James - Week 1

Author

Series Intro

Þ Author

Four persons in the New Testament have the name of James.

James, the father of Judas (not Iscariot), is mentioned in and .

James, the son of Alphaeus, appears in and .

James the apostle was martyred under Herod Agrippa I in A.D. 44 (see ).

He rapidly became a leader in the early church ().

§ The Lord’s brother was an unbeliever during Jesus’ earthly ministry (), but an appearance of the risen Christ to him apparently led him to become a believer (; ).

· He rapidly became a leader in the early church ().

James, the brother of Jesus.

· The New Testament pictures him as a committed Jew who recognized Jesus as Messiah and Lord and showed spiritual sensitivity to the working of God.

· James the Lord’s brother would be important enough in the early church clearly to identify himself by the designation “James.”[1]

· The close proximity of Jesus' words and teachings also strengthen this belief.

Date:

o “Many scholars feel the Book of James is one of the earlier New Testament writings.

§ Three features suggest an early date.

§ First, James described a large gap between the rich and the poor (5:1–6). When the war against Rome broke out in A.D. 66, the rich suffered great losses, and conflict between rich and poor ceased. The impact of this observation pushes the writing to an earlier time rather than later.

§ Second, the church organization mentioned in James seems undeveloped as seen in the mention only of elders as church leaders (5:14).

§ Third, Christians were fervently expecting the return of Christ (5:7–9). It is felt that such fervor would be more true of the initial generations of Christians. All of these features support the acceptance of an earlier date.”[2]

Þ Audience:

o Jews

o Those scattered from the persecution.

Þ Purpose:

o The purpose of this potent letter is to exhort the early believers to Christian maturity and holiness of life. This letter deals more with the practice of the Christian faith than with its precepts. James told his readers how to achieve spiritual maturity through a confident stand, compassionate service, careful speech, contrite submission, and concerned sharing. He dealt with every area of a Christian’s life: what he is, what he does, what he says, what he feels, and what he has.

o With his somewhat stern teaching on practical holiness, James showed how Christian faith and Christian love should be expressed in a variety of actual situations. The seemingly unrelated parts of the book can be harmonized in light of this unified theme. The pearls are not rolling around in some box; they are carefully strung to produce a necklace of priceless beauty.[3]

o With his somewhat stern teaching on practical holiness, James showed how Christian faith and Christian love should be expressed in a variety of actual situations. The seemingly unrelated parts of the book can be harmonized in light of this unified theme. The pearls are not rolling around in some box; they are carefully strung to produce a necklace of priceless beauty.

o Mature faith

Transition: Sibling Rivalry

Þ How many of you are an only child? Parents?

o Illust: Anna Miller's

§ Addison's rivalry with her imaginary sister.

o Transition:

§ What must it have been like to be the brother of Jesus?

An Incomparable Sibling (5 Minutes)

Þ Promised Child.

o How often do you think Mary and Joseph retold the story of the angels' visit?

o Illust: Growing up with a specially gifted sibling.

Þ Preferred Child.

o How do you not treat Jesus differently?

§ He is the Chosen One.

§ It's like knowing that you are raising the future president.

§ Would you want to answer to God regarding how you treated His Son?

Þ Perfect Child.

o We often talk about the perfect child, but Jesus really was the perfect child.

§ He wasn't selfish.

§ He wasn’t greedy, jealous

o (NASB95)

§ 40The Child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.

o (NASB95)

§ 52And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

Þ Real faith…real family…real relationships

An Impossible Claim: Real faith requires that we look beyond Christ's character and His good deeds and acknowledge Him as Savior.

Þ Illust: Impossible to believe that your Sibling could be 'that'.

o Do you think that the President's siblings would have ever imagined that they would become the president?

o I mean, yeah, there's an idea that they're going to do something good.

o But the president?

Þ With the rivalries aside, Jesus' ministry began to strain His relationship with His own family.

o Like the others of His hometown, they 'knew' Him in a natural way

o And, their knowledge of Him challenged their own ability to accept His claims to be who He was...the "Son of God".

o They even went so far as to intervene and bring him home to 'rest and recover'.

o Jesus' claims ostracized a lot of people, including His family.

Þ Bold Claims

o

§ ‘Eat My flesh, drink My blood.’

§ 60Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this said, “This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?”

§ 66As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore.

Þ

o 1After these things Jesus was walking in Galilee, for He was unwilling to walk in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill Him.

o 2Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was near.

o 3 Therefore His brothers said to Him, “Leave here and go into Judea, so that Your disciples also may see Your works which You are doing

o 4“For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.”

o 5For not even His brothers were believing in Him.

o 6So Jesus said to them, “My time is not yet here, but your time is always opportune.

o 7“The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.

o 8“Go up to the feast yourselves; I do not go up to this feast because My time has not yet fully come.”

o 9Having said these things to them, He stayed in Galilee.

o 10But when His brothers had gone up to the feast, then He Himself also went up, not publicly, but as if, in secret.

Þ Jesus' claims were too difficult for His own family to accept, though they knew how special He was.

o That He was special, they could not deny.

§ His character? Impeccable.

· He was pure.

· Without a blemish.

§ His deeds? Ultimate humanitarian.

· He went about doing 'good'.

· Compassionate. Caring.

§ That He was God? They couldn't accept.

Þ (NASB95)

o 21When His own people heard of this, they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, “He has lost His senses.”

Þ (NASB95)

o 31Then His mother and His brothers arrived, and standing outside they sent word to Him and called Him.

