Understanding the Twelve-John

“21 Going on from there, He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. He called them, 22 and immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him.”

Matthew 4:21-22

Today, we will be discussing the second half of the Sons of Thunder: John. Despite being the younger brother, John is the more well-known brother. We can attribute the Gospel of John, 1, 2, & 3 John, as well as the book of Revelation being written by him. Much like his brother, John was often loud and boisterous, ambitious, and had a great sense of justice. Both John and James asked Jesus if they should call down fire on the Samaritans in Luke 9:51-55. James and John, with their mother, asked Jesus to give them the prominent positions of sitting at His right and left when He would come into His kingdom (Matthew 20:20-24). He is also identified as being at the cross when Jesus was crucified, and he ended up receiving a great honor. “26 When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold your son!” 27 Then He said to the disciple, “Behold your mother!” And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home.” John 19:26-27. Imagine following Christ and becoming so close to Him that He entrusts the woman who birthed and raised Him to you! This verse alone shows much about John’s character.

However, just as with his brother, Jesus used John to help spread the Word of God. It is agreed upon that John wrote the Gospel of John after he wrote the book of Revelation, but we are going to first look at the major themes that John writes about in his gospel. John opens with an absolute statement, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” John 1:1-4. Right from the beginning, we see that John is a very straightforward person; he deals in absolutes, a fact that is carried out throughout his writing. John is immediately calling the reader to recognize that Jesus Christ is God; He was not created, but all things were created through Him.

And yet, John also shows the humanity of Christ. “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us” (John 1:14). He experiences fatigue (John 4:6), weeps at the tomb of Lazarus (John 11:35), and shows compassion to individuals on a personal level(John 8:1-11). In his other writings, John focused on “truth” and “love”. In his second letter, John is worrying about the false teachers that have inflitrated the church. John is urging to not compromise the love of God by bringing in those who undermine the truth.

Finally, John wasn’t just blessed with taking care of Jesus’ mother, but was blessed with seeing events that would take place well beyond his time. While imprisoned on the island of Patmos, John wrote the book of Revelation. John was blessed to be given the blueprint of how the end times will go and to encourage believers to hold fast to Jesus Christ! For many, being imprisoned on this island would have been a horrible experience; it was a place that the most dangerous were sent to be forgotten. However, John made good use of his time there, he befriended some of the most dangerous criminals and eventually lead them to the Lord. John shows us that even when things are sent against us for evil; God will turn it to good. After Roman Emperor Domitian died, his decrees were nullified and John was released from Patmos. From there, he went back to Ephesus and sent out missionaries and planted churches for over twenty years. John truely teaches us to continue to share the gospel so that we may hear “Well done, good and faithful servant”.

Seek the truth and encourage one another,

Alex