Sunday Evening, September 10, 1972 · Richmond, Virginia
Ministry given through Brother Stephen Kaung.
Lord, how we praise and thank Thee, because Thou art so faithful, so merciful, and so loving. We praise and thank Thee for all the past; we praise and thank Thee for the present; and we can thank Thee even for the future.
Lord, we can trust ourselves to Thee completely, because Thou art so trustworthy. We gather together this evening because of Thy faithfulness, Thy mercy, and Thy love. We do open ourselves to Thee. We desire to be filled by Thyself. Deliver us from ourselves. Deliver us from anything and everything that will distract us.
But Lord, we want Thee. We want to exalt Thee. Thou hast said, “If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto Myself.” Lord, Thou art lifted up in our hearts, and we are drawn unto Thyself.
We pray that at this moment Thy Holy Spirit may breathe upon Thy Word and make it living and operative. We ask that we may not only hear, but that we may see. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Thank God for gathering us together here tonight unto the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, the name that we love.
I have so many verses to read that I think I have to pick a few. Will you please turn to the Gospel according to John?
Again on the morrow John was standing, and two of his disciples;
and he looked upon Jesus as He walked, and saith, Behold, the Lamb of God!
And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.
And Jesus turned, and beheld them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye?
And they said unto Him, Rabbi (which is to say, being interpreted, Teacher), where abidest Thou?
He saith unto them, Come, and ye shall see.
They came therefore and saw where He abode; and they abode with Him that day: it was about the tenth hour.
And going on from thence He saw two other brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and He called them.
And they straightway left the boat and their father, and followed Him.
And James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James; and them He surnamed Boanerges, which is, Sons of thunder.
And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out demons in Thy name; and we forbade him, because he followeth not with us.
But Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not: for he that is not against you is for you.
And it came to pass, when the days were well-nigh come that He should be received up, He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem,
and sent messengers before His face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for Him.
And they did not receive Him, because His face was as though He were going to Jerusalem.
And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt Thou that we bid fire to come down from heaven, and consume them?
But He turned, and rebuked them.
And they went to another village.
Then came to Him the mother of the sons of Zebedee with her sons, worshipping Him, and asking a certain thing of Him.
And He said unto her, What wouldest thou? She saith unto Him, Command that these my two sons may sit, one on Thy right hand, and one on Thy left hand, in Thy kingdom.
But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink the cup that I am about to drink? They say unto Him, We are able.
He saith unto them, My cup indeed ye shall drink: but to sit on My right hand, and on My left hand, is not Mine to give; but it is for them for whom it hath been prepared of My Father.
There were standing by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.
When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple standing by whom He loved, He saith unto His mother, Woman, behold, thy son!
Then saith He to the disciple, Behold, thy mother! And from that hour the disciple took her unto his own home.
Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following; who also leaned back on His breast at the supper, and said, Lord, who is he that betrayeth Thee?
Peter therefore seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do?
Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou Me.
This saying therefore went forth among the brethren, that that disciple should not die: yet Jesus said not unto him, that he should not die; but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?
This is the disciple that beareth witness of these things, and wrote these things: and we know that his witness is true.
And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that should be written.
We have mentioned several times in the past that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is only one. There is only one Gospel: the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Yet this Gospel is presented to us by four evangelists.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is so rich and full that it takes four evangelists to present that Gospel to us. In each of these four Gospels, we find a different emphasis.
In the Gospel according to Matthew, we find, out of Matthew’s own experience, Christ as the King and His call for us to obey Him, that we may be in His kingdom.
In the Gospel according to Mark, Mark, as a young man being trained to be a servant of the Lord, sees our Lord Jesus as the Servant of God—the perfect Servant, Who came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.
In the Gospel according to Luke, Luke, being a physician, is always interested in man. There he discovers the Man of men, our Lord Jesus Christ—the Son of Man.
And finally, we find the Gospel according to John.
Now, dear brothers and sisters, in order to have a better understanding of the Gospel written by each of these evangelists, it helps us if we know something of what happened in their lives. They are not simply presenting Christ to us as an objective history; they are presenting Christ to us as a subjective experience.
Out of their own experience of the Lord Jesus Christ, they share with us the Christ whom they know. Because of that, we would like to spend some time going through the life of the evangelist John. That will probably occupy our evening tonight.
