Welcome to have you. We're glad to have you with us. And please come and share with us something from the word of God. I'm glad to be with you by person. Many faces are familiar to me from the Zoom Before we talk later about Beirut and the ministry there, I want to share with you from the Word of God, from Acts 12, 1 and 2, the reading that Pastor Jonathan read before you. James, the brother of John, was killed by the sword, by Herod. Luke found by the Holy Spirit that it's enough to mention two verses about the death of James. And then after these two verses, we get busy seeing what happened to Peter. how he was delivered from the hand of Herod and how he was delivered from the Jews. It's amazing in this journey how much we all see things in a similar way. James, the brother of John, was he not treated fairly by God? If we can answer this question, we will find answers to many questions similar we say we ask God when we compare the lives of many people to our lives. Was he not treated fairly? As a pastor, I always see people always thinking. Sometimes they say it, sometimes they don't. They feel that they were never treated fairly. Was James the brother of John? Because his brother is much more famous than him. And to recognize him, you have to say the brother of John, or else you will think of many other James. James, the first pastor in the Church of Jerusalem, another James. James, another James. There's another apostle called James. Even his name, there's an issue with his name. When you think of him, you will remember many people, but not James, the brother of John. One of the pillars of the church, Jesus called 12 disciples, but he chose three of them to be the leaders, Peter, James, and John. James and John, the sons of thunder, and Peter. These three went with Jesus to many places without the other disciples. Everybody agreed that they were treated like the leaders of the disciples group. So James expected a long life, a big achievement. like Peter and like John, his brother. Peter the rock, John the elder who wrote the letters and lived a long life, and all the churches respected him and asked for his advice. But James, at the beginning of the church, as we read in Acts 12, when the church was starting, Herod decided to hurt the church. He sent people to grab James while they were meeting. They suddenly grabbed him and took him by force. And imagine his feelings and his emotions at that time. He never saw the flourish of the church. He had no chance to make a great achievement or a big thing like the rest of the apostles. Why did Jesus choose him, and teach him, and disciple him, and train him, and call him a leader? And then suddenly, at the beginning of the church, dragged in front of everybody, and killed by the sword. And finish. OK, let's reward him with some crying. with some huge memorial, like we did with Moses, with the Baptist. No, nothing. After the two verses, Peter, taken to prison, was saved from the hand of Herod, and everybody went celebrating Peter. And you forget everything about James. Nothing is mentioned anymore about James. So if you think Any time in your life, or you will think that life is treating you unfair, or God is treating you unfair, think about James, the brother of John. One of the three leaders, what he expected, what he was trained for, his gifts, his talents, his role, his zeal, he was the top. Christ placed him as the top with Peter and John. But he had the chance to do nothing. Just die for Christ at the beginning of the history of the church and left us nothing. No country was opened by James. Paul, the apostle for the Gentiles, started many churches. Peter, the rock. James the Nothing, the brother of John. Was he not treated fairly by God? When you compare him to the rest of the apostles, you feel he was not treated justly. Why did Herod choose him to be killed? Was he so clever? Or just randomly he chose this man. Was it not nice? So James, who left his family and life and decided to serve Christ, at least to taste a little of the success of the church after that, he was killed by the sword so quickly. Why did Herod choose him? Do we not know that somebody controls Herod? And don't you think that somebody pointed to Herod to kill James? Not John, not Peter, not Andrew, not Philip, not Matthew. And all these apostles went out of Jerusalem, and they did great things. And we remember them for all these great things. But James, we remember him only by the brother of John, who did actually nothing, died at the beginning of the church ministry. I will share with you some reasons Why James, the brother of John, died so early, and why he was treated fairly. And God never treats his people unjustly, never. We remember that one day he said to Jesus, yes for this. One day his mother, Salome, I hope I'm not pronouncing names badly to you. I know how dear your English language is to you, so excuse my mistakes and please treat it with Christian charity. I preach usually in Arabic, so I'm always translating in my head and we know the names and the pronunciation in Arabic totally sometimes different. So his mother came with him and his brother and told Jesus because they were a very godly family. His mother is one of the great saints. She followed Christ till the cross, and she is one of the Marys who did not leave Christ all his ministry. She was serving him till the cross. She came with her both sons, John and James, and she said to him, after they had agreed as a family that this is what should happen, one should stand on your left and one should stand on your right. Because she knows they are the number one family in the church. And she was right, actually. She is the number one. And they were the