Preparation for 1 John series

This winter I'm delighted to have the opportunity to preach through 1 John. Later on in the year I'll be preaching on Revelation. Both of these books were originally written by the Apostle John. John has a beautiful range of writing, and God used him to communicate through a wide variety of ways. While Revelation is a record of visions John saw, and the gospel of John is a record of the events that John witnessed, 1 John is a letter written by John to fellow believers of Christ. 

One of the unique aspects of John as a person is the period of time over which we see his faith lived out. While some New Testament writers only contributed a single letter to the New Testament, like James, Jude, Matthew, and Mark, John contributed multiple writings over multiple decades. While the Apostle Paul was used by God to write the greatest number of New Testament letters, John was used by God to write over the longest period of time. 

Throughout church history the Apostle John is believed to have written:

The Gospel of John

1 John

2 John

3 John

Revelation

John lived through the events he witnessed in the Gospel of John (John references this very emphatically in 1 John 1: "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life."). As a young man John and his brother James both followed Jesus (Mark 1:19-20). As a middle-aged man John witnessed the rapid spread of the Gospel to various regions surrounding the Mediterranean. As an older man, John was tasked with sharing the overwhelming good news of Christ Jesus' ultimate triumph leading to the day of days. Whether he was walking with Jesus along some road in first century Israel, or he was prophetically writing to Christians who never had never seen Jesus, John was dedicated to following Christ. 

The faith of John was not a "phase". It was not a "fling". John's following of Jesus was something he began as a young man and continued many decades till his death. This should be an encouragement to those of us who are Christians at every stage of life. For John, following Christ was something that mattered when he was a young man, middle aged, and in his twilight years. John had no radical conversion story like the Apostle Paul. John's life was marked by a faith which was informed by what he had experienced. 

The more Christians I get to meet, the more similarities I see to John's faith. From time to time, I meet someone who has experienced a dramatic life changing event wherein the Lord Jesus became someone who matters when previously he was someone to ignore. This "dramatic" change is the exception though, not the norm. Most of us who are believers are closer to John than we are to Paul in our experience. John came from a family of workers. He would have been "blue collar". While Paul was trained in the most scholarly Jewish theology schools of the day (Galatians 1:16-24), John was just a dude learning the family business (Matthew 4:21-22). 

John's testimony and life is certainly an encouragement to me. I've had no miraculous vision, no stunning miracle, no supernatural experience wherein I heard, saw, or touched something divine. And yet, being just a dude from Michigan, I'm qualified to follow Jesus. I'm not qualified because of who I am, or what I've done. I'm qualified to follow the Lord because of who Jesus is and what he's done. John wasn't qualified to become a follower of Jesus because of his own goodness, educational background, or past accomplishments. John was qualified to follow Jesus in that Christ called him to follow. That's true for the vast majority of us. 

Sometimes we Christians do get hung up what seems to our human eyes to be more dramatic. John's life of faith calls us away from all that we would say is religious, dramatic, and dogmatic. John's life testifies to something beyond the human concepts of religion, tradition, and ordinances. John's life testifies to the Divine Truth, to God Incarnate, to the maker of all creation taking on Body and Blood. John's gospel, his letters to churches, and prophecy all point to the most dramatic reality: Christ's life, death, resurrection, ascension, reign, and return.