James and John: Sons of Thunder

Sons of Thunder

One of the more curious appellations that we find in the scriptures is the name that Jesus gave to the brothers James and John–Boanerges.  Mark records this moniker in 3:17 “And James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James; and he surnamed them Boanerges, which is, The sons of thunder.”  One does not have to wonder as to why Jesus so marked these two brothers.  In Luke 9:51, Jesus is on the way to Jerusalem and he is passing through Samaria to get there.  He sends some disciples ahead to find a place to lodge, but no one wants to put Jesus up because they know he is going to Jerusalem.  (Samaritans and Jews didn’t get along too well in those days.)  James and John suggest the following: “Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?” (Luke 9:54).

One can certainly understand James and John’s sentiments.  Here is the Lord of the universe in human form.  He has come to earth divesting Himself of His heavenly glory so that he could serve man.  He is on his way to Jerusalem to go to the Passover and he needed a place to stay for one evening.  He had already spent time among the Samaritans (John 4:43) and they would likely have known that he held no ill will toward them and was, in fact, their friend.  But cultural bigotry can be a strong force in influencing people not to aid those of other cultures and this day, the Samaritans were not feeling particularly hospitable.  What bigots!  What racists!  Didn’t they know with whom they were dealing?  Those ungrateful wretches!  Surely the Lord would want them destroyed until nothing was left but a heap of smoldering ashes and cinders!  However, we read, “But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.  For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. And they went to another village” (Luke 9:55, 56).

God does not desire that anyone be lost. We read in Ezekiel 18:32 “For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.”  God does not take pleasure in destroying evil people.  There are some today who picture God as some malevolent dictator who sits up in heaven eagerly waiting to press the “smite” button.  Such is not the God that we serve.  Those who eventually will be lost, are lost not because of God, but in spite of God.  Peter writes, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).  God wants all men to be saved and so he is patient, kind, and longsuffering.  God is desirous that men repent and live.  James and John’s request to bring down fire upon these Samaritans was out of character with God’s desires for man’s salvation.

Attitude plays a key role in preaching the gospel. Jesus said of James and John, “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.”  Their attitudes were not right.  They should have been seeking to forgive these Samaritans instead of condemn them.  This is not to excuse the sin of the Samaritans, but instead to look for ways to bring them out of sin so that they could be saved.  James and John should also have been seeking to humble themselves for the sake of these lost Samaritans.  Humility was a problem with the disciples.  On at least one occasion these two asked to be seated in positions of authority (Mark 10:37).  Jesus taught them that those who serve would be the greatest in the kingdom.  Too, James and John should also have been seeking to sacrifice themselves for the salvation of other souls.  Jesus died for all men while in their sins (Romans 5:8).  The servant is not greater than his Lord (John 13:16), hence, James and John’s attitude should have been one of sacrifice instead of condemnation.  James and John’s request to bring fire down out of heaven was out of character with Jesus mission.

We must realize that Satan is the enemy, not other men. Perhaps in calling down fire James and John felt that they could right a terrible wrong, but they would not have dealt with the true enemy.  Satan was the one who stirred up those national hatreds within the Samaritans.  Destroying a few Samaritans wouldn’t get rid of him.  Satan must be fought on a spiritual level.  He must be fought with teaching and instruction.  Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:  (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)  Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;  And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled” (2 Corinthians 10:3-6).  We avenge disobedience by bringing people to Christ and bringing them to full obedience, not by waging physical war against them.  This is what overthrows the influence of Satan, the true enemy.  James and John’s request was out of character with who the true enemy was.

It is easy for us to be like James and John today.  People wrong us and we feel as if we need to be avenged.  Wrongs come at all levels in our society.  Those in high office are openly criticized for their mistakes in power.  Individuals sue other people for enormous sums of money and win because they are seeking retribution.  It is easy for a Christian to be caught up in the atmosphere of seeking “justice” even to the point of castigating one’s fellow brother in Christ.  But let us ask ourselves before engaging in such “justice”: Are we seeking something consistent with God’s character?  Does our attitude reflect the mission of Jesus to seek and save the lost?  Does our request recognize who the true enemy is?  One other lesson that the sons of thunder teach us is this, even when injustice occurs, it is not always worth pursuing correction.  Are we seeking to call down fire from heaven to consume our enemies?  Let us examine our hearts and motives each and every day in following the Lord to ensure consistency with God’s will in our lives.

