How old were Jesus' disciples?

When our Lord was about thirty years of age, He stepped into the limelight of public service. He called young men, whom He called apostles, to follow Him, and to company with Him in His blessed service for God and mankind in a sinful and needy world. They thus had the wonderful experience of sharing with their Lord in the everyday incidences of human life. Here we pause to ask a question, Does Scripture record one instance in which these disciples presumed to address their Lord by His personal name, Jesus?

The topic I intend to speak on this weekend is the life and writings of the apostle John. John was the author of five books in Scripture, the Gospel of John, the three Epistles of John and the Revelation. It is usually assumed that John was a young man, perhaps the youngest of the apostles when the Lord called him to follow Him. We have no definite word in Scripture as to that but he lived into the AD 90s (the Revelation is often dated at AD 96) and so he must have been a very old man by this time.

In the company of the Lord he learnt not only His love to himself, that he had a place in the Lord's heart and was the disciple whom Jesus loved, but he could trust Him; he could lean upon His breast in the most trying and darkened hour, with the result that he could stand by the cross bearing the reproach of Christ. Of all the disciples we feel that John, probably the youngest of them all, and not more than a youth, yielded the greatest pleasure to the heart of the Lord. In John we see appreciation of the Lord's love and communion with Him.

John, the youngest, and probably the most beloved of the apostles.

For the moment Peter turned his eye from his Master and fixed it upon a fellow-disciple, none other than the writer of this Gospel. John was evidently a younger man but had already been closely linked with Peter on several occasions. It was probably genuine interest and not merely curiosity that made him enquire as to his future. The reply appears to have a twofold bearing.

Let us think for a moment of John and the circumstances in which he was found. It is fairly clear from scripture that John was the last survivor of the Apostolic band. He was a young man as a disciple of Christ in Galilee; he was an old man in Patmos. He had seen many changes in the interval, and had suffered many vicissitudes since he first saw the "Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world."

James. Zebedee and his two sons, James and John, were following their usual occupation on the sea of Galilee, when Jesus passed that way. Seeing the two brothers, "He called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, and went after him." Peter and Andrew were also there. It was on this occasion that the Lord desired Peter to launch out into deeper water, and try another cast for fish. Peter inclines to reason: they had been very unsuccessful the previous night. Nevertheless, at the Lord's word, the net was let down. "And when they had this done, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes; and their net brake." Astonished and overwhelmed at this draught, Peter beckoned to his partners to come and help in landing the fish caught.

Full conviction was now wrought in the minds of those four young men, that Jesus was the true Messiah. They may have had doubts before, they have none now. At the call of Jesus they leave all, and become, once and for ever, His disciples. Henceforward they were to become "fishers of men." In every list we have of the apostles, these four noble men are placed first; they stand at the head of the twelve throughout. (Matt. 4:17-20; Mark 1:16-20; Luke 5:1-11)

This is the call of James to the discipleship; about a year after this he is called to the apostleship with his eleven brethren. (Matt. 10, Mark 3; Luke 6; Acts 1)

The five books written by the apostle John were all published later than any other writings of Scripture, his gospel considered to be written about A.D. 85, his three epistles about A.D. 90 and Revelation about A.D. 95. His own age would likely be between 85 and 95 during the time of writing, and therefore these books show evidence of a dignity and maturity gained by long experience, yet with no marks of the infirmity of old age. John has been called “the apostle of love,” and his loving admiration of the person of the Son of God is specially evident in his gospel and epistles. However, God chose him to announce the awesome judgments of the Lord Jesus in this book of Revelation. This reminds us that genuine love is not weak and permissive, but faithful and true.

With reference to this persecution, little is known; though that little is undoubtedly interesting. Among the numerous martyrs who suffered were John, the beloved disciple, and Timothy, whom. Paul had written to with such affectionate solicitude. The former is said to have been cast, by the tyrant's command, into a cauldron of boiling oil, but a miracle was wrought in his behalf, and he came out unscathed. Unable to hurt the body, the emperor banished him to Patmos, where he was forced to labour in the mines. Here he wrote the book of the Revelation; and would doubtless have ended his course, but for the unexpected death of the emperor; who was assassinated by the comptroller of his own household on the eighteenth of September, A.D. 96. Being now set at liberty, the apostle returned to Ephesus, where he wrote his gospel history, and the three epistles which bear his name. Love, as ever, seems to have been the ruling motive of his life here; and when he died, at the advanced age of one hundred years, he left as an enduring legacy this simple charge, "Little children, love one another." A simple word, and uttered many years ago, but which of us has learnt it even now?

But the Lord adds that which contrasts Peter's youth with his old age. In youth independent and self-sufficient, he had done much as he pleased. But God's ways, disciplining indeed, yet in pure love, would lead to his being girded by another, that is, restrained by the will of another, and forced to go where he did not want to (v. 18). While Peter was to be greatly used by the Lord, yet all for Peter was not be be great conquest. He would suffer, then die a death of crucifixion, evidently, but this would glorify God. It is claimed that Peter was crucified head downward, by request, for he felt himself unworthy to die in the same position as his Master.