number one. Jesus called them the sons of thunder because of their zeal and power and love to Christ. And it was clear. So they thought this is how it should be done. But Christ told them, as you know the story in Matthew 20, that I cannot decide based on your suggestion who stand on my left or on my right. This is planned a long time ago. But you can decide if you want to drink from my cup. And both said, yes, we want to drink from the same cup. James himself said, I want to drink from your cup. I want to be truly like you. I want to follow you till death. I want to be a disciple not better than his master. I want to be a slave not better than his master. He said, yes. And at that time, if you remember, Jesus told him, this is what will happen. you will be granted your wish. So James said yes for dying for Christ. If you remember, all of you, the time when we said yes to Jesus, and we say yes no matter what, we will follow you, we will die for you, we love you, we don't want anything in life just to find you and be happy with you. And something happens suddenly, something minor sometimes, and we start nagging and feeling that we were treated unjustly, or not given a role enough, or a ministry enough, or people are not seeing us as we think they should see us. We need more respect. We need more to be treated. as others are treated. I'm sure James thought of that a lot. But if he remembered what he said to Christ, it would be easy for him. You want to be like him? You got to be the first and the most one like him. He did not live and had a long life. He made an oath and a promise. So if Christ called him, he was treated fairly. Also, we should remember that the way to glory always pass by suffering and pain. He wanted glory. He was granted glory. As Christians, when we follow Christ, we say that we don't want the world, and the glory of the world, we want Christ himself. And sometimes when Christ tells us no more glory from people, even from Christians, we get upset. We want him alone, but when he tells us that I want you also alone, we get upset. And we feel that we were not treated fairly. We forget that The path to glory, the real glory, always pass through suffering. But we try to run from suffering and try to gain comfort and love and luxury and everything in the world. We want Christ's blessing instead of Christ. He was the first. He was the leader. But the church and Christ needed blood. Who should do it first? James, the brother of John. He was the toughest one. But we want a heritage. We want children. We want families. We want to enjoy life. We want to minister like others. Why can't we have Christ and everything else at the same time? It's not the way God planned it to be. James, the brother of John. I'm sure many of you think about another James when we say James, because this man went so early. Great heroes also are honored not on earth, but in heaven. I'm sure he was honored. Christ said who was James. He made him his right hand. He was honored in heaven. Always be sure when someone is not honored on earth that he will be honored in heaven. And when we honor each other in a human style or in a fleshy way, we rob each other from God's honor. That's why we should wait for the great celebration, for the great prize, for the great master who knows the hearts, not the shape, not the outward things. Because if we want to judge each other and honor each other and give glory to each other, we will just wait on the things from the outside that we know. I may be honored a lot, but if Christ decides to honor his people, I may be in the back. So James was not honored on earth, because he was honored in heaven. Imagine even the people that honored him in heaven. What we dream of sometimes, and even in a good way, we like people to sit and watch us, and listen to us, and clap for us, and say, yeah, good, great. You're the man of God. You're the woman of God. God bless you. We love this honor. This is a human being, normal. But the quality of people that will be honoring you in heaven worth the wait. It will be the apostles, the prophets, the saints. the real men of God, the real woman of God. Imagine all of them in a meeting, not people who are laughing at you. They honor you now, and when you leave, they say, he was boring. These real people will honor you in heaven. Why waste it and get honor on Earth? James was not treated unjustly. He was given the glory and the honor he deserves in heaven. And that's why Christ called him early. We never honor people. Christ was not honored enough on earth. All the apostles were not honored enough on earth. Paul wrote the last letter from prison He was talking about how everybody was shy from him. He was begging Timothy not to be shy from him. He was not honored on earth. Don't feel that God treated you unjustly because people, they don't see you as you think they should. God does not need our talents and gifts as well. This is an answer why we should accept God's will. He wants us, but not our gifts and talents. Sometimes we think that he given us things so precious that we need to use. As if if we don't use these things, the plan of God will fail. Everything rely on our gifts, on our talents. Who are we? We are dust, nothing. Compare history and the time we come and we say something or do something. It's nothing. Nothing. God needs our hearts. And I think maybe he wanted James close to him. He can handle Peter a couple of years more on Earth or John more on Earth to do things. But he wanted James near him. He was not treated unjustly. He was given the best things, the closest things. Enoch in the Old Testament, if you remember his story, we always refer to him because we know nothing about him. He