Sermon notes on James Part 3

With great zeal and passion often come ambition and overconfidence in equal measure. This was also true for James. He was no different.

Matthew 20:20-24 records the story of James and John bringing their mother (Salome) to Jesus to ask that He would give them first place in His Kingdom. I'm surprised He didn't just laugh at them. He replied that they didn't know what they were getting themselves into and asked if they could do what He was going to do (He used the phrase 'drink the cup') Bursting with confidence, they of course said that they could. Jesus agreed with them that they would.

Their ambition was such that they wanted first place in the kingdom. Peter could have it while down here on earth, but they wanted it in the kingdom.

They wanted glory but did not know that in the kingdom of God, suffering precedes glory. THey thought they could do anything that Jesus could do!!!

Notice in vs 24 that they other disciples grumbled about this. That's because they had not thought of it first!!!

James wanted a crown of glory but Jesus gave him a cup of suffering.
James wanted power, but Jesus gave him servanthood
James wanted prominence and Jesus made him the first of the Apostles to be martyred.
James wanted to rule but Jesus gave him a sword for his own execution.

Quick note on James

I should have mentioned that James was the first martyr among the 12 Apostles. Stephen was the first martyr (Acts 7-8) even though he was not an Apostle

Sermon Notes on James Part 2

There are a couple of passages in the gospels and one in the book of Acts where James shows up, either with John or by himself. Each of these passages gives us insight into the character of James.

The first is in Luke 9:51-56. Jesus has set His path towards Jerusalem and decided to take the quickest rout to it, which goes through the heart of Samaria. Jews traveling to Jerusalem usually took the long route around Samaria, but Jesus and the apsotles went right through. Unfortunately, the Samaritans refused them a VISA to get through. James and John were filled with outrage and demanded that something be done. They asked Jesus if they should call fire down from heaven to destroy the Samaritans.

They probably thought they had good historical precedent for this. Way back in 2 Kings 1, Elijah did exactly that...called down fire on some Samaritans in that very area and killed them. James and John thought they were on good historical grounds. Their motives were wrong...they used 'we' instead of 'you'. But their zeal to defend Christ was good.

Jesus' response to this request of theirs was to say, "For the Son of man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them." Lovingkindness and mercy are virtues which are to be cultivated at least as much, if not more than zeal and passion.

Years later, Philip the evangelist (not the Apostle) had an amazing ministry among the Samaritans, bringing many of them to Christ. If the request of James and John had been answered, there might not have been any SAmaritans left to become believers.

Sermon notes on James Part I

James- the Apostle with the dark side (apologies to Star Wars).

What do we know about James?

- Older brother in a well-to-do or even rich family of fishermen
- ALways mentioned ahead of brother John so probably older brother
- Father had hired servants -unusual for fishermen
- Called 'Sons of Zebedee'. Father must have been important for that reference. Peter and Andrew, who were also fishermen are never mentioned in connection with their father
- John 18:16 John knew the high priest and could get Peter into his house
- The family obviously had connections
- Might have seemed like natural leader of the Apostles (tried to take over leadership at one point)
- Only thing he was first in was being the first martyr


- Part of Jesus' inner circle (Peter, James, John). Several times, Jesus took only them with Him.
- Saw Jairus' daughter raised from dead and James saw Jesus' power
- Saw transfiguration and James saw Jesus' Glory
- In Garden of Gethsemane and saw Jesus' agony.

All these things prepared James for his coming martydom

James was a man of passion and fiery zeal. But he also had problems with anger and a temper. He possibly also had a mean streak in him

Described by nickname of Boanerges (sons of thunder). Not a nickname given to Woody Allen but rather to a thunderous, larger-than-life personality.

Legitimate place in ministry for such people, those with thunderous personality. Nothing inherently wrong with such zeal, but it must be trained and tempered.

- Zeal without knowledge is damning
- Zeal without wisdom is dangerous
- Zeal with insensitivity is cruel
- Zeal with uncontrolled passion is deadly

How did Jesus begin training James so that his zeal and passion could be used for good?

My men

I am rapidly approaching the end of my men's discipleship group. Only about 8 weeks to go and we are done. It will be a bit of a sad occasion because we really enjoy meeting with each other, sharing our lives and Scripture and being in prayer.