Our purpose is not that we may know John. Our purpose is that we may know the Lord. But John, as a channel, will help us to know better the Lord whom he knew so well.
Of course, we all know that the Gospel according to John was written by John, the brother of James, although he never mentioned that in his writing. He was so humble. He always tried to hide himself. He never said, “This is the Gospel that I write.” He simply mentioned “the disciple whom Jesus loved.”
But we all know that this was John, the youngest of the twelve apostles. We do not know too much about his background. All we know is that he and James were brothers, and their father was called Zebedee.
Their mother was most likely Salome, the sister of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Therefore, according to the flesh, John and James were cousins of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Evidently, Zebedee was a well-to-do person, even though he was a fisherman. Brothers and sisters, do not think that fishermen must be very poor. Zebedee had hired servants. He not only fished with his two sons, but he had hired servants to help him. A fisherman who could afford to hire people must have had quite a large business.
We also know that Salome was one of the sisters who supplied our Lord Jesus and His disciples with material things. You have to have something in order to minister to the Lord and to His disciples.
Moreover, they seem to have had a house in Jerusalem. To maintain a house in Jerusalem, when it was not their native town, was no small thing. It would be like people living in Richmond and maintaining another house in Washington, D.C. It costs something to do that.
Even though James and John had never been to the schools of the rabbis and had not been trained as rabbis, they seemed to know the high-priestly family very well. When our Lord Jesus was taken to the house of the high priest, John was able to go right in because he knew the high priest. He was even able to bring Peter in.
Evidently, this family was well connected with the high-priestly family. Yet it also seems to us that they must have been a very devout family—very pious Jews. Many Jews at that time embraced Judaism as a religion, but few among them were really serious. Zebedee, his wife, and his two sons seem to have been serious in the things of God.
The first time we meet John, we find him as one of the two disciples with John the Baptist. John the Baptist came as the forerunner of Christ, preaching repentance. Those who responded to God came to him and were baptized. Among them was John, the brother of James, the son of Zebedee.
John was such a person that once he took a step, he was very thorough. He was never a person who would enter into anything halfheartedly. He was of such a temperament that he was in for all. There was no in-between with him.
After John received the baptism of John the Baptist, he became a true disciple of John the Baptist. He stayed with him. Many people received the baptism of John the Baptist and then went home, but not John. He stayed with him, and because he stayed with him, something happened.
In John 1, he did not mention his own name. He only mentioned his companion, Andrew. But we all know that the other disciple was John.
One day John the Baptist testified, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” He pointed to the Lord Jesus and said:
Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world.
The next day, when John the Baptist and his two disciples were standing there, Jesus passed by. John the Baptist said a second time, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” When he said that, his two disciples went after Jesus.
Jesus turned and said, “What seek ye?” Notice their unusual answer. When the Lord asked, “What are you seeking?” they answered, “Where do You live?”
We may say that the answer was so different from the question, but, dear brothers and sisters, this was the best answer to that question. The Lord said, “What do you want?” They said, “Where do You live?” The Lord said, “Come and see.”
They went with the Lord. They saw where He lived, and they abode with Him that day and through that night. Because they abode with the Lord that day and that night, something tremendous happened. The next day Andrew went to find his brother Peter and said, “We have found the Messiah.” Certainly John went to his brother James as well.
This was John’s first encounter with our Lord Jesus. When he met the Lord Jesus, he was already prepared so far as his heart and spiritual condition were concerned. He was a ready vessel for the Lord. He did not know that, but the Lord knew.
Dear brothers and sisters, do you know that you were chosen before the foundation of the world? Do you know that before you were born, you were known? Until the time you met the Lord for the first time, the Lord knew all along about you.
Nothing was lost. Even before you knew the Lord, the Lord knew you, and everything that came into your life was arranged by Him. He was preparing you for the day. Nothing was lost. If we can see this, it will really strengthen our faith.
Here was John, a prepared vessel, and the Lord passed by. Sometimes we think that John was seeking the Lord before the Lord called him. It seems as if John was seeking the Lord instead of the Lord seeking John. But actually, it was not that.
That morning John the Baptist and the two disciples were standing there, and they saw Jesus walk by. Was it by accident, or did our Lord pass by purposely? Our Lord must have known that John the Baptist and the two disciples were there, and that the two disciples were ready for Him.
