James: Introduction
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We all think we are pretty great in our own eyes. There was once a Pastor who had just finished preaching what he thought was one of the best sermons he had ever preached. He was thinking about how great it was while driving home with his family. He started to wonder about how many good preachers there were in the world.
He turned to ask his wife, “How many truly great preachers do you think are in the world right now?” She looked at him and said, “One less than you think!”
I’m not saying that all of us think we are amazing at all times, but there are some things that we think we are truly good at in life.
Maybe it’s baking bread, could be painting, gardening, being a good friend, maybe we are good parents, or any other thing - at some point we have had a high opinion of our selves.
This can be a good thing or a bad thing in life. Some people think they are the BEST at EVERYTHING. That could be a problem. Mainly, because all of us, as good as we think we are, have things that we need to work on in our lives. None of us have arrived to perfection.
When it comes to our faith, I’d say, it’s easily apparent that we aren’t perfect. If you crack the pages of the Bible and read for more than one minute, you’ll most likely feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit challenging you to like more like Christ.
Over the next several weeks we are going to study the book of James.
Why? Because the book of James helps us to implement our faith in our daily lives. It’s written to encourage us to put our faith into action.
This study will be encouraging, challenging, and motivational.
My hope is that you study the book WITH me over the next weeks. I promise that if you do, your life will be changed. If you need practical application of faith, you’re going to love this study.
Maybe you’re going through difficulties in life, this letter from James will help you.
If you struggle with anger, speaking without thinking, overcoming temptation, being patient, or having empathy for other people then this is a good book to study because James hits all the highlights and gives practical ways to walk as a believer in Christ.
You WILL be changed if you commit to study this book with me.
We are going to break the letter into 7 sections which I will give you each week to study. What would be great is if you read the section I’m going to teach about BEFORE the next service, write some notes, and then maybe prepare a question or comment or two about the section.
cfwchurch.com/James
Or can write them on a paper and give to me before service. I won’t tell anyone who wrote the question or comment, but I’ll do my best to answer the question or find the answer to the question and address it during the service.
It should be fun!
This week we are going to cover the introduction.
Who Wrote the Book of James?
Who Wrote the Book of James?
It seems pretty self explanatory right? James wrote the book of James! But WHICH James is the real question.
1 From James, a servant of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ. Greetings to the twelve tribes scattered all over the world.
This is the greeting the letter gives to us telling us who wrote the letter. It doesn’t do much to tell us which James wrote the letter, but we can look to other resources to figure out who wrote the letter.
There are 4 options:
The son of Zebedee
19 Jesus walked on and soon saw James and John, the sons of Zebedee. They were in a boat, mending their nets.
The son of Alphaeus
18 Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus were also apostles. The others were Simon, known as the Eager One,
The father of Judas (not Iscariot)
16 Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot who also became a traitor.
The half brother of Jesus (Jacob) James
19 The only other apostle I saw was James, the Lord’s brother.
Which one wrote the letter?
James, the son of Zebedee, could not be the author since he was murdered under Herod Agrippa before the letter was written.
James, the son of Alphaeus, was little known and most scholars dismiss him as the author of the letter. Some people argue that this James was the “brother” of Jesus because they believe he was born to Cleopas who was Mary’s sister. If this was true, which can’t be proved, then it would violate literal interpretation for the word brother. They would be cousins, not brothers! Plus the Bible clearly lists James, the son of Alphaeus, as one of the 12 when we know that James, Jesus’ half brother didn’t believe in Jesus as the Messiah until after the resurrection.
James, the father of Judas, was not an important figure in the early church. No one believes he was the author of the letter.
Lastly, we come to James, the brother of Jesus. This James is the most logical because in the early church he was the leader of the church in Jerusalem. He had the authority to write to all believers because he was a leader in the church.
In Acts 15 James, the brother of Jesus, gave a speech to calm down an argument about what rules the early church was going to set for the gentile believers. If you read his speech there, it has many similarities to the letter written by the author of James.
I personally believe what most Biblical scholars believe, that the Author of James was in fact the half-brother of Jesus.
You’d think that since James was Jesus’ brother and grew up with Jesus that he’d have inside information to share with us about the Savior of the world. The only problem with that thought is that James didn’t believe Jesus was the Son of God until much later in life.
He didn’t believe Jesus was the Messiah while Jesus was alive. It was only after the resurrection that he believed.
