James 1:1-4

Steadfast faith works in every trial

Faith Works in all things

Complete faith works Completely

Faith works perfectly

Steadfast faith works for every trial

Prayer: God, these words are for your people. We need to be encouraged, equipped and exhorted to live for you. Put in us the desire to bring you honor and to worship you in all things. Produce in us the faith that leads to completeness, perfection, steadfastness, joy and love in all things.

Takeaways:

-better slides

-clarity

-simplicity

-organization

-Spanish inclusion (slides and sermon)

drip vision for church culture and ministry growth

down to Earth stuff is relevant

good illustrations

bullet points are working well

great excitement and passion

Good application lately

sandwich method of intro and conclusion tied together brings continuity

Intro:

Hello

Faith Works: The Book of James

Two big themes through the entire book: Faith and Works

Today’s goal: to introduce us to the book, it’s author, audience and why this is relevant to us.

Genre

Sometimes called “the Proverbs of the New Testament,” the book of James practically and faithfully reminds Christians how to live.

-Practical for living the christian life

-Household rules and sayings

“If you don’t have anything good to say…”

or “it takes 2 to fight.”

-practical teachings for the christian household. Wisdom for life

-Proverbs was a practical book for men who were being trained as kings

jewish wisdom

-concern is practical, moral/ethical

-proverbial. jumping from topic to topic.

-Ch 1 in particular jumps around.

Serves as an introduction to themes that will be expanded on:

-Suffering

-Wisdom

-the rich and poor

-words and the tongue

-anger

-etc

Common questions and conflict surrounding James

hang ups:

James and the Apostle Paul appear to differed on the question of faith versus works.

James stresses works while Paul stresses faith

Are we justified (considered ‘right’ before God) because of faith in Jesus?

or… Are we justified in our actions and what we do??

Fantastic questions!

in the church we must certainly ask those questions and be concerned by the answers

We are all concerned with the questions of justification

“while faith is the requirement of salvation, works confirm the authenticity of our faith.”

Faith works

Faith takes action

Faith overcomes.

Some of the keys to understanding what is written is to understand who wrote it, who they wrote it to, and why they wrote the letter.

Of course, all the Bible is inspired by God.

It is revealed to man by God

It is written for the whole church and all saints everywhere and in all times:

2 Tim 3:16-17

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

It is also written in human history

by a specific set of hands

to be read by a specific group of eyes

embedded (just like you and me) in a specific Culture

In a specific context (time and place in the world)

So, one of our jobs today is to understand that, and the lessons from the first few verses of the Epistle of James.

Who was James and what was his concern?

P1: Who is James and what was his concern?

[READ v1a]

[Q: Who is James and why should we listen to him?]

READ v 1

Who was James?

James brother of John?

Killed early on in Acts 12

James the son of Alphaeus?

Little is known of him

Did you know Jesus also had a brother named James? A son of Mary and Joseph.

Brother of Jesus

Mark records an incident in Jesus’ ministry where his fellow townsmen derided Him as merely a local: Matthew 13:55

“Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?”

-Wasn’t qualified to write to the churches because of his physical relationship to Jesus, but his spiritual relationship to Jesus

witness to the sufferings of Jesus

With his mother and the others who watched Jesus be crucified

Acquaintance to Peter and the Apostles

-Gal 1

Leader among the churches in Jerusalem

-Acts 15

his concern can be summed up as, “let us not trouble the brothers under unnecessary yokes, but let us encourage everyone to live holy lives in order to show our purity and not pollute ourselves.”

Interesting how he never introduces himself as Jesus’ brother. Because that superficial understanding of Jesus doesn’t qualify you for anything spiritual.

Jesus is my homeboy

Jesus is my expertise and area of study

Jesus is my good luck charm

only, Jesus is my Lord

Because of his faith in Jesus as Lord and his service to him and his church, is James qualified to write and we want to listen. This man knew Jesus not just as an earthly brother, but as a heavenly king.

How often do we boast mainly in Jesus as our brother (which he is) or our friend (which he is), but not as our master and king?

James did not write this letter for fame, or a book deal as Jesus’ brother. He wrote this as Jesus servant, to bless and edify Jesus’ church.

And he wrote this letter to remind us how to live as servants of king Jesus

P2: Who were the readers and why do we need to hear what they did?

[READ v1b]

1. Dispersion- Scattered from their homes and living far from James, their original pastor and their leader. So James is writing them. (one of the earliest written NT letters)

-brothers, dear brothers, beloved brothers when he starts each section

-Ac 11:19–23.

Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. 20 But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus. 21 And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord. 22 The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 23 When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose,

[Q: What does a people familiar with the good news of God’s grace need to hear?]

Steadfast purpose

2. The twelve tribes- Jewish Christians

- “12 tribes” refers to the nation of Israel and the covenant people of God. Abraham had Isaac. Isaac had Jacob. And Jacob ultimately had 12 sons, each forming a tribe of the 1 nation.