He did not say a word. He did not need to. He simply walked by and showed Himself to them. Then He let John the Baptist point them to Him.
John the Baptist said, “This is the Lamb of God.” In other words, he was driving his disciples away from himself and saying, “You go away from me and follow the Lamb of God.”
John the Baptist did not draw people to himself; he pointed people to the Lord. So far as his ministry was concerned, he was very successful in the beginning. But he was not out for success; he was out to point people to Christ.
Unfortunately, many of John’s disciples continued to follow John and did not follow Jesus. They thought that they were doing John a service, but they were actually doing him a disservice.
Dear brothers and sisters, how we need to be delivered from all men, from any instrument of God, to follow the Lord. The Lord may use certain instruments to help us along, but it is the pleasure and delight of God’s servants to drive you away from themselves that they may drive you to the Lord.
If anyone would keep you to himself, something is wrong. John the Baptist literally drove his two best disciples away, and they understood.
When the Lord said, “What seek ye?” their answer was, “Where do You live?” There is no better answer than this. Many people follow the Lord for bread. The Jews crossed the sea to find the Lord because He had fed the multitude with five loaves and two fishes. But the Lord said that they should not labor for the bread that perishes, but for the bread that comes from heaven.
Others follow the Lord because they see wonders and miracles. But John followed the Lord not for physical gain, nor even for miracles and wonders. He followed the Lord because he wanted the Lord.
“Where do You live? I do not care about bread. I do not care about miracles. I want You. Where do You live? I want to live with You.”
Brothers and sisters, can you find a better answer? Whom are you really seeking? Why do you follow the Lord? Is it because you want the Lord? It is the Person of the Lord—not merely what He does, but what He is.
That was John. If you read the Gospel according to John, you will find that this is very true. He wanted the Lord. He wanted fellowship with the Lord. He wanted to know the Lord. He wanted to abide with the Lord and for the Lord to abide with him. He wanted to be one with the Lord. Wherever the Lord was, there he would be.
Because his heart was completely occupied with the Lord, he got the Lord. The Lord revealed Himself to John. The next day he could go out, like Andrew, and say, “We have found the Messiah.”
John was with the Lord from the very beginning. The other three Gospels begin their record of the Lord’s ministry in Galilee, but John alone records the Lord’s earlier ministry in Judea and Jerusalem. He was present when the Lord cleansed the temple, at the wedding in Cana, and when the Lord spoke with the Samaritan woman.
Yet, even though John followed the Lord for a time, there was not yet a clear-cut following. He was with the Lord much of the time, but when the Lord called the disciples in Galilee, John was back home mending nets. It was on and off.
I wonder how many of us have had that kind of experience. After our first encounter with the Lord, automatically we begin to follow Him. But for many of us, it is an on-and-off business. We follow the Lord for a while, then disappear for a while, and then again seem to be following Him.
There is not yet a clear understanding of the Lord’s call to discipleship. To believe in the Lord Jesus is one thing; to hear the call of discipleship is another thing.
Anyone who believes in the Lord Jesus is, in some measure, a disciple. But it may be an on-and-off business. Discipleship is there, but somehow we are not clear or certain about it. One day we need to hear a call from the Lord: the call of discipleship.
The Lord does not want us to be believers only. We must be believers, yes, but we must also be disciples. We must not only believe in Him; we must follow Him, be His apprentices, and learn of Him.
The call came to John while he was mending nets. The Lord said, “Come, follow Me.” That was all. But the call was so strong that John left everything and followed the Lord.
Dear brothers and sisters, this is the call of discipleship. Sooner or later, every one of us who has trusted in the Lord will hear that call. As a matter of fact, the sooner it comes, the better. The call should come when you are saved; these should come together.
But in the experience of many people, there seems to be a gap. You believe in the Lord Jesus, receive Him, have Him, and like to be with Him. In many respects you like to follow Him, but still you are holding back something.
You have not yet come to the place where you have heard the call in such strength that you forsake everything and follow Him. That call will come. And when it comes, there is only one answer: forsake all and follow Him.
That may not mean physical leaving. John physically left the ship, the nets, his father, and the hired servants. But there is something more basic than the physical, and that is spiritual.
What is the call of discipleship? “Come, follow Me.” How can we come? How can we follow Him? We must leave all and follow Him. If we hold back anything, we are not able to come; we are not able to follow Him. The call of discipleship is absolute.
