John: After the Storm
SUMMARY
Karl Ihfe explores the remarkable transformation of the apostle John — from a brash, ambitious, hot-tempered "son of thunder" to the beloved apostle of love. Through his relationship with Jesus, John's fiery personality wasn't erased but redirected, surrendered, and refined for the kingdom. Karl challenges us to ask not what our personality is like, but what part of ourselves still needs to be surrendered to Christ.
TRANSCRIPTION:
Well, if you have your Bible with you this morning, invite you to turn over to the Gospel of John. We'll be planted there. Today we're in a series, in fact, week three of our series called behind the Ministry. We've been thinking some about the story and the lives of those first 12 that were called to follow Jesus and reflecting on what we learned from them, how we see God at work in their lives. We began with Judas and thinking some about the power of how we can be really close to Jesus but never surrender to him, to never give our lives fully to him.
And those aren't the kind of people, the disciples that we want to be. Last week we looked at maybe one of the more familiar of the 12, and that was Peter. And thinking about Peter's life and the own testimony as you read his Epistles at the end of our New Testament, where he recognized that his life was a testimony to grace, not to his own greatness. Even though he was a man who had many gifts and talents. We saw how the work of Christ was at work in the life and him.
Today we're going to look at another story. I think maybe it's the most, at least for me, is one of the strongest pictures of transformation. What can happen in the life of a follower of Jesus and see in the life of John that he doesn't erase the personality that John has. Instead he transforms it and he transforms you into the person that you were created to be. One of the reasons I think people enjoy documentaries or series, kind of like behind the Music, the original one that was done about bands was we don't often get to see the hard work that goes into a song.
We just see the music video or we hear the album or we get to go see them in concert. We don't always get to see about the failures and the years of struggling and strife and so getting a time to sit back and look behind the scenes, to hear and think and wonder together about the story of these people. That's part of what I love about Scripture. It's a behind the scenes story of people who are really trying to be God's people, who are trying to follow Jesus in real time and in real life. But what's unique with the Bible is they don't hold anything back.
The writers of the gospels, especially these 12, as we get to hear their stories, the flaws and the problems are not hidden. We read stories about real people in real places and they had some real problems. If you've not read Paul's letters to the early churches I invite you to do so again this week. There were some crazy things happening going on, real problems that the church was facing. There were alcoholics and sexual immorality was pretty rampant in many of those churches in that day, in many of those cultures, but not only those, there were folks who were rude, arrogant people who were greedy and self centered.
And yet we see all these stories we hear, we read them and we encounter these folks who in the midst of all of that are trying to find out, so how do we follow Jesus? What does it look like? You know, as a parent myself, I realize I'm going to say this next thing. We tend to kind of say, well, the church I grew up in, you know, it's kind of like they didn't do what they should have done. And I know as a parent there are times when I taught things to my children, only later for them to go, you never said that, that.
And I go, hey, wait a minute, what are you talking about? I totally told you, right? They come home from school and they'd say, hey, the teacher told us this, you know, and Kay. Then I would go, yeah, that's pretty smart, isn't it? The same thing we told you, but somehow connection doesn't always make it.
But it's interesting. I kind of grew up with this concept of following Jesus meant being right. You knew the right answers to the right questions so that when Jesus showed up, now we wouldn't say it this way out loud, but when Jesus showed up, he, he had to let me in because I said the right thing, I knew the right answer. Now I don't remember anybody ever teaching me that. That was just my little brain kind of putting two and two together.
But the challenge was as I grew up in my faith and as I spent more time in scripture, what I realized. It's really hard to reconcile that kind of logic with the actual Bible because in my life, most of the people I read about in the Bible would not have been allowed to be in the Bible. They would have been going to that place that won't be named, right? Most of them. Like for example, in my mind growing up, if you denied or left Jesus hanging in a moment, he needed you.
That's like one way ticket to hell. Okay? In my book, all the apostles did that. All of them, Everyone. And yet they're still in the Bible.
Their stories are still told. In fact, that's why we're in this series is going, how did they become leaders in the church? How did that happen? To ask that question, these were real People with real problems. So I wanted us to spend some time this summer going behind the sermons and behind the miracles and behind the meals that they had around tables and just wonder together to look at the apostles before they became the.
They were just everyday ordinary Joes like you and me. You know, many of us are familiar with John, at least some of his writings, but I think his story, at least for me, is one of the most powerful records of transformation that we have in Scripture. He wrote or recorded some of the most famous scriptures in all the Bible, right? The number one scripture that you see if you're a football fan, every NFL team, somebody's holding up. John 3:16, right?
