LIFE LESSONS
JAMES, THE SON OF ALPHAEUS
DR. JIM DIXON
ACTS 1:12-14
FEBRUARY 20, 2005
The name James is the Anglicized form of the Greek name Jacobus, and the Greek name Jacobus is the Hellenized form of the Hebrew name Jacob, and of course the Hebrew name is Anglicized as Jacob. So you see, the name James and the name Jacob are really the same names. Jim or Jake, it doesn’t matter. In the Old Testament, it’s Jacob. In the New Testament, it’s James. In the Old Testament there’s really only one Jacob and that’s Jacob, the Patriarch, the Father of the Twelve Tribes. In the New Testament there are many individuals named James.
There was James the Just, the half-brother of Christ and the Great Head of the Jerusalem Church. There was James the Greater, the son of Zebedee, one of the twelve and one of the three who, with Peter and John, formed the inner circle amongst Christ’s disciples. Then there was the James we have today; James, the Son of Alphaeus. From the life of this James, we have two life lessons. The first life lesson concerns humility. Jesus wants His people to be people of humility.
James, the Son of Alphaeus had other names. Most Bible scholars agree that in John 19, this James is called James, the Son of Mary, James, the Son of Alphaeus. In Mark, chapter 15, this James is given a strange name. He is called James the Less or James the Lesser. What kind of an identifying label is that? James the Less or James the Lesser?
In some of your Bibles, some of your translations, it says James the Younger and that wouldn’t be so bad but the problem is the Greek word is the word “micros.” This word micros almost never means, “younger.” The normal Greek word for younger would be “neaniskos” and neaniskos is found in Mark’s Gospel, the 14th and the 16th chapters, and in those cases it means, “younger,” but here in the 15th chapter, the word is “micros.” The word “micros” generally means, “small, tiny, little, diminutive.” When it’s used metaphorically, this word means, “the least”—the least in value, the least in authority, the least in rank, the least in ability. James the Less, James the Least. A title of humility. Even if we take the meaning of micros as “younger,” it’s still a very humble label because in the Hebrew culture, youth was not treasured as it is today. It was the oldest son who was given the lion’s share of the inheritance and it was the oldest son that was given all the family authority. Youth simply wasn’t valued, so any way you look at it, James the Less is a humble label.
Now, I think today in the church of Jesus Christ, many people misunderstand the meaning of the word “humility.” Jesus chose disciples who were men of passion, men of zeal and a cause and then He sought to teach them humility. That’s what He wants to do with us. He wants us to be people of passion, people of zeal and a cause but then He wants to teach us humility. I think in our culture, we sometimes associate humility with humiliation. We think that humiliation brings humility but that’s not necessarily so. We think that a humble person might be willing to be humiliated but that’s not necessarily so. The biblical concept of humility has nothing to do with self-degradation. The biblical concept of humility has nothing to do with self-abasement. Certainly it has nothing to do with low self-esteem.
I think we’ve all had times when we’ve experienced a little humiliation. Certainly that was true of me last week. In fact that was true of me last Sunday when, in my sermon, I told a story from World War II about Irwin Rommel, the brilliant German military strategist who led Nazi armies to victory in Czechoslovakia and Austria and in France and Poland. I told how Irwin Rommel had written a book on military strategy, a brilliant book that was rarely read, and then I told how Irwin Rommel had finally been defeated in Northern Africa, in Northern Egypt and that the General of the Allied Forces who defeated him then sent him that four-word message, “I read your book.”
In the first service, I said that it was General Patton who led the American and Allied Forces who defeated Rommel in Northern Egypt and then sent the four-word letter and that was only partly right. Then in the second service I said it was General Montgomery who defeated Rommel in Northern Egypt and sent the four-word letter, and that was partly right. The truth is it was the British General Montgomery who defeated Rommel in Northern Egypt at El Alamein. And yet it was Patton who wrote the four-word message because Rommel fled with his armies out of Egypt, across Libya, into Tunisia and there he was met by American and Allied Forces because Eisenhower and Patton had come ashore in Morocco and they encountered Rommel and defeated him and Rommel fled back to Germany and Patton sent his letter.
