James 1:1; Identity
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Image
I truly believe that America is the best country to live in. However, we have been teaching our children a dangerous lie for decades. The American people have been told that they can be whatever they want to be. And we have believed it. Now, I know people use this as an encouragement to tell kids that if they work hard enough, they can do anything they want. They can make the American dream work. The problem with this statement, is that my generation really believed. If you want to change your gender, you can. If you are feeling well, you can diagnosis yourself with any mental disorder you want. If you want to be a Christian and your favorite sins, you can do that. We live in America. No one has the right to tell you who or what you can or cannot be.
Need
Church, we need to have an identity that is rooted in more than just what I think I am. We need an identity that is objective. We need an identity that is rooted in reality. We need to know who we are.
Topic
I have quoted John Calvin many a time. He opens his Institutes with a powerful statement. He says that all true knowledge is summed up by two things. Our knowledge of God and our knowledge of ourselves. This morning, I want us to see who we are through a biblical set of eyes.
Referent
James 1:1
Organization
The 3 R’s
The Writer
The Reader
The Writing
Sermon in a sentence:
Sermon in a sentence:
I will rejoice in my identity.
The Writer
The Writer
James doesn’t give us much information about himself.
There are 42 times that the name Ἰάκωβος is used in the NT.
12 In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. 13 And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles: 14 Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, 15 and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, 16 and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
40 There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome.
However, we have reasons to believe that James was the bother of Jesus.
Mark 6:3 tells us that Jesus had a brother named James.
3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.
The book of Jude also appears to be written by a brother of Jesus.
1 Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:
Paul recounts his journey to Jerusalem.
19 But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord’s brother.
Acts 12 tells us that Herod killed James the brother of Joh and arrested Peter. Acts 13 tells us that Paul and Barnabas are set apart by the Holy Spirit and sent out as missionaries from the church in Antioch, while John went back to Jerusalem. In Acts 15, the Judaizers have been causing issues and Paul Barnabas go to Jerusalem for the Jerusalem council. There, James takes the lead as the authority in the council.
9 and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.
We also have church history that tells us the author of James was the brother of Jesus.
What he does tell us is amazing. He is a servant of God.
First, James is saying he is to serve and obey the Lord. Just as Moses was called a servant of God in Deut 34:5; Dan 9:11. And David was called a servant of God in Jer 33:21; Ezekiel 37:25.
Doulos also means slave. James was saying he was the property of God and the Lord Jesus.
The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition (Chapter 1)
Ἰάκωβος θεοῦ καὶ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ δοῦλος ταῖς δώδεκα φυλαῖς ταῖς ἐν τῇ διασπορᾷ χαίρειν.
The way James puts Jesus and God together is blasphemous our glorious.
Elisha would maybe call himself the servant of God and Elijah’s servant. However, he would never put God and Elijah in the same categories. James is going to do something that would make a true Jew like himself nauseous. Remember, Jews would not say YHWH but Adonai out of reverence to God. James is also going make his belief in Jesus’ divinity more clear in James 2:1
1 My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.
This is a radical shift from what we know about James during the earthly ministry of Jesus.
4 For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” 5 For not even his brothers believed in him.
20 Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat. 21 And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”
James finds his identity not in his actions but in his relationship to God. The rest of the book is going to be a very harding hitting gut punch focused on a living faith that works. But, he is going to begin his letter with who he is in light of whose he is.
Saints, our identities and our actions must be rooted in our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. We do not work to enter into relationship with God. No! We work because we have been brought into relationship with him. He now enables us and calls us to live in light of our relationship.
Do not worry about your standing with God based upon how much you can do. Find rest in the face that you are the property of the Lord Jesus. He told his disciples that all that the Father gave to him, he did not lose one of them. We are not holding on to God, he is holding on to us.
The Reader
The Reader
12 Tribes in the Dispersion
Due to all the evidence, James is probably writing to Jews who believe that Jesus is the Messiah.
the twelve tribes is an obvious reference to the twelve tribes of Israel.
In the dispersion refers to the dispersian that the Jews went through when the Assyrian Kingdom took the 10 nothern tribes of Israel captive.
You will surely remember that Isaiah 5-9 recounts this time period for us well. Tigleth-Pilesar III took over Aram and Syria. Pul would be succeeded by Shalmaneser V. He would begin the raid on Israel but it would be Sargon II who ruled from 722-705, and be responsible for taking Israel into captivity and spreading the Jews into the known world.
This also happened through the Babylonian exile of Jerusalem in 605, 597, and 586 BC. Nabopolassar began the military campaign against the Levant but it was Nebuchadnezzar that would destroy Israel and take Jews captive. This is the backdrop of the books of Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther.
His us of the Proverbs and teachings of Jesus appear to be written to those familiar with both.
2:2 speaks of partiality against a poor man that comes into your assembly - synagogue - not fellowship or church
2:18 - “You believe that God is one” - James is assuming that the reader believes the Shema: Deut 6:4
2:21 says, “Was not Abraham our father…”
However, I think the assumed audience is believing Jews, but the fuller audience is anyone who has put their faith in the Lord Jesus.
Acts 8:1 says the persecution from Paul caused a scattering of the believers.
1 And Saul approved of his execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.
19 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.
Also, There is no mention of the Jerusalem council or the Pauline ministry. This suggests a date before the Jerusalem council in 49 AD.