One day the Lord may come to you and say, “Come and follow Me.” Then you may discover many things that you are holding on to. You want to follow the Lord, and yet you will not let go of these things.
It may happen physically, or it may be an attitude in your heart. Do you respond and say, “Lord, I leave everything and follow You”? This is the only way to follow the Lord.
Anyone who has not come to this place is half-and-half and is not able to follow the Lord to the very end. It is something that we have to decide in the early days of our Christian life.
Why do many Christians seem to have a good beginning but do not continue? Why do many seem to begin well but do not grow as they should? The reason is that the call of discipleship has not become a clear issue in their lives.
Is the call of discipleship a clear issue in your life? It may not mean that you have to leave your home or your school. Probably the contrary: God may want you to stay in your school and study, or to stay in your home. But there must be a clear-cut issue in your heart: the Lord, and nobody else.
To be a disciple of the Lord is not an easy thing. Sometimes we present Christianity in such a rosy picture that people expect, when they come to the Lord, that the Lord will just lift them up and put them in the third heaven. Then they discover that it is not so, and it becomes a shock to them.
To be a disciple of the Lord is the most difficult thing in this whole world. It was not easy.
The Lord called John and James, and He gave them the name Boanerges, which means “sons of thunder.” We often think of John as such a person of love—so gentle and so meek. Artists often portray him almost like a woman. But the Lord called him a son of thunder. There is nothing feminine about thunder.
In the Bible, when the Lord gives a new name, He seems to be looking forward to what He will do in that life. Simon was called Peter because he was to become a living stone, a material for the building of God’s house.
In John’s case, perhaps it was both his natural temperament and what the Lord would do with him. John was a very intense person—meditative, introspective, reserved, and absolute. But when a person who is reserved and intense is disturbed, it can come out like thunder.
By the way, all our temperaments are different. God loves variety. Look at our faces: two eyebrows, two eyes, one nose, one mouth, and two ears. Yet God uses these few things to create such variety that no two faces are exactly alike—not even twins.
Variety brings fullness; otherwise, it would be monotonous. If God makes our physical condition in such a way, certainly in the matter of temperament He makes us all different. Some are naturally extroverts; others are introverts. Some are cautious; others are aggressive. Some are quick; others are slow.
Temperament is neutral. To be an extrovert is no better; to be an introvert is no shame. To be quick or slow, aggressive or reserved, is morally neutral. It is simply the way God has made us.
It seems to me that our natural temperament never changes. I hope that is not a shock to you. You may hope that if you are very quick, you will become very slow. But look at Peter—he never changed.
Transformation does not mean that your natural temperament is changed. This was created by God, just like your face. What changes is the life that controls your temperament.
Formerly, it was the self-life using your temperament, so your temperament manifested yourself. That is ugly, whether you are quick or slow, extroverted or introverted, aggressive or reserved.
But transformation comes when the life of Christ takes hold of your temperament. Dear brothers and sisters, even your slowness becomes a beauty under His control. It is purified, channeled, regulated, and brought under His control. Your temperament is now under new management.
John, by nature, had the temperament of a son of thunder. You do not hear thunder every day, but when you hear it, it is loud. With John, there was nothing in between—either this or that.
He became a disciple of John the Baptist and was one hundred percent John the Baptist’s disciple. Then he left John the Baptist completely behind and became one hundred percent a disciple of the Lord. If you read all his writings—the Gospel, the first, second, and third epistles, and Revelation—you find that he was absolute. There was no compromise of any kind.
When this intense life was under his own control, he made quite a bit of trouble. Let us hear the thunder roll.
One day the disciples were arguing among themselves about who was the greatest. John did not draw back. He was involved in the argument. Afterward, John came to the Lord and said, “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and I forbade him because he did not follow with us.”
The Lord said, “He that is not against you is for you.” John saw a man casting out demons in the name of the Lord, and evidently the demons were cast out. But John was not happy because that man did not follow with them.
John and the disciples were the chosen, orthodox, regular ones. Here was someone irregular. John thought, “If you want to follow the Lord, you have to be with us, because we are regular.” In one sense, he was right, but he became exclusive and narrow-minded.
An intense person tends to be narrow because he is so intense. But the Lord enlarged John’s heart. Among believers, he who is not against you is for you. The Lord is great. He is able to bless even where something may seem a little irregular.
Do not be narrow or exclusive in your heart. Learn to embrace all God’s people. This was not natural with John. John was a person who could love only one—perhaps two, but probably only one. Yet the Lord enlarged his heart to embrace all who belonged to the Lord.
Later John insisted again and again, “Love one another.” He learned his lesson.
Then the Lord was going toward Jerusalem. Contrary to the custom of the Jews, He traveled through Samaria. The Jews usually avoided Samaria because they had nothing to do with the Samaritans. But the Lord went directly through Samaria from Galilee to Jerusalem.
The Samaritans did not receive Him because His face was toward Jerusalem. When John and James saw this, they were angry for the Lord. They said, “Lord, wilt Thou that we bid fire to come down from heaven, as Elijah did?”
They believed that if the Lord permitted them, they could call fire down from heaven. They had no doubt about it. They simply wanted to check with the Lord.
They were zealous for the Lord—not for themselves, but for the Lord. Yet the Lord said, “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.”
The Lord had set His face toward Jerusalem because He was the Lamb Who was to be slaughtered there as the sacrifice for the sin of the world. The spirit within Him at that time was the spirit of the Lamb: meek, humble, harmless, sacrificial, giving Himself for the sin of the world.
But James and John exhibited a spirit foreign to the Lord’s spirit at that moment. Their spirit was one of anger, revenge, and vengeance—a hard and harsh spirit, contrary to the spirit of the Lamb.
That was the second time we hear the thunder roll. But the Lord checked it and changed it.
The third time was the question of position. The disciples believed that the Lord was going to Jerusalem to become King. They had been maneuvering among themselves for a long time, and now John and James invited their mother to come and ask the Lord that one might sit at His right hand and the other at His left hand in His kingdom.
The Lord said, “Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?” They said, “We are able.” The Lord said that they would indeed drink His cup, but to sit on His right hand and His left was for the Father to give.
These two brothers were very ambitious. Is it wrong to be ambitious? Especially for young people, this can become a problem. A young brother or sister comes to the Lord, and people say, “Well, you believe in the Lord Jesus. Now you are finished. You have no more ambition.” Is that true? Yes and no.
Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5 that he was ambitious. The original word means ambitious. What was his ambition? To please the Lord, whether in life or in death.
The Lord did not blame John and James for their ambition. He put before them the question: “Are you ambitious merely for yourselves, that you may occupy a high position in the kingdom, or are you ambitious to please Me?”
Brothers and sisters, we should be ambitious—more ambitious than the people of this world. The people of this world are ambitious for wealth, position, power, and this and that. These things are too small for us. We should be ambitious to please the Lord.
That is the best ambition a person can ever have. There is nothing wrong with ambition. What is wrong is whether it is selfish or whether it is for the Lord.
If you have an ambition, remember there is a price to pay. The Lord said that if you really want to sit on His right and His left, you must drink the cup that He drinks and be baptized with the baptism with which He is baptized.
In other words, do the will of God. Deny yourself. Take up your cross and follow Him. You do not need to look to the right or the left. You need only take up your cross and follow Him. The Father knows what to do.
Again I say, to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus is not an easy thing. Discipleship demands your life. Discipleship demands the death of the self. Discipleship demands that you be put under the cross.
Discipleship displaces your life with the life of Christ. Are you today in the school of Christ? Are you today learning Christ in this way?
Your natural things, your selfish ambition, and your self-centered will—all these things must go. Christ must come and fill your life. This is transformation. This is to be conformed to His image.
The personality of Christ is to be manifested through your temperament. It is still your temperament, your shape, your form, but Christ is able to be expressed through you.
John, in the school of Christ, seems to have graduated first. How do we know?
At the Last Supper, when the Lord said that one among them would betray Him, the disciples asked, “Is it I?” Peter made a sign to John, who was sitting near the Lord Jesus. John leaned upon the breast of the Lord and asked, “Who is he?”
Among all the disciples, John seemed to be the closest to the Lord. Of the twelve, Peter, James, and John were especially close, for the Lord took these three to the Mount of Transfiguration and to the Garden of Gethsemane.
This was not because the Lord was unfair or partial. These three seemed to have a purer desire for the Lord. They drew nearer to Him, and therefore the Lord drew nearer to them. The Lord loves every one of us the same, but some seem closer because of our attitude, not because of His attitude.
