No the title is not a typo. I am
very aware that it was Jesus who resurrected on Easter Sunday. I know that the woman didn’t come to find
Jim, Jimmy or James. But while the empty
tomb is a powerful image, I find something so compelling in the life of James
that I can’t ignore it.
James is compelling to me because James didn’t always believe that Jesus
was Lord. What you probably don’t know about this guy
named James – is that he wasn’t just some guy.
The first place we hear about James
is in the book of Matthew:
“And coming to his hometown
he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said,
“Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and
Simon and Judas? - Matthew
13:54-55
James was Jesus’ brother. He had known Jesus his whole life. He had been around him and lived with him and
knew all the things that brothers know.
Let’s be honest about brothers and
sisters …We love them … like really love them.
But we also think they are knuckleheads. I mean don’t get me wrong they are awesome …
but sometimes aren’t they awful? They
are the best in the world – but also the most annoying in the world.
Why is it this way?
Let me tell you why – we love our
brother/sister but we also think they are a knucklehead …. because we really
know them. And that’s James …he really
knew his brother Jesus.
So after watching his brother grow up
and sharing life with him let’s see what James thought about Jesus’ ministry.
“Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and
his disciples were not even able to eat.
When his family heard about this they, went to take charge of him, for
they said, “He is out of his mind.” - Mark
3:20-21
So as Jesus’ ministry and his popularity started to
take off – his brother who knew him well decided to put a stop to what was
going on.
James and Jesus’ other brothers come to physically
take Jesus because they thought he had gone crazy – they thought he was
nuts. And they didn’t keep this
information to themselves – they told the crowd trying to dissuade them from
following their brother.
Not a great endorsement for Jesus – knowing that
not even his own brothers believed in him.”
So clearly we see that James is a skeptic … from
our first introduction to him all the way through Jesus’ ministry – there is
one clear message about James …
He doesn’t buy it .
So knowing this about James we have to be interested
in what he has to say about Jesus following his death, burial and supposed
Resurrection. We know that James is a
straight shooter and will tell us how it is.
“James, a servant of God and of
the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the dispersion: greetings” - James 1:1
Did you catch it?
“James, a servant … of Jesus Christ”.
So how does that happen? How does
James go from skeptic to servant? How
does James move from mocking Jesus to being one of the key leaders of the early
church? How does he go from doubting
Jesus’ sanity to boldly proclaiming his faith for Jesus?
James had a radical change of his identity from
being skeptic of Jesus to a servant of Jesus – how did this happen?
What changed everything for James?
Here is what happened:
“For I
delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died
for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was
raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared
to Peter, then to the twelve. Then he
appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time … then he appeared to
James …” 1 Corinthians 15:3-7
How did James change from skeptic to
servant? Once simply answer …
The Resurrection! James had a personal encounter with the risen
Jesus. And it changed everything for
him!
IT’S
THE POWER OF THE RESURRECTION THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING.
The resurrection of Jesus can change you and your
most skeptical friends. When James
realized who his brother was, it changed everything about him. James understood
that if this man Jesus really is God, then what the Scriptures say about Him are
true.
There are many ways in which to go about defending
the reality of the Resurrection.
Personally, I don’t need a lot of scientific or logical arguments. I just need James. His transformed life becomes all the evidence
I need for the resurrection.
The question is, “Has your life been changed in
such a way by the power of the resurrection, that it is the only evidence
others will need?
No comments:
Post a Comment