The Disciple Whom Jesus Loved

By Marvin Watson

This book is about the book of St. John in the Bible. What it does is detail Jesus’ life from the Apostle John’s perspective. This includes where he was born, where he grew up at, some of the early part of his life as a child and of course his public ministry. There is also a little about John The Baptist, who was the forerunner of Jesus.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Aug 3, 2022
• ISBN: 9781665567053

Marvin Watson

Elder Marvin Watson has been a member of Crenshaw Christian Center for 28 years. He has been a writer almost all of his life. Elder Marvin has been a Christian since the late seventies. Elder Marvin truly loves writing and does it as much as he can. This is his third book that God himself told him to write. It was something that I felt needed to be written about. My mindset was to give people a better and thorough understanding about exactly who Jesus was. Elder Marvin has been involved in a number of ministries over the years; both down south and in Boston Massachusetts, as well as Southern California. Elder Marvin was born and raised in Boston Massachusetts where he first became a Christian. He has done extensive studies on the Bible. Currently, Elder Marvin resides in Victorville CA, where he has lived with his wife of 16 years. Elder Marvin truly loves the Lord and looks for every opportunity to spread the word and make someone else happy.

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2022 Marvin Watson. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 08/01/2022

ISBN: 978-1-6655-6706-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-6705-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022914212

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

This book is dedicated to my wife, Velda, who has stayed by my side since the beginning, a shout out to Bishop Roger Thomas, my pastor, who has given me a lot of sound information on my second book that I did, also, a shout out to all of the authors out there that have either influenced me to write not only a book but also a best seller, and finally, all of the readers that will be touched as they read this book.

CONTENTS

Preface

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

PREFACE

John was the disciple Jesus loved. I would imagine it was because John did not make many rash decisions. John also knew a lot about Jesus. For example, John was well aware that Jesus was the Word. This word (Word) means a lot of things. I never dreamed that it meant so much.

Some of the things that this Word means is something said (including the thought): a topic or subject of discourse, also the reasoning (the mental faculty) or motive. It also makes mention of the fact that the book of John or John himself brought this out. All of these things speak of certain aspects of Jesus. He incorporated all of these things to an incredible and exhaustive degree.

CHAPTER 1

T he book of John starts by saying, In the beginning was the Word. That means that everything I said this word was in the preface is absolutely true. It is also a complicated concept. What this is saying is that the word or name Jesus is synonymous with the Word, being from the beginning.

John 1:6 says, God sent a man, John the Baptist, to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. This was predicted way back in the Old Testament by Isaiah.

Listen! It’s the voice of someone shouting, Clear the way through the wilderness for the Lord! Make a straight highway through the waste land for our God! Fill in the valleys, and level the mountains and hills. Straighten the curves, and smooth out the rough places. Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. The Lord has spoken! (Isaiah 40:3–5 NLT)

This was the voice of God speaking by His Spirit through the prophet Isaiah about the prophet John the Baptist. What this was saying first of all is Listen! Then it says it’s the voice of one shouting, Clear the way through the wilderness for the Lord. Jesus had to prepare for His ministry by spending forty days and forty nights in the wilderness. It was imperative that Jesus pass this test, or He would not have been allowed to start His public ministry (Matthew 4:1–2).

Then it says, Make a straight highway through the waste land for our God! What this means is that this is a road that must be traveled by everyone who calls him- or herself a follower of Christ. Highway is a Hebrew word that means path, aqueduct, or passageway. This means this is the way you must go. It includes going along this path to follow the Lord or Jesus the Christ. The word Christ simply means anointed. Then it says waste land for our God. This means that the path Jesus had to go through will not be the best, and some of it will look very dirty and horrible. But if Jesus had to do it, you will have to do it too (John 15:18–19).

I used this scripture because the world will say and do a lot of things to you that you will not like. It will call you all kinds of names, make things difficult for you, lie about you, and in some cases do you harm or try to kill you. But some of what the disciples did when they were beaten for ministering about Jesus is found in this passage of scripture: Acts 5:40–42.

Going down to John 1:7, this is saying that John the Baptist was a witness for Jesus. All the time that John the Baptist was alive, he said that he was not that prophet, and also, he was not even worthy to put on the sandals from His feet (Mark 1:7; John 1:29–34). Then going down to verse 35, this is when the witness of John the Baptist’s own disciples followed Jesus as well, because of what John said.

Verse 10 is a direct quote from Isaiah 53:3. Verse 12 is saying that if you make Jesus your Savior, the Father God recognizes you as His son as well. This is why it is worded like that. Going to verse 13, this is saying that no human effort could ever make you a child of God. This world can only reproduce things of this world, but the Spirit makes things of the Spirit, that being from God.

When we get to verse 16, this is saying that Jesus is so pregnant with blessings and thanksgiving that we can’t help but get blessed when we hang around Him. Next, we come to verse 17 (NLT), which says, For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

What this is saying is Moses gave us a lot of rules and regulations to live by, but following them in and of itself could not bring grace or salvation. All the law was good for was showing them how much they had erred from God. But grace is a very important word to the believer.

