John The Twelve Apostles Sermon Series Part 5 of 14

Hello and welcome to Social Media Ministries, my name is Spencer Coffman. Thank you for being with us. This week we are on week number 5 of a 14-week sermon series about the 12 apostles. These are the most well-known or known-about Christians pretty much throughout the world. Unfortunately, only about 5% of the world’s population can even name half of them. We have already gone through a few of them. We went through Simon Peter, Andrew, and James. Hopefully, you remember a little bit about them.

If not, feel free to check out a playlist here, it is on our YouTube channel and also on our website that you can go back and re-watch them. You can share that playlist on your social media networks, with your friends, your family and if you have not seen them yet, then you can go back and get caught up. Then stay with us through the next several weeks.

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Hopefully, by the time you are done watching, you will understand a lot more about who John was. That is who we are talking about today, the apostle John. Who was he? Well, John was the brother of James. We talked about James last week, a great guy. John and James were both brothers biologically. In addition, they were the sons of Zebedee. Let’s go to Matthew chapter 4 verse 21.

I am warning you again, this is going to be a heavy scripture message. We got all kinds of scripture verses about John and who he was so bear with me as I turn through the pages and try to get to them all because my markers there are too many too close together to have them in there and know what is going on.

Maybe someday I will get an iPad or something that I can just punch it in real quick, but this will give you some time to dig out your Bible to look up those verses so you can follow along. Do not worry if you cannot do that, if you are driving or something, all of these verses, the references will be in the description below so you can come back at a later time and look them up and read them for yourselves.

But right now we are going to Matthew 4:21, this is talking about Jesus, ‘Going on from there he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee.’ In case there was any question who their father was, we know their father Zebedee. ‘They were preparing their nets. Jesus called them.’

So we have James and his brother John, both sons of Zebedee. Now John, he is a disciple who was a very devout follower of Jesus Christ, very devout follower. He was all in. Going forward he was mentioned throughout the New Testament about 20 times in about 19 different verses, 21 times, 19 verses, something like that.

In addition, he was also known as the disciple whom Jesus loved or the beloved disciple. Usually, this is only referenced in his book, The Book of John where he writes about himself in that manner and that is probably about five times we see that throughout The Book of John. Depending on your translation of course things could be different and how it is worded.

But we are gonna go to John 21:20 to see an example of that. John 21:20 says, ‘Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and said, Lord, who is it that is going to betray you.’ So we have a kind of a second clue there on who this was, on who was the one that leaned back and said that to Jesus, well that was John. You can look that up and read those verses.

The disciple whom Jesus loved or the beloved disciple is known as John. John was also a member of the inner circle. We talked a little bit about the inner circle before in the previous messages, because we have already spoken about Peter who was a member of the inner circle and then about James who is a member of the inner circle. That is John’s brother. Now we are talking about John.

He is also a member of the inner circle of Christ. Andrew was mentioned. Andrew was Peter’s brother and because these four were brothers, it stands fair to reason that Andrew probably knew a lot about that inner circle and about the information that was discussed there even though most of the time Jesus only took the three, Peter, James, and John with Him when He went up the mountain to pray.

But this inner circle is important because these are the disciples that would ask Jesus, explain the parable to us or what did you mean when you said this and Jesus gave them a straightforward answer that they could easily understand, it was not in riddles or parables or anything like that. They asked for the knowledge and Jesus gave it to them.

John also wrote several books in the New Testament. Obviously, The Book of John which we read. He also wrote the three other books, 1 John, 2 John, and 3 John. Those are shorter books. Some people call them letters or epistles. He wrote them and then he also wrote one of the most well-known books in the Bible, which is The Book of Revelation. This is when he was later in his life, he received visions and then wrote The Book of Revelation which we know as visions of the end times and really of the whole history of the world all in one book.

John was very ambitious, he was one of the disciples that asked Jesus for a seat next to him. We see that in Mark chapter 10 verses 35 to 41. Let’s go there, Mark 10:35-41. ‘Then James and John the sons of Zebedee.’ So we talked about this a little bit last week when we spoke about James, John’s brother. ‘James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him and said, teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask.’

That is pretty bold, this is very bold, this is pretty ambitious. It is pretty high, it is a bold statement. ‘Jesus says, what do you want me to do for you? They replied, let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory. You do not know what you are asking, Jesus said. Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with? We can, they answered.’

‘Jesus said to them, you will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with. But to sit at my right or my left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared. When the other disciples heard about this, they became indignant with James and John.’

