Mark 3:18
James son of Alphaeus – named but unknown.
Scripture Readings:-
Revelation 20:7-15
Mark 3:13-19
Mark 3:18f (text)
There are multitudes of books written by, and about, the ministry efforts of great servants of God. Some of the big names today:- Billy Graham, Tony Campolo, Bill Hybels, Rick Warren, Max Lucado. All these men have been great servants of God. They are well respected in the community. They have transformed the way people think about church. And they follow in the footsteps of a long line of big names … a line that began in the New Testament era with the 12 disciples.
Peter
James and
John the Sons of Zebedee.
Matthew
Thomas
Andrew
These are the names which come to mind quickly aren’t they. And we know quite a bit about them. But we also know there are a couple of others. One of those others is James son of Alphaeus.
How much do we know about this disciple? You will find his name in four places in Scripture.
Matthew 10:3
Mark 3:18
Luke 6:15
This is where the Gospels list the 12 disciples of Jesus … with James’ name appearing among the list. And the fourth time is in Acts 1:13 which gives us a list of the disciples who were around after the ascension of Jesus.
Four occasions. Just one name in a list of names. And that is it.
In a day and age when everyone displays themselves to the public on facebook … and where the media hound celebrities … and when we can find out so much about so many people … it seems so strange that James Son of Alphaeus is given so little attention. Especially when we remember that he is a disciple of Jesus. That’s a pretty important position to hold.
Ephesians 2:19-20 tells us that God’s household (is) built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ Himself as the chief cornerstone. If James were around today he could look at the world wide community of believers and say, “It was my ministry that helped give all of this its foundation”. That’s a pretty important position to have isn’t it.
Or think about that time when the apostles got together to decide who was going to be the replacement for Judas. Acts 1:21-22 gives us the criteria which was required for being an apostle. They had to be men who have been with the disciples the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among them, beginning from John’s baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up to heaven.
… …
The whole time the Lord Jesus was among the disciples. James witnessed first-hand wonders which can only be imagined. He heard the tone of Jesus’ voice … and saw all the facial expressions. He witnessed the Jesus’ tears of sadness … and the smile that came upon His face when faith was turned to sight. He was there when the miracles happened … the blind seeing, the cripple walking, and the dead coming to life. James had been one of the privileged few who enjoyed this wonderful experience.
James has such an important position, and his ministry experience is far beyond anything we will ever experience today, and all we know about him is his name … and the name of his dad: James son of Alphaeus. But that is enough. Because this lack of information encourages us in our service to God and our response to His love.
To see what I mean let’s imagine there was much more information. Let’s imagine there were additional books in the Bible.
The Memoirs of Matthew.
The Biography of Bartholomew.
The Story of Simon Peter.
The Journal of James son of Alphaeus.
And let’s imagine that these books gave an extensive account of the actions of each of the apostles.
The places where they set up churches.
A list of people who were converted by their ministry.
The persecution they were willing to suffer.
And on and on it went.
It would be a fascinating … but it would also be very discouraging. For how could we dare to call ourselves disciples compared to such shining examples?
But that is not what the Bible does. In some ways it does quite the opposite. For example we have a reasonable amount of information about people like Peter and John. But it hardly an autobiography. In fact, when it comes to the disciples, Judas is fourth on the list in terms of the amount of passages dedicated to him. And that is not all. The disciples may be the ones who are in the position of being the foundations of the church … but they are not the brightest sparks are they.
There was an occasion, in fact a number of occasions, when Jesus was teaching parables and the disciples didn’t understand. They would ask Jesus afterwards what He meant. On one occasions Jesus responds by firstly saying, Are you so dull … that you don’t understand this? (Mark 7:18)
Another time the disciples were in a boat and a storm came and the disciples woke Jesus in fear because they thought they were going to drown. Jesus calms the storm and then chastises them, You of little faith … why did you doubt? (Matthew 8:26)
Just before Jesus ascends into heaven He has a bit of a gathering with His disciples. By this time they have been with Him for over three years.
Daily hearing His teaching.
Daily watching His ministry.
Having recently realised that they serve a resurrected Saviour.
Yet … even at the very end they do not understand. Because they ask Jesus if this is going to be the time that He restores the kingdom to Israel.
They just didn’t always get it. And our friend James son of Alphaeus would have been among them. But here is the point. Jesus still invites them, and encourages them, and sends them, to bring the Gospel and be His co-workers. I don’t know about you but I find this to be a real encouragement.
