Overview of the Book of James
Notes
Transcript
A. Rapport for the time
Real vs. Fake
Genuine Imitation leather—What did I just read is the first thing you think of when you read that label. The question is the thing I’m holding leather or is it not? Which is it?
B. Reading of the text
Roger—Matthew 7:12-14
C. Review of the text
There is something that you need to know about James before we get started. The book does not read like anything written by Paul because the book is written by James. Now that sounds funny but what I mean is that we are not going to have one sentence that goes on for an entire chapter that stays on one single topic. James is different in that he is more like listening to someone who is hyped up on sugar and caffeine going from topic to topic.
MacArthur says this: James complements Paul’s emphasis on justification by Faith with his own emphasis on spiritual fruitfulness demonstrating true faith.
D. Relevance of the text
Today we are going to take James at the 10,000 foot level and get situated for our mind and our hearts to spend some time in God’s word in the book of James. To do that we must first look at the writer of the book.
T.S. James the brother of Jesus
I. James the half brother of Jesus
I. James the half brother of Jesus
James the half brother of Jesus wrote the book of James. Now it is something because he didn’t really believe Jesus was the messiah while he grew up with him. As the next oldest to Jesus in the family he would have seen Jesus grow up and known him like only a brother could yet he didn’t believe.
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?
5 For not even his brothers believed in him.
It would have been extremely difficult for those who had been around the Lord and known him for so long to come to a full understanding that he is the Son of God. Don’t you agree that would be a hard thing to fully grasp. Now we know that Jesus would have been different from the others while he is growing up but sometimes the hardest thing to really grasp are the things that you around all the time.
The Israelite James would come to know his half brother Jesus as the Messiah but not until after he appeared before him.
6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.
7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.
Can you imagine that day in the life of James!!
James would grow into a leader of the church in Jerusalem.
7 On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised
8 (for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles),
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.
included as a pillar of the early church...
17 But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, “Tell these things to James and to the brothers.” Then he departed and went to another place
James would be known as James the just for his devotion to righteousness until he was martyred in A.D. 62.
Although maybe a little slow to start when the Lord got a hold of the man James he used him in a mighty way to establish HIS church and lead others to understand the law of God and walking with the Lord daily.
T.S. Not only do we need to know the writer but we also should know the recipients.
II. The recipients of James
II. The recipients of James
The book of James is not written to just a specific church like many of Paul’s writing such as Philippians, Colossians but instead is written to believers that had been scattered because of suffering. Paul’s writings are often answering questions inside a church or helping them fix a problem they are having at a church. Can you imagine that?
Instead James is considered a general epistle that was not intended for just one particular group but for the early church in general. James mentions the people in verse 1.
1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings.
This dispersion of believers from Jerusalem would have occurred in A.D. 44 and was recorded for us in Acts chapter 12
1 About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church.
2 He killed James the brother of John with the sword,
3 and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of Unleavened Bread.
4 And when he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people.
5 So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.
James-the apostle was the first to be killed and it was for leading people to believe in false Gods which is what Herod the King believed Jesus to be.
Herod was simple trying to keep power and was appeasing the Jews to help himself. But this put the people in harms way as the killing of James shows that he was going after anyone he could round up.
As you can imagine the early church in Jerusalem would have been scattered by a desire to keep their heads.
T.S. Which gives us a great background to understand the writing of James and the heart with which James is reaching out to the people.
III. Living a life of a faithful Christian
III. Living a life of a faithful Christian
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Let’s go ahead and take on the Elephant in the book of James head on and we will see it again.
The faith that has been place in Jesus Christ as my Lord and savior is not based upon our own doing.
1 “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.
3 Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.
Come to the water with no money!!! And be filled! As a Christian this morning that is what has happened to all that are truly believers.
The book of James is showing us that knowing Christ is more than a one time moment! It’s telling people who are in the midst of suffering to remember their salvation and to draw upon the wisdom of the Lord not the situation they find themselves.
For our context this book is written so that we would know that our salvation is not a one time “experience” that we then may go about living however we please because we claimed the name of Jesus this one time. God forbit Paul says!! Instead, my life is a declaration of the changes God has made and my life works are an outpouring of that very change every day.
9-marks...puts out three reasons to preach through__________
Preach James to Bring sheep back to Christ in the face of trials 1:1-18
Preach James to bring Lambs back from Fake Faith 1:19-5:18
Preach James to bring one another Back to Christ 5:19-20
Here is a truth about the book of James. It is often compared to the Sermon on the Mount and the book of Proverbs for it’s practicality.
T.S. Here is another truth from James.
Application
The Christian walk is not meant for the timid but for those that have their strength from the Lord. An unbeliever can never understand the word of God because it is foreign to them. they simply can’t understand what it is to live a life of denying self and pursuing God.
I want to encourage, strengthen you, and push you this morning.
The word of God does not sell us anything fraudulent. There is not bate in switch with the lord.
54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.
26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
Ultimately Jesus says at the sermon on the Mount
13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.
14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
