James

And if you'd like to turn in your Bibles to page 1,213, if you've got one of the church Bibles, and to the book of James.

Good evening. My name is Tom and I'm one of the pastors here if we haven't met. And we are beginning this evening a brand new series in this book of James which is going to take us right up until Christmas time to the start of December. And we're really, really looking forward to it, those of us who are going to be preaching. And this evening, we are just going to do something of an introduction into the book.

So I'll make a few introductory comments about the book of James. And then we are going to look at five ways in which this book is gonna help us. So five ways in which I think this book is is gonna help us as a congregation. And then throughout this term, we're gonna be something doing something a little different in our home groups. We normally follow along the morning sermon series in our home groups.

But this term, we're going to be following the evening sermon series in our home groups. So we'll be looking at James in our home groups because it's so very practical and I think will be great to discuss amongst ourselves. So a bit of an introduction, why look at this book, that's where we're going this evening, and let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that we can be here together this evening. We're sorry for the ways in which we do not appreciate the privileges that we have in this building, that we can open up what is the words of the living God, and we can hear you speaking to us, our creator.

And we pray that you would give us ears to hear. We think of how James is going to press the point repeatedly that we as your people must not be hearers only, but those who do the word of God. And yet we confess our utter helplessness and weakness when it comes to that. And so we pray that you would help us this evening. Even as we just look at an introduction, some of the things which are going to help us.

We pray that we wouldn't come away from this evening just looking forward to a future series, but that we would hear you this evening. Be struck this evening. Be changed this evening. And we pray all of this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

So James one, have a look at verse one. In in verse one, there are two who's and there are two what's. Two who's and two what's. So you can see the first one, who wrote this? Verse one, James.

James wrote this. It's the first word of the book, James. Now there are a few James's in the New Testament, but the only two that it could realistically be are James who was one of the sons of thunder. Remember James and John, these two brothers who Jesus called the sons of thunder. They were with Jesus from very early on.

They followed him, heard his teachings, were apostles. And so could it be James? Well, it could be. But according to Acts chapter 12, that James died pretty early on. So he was martyred by king Herod Agrippa and sort of had finished his race really before this book had been written.

So can't really be him. And therefore, the the most obvious, most likely candidate is James who was the brother of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the author of this book, and he was a significant leader in the early church. So he was one of the founders of one of the first Christian communities in Jerusalem. He is later called in Galatians one of the pillars of that particular church.

So he was a highly respected individual, knew the Lord, half brother of the Lord who authored this this book. And yet, look at our first what. So first who, James. What what what is he? Well, look how he describes himself.

Verse one. James, a servant of god and of the lord Jesus Christ. I think that's a really wonderful way for him to introduce himself. We are in an age where we love to hear people's credentials laid out before them. I don't know if you've ever been to a, you know, a conference or you've heard a keynote speaker, and they're often introduced by, please, will you be upstanding, ladies and gentlemen?

Will you put your hands together for this particular speaker who has done this and that and obtained this qualification, has had this experience? Aren't we privileged to hear this one speak to us? Well, James just does not take that approach. I mean, you notice he could say, James, the man who shared the womb of God incarnate. That loads him up, doesn't it?

James, a pillar of the church in Jerusalem. James, a close confidant of the Messiah from when he was a little boy up until his last moments. It doesn't do any He says, James, a servant. Servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Later on in this letter, he's gonna tell us that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

And this is him putting into practice what he's later gonna tell us. He is he is a servant of the lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that just helpful in and of itself? You know, for all the ways that we like to identify ourselves and for all the things that we want to be known for, what are we after all, brothers and sisters? What are we after all?

We are servants. We are servants of God, saved by grace, who know the Lord Jesus Christ. So there's a who and a what for James. And then there's a who and a what for his audience. You can see that in in verse one.