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Commission: Think Globally, Act Locally

Think Globally, Act Locally

In 1969, the environmental group Friends of the Earth, had as its slogan, “Think Globally, Act Locally.” The basic message if this slogan was to encourage people to do what they could for the conservation of the entire world’s environment by taking action in their local area to help conserve and clean up the neighborhood environment – all the while maintaining an overall view of the rest of the world. They believed that if people in each locality would take local action to protect the environment then eventually the whole global environment would be restored.

This article, however, is not about saving the physical environment. While the protection and conservation of our natural environment is important, it pales in comparison to the importance of saving the spiritual environment of our world. This can be carried out by thinking globally and acting locally. Christians have been called to, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age…” (Matthew 28:19-20 NKJV) This is our Great Commission – make disciples of all the nations. How do we accomplish this?

First, begin at home – personal evangelism within your own family. We could begin by focusing our evangelistic effort on our non-Christian children, parents, siblings, or other close relatives. Consider, 1 Timothy 5:8 “But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” (NKJV) This specific context deals with taking care of physical needs, but in the larger Biblical context, it addresses the spiritual. If we will not see after the spiritual needs of our families then we deny the faith.

Second, work with our friends and neighbors – expanding our efforts gradually – focusing on the need the act locally. Consider Galatians 6:10, “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith…” (NKJV) What better way to “do good” toward our neighbor than to “make disciples” of them?

Third, become involved in mission work – both at home and abroad. Note that there is little difference between mission work and evangelism. Mission work is part of evangelism with a slight twist. Local evangelism is when we carry out the Great Commission in an area where the church is already established. Mission work or world evangelism when we carry out the Great Commission in areas where the church has not been established or areas where it is in the process of being established. This may include neighboring cities, counties, states and foreign countries. Jesus said to go into all the world. How we accomplish that is left up to us.

The first two steps mentioned that involve thinking globally, acting locally are relatively simple to carry out because we already have the opportunity to teach our family, friends and neighbors. But in what way can we think globally and act locally with regard to world evangelism? Must we each travel to foreign countries? Thanks to recent technological advances, it is no longer necessary to for every one who wants to carry out the Great Commission abroad to travel to foreign countries. Through the internet and even through air-mail correspondence it is now possible for the average Christian to become directly involved in world evangelism without having set foot outside their home. There are numerous programs in the church today in which individual Christians can become involved.

While it is possible for more people to become involved in world evangelism without leaving home, there is still a crucial need for workers to travel overseas and work “hands on” with the local people. In many countries, India for example, there are mission workers with internet access, but the vast majority of the people there do not have this access and many are illiterate and therefore unable to take a correspondence course. Someone has to go to these people directly. This is especially true in India, Africa, Asia and Central and South America. In many places, there are already Christian mission workers in place who simply need our support. Let us note some ways in which we can support our foreign mission workers:

  • Encourage them. Find out which mission works your congregation supports and send emails, cards and letters encouraging their efforts. Correspond with them. Find out their needs. Ask for ways in which you can help and support them further. If you know of any other good mission works – encourage them as well.
  • Pray for them and their families. Prayer is the most effective weapon in the Christians’ arsenal. Put it to work!
  • Send them financial or logistical support. Your local congregation may be sending them money from the church treasury, supported by your contributions, but if you are financially able to do so, perhaps you can send a little extra on your own. Find out their needs for Bibles, songbooks, study guides and things of that nature and have them shipped to them.

A word of caution: Know whom you are dealing with before you agree to help them. There are many false teachers, con artists and scammers ready and willing to take advantage of your generosity. Check references and make inquiries about them. Be especially careful of unsolicited contact. The scammers and con artists often will be the first to make contact.

Yes, you can become a world evangelist. You can think globally and act locally and together we can save the planet, especially the souls of the people on it! It is going to take a sustained, continuous joint-effort, but it can be done. Begin at home – teach your family, friends and neighbors, but remember also those who toil on foreign fields.

