James - Faith in Action: Introduction

Nick Lotter

James • Sermon • Submitted 4 years ago

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Transcript

Text

James 1:1–4 ESV

1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings. 2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Theme

Genuine faith is visible in action

Introduction

We’ve been scattered and dispersed for more than 4 months now. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder… I am sure many of us are feeling the absence of our gatherings more and more as time goes on.

I miss the small things like the handshakes and small talk over a cup of coffee on a Sunday morning. And I miss the big things even more, like worshiping together, singing together, hearing the Word of God preached from the pulpit, seeing new believers baptized, taking part in the Lord’s Supper.

At least one good thing to come out of this lockdown will hopefully be an increased appreciation of these things. When we are able to gather again, I obviously hope to see the church full of new people. But I also hope to see us worship with a refreshed enthusiasm and greater appreciation for the means of grace that God has given us as part of our gathered worship.

But that is then. We are still in the now. How should we live now while we remain scattered and dispersed? What help does God’s Word give us while we wait for the regathering of the Saints? What should we be doing?

I decided to turn to James - a letter he says is addressed to the twelve tribes of the dispersion. Like those who were dispersed in his day, my prayer is that this letter would be of great help and encouragement to us as we navigate what is sure to still be a very difficult few months ahead.

This morning we will just deal with the introduction to the letter and an overview of the message it contains. Next time, we will start to unpack all of the wisdom that it contains for us, verse by verse and chapter by chapter.

Let’s pray now and ask God for His help.

Text

James 1:1–4 ESV

The Author

Well you would have to be trying to fail the test on purpose if I asked you who write the letter and you couldn’t answer. He identifies himself right away - He is James.

But which James?

He identifies himself only as James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now there are a few guys in the Bible named James who could possibly have been the author of this letter. There is James the son of Alphaeus, James the father of Judas (not Iscariot, the other one) and James the brother of John, and James the brother of Jude and half-brother of Jesus.

But most commentators agree that the letter was written by James the half brother of Jesus. Church tradition records that James was the bishop of the church in Jerusalem where the letter was written, in around 40-49 AD.

It might seem strange to some of us that James wouldn’t introduce himself then as James the brother of Jesus. I’m sure that if we had such a famous brother - a man who’s name has been known around the world in every generation since his resurrection from the dead - then we might be tempted to introduce ourselves as his brother at every opportunity!

How’s that for an introduction to impress your future father-in-law, or the boss at a job interview: Hi may name is Nick, brother of Jesus.

Even at informal gatherings and being introduced to new friends, we’d be like “Howsit, I’m Nick - brother of Jesus.”

So if the author of this letter is James, half brother of Jesus Christ Himself, why would he not identify himself as Jesus’ brother, and instead introduce himself as a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ?

Well for starters, there’s humility. James may have been the bishop of the church in Jerusalem, and the half-brother of the Messiah Himself, but James still sees himself as a humble servant.

People love titles. They even give themselves titles and include those made up titles in their Facebook name. I’m Evangelist so-and-so. I’m apostle so-and-so. I’m prophet so-and-so.

Sometimes our titles are legit but we love them and attach so much importance to them. I am a professor. I am a doctor. I am a pastor. I am an elder. I am a deacon. I am a lay preacher. I am leader of this ministry or that committee.

Titles aren’t bad - I take pleasure in referring to Pastor Siyabulela as my pastor. I see it as a privilege to be under his shepherding and teaching. Titles aren’t the problem - a lack of humility and servanthood by people who have titles, is.

Titles become a problem when we use them to be served, rather than to serve. To be masters, rather than to be those who minister to others.

James is well known in his day among the believers as James the Just, James the Bishop of Jerusalem, James the half-brother of Jesus. But in James’ mind, he is primarily a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He is humble. A common theme throughout his letter - humility.

And secondly, he is submitting to the Lordship of Jesus.

It’s significant that he calls Him, the Lord Jesus Christ. He might have simply referred to his half-brother simply as Jesus, but he is not just a servant of a flesh and blood man and a sibling, but of the LORD Jesus Christ. Jesus the Lord, Jesus the Messiah, Jesus the Saviour.

The Lordship of Jesus over our lives, and His superior wisdom, is also a prevalent theme in the letter.