As we look around this room we see before us a group of disciples. Each one of us is an individual in a crowd. We have our faults and the sins we try and hide form one another. There are times when we don’t understand the Word and what Jesus is saying. Doubts, anger, frustration, hypocrisy, jealousy, selfishness, pride and a whole list of other ungodly actions have all been a part of our lives. We have histories which are unpleasant, we carry guilt about actions long since past, we have secrets that we guard for fear of judgement. That is our situation … yet Jesus Christ in His grace and love still invites us, and encourages us, and sends us, to bring the Gospel and be His co-workers.
Through His death and resurrection Jesus was able to remove the guilt of sin, the consequences of sin and the punishment of sin … we are made alive through Him.
Through the shedding of His blood Christ was able to bring those who had chosen rebellion and separation back into the family of God … we are given a new start by being adopted into a completely different family.
Through His willingness to take on the agony of being forsaken by His Father our Saviour was able to protect us from the wrath and judgement of God … we are snatched back from the jaws of hell.
Through His willingness to humble Himself and become one of us our Lord did all that was necessary to open the way for eternal life … and we are given eternal comfort and hope in the process.
That is what He has done for us. And it makes for a powerful story, no matter who we are and what our background has been. And that means
We can be involved in God’s work in a useful and meaningful way because of the over abounding grace of Jesus and the truth that He is a powerful Saviour.
And all the stories in the world, and all the achievements of others, and all the sacrifices that other shave made is not going to change that.
Which means that we who are disciples have to make one of two choices.
We can look at the ministries of people like Peter, Paul, Barnabas. Or we can look at the ministries of Billy Graham, Tony Campolo, Bill Hybels, Rick Warren and Max Lucado. Or we can look at what we consider to be the effective ministries of people in our church and Christians we have contact with. We can look at all of these people and you can say.
Their ministry is so effective, I would never be able to do what they are doing. I have so many weaknesses. There is so much about the Bible I do not know. I’m afraid people will ask questions which are too hard to answer. What if I say the wrong thing? I better leave it up to others.
We could do that. But if we did so we would be denying the essence of who Jesus has made us to be. He hasn’t called us into His family so we can leave it up to others. He has called us because he is equipping us, all of us, with His Spirit so that we can work alongside God.
That is the reality and it should affect the way we see ourselves in God’s plan.
We need to see that we are very much like James son of Alphaeus who represents the vast majority of people who key players in the kingdom, yet whose actions are unrecorded and unknown. This means that discipleship is not an issue of performance. This also means that Jesus is glad to have us as His co-workers even when we have weaknesses and short-comings.
We can be effective disciples because only because of the power of the Gospel and the ability of Jesus to bring transformation in the lives of those who are in rebellion to Him.
Why am I telling you all this? I want to encourage you to write your own story. Be a key disciple in the family of Jesus, because that is what Jesus gave His life for.
There is a good chance your story won’t become a best-selling book.
Most likely we will all stand in line with James son of Alphaeus who represents a long line of disciples of whose stories are unrecorded and unknown.
And it will be a story full of mistakes, failings, second chances and missed opportunities.
Yet that is OK. Because others might not see the story we write – but Jesus does and He will bless you for it.
How do I know?
Let me finish with two passages from the book of Revelation.
The first one is from Revelation 21. Here John is describing the new heaven and the new earth … what it will be like when Jesus returns. In that vision he describes the New Jerusalem. Part of the description says:-
The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
Revelation 21:14
In other words the name of James son of Alphaeus – a person who is barely mentioned in the Bible – will get the same recognition as all the other apostles. Inscribed and immortalized into the very foundation of the New Jerusalem.
And for us … well our name will be written somewhere important as well. This time we go to Revelation chapter 20 where we read about a book … a very significant book. The passage tells us that
A book was opened, which is the book of life … If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Revelation 20:12, 15.
Today you might feel like the great unknown person – but when you have your name in this book you know that you have been part of a wonderful partnership.
… you whose ministry was unknown by most people.
… you who had a discipleship story which was unrecorded
You will be taken by the hand and stood before the great multitude from every tribe and nation and people and language. And the Lord will look to you … a disciple who was little known … and He will say before heaven and earth well done good and faithful servant. You will be named … and you will be fully known.
Prayer
