The First Apostle Goes Home

 

Kenneth O Gangel wrote “I have been forced to grapple with the issue of premature death numerous times during the long years of my life. While serving on the faculty at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in the early 1970s, Paul Little died in a severe car crash in Ontario. Perhaps you have read some of his books: Know What You Believe, Know Why You Believe, and How to Give Away Your Faith.

He died at age 48 leaving a lasting legacy in evangelism training. Paul was one of the greatest personal evangelists I ever knew and a fireball for Christ. Why did he go home so early? How could God need this man in heaven when we so desperately needed them here on earth? The answer of course is that we have no idea and we either give in or cave in to the sovereignty of God”.

In the book of Acts we read “Agabus...predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. The disciples... decided to provide help for the brothers and sisters living in Judea. This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul (Acts 11:29-30). It was about this time that King Herod ... had James, the brother of John,  put to death with the sword...He proceeded to seize Peter also... The night before Herod was to bring him to trial... an angel of the Lord appeared... and rescued him” (Acts 12:1-11).

Cruelty was a marked characteristic of the family to which Herod belonged. Four members of this family are well known in New Testament history. The one who is spoken of in this chapter was Herod Agrippa I. His grandfather, Herod the Great, ordered the execution of the little children in Bethlehem in the effort to kill Jesus. His uncle, Herod Antipas, imprisoned and beheaded John the Baptist. His son, Herod Agrippa II, was the king before whom Paul made his defence at Caesarea.

James became the first apostle to die. This is the only record of an apostolic death in the New Testament (Stephen was not an apostle). This James was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. He was one of the three in the Lord's inner circle during His earthly ministry along with Peter and John. He had been one of the favoured few in various striking occurrences of the Saviour's life and ministry (Matt.17:1; Mark 5:37; 9:2; 14:33, Luke 9:28).

The murder of James is one of those incidents in bible which had we lived in the apostolic age would have moved us to wonder if it did not shake our faith. The Church is yet in its infancy, and a chief pillar is moved, leaving the edifice deprived of what was certainly one of its best supports, one of its twelve precious foundations. Was God really watching over this divine institution? How was such a thing to be reconciled with what we believe of the power and wisdom and faithfulness of God?

 James and John were the son of Zebedee (Mark 3:17). In Matthew 20:19-23 we are told, “then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favor of him... She said, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.” “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said to them. “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?” “We can,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink from my cup”.

The Lord’s reply to the mother was very deep and far-reaching. “You don’t know what you are asking,”. They did not understand the meaning until later. When they had professed their ability Jesus said “you will indeed drink from my cup”. Little indeed did the mother dream as she presented her petition how that prayer would be answered, and yet answered it was.

James was granted one post of honour. Within a short time he was made to sit on the Master’s right hand, becoming the first of the apostles to enter into Paradise. The other son, John, was granted the honour of a long life. John outlived all the apostles living to be over hundred years, he is the only apostle who died a natural death. He was left the longest on earth to guide, direct, and sustain the Church by his inspired wisdom, large experience, and apostolic authority.

The manner in which their mother’s prayer was answered, suggests to us the comforting reflection that no prayer offered up in sincerity and truth is ever really left unanswered. We may indeed never see how the prayer is answered. The mother of James may little have dreamt, as she beheld her son’s lifeless body brought home to her, that this was an answer to her ambitious petition. John is traditionally credited with writing the Gospel of John, three epistles (1, 2, and 3 John), and the Book of Revelation.

After killing James, Herod put Peter in prison intending to kill him after a few days. God sent an angel to rescue Peter before he was killed. Why was James allowed to suffer martyrdom while Peter was delivered from prison and set free? Why was Stephen stoned in the beginning of his ministry and John permitted to live and preach to an advanced age? Did God not lose control when Herod Antipas got drunk and gave the head of John the Baptist on a platter to the sensuous Salome?

To answer all the questions which may be asked in this connection is impossible. The issues of life and death rest in the hands of a sovereign God and we will not get the full answer to this question of James's death until we get to glory. His death, while executed by Herod, was allowed by God. What may seem to us as a life cut short was for God a saint come home and “precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints” (Ps.116:15) .  

