Good day to all. Welcome to the “front porch.”
It is impossible to come to the writings of the blessed apostle John without feeling a deep sense of spirituality welling up in us. Of all of the apostles, John likely walked with the Lord longer than any, both in his physical walk with Jesus as well as his spiritual walk in the years after the Lord’s ascension.
John not only walks with Jesus, but he stands beside Him when no other apostle can find the courage to stay close to their Master. When I pondered these thoughts as we entered into a renewed study in John’s epistles, I could not help but remember that scene where John stands beside the Lord at his last hour. I had forgotten which of the gospel evangelists record this majestic moment; and, when I checked, I was not surprised at all that it was John himself. Listen again to John’s description of this poignant scene from the shadow of the cross:
“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 that disciple took her unto his own home” (John 19:26-27).
What a beautiful moment in John’s life! What a reward, too, for having the courage to make his way to Calvary! We cannot help but love John’s reference to himself in that scene, speaking of the disciple whom Jesus loved. In his writings, John calls himself by name occasionally but he much prefers using a third-person epitaph: “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” as he uses here; or “the elder” in the opening verses of 2 and 3 John.
The aura in John’s writings leaves no doubt as to the author in all five of his books and letters. It is an aura that is a result of John’s journey. It all begins with his meeting Jesus in John 1 and continues all the way to Calvary, earning him the title by which we know him best, the “disciple whom Jesus loved.”
We will see him once more – according to his own gospel – as one of the Lord’s topics of conversation after Jesus’ resurrection and just prior to his ascension (John 21:20-25). But we know that even that earthly scene is not our last acquaintance with John, for we see him and feel his deep spirit of love in the three epistles and, then, in the closing book of Revelation.
By the time John writes these epistles and Revelation, He is truly an “elder,” his age probably only a few years shy of a hundred years. He has walked with the Lord now for over half a century. He has preached his gospel land to land – from Judea to Asia Minor, and perhaps even into Europe. With such a physical and spiritual relationship with the Lord for so long, it is no wonder that one of John’s favorite themes is that of fellowship, for he enjoys as sweet of an association with the Lord as any disciple who ever lived.
He opens the benediction of the first epistle declaring the profound fellowship he and many others enjoyed with the Lord Jesus. How blessed he feels! Many years before he had heard Him with eagerness, he saw Him daily, He “gazed” upon Him intently, and He even handled Him (1 John 1:1), perhaps referring to the occasion when Jesus tells the disciples to handle him so they will know that He is real (Luke 24:39).
What more, friends, could we ask of a gospel writer than such a man, one who has handled the Lord physically, one who has stood beside Him in the darkest hour, one who has walked with Him for half a century, and, especially, one “whom Jesus loved.”
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