The early history of the church that began on Pentecost at times looked so bleak. With all the apostles present it was so easy for the infant church to “…continue steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching” (Acts 2:42). However, it was not long until two of the leading apostles were arrested and brought before the Jewish officials who ordered them to stop preaching (Acts 4:17-18). Yet, they kept on preaching.
In the next chapter it appears that all the apostles are arrested by the Jews and imprisoned. How on earth could the early church survive without the apostles? For the church to flourish it must have leadership, yet the leadership had been taken away. It is remarkable that those men were freed overnight by an angel of the Lord, and they kept on preaching.
When persecution arose with Saul being in the forefront, the church was scattered, with no one remaining in Jerusalem, except the apostles. The Lord had made provision for the survival of the church by providing spiritual gifts to all the saints. With no apostles, it might have looked like the church was doomed, but those scattered abroad kept on preaching.
As time passed, another persecution arose in Jerusalem. Herod killed James, the brother of John, with the sword, and when the evil king saw how much joy it brought to the Jews, he seized Peter and set the date for him to be killed (Acts 12:1-3). How could the church survive without the leadership of two of the inner circle of apostles? That inner circle of Peter, James and John had experienced events none of the others had seen. The church met to pray and how heavy their hearts must have been. It is not hard to imagine what their hearts were saying. “Oh, No! James is dead, and in a week’s time Peter will also be dead!” They were praying but none of them expected that an angel would free Peter from the sixteen soldiers who were guarding him.
However, there was another James to replace the one who had been slain. It was not the other apostle named James, the son of Alpheus. It was James, the brother of Jesus. He is James who stepped into the leadership role in the rest of the book of Acts. He was the one who wrote the epistle of James.
Samuel said that the Lord raised up Moses and Aaron to lead Israel out of Egypt (1 Sam. 12:6). In the promised land the people cried out to God who raised up judges (Judg. 2:16, 18; 3:9, 15). The Lord raised up prophets in Babylon (Jer. 29:15). When “James” dies, God provides another “James.” Now think of how in your lifetime you have seen older preachers and elders die and you worried, thinking the church could not survive. It always has survived and always will because God’s nature is to raise a new “James” as they are needed.