God allowed Herod to kill James, but He kept him from harming Peter.  He delivered James through death and Peter from death. Although God is almighty, He does not prevent the early deaths of some of His choicest servants. The providences of God are too mysterious for us to understand. But, no matter how disappointing the news, God is still on the throne and has everything under control. We may not always understand His ways, but we know His sovereign will is best."

In Hebrews 11 that great chapter on faith, we are told of those “ who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword...There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. ..They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword... These were all commended for their faith (Heb.11:33-40).All who are mentioned lived and died in faith. The faith of those who died is not placed below those who lived.

Without doubt, God could have delivered James. James had evidently finished his work on earth; Peter had yet a work to do. Sometimes, as in the case of Stephen, the saints of God bear more fruit by their death than by their life. The important thing is not whether James should die soon and Peter live long, the all important lesson is, by what means can the Lord Jesus carry out his plan best? Sometimes Jesus is honored more by men’s death than by their life. And “If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord” (Rom.14:8).  

The brothers were very close; they had spent three years in close contact with Jesus. They had hopes and dreams of how God would use them in spreading the gospel to the ends of the earth. But now, James was suddenly gone and John was left wondering, “Why?” John had to remain for another 50 years on earth. But as soon as he passed over into glory, he realized how short even his relatively long life was in light of eternity. He knew that the many years of his suffering were worth the eternal joy in heaven.

We may be sure of this, that James was as dear to Christ as Peter was. There was no greater love shown in sending the angel that delivered the Peter from the "expectation of Herod" than was shown in sending the angel that stood behind the headsman as he directed the stroke of the fatal sword on the neck of James. James escaped from Herod when Herod slew him and could not make him unfaithful to his Master. His deliverance was not less complete than the deliverance of Peter.

But why did God give James' short hour and Peter's long day of work? Well, ultimately the answer is hidden in the mystery of God's providence. God does what He wills to do and we must rest in that. That in large part is the life of faith. It is yielding to the will of God and yielding to it gladly, knowing that it is always good. Both Apostles promoted the kingdom of God, James by his death and Peter by his life. Both carried off the crown of life; James after a short contest, Peter after a long service.

The killing of James underscores the cost of discipleship and the reality of persecution faced by the early Christians. The Church had just passed through a season of violent persecution and had lost one of its bravest and foremost soldiers in the person of Stephen, the martyred deacon (Acts 7:58-60). This was a period of distress and suffering, trying the principles and testing the endurance of the weaker brethren.

This was a time when the courage, the wisdom, the experience of the tried and trusted leaders would be specially required, to guide the Church amid the many problems. And yet it was just then, at such a crisis, that the Lord permits the bloody sword of Herod to be stretched forth and removes one of the chief apostles, when his presence seemed most necessary. It must have appeared a dark and trying dispensation to the Church of that day.

The church still finds itself under attack from without and from within. As long as Satan is allowed to live in this world, he will do everything in His power to disturb and disrupt the harmony and the effectiveness of the church. He knows that if he can turn us against one another, he can shut down our work. He knows that if he can fill us with fear over the attacks we face he can stop us from serving the Lord. He knows that if he can fill us with fear over the future, he can keep us mired in the past.

The martyrdom of the Stephen is written over chapters, while the martyrdom of the James is crammed into a corner of a sentence. And yet, of the two men, James who is the less noticed filled the larger place officially, and Stephen was only a simple deacon and preacher of the Word. We are told nothing about the good works James devoted to his Master and there is no record of his dying testimony.

We are told simply about his death, everything else is hidden with God till that day when the deeds of every man shall be revealed. James sleeps none the less sweetly in his grave, or, rather, will wake none the less triumphantly in heaven because his life and death are both so scantily narrated. If an apostle so privileged and so faithful would pass away without a single line of memorial to keep his name or his labours fresh among men, how much more may we be contented to do our duty without any public recognition!

And yet how we all do crave after such recognition! How intensely we long for human praise and approval! How useless we esteem our labours unless they are followed by it! How inclined we are to make the fallible judgment of man the standard by which we measure our actions, instead of having the mind’s eye ever steadily fixed on His approval alone who now seeing our secret trials, struggles, efforts, will one day reward His faithful followers openly!  If we “self-infold the large results” of faithful service, we need not trouble ourselves about its record on earth.