-accustomed to jewish law and ethics

-very familiar with wisdom literature found in the Proverbs, Psalms and Ecclesiastes

-One reason the letter of James is so different than Paul’s letters and other NT letters:

-James is writing to people with a firm foundation in their faith and understanding of the God, and the Bible. They are Jewish Christians.

They know Genesis better than us! They know the whole OT better than us! 3/4 of the bible.

They know a lot about God. Who he is and how he works.

they know about his power and perfection and grace

they know about his covenants

They know about the promised Messiah

They understand God’s plan for the world

They understand how the Gospel works. When Jesus says he is the lamb and dies on the cross, they understand because their tradition taught them about:

Substitution

Atonement

God’s Eternal judgement

James is primarily concerned with directing doctrine to correct practice

Paul is concerned with teaching and correcting doctrine and practice.

Paul’s letters are written to a mix bag of Christians in very diverse settings where people are asking all sorts of questions, especially foundational ones. Paul lays the foundations of the Christian faith for these greek and roman churches.

-Greeks with little to no understanding of God’s ways.

-Churches that were often being influenced by Judaizers.

1. Judaizers were jews that insisted that our justification comes from following the law

(We are counted as ‘right’ before God because of what we do and how well we keep the jewish rules.)

-Judaizers. Legalistic judaism. Not about faith or grace, but proving our righteousness before God.

Matthew 9:2-7

And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.” 3 And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.” 4 But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? 5 For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? 6 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he then said to the paralytic—“Rise, pick up your bed and go home.” 7 And he rose and went home.

-We have people outside the church who when hearing the Gospel of grace in Jesus say, “that’s good for you, but I just try to be a good person. I don’t need a savior. my works will save me, I don’t need faith.

[APP to non christians:]

True works are a result of true faith

all ways to be a “good” person nowadays without God. But just because you’ve got the world convinced you are righteous, doesn’t mean you fool God.

Legalistic Jewish ‘christians’ were infiltrating Paul’s churches. But we have no reason to believe that those were the types of Jewish christians that James was discipling.

2. Many Jews rightly understood just as we do, that:

God is a Holy God and a God of grace.

By grace, God saw their family

By grace, God spoke to Abraham and all his children

Grace that God made promises to them

Grace that God would always be faithful to them

Grace that God would bless them and have favor on them.

No works. I just am a jew and belong to Abraham, so I’m good.

Lk 3:8-9

“Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 9 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

-get out of Jail free card

-Do we not see this type of christianity everywhere today?

-today we see this in…. “christians” who simply identify with belief in God, but their is no evidence of his Lordship and leading.

Free things can have a bad result on us.

[ILL: Bad stewardship. Free things get broken…]

I’ve talked to non-christians who are disgusted with the behavior of the church and think grace is the problem.

“Because of grace, christians are lazy.”

“because of grace christians think they have a get out of jail free card and act shamefully

Let US be warned. For many of us are very familiar with God’s grace.

Our works reflect our faith.

grace is not cheap. Faith is not dead.

True faith reflects God’s grace.

Faith takes Action. Faith works.

Paul says faith produces “good fruits” and

Jesus says, He who has been forgiven much forgives much. She who has been loved much, loves much.

James says Jas 2:18–19.

“But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder”

True sons of Abraham walk by faith and live in fear of God

True sons of God and brothers of Jesus walk by faith and live in obedience to Jesus.

By grace Jesus died to be our substitute

By grace Jesus died as our atonement

By grace God has sealed his everlasting covenant with us.

By grace, Jesus says, “it is finished.”

By grace we are justified.

By works, our faith is qualified.

[Q: What does a people familiar with God’s grace need to hear?]

follow your master

be a servant of the Lord and of Jesus Christ

Bear good fruit! Do good works. Live holy lives.

In every realm of live, our actions reflect our faith

But perhaps it is most obvious in suffering.

P3: Faith perfected by works

[READ vv2-4]

[How does fruitful living look?]

Suffering test our faith

Trials of various kinds

struggles in the church

discrimination

-chased from their homes, lost their jobs, money and things taken from them. Lives on the line.

Testing. Not to pass or fail, but to refine.

Purpose: perfect, complete and lacking in nothing.

Not just about what people see, or what God sees, but who we actually are and how we actually feel. God wants to change our reality.

God wants to change your reality.

change your complaining to rejoicing

change your despair to hope

change your fear to prayer

change your exhaustion to endurance

change your limp faith to a strong, sturdy and streadfast faith

God wants to grow and strengthen your faith so that you will be lacking in nothing.

How is this done but by trials of various kinds?

We each have our struggles.

Who is God?

What is God doing?

Who are we?

What are we doing?

Conclusion: