Sermon Tone Analysis

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Introduction

Good morning, please take your Bibles out and turn with me to the book of James, chapter 1.

I am glad to be with you this morning.

As brother _____ mentioned, my name is Will Barnett, and I come to you from FBC Puxico where I am an assistant pastor.

The book of James

Just by way of information, I want to let you all know what is going on in light of Pastor Dusty’s departure.

Myself and some of the other pastors at FBC Puxico have committed to help fill this pulpit during this time of transition for the rest of the fall if need be, and if the Lord wills.

We know you all are accustomed to verse by verse preaching, and we ourselves are committed to that sort of proclamation of the Word.

So, for all the Sundays that you all should have need of us, we have decided to collaborate and go through the Book of have the honor of starting that off here this morning and each week we will pick up where we left off in the previous.

We hope to be a blessing to you all during this time.

So this morning we begin with and we are going to go to verse 8, and also 12-15; verses 9-11 will be covered with another section of James in the coming weeks.

I will be reading from the CSB this morning, as we begin in .

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Prayer

Father we thank you for your grace.

We thank you that you have hidden nothing from us that is needed to faithfully serve you in this life.

I ask God that you give us a humble heart this morning to receive your wisdom from your Word, that we may be stirred to greater faithfulness, both in times of peace and times of trial.

Grant us understanding by your Spirit, and stir our affections we pray.

In Jesus name, Amen.

Unlike many of the other epistles in the NT, James has no long greeting of introduction.

No, he rather gets straight to the point; here’s who I am, here’s who I am writing this letter to, now here is the Word of the Lord.

So then we begin where the author begins, with “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

The James we are hearing from in the letter is none other than James, the brother of the Lord.

We know from and and 2 that James was the primary leader of the church in Jerusalem during the time of Paul’s ministry.

We are helped to establish this James as the author of this epistle due to the similarities between this letter and the speeches given by James in .

By identifying himself only as a servant, or more literally a slave, of Jesus, the author must have been well-known enough to assume that his recipients would know who was writing the letter by including only his name.

The recipients listed also clue us in to the author and the setting of this letter.

Ιf there is a single most important rule in Bible study, it is this: context matters.

cultural context, literary context, all of it is completely necessary if we are to rightly understand what is being said.

We have good indication that James the brother of Jesus, and Pastor of the church in Jerusalem wrote this letter, and he wrote it to “the twelve tribes dispersed abroad,” or to the “twelve tribes in the dispersion”

The Greek word for dispersion is diaspora, which refers to the continual occurrence where the Jewish people were dispersed from Judah because of various political factors.

The result was pockets of Jewish people throughout the Roman empire.

However, James is writing specifically to Christian Jews in this letter, yet not to a single church.

That explains the general introduction to the letter.

He likely did not personally know many of his intended recipients, but as the Pastor of mother church in Jerusalem, he wanted to provide instruction to the brethren outside of Judah who were facing some serious challenges.

So then that forms our setting, and the rest of the book informs us further of what was going on with these people.

There was serious divisions between the rich and the poor, and there was a particular problem with the rich persecuting the poor Christians.

There also seems to have been a problem of commitment with these Christians.

James continually stirs them to put their faith in action; to show their faith by works, to tame their tongue and speak as one redeemed by God, to have joy through suffering, and to pray with confidence.

We can relate to those things can’t we?

I doubt any of us would claim to be the model Christian.

Yet the issues here are deeper; James is not giving a little confidence boost to his hearers; he is encouraging in some ways by rebuke.

He is saying, “you call yourselves Christians, well here is what a Christian looks like.

Does it look like you?

If not, seek the Lord and let your works reflect your faith.”

We ought to examine ourselves the same way by this letter and let this Word of God read into us, culling out that which is unfaithful to the Lord and producing the the faith in us that endures and honors God.

So we begin with Verse 2...

V. 2 “Great” here is πασαν in the Greek, indicating fullness, completeness.

“All” in the ESV, the sentiment is that in every trial, we should count our experience as complete, pure joy.

That sounds a bit crazy doesn’t it?