Bold, they were bold to ask this of Jesus. Now we can learn a lesson from this. Number one is we can be bold when we ask Jesus for things. James and John were not rebuked for this. Jesus did not say to them, how dare you ask such a question? Instead, He gave them a good answer, a normal answer. If you are willing to do what I am doing, then it is possible. But it is not for me to decide, it is for my father to decide.

So we can ask God for anything we want, literally for anything we want. There is no ask that is too large, so pray for more, pray for bigger things, ask for bigger things. Do not put a limit on what God can do.

The other lesson that we get from this is more about John and really James too is about their character. They were willing, they were bold, they were courageous, they were unafraid to ask. John was very ambitious. In addition, John had a pretty big temper. He had an explosive temper and an intolerant heart. He did not like to tolerate other people in their nonsense, let’s call it.

He and his brother James most likely came from a very well-to-do family more so than the rest of the disciples. Why do we know this? Well because their father Zebedee had the fishing company and it was pretty successful, so they were obviously somewhat well off, probably better than the other disciples. Maybe not Matthew, because he was a money man, tax collector, so he obviously was in the favor of the government and he had money and everything like that.

But how do we know that John had an explosive temper? Well, he and his brother were known as the Sons of Thunder for a reason. We go to Mark chapter 3 verse 17. Let’s turn there, Mark chapter 3 verse 17 and we will read that for you and you can see a little bit more about these Sons of Thunder. ‘James son of Zebedee and his brother John, to them he gave their name Boanerges which means sons of thunder.’

Now of course, pronunciation could be a little off, but that is okay. Sons of Thunder. Another verse Luke 9:54. Let’s go there, Luke chapter 9 verse 54 says, ‘When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven and destroy them? Jesus turned and rebuked them and they went on to another village.’

So Jesus rebuked their boldness in that instance. Why did He rebuke calling down thunder and lightning from heaven to destroy them or fire from heaven to destroy them and why did not He rebuke them when they asked to sit at his right and his left? Well because one was in anger. Something happened and they said, we will call on fire right now and destroy them and Jesus says, no, leave them be. Let’s go, and they left.

James and John were pretty well off. They had a lot to lose by following Jesus. Zebedee had a great fishing business and many servants and James and John left this to follow Jesus. They left it. They left it all behind to go and follow Jesus. We see this in the first chapter of Mark verse 20, Mark 1:20 says, ‘Without delay, he called them and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.’

They left him, they just left their father in the boat. Now in reality or maybe we do not know if they just said, see ya Dad, we are out of here. Or if the Father was like, are you kidding me, go follow, he is calling you, this is the Messiah, go. They might have been like, no Dad, we cannot. We cannot leave you in the business and the dad might have been like, look I am fine, I have help here, you have to.

It was probably a very good supportive send-off. There probably would not have been a lot of resistance or turmoil there. From what we understand, because Zebedee was a follower of the Law. He was blessed and so he obviously knew the Law and must have recognized that his sons were being called to something greater.

Now over time, John learned to control his temper. Obviously, he was one of the disciples. He lived pretty much with Jesus for about three years and there was significant growth during that time. He learned to control his temper and to follow God’s command and Jesus’ command to love others. It is also rumored that someone tried to assassinate John with a chalice of poison. A chalice being like a wine glass, but made of metal. So a chalice of poison and God saved him from that poison.

Now there is another side of the story that says John was challenged to drink that poison as a show of faith and so then he took the poison and drank it and did not die to prove that God was real or that he was a man of God. Now the question becomes, if that was the case, would John really have put God to the test and willingly chose to go drink that poison without being forced or coerced or something like that? We do not know.

He may have been challenged and it may have been a challenge like that and he might have denied and said, no I am not going to and God could have spoken to him and said, do it, it is okay and then he did it. Or in fact, it could have been intentionally slipped into his drink and he could have unknowingly drank it and then everyone would have been like, why did not he die?

Then maybe it came about, we poisoned you and you did not die. Then he could have said, that is because my faith is so strong in my God who saved me and then they converted and believed. We do not know those specifics, those details. You can research it if you want and you will get both sides of the story.

It is not in the Bible, it is not written in the Bible, it is written in other texts that came from this time period. You can read all about it. You can read all kinds of stuff. The reason it hadn’t been put in the Bible is because it was not canonized, simply due to there was not enough verification of those texts. There was not enough of it that survived to be put there.

In addition, John was the only disciple not to die a violent death. Now this part we come into a little bit of a strange situation because in Mark 10, the verses we recently read. In Mark 10 Jesus says, very well, you will drink the cup that I drink and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with. So it is just strange that John did not die a violent death. We have Mark 10 verse 39, ‘You will drink the cup that I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with.’

What was Jesus talking about? Well, Jesus had to go through a death and a resurrection and through all of that cup that He did not want to drink. He prayed in the Gethsemane prayer, we had a sermon about that. You can check it out on our channel, our website. Jesus was saying, Lord take this cup away from me, but I will drink it if I have to and I am willing, but your will be done. He is saying that James and John, you can drink this cup.

James of course died, execution through the gospel. He was killed and John did not die a violent death. Now maybe this chalice of poison was a true instance. I mean it was probably a true instance. The circumstances we do not know. Maybe John was indeed challenged or sentenced to an execution to drink this poison and literally, he was drinking a cup of death like the cup that Jesus referenced, that he had to drink.

James also went through with his execution. Remember James was the first disciple to be executed and he was beheaded by Herod Agrippa. We saw that in The Book of Acts. So it is very possible John could have been sentenced to an execution as well and to drink poison. We do not know what the poison would have been. You could probably look it up.

Socrates, a famous old philosopher was also sentenced to death, to drink poison. He was sentenced to death to drink the poison hemlock, so maybe John would have been sentenced to drink a similar poison and he had to drink it. He was not putting God to the test, but God chose to save him from that because obviously, he had more to do. His time was not finished yet.

It is very possible because Jesus did say, very well, you will drink the cup that I drink. Meaning that they should both have followed in Jesus’ footsteps right through execution. But of course, we do not know all of that and we do not know, we just do not know. It is a good speculation that this cup of poison could have been John’s death sentence, but God chose to save him from that because he had bigger plans.

What were those bigger plans? Well, John was eventually banished to the island of Patmos. They said you are going to be executed, so maybe he survived the poison and they said, we cannot even kill this guy. What are we going to do? Get him out of here, get him out of here. Send him off to an island. He can live on that island until he dies and so he was banished to the island of Patmos.

There is also an instance in these other texts that describe John as being sentenced to another death. He was going to be dropped into a pot of boiling oil. This was in the Coliseum of Rome. They have who knows, tens of thousands of spectators there witnessing John, who they all probably knew about. He is going to be killed and they have got this roaring fire, this bed of coals, and a big vat of boiling oil.

Now we think of oil as like a motor oil but this was probably like olive oil or some type of lamp oil that they were using. So a very dangerous situation if one spark had gotten in there, the whole thing would have exploded. But John was sentenced to be put in there. Now how did they get him into the pot of burning oil without hurting themselves? We do not know. Maybe they had like a hangman’s noose type of a deal and then they dropped the lever and he fell through the gallow into the pot of bubbling oil.

But it was said that he was dropped into this pot of oil and was fine, no harm came of him. Not even a burn. Nothing. Almost like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace where nothing happened. No singes, not even the smell of smoke was on them after being in the furnace that was seven times hotter than normal. So hot that the people around the furnace that threw them in died instantly.

John survived being dropped into this burning, that is boiling oil, and then it was said that everyone in the coliseum converted to Christianity on the spot. So it is very possible John was indeed drinking the cup that Jesus drank or that was referenced. That hey, he was sentenced to execution, once maybe twice, and both times God spared him because God had bigger plans.

If indeed the whole coliseum converted, that was thousands more followers, and the poison, that probably converted even more people. Then they said, we cannot kill this guy, get him out of here. Send him somewhere, to Patmos.

The island of Patmos is off Italy. Rome of course is in Italy, so it is probably somewhere around that time period when they said, just banish him. Get him out of here and they sent him to that island and that is where he died a peaceful death of old age. While he was on that island is also when he wrote The Book of Revelation.

John learned to put aside his humanistic desires, his short-fused temper and he learned to do it all. Put all that aside with one goal which was to serve the Lord. He developed devout devotion and love for others and a willingness to do and to go wherever Jesus desired him to go. Is that something you can do? You bet it is. You can do this. You can follow just like these disciples, these apostles, and I hope that you do.

Let’s pray. Lord Jesus thank you so much for this time together. I ask that those watching and listening would be inspired by John’s courage, his boldness, by his willingness to put aside his human urges and his temper, and his desires, and the willingness to follow you, Lord. That everyone would be inspired by that and that they would take up that cause in their life and that they would be willing and able and ready and eager to follow you. Even if it means death.

That they will do it and we know Lord that you want us to live for you, even through what John may have thought was death, you had more in store. Lord, I pray that over each and every person watching and listening that you would have more for them, that you would make it revealed to them, that you would make it known to them, and that they would start living the calling that you have in their lives. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Thanks again for being here. This has been a great message. Join us next week. We are going to keep going through these 12 apostles. We are going to talk about Philip next week. I hope that you come back and also share it with others so more people can learn about Philip. Have a great week and God bless.