James – Introduction

Who is this James?

• There was a James, brother of John and son of Zebedee He was  the first apostle martyred, beheaded by Herod in AD 44. (Matt.10:2, Acts 12:2)
• There was a James the son of Alphaeus, another person of the twelve disciples (Matt.10:3).
• There was a James the father of Judas not Iscariot (Lk. 6:16).
• There was a James whose mother was also Mary.  He was also known as James the Less. (Mk. 15:40).
• Finally there was the James who wrote the letter of James and whose mother was Mary. He was also the brother of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Introduction:

Things were not smooth between Jesus and His brothers. Jesus’s brothers reminded Him that it was the time of the Feast of Tabernacles and teased Him that He should go to the temple, because the Jews were expecting the Messiah to come at that feast.

After Jesus’s death and resurrection, the two brothers both James and Jude became writers of the New Testament.  James was deeply upset and full of regret about what he had said about Him and he had teased Him, that he said he would never eat food again.  He would have fasted until he died, except that three days later Jesus appeared to His followers and to James personally.  From that moment on, James called himself a bond-slave of Jesus.  James was recognised as the leader of the mother church in Jerusalem (Acts 15:).

James sent a letter to Gentile believers everywhere which explained that the Gentiles should not have any burden from the Law of Moses, but be sensitive to Jewish Christians.
James also sent out another letter to Jewish believers and this is the “letter of James”.

Historical documents say that James stayed in Jerusalem and was given  two nicknames  ‘James the Just’ (showing his quality as an elder)  and Óblias’ which means bulwark or a reliable person.

James went through a tragic glorious end.  Following the death of Festus, the Roman Governor,  Albinius took up office, but there was a gap of about 2-months in between in AD 62 when there was no Roman Governor.  Jewish rulers seized the opportunity to attack Christians,  since there was no ruler to oppose them. They captured James, took him to the pinnacle of the temple and said, ‘Now blaspheme Christ or we will throw you off.’ This was the very pinnacle where Devil took Jesus to tempt Him (Matt.4).   James the Just simply said “I see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of glory!” So they threw him down.  But that fall did not kill him, so they started to stone him.  As he lay there with his bones broken and the stones falling on him he said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they do.’ The crowd watching cried out, ‘James the Just is praying for us!  What an end!  Finally someone with big wooden club, clubbed his head  and he died.  He was the first person martyred for Jesus in those days.  When the fellow Christians came to pick up his body to burn him, they were astonished to see his knees which just looked like the knees of a camel. Here was a man who spent more time on his knees than on his feet.

• James was well regarded within the church.  The philosophy and godliness which his life displayed to so eminent a degree, was the occasion of a universal belief in him as the ‘most just of men.’  

–   Eusebius  the early church fathers said. 

• James was a Nazirite. He was in the habit of entering alone into the temple, and was frequently found upon his knees begging forgiveness for the people, so that his knees became hard like a camel, in consequence of his constantly bending them in his worship of God, and asking forgiveness for the people.  Because of his exceedingly great justice he was called “the Just.”   –   Hegessipus  said on James the Just.

Martyrdom of James the Just.