In fact, in scripture, we see that His brothers said if He was the Messiah then why didn’t He PROVE who He was in a public place.
1 Jesus decided to leave Judea and to start going through Galilee because the leaders of the people wanted to kill him.
2 It was almost time for the Festival of Shelters,
3 and Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Why don’t you go to Judea? Then your disciples can see what you are doing.
4 No one does anything in secret, if they want others to know about them. So let the world know what you are doing!”
5 Even Jesus’ own brothers had not yet become his followers.
It did not seem rational to Jesus’ brothers for Him not to show off His glory. If He really was what He claimed to be, they thought, He should publicly show it. They told Him to display Himself in a powerful, brilliant way: “Show Yourself to the world”.
But God’s way was a public display on a cross of humiliation. John explained that even His own brothers did not believe in Him. This included James.
There’s a side note here that we need to see. If the brothers of Jesus could miss the fact that he was perfect, how much more could we miss the fact that God is dwelling in imperfect people? We need to look at people the way Gods sees them. We aren’t perfect like Jesus, but we have the Lords righteousness in the eyes of God. That should change how we view other people. It should change how we view ourselves! You might be the worst dog in the world, but with Christ you are redeemed. Hold your head high knowing that He’s got you covered.
I am reminded of the words of John Newton who wrote the hymn “Amazing Grace.” As he thought upon the words: “By the grace of God I am what I am,” he said, “I am not what I ought to be. How imperfect and deficient I am! I am not what I wish to be. Though I am not what I ought to be, I can truly say that I am not what I once was—a slave to sin and Satan. I can heartily say with Paul: “By the grace of God I am what I am”!”
We shouldn’t judge the brothers of Jesus too harshly. God has and will always work on the hearts of imperfect people. We should thank Him for that wonderful work called GRACE.
Here’s another side point: Proximity to Jesus does not guarantee faith. We can grow up in church, live in a Christian home, we can know everything about Jesus and yet not place our faith in Him as the Savior we need to redeem us from the curse of Sin and death.
We must trust the Lord if we are going to be saved from Hell, Death, and Sin.
6 “I am the way, the truth, and the life!” Jesus answered. “Without me, no one can go to the Father.
So what changed James’ mind about Jesus? Something had to change him, right? When he wrote his letter he was the leader of the Church in Jerusalem. He was focused on serving the Lord.
1 From James, a servant of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ. Greetings to the twelve tribes scattered all over the world.
How he opens that letter is so important because he says he is a servant of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ. That word for servant means “Slave”. His life was no longer his own. He BELONGED to Jesus.
Now, if you grew up with Jesus, and you still doubted that He was the Messiah in John 7 - what changed in his life that now he would say that he was a SLAVE to Jesus, willing to give his life for Jesus?
The Bible tells us what happened. He had an encounter with the Living Lord after the resurrection.
Paul, who also had an encounter with the resurrected Jesus, tells us that Jesus appeared to James.
1 My friends, I want you to remember the message that I preached and that you believed and trusted.
2 You will be saved by this message, if you hold firmly to it. But if you don’t, your faith was all for nothing.
3 I told you the most important part of the message exactly as it was told to me. That part is: Christ died for our sins, as the Scriptures say.
4 He was buried, and three days later he was raised to life, as the Scriptures say.
5 Christ appeared to Peter, then to the twelve.
6 After this, he appeared to more than five hundred other followers. Most of them are still alive, but some have died.
7 He also appeared to James, and then to all of the apostles.
8 Finally, he appeared to me, even though I am like someone who was born at the wrong time.
James was radically changed once he saw Jesus! Remember there were 40 days from the resurrection to the ascension of Jesus. He spent time with these guys!
How could he not be changed?
You might say, well, I want to believe like James. I’ll wait for Jesus to appear to me too. Here’s what I’d tell you…He has appeared to you if you read the Word of God. We have the recorded history of the Bible. James didn’t have it, he was living the history in real life! It took more faith for him to believe than it does for us because we have thousands of year of history to confirm that Jesus is the Son of God.
So, James believed and became a pillar in the early church. Look how Paul describes James in Galatians 2:9
9 James, Peter, and John realized that God had given me the message about his undeserved kindness. And these men are supposed to be the backbone of the church. They even gave Barnabas and me a friendly handshake. This was to show that we would work with Gentiles and that they would work with Jews.