For those of you who have been attending this church for a period of time know that I love history and I like to get it right. I had faulty source material but I should have examined it deeper. In fact, after the first service, someone told me that maybe I had it wrong, I panicked and went up into my office and tried to research it in a little bit of time and then came back down here and got it wrong again. But you understand humiliation does not necessarily produce humility. My sharing with you that I was wrong is not necessarily an act of humility. It’s an act of honesty but it’s not necessarily an act of humility in the biblical sense of the word, “humble.” Do you want to know what the biblical meaning of humility is? It is this, to exalt other people. It’s as simple as that. Humility means, to exalt others. Pride means, to exalt yourself. Humility means, to exalt others. Jesus is looking for people who are willing to exalt others rather than exalting themselves. Pretty simple.
Now, it’s true the Greek word for humility is the word “tapeinos.” It means, “lowly or lowly-minded.” It was always a relational word, always a comparative word, and it referred to someone who was willing to lower themselves in order to exalt someone else. It would refer to a person who might indeed be willing to humiliate himself but only for the purpose of exalting someone else. “The humble are people who seek to exalt others.” The truth is biblically humility begins with our relationship with God. If we’re really humble, we seek to exalt God. If we’re really humble, we seek first and foremost to exalt Jesus Christ.
If you’ve ever traveled in Europe, and I know many of you have, you’ve probably visited many cathedrals. Even though each of these cathedrals are very glorious and very beautiful, they all begin to blend together and kind of seem the same after you’ve been to a number of them. But you might notice that when you go into a European cathedral, you’ll see on the cornerstone—if you look at the cornerstone of the cathedral—you’ll see four letters, AMDG. You go into the cathedral and you look at the stained glass windows and you’ll see those same four letters, AMDG. You look at the tapestries and you’ll find those same four letters, AMDG. If you look under the pews—I’m sure you don’t normally do that—but look under the pews in the cathedrals and you’ll find those four letters, AMDG. Look up in the choir area, in the choir loft, in the boxes, under the seats, AMDG. The letters stood for four Latin words, “Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam,” “to the greater glory” and it referred to the greater glory of God or to the greater glory of Christ. The church, the cathedral was built to the greater glory of Christ. The stained glass windows were created with all of their art and beauty to the greater glory of Christ. The tapestries, to the greater glory of Christ. The pews themselves, to the greater glory of Christ. Those who sang in the choir, sang to the greater glory of God.
So, how about you? Can that be said of everything you do? How about me? Can that be said about everything I do? Do I wake in the morning and think about the greater glory of God? Do I do everything with a desire to please Christ and exalt His name? When I’m at work, when I’m at play, when I’m with my family, whatever I’m doing, when I’m out on a jog, do I do everything in some sense to the glory of God and to the glory of Christ. This is really where humility begins. You’re not trying to glorify yourself. You’re seeking to glorify the Lord. But then in the Christian’s life, humility overflows to others and Jesus tells us that, that we are to exalt other people other than ourselves.
Of course, when James and John, the Sons of Zebedee came to Jesus and sought their own glory saying, “Rabbi, Teacher, grant that when You come into Your kingdom, we may sit one at your right hand and one at your left?” When they sought their own glory, you know what Jesus said to them. He said, “You know how the rulers of the gentiles loved to Lord it over them and their great men loved to exercise authority over them. It shall not be so amongst you. He who would be greatest among you must be your servant. He who would be first among you must be your slave. Even as the Son of Man came not to be served but rather to serve and give His life, a ransom for many.”
Did you know that Jesus came into the world to exalt us? I mean, He lowered Himself. He left His heavenly throne of glory. He took our flesh upon Himself. The incarnation. He died on the cross. He did it all to exalt us and now He’s looking for a people who would live like that, who will go out and seek to raise up others who will go and seek to exalt others. Time and again in the teachings of Christ, you see statements regarding humility. His parables focused on humility.
One of my favorite parables was the Parable of the Banquet Invitations. Jesus, we’re told in Luke, chapter 14, had just been invited to the home of their very rich ruler. He was invited to a banquet at this rich ruler’s house. In that context, Jesus told this parable. To understand the parable, you need to understand how people ate in the Roman world. In the Roman world, people ate around huge long tables and they sat on sofas that were called tricliniums. Tricliniums really were three sofas. One sofa ran down the length of one side of the table. The other sofa ran down the length of the other side of the table and then the third sofa joined the other two sofas at one end. The sofas formed a “U” shape around the eating table and that was the triclinium. The host, the person of greatest honor sat at the base of the U opposite the open end of the table. That’s where the host, the person of greatest honor sat. Then the next highest seats of honor were to the immediate right to the host and then to the immediate left of the host and then so on around the right and the left. The seats of least honor were at the points of the U. Those were the seats of least honor by the open end of the table.
