Our Savior Lutheran Church

Introduction

Last week we looked at James, the apostle who craved prominence. Jesus transformed angry, raucous, combative James into a radical follower who accepted a background role. This week we focus on John, James’ younger brother. An arrogant guy, John, too, started out as a “Son of Thunder.” Amazingly, Jesus turned John into the apostle of love.

To Get Us Started

It’s hard to imagine an angry person becoming known for being loving and lovable. Since we all struggle to some degree with our tempers, it’s worth knowing how Jesus accomplished this transformation for the apostle John.

1. When you were growing up, who in your extended family was known as an angry person? How did family members deal with this person?

2. When you were a boy, what kinds of things made you mad?

3. Now that you’re a man, what kinds of things make you mad?

The Word

The apostle John lived until the final years of the first century. Roughly seventy years elapsed between the call of John to be a disciple of Jesus and his death. John may have been no more than twenty years old when he dropped his nets and followed Jesus. He’s a bit of a shadowy figure because he conceals his identity in the Gospel he wrote. Keep in mind that John was with Peter and James in many of the instances cited in the first two lessons.

A Plan That Backfired - Mark 9:33-40

They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, "What were you arguing about on the road?" [34] But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.

[35] Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."

[36] He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in his arms, he said to them, [37] "Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me."

[38] "Teacher," said John, "we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us."

[39] "Do not stop him," Jesus said. "No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, [40] for whoever is not against us is for us.

A Unique Relationship - John 13:21-25

After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, "I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray me."

[22] His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant. [23] One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. [24] Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, "Ask him which one he means."

[25] Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, "Lord, who is it?"

Total Confidence - John 19:25-27

Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. [26] When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, "Dear woman, here is your son," [27] and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.

Learning To Love - 1 John 4:7-12

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. [8] Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. [9] This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. [10] This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. [11] Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. [12] No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

Observations

The same strong parents who influenced James to be a power freak left their fingerprints on the character of John. He, too, was a Son of Thunder, ready to call down fire on the Samaritan village that excluded Jesus. He, too, asked for a seat at Jesus’ side in His kingdom. John was younger and more sensitive than his older brother James. His sensitivity set the direction for the transformation Jesus would work in him. John cherished the friendship Jesus offered him and gained the seat of companionship next to the Master, if not the seat of power and prestige he coveted. Youth gave John’s legs speed to outrun Peter to the empty tomb on Easter morning where he looked around at all the evidence “and believed” (John 20:8).

Observation 1

Jesus Christ Loves al of us unconditionally, no matter how selfish and arrogant we may be.

John was an arrogant, self-centered man who had a terrible temper. Jesus, however, loved him dearly even when he was obnoxious and self-serving. John not only understood personally what it means to be loved unconditionally, but he saw this happen to others. He witnessed firsthand that the Lord could save a self-righteous Pharisee named Nicodemus (John 3:1-21). He saw Jesus transform an immoral Samaritan woman when she put her faith in the Savior (John 4:1-42). He also looked on in amazement when Thomas, a real skeptic, proclaimed, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28).

Jesus Christ loves you no matter what your religious or pagan background, no matter what your sin or your unbelief. If you don’t reject the gift of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and believe that He died and rose again for you personally, you’ll pass from death to life (John 3:36; 5:24).

Observation 2

Jesus Christ wants to have a unique, ongoing, and reciprocal love relationship with all His children.

When Jesus walked this earth, He had a special relationship with John. Once He atoned for sin and ascended to heaven, He made it possible for all of us to have that kind of relationship with Him.

Today Jesus Christ has no favorites. He loves us all the same. In His humanity He loved John in a special way. But as the great high priest and mediator who now sits at the right hand of God the Father, He shows no partiality. He has no favorites. He desires to have a warm, loving relationship with each of His children.

Jesus wants us to be able to comprehend His love with our minds and feel His love in our hearts. God the Father also wants all of us, no matter how good or bad our experiences with our biological fathers, to be able to relate to Him, not just with head knowledge but with heart experience. He is our heavenly Father, and He wants us to walk with Him day by day in deep and abiding friendship.

Observation 3

Jesus Christ has made it possible for us to be a part of a dynamic community of love that not only meets our needs but demonstrates to the world that Jesus Christ is the incarnate God of God.

When Jesus walked among men and women working miracles, He was demonstrating His deity. When he returned to heaven, He left His people to demonstrate that He was one with the Father. On the evening before He died, Jesus illustrated through the foot-washing experience that His disciples should love one another as He had loved them (John 13:34-35). Following the foot-washing, Jesus prayed for unity among His disciples. As He walked with them geographically toward the Kidron Valley, He led them spiritually toward the cross. The apostle John heard Jesus tell the Father, “I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in Me through their message. May they all be one, just as You, Father, are in Me and I am in You. May they also be one in Us, so that the world may believe You sent Me” (John 17:20-21).

To Discuss

1. Through John’s close friendship with Jesus, he became an expert on love. What do you want your friendship with Jesus to make you an expert in? Why?

2. Why did Jesus object to John rebuking the person driving out demons in Jesus’ name (Mark 9:22-40)?

3. How do you think Jesus would have liked John to respond to the person driving out demons in His name?

4. In the story about who would betray Jesus, what shows John’s special intimacy with Jesus (John 13:21-25)?

5. Jesus entrusted His mother to John. How many different emotions can you imagine John experienced at that moment at the foot of the cross?

6. What practical lessons about love do you think John learned from caring for Mary after Jesus returned to heaven?

7. According to 1 John 4:7-12, how did John come to know what love is? Is there another way to learn about love? Have you learned about love from God’s love for you and His presence in you?

8. How does John say that we are to express the love of God?

9. John’s close friendship with Jesus transformed his life and character. Which of these statements best captures how your relationship with Jesus tends to work?

10. If God ran a check on your personality for characteristics that could interfere with love, which ones do you think He might red flag?

11. What relationship that God has put into your life (like Jesus put Mary in John’s life) has taught you the most about love? What specifically have you learned?

12. How can the relationships we build in this group express God’s love to the watching world?

The apostle John models for us a life changed through friendship with the Lord Jesus. John didn’t start following Jesus to learn about love. Jesus took a liking to John and showed him special attention. He has taken the same liking to each of His followers ever since.

13. If Jesus is your close friend, how should that affect the way you respond to what He says through the Bible?

14. If Jesus is your close friend, how should that affect the way you talk with Him in prayer?

15. If Jesus is your close friend, how can you show His love in your family, in your church, and in your workplace? Pray for members of your group to be ready and able to display the love of Christ, your Friend, in all these relationships this week.

Next Week

Next week we move beyond Peter, James, and John, the inner circle of Jesus’ disciples, to meet Andrew. Andrew was Peter’s brother. In fact, Andrew brought Peter to Jesus. He had followed John the Baptist as a disciple and may have been the first of the Twelve to attach himself to Jesus. Andrew, however, wasn’t a forceful personality. He found his place in the background as a quiet, respected encourager of others.