James and John
Good morning
I’m going to continue our study of the apostles with the brothers James and John. We will be studying them together this morning because much of their life's stories overlap. Generally, when we see one, we see the other. Of the two James is the least familiar to us. He never appears as a stand-alone character. In fact the only time he is mentioned by himself is in the book of acts when his martyrdom is recorded.
Between James and John, James was the oldest. That's why his name appears first when the two names are listed together. Between the two sets of brothers (Peter and Andrew and James and John) James and John apparently came from a more important family. We know this because they are referred to as the sons Zebedee.
Historically parentage is only recorded in the Bible if the person is of some importance. Zebedee had to abandon a man off importance. We can assume that either his prominence came from financial success; remember the sons were due to inherit their fathers fishing business, or due to family lineage.
We know that both are true, because Mark tells us the fishing business had many employees. And John tells us that he was well-known to the high priest --that's how he and Peter were admitted to his courtyard on the night of Jesus arrest.
Early church historians record that Zebedee was a Levite. And that his family's reputation reached all the way from Galilee, his home, to the high priest's house in Jerusalem.
James then as the oldest child should have the right to have been chosen as the chief apostle over Peter. After all, he had a religious pedigree. He was the first born son of an influential Levite.
James as one of the inner circle, he was there when Jesus raised Jairus' daughter from the dead. He was there on the Mount of Transfiguration; he was there in the garden of Gethsemane.
The sons of Zebedee are known for their intense passion and zeal. Jesus gave them the nicknames of "the sons of thunder". Unlike Peter's name, which was meant to encourage him to become more of the rock,
sons of thunder was meant as a rebuke.” It was Jesus gentile way of reminding them that they were exhibiting temperaments about to get out of hand.
A little bit later we will be looking at instances when James and John acted as the sons of thunder.
But first I want to say something about zeal. The zeal is defined in modern English as fervor in advancing a cause or in rendering service or 'passion' or 'earnest desire’. But in Hebrew and Greek zeal can have a bad connotation, often rendered 'envy’ or ’jealousy’ and even 'covet'.
So it is no surprise that while zeal is a virtue if it's used for a righteous purpose, zeal without righteousness can be deadly. Zeal with out wisdom is dangerous. Zeal without insensitivity can be cruel. Zeal without control can be deadly.
Now do you have a clearer picture of what sons of thunder refers to? Let's take a look at a couple examples.
Turn with me to Luke 9:51-56.
51 As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.
What jumps out at you in that line?
"Resolutely" that means Jesus set out for Jerusalem in the shortest most direct path. He had to get there and nothing was going to stop him.
Now we need to take a little rabbit trail here. The most direct route from Galilee to Jerusalem went right through Samaria. Most Jews going from Jerusalem to Galilee would not take the most direct route. They didn't want to defile themselves by having contact with Samaritans. They would just take the longer route and avoid them. But Luke tells us here that Jesus resolutely set out. He didn’t have time for a detour.
What do we know about the Samaritans? Why did the Jews hate them?
Samaritans are from the Northern Kingdom of Judah. We know that when Israel was divided into two kingdoms the Northern two tribes became Judah. And the southern ten tribes was continued to be call Israel.
Now, if we go back to the time of the Assyrian captivity, we discover that not all of Israel was carried off. The weak, the aged, and some women and children were left behind to tend the fields. This soon became too difficult for too few to accomplish. So the Kings sent foreigners (men) to intermarry with the people remaining and to do the work in the villages.
From the very beginning they did not prosper. Remember the passage is about God sending lions to terrorize the people? (2 Kings 17:25)
The result was that the King sent a couple priest's to live with the people and offers sacrifices to God on their behalf. Their religion blended elements of Judaism and paganism. In other words they claim to worship Jehovah, and be guided by the Torah, but in practice they integrated pagan practices of their foreign spouses' religions.
What resulted was their own hybrid religion. Their own priesthood, their own temple, and their own sacrificial system. When the descendants of the original Israelites returned from captivity, many of them had intermarried with Assyrians. So the culture of Samaria suited them perfectly.
The Samaritan temple site was at Mt. Gerizim. Samaritans were convinced that this was the only place to worship God properly. Jews, on the other hand, are convinced you could only worship properly in Jerusalem. They hate each other because they felt they were the true Israel -- Samaritans because they were left behind and worshipped from the true Torah only and Jews because they hadn't intermarried and were a pure race and had the writings of the prophets.
Back to Jesus, resolutely set out for Jerusalem, he and his followers would take a more direct route through Jerusalem. This of course would require they spend the night in Samaria.
52 And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; 53 but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem.
Are we surprised? Of course not. Samaritans felt that they were supposed to worship God on Mt. Gerizim. Remember they are part of the 12 tribes of Israel too. They have the Torah. They are all going to celebrate the Passover.
Jesus is messengers were refused accommodations because Samaritans not only hated the Jews but they hated the worship that took place in Jerusalem.
The problem was not that there was no room for them; the problem was that they were being deliberately inhospitable. This is not the first-time Jesus walk through Samaria with his disciples.
· Jesus had healed a Samaritan of his leprosy-this was the one who returned to thank Jesus when ten were healed.
· Jesus had met the women at the well in Samaria and spent two days evangelizing her neighbors.
· Jesus even made a Samaritan by hero in one of his parables.
No wonder the sons of thunder were enraged.
54 When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them ?”
Does anybody know what James and John were referring to here?
Does anybody know who King Ahaziah is? (2 Kings 1)
He was Ahab and Jezebel's son. He was a chip off the old block. He followed the pagan religions of his mother Jezebel even though he had witnessed firsthand the power of God through Elijah.
Ahaziah was walking along the rooftop one day and fell through the latticework on his deck. He was severely injured and wondered if he would die? So he sent a messenger to the prophets of Baal Zebub to inquire if he would live.
Along the way his messengers bumped into Elijah. Elijah had been woken up by an Angel of the Lord, who instructed him to ask the King, “is there was no God in Israel to inquire of?” And so the Lord said that Ahaziah would not recover but would surely die.
When the messengers returned to the King with his answer, King Ahaziah instantly knew that the profit had been Elijah. So he sent a battalion of 50 men to confront the prophet. The commander instructed Elijah to come with them. Elijah responded that “if he were a man of God, fire would come down from heaven and consume the men”. It did.
King Ahaziah sent a second battalion with the same message and they receive the same fate. Incredibly the Kings sent a third battalion but its leader was a wise man who pleaded for the lives of his men. Elijah went with him and delivered his message to the King in person. And Ahaziah died.
So when James and John suggested that fire fall from heaven on the Samaritans they probably thought that they were acting in righteousness since Elijah was not condemned for his actions.
In fact what they were doing was pronouncing a judgment against those who had wrong to them. They did not have the power to call fire down from heaven. Only Jesus had that authority. James and John were asking Jesus to give them that authority. Now remember as part of the inner circle James and John would have been there when the Pharisees demanded a miracle from Jesus. For James and John to suggest such a thing put them in the same category.
James and John were asking for the power to do what Jesus wouldn't.
What did Jesus do?
55 But Jesus turned and rebuked them, 56 and they went to another village.
Back to the zeal thing. It was right for them to defend Jesus honor. It was wrong to be filled with self righteous wrath. When Elijah called fire down from heaven it was a public display of God's wrath against the evil regime that sat on Israel's thrown for generations. When James and John attempted to call fire down from heaven it was there a judgment on the people of Samaria.
Another insight into the character of James and John can be seen in Matthew 20:20-24
20 Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favor of him.
Who asked? What do you think she was doing there?
Both Mark and Matthew tell us that her name was Salome and that she was one of the many women who follow Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him. This meant that she supplied financial support and probably helps with meals.
Now remember her husband Zebedee was a wealthy man. She could afford to spend extended periods of time traveling with the company that follow Jesus.
If we read between the lines we can infer that her sons put her up to this. After all they were already in his inner circle. It's also safe to assume that she was a willing participant and may even be responsible for her sons’ ambition and attitude.
21 “What is it you want?” he asked.
She said, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.”
Note Jesus response, he doesn't address her he addresses the boys
22 “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said to them. “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?”
“We can,” they answered.
Here is that reckless zeal again. He told them he was going to Jerusalem to be delivered up and crucified. And that was the furthest thing from their mind. They were more concerned over who was going to be the greatest.
23 Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father.”
24 When the ten heard about this, they were indignant with the two brothers.
How irritated were the remaining 10? Scripture tells us this argument continued at the Last Supper.
James did drink from the cup of suffering. In fact he was first among the 12 to be martyred. Herod Agrippa I, the nephew of Herod Antipas who conspired to kill Jesus wanted to use the tensions between the church and the Jewish religious leaders to his political advantage ordered the execution of James by beheading. James by the way is the only apostle whose death is recorded in Scripture.
John
James’ Brother John is the most familiar to us because he wrote so much of the New Testament: the gospel of John, three epistles, and the book of Revelation. What we know about John comes mainly from his own writings.
Like Andrew, John was the younger and often walked in the shadow of his older brother. But John also had a turn at leadership. He outlived all the other apostles and filled the role of patriarch of the early church nearly to the end of the first century. His influence extended from Rome to deep into Asia Minor.
I would like to remind you at this point that the term sons of thunder referred to both James and John. John's personality and character mirror his brother for the early part of his life.
When you think of John, what picture comes to mind?
The character in Christian art is the meek, fair-skinned, effeminate man, a lying on Jesus shoulder looking up with him with doe like eyes? In fact he was rugged, hard edged man like the rest of the fishermen disciples. He was right there are with his brother eager to call fire down from heaven on the Samaritans. And he was one of the great debaters and who was the greatest.
John was a man of absolutes. Everything was cut and dry.
In his gospels he sets:
· light against darkness,
· life against death,
· the kingdom of God against the kingdom of the devil,
· the children of God against the children of Satan,
· the resurrection of the life and the damnation of the dead.
There is no gray in John, everything is black and white. Jesus was like that.
John was driven by his quest for the truth. John, remember was a former disciple of John the Baptist. He and Andrew immediately left John and followed Jesus when he was identified by the Baptist as the Messiah.
In his younger years John was a bit of the extremist. His sins were zeal pushed too far -- intolerance and self ambition. We've already looked at the examples of calling fire down from the sky and the debate over who was the greatest.
Now what happens when John is on his own? Let’s look at his character when he isn’t in James’ shadow.
Turn with me to Mark 9
38 “Teacher,” said John, “we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.”
John is clearly out of control. His zeal for the ministry was clearly out of balance. He was lacking genuine love for people. He was supposed to be leading people to Christ. What this passage demonstrates is that he had become an elitist. He was still trying to be the greatest.
What is significant for us here in is this event came shortly after John had witnessed Jesus in the Transfiguration. He was one of three who had experienced the glorious mountaintop appearance. And yet he was threatened by the power of God manifest in a disciple. We call this "sectarianism". That's just a fancy way of saying, if you're not a card-carrying member of the group, you will never belong. John was living up to his name as a son of thunder. He was in tolerance, aggressive, and downright competitive. John had actually tried to shut down a man's ministry for no other reason than he didn't belong to the group.
How did Jesus respond?
39 “Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, 40 for whoever is not against us is for us. 41 I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward.
With this kind of personality, it makes one wonder, how did John become the "apostle of all love"?
Simple answer: he learned balance from Jesus.
John learned how to balance truth with love. Without love, truth can make one judgmental. Its fine to be ambitious, but ambition without humility it becomes pride, or self-promotion at the expense of others.
Many churches today are just as imbalanced as John was. Some place too much emphasis on love and forsake knowledge. Others value education over kindness evangelism. The truly godly must cultivate both virtues in equal proportions.
For the perfect balance of truth and love -- know the truth and uphold it in love. As a mature apostle John learned a lesson well. In his epistles he merges the concepts of love and truth. At the same time he learned in order to be the greatest in the kingdom, he must be the servant of all.
That John saw himself as the least in the kingdom is also evident in his writings. John refuses to speak of himself by name instead he refers to himself in reference to Jesus. He is the “disciple whom Jesus loved”. Each time he refers to himself he gives glory to God for having loved him.
His humility also comes through in the way he refers to his readers. He calls them "little children" or "beloved" and includes himself as their brother and fellow child of God.
As far as we know he was the only disciple who was an actual eyewitness to Jesus crucifixion. He was standing close enough to the Cross for Jesus to see him.
Turn to John 19:25-27, we read
25 Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleopas, and Mary Magdalene.
26 When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Dear woman, here is your son,” 27 and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
Church historians say that John never left Jerusalem or the care of Mary until she died. Had he not learned to be a humble loving servant Jesus would never have given him the care of his mother.
Consider this, he told Peter “feed my sheep”, and told John “care for my mother”.
John was the only disciple to live to an old age. But it was not an easy life.
· When his brother James became the church’s first martyr, John bore the loss in a more personal way than the others.
· As each of the other disciples was martyred one by one,
· John suffered the grief and the pain of additional loss.
John became the pastor of the church the apostle Paul founded at Ephesus. The Roman Emperor Domitian banished John to a prison on Patmos, a small island in the Aegean Sea off the west coast of Turkey. He endured anguish and persecution long after his fellow apostles were already in glory. He lived in a cave where he received and recorded the apocalyptic versions described in the book of Revelation. He was cut off from those he loved and treated with cruelty, made to sleep on a stone slab with a rock for his pillow.
There is no mention or complaint of his sufferings anywhere in his epistles or in Revelation.
In Rev 1:9 we read,
9 I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus,
Notice again John's use of extremes: tribulation and patience. John learned balance.
As I mentioned earlier John use the word truth some 45 times in his gospel and the epistles. You will be interested to learn that he uses the word love more than 80 times.
John died, by most accounts, around AD 98 during the reign of the Emperor Trajan. The church historian Jerome writes that John was so frail and his final days at Ephesus that he had to be carried into the church.
It is recorded that the phrase my little children, love one another" was always on his lips. When asked why he always said this, he replied, "it is the Lords command, and if this alone be done, it is enough." For John, the truth became love.