St. Philip and St. James, Apostles
Dear friends in Christ. Today we remember two of our Lord’s apostles, St. Philip and St. James. They were with our Lord during His earthly ministry and also served Him faithfully in the days of the very early Church serving as His witnesses and bringing the Gospel into the world. From Scripture we know that St. Philip was from the same town as Sts. Andrew and Peter, Bethsaida. Of St. Philip, Scripture records a beautiful scene [John 1.43-45]: [Jesus] found Philip and said to him, “Follow Me.” And obviously he did. What does St. Philip do next? Philip found Nathanael and said to Him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” St. Philip gives a beautiful confession of faith in Jesus and brings St. Nathanael/ Bartholomew to faith.
Isn’t that really also a picture of each of our conversions? For most of us, it was at the baptismal font that Jesus found [me] and said to [me], “Follow Me.” And in that Spirit worked faith, don’t we then confess that faith in Jesus, that He is the long promised/ my Savior from sin, death, devil, and hell: We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote—Jesus of Nazareth? Don’t we then share our faith with those the Lord placed in our lives?
Later on we read of St. Philip that when Jesus was about to feed the crowd of the 5000, He first asked Philip when He saw the crowds coming: [John 6.5-7] “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” But this He said to test [Philip], for He Himself knew what He would do. But Philip, looking at things very practically and not with the eyes of faith, fails the test, saying that there were so many people that it would take more than a half year of wages to feed them. St. Philip is approached by some Greeks during Holy Week asking if [John 12.21] they could see Jesus. Once again in Holy Week, St. Philip’s weak/ imperfect faith comes to the fore in the event recorded in today’s Gospel: Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?” Again we see that St. Philip is a picture of each of us—we have Spirit worked faith but because of the weakness of our sinful nature sometimes our faith shows itself weak/ imperfect; that we always are in need of the Lord working on and strengthening our faith. According to tradition, St. Philip was martyred in Phrygia, part of modern day Turkey.
Of St. James, not much is recorded in Scripture, where in the lists of the apostles he is called James the son of Alphaeus. He is traditionally called “James the Less” probably to distinguish him from St. James, the brother of St. John; and from St. James, the brother of the Lord, who wrote the epistle bearing his name. With St. James, the tradition is a bit murky and so we do not know exactly what happened to him, where he went to preach the Gospel and his end.
Although, generally, the saints are remembered on the anniversary of their death date, Sts. Philip and James are remembered together because their relics were transferred to the rebuilt Church of the Holy Apostles in Rome on 01 May 561 and rededicated in their honor on this day.
Today’s epistle reminds us once again of the vital and special role our Lord’s blessed apostles have: the Church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. As we examine our text we will see that Jesus builds His Church by His apostles and prophets into a glorious structure.
1. In our text, St. Paul is writing to non-Jewish believers. The Israelites had the blessing/ advantage of having the word of God that He had His servants, the prophets write and proclaim. They had the promises of the coming Savior. They had the most wonderful grace of God because they had the promise that the Savior of the world would be one of them and carry out His saving work among them. They were the people God was preparing to have the world’s Savior come among them. God not only had His word among them but He had His temple and Sacrifices, which pointed the people to His grace and forward in faith to that coming Savior, that once for all perfect sacrifice for sin.
But what did the non-Jews/ Gentiles have before the Lord, in grace, sent them His holy apostles; sent them His holy word? Absolutely nothing! Our text: So then you are no longer strangers and aliens. So if they are now no longer strangers and aliens, that means that before they were! Just a few verses before [Eph. 2.12], St. Paul calls them Christless…, without promise, hopeless, and Godless. That is a stark preaching to each one of us—where would we be without the grace of God toward us, without His holy word of the apostles and prophets through which He brings us to faith and strengthens and keeps us in the faith, without the holy Sacraments? We, too, would be Christless…, without promise, hopeless, and Godless. Why? Because faith and the gifts and blessings of God do not come about by our own strength, merits, thinkings, or natural abilities. Left to ourselves and our own devices we would never be enjoying the blessings Jesus won for us by His life, suffering and death: forgiveness of sin, peace with God, eternal life, heaven.
But what does St. Paul here say about these Christians in Ephesus and Christians all through the ages? But you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. The blessings and graces that the Israelites previously had of the promise of the coming Savior is now for all people. Jesus, the Savior, has come. The Church, which in OT times, was predominately a Jewish church, made up mostly of descendants of Abraham, is now a Church made up of all people from all over the world and from all ages. How why? Was it because people from all over the world suddenly sat down, thought about it and “got it”? No! It’s because we have been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets.