Some people call James’ letter the Proverbs of the New Testament, because of its focus on wisdom and practical Christian living and Christian behaviour.

Right at the start of the letter, James compels us to count it all joy when we suffer. To the world and even to Christians this seems counter-intuitive. Surely we should not count it a thing of joy and happiness when we are suffering!

But James says in verse 5, if you lack wisdom, and can’t understand, ask God and He will give you wisdom.

You might not know why God is putting you through all these trials and all this suffering, but God knows. Because He is Lord. Submit to Him.

You don’t know because you’re only 20 years old. You’re only 30. You’re only 40. You’re only 60. You’re only 80. But God is eternal. You don’t see the bigger picture, but He does. You don’t know everything, but He does. He is Lord over everything.

And through this letter God is giving us wisdom through James’ pen.

God is saying, “Submit to me. Live my way. I know what’s good for you. Don’t do that. Don’t live that way. This is how you ought to live. Live for me, not the world. Watch your tongue. Resist temptation. Visit the orphans and the widows. Live morally upright lives.

You are small and young, and your life passes by like a vapour. I am eternal, I am wise, I am Lord. Listen to me. This is the way to joy. This is the way to meaning and purpose. This is the way to peace. Rejoice in what I am doing to you, and for you.”

The Recipients

We know who the author is; let’s look at who he is writing to. James says he is writing “to the twelve tribes of the Dispersion”

Most commentators agree that James wrote the letter some time between Acts 7 and the Jerusalem Council of Acts 15, because he makes no mention of the council and its findings in the letter. It is most likely that it was written between 40-49 AD and after the events of Acts 7.

What happened in Acts 7? The stoning of Stephen, the first Christian martyr, by the instruction of Saul.

Acts 8:1 ESV

1 And Saul approved of his execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.

It was all part of God’s plan. He is Lord. Remember, Jesus told the apostles in Acts 1:8 that they will be His witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaia, and to the end of the earth.

By Acts 7 there are thousands of Christians in Jerusalem, added to the church through the evangelism and preaching of the apostles. But the Lord’s will is not for the gospel to stay in Jerusalem, it must go out of Jerusalem. It must go out to Judea and Samaria, and to the whole world. So He raises up persecution against the Church.

Alright Church, since you aren’t getting out of Jerusalem, I’ll raise up a persecution to get you out of Jerusalem. And a great persecution arose and, Acts 8:1, they were scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria.

The gospel spread. Churches were planted. New congregations were established in Gentile territories. The Church was dispersed.

As a side note, notice that Luke says in Acts 8:1 that they were all scattered, except the apostles. How did the gospel spread? Through the witness of the apostles, yes, just as Jesus said, because of the letters they wrote, which we still read today in our Bibles. But how did their witness get out? Through each Christian in the church who went out. The call to be witnesses to the end of the earth isn’t only for the apostles - its for each one of us.

Through all of the Christians who were dispersed, the gospel spread and churches were planted even in Gentile countries.

This is the body of people James refers to as the twelve tribes of the Dispersion. These are the people James is writing to. He is not writing to Jews, or even just to Jewish Christians, but he is writing to the Church, to Christians that have been scattered throughout the world.

Now when you hear about the twelve tribes, you immediately think of Israel. Jacob, who God renamed “Israel” in Geneses 35:10, became the father of 12 sons. Those sons are the ancestors of the 12 tribes of Israel. Often, the twelve tribes is a reference to the whole of Israel - God’s chosen people.

According to biblical theology, an overview of what the whole Bible teaches, and Paul’s theology and James’ theology and what they believed, Israel is not just ethnic Jews - those born to Jewish parents, with Jewish blood and having been circumcised as a Jew if they were male.

James’ understanding is the the twelve tribes of Israel - God’s chosen people - is now all of those who know Jesus Christ as Lord, whether Jew or Gentile, Greek or Barbarian, slave or free.

The twelve tribes is a reference to the Church.

The Church didn’t replace Israel. God didn’t stop calling Israel His chosen people and turn His affections to the Church instead after the cross. The Church is Israel. The Church is the true Israel.

From Genesis to Revelation, Israel is the body of people who by faith believe in God and are trusting Him for salvation. The Old Testament saints who are in heaven, are not in heaven because of their ethnicity or who their parents were, or even because they did their part and made sacrifices at the temple. They are in heaven because they believed.

Genesis 15:6 ESV

6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

Salvation has always been received by faith - not by works, not by bloodline. By faith.

True Israel was always the people who believed in God, and because they believed in God, they kept His Word and lived in obedience.

They weren’t God’s people because they were obedient, they were obedient because they were God’s people. Because they believed.

Their good works and obedience, was nothing more than their faith in action.

God’s people are recognizable today by the same sign. They believe, therefore they do.

They are not hearers of God’s Word only, but doers of God’s Word.

Their faith is visible in action.

This is the essence of James’ letter - and the title of the series - Faith in Action

This is what his letter is all about. It is theology put into practice. Faith visible in the actions of God’s people.

The Message

At the time of James’ letter, the people of God - the Church - were scattered and dispersed, and enduring all kinds of persecution and suffering. Life was not easy.

James is writing to them to strengthen their faith, and to encourage them to continue to live out their faith - to let their faith continue to be seen in action.

The trials of life and all the sufferings we are subjected to often shake our faith.

2020 might be a good picture of this. We have been dispersed, in a sense, unable to gather but looking forward to the day when we can gather together again.

We’ve all had to sacrifice, and many have suffered greatly. It’s been an extremely difficult past few months - not nearly as bad as being persecuted to death, but it has been difficult.

Hardship and difficulty can sometimes weaken our faith and diminish our service. We stop practicing our religion. We stop listening to the sermons. We stop praying. We stop calling people. We stop serving.

Our faith fades into something we used to do before lockdown, when things were better. We are still physically visible - we go to work, we go to the shops, we visit family.

But our faith is no longer visible. Our faith is no longer seen in action. This is not healthy, because faith is seen to be genuine faith only when it is in action. Our actions show that we have faith.

To put it another way, faith gives birth to action. Faith is the engine that drives action.

James’ own life shows the effect that genuine faith in Christ has on our actions and attitudes.

The evidence from Scripture indicates that during Jesus’ 3 years of ministry before His crucifixion, James did not believe that He was the Son of God. John 7:5 says “not even Jesus’ brothers believed in him”. I guess that’s what happens when your brother who you’ve grown up with claims to be God. You tend not to believe him. You think he’s crazy. In fact, there was an incident during Jesus’ ministry when James and his sisters tried to take Jesus away because they thought He had lost His mind.

You know what changed that? The resurrection. When your brother claims to be God in the flesh, dies, and then is raised from the dead 3 days later, you believe Him. And James did, and now he no longer sees Jesus as just his brother, but as the Lord. And James, he’s a servant of the Lord.

James believed. He believed that Jesus is who He claimed to be - the Son of God and the Saviour of the world. And his faith in Jesus changed everything. During Jesus’ ministry, James was trying to stop Jesus from doing what He was doing because he thought Jesus was crazy. But now that he believed, James submitted to Jesus as His Lord.

His faith in Jesus and submission to His Lordship changed everything about James and the way He lived. He became known as James the Just because of his righteous lifestyle. Church tradition says his knees were wrecked because of how much time he spent on his knees. But James’ faith didn’t just cause him to live for Jesus, it also made him willing to die for Jesus as a martyr.

Not long after this letter was distributed, James was grabbed by an angry mob in Jerusalem and taken to the top of the temple mount and thrown off. He survived the fall, but was then beaten to death with a stick because he refused to denounce Jesus.

That’s what genuine faith in Jesus produces - a changed heart and a changed life. Genuine faith is always demonstrated in action - and in changed desires and behaviours.

And this is the essence of the message James brings through his letter - genuine faith is faith that is demonstrated. Genuine faith is faith in action. And if your claimed faith is not being demonstrated through your works and your life, then it is a dead faith, and not genuine faith at all.

James is saying in this letter that if your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is genuine, and you really believe that Jesus is Lord, then that faith will be seen to be real by your actions and by your works.

True believers don’t work in order to be saved, but they do work because they are saved. They work because they believe.

Our desires, our behaviours, and our works, are faith in action. They show that our faith is alive.

Faith that is pretended or not real is dead faith - it doesn’t produce anything. But genuine faith in the Lord Jesus is faith that is living and fruitful, active and visible.

James brings this truth to us in pastoral and practical letter. There is theological truth in the letter which of course forms the backbone of the letter - the basis for everything James writes to believers; but this letter has a practical emphasis.

He is addressing us as a straight talker, not flaunting high theology and lofty language, but getting down to where the rubber meets the road.

Christian, you say you’re a believer. You say you have faith in Jesus. Then these are the ways that your faith should be seen in action.

Your faith will make you

persevere in suffering

trust the wisdom of God without doubting

trust God and not money

resist temptation

believe God’s word

do God’s word

control our tongues

live moral lives

love God more than the world

prayer for others

pray in response to suffering and illness

pray for sinners to come to Christ

And James’ point in all this is not to heap all kinds of rules and expectations of works and obedience on us, but rather to encourage us to live more and more in accordance with who we are with joy, even in suffering.

Look, you are never going to read James and be satisfied that you’ve “made it” as a Christian. You’re going to read it and you’re going to be humbled every time you do so.

For three reasons:

1. Our Failure

We are never going to get to the point of perfection. That isn’t even the goal James is describing. Every time you read it, you’re going to recognize all the ways that you are sinning, missing the mark, failing to live in perfect obedience and righteousness.

You’re going to recognize that though you thought you were doing well, mostly because you’re comparing yourself to others, actually you’ve failed all over:

you’ve not responded to your sufferings with joy for the ultimate prize in Christ, but rather been grumpy about them and blamed God for them

you’re going to find that you’ve doubted God

that your doubt has led to a lack of prayer

that you’ve been more consumed with accumulating wealth than laying up treasures in heaven

that you’ve given into temptation more than you’d like to admit

that you’ve been a good talker when it comes to God’s Word, but not a consistent or faithful doer of the Word

that your tongue is ruling you and you’re letting out words that shouldn’t come out of a Christian’s mouth, and you’re telling lies, and speaking poorly of people behind their backs

Make no mistake, reading James is going to make you miserable at times.

It’s going to make you feel like a failure. Its going to humble you.

It ought to make you repent.

And if that’s what you find yourself doing while reading James, you’re reading it right. But it’s thankfully not ALL you will get out of James.

2. Christ’s Intercession for Us

James will also humble us because of Jesus’ intercession for us. The Lord Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, who alone could and did live the kind of righteous life James is describing, suffered and died on the cross for us who fail at it every day.

Think of all the ways that James shows that we fail, and be reminded that the LORD died so that we will never have to bear the consequences for those failures, because Jesus bore them on our behalf on the cross.

The righteous suffered and died for the unrighteous. The Lord died for the sinner.

He took our guilt, and gave us His righteousness and eternal life.

If that doesn’t humble you and make you want to be more like Him, and live more righteously, then you don’t believe it.

Because if you do believe it, if you have faith in Jesus, His death and His resurrection, your faith will be seen in action.

There’s simply no way that you can truly believe that God became flesh and lived among us sinners, and not only lived among us but died for us, and go on living as though that was just another headline in the newspaper this morning.

No ways - if you believe it, you will not be able to help but show it.

Genuine faith is faith seen in action. You will never be the same again.

Your attitude will be, Christ died for me, so I am now dead to myself. Christ rose and lives forvermore, so I will live for Him.

In what ways can I please you Lord? In what ways can I love you Lord? In what ways should I be working now, Lord? What is best for me, Lord? What would you have me do for you, Lord?

3. Christ’s Sanctifying Work in Us

Thirdly, James humbles us because as time goes on and we mature as believers, we will read James and see how much we have progressed.

This is because of Jesus’ sanctifying work in us through the Holy Spirit. As new believers, we will fail often and in many ways. We will read James and be crushed. But the longer we continue to trust the Lord and grow in our faith, the more the Lord will be working in us and shaping us, and the less we will fail.

We will read James and go “WOW, look at how much God has changed me since I first became a Christian.” As a mature Christian, you ought to be able to say that.

We will never get to the point of perfection - that is what we will only experience when we go home to be with the Lord and put off this body of sin and take on our new bodies as the redeemed people of God.

But here we must struggle against sin. And struggle we must, all the while knowing that through faith in Jesus, we will make progress, and ultimately we are assured of victory through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Philippians 1:6 ESV

6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Let’s pray that God will use this letter to strengthen our faith in Jesus in spite of our trials, and make us healthy and fruitful Christians as we trust in His finished work on our behalf.

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