The word grace comes from the Greek word charisma, which means

graciousness, (as gratifying), of manner or act (abstr.) or concr.: lit., fig. or spiritual: espec. the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life; including gratitude):—acceptable benefit, favor, gift, grace, joy, liberality, pleasure, thank, worthy.

But without going that far, it also means unmerited favor. This literally means that there is nothing you can do that will allow you to earn this. It is based solely on the act of what Jesus did on the cross two thousand years ago.

The next verse, which is John 1:18 (KJV), says, No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. This literally means that only Jesus Himself has seen the Father God. This is also why the S in Son and F in Father are capitalized, because the word Son is referring to Jesus, whereas the word Father is referring to Jehovah or the Father God. It also says, No one has ever seen God, but the unique One; who is Himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.

What this is saying is that no one has ever seen God but Jesus, which is why they say the unique One. there was no one ever to walk on this earth like Him, and He was the second part of the Godhead. This means that He was in fact God. However, for the length of time that He stayed on this earth, He only walked as a Son of God and not God Himself. In other words, He pushed aside all of His deity so that He could be just like one of us. This is why it says in Hebrews 4:15, For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.

This literally means that whatever temptations we have ever had over the years and have right now even, Jesus had to go through them too. He had beautiful women walking around with Him, including Mary Magdalen and others (Matthew 27:55–56). It says that Jesus was financed by women, which means they gave into His ministry and so forth.

Now going down to verse 19, this is telling us that Jews sent priests and Levites to John to find out who he was. They were trying to determine if he was some great prophet, like Elijah, or the Messiah. He told them that he was neither but the voice of one crying in the wind. As stated before, that concerns the report that Isaiah gave about him found in Isaiah 40:3–5.

A lot of the information that is being discussed in these next few chapters was already discussed. So now I want to go down to verse 24, which says that the ones questioning him were Pharisees. The reason they wanted to question him had something to do with their religion and how it was perceived or how it was supposed to be applied.

You see, for John the Baptist to baptize, he had to do so according to one of several ways—those being by Elijah, Moses, or one of the other prophets. But as far as John the Baptist was concerned, they did not recognize him as being the one authorized to do this. That is why they wanted to find fault with him. It could be argued that all they had to do was look up Isaiah’s documents about a voice of one crying in the wind and that would have been John the Baptist. But the Jews, including the Pharisees and Sadducees, didn’t know or were not aware of that.

This is the very reason why Jesus had to prove Himself to His disciples by performing miracles. What got Peter’s attention was when Jesus caused them to put their line on the right side of the boat to get a really big load of fish. The last thing Peter said to Him was, Since you think that we will catch all of this fish, I will do it at your request (Matthew 4:18–20, Luke 5:4–11).

Regarding Nathanael, Jesus told him that He had seen him way before he had even come into His presence (John 1:45–49). This is also another way of proving that the Pharisees and other religious leaders did not want to believe that Jesus was the Christ or the Messiah. This was the main reason why He asked them in John 10:33–38).

Going to our next verse, verse 28 talks about where this was taking place. This was way in the desert. You had to go a long way in order to reach this area and stay away from the crowds. As we read further on in this book, you will see that even Jesus had to go way out into the desert because there were so many people who wanted to touch and talk with Him.

Verse 29 just goes to show you that God only reveals Himself to the ones He wants to. There is something in the Bible in John 6:44 that explains why others who saw Him all the time didn’t know that He was the Messiah. God has to first soften your heart and make it a heart of flesh instead of a heart of stone (Ezekiel 11:18–20).

Then John, I believe quite by accident, tells everyone why he was baptizing Jesus. It is found in John 1:31. So Jesus supposed to be baptized by John the Baptist not only so that He could continue on with His public ministry but also so that all Israel could see it at the same time.

In verse 31, John tells everyone what he saw so they will believe. Remember John the Baptist was the forerunner of Jesus, so his public testimony about Jesus had to be right on so that others would believe in Him. Then verse 34 puts it all into perspective. This finalizes why Jesus had to be baptized in public view for all to see.

Now we get to the part that says who the first disciples were. One of the first ones was Andrew. This is found in verses 35–39. This refers to the entire conversation between John the Baptist and two of his disciples. Then it says that Andrew tells his brother Simon in verses 40–41 that Jesus was the Messiah or the Christ.

At the time, after Simon met Jesus, He changed his name to Peter, which means rock (verse 42). Jesus, being the second part of the Godhead, can do these things. Remember, God many times changed the names of people in the Old Testament. The first name change happened after the fall of man. The woman before her name was changed to Eve was woman. This can be found in Genesis 2:23. So you see that Adam was the one who named her woman. Then after the fall of man, the woman’s name was changed to Eve (Genesis 3:20). Now if a man can rename a person, why can’t God?

The second person who got his name changed was Abram. His name was changed to Abraham, and then Sarai became Sarah. There are a lot of these instances all over the Bible. Other men changed the names of their slaves to the names that they wanted them to have. When Daniel was sent to Babylon, his name got changed, as did those of his companions. This can be found in Daniel 1:6–7. These are just a few instances.

