Hi James and Ellen,
John is the eyewitness chronicling of an incarnate man’s life and ministry impact that He had while He was on planet Earth and the impact that this man’s death and resurrection has for a mortal guy, gal or kid to live forever in heaven. One of Zebedee’s kids wrote the John Book. Zebedee’s kids’ – who were John and James, vocation was netting fish out of the Sea of Galilee. The city of Nazareth over 1,900 years ago was a relatively new settlement. The city of Nazareth is located about 16 miles west of the Sea of Galilee. Joseph raised his family in the city of Nazareth. Your grandpaa believes that Joseph’s vocation was working as a mason. Joseph’s oldest son – Who was Jesus, was immaculately conceived. Jesus is God’s only Son. Your grandpaa believes that Jesus helped his dad build rock wall enclosures and houses. Jesus – while in His early 30’s, began devoting all of His time to the underpinning of a new belief paradigm that was centered on Him. Because succession is an imperative for an emergent model’s constancy and permanence, Jesus chose twelve guys to coach/mentor to carry on what He was initiating and implementing. Jesus spent going on three years getting these guys up to speed with the Good News message nuances. John and James were two of the first guys who had their worlds rocked by Jesus when Jesus pulled them away from living simple, mundane lives as fishermen to living radical, nomadic lives to become fishers of men. The John Book is named after Zebedee’s kid who wrote the words that are in the book’s twenty-one chapters. John – per tradition is ascribed to be an apostle after Jesus’ death, saw to around 85 A.D. his book’s distribution. Because 85 A.D. is over 50 years after John personally witnessed his beloved coach/mentor inhumanely hung on and nailed to a cross and because what John wrote seems to be to your grandpaa to be more in the moment or fresh in John’s mind, your grandpaa conjectures that if 85 A.D. is the actual year when the John Book began to be circulated among guys and gals in Christ-follower communities that the John Book may actually be John’s memoirs.
Apostle John perceived himself as being unique as he believed that he was Jesus’ most loved disciple among the twelve guys who Jesus chose to disciple. Love became Apostle John’s core mantra. Apostle John’s take on his Hero is that Jesus Christ – as God’s Son, is King. Jesus Christ as King – to Apostle John, had every right to be able to say “I am . . .” the seven various ways and times that Jesus did while He was on planet Earth. As the author of a book that became canonized as the fourth Gospel, Apostle John – because of the exclusive intimacy that he felt from Jesus Christ, is able to give his readers a personal insight into Jesus Christ’s humanity as well as into Jesus Christ’s preeminence. Your grandpaa thinks that John – while he was one of Jesus’ disciples, could not help but personally internalize how the Man who he really respected was maltreated by his own people group – who were the Jews. As disciple John trekked with Jesus around Israel’s Galilee province and then with Jesus to Israel’s Judah province and then back to the Galilean region in an ever-widening public ministry circle, disciple John observed in person Jesus being disgracefully rejected, bitterly resisted and atrociously repulsed by the Pharisees and Sadducees – who were his own Jew people group’s leaders. As disciple John walked place to place for about three years with Jesus during Jesus’ private ministry, disciple John was constantly being face to face coached/mentored by Jesus – such as through Jesus’ nonconformist teachings and discourses on the new covenant commandment that are centered on Him that He issued and illustrated, through how Jesus tenderly taught him and the other disciples, through how Jesus committed him and His other disciples into His Father’s care, through the appalling way that Jesus died so that His death could atone vicariously for the sins of His specially chosen and elected guys, gals and kids and through Jesus’ victorious and glorious triumph over death upon His resurrection from having died. Besides recounting a number of Jesus’ miracles, relating activities that were Jesus specific, reporting in detail Jesus’ final week and even more in detail Jesus’ last 24 hours on planet Earth and remembering the last mandate that Jesus gave him and to the other disciples who were present, Apostle John also reflected on the life and death of John the Baptist and he recounted what Jesus said regarding the explicit role that God – as God the Spirit, would have after Jesus’ departure from planet Earth.
Apostle John to your grandpaa had the ability to accept disquieting life lessons, put behind him disconcerting issues or crises and to be a dynamic forward feeler. Love was Apostle John’s life driver which enforced what he did and said. Apostle John also to your grandpaa exemplifies a true servant leader. Even though Apostle John is never found in a proactive leadership role, your grandpaa thinks that there has to be a consensus that Apostle John was very influential in helping to get emergent Christ-follower communities’ guys, gals and kids fortified in accepting without reservation Jesus Christ as being their Lord and Savior. Your grandmaa and grandpaa are still being blessed with opportunities to interact with courageous young guys and gals who are willing to leave the amenities that are found everywhere in the Unites States and to go wherever to hang out in the most humble of settings. Your grandpaa just wishes that these guys and gals would first solidly ground themselves in books such as the John Book before . . .
John