Now, Jesus had noticed when he had gone to this rich ruler’s house at this banquet. There were no nametags but Jesus had noticed that people were taking positions of honor. They were seeking the positions of greatest honor. They were not humbling themselves. They were not taking the lower seats and so He told this story, and of course the story was about a banquet invitation and how people sought the seats of highest honor but then the host came and moved them down to lower seats and those in lower seats were exalted to the higher seats. Jesus wanted His people to understand that we’re to take the lower places and give others the higher places. He also wanted us to understand that if we’ll humble ourselves, the host will exalt us. This is the message Christ wanted His people to understand. If we will humble ourselves, Christ will exalt us. Do you believe that? Do you really believe that or do you believe you’ve got to go out there and exalt yourself? Do you really believe that if you exalt others, Christ will exalt you?
I’ll tell you a story about Sir Walter Raleigh. You’ve all heard of Sir Walter Raleigh. He was a writer. He was an explorer. He was a businessman, a soldier, a poet and a military leader. It was Sir Walter Raleigh who helped lead the British armies to victory against the Spanish Armada in 1588, and it was Sir Walter Raleigh who named the Virginia Territory, part of which became the State of Virginia. He named the Virginia Territory after his queen, Queen Elizabeth I, who was called “the virgin queen.”
There’s a lot of misinformation about Sir Walter Raleigh. A lot of legends. Most historians today believe they’re simply not true. According to one legend, Sir Walter Raleigh discovered tobacco and introduced tobacco in England. Historians now tell us that simply is not true. It was a Frenchman named Nico who discovered tobacco and the word nicotine comes from his name. The use of tobacco spread from France throughout Europe including England. Historians now know that tobacco was widely used by North American Indians long before it was ever used in Europe.
According to another legend, Sir Walter Raleigh was the first to cultivate the potato. Historians tell us that’s bogus. According to another legend, Sir Walter Raleigh established the first two permanent English settlements on the North American continent. That’s not true. He did establish an English settlement at Roanoke in the year 1585—108 people, but they left one year later because they couldn’t take it anymore. All of them went back to England with Sir Francis Drake. It was not a permanent settlement. He established another settlement in 1587 at Roanoke and the people just disappeared. It became the famous lost colony.
According to another legend, Sir Walter Raleigh took his cloak and he threw it down before Queen Elizabeth I so she wouldn’t soil her shoes when walking over mud. Historians now doubt even that that is true, but historians do acknowledge this. They do acknowledge that Sir Walter Raleigh adored his queen. He loved her. He served her. He longed to do everything in her name and to exalt her name. Everything he did, he did for her historians tell us. She, in turn, exalted him. Queen Elizabeth I exalted Sir Walter Raleigh and she gave him a 10,000-acre estate in Ireland. Not bad. She gave him trading privileges that made him rich. She gave him rights of colonization that made him famous. Of course, in 1585 she knighted him.
In a sense, the whole story is analogous to the kingdom of heaven. In a sense, it’s all comparable to the kingdom of Jesus Christ because in the kingdom of heaven, in the kingdom of Christ, there is this principal of reciprocity and I don’t hesitate to teach this. I don’t hesitate to preach this because the Bible makes it clear that if you will exalt Christ, He will exalt you. If you will exalt your King, He will exalt you. The Bible says it over and over again. “He who exalts himself will be humbled but he who humbles himself shall be exalted. Humble yourselves, therefore, unto the mighty hand of God and in due time He may exalt you. God opposes the proud but God gives grace and gifts to the humble.” That’s the message of the Bible. I don’t hesitate to preach it although we do not know the form God’s blessing might take. We don’t know the form that His exaltation will take. We don’t know the nature of His gifts but I promise you, He blesses you if you live to exalt others and if you live to exalt Him, you’ll have His blessing. And all the more so, when you get to heaven, you’ll have His blessing. The church of Jesus Christ has not really believed this and we’ve been guilty of exalting ourselves from time to time. We need to exalt others and first and foremost exalt the Lord.
The second teaching, the second life lesson this morning from the life of James concerns faith and the relationship between faith and family. When we look at James, we see that faith and family are oftentimes linked. Do you ever notice that, how faith tends to run in families over many generations. Have you ever noticed that link between families and faith? We certainly see it in James. His father was Alphaeus. We know from John 19, at least many Bible scholars believe on the basis of John 19, that Alphaeus was also called Cleophas and also called Clophas.
