A Skeptic No More

As many of you know I grew up in a large family with five brothers and one sister.

Since 1990 my parents have lived and worked in the same area meaning all my siblings and myself included went to the same High School.

Because I was the middle child most of my teachers in school when they found out that I was a Marble they already had either High or Low expectations for me based on my siblings who had already came through their classes.

For any of you out there who had a similar experience you know that this can either work to your advantage or it could have the opposite affect.

As good or annoying, depending on the circumstances, as it is to grow up as a younger sibling imagine what it must have been like to grow up as the younger brother of Jesus.

Imagine trying to follow Jesus through school. He probably made perfect grades becasue he was able to memorize the Torah faster than any of his classmates. And on top of that he was probably the teacher’s favorite student.

I imagine the Rabbis had high expectations for Jesus’ siblings, maybe higher than they could live up to.

But not only was it probably difficult to follow in Jesus footsteps at school, imagine what it must have been like in the home. Imagine what it must have been like to get into an argument with Jesus as a child only for him to probably always be right.

Imagine being the younger sibling of Jesus and having to follow after someone who never did anything bad or got into trouble.

And then to make things worse I can only imagine that when Jesus siblings did get into trouble their parents may have said something like, “Why can’t you be more like your brother.

To make matters worse, Jesus becomes a well-known speaker and begins to imply that He is not only their brother but he is the Messiah, the one that everyone had been desperately longing for. Imagine trying to explain your brother to your friends.

As frustrating as it can be at times to live up to the expectations or to rise above the failures of one’s older siblings, James the brother of Jesus probably had the most difficult of time.

This morning like we did last week with the so called doubting Thomas I want us to take a look at the life of James, the brother of Jesus and see what he can teach us about the importance of being willing to submit to not only his brother but his Master and King.

In the New Testament we know very little about Jesus family.

Things that we do know is that his parents were Mary & Joseph and he at least had four brothers, James, Joseph, Simon & Judas. All though, not mentioned by name the Bible does mention that Jesus did have sisters as well.

Mark 6:3 ESV

Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.

Even though Jesus siblings probably resented him they seem to have still been a pretty close family or at least they still cared for Jesus well being.

On one occasion recorded for us in Mark 3, Jesus family heard that Jesus had drawn a great crowd and much controversy arose.

So they quickly went and tried to take custody of him. The text says this.

Mark 3:21 ESV

And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”

Essentially what is happening here is His family has come to his aid becasue they think that he is not mentally stable.

Even though I believe that his family cared for him, Jesus brothers including James did not believe the things that he was proclaiming. John Records for us that even his brothers did not believe in Him.

John 7:5 ESV

For not even his brothers believed in him.

James and the rest of Jesus’ family had undoubtedly heard the testimony of their parents about the uniqueness of Jesus’ birth. They would have witnessed and/or heard about many of His miracles. Even though they spent almost 30 years with Jesus they did not believe in Him.

It wasn't until His resurrection from the dead, that they began to believe. Thankfully from that point forward there is no mention of his family having any more doubts about His divinity.

When I think about James and the path that He and his family took in order to believe in who Jesus was. It reminds me that I need to be patient with people whom I love who hasn't surrendered their life to Jesus like I have.

Imagine how hard it must have been for Jesus to not only be rejected by his peers but his own family. But thankfully Jesus never stopped loving them and never lost hope that they would one day believe in Him.

Such a great reminder for us to never give up on those that we love. Continue to show them the love of Jesus. Continue to pray earnestly for their conversion to Christ. Christ never gave up on his family, Christ never gave up on us, Christ has not given up on our loved ones and neither should we.

Because James the Brother of Jesus eventually did believe in who He was, He became a prominent figure in the Lord’s Church.

If we had time this morning what we would learn is that James not only most likely wrote the letter of James but he played a prominent role in the Church in Jerusalem. This is evident from passages like Acts 15

But not only did he minister to the largest congregation in the world but in Galatians 1:19 Paul seems to refer to him as one of the Apostles.