Þ Point:

o Real faith requires that we look beyond Christ's character and His good deeds and acknowledge Him as Savior.

§ Jesus’ own family stumbled over this.

o Perhaps, it was their 'knowledge' of Him that prevented them from accepting.

o They were familiar with Him.

An Indisputable Encounter: Real Faith is awakened by an encounter with the resurrected Christ.

Þ Remarkably, we are not given much information regarding James' transition from a doubter to a disciple.

o From his position in , as a doubter, we do not see any moment where he experiences a change of heart concerning Christ's identity.

o Our next encounter with him is found in , where he, along with his mother and brothers, have gathered in the upper room with the other disciples of Christ.

o They were gathered for prayer and awaiting the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Þ (NASB95)

o 14These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.

Þ What led to this transition?

o There is one verse that gives us tremendous insight.

o It is found the apostle Paul's discourse on the resurrection of Jesus.

§ He writes:

o

§ 3For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures

§ 4and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

§ 5and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

§ 6After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep

§ 7then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles;

Þ Notice carefully Paul's inclusion on the essential elements of the Gospel:

o Christ died for our sins (v.3)

§ We've all fallen short.

§ Yet, Christ has given His life to ransom us.

o He was buried (v.4)

§ Christ faced the sting of death.

§ The ultimate penalty of sin is death.

o He was raised on the third day (v.4)

§ Death has been overwhelmed by life.

Þ Christ's resurrection proved that He was more than a ‘good man’.

o His resurrection substantiated that He indeed was the Son of God.

§ He was who He said He was.

o And, while He may have appeared to five hundred men, there were two men Paul identified by name.

§ Cephas (Peter), who had turned his back on Christ hours before His death.

§ And, James, one who had loved Him, but couldn't embrace His claims, His deity.

Þ Point:

o Real Faith is awakened by an encounter with the resurrected Christ.

An Inescapable Response: Real Faith requires a response.

Þ The beauty of the Gospel is that it reaches people from all walks of life. An encounter with the risen Savior transforms the Jew and the Gentile alike. And while the expressions of their faith may differ, their response does not. James’ response to the risen Christ was indebtedness, as was Paul's.

Þ Key: Real Faith may have many expressions, but it is always founded on Christ as the Son of God, our Savior.

o And that faith requires a response.

o Real Faith requires a response.

Þ Bond-Servants

o

§ 1James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad: Greetings.

o James' encounter with the resurrected Christ propelled him into a new life of service.

o So much so, that he was not known as James, Jesus’ brother.

§ Rather, he was known as “James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ”.

Þ James emerged as a prominent leader in the Jerusalem Church.

o And, while he maintained his commitment to the Jewish flavor of faith, he too recognized a move of God that was a different expression than his own.

o As the early Church sought to work through their differences, James stood out as a leader who could embrace the move of God in the Gentile church and maintain his own identity.

Þ The apostle Paul would identify James as one of three 'reputed to be pillars' of the New Testament church.

o

§ 1Then after an interval of fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along also.

§ 2It was because of a revelation that I went up; and I submitted to them the gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but I did so in private to those who were of reputation, for fear that I might be running, or had run, in vain.

§ 3But not even Titus, who was with me, though he was a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised.

§ 4But it was because of the false brethren secretly brought in, who had sneaked in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, in order to bring us into bondage.

§ 5But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

§ 6But from those who were of high reputation (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)—well, those who were of reputation contributed nothing to me.

§ 7But on the contrary, seeing that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised

§ 8(for He who effectually worked for Peter in his apostleship to the circumcised effectually worked for me also to the Gentiles),

§ 9and recognizing the grace that had been given to me, James and Cephas and John, who were reputed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, so that we might go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.

§ 10They only asked us to remember the poor—the very thing I also was eager to do.

Þ Though they came from two extreme ministry corners, Paul and James would share similar experiences.

o First, they could not embrace Christ's claims.

o Second, they had an encounter with the risen Christ that forever changed their lives.

o Lastly, their response culminated in the same response:

§

· 1Paul and Timothy, bond-servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons:

§

· 1Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,

Closing:

Þ In order to have 'real faith' you must have an encounter with the resurrected Jesus.

o By encounter, that does not mean that you see Him with your own eyes, literally.

o Rather, spiritually you recognize Him as being the One whom He says He is.

Þ Real Faith is not a rehearsal of the information you have been taught by someone else.

o It is not rote.

o It is not a reenactment of what you see others doing, saying.

Þ In James’, you have had an encounter with the risen Savior, the Son of God.

o You have beheld His beauty.

o You have seen His glory.

o You have witnessed His transformation, the impossible transformation.

Þ Now, live in light of the truth you have known.

o Grow up, into the image of Christ

o Let your faith become mature.

§ Stop wavering.

§ Treat each other in the light of Christ's love.

§ Speak to one another in Christ's love.

Þ If you're struggling to believe, James too struggled.

o He saw the characteristics of a good man.

o He struggled with the statements He made.

§ The bold statements that He was/is the only way.

o He struggled to believe that Jesus had all power.

o Until…he saw Him overcome death.

Þ “The power of the resurrection trumps the power of the past if we're willing to let it.”[4]

[1] Thomas D. Lea, “The General Letters,” in Holman Concise Bible Commentary, ed. David S. Dockery (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1998), 628.

[2] Thomas D. Lea, “The General Letters,” in Holman Concise Bible Commentary, ed. David S. Dockery (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1998), 629.

[3] J. Ronald Blue, “James,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 818.

[4] Beth Moore, James: Mercy Triumphs Workbook, p.21