For God so loved. For God so loved. He also recorded Jesus words in John 13. A new command I give you, right? And that's to Love.
To love. First. John 3:16. This is how we know what love is. Or in chapter four of the same letter, love one another.
Because love is of God. And if there was one word that we could say, all encapsulates John's story, it's love. It's a wonderful word. I would love for that word to be associated with me in my life. But according to the early church Father Jerome, who's a historian of the church, he would tell stories and pass on history.
He tells a story of John as an old man living in Ephesus. And he was so old and so weak that he couldn't walk into church. So they would literally carry him in. And he didn't have the strength to preach a whole sermon. So he just had one line over and over again that he would tell the church.
He would say, my little children love one another. Every week my little children love one one another. And the next week, my little children love one another. And the next week, my little children love one another. And finally, like some of you go, could we.
Could we try something else? John, right? And one of his. One of his church members said, master, why? Why?
The same thing. Why? Over and over. And he said, because it's the Lord's command. And if this alone is done, it is enough.
Love one another. Now that was John, right? So it gets us asking the question, or at least me the question was that always John? Because as our friend Dwight Schrute would say, false. That was not always John.
If you don't know John's story, sit back and listen. Because it turns out he didn't always. He wasn't always Dr. Love, love everybody, right? In fact, Scripture shows, and especially the synoptics give a different picture of who John is. We first meet him like we did Peter last week by the sea, where James, rather John and his brother James work for their father Zebedee.
And they have a pretty important business. We understand they're doing pretty successful work, fishing, we're told in Mark, chapter one, without delay, Jesus, this is talking about Jesus called them and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him. Well, you got to have a little money to have some hired men. They left him behind with the hired men. Why?
Because their business was pretty successful. John's family probably had a little bit of wealth, they probably had a little bit of influence. In fact, we'll come back to that in just a minute. But it turns out John and Peter, who we talked about last time, they were good buddies. When Jesus goes to Peter's house to heal his mother in law, John's there.
When Peter and John were the ones that Jesus asked and tasked with the work of preparing that last supper, that was Peter and John in the early church. The picture in Acts, what we see is Peter and John spend a lot of time together and Peter is often the spokesman for him. But John is always right there, right? John's neck deep in discipleship to Jesus and in leading in the early church. But in the Synoptic Gospels, John's very rarely mentioned, apart from from his brother James.
But a couple of things actually come pretty clear, pretty vivid pictures of the kind of person that John was. But again, it's not super flattering, right? The first thing we learn is he's pretty aggressively ambitious. And In Mark chapter 10, he and his brother James pull alongside Jesus and say, hey, Jesus, when your kingdom comes, you're going to need a couple of dudes that can be dudes. And we're dudes.
Could we be your dudes? Right, Rough translation, okay? And of course, the other disciples find out about it and they're very upset. And so Jesus has to do this whole thing about humility. And that's not how we operate.
And come on, you guys don't even know what you're asking. Well, if you read in Matthew's version of events, what you learn is that it didn't, that the apple didn't fall too far from the tree, can we say, right, Because Matthew records that James and John weren't the only ones to pull Jesus aside. Their mother said, jesus, you're going to need a couple of dudes. And my boys are dudes, you know, we also learn that John has got an aggressive temper. He's got a little bit of a temper, you might say.
In Mark, chapter nine, he comes across some people who are driving out demons in Jesus name. And he says, hey, who are you two bozos? Uh, knock it off, right? And then he goes to Jesus, hey, Jesus, we found a couple of bozos over here casting out demons in your name. And we said, knock it off.
And Jesus goes, woop, woop, woop. If they're not against us, they're for us, right? And John's like, what? That's not how this goes. In Luke chapter nine, they're going through Samaria and they try to stop and get a drink of water, and the Samaritans won't have it.
They're like, keep moving, pal. And they say, hey, Jesus, these people won't share any water. I got an idea. How about we call a little fire from heaven down on these guys? And Jesus is going, nut guys?
No, that. No, no. Right? In Mark, chapter three, we learn that's where James and John get their nickname, the sons of thunder, right? They're dudes, man.
That's like a wrestling crew. James and John, the brothers, the sons of thunder, right? That's John. That's the picture that we get from John. And so according to the synoptic gospels, John's obnoxious, he's loud, he's ambitious, he's aggressive, he's quick tempered, and he's pretty intolerant.