The apostle is telling us not just to have joy in suffering, but to look at the whole situation and and have a fullness of joy about it.

That’s tough to do sometimes.

And this can be very discouraging if we look at this and think it is saying that Christians have to be happy all the time, smiling, bubbly, not a care in the world.

But we have to understand that when James commands us to have complete joy in trials and suffering, he is not talking about a feeling, he is talking about mindset; he is talking about your state of mind in suffering.

Something you’ll notice as we study this book is that James really is just expounding Jesus’ teachings in this epistle, especially from the Sermon on the Mount.

Even here in this second verse he is alluding to

“Blessed are those who are persecuted…blessed are you when others revile you...”

And remember how Jesus begins the Sermon on the Mount and the beatitudes; “Blessed are the poor in spirit...”

Not “blessed are the happy,” or “blessed are the rich in spirit…;” but “blessed are the poor in spirit”

The Bible is consistent with itself, so then we have to ask, how can one poor in spirit have great joy through suffering?

Through a steady and sure, thankful trust in God.

He is the anchor of our souls, the wind in our sails.

And by loving him, believing him, and trusting in his promises, we may have joy throughout the various trials that come against us

Verse 3 elaborates on this...

V.3 “Because you know” or “For you know;” This is one Greek word here which literally means “knowing.”

The sense is that this “knowing” is the reason you can count your trials great joy.

Knowing what?

That testing produces endurance…

And is our charge not that “the one who endures to the end will be saved.”? Jesus himself said that.

So then your trials and testing are ultimately for your salvation.

Why because perseverance and endurance require dependence on God; if your trust is not fully in his ability to sustain you and to fulfill every promise he has made, .

Take note of what James doesn’t say: He doesn’t say that comfort or self-fulfillment lead to endurance.

There is a lie that pervades our society that says we must find that one thing in our life that we are supposed to do which will bring us fulfillment and comfort.

This has both a secular and a Christian variety.

In its secular form, our society is plagued by a self-centered attitude which basically says its all about me.

The point of life is to find that thing which is most satisfying to me, the activity that makes me feel important and successful.

Thats common to all fallen men.

But that attitude invades the church as well, and I would say has nearly taken it over, so that we put a Christian spin on it and say that God has that one thing for us which we must do in order to be most fulfilled, and we define it as “calling”

Maybe its a certain job, or a service activity, or being a mother, or a counselor, or whatever.

Now I wholeheartedly affirm the sovereignty of God in all things, which means I do believe that he has a plan for every single person and that whatever his ultimate will is will come to pass.

That is what Scripture teaches.

But the lie we believe is that the point of this life is to be happy; and if the point is to be happy, then God’s perfect plan for me must be the way I get that happiness.

So then, I need to figure out what that “thing” is and do it, that way I can be happy.

But here is what we miss from Scripture; God’s perfect plan for you is not for you to be happy, it is for you to be conformed to the image of his Son.

Furthermore, He is where we ultimately find our fulfillment.

Not in a job, or in an act, or in any relationship, but solely in Him, Jesus Christ.

The prophet Zechariah recorded these words from the Lord concerning the people whom God would redeem:

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The Lord refines his people as gold is refined by fire.

Happiness does not produce endurance; testing does.

We have to quit thinking that the end we’re chasing is happiness in this life.

It’s only going to make it that much worse when we don’t get it.

If we are Christ’s and his Spirit lives in us, then we ought to conform our desires to his, which means that our desire should be to be made like him.

This only comes through testing.

But through testing our faith is made stronger.

When we stand firm on Christ and relationships crumble, children take off down the wrong path, sickness afflicts us, or even the prospect of death looks us in the eye, those with real faith endure because of the hope that is in them, namely the resurrection of the body to eternity with Christ.

In the middle ages, around the year 650 AD, Christianity had become the official religion of the Roman Empire (600 years after James written) which reached from Spain to modern day Iraq, and from France all the way to North Africa.

However, many of the places outside of the center of the empire had been forced to make professions of faith and be baptized.

They were Christianized as part of the political policy, not missions efforts.

Being a Christian was just part of being a Roman.

But around this time, you know what sprang forth?