This is a very interesting case because this is when Jesus is called the The Son of God, King of Israel (verses 45–49). If you think a little bit, you can see what John is trying to allow us to see. He wants us to not only see but envision what and who Jesus really is. He is the Messiah, the Son of God, and the King of Israel, which is what Nathanael said of Him.

Then Jesus really exposes Himself to them. They are all going to be His disciples and eventually become His apostles (verses 50–51).

CHAPTER 2

N ow that John has established who Jesus is, how He came to be, and who some of His disciples were, we go to the first recorded miracle. It starts out by saying that there was a wedding celebration in Cana of Galilee. This can be found in John 2:1–3. In the very next verse, we find Jesus’s mother saying to Him that they have no more wine.

There is something very interesting about this whole story. Mary, the mother of Jesus, says to Jesus that they have no more wine (John 2:3). But Jesus’s response is equally interesting. He tells His mother that His time has not yet come (verse 4). Then His mother tells His servants to do whatever He tells them to do. There must have been some mother’s intuition here that somehow or other knew that Jesus had abilities that others didn’t. She is the only one who ever said anything like that to Him.

The part I just talked about is in verse 5. The next few verses are all about this miracle that was about to take place. This is when all of the water was turned into wine. The only ones who knew this had happened were the servants or disciples. This can be found in verses 7–8.

Now that the master of ceremonies has tasted the water that had just been turned into wine, he makes a public address to the person giving the wedding (verses 9–10). One may argue that one of the reasons why He did this miracle is so that His disciples would believe in Him. In fact, the Word says just that (verse 11). Now we understand that He traveled with His mother, brothers, and disciples. They became part of His family. But Jesus made it clear that He did not just come to save His immediate family but others who also resembled His brothers, sisters, and mother (Mark 3:31–35).

The next verses talk about Jesus clearing the Temple and how the religious leaders didn’t like Him doing that. They even asked for a sign of what gave Him this authority. So the only thing that Jesus decided to tell them was that if they tore down this temple, He would rebuild it in three days (John 2:19). It should also be noted that a lot of things that Jesus said could be looked up in the old biblical writings that His disciples found later on after he had been raised from the dead (verse 17).

Jesus also knew who would be true to Him and who would not. For example, there were a lot of people who would come up to Him acting as if they were true friends of His. But it says in John 2:23–24 the very thing that I just got through talking about. The most remarkable part was when Jesus said that He knew what was in each man’s heart (John 2:25).

Now one of the most interesting things about this meeting with Nicodemus is the fact that he did it late at night when no one else was around. Obviously, he didn’t want anyone knowing that he had been with Jesus. The main reason for this was because he was a Pharisee. If the other Pharisees knew that he had been with Him, they may have excommunicated him from the Temple.

CHAPTER 3

T his can be found in John 3:1–2. Now what is also interesting is that Nicodemus said some things about his character, but it seems that Jesus wasn’t even paying attention to his comments. What Jesus was dealing with was the real reason why he came up to Him. What Nicodemus really wanted to know about was how to become born again. In other words, he wanted to know how to be one of Jesus’s disciples secretly.

I believe this was the main reason why he didn’t come right out and tell Him why he was out there. In other words, he was a little embarrassed.

So Jesus came straight to the point and told him what he really came there for (John 3:3). Then Nicodemus asked another question, and Jesus answered that question (John 3:4–8).

Once again, Nicodemus asked another question. As you can see here, these two were having a very in-depth conversation. So Jesus responded with John 3:9–10. So here Jesus is insulting his intelligence when He tells Him that you are a respected Jewish teacher and yet you don’t understand these things? In other words, Jesus is telling Him that you don’t even know what you are teaching or talking about. After this, He begins to break down what He is talking about.

Now we get to the doubters who won’t believe no matter what you tell them. Some have just made up their minds that they don’t want to believe. This was very much what it was like when John 3:11 was written. Have you as a Christian ever tried to witness to people, and they told you that they don’t want to believe in it, they are of another religion, or they want you to prove it somehow. Well, this is exactly what this scripture is saying.

This even happened to Jesus’s disciples when they tried to tell Thomas that Jesus was in fact alive and had risen (John 20:24–25, 26–29). So, as you can see, Jesus’s words are correct. Even one of His own disciples didn’t want to believe in Jesus rising from the dead unless he saw Him with his own eyes. This is what led Jesus to say, Blessed are they that have not seen me and yet still believe (John 20:29).

This next verse is referring to things in the natural as opposed to things in the supernatural. This is according to John 3:12. An example of this is when you try to tell people that they need to tithe and give their offerings. From the natural, this doesn’t make any sense. I know it was like this for me when I first heard about this. But after I took them at their word in the Bible and used my faith along with this, eventually things began to change supernaturally.

Going from driving a ’79 Cadillac Coup Deville in 1993 to a brand-new Infiniti G-35 in the year of 2005 was a big change. I can tell you with confidence that this would have been impossible if I hadn’t been tithing like I was told to do. Without tithing regularly, I had to file for bankruptcy back in 1992. So after I got a hold of this tithing principle, which is part of God’s financial plan, this would not have happened. Obviously, a lot of time went by from 1993 to 2005.

The problem with this picture is that I didn’t