Patience in Suffering
Notes
Transcript
Does anyone struggle with patience?
We are coming up on a season where impatience seems to abound. We want to know what people are getting us for Christmas and we want people to know what we have gotten them for Christmas.
Patience is one of the fruits of the spirit. If we are growing Christians, we must be striving to grow in patience.
But what about when we are going through suffering
(examples of suffering)
How is our patience when it comes to situations that are not pleasant?
This is something that we should always be evaluating.
James gives us some encouragement in this passage
7 Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains.
8 You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
9 Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door.
10 As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.
11 Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.
James is still addressing the saints who are suffering
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.
This whole section is drowned in the idea of patience and longsuffering
A follower of Jesus is not one to give up, because he never gave up on us.
Think of Jesus on his way to the cross of Calvary, he never once hesitated going. Jesus understood the reward for longsuffering. That reward is salvation for all.
James gives us 3 examples of patient longsuffering
1. The Farmer
1. The Farmer
James 5:7–9 “7 Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. 8 You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. 9 Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door.”
He first gives us the exhortation to be patient. And like I said, he says that a lot in these next several verses.
The farmer waits
There isn’t much that the farmer can do to make crops grow
He plants the seed and then waits
There is patience that the farmer must have
He is dependent on the rain. He cannot make it rain.
This can be frustrating to us. Especially in the culture of instant gratification.
But James tells us that just like the farmer, we need to be patient
We are the farmer in this story, we are the “spiritual farmers”
We are to establish our hearts. If our hearts are the soil to grow in, what is the seed? The seed is the word of God. Luke 8:11 “11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.”
We are supposed to be harvesting the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5:22–23 “22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”
We can only do this if the heart is established.
I said earlier that the farmer plants and then waits. That is only partially true.
Because part of waiting is working. The farmer still must go out every day and work. He must weed, fertilize, and protect his crop.
But, we still must wait. And in verse 9, he is speaking to what must happen while we wait as well.
We must protect ourselves from the temptation to sin. While we wait for the return of the Lord, we must protect ourselves from sin.
The judge is coming, we do not need to give God sin to judge us by.
We are to pursue Christ and the things of Christ and set our sin aside
The Prophets
The Prophets
10 As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.
Just like with the farmer, patience does not mean sitting on our hands
We must still be active, just like the prophets
Maybe we don’t understand this reference as must as the Jewish congregation would that James is speaking to
Prophets were in the will of God
Prophets would remind them that God cares for them as they went through suffering
Prophets were not immune to suffering and trials
In fact, they were often met with opposition by professing believers
So you may wonder why prophets or what we would call messengers of God’s word have to endure difficult trials?
To back up what they are saying
Talk about the softness of our “christian culture”
It is good that James uses the Old Testament prophets as an example. I think we would benefit in encouragement if we got to know our Old Testament prophets a little better.
Job
Job
11 Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.
12 But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.
Warren Wiersbe says that we cannot persevere unless there is a trial in our life.
If you know the story of Job, you know that he lost everything.
Job 1:2–3 “2 There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. 3 He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east.”
In the same chapter, between verses 13-19 we see that Job lost everything that he had that was listed in the first couple of verses.
The circumstances that Job faced were unimaginable to us. He had everything stacked against him
He lost everything, except his wife and she told him to commit suicide
Job would beg God for answers but no answer.
But Job was steadfast. He never gave up. Because he trusted God.
Job 13:15 “15 Though he slay me, I will hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to his face.”
It took 42 chapters in the book of Job for the purpose of his suffering to be revealed
1 Then Job answered the Lord and said:
2 “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
3 ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
4 ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.’
5 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you;
6 therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”
Job was steadfast and saw the reason for his suffering and praised God.
Do we see suffering this same way?
12 But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.
This may seem odd to have this follow verses about suffering.
What does this have to do with suffering?
Has suffering ever caused you say things you don’t mean or maybe even bargain with God when you are going through difficult situations?
James uses the language to not swear by heaven or earth or any other oath, because they would avoid swearing by the name of God so that they didn’t blaspheme his name.
So they would swear by other means.
The true, steadfast Christian though can say yes or no to something and that is all people need to hear. They know that the answer will be what happens.
In his commentary on James, Warren Wiersbe about Christian character requiring few words. That the person who uses many words to convince us has something wrong with their character and must bolster their weakness with words.
What are your thoughts on this?
Suffering is used to build Christian character
A strong Christian character doesn’t need lots of words because it has been tested in suffering