So You May Have Fellowship!” 1 John 1:3-4
The Apostle John served His Lord and God’s people in Ephesus. Early in his ministry he preferred to tell God’s truth by speaking and he did not write to his people until the end of his life. As God planned John became the last disciple living. The Emperor Domitian condemned him to death in a vat of boiling oil before the senators but that failed to kill him and then he exiled John to the island of Patmos. There to comfort the persecuted believers John wrote Revelation. After Domitian died the senate brought John out of exile and he returned to Ephesus. Then, as the only disciple now alive, he wrote 1,2,&3rdJohn, and finally the book of John.
John writes with a passion to let his readers know the truth of Christ. He writes as the only one left that could share, “which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands,” 1 John 1:1 So he wrote that we may have fellowship with him, the Father, with Christ and with each other. The purpose of fellowship? So that all may have joy.
Question: The Apostle John served the church in Ephesus as their pastor / bishop. How did the church in Ephesus begin?
Answer: In Acts 18 we are told Jewish Christians, including Priscilla and Aquila, and Apollos brought the Gospel to Ephesus. Then Paul, over a period of three years, taught, preached, instructed and lived with them.