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Prayer, Oil, and the Sick

“The Prayer of Faith Shall Save the Sick”

There are many difficult passages of the Bible. The language in some of them is rather obscure, and sound brethren differ as to their meaning. In James 5:14-15, James uses language that is easy to understand, but the difficulty lies in knowing its application.

Our text can mean either one of two things. On one hand, we are all acquainted with praying for those who are sick. With elders being the shepherds of the congregation, we understand why James told his readers to call for them. We also understand that people in the first century used olive oil for medicinal and sanative purposes; so that they scarcely ever took a journey without carrying oil with them, with which they anointed their bodies, healed their wounds, bruises and such like. The most familiar case in the Bible of using it in such circumstances was in the case of the wounded man ministered to by the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:34). Therefore, this passage could be more-or-less a cultural, natural means in conjunction with the elders’ prayers to God for the sick to recover without any miraculous means introduced whatsoever.

Nevertheless, while I am not dogmatic about my position, I am inclined to believe the other alternative— the elders’ anointing the sick with oil and praying for their recovery was a specific injunction to his readers for the limited time when miracles were in effect utilizing miraculous means. For example, if this is a general admonition, it is worthy of note that there is no record in the New Testament where anyone practiced this, although there are a number of cases of those who were sick and even died (i.e., 1 Tim. 5:23; Phil. 2:27; 2 Tim. 4:20; Acts 9:37). Therefore, if this injunction of James, written to scattered Jews around the known world at an early date, was something for Christians to practice generally, how do we account for the fact that we never read of its practice?

I believe James is talking about miraculous healing for the following reasons. First, they were to call for the elders, who would be those representatives of the church who would likely be miraculously endowed (cf. Eph. 4:8-11). He did not command them to call for physicians. James says that the thing that would save the sick is “the prayer of faith” (5:15), not the anointing of oil, although James did command it. James emphatically states the promise, “…and the Lord shall raise him [the sick person] up.” Now, the difficult question usually arises, “If it is miraculous, then what is the purpose of anointing with oil?” While it is true that they used oil to treat some ailments, the anointing of oil would be of little value medicinally for one who has heart disease, high blood pressure or cancer. James could have used it symbolically, just as the laying on of hands is symbolic (cf. Acts 13:3). However, I do know that in some cases of miraculous healing, they anointed with oil (Mark 6:7-13). Could the command to anoint with oil be an arbitrary command, such as the blind man washing in the pool of Siloam, or Naaman dipping seven times in the Jordan River, or the Israelites marching around the wall of Jericho for seven days? Consider that the anointing of oil was to be “in the name of the Lord,” or in other words, “by the authority of the Lord.”

Now, if this is miraculous, how do we account for the purpose? God did not give miraculous powers simply for healing the sick, but to confirm the word (Heb. 2:3-4; Mark 16:16-20). Thus, whatever James here admonishes, its purpose was to confirm the word. Possibly the Holy Spirit and James felt that his epistle would need confirmation. Consider that this is the only New Testament book that James wrote. He was not an apostle of Jesus Christ. When we consider the rejection that Paul received, who was an apostle, we might understand what James could have received, not being an apostle of the same stripe. Therefore, after James wrote some strong and stinging statements in his epistle, some might tend to reject his epistle as that which does not carry authority, claiming that it was not inspired (as Martin Luther did). Therefore, toward the close of his inspired epistle, James prescribes a means of confirming the word he writes to them. By doing as he directs, an elder could perform a miracle of healing, which would confirm the truthfulness of his epistle. In other words, if the Lord raised the sick, as James said he would, then they would know James wrote by inspiration. If not, then they would know James to be a false teacher.

