Sermon Tone Analysis

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.