The Disciple Jesus Loved

Wouldn't you like to be known as the disciple Jesus loved?  That special place in His heart and by His side while here on earth.  An eyewitness to ALL that happened in Jesus' ministry and privileged enough to receive the AMAZING Revelation while in exile on the island of Patmos.  The youngest disciple while Jesus was on earth and the oldest disciple to live after His ascension.  John was also the ONLY disciple NOT to be martyred.  And the ONLY disciple NOT to scatter when Jesus was being arrested and crucified.  Wow!!!

John's Gospel is unique from the other three Gospels in several ways:

• No genealogy is recorded.
• No account of His birth is given.
• Nothing about boyhood.
• Nothing about His temptation
• No transfiguration.
• No appointing of the disciples.
• No parables.
• No account of Ascension.
• No Great Commission.

YET only in John is He called "the Word".

• The Creator
• The only begotten of the Father.
• The Lamb of God.
• The revelation of the great "I AM".

The book of John was written to prove Jesus' deity.  JESUS IS GOD...PERIOD!!!  This book repeats this over and over and over.  This may seem basic to us, but there are SO MANY religions that say that Jesus was just a man and NOT God.  There are three important "sevens" in John that prove Jesus' deity:

• Seven witnesses say that Jesus IS God (1:34, 1:49, 6:69, 11:27, 20:28, 20:31, and 10:36).
• Seven miracles prove that He IS God (water into wine, healing the nobleman's son, healing the man at Bethesda, feeding the 5,000, walking on the water, healing the blind man, raising of Lazarus)
• Seven "I AM's" (I AM the...bread of life, light of the world, before Abraham was born I AM, the good shepherd, the resurrection and the life,  way the truth and the life, and the true vine).

The first 18 verses of chapter 1 are considered to be the prologue to this book and are probably the most well known verses in this book (other than John 3:16).  They ask the question, "What do you think of Christ?".  Was He just a man or was He God or both?  CLEARLY, these verses declare that Jesus IS GOD!!!  Then in verse 19 and all the way through chapter 12 verse 50 we find "The Word" displaying His glory in various ways.  Chapter 2 begins Jesus' interactions with Jewish institutuions.  There is such a sense of intimacy throughout this book...such a sense of Jesus being God and displaying His immense love for us.  Do you know this Jesus...I mean REALLY know Him like the disciple John did?  He is waiting for you...

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning...The Word became flesh and made his dwelling amond us.  We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."                                            ~John 1:1, 1:14