A Call to Whole-Hearted Devotion
Notes
Transcript
James: A Call to Whole-Hearted
Devotion. Part 1
First of all,
what is it? What are we looking at?
We know it’s a
letter because of the greeting.
We know it’s by
a man named James (literally, Jacob -- Jacobus)
Style,
structure, and genre:
·
In some ways, it’s considered a book wisdom,
written in similar style to Proverbs – hits a subject hard then moves on.
·
It’s full of commands or exhortations – some have
said it’s more of a sermon that was written down and sent as a letter. More on
that later
·
We see this in chapter 1 which has been
determined to be something of a summary chapter to what is addressed in
chapters 2-5
Theme: a call to whole-hearted devotion
Single-mindedness.
Living, active faith. Sold out. A view of life from above the sun. Intentional,
Spirit-controlled living/life on purpose and with a purpose. Total
surrender.
James 1:1 –
1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ: To the twelve tribes dispersed abroad. Greetings.
“James” – that’s what we know
from the letter. We’ll get to that in a minute.
“A Servant of God” – that’s not
so striking. Many Jewish men might have sad that. He would have been a good
Jewish boy, though his “service” would probably have been keeping the Torah ("served”
the Torah/Law)
The stand-out is where he adds: “…and
of the Lord, Jesus Christ.
Lord – equating
with LORD (Yahweh)
Jesus’ claim to
be God was the blasphemous statement
that led to crucifixion. James is affirming that, calling Him the Christ.
Christ – long-awaited
Messiah. The Anointed One, appointed to be the deliverer of the Jewish people.
James would have
been hopeful of the Messiah, but he would have most likely expected a military
leader who would have delivered the Jews from their oppressors, not the kind of
person Jesus was.
Jesus was not
the kind of Messiah James would have expected.
Not very
different from today: many people believe in Jesus, but He’s a savior very
different than Jesus in Scripture.
·
Social justice jesus
·
Gay-rights jesus
·
Abortion rights jesus
·
Socialist/Marxist jesus
·
White supremacy jesus
·
Black jesus
·
Pro-immigration jesus
·
Anti-immigration jesus
·
American jesus
·
Political jesus
·
etc. etc.
We could go on
and on because there are people from every conviction with their own idea of
Jesus, if they regard Him at all. The problem is none of those man-made “jesuses”
can save your soul – they’re not really designed to. They’re followed because
they can make your life on earth better. They are more like life-coaches or self-help
gurus whose misunderstood teachings grant permission to live life however you
choose.
It's living
whole-heartedly devoted to you, not the Lord Jesus Christ as revealed in
Scripture. These manifestations of Jesus can be stumbling blocks today just
like they could during the days the Bible was written.
James had an
even bigger stumbling block. See, there are only two serious candidates for
writing this letter who would have been well-known and had this kind of authority.
The first is
James, the brother of John, one of Jesus’ three inner circle. Great candidate…he
just didn’t live long enough. He was martyred before this letter could have
been written.
That leaves
just one other. His problem? He had a brother…named Jesus. Literally. That one.
James, the
author of this letter was the half-brother of Jesus and who most of his life had
not believed Jesus was the Messiah. Can you really blame him?
3 Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And aren’t his sisters here with us?” So they were offended by him.
20 Jesus entered a house, and the crowd gathered again so that they were not even able to eat. 21 When his family heard this, they set out to restrain him, because they said, “He’s out of his mind.”
1 After this, Jesus traveled in Galilee, since he did not want to travel in Judea because the Jews were trying to kill him. 2 The Jewish Festival of Shelters was near. 3 So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea so that your disciples can see your works that you are doing. 4 For no one does anything in secret while he’s seeking public recognition. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” 5 (For not even his brothers believed in him.)
Something extremely
significant had happened to bring about that change in James’ life!
We know that
whatever it was happened had already happened by the time we get to Acts 1:12-14
12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, which is near Jerusalem—a Sabbath day’s journey away. 13 When they arrived, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying: Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. 14 They all were continually united in prayer, along with the women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
The key is 1 Corinthians 15:1-7
1 Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel I preached to you, which you received, on which you have taken your stand 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold to the message I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. 6 Then he appeared to over five hundred brothers and sisters at one time; most of them are still alive, but some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.
This changed
everything for James, not all that different from Paul’s experience on the Damascus
Road. James went from thinking Jesus was an idiot and wanting to have nothing
to do with his crazy ideas to believing Jesus was Son of God, later becoming
the “bishop” within the mother church in Jerusalem.
Highly
respected within the Jerusalem church
·
Only person besides Peter that Paul consulted
after conversion (Galatians 1:19)
19 But I didn’t see any of the other apostles except James, the Lord’s brother.
·
We see James as a major voice in Jerusalem in Galatians
2:11-12, Acts 12:17, Acts 21:15-25
James 1:1
Leader at the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 that
laid out instructions for Paul in regard to Gentile Believers
1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ: To the twelve tribes dispersed abroad. Greetings.
