Eternity Church Podcast

A Sunday morning sermon by Pastor Brett Deal. There is something special about spending time with the Apostle John. The more time we spend reading his letter to the church of Ephesus and remembering his years of discipleship walking and talking with Jesus, the more one word stands out clearly: love. John is the beloved disciple in the Gospel. His beloved-ness in Jesus transforms how he sees himself and how he relates to others. The more we read his letters, we see he was often very black and white in his thinking. He uses contrasting themes like love and hate, darkness and light, sin and salvation with little gray area. We would expect nothing less from someone nicknamed a son of thunder with his brother James (Mark 3.17). Years of manual labor at sea fishing probably left his heart as calloused as his hands and feet. It is amazing then to see how John’s time with Jesus transformed the way he saw those around him. He still saw things in black and white; he understood a clear contrast between right and wrong,