Who's he writing to? Verse one, to the 12 tribes. Now that language reminds us of the old testament and reminds us of the the Jewish tribal divisions. And so lots of people think that James mainly has Jewish Christians in mind and that would make sense if he was the pastor of a church in Jerusalem that was made up of Christians mainly from a Jewish background who had now been dispersed in the world. It makes sense that he has a particular relationship with them and a desire to pass to them from afar through his letter.

But if you know anything about bible numbers, 12 means now much more than just old testament tribes. You know, the Old Testament, you've got the 12 tribes, New Testament, you've got the 12 disciples, and together the 12 and the 12 stand for all of God's people everywhere, Jew and Gentile. And so although the 12 tribes might have, you know, a particular emphasis on Jewish Christians, really James is writing to and he's writing for the whole church with all that it includes now. So that's the who of the audience. Now there's the second what of the audience.

What what what are they? Where are they? If you like. To the 12 tribes scattered among the nations. And with that phrase, James is identifying one of the key themes in his letter.

He is writing to Christians whose experience in this world is one of the alien and the stranger. They feel like they are not at home. They are scattered among the nations and with a scattering comes a type of persecution. They're scattered and therefore they're going to face hostility from cultures that are not their own. They're scattered and therefore they're going to face trials that come just when you feel you're dislocated from the world that's around you.

You don't share their priorities, you don't share their dreams, You don't share their visions or their morality. And just not sharing in the world around you is in itself a type of trial. You feel yourself to be different and scattered and not at home. So that's the what. It's the who is all of God's people.

What what are they? Well, they're they're scattered. And we're gonna see the pressure of being a scattered people throughout this book. So there we go. That's the first one.

Two who's, two what's. One for James, one for his audience. Okay? Now we're gonna look at together five reasons why I think and I hope that this book is gonna be very helpful for us. Here's the first one.

And Dan, if you wouldn't mind just popping it up on the screen. Thank you. James speaks into real life. He speaks into real life. You might know if you're familiar with some of the New Testament letters that some of them are can be divided into a kind of part one, which is rich theology about God and Christ and salvation, and part two, which is the application of the theology in part one.

Now it's a little bit of a false distinction because true theology is application and application is not a theological. You know, they all go together, but we recognize something of that pattern, you know, theology part one, application part two. And yet you come to James and you just see he kind of hits the ground with practical application. He starts his letter there showing us what the gospel means on the ground and he never departs from that until the very end of his letter. You know, speaks and he's gonna speak for us into real life.

And that's one of the reasons why many people see in the book of James a close relationship with the book of Proverbs in the Old Testament. Know, if you know Proverbs, it's full of just sentences that are real wisdom, not for a theoretical life, but for real lives that we actually live. It's real wisdom for real lives. And there's truth that we're going to see wisdom, lots of wisdom in this book. But perhaps more than Proverbs, James has the closest relationship with the Sermon on the Mount.

If you know the Sermon on the Mount from the book of Matthew, the book of Luke as well, as you read through that section of the gospel, what you find is a series of kind of mini sermons. So they're more than just phrases and it's more than just wisdom. They're these mini sermons that are applied to the heart that show us what life is like in the kingdom of God. That's the sermon on the mount. If you follow the king of heaven, then your speech is gonna change.

And if you follow the king of heaven, then your attitude to online content is gonna change. And if you follow the king of heaven, then how you feel about your brothers and sisters in the church is gonna change and your attitude to riches and poverty is gonna change. It's kind of in your face practical applied mini sermons. And James, would surely have heard all of that teaching of the Lord Jesus, now borrows much of it and turns it into his own mini sermons for the people that he's writing to. And as we're going to see, I hope you'll see, it's incredibly skillful how he does it in this book because you remember verse one, this is written to groups of people that are scattered among the nations.

And so what we've got to imagine is groups of churches in all kinds of different contexts. And with those different contexts will come unique challenges. Some will be in a culture that is like this and that will present a challenge that this church over here may not experience in the same way. They will have a different type of challenge that that church up north might be less familiar with. And so there's gonna be all kinds of differences among these churches.

