John the Beloved Walked With God In Expectancy

 Temple Baptist Church - 9-17-2023

John 21:20-23 

Introduction:

 

A.  John the Beloved was a very special man and Apostle.  He, through the inspiration of the Holy Ghost (2 Peter 1:21  For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.), wrote John’s Gospel, 1, 2, 3 John, and Revelation.

 

B.  John got his name, John the Beloved, because of the way that the Holy Ghost referenced him in John’s Gospel.  Though John is not mentioned in John’s Gospel by name, three times he is referred to as “whom Jesus loved” and once as “whom he loved.”

 

1.  It was John who leaned on the breast of our Lord and heard His heartbeat.  John 13:23  Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved.  (I can only imagine the closeness between our Lord and John.)

 

2.  It was John to whom our Lord placed His earthly mother in His absence for safekeeping.  John 19:26  When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son!  (What a confidence our Lord had in John when He gave His mother to John for the rest of her lifetime.)

 

3.  It was John who outran Peter and was the first apostle to see the empty tomb.  John 20:2-5  Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him.  (3)  Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the sepulchre.  (4)  So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre.  (5)  And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in.  (How John ran when the news came of our Lord’s resurrection.  His disbelief turned into excitement.)

 

4.  It was John who recognized our Lord in His first appearance to the desciples.  John 21:7  Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher's coat unto him, (for he was naked,) and did cast himself into the sea.  (When Peter did not recognize our Lord, John did!)

 

C.  From that time when the Lord said, “If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me,” there can be little doubt that John ever stopped expecting the Lord’s coming.

 

D.  John’s expectation found its fulfillment on the Ilse of Patmos where he received the Revelation of Jesus Christ. The Book of Revelation (Apocalypse- apokalupsis – to disclose, to take off the cover, a revealing or revelation), the Revelation of Jesus Christ.

 

Revelation 1:9-10  I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.  (10)  I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,

 

E. John the Beloved was a beautiful type of God’s church prior to the Rapture and Tribulation Period.  He endured much tribulation before Patmos but, as probably a 95-year-old man, he once again saw his Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

 

F.  To those of us who love God, God expresses His love to us!  I am so glad that Jesus loves even me!  This statement is important because whom God loves, He makes Eschatology (the study of things to come) an open book!  People who are filled with God’s Holy Ghost are able to discern the signs of the times.

 

G.  Before John saw the Lord, he had to endure.  We, as God’s church, will have to endure much before Jesus Christ comes again for us.

 

1.  We will have to endure encroaching darkness.  1 Thessalonians 5:1-6  But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.  (2)  For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.  (3)  For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.  (4)  But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.  (5)  Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.  (6)  Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.  (The farther we get, the darker it becomes.  The darker it becomes, the more tendency to sleep.)

 

2.  We will have to endure spiritual peril.  2 Timothy 3:1-7  This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.  (2)  For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,  (3)  Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,  (4)  Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;  (5)  Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.  (6)  For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,  (7)  Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.  (The professing will have less and less possessing.  They become more like the world because they are of the world.)

 

3.  We will have to endure moral decay.  Luke 17:26-30  And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.  (27)  They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.  (28)  Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded;  (29)  But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.  (30)  Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.  (What we see and hear today should cause us to blush.  The filth that was once hidden in darkness has permeated our society in the day.  People have no shame.)

 

4.  We will have to endure falling away (apostasy).  2 Thessalonians 2:1-3  Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,  (2)  That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.  (3)  Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;  (People we once walked with, we will walk with no more.  It is they who have changed and not us.)

 

1 John 2:18-19  Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.  (19)  They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.

 

5.  We will walk in expectant times.  Romans 13:11  And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.