Of the three, John was closest to the Lord. He leaned upon the breast of the Lord. In other words, he knew the love of Christ.
When the Lord was taken in the garden, all the disciples fled for their lives. As Scripture says, when the Shepherd was smitten, the sheep were scattered. John fled too, but he was the first to return. When the Lord was taken to the house of the high priest, John was there. Peter came behind him.
Among the disciples, who was beneath the cross where the Lord was crucified? Only John was there, apart from a few women. John was the only disciple at the foot of the cross.
At that critical moment, John ministered to the Lord. The Lord saw His mother and saw the disciple whom He loved. He said, “Woman, behold, thy son.” Then He said to John, “Behold, thy mother.” The Lord entrusted His earthly mother to John.
How John must have ministered to the Lord. The Lord was God, but He was also a perfect Man. As a perfect Man, when He was dying and His mother was left there, think how He felt. John ministered to Him in that need.
John not only took the mother of Jesus into his home; he also seems to have cared for Peter after Peter denied the Lord three times. Peter went out and wept. He was lost and ashamed. He did not want to see anyone.
Yet on the day of resurrection Peter was with John, apparently in John’s house. It must be that John went out, found Peter, and brought him to his home. What a ministry that was.
John may not have been able to convince Peter of anything, for Peter was such a strong person. But John stayed with Peter, and Peter stayed with him. When Mary Magdalene came and said that the Lord’s body was gone, they both stood up and ran.
John outran Peter, being younger, and arrived first at the tomb. Yet he did not go in. He waited for Peter. Peter rushed in first, and then John followed. John wanted Peter to be fully restored. He was willing to step aside and give Peter the first opportunity.
Later, by the Sea of Galilee, John was the first to recognize the Lord. He said to Peter, “It is the Lord.” Yet John did not jump into the sea to reach the Lord first. He told Peter, and Peter did it. John knew what Peter needed.
We often see Peter, but we do not appreciate John enough. Peter was a natural leader, and God greatly used him. But without John, Peter might have been finished.
John never tried to push himself. He was always hiding himself. When he wrote the Gospel according to John, he did not even tell us who wrote the book. He simply called himself “the disciple whom Jesus loved.”
John’s ministry was a ministry of support. It was not primarily a ministry of leadership, as we might say today, but a ministry of supporting others. He was quite willing to play the second fiddle.
How often people who play the second fiddle feel inferior and become self-conscious, striving to be the leader. But John knew his place. He knew his ministry. His ministry was always one of supporting.
John’s ministry was also a ministry of recovery. He recovered what had been lost. In a sense, God used him to restore Peter. He wrote the Gospel according to John for the restoration of truth at a time when heresies and Gnosticism were spreading.
He was always mending the nets. When something was broken, patiently he mended it. It was a labor of love.
Tradition tells us that John was the last of the twelve apostles to die. In his old age, he labored in Ephesus and that area, where Paul had labored much in earlier days.
It is said that when John was well into his nineties, he could hardly walk. People would bring him into the meeting, and the brethren would wait as he came in leaning upon others. They would seat him in a chair, and all he would say was:
Brethren, love one another.
If you love one another, that is the commandment.
Dear brothers and sisters, here was a man who was naturally a thunder. But God transformed him, used his natural temperament, and made him a thunder of God.
In all his writings there is nothing in between; it is all absolute. He always leads us back to the ultimate. We hear the voice of God like thunder in the writings of this man.
If God can do this work in John and make him the apostle of love, there is nothing God cannot do with any of us. Thank God. He gives us encouragement.
Our Heavenly Father, how we praise and thank Thee. Thou art able to take hold of a life and transform it, with the same temperament, and yet bring glory unto Thyself.
O Lord, we do praise and thank Thee for this disciple, this apostle of love, this thunder of God—so clear, so majestic, so ultimate, so absolute.
Lord, we pray that our lives may also be touched and fashioned, and may be used in whatever way Thou dost desire to use us. Thou art the Potter; we are the clay. Lord, mould us, make us, fashion us according to Thy will.
Lord, may we decrease, but may Thou Thyself increase in all of us. All we want is to exalt Thee. We want to see Thee. We want to express Thee. We want to glorify Thee.
To Thee be all the praise, and the honor, and glory, forever and ever. Amen.