The church is still coming to grips with the reality that Gentiles will receive the very same Holy Spirit as the apostles and the other Jewish believers.
In other words, James is part of the apostles in Jerusalem after he has seen persecution to cause believers in Jesus to be dispersed.
16 And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.
Saints, if that is the case, and I think it is, this book is in a way to us.
Saints, the book of James is a reminder of who we are and where we are. In Christ Jesus, there is no Jew or Gentile. In Christ Jesus, we are the people of God. We are living in a land of confusion and turmoil. We have scattered and longing for the day that the Lord Jesus will bring us back into the promised land. This promised land was not just some small country on the banks of the Mediterranean sea. No, Saints! This promised land is the restored Eden. The New Heavens and Earth where God will dwell among us and we will be his people. This isn’t our home, we are just passing through. Do not become so earthly minded with all the pain and toil in this life that we become no heavenly good.
The Writing
The Writing
The book of James is so interesting because of not only the topics he addresses but the way he does it.
James is a mix of a letter and a sermon.
The has a typical 1st century introduction: Author, Audience, Greeting.
However, the rest of the book lacks common epistolary features.
There is no explicit occasion mentioned for the letter.
1 Cor 1:11 tells us that members of Chloe’s house have told Paul about the divisions in the Corinthian church.
Philippians 2 tells us of Epiphraditus’ health and near death. Philippians 4 also tells us that two women in the Philippian church are not getting along, Euodia and Syntyche.
There are no names mentioned in the book.
Chloe, Epiphraditus, Euodia, Syntyche, Apollos, Demus, Aristarchus, John Mark, Philemon, Onesimus, Apphia, Titus, Timothy, Phoebe, Priscilla, Aquila, Junia, Andronicus, Tertius, and many others are mentioned in the NT epistles.
The structure is more topical with teaching, illustration, and application.
We are going to see James has three main topics that keep coming up, illustrated, and applied.
Joy, Trials, Money. These three are all subsumed under the overarching them of oneness/completion/fulness/or perfection.
Let us be good listeners and doers of sermons.
1. We must be careful that we do not come to the text of scripture and tell it what it must say. John Calvin warns us with these words, “Though he seems more sparing in proclaiming the grace of Christ than it behoved an Apostle to be, it is not surely required of all to handle the same arguments.” Calvin goes on to highlight the differences between David’s and Solomon’s writing or John’s gospel and the synoptic gospels. Saints, I have read enough on preaching to recognize, that we can often have really great sayings and theologies until we actually wrestle with the text of scripture. Let us go to the text of scripture and let it speak on its own terms.
2. James is writing a sermonic letter that is not supposed to be a burden but a blessing. When you come to church, are you expecting a blessing from the Lord? Not presumptuously! But do you expect to be in the presence of the triune God and not leave any different? You are in the midsts of saints. Do you expect that to bless you? Come each Sunday ready to be blessed in corporate worship. You know the songs that JT is going to be singing. You know the scripture reading we are going to be reading. You know the text of Scripture that will be preached. Prepare to be blessed.
Pout Pout Fish
Deep in the water where the fish hang out, lives a glum gloomy swimmer with an ever-present pout.
"I'm a pout-pout fish with a pout-pout face, so I spread the dreary-wearies all over the place!"
Along comes a clam with a wide grinning grin and a pearl of advice for her pal to take in:
"Hey, Mr. Fish with your crosstown frown, don't you think it's time to turn it upside down?"
Says the fish to his friend, "Nice thought, Ms. Clam. I hear what you're saying, but it's just the way I am!"
"I'm a pout-pout fish with a pout-pout face, so I spread the dreary-wearies all over the place!"
Along comes a jellyfish, he floats through the ocean. His tentacles all trailing in a gentle locomotion.
Hey, Mr. Fish, with your daily scaly scowl, I wish you wouldn't greet us with a grimace and a growl."
Says the fish to his friend, "Mr. Jelly, I agree. I'd like to be more friendly, but it isn't up to me!"
"I'm a pout-pout fish with a pout-pout face, so I spread the dreary-wearies all over the place!"
…..
Now along comes a fish in a silent silver shimmer. The gang has never seen before this bright and brilliant swimmer. She approaches Mr. Fish but instead of saying hey....
She plants a kiss upon his pout and then she swims away.
Mr. Fish is most astounded. Mr. Fish is just aghast. He is stone-faced like a statue. Then he blinks, and speaks at last:
"My friends," says Mr. Fish, "I should have known it all along. I thought that I was pouty, but it turns out I was wrong."
"I'm a kiss-kiss fish, with a kiss-kiss face for spreading cheery-cheeries all over the place!"
Saints, when we tell ourselves who and what we are, it makes us those things. We do not worship a dead carpenter from the Judean hills. No! We serve the one true living God! We are his and we are called to be his joyful servants!
Application
Application
You can have joy in this life. But you can only have true lasting joy by coming to submission to the Lord Jesus Christ. Repent of your sins and put your faith in Jesus for he alone can save you and bring you real lasting joy.
Saints, remind yourselves this week, that you can have joy that overwhelms this pains of this life. You are not home yet, and you can find joy that the Lord Jesus is coming again. Saints, let me also ask this of you. Reach out to one person this week and tell them you want the Lord Jesus to give them joy in the midst of their sojourn. James is writing this sermon-letter. He wants to bless his people with joy. Do you want to do the same?