That's John pre Jesus. Well, as we saw last week with Peter, the gospel writers don't hide any of this. It's all out there for you to see if you have not read the beginnings or the gospel, Matthew, Mark and Luke, the synoptics invite you to just read and just notice what we're told. I mean, if you were writing a biography or if someone was writing your biography and they said, give me like your top 10 worst things you've ever done. I want to put that in, right?
I don't think so. No, no, no, no, no. I don't want to go that far behind the music, right? Just enough for them to go, oh, Carl had it so tough, but look how good he is now, right? And that's not what they do in scripture unless.
Unless there's actually a bigger thing happening, right? Like, it would be important to know these guys were terrible. We're like, why would you say, well, there's got to be a reason. There's got to be a reason that we would want to know this. Because it's interesting, actually.
John is noted with writing his Own gospel. What's interesting about John is there's one character that never shows up in John's gospel. You know who it is? John. John doesn't ever show up in his gospel.
He's never there. And we go, well, that's kind of a weird thing. Instead, there's this character that keeps showing up. He shows up, like, seven different times. And it's just a character simply known as the disciple that Jesus loved.
And there's been lots of debate on who is this guy? Because some people go, well, I think it's not really a real person. I think it's kind of the metaphorical. The person that Jesus loves. You are the one that Jesus loves, you know?
And other scholars have said, no, no, no. Remember, he had a really close friend, Lazarus, Mary and Martha's brother Lazarus. That Jesus was so close that when he went to raise him from the dead, he wept, even though he knew. They had this tight friendship. They were boys.
That's got to be Lazarus. And others go, no, no, no. I think it's a disciple that we read about in a couple other places called John, Mark. And others go, no, no, no. I think it's.
There must have been other disciples in Jerusalem we just don't know about. And they couldn't remember his name. And so this is just what they referred to him. You know, hey, man, Jesus loves you, right? Yeah, that's the dude that Jesus loves, right?
No. Others go, no, that's got to be one of John's disciples. And another goes, no, I think it really was John. And so we go, why all the debate? Like, why all the debate?
I think part of it is because the radical shift in the character of. Of this man John, right? John was loud and he was brash and he was ambitious and he was aggressive. He was typing. He was the dude, man.
He was a dude. Let's get things done, right? His fishing business was successful. He knew what to do. And so they hired more people because they were catching more fish, like he was a dude.
And then we get this. Little children love one another, and we're like, okay, how did that dude dude become that dude? What is going on here? Again, I think it shows some of the influence that Jesus had, the power that he had. When we read John's Gospel, we learn a few things about this disciple that Jesus loved.
One of the things we Learned in John 19:20 and 21, kind of the story of the cross, we learned that this disciple is the only one to actually have witnessed the crucifixion along with the women, we learn that it's this disciple to whom Jesus entrusts his mother. Son, your mother. Mother, your son. We learned that this disciple is the first to see the empty tomb of the men. The women would come back that Easter morning and they report what happened.
And he's the first one to see it. He's also the one who recognized Jesus when they were out fishing on that third day. And Peter's kind of depressed, and all the disciples are like, staring at each other and they're trying to wonder what is going on. We're hearing these stories, we're not sure what to do. Let's go fishing.
And all of a sudden, this disciple sees it's Jesus. And like Forrest Gump, you know, Peter jumps out of the boat. He doesn't even wait for them to get to shore. He just jumps out and swims to shore. Incredible story.
What I also find fascinating in John's story is he doesn't lose his personality. John doesn't stop being John. Jesus transforms him into the version that John was created to be. And I think that's an important distinction because sometimes we grow up thinking, well, if I become a Christian, then I'm supposed to be somebody else. I'm supposed to become somebody else.
It's kind of. If you've ever had a sibling, if you have a sibling, would you just raise your hand? Have you ever had that experience where your parents kind of like, why can't you be more like your brother? Why can't you be more like your sister? Just come on, right?
That somehow we think following Jesus means, well, I gotta become. But that's actually not the testimony of Scripture. It's not the testimony of Jesus. That's not how he treated, right? Peter wasn't supposed to become John, and Thomas wasn't supposed to become Andrew.
And Mary wasn't supposed to become Martha. Instead, each of us was created unique, right? God loves diversity. In fact, he says, let us make mankind in our image. And then he creates all these different people, male and female.
