He loveth him that followeth after

There are five times in John 13 where, to the end of the book, John refers to ‘the disciple whom Jesus loved’; the beloved disciple.

Jordan says, “What I noticed is that each time he refers to him, in the context where it’s said, you see the effect on the soul of somebody who delights himself in the love of Christ in these closing scenes from the Lord’s life.

“John 13:23 says, ‘Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved.’ Nowhere in the Book of John is it personally identified who this disciple is. Most people say it’s John. I’ll show you why. John 21:24 says, ‘This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things: and we know that his testimony is true.’ John means ‘the gift of Jehovah.’ The idea is the Book of John is written by the disciple whom John loved.

“The biggest problem with that is the people who say John wrote the Book of John—that’s (Roman) Church tradition. The Book of John didn’t have ‘the gospel according to John’ as the title. In the 2^nd Century, Church father Polycarp, who was said to be a follower of John, said it was John who wrote the book, but his tradition also says John wrote the book between 90-95 A.D. and I know that’s not true because in John 5 it’s clear the book was written before 70 A.D.

“John 11, talking about Lazarus, says ‘Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.’ People say, ‘See, the only person ever identified in the gospels that Jesus actually loved, and it’s actually said that He loved him, is Lazarus, so obviously Lazarus must be the disciple in whom Jesus Loved.’

 “The problem with that is if you go to Mark 10, in the interview Jesus has with the rich you ruler, it says, ‘Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.’ So there’s another guy, the rich young ruler, who it says Jesus loved.

“When the Bible doesn’t tell you something specifically about a certain thing, I have a real difficult time getting too waxed up about it.

“There are three prominent people in this passage in John 13 outside of Christ. One is Judas, who had no love for the Lord at all. He loved money. He had the bag in his hand and the devil in his heart and he’s going to go betray Christ.

“There’s another character here—Peter. Peter was a man who was ardent in his love for the Lord. He was confident in how much he loved the Lord. Every time you see Peter, he says, ‘Lord, I love you! Let me prove it!’

“You go down through the text and Jesus washes their feet. Pete says, ‘You’re not washing my feet, Lord! I’m the one who loves you!’ Jesus says, ‘If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.’ Pete said, ‘Wash me all over, man! I mean, I’ll take the whole dose. Give me all of it! I love you, Lord!’

“Pete’s the one who told Christ, ‘I’ll go with you to prison; I’ll go with you to death. All these others might be offended in you. I’ll never be. I love you; I’ll stick with you.’

“In Chapter 18, when a couple hundred soldiers and the henchman come to get Him, Peter pulls out a sword and tries to chop the guy’s head off but gets his ear instead because the guy ducked. He said, ‘I’m willing to demonstrate unto death my love for you,’ but what’d he do? He failed miserably when he got confused and under pressure.

“Peter was a commercial fisherman. You never met one who was a coward. They’re tough; they know how to get into the sea and water. I’ll tell you what he wasn’t ready to do, though, and that was to give up! When Jesus said, ‘Let’s surrender,’ he said, ‘No, not without a fight!’ and Jesus said, ‘I said shut up and sit down.’ And Pete got offended: ‘You’re not doing it my way. I love you, Lord, and I want it done this way.’ And Peter wound up failing because his confidence was in HIS love for Christ.

“Then there’s this other ‘disciple whom Jesus loved.’ He was resting in, delighting in the love of Christ. Look at verse 3-4, where it says, ‘Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God;
[4] He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself.’

“These disciples are watching the Lord Jesus Christ humble Himself and become a servant. In Luke, He says, ‘I’m among you as a servant of all.’

“Here’s God laying aside the splendor of mastership and becoming a servant. By the way, you see how He did that in verse 3. The humility that allowed Jesus Christ to humble Himself and become a servant came out of the confidence He had in His identity in the Father’s eyes, knowing that the Father had given Him all things. Knowing that He was come from God, knowing who He was in the Father’s eyes gave Him the confidence and freedom to humble Himself and become a servant of all. That’s where humility comes from.

“I’ve said many times that while we talk about the ‘days of his humiliation,’ that’s a human viewpoint of it. When He looked humiliated, embarrassed and ashamed, He took that for you. But when the Bible describes His mindset in it, it says ‘He humbled Himself.’ Humiliation is something heaped upon you against your will. He TOOK willingly because He understood who He was and is in the Father’s eyes and His understanding of how the Father viewed Him gave Him the freedom to humbly serve.

“The writer says, ‘I was there and I was leaning on his bosom.’ Now, people make a big deal about that. If you understand the culture you understand what he’s talking about. They wanted an intimacy; a nearness and a connection and John said, ‘You know, when He was loving us, I was loving it. I was just loving being loved.’

“John 13: 22-25 says, ‘Then the disciples looked one on another, doubting of whom he spake.
[23] Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved.
[24] Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him, that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake.
[25] He then lying on Jesus' breast saith unto him, Lord, who is it?’

“Peter was trusting in his love for the Lord: ‘I love you Lord, I’ll never forsake you. I’m going to go out and beat the world for you.’ But when it came time to know what was on the Lord’s heart, it was the one who was trusting in his love, not his love for the Lord but the Lord’s love for him, that was near enough to the Lord to learn what was on his mind.

“The disciple who was trusting in his love had to ask the one who was reveling in the Lord’s love, ‘What’s He talkin’ about?!’ and then he said, ‘Who is it?’

“If you go to the account in Matthews 26, the disciples begin to ask among themselves, ‘Is it I? Am I guilty? Am I gonna fail Him?’ but the disciple whom Jesus loved never said, ‘Is it I?’ he said, ‘Who is it? Obviously it’s not me; who is it?’ He’s trusting in, ‘Look how much He loves me. He’ll never fail me. Obviously it’s not going to be me. He’s keeping me. But who is it?’

*****

“The next time you see it it’s at the Cross. Chapter 19:25 says, ‘Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.
[26] When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son!’

“Where was Pete when this was going on? He was off in some lonely place, broken-hearted, weeping tears of bitter shame, of betrayal, of failure. But the one who had been nearest to the Lord, the disciple who was resting in Christ’s love for him, he was as near to Christ as he could be right there at the Cross.

“The result of that was he was a vessel fit for the master’s use when the service was needed. He was entrusted with the most precious possession the Savior could have had—His mother.

In Chapter 20, you’ve got the two guys again. The passage reads, [1] The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.
[2] 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.’

“You’ve got Pete and the disciple whom Jesus loved and Pete goes first; he takes the lead: ‘I love him; I’m going to go find Him. What did they do with Him?! I’ll defend Him!’

“But you know what the other disciple did? He outran Peter and got their first! The one whom Jesus loved, focusing on His love, allowed him to take the lead in a very critical moment.

“In chapter 21, Pete goes back to his old occupation before he met Christ and he’s a man of influence. And you know what following his own mind and going back to his old self did? They call it ‘nothing.’ It profiteth nothing. Worse than that, when they saw Jesus standing on the ship, the disciples didn’t know who it was. They had no spiritual perception to identify who He was.

“John 21: 5 says, ‘Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No.’ He showed them the uselessness of all that effort without His direction. ‘And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes.’ You follow His direction, you get the fruit.

 “Verse 7 says, ‘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.’

“I read that and I say, ‘Wow, the one trusting in the Lord’s love is the one who knew the Lord in the face of defeat!’ He was the one who could say, ‘That’s the Lord!’ It gave him the ability to look beyond the circumstances and the failure of self-effort and to say, ‘There’s God working both to will and do His good pleasure. The spiritual perception to understand who you are in the details of your life and apply it was the result of reveling, not in his love for God, but God’s love for him.

“In verse 15 you see it again. You see the provision that God’s grace makes for one who’s trusted in self and his confidence and his love, as opposed to the one who just trusted God’s love for him. Because when he talks to Peter, he doesn’t bring up one word about his denial. He doesn’t mention his failures. The inward root of the failure was his confidence in himself.

“He says, ‘Do you really?’ Three times he asked him those questions. Three times Peter denies Him. The key in these things are in the answers that Pete gives because the progression is in the answer. Finally he says (verse 17), ‘Lord thou knowest all things.’

“He puts himself in the Lord’s hands and he’s not going to trust himself and his love. He says, ‘You know thy heart and I’ll leave it to you to estimate my love and tell me what to do.’ No longer is he telling the Lord that he loves Him or what he’s going to do. He just rests and says, ‘You know, Lord, you tell me.’

“What was He telling him to do? ‘Here’s what you do, Pete. Follow me. You want to glorify me; follow me.’ The Lord in His infinite love just tells the restored apostle what He’s going to enable him to do.

“Notice verse 20 because here comes the disciple whom Jesus loved. It says, ‘Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following; which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee?’

“So the writer says, ‘When Peter turned around, after all that exhortation, after all that restoration from his self-effort, he looked around and saw me and I’m just, ‘Wooh-hoo, I can’t get over how much He loves me and I’m just enjoying it!’

“The man who trusted his own love for Christ had broken down, had to be restored and be exhorted to follow, but not so with the disciple whom Jesus loved. The guy who rejoiced in Christ’s love for him was already following.”