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Pornography

The Unspoken Sin: Pornography

Imagine, for a moment, a visit to your local doctor’s office. As you sit in the waiting room, you read statistics indicating that at least 10 of the 20 other people in the waiting room have a particular disease but haven’t properly diagnosed it. The disease is scary and it is deadly, and so it’s not something people like to talk about. There’s at least a decent chance that the doctor himself has the disease, and so he doesn’t like discussing it, either. Instead, the doctor has posters raising awareness for AIDS, smallpox, and other diseases that either affect others but aren’t very relevant to the patients or are outdated and aren’t the threat they once were. The disease continues to run rampant, but everyone goes on their way without addressing it or giving it the proper treatment. This seems like a ridiculous scenario, doesn’t it?

Now replace “doctor’s office” with the church, “doctor” with preachers, and substitute pornography and lust for the disease. As another prominent religious leader recently fell to an “inappropriate relationship” with another married woman, it just served as another eye opener of the secretive nature of these sins. My aim is not to focus on him or anyone else in particular, but to point to the fact that sexual temptation is one of the biggest forms of temptation (if not the biggest) facing the church today, and yet by proportion it is rarely ever discussed, and when it is discussed not enough is done about it to make a difference in most cases.

Covenant Eyes reports that 50% of Christian men (in the broad definition of Christian) and 20% of Christian women say they are addicted to pornography. 51% of those in ministry positions say it is a possible temptation and 75% of them reported that they do not make themselves accountable to someone else for their internet use. 85% of 18-24 year-old men and 47% of 18-24 year-old women view pornography at least once or twice a month. The statistics Covenant Eyes made available for teenage exposure to pornography are even more shocking.

And yet, among all of this, how much discussion do we have on the topic? How many churches preach on the issue and emphasize accountability, or even establish accountability programs? Some have, and it’s a great help and encouragement for those struggling with sexual sin. The church was designed as a family to “bear one another’s burdens” and help each other overcome stumbling blocks along the narrow way. Instead, we’ve shamed sexual sin into silence in many cases, and thousands fight the fight alone without feeling comfortable enough to talk about the sin and get help. Paul was open with his struggles with sin, calling himself the chief of sinners in 1 Timothy 1:15 and documenting the dichotomy of his sinful flesh vs. spiritual mind in Romans 7. Our sins should never be something to hide behind, but rather something we nail to the cross. Sins are covered out of pride, but our only boasting is to be in the cross of Christ and the work He did for us upon it.

So, to those of you who struggle with sexual temptations, I beg you to get help. Find accountability and dedicate yourself to stopping sin from having a hold on you. Preachers, don’t be afraid to preach on these topics no matter how uncomfortable they might be at times, and remember to keep a close watch over yourself through accountability and mentorship with others. Parents, discuss these matters with your young adults so that they know they can talk to you about anything. Provide a safe environment so Satan can’t enter your house through computers, televisions, iPads, or smart phones. As much as we preach against subjects like homosexuality and God’s hate for divorce, we have to remember that it’s just as important to keep the marriage bed undefiled from fornication, affairs, lust, and all manner of sexual sin.
 

Let’s not be the doctor’s office allowing the disease to go untreated. Let’s step up and start shutting down this particular strain of sin and its devastating influence.

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GOD IS … Father, Son, Holy Spirit

Father, Son, Holy Spirit

FATHER – 1 Peter 1:2-3 – 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied. 3 Blessed (be) the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ASV

SON – 1 Peter 1:3

Blessed (be) the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ASV

Holy Spirit – John 14:23-26 – 23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my word: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. 24 He that loveth me not keepeth not my words: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me. 25 These things have I spoken unto you, while (yet) abiding with you. 26 but the Comforter, (even) the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said unto you. ASV

Luke 12:12 – for the Holy Spirit shall teach you in that very hour what ye ought to say.

FATHER, SON, HOLY SPIRIT

IN THE CREATION

Genesis 1:1-2 – In the beginning God created the Heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

REFERENCE TO JESUS – “THE WORD” John 1:1-4 – In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.   2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him; and without him was not anything made that hath been made. 4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men. ASV

GOD IS THREE

Matt 3:16-17 – 16 And Jesus when he was baptized, went up straightway from the water: and lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove , and coming upon him; 17 and lo, a voice out of the heavens, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. ASV

BAPTIZED INTO THE “TRINITY”

Matthew 28:18-20 -18 And Jesus came to them and spoke unto them, saying, all authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: 20 teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.

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