Some scholars seek to identify a common Aramaic etymology in those three names. His father was Alphaeus Cleophas Clophas. His father was a disciple of Christ in the larger group of disciples. According to very early church tradition, James’s father Alphaeus was the brother of Joseph who was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus. Of course, in Luke’s Gospel, the 24th chapter, we see that it’s Alphaeus or Cleophas who is one of the two disciples walking down the Emmaus Road when they encountered the resurrected Christ. Perhaps again the father of James, the son of Alphaeus. His mother was Mary. At least most Bible scholars believe that James’s mother was Mary. She was an incredible woman, really one of four women closest to Jesus, one of four women who traveled with Jesus and the disciples. She was in that band of disciples.
We know in John 19 that Mary, the mother of James, was at the crucifixion. She stood there with three other women and the four women watched Jesus crucified. There’s a difficult in John 19. We’re told that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was there and one of these other women was her sister. In the Greek it could mean, Salome, the mother of James the Greater but more likely, in terms of the Greek construct, it would mean Mary, the mother of James, the Son of Alphaeus. That would be strange because then there would be two sisters named Mary, both of them. I mean if Mary, the mother of James, was the sister of Mary, the mother of Jesus… but now historians have looked back and they’ve found countless examples in Hebraic culture where parents named their daughters with the same name so it’s possible. But that would really be amazing because that would mean that James had a father who was the brother of Joseph and a mother who was the sister of Mary. That would be incredible. Of course, we don’t know.
It’s also believed by many Bible scholars that James, the son of Alphaeus, had a son named Judas and that his son was one of the disciples, Judas, the son of James. Yu-das Yak-a-boo in the genitive, Judas of James, possibly. If that were true, that would mean that amongst the broader core of disciples there was a grandfather, father and son all walking with Jesus, all part of the same family, Alphaeus, James and Judas. We don’t know but it’s possible. An incredible family. It was a family linked with faith.
And don’t we see that? Don’t we see families linked generationally with faith? I see it in my family. My mom’s sitting right down here this morning. We just celebrated her 92nd birthday yesterday. (Applause) Mom was 83 when she had me but, well, you know… My dad passed away ten years ago but my mom and dad passed on the faith. My brothers join me in serving Jesus Christ, Greg and Gary. We all live to serve Christ. My wife, Barb… Her mom and dad are people of faith, and Barb and her sisters, Janice and Berni, they all live to serve Jesus Christ. We see this going back in the generations, this link between family and faith. Remember in 2 Timothy, chapter 1, Paul writes to Timothy and Paul says, “I remember the faith that was in your grandmother, Lois, and then was in your mother Eunice, and now I see in you faith linked with family, moving down the generations.”
Why is that? Does God bless families with faith over the generations? Does God do that? You’d better believe God does that. In fact you see it in the Decalogue. You see it in the second commandment, Exodus, chapter 20, “You shall not make for yourself any graven image or any likeness of anything in heaven above or on earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God visiting the inequities of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love Me.” God is faithful through the generations to families.
Now, I know it doesn’t always work that way. I know that, but it tends to work that way. It’s also true that God blesses families when those families are faithful. God blesses families when the parents are faithful. I want to give you a key verse. I want us to focus on this as we conclude our sermon today. This verse is found in Proverbs, chapter 22, verse 6. The scripture says, “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Do you want God to bless your children and their children? Learn the meaning of this verse. “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he gets old he will not depart from it.”
A lot of people focus on a section of that verse where it says, “in the way he should go.” The Hebrew is difficult because in the Hebrew it’s “al pi darkow” and that literally means, “according to the mouth of his way.” “Train up a child according to the mouth of his way.” Obviously it’s a Hebraic idiom, Hebraic expression, the meaning of which is no longer known but Hebrew scholars are examining that expression and they’ve come to two conclusions. Either it means, “according to the way that God has spoken,” “according to the way of God,” “according to the way of righteousness.” Certainly we should train up our children in the way of righteousness in accordance with the words that God has spoken. We’re instructed to do this throughout the scriptures, but there’s another possibility that this phrase, this Hebraic expression means, “according to your child’s way,” “according to the way that God has fashioned your child. God has spoken the Word over your child and given your child a nature. You should raise your child in accordance with that God-given nature.