walked a little with God, then he took him. That's it. And we always talk about what does it mean to walk with God, the fellowship with him. how this great man walked with God, and then God rewarded him by taking him and not facing death. But the two lines also, or three lines, they say that he had children. I'm sure if he will call me now and come, I will tell him, please, bless me with some more days to enjoy my children and see their children as well. I'm sure if you want to reward me, he will not take me when I want to stay. So you will agree that if Enoch was asked, do you want to stay or do you want to come with me? Surely he would say, I don't want to stay. If he wanted to stay, he would not take him. What's this gift and pleasure to take you over your will, against your will? No. We can conclude that if Enoch wanted to stay one more day on Earth, he would not have taken him. He would let him. But it seems his love to Christ, his fellowship with Christ reached a level he understood that his gifts, his talents, what he need to do, he want to take care of his family, he want to change the world, he want to preach the world. It's not as important as being close to Christ. And when Christ sees this in us, this love to him, He enjoys our company much more than when we minister to him. Many people do nothing. Sorry to say that, but they are close to Christ. And many people are busy, busy, busy doing ministry. But he haven't spoken to them for a long time. Because God does not need our talents and gifts. He needs our faithfulness, our love, our fellowship with him, our true feelings. Even the Baptist had a better reputation. And he had a better funeral. They mourned him. They cried. He was the famous prophet. The land was shaking when he was preaching. And he died early. James, nothing. We know about a mistake he did. One time he suggested to Christ to bring fire from heaven to kill the Samaritans. We know about his mistakes only. No achievement, no greatness, no land under his name. We do feel the same sometimes. We want to be like these big preachers. We want to be the biggest church in London, for example. We feel life is unfair. Why we are here? Why this ministry is small? What I am doing? The things I have is very little. I'm insignificant in the world and in the country and even in my church sometimes. I'm nobody. Don't ever think you are treated unjustly. This is how God treats his people, fair and love. You can never be elected. from all those people in the world, and then feel that you are treated unjustly because of anything. It's impossible. It's a contradiction. He chose you to save you, and then no matter what he plans for you, you are blessed. You are so much blessed that if he do anything with you, you're still blessed. Because life is a small trip. You are loved so much. So whatever he takes from you or do not provide to you, it's nothing compared to what he gave you. At the end, God's purpose and will is always better than what we see or feel. Our hearts deceive us. And our eyes also deceive us. Only God's word tells us the truth, only. And what does it say? His purpose and will, customized to you, specially to you, particular to you, is always better than what you feel or see. Don't trust your flesh. Trust that God never fails in his purpose, never designs something with a problem, with a fault side or with an issue. It's always perfect. So you are perfect in his design and plan and what he wants from you. You are never treated unjustly. I'm sick. He's healthy. I'm short. He's tall. Why? I'm not talented. He has gifts. I'm going to die early, he's going to live long. James, the brother of John, is an example to someone who we think or we may think that he was treated unjustly. but he was one of the great men, great disciples of Christ who stayed with him. Unjustice is not what we experience as believers. Remember his first meeting with Christ. It's always nice to go back to the first meeting Even in the first meeting, Christ went to the Sea of Galilee, and there were Simon and Andrew. They were fishing. They had partners. Who were their partners? John and James. He chose Peter's boat. He sat in Peter's boat. He preached from Peter's boat. He told him, move. You know the story. And he made the miracle in Peter's boat. And Peter decided to follow Christ after he saw the miracle in his boat. And the amazing story shows us that there's always something special about James. The others, not even the text mention his name, the others who were with Peter saw the miracle. and decided to follow Christ. Even from the beginning, he was not given glory. I hope that nobody feels like Job, that he's treated unfairly and God is treating him unjustly. I'm sick, I'm tired, I'm poor, Compare yourself to anybody. I live in a sad country. I live in a hard place. No. James, the brother of John, doesn't matter. He doesn't need to be popular because he's satisfied from the love of Christ to him. So we're choosing him to give an example. I hope he will not get angry from me when we meet in heaven. And he tells me, like, why are you saying all these things about me? I was OK. I never felt this. So we will tell him that we thought that he's a good example for somebody who could feel something like that. because he was not popular. And definitely, it was much better to live for a long life and see the church, how it spread all over the world, and how Paul started all these churches. And Peter, he was in heaven watching, enjoying Christ. I hope this example will give you courage and satisfaction in what God's planned for you, and accept it, and know also that every single one is precious with the little things he was given to serve Christ. Amen? Amen.