What a perfect time of the Church Year we are in to remember the work of the apostles. This Thursday is Ascension Day. The day Jesus ascended into heaven—the work for the salvation of the world completed/ job done—and now as God and man sits at the right hand, the position of power and authority ruling all things for the good of His Church. Ten days after that, we celebrate the day of Pentecost, the day He sends His Holy Spirit upon His Church and in particular upon His apostles whom He had commissioned to go out into all the world to preach His saving word. Jesus builds His Church and He does so through the Apostles. That’s why the day of Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit upon them is so vital. The Holy Spirit so influenced/ moved them that that what they would preach and write as apostles was free from any error. It is through this preaching, and this writing—writing which the Holy Spirit would preserve down through the ages in the NT—that Jesus would build His Church. As Christians today, we are bound to this Holy Word of God. It is a divine word and our only source of knowledge of the religion of grace—that we are saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus; that Jesus has done it all for us!
Not only does the word of the Apostles, and the prophets who pointed the people forward to Jesus and prophesied Him so we could recognize Him, tell us about Jesus our Savior, but the Holy Spirit at work through that word actually gives us the gifts and blessings Jesus won for us. Jesus builds His Church by His prophets and apostles because through their Spirit worked word He creates in us faith that receives the gifts and blessings He gives us in them. And note: Jesus builds His Church on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. That means there is no other way into the Church; that means that there is no other way of salvation than through the word of the apostles and prophets which alone proclaims Jesus and alone gives His gifts and blessings.
This is why Christ Jesus himself [is] the cornerstone. Jesus is the cornerstone of His building, the Church, because what makes a person a member of the Church is faith—faith in Jesus. No matter how long ago a person may have lived, no matter how far away a person may live and be different from us, we are in the one and same Church because we have that same faith in Jesus in our heart, a faith the Holy Spirit created by the word and the word made visible, the holy Sacraments. In the congregation Paul was writing to, it was Jew and Greek. In our day Christ Jesus himself [is] the cornerstone of the Church made up of every people and language under the sun. We are all part of the one, holy, Christian and apostolic Church, the Church in which alone there is salvation.
2. St. Paul continues: Christ Jesus himself [is] the cornerstone in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. What a glorious picture of what we confess in the Creed that the Church is: the communion of saints. The Church is described as a building, and as St. Peter [1 Pt. 2.5] describes the Christians: living stones. Think of our church building. It is made up of many different shapes of stones but somehow they all fit together to make a grand structure in which we gather to meet the Lord in His word and sacrament so He might give us His grace and blessings. How much more wonderful is our Lord’s work, through the word of the apostles, of building His Church! In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
The Lord has joined [us] together, dear Christian, in His one, holy, Christian and apostolic Church. Like a builder choosing the stones for a building, so the Lord chose each of us dear, Christian, in holy baptism; He polishes and forms us into shape by cross and suffering. Notice, like the stones in the wall of our Church, no Christian is in isolation from another nor are we in isolation from Jesus, Christ Jesus himself [is] the cornerstone in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows. Each stone is vital to the other; each stone helps and supports the other while the others help and support it. Through faith in Jesus we are the spiritual stones. That means that we are in and live in Jesus and enjoy communion with Him; and precisely as we have communion/ fellowship with Jesus, we also enjoy a close intimate union with our fellow Christians. Our common faith in Jesus preserves harmony. And recognizing our fellow Christian as a fellow Christian, as a fellow living stone in the building of the Church Jesus is building, we help each other; we adapt to the other, not insisting always on our way; we show charity in actions; and all we do is motivated by love, even if it seems harsh. We are in that one and the same spiritual building of Jesus’ Church, which He is building. By His Holy Spirit at work in that prophetic and apostolic word, which proclaims Jesus and gives His blessings, Jesus leads us sinners out of the world to Himself and sets us as living stones in His glorious structure He is building, His Church. As living stones we are not uncut stones, that is, corrupt and unconverted. We have been separated from the Godless and the Holy Spirit has sanctified us, created in us a new nature, makes us vessels of glory and adorns us with virtues and leads and empowers us to walk worthy of our calling/ position as living stones.
As we today remember Sts. Philip and James, we are reminded of the blessed role the apostles have as by them Jesus continues to build His Church into a glorious structure. INJ Amen.