Certainly both of these are true. We raise our children in accordance with their God-given nature. We raise our children in accordance with the righteousness of God and the ways of God. But I want us to take a look at the words, “train up.” It’s two words in the English but in the Hebrew it’s one word and that word is “hanok.” That’s the word, “train up.” This word is so important. If you understand this and you follow this, you’ll have God’s blessing on your family for many generations. This word “hanok” was used in two ways in the Bible. First of all, the word “hanok” means, “to dedicate to God.” In 1 Chronicles 7, the word “hanok” is used in that way. Throughout the Talmudic literature, “hanok” is used in that way, “to dedicate to God.”
Have you done that? Have you dedicated your children to God? Let me ask you a question. Who owns your kids? This is a family-dense area, the greater Highlands Ranch area. Our Sunday School classes in 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade are overflowing. So many of you have children. Who owns them? Throughout history many different answers have been given. The Greeks believed that children were owned by the whole of society. That was the Greek ideal. Plato stated that in his Republic. Plato said, “It would be best if no child knew his parents and no parents knew their child. It would be best if all children lived together in community and they were the responsibility of all adults.” That was the Greek ideal. Ownership was collective. It really did take a village. That was the Greek ideal.
Then there was the Roman ideal, the Roman belief that children were owned only by the dads. The dads owned everything. It was a patriarchal world, the Roman world. Patria Potestas was a doctrine of Father Power. The dads even owned their wives and they certainly owned their children. Fathers could do whatever they wanted with their children. They could kill their kids and nobody could question it. The father’s authority was absolute and fathers could discard their kids in the Roman world. They rarely did but they could. They could take their kids down to the Roman Forum and just discard them as they often did with daughters. Their daughters were then sold into Roman prostitution. It was almost never done with sons. Patria Potestas. Children belong to the father.
Of course, in the world of Communism more recently, it’s believed and taught that children belong to the government. They’re the property of the state. Here in our Democratic Republic, we believe that children belong to both parents. Children belong to Mom and Dad together although even in this Democratic Republic, the state is beginning more and more to infringe. But, you see, according to the Bible, it’s all wrong. Children don’t belong to the collective society. Children don’t belong to the dad. Children don’t belong to the state or the government nor do they even belong to mom and dad. No, the Bible tells us children belong to God. That’s what the Bible says. They belong to God. God says, “All souls are mine. The soul of the father as well as the soul of the son, the soul of the mother as well as the soul of the daughter all souls are mine.” He owns everything in heaven and on earth.
We acknowledge this when we dedicate our children. When we bring them to baptism, we acknowledge that we are simply stewards as mom and dad. We are just stewards and our kids really belong to God. Have you told your kid that? Have you taught your children that? Have you taught your children that in a sense as their parents, you’re just stewards and that they really belong to God and it’s God they need to please. It’s God they need to serve. It’s God to whom they’re going to have to give an account. That’s all part of dedicating your children to God, giving them that worldview, giving them that understanding. Otherwise what are they looking for? It’s all about God, Hah-nock. Dedicate your kid to God.
There’s a second meaning to hanok. The second meaning is equally important and it means to teach or instruct by example. This word hanok had two very different uses, dedication to God or to teach or instruct by example. How important is that? If you want God’s blessing upon your kids and upon their kids, teach and instruct by example. It’s powerful.
I thank God that my mom and dad taught by example. My mother taught us to pray, Greg and Gary and me. She taught us to pray but she didn’t just command that we pray. She modeled prayer. She prayed in every room of the house. We were constantly seeing Mom at prayer. You see, that’s teaching by example. My dad instructed us to serve the church and to serve Christ but he didn’t just verbalize that commandment. He illustrated it by his life and so he served the church as an elder, as a deacon, as a Sunday School teacher. My mother worked as a deacon and as a Sunday School teacher. My parents taught that we serve the church and they did this by example. Mom and Dad didn’t just tell us to tithe, they modeled it. They gave the first tenth before taxes to the work of Christ. As God prospered them at times, they would double tithe because they wanted to serve the eternal kingdom of Jesus Christ. They taught and they instructed by example. That’s what we’re called to do and God’s blessing will come upon the children and upon our children’s children.
So this word hanok is rich and extremely important in the life of James and the life of James, the Son of Alphaeus, demonstrates these truths, that Jesus Christ wants a people of humility and to humble and seek to exalt others beginning with God and extending to other people. That’s what Jesus is looking for with a promise that if you exalt others, He will exalt you.
This second teaching from James that faith is oftentimes linked with family. This is all because of the blessing of God but that blessing is empowered when we practice this principal of hanok and we train up our children, dedicating them to the Lord, teaching and instructing by example. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.