This week the pew continues to look at the dispersal of disciples that morning of the day of Pentecost. Today we’re going to be looking at Philip of basidia and James, the son of Zebedee. We will start first with Philip. We will list the key aspects of Phillips story. Jesus directly called Philip to follow him and that can be found in John1:43. Philip came from Basidia the same town as Peter and Andrew. It is written that Philip brought Nathaniel also known as Bartholomew to meet Jesus. Philip was always full of questions, particularly during the feeding of the 5000 and at the last supper and I think we can look at this as his desire to understand what was happening. Peter does not enjoy an explicitly detailed place in the gospel tradition. It is suggested that Philip became a missionary and that he potentially traveled to Greece and other regions. It is written that Peter did suffer and was a marked man, and tradition states that Philip was murdered in Hierapolis by crucifixion, according to some of the accounts that we have. As a clarification of our studying here, there were four different men named Philip in the Bible, two of those were King Herod the Great’s sons, by two different wives. To continue to narrow it down just a bit more, the other two Phillips in the Bible we’re servants of Christ and instrumental in the early church. There was Philip the disciple and apostle of Christ and Philip the evangelist. We also want to point out just for informational reasons that Philip did go and find Nathaniel and bring him to Jesus and he became one of Jesus’s disciples. We don’t have a whole lot of biographical detail about Philip or really of any of the other disciples, but John does record several times when Philip spoke to Jesus. Now let’s get to that other Philip. We usually distinguish him from the disciple by the same name by simply calling him, Philip the evangelist or Philip the deacon. It was this Philip, who was one of the 72 men who Jesus sent out although the Bible doesn’t make that connection. We do know that Philip was one of the original seven deacons selected to serve in the Jerusalem church. We also know that Peter did have a heart for evangelism, and when that great persecution arose, which we can read about in Acts 8:1, Philip left Jerusalem to become a evangelist in Samaria. There is more but we’ll save that for another time. There is one interesting footnote that I would like to note, that 20 years later Philip the evangelist is in Caesarea and Paul, Luke, and others were traveling to Jerusalem, they stopped at Phillips home in Caesarea and they stayed with him for several days. It’s noted that Philip had four unmarried daughters at that time all of whom  had the gift of prophecy. This is the last time the Bible mentions the evangelist Philip.

Next, we move to James, the son of Zebedee. Here again we have to stop for just a second and clarify the fact that Jesus had two disciples named James. James, the son of Zebedee and James the son of Alphaeus but we’re not done there another James the half brother of Jesus who was never one of the 12 disciples but was a leader in the early church of Jerusalem. You can find that in act 15:13 and it was this James that wrote the epistle of James. For our study today, we are going to focus on James the son of Zebedee. As we did in our study of Philip, let’s look at some of the key facts about James the son of Zebedee. He was among the group of 12 apostles’s chosen by Jesus of course, and it is said he was one of his closest followers. Now James and his brother John were nicknamed the sons of thunder by Jesus, and it was due most likely to their sometimes fiery personalities and religious scholars often said they were rather passionate about much of what they were involved in or around. He was also part of the inner circle of three disciples along with Peter and John, who were allowed to witness key events like the Transfiguration of Jesus and the raising of Jairus’ daughter. James was put to death by Herod Agrippa, we can read about that and Acts 12:1-2. James preached in Spain and his body was later taken there for burial. Some other things worth noting about James, when Jesus called him to follow him, he was in a boat mending the fishing nets with his father and his brother John. How strong was the call to follow Jesus when he called them? They immediately left their boat and their father and followed him, Matthew 4:21–22. It is from this point on that James was in full-time ministry with Jesus. There was a time when they made an unreasonable request of Jesus….Mark 10:37 They replied, ‘When you sit on your glorious throne, we want to sit in places of honor next to you, one on your right and the other on your left.’ Jesus of course rejected their request, which was not looked at favorably by the other Disciples. Jesus did promise James, that he too would suffer, and as it turned out, he was one of the first of the apostles to be martyred. James learned much from that request that he had made to Jesus and we see how Jesus can mold us to blend with that which he wants done and to give us the courage to do it just by watching James as he grows in the faith. We learn without question that courage is a valuable asset in spreading the gospel, but at the same time, should not be allowed to descend into brash behavior. Jesus always encouraged those around him to temper their zeal with grace, and to carry on a steady commitment to the will of God.

Life is Good

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