculous catch of fish. Then, in verse 7, one of the disciples is first to make the connection.
- 7 That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” Once again we see the disciple whom Jesus loved beating Peter. He is quicker on the uptake. And Peter leaps into the water, not liking to be outdone. After this comes the events that we looked at two weeks ago, where Jesus has breakfast with the disciples and asks Peter those probing questions… do you love me more than these, maybe referring to the fish, and the three “Peter, do you love me” questions. We’re going to skip that part today and jump to the end of the chapter. But before we do, let me ring in on the identity of the beloved disciple. Back in verse 2 we learn who is by the Sea of Tiberius with Jesus.
- 2 Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. We know that Peter is not the beloved disciple. He races this disciple to the empty tomb and speaks to Jesus of him, as we will see in a few minutes. Thomas and Nathanael are named. The two others are described by the author of the fourth gospel as “other disciples”. They are not the beloved disciple. And then there are the sons of Zebedee. We know that they are James and John… and they are all that remain in the list. James is the first of the 12 to die, decades before the authoring of the fourth gospel which clearly is written after the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D. Who’s left? John, the son of Zebedee. I think we are on solid ground stating that John is the author of the fourth gospel … he is the beloved disciple. I think this phrase is an illeism… John is referring to himself. And when we jump forward to verses 18-23 we may gain insight into why he spoke in the third person. Verse 18 is the tail end of Jesus’ restoration of Peter. After the three painful, “Do you love me?” questions, Jesus prophesies to Peter.
- 18 Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.”
- 19 (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.” Peter has just received the prophecy that none of us would ever want. Who wants to know the circumstances of their death? Who especially wants to know that their death will be as gruesome as Jesus’ death… NOBODY! But right after Peter hears these words, including the invitation to once again Follow Jesus, Peter succumbs to the green monster of jealousy.
- John 21 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?” During his younger years when Jesus was ministering, John did plenty to fan these flames. He and his brother were ambitious to a flaw, asking that Jesus treat them as favorites, seating one on his left and one on his right side in Heaven. And don’t forget the foot race. John was ambitious, competitive and probably quite full of Himself. Peter’s reaction is a symptom. John’s conceit was probably the cause. Now, all that Peter can think is, “Tell me he’s going to die too Jesus.” I think that it is critical that we understand two key truths. First, there is a difference between favor and favoritism. God does favor certain people. Mary, Jesus’ mother was greeted by Gabriel with the words, “Hail, Favored One.” She had been shown favor. Jesus inner circle was privileged to have some unique experiences. Only Peter, James and John see the Transfiguration and get a glimpse of Jesus in greater glory. They were favored on several occasions. But there is a difference between favor and favoritism. Favor is focused on blessing another. Favoritism is more rooted in selfishness; blessing myself. Jacob used favoritism to deepen his bond with the more beautiful wife, at the expense of her older sister. Jesus showed favor in order to provide certain disciples with the encouragement that they would need. Peter would be the leader of the church. James the leader of the martyrs. And John lead prophet. These three especially needed grace, and Jesus favored them for that reason. By the time John is writing these words, his friends are all gone. James was killed by Herod Agrippa in 44 A.D. Twenty years later Nero crucified Peter upside down. And John has been left alive to prophecy concerning the end times. Second, there is a difference between favor and fairness. Jesus told several parables, like the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard and the Parable of the Prodigal Son intended to make it clear that fairness is not an ultimate value in God’s kingdom. Notice how Jesus dismisses Peter so abruptly with the question, “What is that to you?” God’s favor is not always fair, but it is just and it is strategic. As long as we try to hold God to a standard of fairness, He will never measure up to us. Some of us are poor. Some of us are born with big noses and buck teeth. It isn’t fair, but it doesn’t hinder God’s favor in your life and the life of others. It’s just that His favor comes in different packages at different times.
- So why the mystery? Why all this “beloved disciple” language? I think that an older and wiser John is now a humble John. Illeism can be an indication of narcissism. But it can also be a form of humility. And that is how I see John. He no longer sees himself without seeing Jesus’ love for him. Here is one of the truest signs of a mature believer… he or she can’t tell their story without seeing their life in the context of Jesus’ love. Let me ask you, as you look over your life do you see signs of God’s favor? I know I do. I will never forget the moment where Dr. Larson stopped me on a food line and offered me a scholarship and a Teaching Fellowship. It was a free ride through a second Master’s degree and it came with the privilege of teaching seminary classes for a year. It was an unbelievable moment of God’s favor. And it came weeks after my Dad was forced into early retirement at 57 and my goals of future education seemed dashed. We all have some moment like that, where God showed us favor. That favor doesn’t mean that God loves you more or most of all. It means that God knows you need this opportunity or encouragement. God’s favor should stimulate our humility. We don’t all need to speak in the third person, like Elmo or Jimmy. But we do need to find a way to express our gratitude to God and our grace to one another. Which leads to my third point.