He was part of the BACKBONE of the church.
It’s important to know who wrote the book of James because it gives us hope that we aren’t too far gone! God can still reach us. He hasn’t given up on you today.
Believe in Jesus and take your place in the church! God has a purpose for you in the work of the Gospel.
Who wrote the book of James? The brother of Jesus! The leader of the church in Jerusalem. The backbone of the early church.
Here’s the next question we need to ask in our introduction of the book of James:
Who was the Letter for?
Who was the Letter for?
There are three groups that James mentions in his letter:
The Twelve Tribes
1 From James, a servant of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ. Greetings to the twelve tribes scattered all over the world.
Those Who have Faith In Jesus
1 My friends, if you have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, you won’t treat some people better than others.
Those Who Live Expecting His coming
7 My friends, be patient until the Lord returns. Think of farmers who wait patiently for the spring and summer rains to make their valuable crops grow.
James was living in Jerusalem and was leading the church in that city. The Christians living in Jerusalem were the first Christians ever.
Peter was the head of that church to start, but he left to do missionary work which left James in charge. This church was facing massive persecution by the religious leaders of the Jewish faith.
James was known as a peacemaker who led with wisdom and courage.
As far as we know, he never left the city. We was known as a man of prayer, who never left the temple because he was always there worshipping the Lord.
He was fully committed to that Church. In order to understand who he wrote the letter to we need to understand the city in which he lived and the church he led.
The jewish feasts would bring in people from every nation. The city was a melting pot of different cultures, ideas, and religious practices. As the leader of the church, James would meet with the leaders from all the different tribes, nations, and leaders of the churches from all over the world. And some of the things he was hearing didn’t line up with the truth and gospel of Christ.
His letter was addressed to the largest audience than any other letter in the New Testament because James knew so many people! He wanted to give them practical wisdom on how to live as a Christian. It’s apparent that He saw wrong teachings and wanted to set the record straight.
Because this was his apparent goal, it totally was written for a group of people in his day, but it is certainly applicable to our lives today! James, may not have known it, but his words were inspired by God to teach, guide, and correct our lives today too!
We can read the words of James knowing that he was writing from a Jewish perspective, but with truths that apply to our modern lives as well.
At the time it was an important letter because it was one of the earliest letters sent out from an Apostle of Jesus. Most people believe it was written before any of Paul’s letters and even before the Council at Jerusalem in Acts 15.
We know who wrote the Letter, that it was written to the 12 tribes, those who have faith in Jesus, and those waiting for His return.
So the final question we might ask as an introduction to the letter would be an important one for us to ask:
Why Did James Write this Letter?
Why Did James Write this Letter?
James wanted to challenge how people lived. He wanted to encourage people to become more mature. In fact, we could say that maturity is the theme of the entire letter.
Maturity is looking past the temporary things of life. James teaches us that a sign of maturity is that our focus is on Jesus. We are swayed by the temporary things of life. The comforts, pains, self-promotion, trials, temptations, and anything that exalts it self above the Lord.
Spiritual maturity carries the distinctive mark of a loving relationship with God despite physical conditions. Evangelist James Decanter tells a moving story of spiritual maturity:
My wife, Peggy, and I were on a World Missions tour visiting Haiti. For three days we had seen unbelievable poverty. Children with no clothing, families with no homes—not even a shelter. The hollow look of the faces … was a look of utter hopelessness.
[But] there was a noticeable exception. The people of God! Even though most of them were also poor, they had smiles on their faces and purpose in their hearts. It was evident they were citizens of another country.
Wednesday night our group attended worship.… We arrived about 15 minutes before scheduled service time, but they were already joyously worshipping God. The building was packed beyond intended capacity. Although we did not understand their language, we recognized the old song they were singing, “No One Ever Cared for Me Like Jesus.” We were overwhelmed with the intensity of their worship, the pouring out of their hearts to God, the obvious loving relationship they had with God. A big lump came in my throat, and Peggy began to weep. One of the Haitian ladies, apparently thinking we did not understand how to worship, tapped Peggy on the shoulder and in broken English instructed, “No cry. Clap!”
We were so moved by their worship because for three days we had seen poverty, hunger, and desperation on every hand. It was their relationship with God that lifted them higher than life’s conditions. They were living on a higher plane.
These people were more spiritually mature than most because they looked past the physical and focused their HOPE on the eternal.