God created them with different kind of wirings and different personalities and different looks, different colors of skin and colors of eye and colors of hair. And some of us have a lot of hair, and some of us don't have much hair. Some of us have hair in places where we wish we didn't. Some have here where we wish we could have it, right? I mean, all these different things, in somehow some unique way, it's reflecting who God is, right?
So Jesus desire was not to change your personality, right? The problem Is not your personality. The problem is, have you surrendered it to Jesus? Have you allowed Jesus to take control? You see, John wasn't born the apostle of love.
He was not the dude of love. John was the son of thunder man. Let's go. That was John. Jesus transformed him.
See, John was passionate and he was competitive and he was intense and he was ambitious. And friends, those are not sinful traits. That's his personality. That's who he is. In fact, God uses people like that all the time to accomplish incredible kingdom things all over the world.
See, the problem wasn't John's thunder. The problem was where was that thunder aimed, right? His ambition was threatening to become domination, right? And his conviction, it was. It was warping into exclusivity.
And his passion, right? It. It wouldn't. Wasn't a hard click to get to rage, right? He wanted the best seat in the kingdom, no matter who he had to climb over or what he had to do to get there.
He wanted to call down fire on his enemies because they're not like us. They're not one of us. See, John wasn't lacking passion. He was lacking love. He was lacking surrender.
He came from a fairly successful family, which probably brought a good amount of privilege. He probably had a little privilege which inspires a little confidence, which kind of gets us thinking about, well, I'm kind of a. I'm a dude. I'm a dude. I should have the place of a dude right now. It doesn't excuse his behavior.
It helps us to understand kind of how we got where we are. But John wasn't trying to become somebody. John thought he was somebody. And Jesus work was to help change that somebody into the body that God had created him to become. You see, some of us are wired like John, right?
We got passion. We got ambition. We got drive and desire. Others of us are wired like Peter, who also has passion, but it comes out in a very different way. Some of us are wired like Thomas.
We got questions. We just wonder about things. We love engaging our minds, right? Some of us are like Mary, and we just want to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen and learn and grow and discover. And others of us are like Martha.
We like to serve. We like to get our hands dirty. We want to. We want to make sure an event happens. We don't want to be in the front of the room.
We don't want anybody to know. We just want to do our thing, right? Some of us are wired differently. See, none of these personalities are mistakes. They're not problems they just need a little redemption.
They need a little redirection. You see, as we learn, transformation almost never happens in a single moment, but it happens in thousands of little moments over and over and over again. John became part of Jesus inner circle. And he got to watch Jairus daughter be raised. And he got to see the transfiguration.
And he saw this incredible feeding of 5,000 with just a little lunchable. And he saw another feeding of 4,000. And then he saw Jesus being ridiculed and mocked. And then he saw him at times being invited over to a friend's house. And he just watched Jesus navigate all these different situations and scenarios.
He sat around that table in the upper room and he. And he watched Jesus wash feet. And I don't think that detail was left to us just by chance. Oh, and by the way, don't forget. No, no, I think it was there on purpose because this loud, aggressive, ambitious guy got to see what true strength and power looked like with sacrifice and was serving one another and putting someone else ahead of themselves, right?
And then came the cross. And everyone left. Everyone betrayed, everyone walked away. But John came back, at least close enough that he could see what was happening and that Jesus could see him and would trust him enough to say, did you take my mom? Would you take care of her?
Son, here's your mother and mom. I'm not leaving you alone. You got a son who's going to care for you. Now, if you read through the story of history, what you learn is John kept care of Mary the rest of her life. Why would he do that?
Why would he do that to John? Well, I think because Jesus saw who John was becoming. He's not just a son of thunder now. He's a son of love. So then, is it any surprise to us that when John sits down to write his gospel, he doesn't think to write his own name?
I mean, the best way I could describe it to you, friends, is I'm the guy that Jesus loves. I'm the one that Jesus loves. He's no longer defined by his accomplishments or how successful he can be or all the things that he can do differently. Instead, it's man. When I think of Jesus, I think of how much he loved me right now.
Even in writing the gospel, John never stops being John. Okay, at the end of the story in John 21, when the women come to the. To the. I about to say the elders, Richard to the apostles and said, hey, the tomb is empty, right? We're told Peter and the disciple that Jesus loved ran out to see the temple.
And John gives us this little clue that he's still John, right? Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter. I'm just saying. I'm not saying. I'm just saying.
We're like, yeah, that's John, right? He still needs a little transformation, right? I love how John is still John, but young John, man, he wanted everybody to know I'm a dude and this is my name. Older John, it didn't really matter that much anymore. There's a name I want you to know, it ain't mine.
