Sermon Tone Analysis

Tonight we will continue on with James.

We have established he was passionate.

The type of passion depicted is different in how I would normally define it.

He was intense and firece but not at all tolerant to sin and wanted to make sure it was punished thoroughly and in an intolerantly, cruel, blood thristy manner.

There is nothing wrong with zeal and fevor, or even low tolerance for sin.

Remember Jesus Himself made a whip and cleansed the temple.

When He did this the disciples remembered that it was written:

James of all people knew what it meant to be eaten up with passionate zeal for the Lord.

A lot of what James saw probably helped stroke his zeal - such as when Jesus rebuked the Jewish leaders, when He cursed the cities of Chorazin and Bethsaida, and when He confronted and destroyed demonic powers.

Zeal is a virtue when it is truly zeal for righteousness’ sake.

Sometimes zeal is less than righteous.

Zeal apart from knowledge can be damning.

Zeal without wisdom is dangerous.

Zeal mixed with insensitivity is often cruel.

Whenever zeal disintegrates into uncontrolled passion, it can be deadly.

James sometimes had that tendency to let such misguided zeal get the better of him.

This evening I want to highlight some of these instances in James’ life where his miguided zeal got the better of him.

Lots of times it is easier for us to see the issues in the lives of others than how this level of judgement affects our own lives.

Fire from Heaven

Thrones in the Kingdom

A Cup of Suffering

Fire from Heaven

This instance illustrates why James and John were named the Sons of Thunder in Luke.

Jesus was preparing to pass through Samaria, heading to Jerusalem for the final passover.

This would be the climax of His life - death, burial and resurrection.

Luke 9:51

It is important to note that Jesus chose to travel through Samaria, even though it was the shortest way to get to Jerusalem from Galilee, most Jews who travelled between these plaes took a route that required them to around Samaria into the barren dessert of Perea which required crossing the Jordan twice jut to avoid Samaria.

The Samaritians were a mixed race of people who were offspring of the Israelites from the Northern Kingdom.

When Israel was conquered by the Assyrians the land was resettled with pagans and foreigners who were loyal to the Assyrian King.

Poor Israelites who stayed in the land were intermarried with those pagans.

From the beginning these interlooping pagans did not prosper in the land because they did not fear the Lord.

So the King of Assyria sent back one of the priests whom he had taken captive, in order to teach the people.

2 Kings

This resulted in elements of truth blended with paganism.

2 Kings 17

They still claimed to worship Jehovah as God but they founded their own priests, built their own temple, and made up their own sacrifice system.

The Samartian example is exactly what happens when the authority of scripture is subjected to human tradition.

Jews regarded the Samaritians as a mongruel or offensive to the human race and their religion in the same manner.

That is why in the time of Christ they went through such pains to avoid travelling through Samaria.

The entire region was deemed as unclean.

But Jesus wanted to get to Jerusalem and it did not bother Him to face the Samaritians.

He chose the most direct route which meant through Samaria.

Along the way they would need places to eat and stay overnight.

Since the party who travelled with Jesus was rather large they sent messengers ahead to make arrangements.

Jesus was headed to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover and the Samaritians did not think these ceremonies and feasts needed to be observed in Jerusalem but on Mount Gerizim and therefore refused to accomodate Jesus and the party who travelled with Him.

The Samritians not only hated the Jews but they hated the worship that took place in Jerusalem.

They had no interest in Christ’s agenda at all because Jesus represented everything they despised.

There was room for them in Samaria but they were being deliberately inhospitable.

They were going to make it as hard as possible for Jesus to pass through their city.

They hated the Jews and their worship as much as the Jews hated them and their worshp.

The Samaritians figured this was fairplay to treat them like this.

Jesus had never shown anything but good will to the Samaritians.

He healed the Samaritian’s leprosy and commeneded that man for his gratefulness.

Jesus accepted water from the Samaritian woman and gave her the water of life.

John 4:7-29

He then stayed in that woman’s village evangelizing her neighbours for two days.

John 4:39-

Jesus also made the Samaritian the hero in the parable of the Good Samaritian.

Later on He commands His disciples to preach the Gospel to the Samaritians.

Jesus always been full of kindness and goodwill to the Samaritians.

But now they met Him with deliberate contempt.

James and John, the sons of thunder, were immediately filled with passionate outrage.

They had something in mind to remedy this situation.

They said this

The reference to Elijah was used for significance, because the incident they were referring to happened in the same region.

They knew about the OT accout and they knew the historical relevance to Samaria.

We see the deep resentment from the Jews to the Samaritians.

Talk about hate speech.

Samaria had been associated with idol worship and apostacy long before the Assyrian conquest.

This region was known for Baal worship in the days of Elijah.

Also the place where Ahab built his famous ivory palace.

Amos

There is a long history here that we won’t get into this evening but Elijah was sent by the Lord to stand up for the things of the Lord and to battle against the prophets of Baal and the King.

Elijah was unphased by the opposition and stayed true to what th Lord called him to do and the enemies were defeated.

All that happened in that region through which Jesus proposed to travel through to Jerusalem.

The story of Elijah’s firey triumph was well known to the disciples.

It was a classic OT episodes they would have been merely reminded of by merely travelling through the area.

So when James and John suggested fire from Heaven as a fitting response to the Samaritian’s rejection and inhospitality they thought they were standing on a solid precedent.

Afterall Elijah was not condmened for his actions.

At the time this was the best response but this time that reaction was not warranted.

The motives of James and John was wrong and the tone of arrogance is evident.

Lord do you want US to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?

Of course they did not have that power to do this, Christ was the only one who did.

If that were the correct response He would be the only one able to do so.

Jame and John were brazen to suggest this act and suggesting the act be THEM to do so.

James and John were asking to enable them to fo what they knew He would not do.

Jesus’ mission was also very different from Elijah’s.

Christ came to save not destroy!

Therefore the response to the bothers of thunder was firm and to the point.

Luke 9:

Jesus was on a mission to save the lost how could they have missed that?

He came to rescue not to judge.

Jesus had every right to demand their worship and respect.

There is a time coming when Christ WILL judge the world.

But this was not the time and thanks be to God we still have time to get our lives in order those who know Him are to declare the truth of His word and those who do not know Him still have time a grace period to embrace the greatest truth of all.

Eccles.

3:1-9

James and John momentarily forgot that now is the day of Salvation.

Luke

Their zeal to defend Christ’s honor is commendable as well.

We know their heart was in the right place here.