Galatians 1:19 ESV

But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord’s brother.

Of all the things that we could look at to see how James the brother of Jesus was willing to serve his brother and King, this morning I want to simply focus in on how James identifies himself in his letter.

James 1:1 NASB95

James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad: Greetings.

Rather than referring to himself as the brother of Jesus (if that wasn’t credible enough) James identified himself as a bond-servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

James went from the unbelieving brother of Jesus to now as a devoted follower.

He went from referring to his brother as someone who was out of his mind to now referring to his brother as his Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ.

James took the words of the apostle Paul to heart when he said this in 2 Cor 5:16

2 Corinthians 5:16 ESV

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.

James saw Jesus not as his annoying brother but as his Lord, and King.

As reverent as James is toward his brother the fact that he refers to himself as a bond servant of Christ is most significant.

To us this may not mean much, but to a Jew it called to mind a very special relationship between a master and slave.

In the Old Testament the law permitted a Jew to sell himself into slavery for seven years as a means to pay back a debt that was owed.

After the seven years was up the servant if he was treated well he could choose to be his master’s servant forever. The servant would commit to do only the will of his master forthe rest of his life.

In return the Master would commit to provide for and to protect the servant for as long as he loved. This was a covenant relationship that was made between master and servant.

Notice with me this covenant found in Deut 15:12-18

Deuteronomy 15:12–18 ESV

“If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you, he shall serve you six years, and in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you. And when you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty-handed. You shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, out of your threshing floor, and out of your winepress. As the Lord your God has blessed you, you shall give to him. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this today. But if he says to you, ‘I will not go out from you,’ because he loves you and your household, since he is well-off with you, then you shall take an awl, and put it through his ear into the door, and he shall be your slave forever. And to your female slave you shall do the same. It shall not seem hard to you when you let him go free from you, for at half the cost of a hired worker he has served you six years. So the Lord your God will bless you in all that you do.

As you can see from the text a bond servant is someone who chooses to be a servant of their master by choice. And it was signified in the Old Testament by the piercing of one’s ear.

James the brother of Jesus realized who Jesus was and was now thrilled to now spend the rest of his life serving his master.

James did not see his service to his brother, Jesus, as a burden but as a loving response of gratitude for all that he had come to realize that his brother had done for him so that he could be saved.

Today Jesus has invited us to become bondservants of his as well. Not out of fear, or regret but simply because we are thankful for all that he has done for us.

This morning I cannot read of this covenant between master and servant without thinking of the beautiful words from the song that many of us know. The song is Pierce my ear. The words if allowed have the power to preach and convict your heart more than any words than I could ever say up here this morning. So let’s sing this song together and please pay attention to the words and their meaning. Place yourself in the song as the willing servant and let these words impact you for the better this morning.

James the brother of Jesus went from being a skeptic to a believer. He went from not believing in what Jesus had to offer to being willing to have his ear pierced so that he could be a servant of his master.

Why was he willing to do this? Well it was because he now understood why his brother had to die on the cross. He understood that his brother was willing to pay the price so that he didn’t have to. He now believed that his brother’s blood had ransomed him or set him free from his sins.

And so becasue of what his brother, now savior and king did for him he was willing to serve him for eternity.

This morning have you had your ear pierced? I hope so. When one truly understand what our savior has done for us than their is no greater response than to willingly submit to him by becoming a bond servant of Christ just like the Apostle James.

You see as Christians and Bond-servants of Christ we come to our master because we owe a debt that we cannot pay but we choose to stay becasue of how much we love him and he loves us.

My prayer this morning is that if you havent made the choice to become a bondservant of Christ so that he can remove your debt of sin. I pray that you will make that choice today.

If you already have than my prayer is that this week you will one spend time thanking your master for how he continues to care for you and then I pray that you will spend time reflecting on how you can better serve him this week.