And yet, James knows, God knows, the basic issues that these Christians are facing are gonna be the same. You know, wherever they are and whatever their cultural pressures, they are going to need wisdom and counsel on lots and lots of the same basic heart issues. Doesn't matter where you live, does it friends? Knowing how to handle riches or poverty is a lesson you're always going to need. Knowing how to plan for the future in a way that is sensible but not godless and arrogant is something every Christian is going to need no matter what context they're in.

Knowing how to navigate disagreements in the church. I mean, my goodness. How do we need that? I mean, we we need that. Wisdom.

I don't you know, it doesn't matter where on earth you are or what your cultural pressures, disagreements within it. We need wisdom. Learning how to use our tongues properly. I mean, wow. That you know, do we need that?

Like, how to write an email? How to say something to someone? We it doesn't matter where you are on earth, you're gonna need advice for tongue issues which are related to heart issues. Wherever you are on earth, you're gonna need wisdom on how to actually read the bible and where to turn to in difficult times. All of those things James addresses and so for us I hope we will see that no matter what our own individual contexts, you know, where we work and what our families are like and what our home life is like and no matter what, you know, race or ethnicity we have in this room, I hope we will see that this book by the spirit of God will speak to the issues of our lives.

For all our differences, this book will speak to the issues of our lives. So much so that I reckon every week in this series, we are going to hit upon something that you will have experienced in the last seven days. No matter what the reading or the sermon, you will have experienced something of it in the last seven days because it's immensely, Prak James speaks to the issues of life and that's why it's going to be a help for us. Secondly, James is going to test whether our Christianity is real. He's going to test whether our Christianity is real.

If we are those who like to talk in a dreamy and vague way about Christianity and in a way which has no bearing upon our actual lives, then we are going to get a bit of a shock, reading James. Or if we are those who prefer to argue about theology than to actually make a change in our lives, then we are going to get a shock reading James because as I said, this book takes us into the most essential everyday parts of life and says either Jesus changes that or you've got the wrong Jesus. Same with the Sermon on the Mount. If the king can't change how we speak or how we disagree or what we do with money, then he's not the king. And so, of course, right belief, what we actually believe is very important and it's important in James.

But what I think James does is to slightly reframe the question for us and he asks, what sort of person does your belief make you? And I'll tell you if it's right or not. What sort of person does your belief make you? And I'll tell you if it's right or not. And so if we were to sit down with him and say, James, you know, I'm really I'm really looking forward to sampling your sermons over the next term.

And what I'm most interested in, James, is to compare the way you talk about justification with the way the apostle Paul talks about justification. I'm just fascinated to see how you're gonna how you're gonna do that. I think he would say weep and wail. You wanna sample something, go to a restaurant. Yeah.

I'm not I'm not here to be sampled. I'm talking about essential everyday practical Christianity for your life. That's the sort of man he is. James is the sort of preacher who gets into the pulpit on a Sunday and he says with prophetic urgency, be doers of the word and not hearers only. And problem with him is that he won't just stay in the pulpit on Sunday.

He then follows you into work on Monday, and he follows you on the commute, and he follows you in the in the van or in school, and he wants to know, have you listened? Have you listened? He said to you, be a doer, not just a hearer. And then he comes on Monday morning, there he is, to find out what we're gonna do. And so this is a big challenge because it's so easy for us, I think, to sit and we make notes and we sample things and we contrast things.

And James is not happy to leave us there. He wants to know, are we gonna are we gonna be doers? So he's gonna find out. Is our Christianity real? I think we'll find that out together as we look through this series.

Thirdly, he's going to show us sin for what it really is. He's going to speak to the issues of real life. He's going to test whether our Christianity is real. He's going to show up sin for what it really is. One of the challenges that I face, and I guess I'm not alone in this, when it comes to communicating is to choose language and tone that is appropriate for the subject matter.

Very easy, isn't it, to be to be too strong when actually it would be better if we were a bit more nuanced and put a bit more distance between a trigger and a response. And other times it would be better instead of speaking quickly, if we listen to what James says, be slow to speak and quick to listen. Or sometimes the other way around, it's it's easy to be too soft when actually what is required is the plaster pulled off at speed sometimes because that's appropriate. And so we we face this challenge. How do I speak and use a tone that is right for the subject matter?

Well James is so helpful on this because when it comes to issues that need strong speak, he speaks strong. When it comes to the reality of rebellion against the living God and to injustices and to issues of eternity, James does not soften his blows and we need that. We need that. If we're gonna actually understand things are right and know what sin is and injustice is, we need this tone and this language to get it. Let me try and illustrate for you.

I want you to I want you to turn, and we'll look at this later in the term, to James five. James five one to six. Here's an example of showing us sin for what it really is. James five verse one to six. Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you.

Your wealth has rotted and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look, the wages that you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you.

The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the innocent one who was not opposing you. Now earlier this week, I asked an AI assistant to retranslate that for me into a very polite and much more suggestive British voice.

And here's what it came out with. Now then, those who are fortunes enough to possess considerable wealth, might it perhaps be worth reflecting on whether such security is quite as permanent as it seems? After all, possessions do have a way of deteriorating and even gold and silver cannot ultimately provide lasting protection. Might there be some wisdom then in considering not merely how much one's accumulated, but how it's been obtained and used? And what of those who have worked on one's behalf?

If wages have been withheld, delayed, or unfairly denied, might that not be a matter deserving of rather serious attention? One would hardly wish the complaints of those who've been treated unjustly to be heard before the lord almighty. Practice also worth asking whether a life devoted cheaply to comfort, luxury, and personal pleasure may have come at rather too high a cost to others. And if innocent or righteous people have suffered as a result, particularly those who were in no position to resist, might one not be wise to consider whether matters have gone rather further than they ought? It may therefore be prudent to examine one wealth, conduct, and treatment of others with a certain degree of humility before circumstances oblige one to do so.

Now some of us by temperament might prefer that sort of style and writing, but of course if sin is this serious and if injustice matters that much, it it does require blistering language, doesn't it, for us to get it? It's a bit like that landslide flood that we've just seen in Nepal. Unfortunately, they had no time to be warned and to evacuate, but you can imagine if they had had a prior warning what the tone of that warning would be. It would not have been at your earliest convenience. You might want to think about vacating the valley in which you live.

That would not be an appropriate tone giving the severity of what was about to happen. The severity of what was about to happen would require a much more immediate blistering honest announcement and that's what James gives us and we need that. We need that because we need to know what sin really is like. What it's really like so we can properly repent of it and James is gonna help us with that. So he's gonna show us what sin is.

Fourthly, James will take us to the real problem. He's gonna take us to the real problem. Now I'm told or I I've read somewhere. I can't remember where. That in a 108 verses, which is all the book of James, a 108 verses, there are 59 commands.

It's got it's got a ratio, isn't it? 59 commands in a 108 verses. But as we're going to see, James is not just interested in blasting bad behavior. He doesn't just say stop arguing or stop boasting. He does say things like that, but he also takes us to the the real problem which is where all of this comes from.

Takes us to the heart. One of his favorite words and it's used in in some form or another, the root word is used seven times in the book is the word perfect. And when you look at that word, both in the Hebrew and in the Greek, the word perfect means something like wholeness. It's first used in chapter one verse four where the NIV translates it to be mature and complete, but the word is just one word meaning perfect. What it really means is that we are to have an integrated life.

That we're not to be divided. We're not to be separated into different parts. We are to be whole and integrated and that is a heart issue. That's a heart issue that we are going to encounter over and over again in this book. It is not just that we might sin occasionally, but rather that we might grow comfortable being divided Christians.

That we might get to a point where we are comfortable being one thing and being another thing. That's a heart issue that James speaks no disintegration. He wants wholeness and perfection, wholeness in the Christian life. So many ways we can look at that. If you just look at chapter one verse 26, let me pull out a few examples.

Chapter one verse 26. Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues Deceive themselves and their religion is worthless. Now I personally consider myself to be religious in this way, not in the wrong way, in this in the way that he means, I consider myself to be religious. But that means keeping a tight rein on my tongue. Can't have disintegration there with a claim and a counterclaim.

Or if you look at two fourteen, what good is it my brothers and sisters if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Here is a person whose claims vastly outweigh their deeds. I can be like that, can't you? I can make great religious claims.

Great claims. Claims on me, claims on you. But do my claims outweigh my deeds? No disintegration should be allowed there. Or chapter three verse nine.

With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father. Done that together this evening, haven't we? And with it we curse human beings who have been made in God's likeness. You see James is not talking to atheists here, but he is talking to those who gather at church and read their Bibles and pray but might be growing comfortable with this divided heart starting to to disintegrate, split personalities beginning to emerge. That's a heart issue.

And James knows that we can make all kinds of excuses for this. Can't, don't we? Look at chapter four verse one. This this is a genius sentence, I think. What he's talking to church.

Right? How would you answer this? We're just gonna look at part one of the sentence and then part two. What causes fights and quarrels among you? Well, that's easy, ain't it?

It's other people. Yeah. The reason we have fights and quarrels in the church is because other people don't behave as they should. Yeah? And if only they towed the line and spoke as they should and with a bit more grateful, we'd have a lot less quarrels, wouldn't we?

Yeah. That's an easy one to answer. What causes fights and quarrels among you? Members do. Don't they come from your desires that battle within you?

Within you. That's the look at look at you. Don't they come from within you? Very easy to make excuses. We can we can be so sophisticated in excusing this disintegration, don't we?

I'm allowed to be irritable at home because I'm under pressure. Yeah. I'm allowed to wallow in a slough of self pity because I'm stressed. Yeah. Always make excuses for it.

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Other people. Do they not come from within you? And so James knows we we we're we're brilliant, masterful at excusing the disintegrated life. And yet what he's gonna do time and time again, he's gonna cut through those excuses and he's gonna say, Tom, it shouldn't be that way.

Brothers and sisters, this should not be. Now we're sinners. James is a sinner. We're all sinners. This happens.

But this sort of double mindedness is not how you are to be. In other words, he's not just saying, you know, as I say, he's not just saying stop boasting, stop arguing, stop quarrelling. He's saying brothers and sisters that you know these are symptoms of disintegration and what I'm talking about is wholeness and integration and one thing that you are is what you are. There is no other, you. So he's gonna speak to us.

That's the real problem. That's the real problem. It's a heart. It's a heart problem. And he's gonna take us to that over and over again.

I think that'll be very helpful for us. Lastly, he's gonna point us to Christ and he's going to offer us real hope in Jesus. This this people think, I mean, I haven't read loads about it but some people think that this is this could be one of the earliest books in the New Testament. So people estimate this was probably written about forty nine AD, which makes it a very, very early book. And as you might know, James has been a little bit controversial in some stables over church history.

Martin Luther, the Protestant reformer, was famous for not taking a shine to the book of James. In one of his introductions to the New Testament, he actually calls it the epistle of straw, which as far as I can work out, is not so much because he didn't like what it said. He just would have preferred it to say more about Jesus. And it is interesting that as you read through the book, James only mentions Jesus twice in one one and in two one. And, there isn't really a a a, like, worked through explanation of the atonement or justification or how it is that we can actually become right with God.

And yet we mustn't mistake that for a crisis book. That does not mean it's a Christ as book because there are many, many ways in which God's word points us to Jesus. You think about verse verse one again. Just look at verse one. It's and this this this this is perfumed with Jesus.

This is verse one. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that in itself is a pointer to the gospel because at one time, James did clearly not believe in his older brother. He believed in his existence as a man but not in his claims as the Messiah. We actually learned that in John.