So when I think about me, I don't call me my name anymore. I just say, I'm the guy that Jesus loves. Who's that guy? Doesn't matter. I'm the guy that Jesus loves.
Well, who is this Jesus? And he goes, great question, great question. You see, you can't consistently receive the love of Christ without it just pouring out of you, becoming more loving. And. And years later, we read John's words, right?
You read his epistles, 1st and 2nd and 3rd John, and you see that passion, it's still there. That fire is still there. He's still talking about truth, and he's still talking about holiness. He's so passionate about it. He still is bold.
Those things matter deeply to him. But now that passion, it's been redirected. Instead of serving ego, it's now serving the kingdom. I mean, that same intensity that John would say, I want to call fire down now. He says, I'm going to call you my dear friends.
Whenever he writes to the church, he calls them my dear friends, my little ones, my children. The same conviction it wrote, whoever claims to love God and hates a brother or sister is a liar. It's not true. It's not true. The same courage that stood faithfully in persecution and man, John's story in history.
If you've not read about it, I'd be happy to share some resources. And it's an amazing story. He stood through so much persecution. And he reminds his friends, in First John 4, he says, friends, there's no fear in love. There's no fear.
You don't have to be afraid anymore. Perfect love. It casts fear out. You see, Jesus didn't extinguish John's fire. He refined it, he reshaped it.
See, his personality remained, but his character changed. Why? Because Jesus, I think that's one of the most encouraging things about reading through Scripture, is Scripture doesn't challenge extroverts to become introverts or introverts need to Become extroverts. He doesn't ask thinkers to quit thinking. He doesn't ask passionate people to quit being so caring and loving and so fired up.
He simply says, give it all to me. Give it to me. Give me your courage, give me your ambition, give me your drive, give me your humor, give me your intellect and your creativity. Give me your tenderness and your compassion. And let me help shape it into who God created you to be.
Let me teach you how to use every part of you. So the question this morning that's so important for us is not what's my personality like? It's what part of me needs to be surrendered to Jesus? What part am I holding back? Where am I trying to be the dude?
And maybe I need to step back. Maybe it's our boldness, it's becoming pride. Or maybe for some of us, it's our compassion, it's causing us maybe to compromise on values and things we know we should take more seriously. Maybe it's our drive, it's quickly morphing into selfish ambition. Or our caution is becoming fear, we're becoming fearful people.
What is it for you? Is it your wit and your humor? Man, you always got something to say, but is it the thing you should say? Is it the way you should say it? Maybe it's your strong.
But man, it's hard to be strong and not control other people. See, Jesus is not asking you to become somebody else, just like he didn't ask John to become somebody else. He's trying to help you become who you created to be. Uniquely created in God's image, uniquely gifted by his Holy Spirit. And somehow you being you, you actually get to reflect who God is into the world in another, deeper way.
The Son of Thunder became the apostle of love. See, spiritual maturity, it's not becoming less like yourself. It's actually becoming more of who God created you. God. That's my prayer for us this summer as we get a chance to dream and wonder and think together about what it means to follow you, God.
We ask for wisdom and lots and lots of grace. May we hear the story of John today and see his passion and his ambition and his drive, his energy, his exuberance that sometimes got twisted and turned around when it was misdirected. But God, through your son, Jesus, you just walk beside him and he called him into a deep relationship. And in doing so, he got to see what true power and what true strength and what true ambition looks like. Oh, God, would you do that transformation work in us, no matter how we're wired.
Whether we're loud and up front, just like John and Peter were, or maybe, maybe we're quiet and in the background, like Thaddeus or James, son of Alphaeus, or Andrew or Martha or Mary. God, however you've wired us, you've done it uniquely. You've gifted us in time and in space, with a family, with friends, with influence to the people around us. Oh God, would you help us to. To redefine how we see ourselves in the way that John did?
That the more he got to know you and the more he experienced your love and your grace, the less he worried about himself and the more he thought about you and others and how to get them into relationship with you, how to introduce you to them. God, would that be our heart's desire? May we use our gifts that you've given to us uniquely, our personalities. May you redirect them so that we might become just little agents of the kingdom. Folks who live in such a way that we just love so generously because we know if that's all we do, that's enough.
That others might come to know and to wonder more about you, who you are. Who is a God like this that could take a man like John and transform him? Oh God, if you can do it with them, God, you can do it with us. So, God, would you do that transforming work in us? Again, we pray in Jesus name.
Amen.