From Son of Thunder to the Apostle of Love

When you think of a radical conversion experience in the New Testament, for many, the Apostle Paul immediately comes to mind. There are many good reasons why this is so. Saul was breathing murderous threats towards the church and made it his life’s mission to single handedly eliminate the Nazarene sect. On that fateful road in Damascus, all of this changed as he was literally knocked off his horse and arrested by the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. My question to you is this, what other Apostle do we see such a radical transformation in the New Testament?

John is generally regarded to be the youngest of the disciples (most likely mid to late teens) and was a fellow fisherman with his brother James in the family business (Matt 4:21-22).  As most teens are want to do, he often he lacked self-awareness. There is one particular portion of scripture that I now draw to your attention.

This narrative is only spoken of in the gospel of Luke chapter 9. The transfiguration has just taken place where John has both seen Jesus in all of His glory and heard of His pending “exodus”. As they come down the mountain, they begin arguing about who will be the greatest. As they begin this final descent towards Jerusalem, they had a choice to make: Were they going to make their journey longer by avoiding Samaria or go through Samaria? The Jews had a mutual hatred of the Samaritans and considered them half breeds.. 

This now places Jesus and his disciples in a Samaritan village very shortly after the Transfiguration. They sent messengers ahead to plan for their arrival and to be welcomed with hospitality; however, things did not go according to plan. John, who was a teenager at the time, becomes indignant at this slight of hospitality. He then decides to emulate Elijah the prophet who he saw and heard only a short time ago. He asks the Lord, “Do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” Jesus quickly rebukes the hastiness of youth as his mission is to “save lives” not to destroy them. He also says that “they do not know what kind of spirit they are of”.

I’d now like to direct you to another passage of scripture, Acts chapter 8. Between these two passages, John has seen Jesus brutalized at the hands of the Romans and bled out to atone for the sins of the world. He has also seen the resurrected Christ and even had breakfast with him on the Galilean shoreline. That lesson taught him that he would never return to his days of fishing for an occupation but would be one of the foundations and a pillar of this new community of believers. John saw Jesus ascend back to the Father in heaven and waited and experienced the fullness of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. God was doing an amazing work that would now be put to the test.

Saul begins to wreak havoc on the church and the church scatters as part of the plan of God. Philip goes down to Samaria and begins to preach the gospel. They both heard and saw in amazement the things that God was doing through Philip that many Samaritans came to know Christ. Word had travelled back to Jerusalem and the church sent Peter and John to this burgeoning church in Samaria. When they arrive, they pray for the Samaritans to receive the Holy Spirit.

What a transformation that has taken place in the life of John. Where once he wanted to call down fire from heaven to destroy the Samaritans, he is now calling down the fire of heaven (the Holy Spirit) to fill and empower this Samaritan church for the work of ministry. Only God is our response. 

As we conclude, be blessed to know that we as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ need to be filled and yield to the work of the Holy Spirit as we are transformed from glory to glory in our walk with Christ. Let us be that radical transformation that leads others to our Lord and Savior. 

Be blessed,

Rob Reilly