- John was Inspired by Jesus. Let’s look at the last two verses of this gospel where we see the sixth of John’s third person self-references.
- 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. I thought about these verses for quite a while. And, in all honesty, I didn’t know how to fit them in a sermon. Then it hit me how these verses show us how Jesus had inspired John. Jesus inspired John to bear witness. He came to believe with all his heart that everything Jesus said was true and he was motivated to proclaim that truth. We also see that he was inspired to write it down. And we have seen how in this gospel John writes down many things that the other gospel writers did not include. But John tells us something tantalizing… there was a lot more that Jesus did. When people suggest to me that Heaven will be a boring place of endless hymn sings and prayer vigils, I think of this verse. Imagine the opportunity we will have in heaven to hear eyewitness accounts from thousands of people whom Jesus healed and delivered. Talking to Jairus’ daughter and the man with the withered hand. Speaking with the unnamed hordes of people that Jesus touched. Imagine how we will be inspired. What John saw inspired him to live a committed life as a disciple. Which leads me to one final question.
- Are you a beloved disciple? When I think about this question, there is an easy part and a difficult one. The easy part is the question “are you beloved?” The gospels are filled with indications of Jesus love for us. He calls us to follow Him. He calls those you do follow Him friends. When we stray, as sheep, He is the Good Shepherd who pursues us. When we sin he is the Lamb who has redeemed us. To those walking in darkness, he is light. To those alienated from God by sin, Jesus is the friend of sinners who came to seek and save lost people. There is no questioning the love of Jesus. The uncertainty enters with the word disciple. Over the last few weeks I have had several discussions with folks over the question, what is a disciple. In fact, this became a key focus in our Elders/Ad Council retreat yesterday. We realize that disciplemaking is part of our vision statement.
- Here is our Vision Statement. Our vision is to: Prayerfully seek, serve, disciple and love others, in Christ’s name. Notice that disciple is not just a noun. Here, it’s a verb. It is an activity often referred to in today’s Christian literature as disciple-making. What is a disciple, or a disciple-maker? As a leadership team we are committed to fleshing this out more fully than we have in the past. But let me take an early stab at this. It is more than believing in Jesus. It is more than following Jesus, although that gets us closer to the mark. A disciple is a follower who is being equipped to raise up mature believers who in turn call others to follow Jesus. It is a disciple who makes disciplemakers who make disciples. That is what the initial 11 remaining apostles were. And that is what the 72 were. They went out, told people about Jesus, led them to taught them His teachings, led them to place their faith and trust in Him, taught them how to teach and lead others and then released them to go on mission for God. That is a beloved disciple. My passion has been to challenge you to be witnesses for Jesus. I end most sermons with a challenge to get out there and make Jesus known. But I have been challenged to take it to the next level… to challenge you to become disciples who make disciples. We may choose to refine this vision in order to make it more memorable. Or we may leave it as it is. But one thing is for certain. Vision leaks and most of us have forgotten this vision, or never known it. We have to make our disciplemaking vision more prominent. And more than that, it needs to become the filter through which we evaluate everything we do. There are many good things that we can do. They all take time. Most consume resources. And if we try to do every good thing we will have little impact for God’s kingdom. We need to be strategic. And that means that we need to get comfortable evaluating everything we do and asking, does this fit with our disciplemaking vision? Are we serving because we like to serve, or are we serving in Jesus’ name? Are we keeping busy with lots and lots of activities, or are we equipping people to equip others? As we are faced with financial requests and ministry opportunities, we need to run them through our vision. In fact, we are going to post this in our Conference Room. And we are going to talk about it frequently until this becomes so familiar a filter that if leadership screws this up, you will call us to account. The first century church went viral. But I think it might be accurate to say that the 21st century American church has a virus. Instead of multiplying disciples we are becoming weak and bloated. The difference between growing larger and becoming more bloated is one of health. Growing things grow by division and multiplication. That’s how our bodies grow and remain healthy… cells divide, stockpile additional DNA and then divide again, resulting in multiplication. All that dividing and multiplying is the very essence of health. Bloating is an unhealthy growth. Greed bloats us. Pleasure seeking bloats us. Sin bloats us. Death bloats us. And in the church, programs that don’t equip us to be disciplemakers can bloat us, consuming our resources and leaving us too heavy to run the race that God has set before us. This is a worthy goal… that we would become beloved disciples who make disciples. Let’s Pray.