Each year, I select a group of men to be in a discipleship group with me. It's 'invite-only', not an open group. I spend a year with them in dsicipleship, usually teaching them a particular section of Scripture (this year it is Genesis 12-50), giving them some additional books to read and going on a retreat or two.

Something good happened at our group tonight. One of the men named Paul has been working for a couple of weeks on developing more intimacy with God, especially during times of reading and studying Scripture. It's been a big concern of his and I have encouraged him to actually schedule his time with God. Don't treat it as something you are doing but rather someone you are meeting with.

Tonight he said his time with God in the last week or so has been extraordinary. He has been practicing the disciplines of solitude and silence. This is all well and good to hear from him. But the real treat was hearng what came out of his mouth as we were sharing what we had learned in this week's Genesis story (Genesis 42). There was more depth and wisdom than perhaps he had shown all year. There was clarity of thought and purpose to a degree which Paul had not shown before. There is obviously a tight correlation between what he learned this week in Scripture and his intimacy with God.

My prayer for Paul is that it would continue this upcoming week.

Let me tell you about last night's dinner

I had'nt really cooked a lot recently, so I decided to go a bit overboard last night. Seemed like a good time to do it and Christa really appreciated it.

Of course it started with my Friday night martini (1 and 1 only a week) I steamed some asparagus and set it aside to cool. I served it with a tarragon vinaigrette. The secret to the dressing is that you must use champagne vinegar. A bit pricey, but well worth it. I also roasted some potatoes with an onion olive oil mix and they of course were fantastic.

The best of course was the filet mignon. I made a mushroom ragout to go on top. It had (of course) mushrooms, garlic, a little red wine and heavy cream. Saute it all together for awhile until it reduces. Serve it over the filets.

I've learned a new secret for cooking steak, and it's the only way I will do it now. I took the filets and pressed in some salt and pepper on one side only and then cooked it for 5 minutes on 1 side in a cast-iron pan (the pan is one of the secrets) I then finished it off by roasting it in the over for about 10 min at 450 degrees. Sublime. Of course, there was the bottle of Merlot also.

How the 12 could do what they did

Act 17 records the story of the Jews who were unhappy with the apostles' teaching and stormed Jason's house in order to bring the 12 out, presumably to stone them. They were not there, however, so it was Jason who was dragged to the city square. The Jews then said this in 17:6, "Those who have turned the world upside down have come here." That's a pretty dramatic testimony to what these men did. But remember, they didn't have much going for them to begin with. How could they, a group of fisherman, an IRS agent and probably some other tradesmen or craftsmen turn the world upside down?

Acts 4 records another little story. Peter and John were out preaching and the religious leaders were amazed and astonished. Why? The knew who these guys were. Just some fishermen and nobodys. They knew they were untrained and uneducated. Then they connected the dots. They had been with Jesus. That was the key. Not their lack of education or anything like that, but the fact that they had walked with Jesus and had been personally trained by Him.

There came a point in the gospels where opposition to Jesus was increasing and the Jews wanted to get rid of Him. Jesus knew that His earthly ministry had its limits and the cross would soon appear on the horizon. Once He chose the 12, He began to spend His time more and more with them and less with large crowds. His personal training of them began and it was intense. On the surface, they didn't seem to have a lot of potential.

They lacked spiritual discernment. To counter this, Jesus taught and taught all the way until His ascension. They lacked humility, so He modeled it by washing their feet. They lacked faith, so He did miracles and other wonderous acts. They lacked commitment, so He prayed that they would remain strong. They lacked power, so He sent them the Holy Spirit.

All these things we lack also, but by the grace of God, they are given us also so we may minister in the Kingdom of God.

Lots of preaching going on

I'm in the middle of preaching 5 out of 7 weeks at a couple of different churches in the area. The one I'm at the most right now is Glen Ellen Community Church. I'm in the midst of a 4 week series (2 now and 2 in July) on the lives of the 12 Apostles. Who were these guys? How were they able to do what they did? As I've progessed in this study, I've realized that the common feature amongst all of them is that they were perfectly ordinary. Nothing remarkable in any of them.

