12 Ordinary Men - James - Fill In The Blank Series

Note: This is a study from the book 12 Ordinary Men by John McArthur an excellent book. This is the fill in the blank outline from Adult Bible Fellowships of First Baptist Church Orion. This is not original but worth posting for study.

Twelve Ordinary Men: James - a man of passion

Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some from the church. Then he killed James the

brother of John with the sword. - Acts 12:1-2

I. The Gospels are surprisingly __________ about James. This is ironic for a few

reasons.

a. He was the _________ of the Zebedee brothers.

b. The Zebedee family seems to have been more ___________ than the Jonas family.

c. In the lists of the apostles, James is always mentioned right after __________.

II. However, James does figure prominently in the close inner ________ of the three. Together they were privileged to witness some amazing things.

a. They saw Jesus __________ in the raising of Jairus’s daughter from the dead (Mark 5:37).

b. They saw His _________ on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matt. 17:1).

c. They (along with Andrew) saw His ______________ when He foretold the future on the Mount of Olives (Mark 13:3).

d. They saw the Savior’s __________ in the garden of Gethsemane when He asked them to watch and pray with Him.

III. The ___________ and ________ in James’ personality are clearly seen in his desire to call down fire from heaven on the Samaritans.

a. Jesus had nicknamed the sons of Zebedee, Boanerges, which means “Sons of ____________.”

b. We get our best glimpse of why James and John were called this in Luke 9:51-56.

c. It was significant that Jesus chose to travel through ___________ at all.

d. In Jesus day, the Samaritans still _______________ to worship Jehovah as God, but in essence they made a new religion based in large part on pagan _______________.

e. Since the party traveling with Jesus was fairly ________ He sent messengers ahead to arrange _______________.

f. The Samaritans summarily ____________ the request.

g. James and John, the Sons of Thunder were instantly filled with passionate ___________.

h. The reference to _________ is significant.

i. Jesus was not by any means _________________ what Elijah had done in his day.

j. However, Jesus taught James and John by His _______________ in this situation that loving-kindness

and ________ are virtues to be cultivated as much as (and sometimes more than) righteous indignation

and fiery zeal.

IV. In the account of asking for thrones in the Kingdom, we see that James was also _____________ and overconfident.

a. We read about this in Matthew 20:20-28.

b. By comparing this with the parallel passage in Mark 10:35-45, it is clear that James and John were

the ones __________________ for this request.

c. Jesus reply subtly reminded them that _____________ is the prelude to glory.

d. James wanted a crown of glory; Jesus gave him a cup of ______________. He wanted power; Jesus

gave him ______________. He wanted to rule; Jesus gave him a ___________ - not to wield, but to be

the instrument of his own _______________. Fourteen year after this, James would become

the first of the Twelve to be killed for his faith.

Did James learn the lesson Jesus tried to teach him?