James Reunited with His Brother and Lord
Things Unseen with Sinclair B. Ferguson
Ligonier Ministries
4.9 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 14 April 2023
⏱️ 6 minutes
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Summary
Of all the people Jesus visited after His resurrection, the most intriguing may be James, His half-brother who had not believed in Him. Today, Sinclair Ferguson reflects on Christ's tender love for His family, to which we now belong by grace.
Read the transcript: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts/things-unseen-with-sinclair-ferguson/james-reunited-with-his-brother-and-lord
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In yesterday's podcast, we were remembering how the angel at the garden tuned stressed |
| 0:13.0 | that the news of Jesus' resurrection should be given not only to the disciples in general, |
| 0:19.4 | but to Simon Peter in particular, and we were reflecting on the loving way Peter was |
| 0:24.8 | singled out. But there's more than one singling out in the resurrection narratives, isn't |
| 0:31.1 | there? Douting Thomas is another one. But there is someone else we might overlook. Remember |
| 0:38.7 | when Paul lists Jesus' resurrection appearances in 1 Corinthians 15 verses 3 through 8, he |
| 0:46.6 | tells us that he appeared on one occasion to over 500 disciples, and that most of them |
| 0:53.0 | were still alive. The implication being, I suppose, you can go and ask them. But then he adds, |
| 0:59.9 | then he appeared to James. No explanation. Not even a clear indication of which James he was |
| 1:09.7 | talking about, simply, then he appeared to James. So who was this James that Paul knew? |
| 1:18.8 | It's pretty clear Paul assumed everybody knew who he was talking about. And by the way he |
| 1:26.1 | words things to James, then to all the apostles, I think he's probably indicating that this James |
| 1:35.5 | was not one of the original apostles. So not James the brother of John. That James had been killed |
| 1:42.6 | by Herod, you remember. And the Corinthians would have heard of him as a martyr rather than as a |
| 1:48.7 | contemporary. So this James was still alive. And he was well enough known for Paul to assume the |
| 1:56.8 | Corinthians knew who he was. To get to the point, I think he was almost certainly James the half |
| 2:06.1 | brother of the Lord Jesus, and probably the eldest of his half-brothers. But why a special appearance |
| 2:14.3 | to him? Now the New Testament doesn't directly tell us, but there seems to be a common thread |
| 2:22.3 | running through our Lord's appearance to individuals. Mary Magdalene, Simon Peter, James, |
| 2:29.3 | Saul of Tarsus. We could put it this way. Each of them had a past. I suppose each of them |
| 2:37.4 | may have felt themselves to use Paul's words, the foremost of sinners. Perhaps then the explanation |
| 2:45.4 | for this special appearance to James has found in John chapter 7, verse 5, not even his brothers |
... |
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