Starting tomorrow, I'm going to be including some of my sermon notes here. Some of the apostles we know pretty well, like Peter. But what about the more obscure ones, like Simon the Zealot and James the son of Alphaeus? Should prove interesting.

Showing Hesed

So how to show hesed to this business associate of mine? It's a difficult situation with no easy answers. He is very anti-religious and even apart from that we really don't get along on a personal level. We both do not think the other one is very good at their job. He is tightly controlled, very detailed in his approach to things and generally insists that every 'T' be crossed and "I" dotted. He sometimes has a hard time doing anything that is even vaguely outside of established guidelines. I, on the other hand, tend to work more (both at the bank and at the church) spontaneously and try to see the bigger picture. I don't always want to get bogged down in details.

Bottom line...I need to pray for Jerry (hard thing to do for someone you don't really like). That's the first good step towards showing some hesed.

Religious persecution at work

Hard to believe, but I am on the receiving end of some religious persecution at the bank. I am bi-vocational, working both at Bay Hills Community Church and THe Mechanics Bank. My colleague at the bank, a man named Jerry, is about as anti-religous as they get. In the last week or so, he has delighted in making any snide comment about religion. Not even attempts at any type of humor or joke...just out and out mean.

Here are 2 examples. "hey Jeff, do you know where the nearest Hooters is?" I replied that I didn't and was wondering why he asked me. He said, "Because most of them are located in the Bible belt, so I thought you would know."

Second example. We are both looking at loan applications on Monday morning. Jerry pipes up and says, "Here's one that we should turn down. It's a minister. Matter of fact, the first loan I ever did here which turned out to be a repossession was a minister."

Myriad of opportunities

Preaching is one of the gifts which God has given me to further His Kingdom. It is what I aspire to do as I continue my pastoral job search. But I'm getting some pretty fantastic opportunities for this right now.

In the past, I've always done one week preaching assignments and never done a back-to-back. Wel,, that's coming to an abrupt end. I'm preaching at 2 different churches a total of 5 times in the next 7 weeks. More good prep fro God for ministry.

This week and next week I am at our church in Glen Ellen, up by Sonoma. The 2 weeks off before I make an appearance at our Dixon church. Then 2 more weeks at Glen Ellen. As things move along, I'm going to provide some notes here on what I have taught at the variosu churches.

Little girl sick

My 4 1/2 month old daughter Regan is sick. She appears to have developed a cold that is really bothering her. She didn't sleep much at all yesterday and didn't go to sleep until after midnight last night. Poor little girl was so incredibly overtired plus dealing with the cold. Christa and I tried to pull every trick out of the bag to help her sleep but nothing worked. Nursing, rocking, ledtting her cry it out...nothing. I even used the means of last resort. I loaded her into the car and went for a drive. No such luck. I finally ended up going to sleep and Christa stayed up with her until she finally went down about 12:30 or so. I was going to have an easier time sleeping with her crying than Christa would. I think it was a good team effort which eventually paid off. Caleb, of course, slept through the entire thing.

Living Hesed

I suppose the first thing to do is say a bit about what this title means and where this particular blog will be going. I had a previous blog named 'postcards from the word', but I gave up on it. For one thing, I coulnd't log onto it for some reason, even though my passwords were valid. It was becoming a bit trivial at the end anyway. I had lost my way, to an extent. So be it.

So here it is. What is hesed? Brian Morgan of Peninsula Bible Church has said that it is the key to understanding the Old Testament. If one understands hesed, one understands the Old Testament. The best translation is probably either 'loyallove' or 'lovingkindness'. In either case, it is a description of how Yahweh dealt with Israel. Always through hesed. This is also the way in which The Lord deals with His children today, on the basis of lovingkindness and loyallove. We see it over and over again in the Old Testament in the stories of Israel and the great heroes of faith. We see it in the New Testament through the actions of Jesus, the early church and also it is strongly written about in Paul's letters.

This blog is called 'Livinghesed' because that is what I do and desire to do everyday. It is what I do because I am under God's protection. In essence I am living in the midst of hesed everyday of my life. But the other half is important also. I also want to live as a conduit of hesed in the lives of others everyday. I want to be one who acts towards others with loyallove and lovingkindness.

So here we go