117 - John, The Gospel of Life

John

John 21:18 ^NASB "Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you, and bring you where you do not wish to {go.}" The words "stretch out your hands" is an idiom that was used for someone who was crucified. He will be a captive, he will be bound, and his volition will no longer matter.

John 21:19 ^NASB "Now this He said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He said to him, 'Follow Me!'" John is writing some 25 years after Peter's martyrdom in Rome, so he is looking back on that.

After these events we see that Peter becomes a major leader of the disciples in Acts chapter one where he gets them involved in the fallacious choice of Matthias as an apostle. The gift of apostleship is given by the Holy Spirit, not by the casting of lots. So Peter blows it there and then he has his tremendous preaching and leading 5000 to Christ in Acts 2, 4000 later on in Acts 3, and he is a major player up to about Acts chapter nine. Then with the conversion of Paul in Acts 9 we see that Peter begins to take more of a back seat in the narrative of Acts until chapter twelve where Peter drops out and the focus from that point on is on the apostle Paul and his ministry to the Gentiles. From 33 AD when Christ was crucified until 40 AD Peter is associated with the apostles in Jerusalem. He is involved in the leadership of the church in Jerusalem and in Judea and that area, and is involved in missionary activity in and around Judea. He is the one God uses to break down the barrier to the Gentiles when he takes the gospel to the household of Cornelius. But we also learn from Galatians chapter two that he was involved with the church at Antioch succumbed to the pressure of the legalists in Galatia, and he had to be corrected face-to-face by the apostle Paul so that he would not lead the church into legalism. He remains a pillar of the church in Jerusalem for fourteen years after Paul's conversion, so from approximately 33-39 we know where Peter was and from 40-49 there is a sort of hole and we know that must be the time when he took the gospel to the Jewish community in Babylon. Then he returns back to Jerusalem where he has his confrontation with Paul and the problems at Antioch. After that things become a little vague and we have to rely more on tradition than on any hard biblical evidence. We know from 2 Peter that Peter was involved with the churches in Asia Minor. We know that he was there until about 56-58 AD, we are not sure when he left; but then there is also a very strong tradition in Gaul and in Britain that Peter took the gospel there. There is a strong tradition that between about 58-65 AD Peter was involved in taking the gospel into what is modern France and modern England. Then, and only then, did he go to Rome. We don't know if he went to Rome under his own volition or under arrest because it was only a couple of years before he was martyred. But this is the earliest time that Peter could have been in Rome from what we know. Eusebius says that Peter went to Rome in 44 but 44 doesn't fit with everything else we know about Peter. If he was in Rome in 44 then he couldn't have been in Babylon, and there is no other time frame in Peter's life when he could have been at the churches in Babylon, according to 1 Peter. So the only time Peter could have gone to Rome was about 65 AD and that means the church in Rome was no founded by the apostle Peter. It was already there and it was established by the time Paul wrote his epistle to the Romans. It was after that that Peter finally came to Rome. Nero had him arrested and he was placed in one of the most horrible environments in the ancient world, the Mamertine dungeon. It was the scene of the worst torture chamber in the ancient world. According to tradition Peter was chained to a stone column where he was unable to sit or to lie down, and he survived for nine months before he was finally removed and taken out and crucified by Nero upside down in 67 AD. This is what Jesus is referring to in John 21:18.

"…And when He had spoken this, He said to him, 'Follow Me!'" This is Jesus' standard challenge to His students, His disciples. The word "disciple" comes from the Greek word mathetes [maqhthj] which means a student, a learner. What Jesus did with the twelve disciples was unique. It was related to their function as the pillars and the foundation of the church in the church age. It was related to the fact that He had a unique ministry and He was training them to be the leaders of the new church. He was not establishing a methodological example because we never see that later. Paul had Timothy and Silas, etc., but these were his assistants, much like a pastor of a large church or perhaps like a missionary out on the field might have two or three men who are assisting him. But never once do you have the term mathetes applied to Silas or timothy. In fact, we don't find a repetition of the term mathetes or the verb to make disciples anywhere after the Gospels. What we find is an emphasis on the pastor-teacher and the pastor makes students of the word in large groups. The model we see from Acts on is one man with a communication gift communicating to numbers of people.

So Jesus says to Peter, "Follow Me." That means to follow His example, follow the teaching of the Word and, Are you willing to submit to my authority and make doctrine the number one priority in your life? Peter shows right away that he still has a problem with distraction in verses 20, 21, a problem we all have at times in the Christian life. ^NASB "Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following {them;} the one who also had leaned back on His bosom at the supper and said, 'Lord, who is the one who betrays You?' [21] So Peter seeing him said to Jesus, 'Lord, and what about this man?'" Peter is already distracted by prophecy, by his future. He is probably going to die a martyrs death and he doesn't want to be there all by himself, so "What about my buddy John?" Peter and John are very close, so he is immediately distracted. This is the biggest problem that we have in the Christian life—how easily we are distracted from making doctrine our priority. We live in an age today when there are so many entertainment options, so many job options, so many things that we can do that are good and valid. But the test for us is the test of priorities. Are we willing to make doctrine the number one priority in our life? It doesn't happen by just showing up once on Sunday. That is not going to do it.

John 21:22 ^NASB "Jesus said to him, 'If I want him to remain until I come, what {is that} to you? You follow Me!'" In other words, Peter is to worry about His plan for his life and not to worry about His plan for anybody else's life. He is to worry about his own spiritual growth and not anybody else's: "You follow Me!" – present active imperative of akoloutheo [a)kolouqew] which means, You make your relationship to me your highest priority.   

John 21:23 ^NASB "Therefore this saying went out among the brethren that that disciple would not die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but {only,} 'If I want him to remain until I come, what {is that} to you?'" The rumour got started from this that John wasn't going to die but Peter would die. Then John identifies himself again as the author of the Gospel. [24] "This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true." The word "testifying" is the Greek word martureo [marturew] which means to bear witness, to testify in a legal sense. This is the disciple who is bearing witness. John is bearing witness in a legal sense to what is going on. [25] "And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written." He is saying that many other things happened but he picked these incidents for a purpose: John 20:30, 31 ^NASB "Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name."

As we have gone through the Gospel of John we have seen that he has been making a case. The case is that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. His case is that salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone. In accomplishing this not only does he bring these signs together, because they show that Jesus fulfils Old Testament prophecy of the Messiah—the Messiah will heal, be greater than nature, He will be God—but he is going to arrange all of these together like a court case. He is proving a point by looking at the signs. Then throughout this Gospel he brings out his witnesses, numerous witnesses. The first witness is John the Baptist, John 1:8, 15, 34; Jesus before Nicodemus, John 3:11—empirical data alone is not going to do it; the woman at the well, John 4:39; God the Father and the Holy Spirit bear witness, John 5:31, 32; His works, John 5:36, 37; 8:18; 10:25; the Scriptures, John 5:39. And as a result of that witness we are called as believers to be future witnesses for Jesus Christ under the power of God the Holy Spirit, John 15:26. We bear witness of the apostolic witness because we have it recorded in the canon of Scripture, so when we communicate the truth to people we are making a case that Christ is Messiah. That is what witnessing is all about; it is legal testimony that Christ is the Son of God who died on the cross for our sins. Then we were given a new commandment related to the church age: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

John 14:15-17 ^NASB "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; {that is} the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, {but} you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you."