The letter from James teaches us to grow up. Stop focusing on the world. Stop trying to live LIKE the world. He tells us that our faith in action is what maturity looks like if you’re a believer.
James we heavily influenced by two things.
1) The sermon on the mount - I counted 14 references in the 5 small chapters of James.
2) The book of Proverbs, especially the poems, which are chapters 1-9
James is calling people to become wise by listening to the words of Jesus who taught that we should Love God and our neighbors as ourselves.
He writes his letter to those who are suffering all kinds of different hardships and tests of life. James himself was persecuted for the sake of the Gospel even to the point of his own death.
How did the half-brother of Jesus who wrote this letter die?
Tradition tells us that the jewish religious leaders wanted him to renounce Christ at Passover. They told him to stand at the pinnacle of the temple and speak the truth to the people. James took the opportunity to preach the gospel. The leaders climbed to the top of the temple and threw him down, but he didn’t die. He was still praising God as they stoned him to death.
James understood persecution in ways that we might not ever understand.
He personally understands what it means to suffer and how pain makes us vulnerable to shame, doubt, lust, deception, anger, and pride. But he also knows that in suffering, there’s a unique opportunity for God to perfect and complete the valuable character-building work he started in us.
God meets us with wisdom as we face the tests of life. When we listen closely to his wise words of truth, trusting that he is good and responding with action, we begin to experience the wholeness God designed us for. And those around us experience it too.
When we see our sufferings through the wisdom and goodness of God, we are moved to alleviate human suffering whenever we encounter it, especially the sufferings of the most vulnerable in our communities.
But when we forget God’s goodness, we often allow our own pain to provoke selfish actions and cruel words that destroy our communities.
So now we know who wrote the Letter of James, who he wrote it to, and why he wrote it…My question is this: Do you think it’s for you?
Here’s something I’ve learned. Unless you take some personal responsibility you won’t be changed. You won’t even hear!
Just the other night, I was in the kitchen and I noticed that no one had placed their dishes in the dishwasher. My whole family was at the table. They could all here me say, “I guess no one thinks they need to put their dishes in the dishwasher!”. Guess what happened when they all heard me say those passive aggressive words?
NOTHING! They didn’t change a thing. They just kept doing what they were doing. No one took responsibility, so my words were meaningless.
James is at the kitchen sink hollering out…Hey, everyone, it’s time to grow up spiritually. It’s time to put your faith into action. The problem is that if you read his words and don’t take any responsibility then you won’t be changed.
Through this study we must read the words as if they were written to us personally, because they ARE. This study is an opportunity to grow spiritually.
Here’s a quick outline of the book to give you a sneak peek of what we are going to study:
Chapter 1: Introduction chapter that is full of truths which will be found in the rest of the letter too. He talks about trials - he knew about trials - not long after he wrote the letter he we martyred.
He tells us to trust God, not accuse God, but to know that even in the difficult times God is perfecting us to become more like Jesus.
James gives comfort to those how have been experiencing trials and temptations. He gives comfort, provides wisdom, tells us why strong faith is important, and how to conquer temptation.
Now doesn’t that sound like something we need to know in our lives today?
If you’re experiencing trials in your life today you can have hope.......
Chapter 2: James teaches how to have true religion. He writes some of the most recognizable words in the bible “Faith without works is dead”. He doesn’t let believers off the hook from living for Jesus because he reminds us that we will one day stand in the presence of Christ and give an account for our lives.
Chapter 3: We read all about what it means to be wise. Everyone wanted to be the teachers and preachers, but James gives a warning to those who speak without wisdom. He tells us that true wisdom comes from above. Our tongue has the power to reveal our maturity.
Chapter 4: James reminds us to PRAY and to stop looking at what other people have! Humility is what pleases God. He tells us to resist the devil, and he will flee from us. Our words have power so we shouldn’t use our words to hurt others.
Chapter 5: The riches of this world mean nothing. Our treasures are to be stored up in heaven. He reminds the readers that the Lord is going to return and says not to give up hope. We need to be patient even if we are suffering for the Lord. James tells us to confess our sins, prayer for the sick, and receive forgiveness and healing! He finishes the letter by charging the readers to go after people who are lost and bring them back to the family of God.
This week, please take the study guide I have made for you. Spend some time reading, writing, and praying. You’ll find the Lord will lead you. If you have questions, send them to me! I want this to be interactive.