This is a
remarkable story of the remarkable life behind the writer of this short letter.
What really
strikes me about this introduction is what is missing: name-dropping!
No mention of
being Jesus’ brother! Would you have left that out?
I hung out for
like 15 minutes with Drew Bledsoe and some other players of the Patriots back
in 1995 at a friends apartment and I still drop that, even though most
people don’t remember the guy who was replaced by Tom Brady.
Tells us
two things about James:
1.
His reputation within the Jerusalem
Church was clearly know by the recipients.
Example, if you get a church email
from “David”, you know who it is)
2.
James was clearly a humble man. Instead
of “brother of Jesus,” simply identified himself as “douloß” (slave) of Jesus.” What do we make of that?
·
My first thought is somewhat conjecture:
I think James feels his unworthiness. Jesus was with him his whole life and
James had not seen it. He had mocked Jesus. In spite of his great authority,
like Paul he may have considered himself as “the least of the apostles” (in a
manner of speaking).
I’ve known
people like that, too, who grew up in church their whole lives but missed
Jesus. For some, it’s a source of shame, yet Jesus’ approach is never
shame-driven. It’s grace.
But if that’s
true, it still leads James to a healthy place of bold humility rather than
shame:
·
The idea of being a slave means that one no
longer has liberty over his/her own life. You are now the property of
another.
Jesus
had such a profound effect on James that he surrendered his entire life to Him.
This meant
that everything James did was according to what his master wanted. James no
longer called the shots. He took seriously what Jesus said in Matthew 10:24-25
24 A disciple is not above his teacher, or a slave above his master. 25 It is enough for a disciple to become like his teacher and a slave like his master. If they called the head of the house ‘Beelzebul,’ how much more the members of his household!
James knew
the value of his faith and that his faith was more than theological constructs
or emotional experiences. It meant doing, not just saying.
The letter
of James is uncomfortable for a lot of people because it is a bold call to
action; to living a life that reflects the faith you say you have.
·
Many people don’t like it because it sounds
contrary to Paul’s doctrine of justification by faith alone apart from works.
ILLUS: Martin Luther called it an epistle of straw because
many who promoted salvation from works
quoted James. But Luther’s point, in context, was that there was nothing in
James that promoted faith alone, apart from works, yet elsewhere he said, “I
think highly of the epistle of James and regard it as valuable. It does not
expound human doctrines but lays much emphasis on God's law.”
·
Many people don’t like it because it sounds
legalistic: they don’t want anything that sounds like commands. They just
want to feel their way through a relationship with Jesus. Yet Jesus, Himself,
said, “If you love me, keep my commands.” (John 14:15)
That’s what a
doulas does! It’s what James took so seriously for himself and demanded so
boldly from the recipients of his letter.
It makes
sense when we consider who he was writing to:
predominantly
to Jewish Christians who were once associated with the church in Jerusalem,
scattered, according to Acts 8:4, after Stephen was stoned in Acts 7.
These people scattered
because they were being persecuted and scattering meant they would deal with
hardships of various kinds.
There
would be plenty of temptations they would face that would threaten their
very young faith in Jesus.
So James with
the same kind of concern that Paul wrote to the Thessalonian church: He
was concerned to make sure their faith was real and that the reality of their
faith would be evidenced by how they lived and whether they would obey his commands.
Keep in mind
that in out of 108 verses, there are 59 different commands, but also keep in
mind that that the bulk of those commands come directly from 14 different references
to the Sermon on the Mount.
As I alluded
to earlier, throughout most of James’ life, he thought Jesus was a crazy fool.
He couldn’t have cared less what his brother said. But when he saw Jesus with
his own eyes, risen from the dead, he believed and it changed everything. He
changed how he actually lived!
He became a
doulas, yes, of his physical half-brother, but infinitely more important, His
eternal Creator and Master. He took Jesus words seriously when he heard that he
had said [Mark 8:34-38],
34 “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me and the gospel will save it. 36 For what does it benefit someone to gain the whole world and yet lose his life? 37 What can anyone give in exchange for his life? 38 For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
James
lived for Jesus.
He was given
the nickname, “James the Just” because he was so faithful to the teachings of
Christ.
He lived for
Jesus but he also died for Jesus. Somewhere around AD 64, about 20 years after
writing this letter, James was killed by the scribes and pharisees because he
would not renounce his faith in Jesus.
I don’t know if
God is going to call you to die for Him…but I know He is calling you to live
for Him: a life all-in for the One who saved you.
James has a lot
to say about how to do it – we’re going to have to take some tough but
grace-filled talk from James. It’s going to demand we take a hard look at
ourselves and the faith we say we have.
Are you committed?
Are you ready to hear from one knows what it’s like to live with whole-hearted
Devotion? Let’s go.