Dan, if you wouldn't mind putting that verse from John up for us. It's from John seven. Jesus' brothers said to him, leave Galilee and go to Judea so that your disciples there may see the works you do. No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. You know, let the reader understand Jesus.

You're clearly only interested in becoming a public figure. So stop saying secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world. Why did they say such a thing? For even his own brothers did not believe in him.

James at one time didn't believe in him And it was only after the resurrection where we're told in one Corinthians 15 that Jesus appeared specifically to James by name that he was changed. What is it gonna take for an unbelieving brother to bow his knee to his older brother? It's gonna take a resurrection appearance. And so James in writing that sentence is saying, I am a man who needed grace. I needed Jesus.

I'm not just writing on his behalf. I didn't believe in him. With all my privileges, I sat under the Sermon on the Mount and I didn't believe in him until he appeared to me and he changed my life and he wants us to do the same. To go to the resurrected Jesus and to have our unbelieving hearts changed. So it drives us to Jesus Jesus in that way.

Look how he describes things in verse chapter one verse 18. Here's another thing. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth that we might be a kind of first fruits of all that he has created. How does a person come into the kingdom of God, not just by giving up boasting and arguing, but because the father has chosen in redeeming mercy to give them new birth through the word of truth, to birth the life of Jesus in them and to save them by grace. Words like that say you need sovereign grace and Jesus to be born again.

You're gonna live the way I'm calling you to live. You need to be born again from the father of lights who who loves you. Point us to Jesus that way. Or then how about the whole structure of this book? You know, brothers and sisters, 59 commands in a 108 verses.

This is a book that tells us in chapter two verse 10. Get this. Open in front of you. Chapter two verse 10. How's this so devastating?

Whoever keeps the whole law, I mean, would be that would be great, wouldn't it? Imagine that. Whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. I mean, that's devastating, isn't it? You imagine a scenario in which you were able to keep the whole law, but you broke it at one point and therefore broke all of it.

And that's not just because God is petty, but rather because that law breaking reflects a deep lack of love for Jesus and neighbor. That's devastating. But it points us to Jesus. We need Jesus. No way.

That's true. We need Jesus. So that's what this book does. It calls us to action and it demands this whole life Christianity and it puts the law of Christ before our eyes and it exposes our failures and it commands what we cannot give by nature and collectively it makes us throw up our hands and say I need Jesus. I need Jesus.

In chapter two verse 13 we're told that mercy triumphs over judgment. What we deserve is judgment as we've broken the law but Christ bore the curse of the law on our behalf on the cross and so now because of the shed blood of the Messiah, mercy triumphs over judgment and we have mercy in Jesus. And so it points us to James with his own testimony, this talk of sovereign grace, the way the law of Christ would drive us to Jesus. This is this is all, all pointing us to the real hope that we have in Jesus. And I hope that every week as we gather, we're going to see some fresh deep need for Jesus who can save us and put this life with within us.

And so there we are. Five things. And I hope as we sort of begin properly next week, as I said in my prayer at the beginning, I I don't want you and I don't want me to come away from tonight just thinking I'm looking forward to it. I want you to think how am I going to hear it? Will we come with humility?

Not saying to ourselves, I know a church member who needs to hear that portion. I wish my husband had heard that sermon. Why wasn't my wife here? Perhaps you can catch up online. They may well need to hear it, but so do we.

Will we come with humility? Will we come with honesty about ourselves? Or will we come ready with a kind of quiver of excuses that we can just fire at everything we hear? Are we going to come with honesty about ourselves and how disintegrated that we can be and will we come ready to be changed as God through the book of James speaks into real life and finds out whether we have real faith and shows us what sin really is and takes us to the real problem and gives us real hope in Jesus. Let's have a moment of quiet.

Maybe you can actually take those points now in a moment of silence and make them you could make them actually prayers for yourself now. You could pray now. Something like this. Lord, speak into the issues of my life. Lord, show me if my Christianity is real.

Lord, expose what's going on in my heart and lord, show me Jesus. Let's take a moment to pray.