One thing that we learned while studying through 1 Timothy is that doctrine is important.  Not everybody perks up when they hear the word doctrine but what you believe & understand about God's word will have a HUGE impact on how you worship Jesus. 

     If I'm going to worship the one true God of the Bible then I want to make sure I know who that is according to what the Bible actually says about Him.  Our tendency is to be lazy in our pursuit of doctrine resulting in an idea or version of God that is built upon my speculation or hearsay.  The danger of depending on speculations of God rather than His word is that our speculations could be wrong.  I don't want to misunderstand God (though our feeble minds make this inevitable), therefore a pursuit of doctrine should be desired by all believers. 

     With that said, I want to press our people at The Journey to be pursuers of God's word!  As we walk through the deep doctrines that lay ahead in John we will be cranking out "John Notes" to encourage you and hopefully give you confidence in your understanding of this book.  These notes will be in addition to the Sunday morning teaching.  Sunday morning will be a zoomed-in play-by-play of John while the notes will provide zoomed-out concepts and information on and/or in John.

     These notes are designed to be quick and simple reads to help you unlock, understand, and memorize heavy truths.

     I'm thankful for the Journey Research Team assembled to contribute to these notes and I pray that they assist and inspire you to pursue truth with a confidence and intensity.  

Cody

John Notes #1

10 points on the disciple
John, son of thunder...

1.  Born A.D. 6 in Galilee and died A.D. 100 in Ephesus, Turkey.

2.  John was a fisherman by occupation as were most of the Disciples.

3.  John was the son of Zebedee and brother of James, another of the Apostles.  John was a member of Jesus’ inner apostolic circle during His earthly ministry. (Matt 4:21-22; Mark 1:19-20; Luke 5:10-11)

4.  James and John were known as the “Sons of Thunder.” (Mark 3:17)

5.  John is credited with authoring 5 books in the New Testament. (the Gospel of John, 3 Epistles, and Revelation)

6.  According to Scripture John is referenced as “the Disciple whom Jesus loved.” (John 21:20-24)

7.  The apostle John rose to a position of influence within world-wide Christianity and shortly before the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 AD, he moved to Ephesus.

8.  According to Tertullian (in The Prescription of Heretics) John was banished (presumably to Patmos) after being plunged into boiling oil in Rome and suffering nothing from it.  It is said that all in the entire Colosseum audience were converted to Christianity upon witnessing this miracle.

9.  When he was released from exile, he returned to Ephesus and lived till the time of the Roman emperor Trajan.

10.  All of the Apostles met a violent death, however, John died a peaceful death in Ephesus (at an advanced age).