Small and Mighty!
Notes
Transcript
Our reading this week comes from the book of James, that we’ve been reading for the past several weeks. Some have described the book of James as the Proverbs of the New Testament. There is a whole lot of wisdom packed into this little book of 5 chapters.
Thus far we’ve learned about the fruit of the trials we face and the testing of our faith in the midst of those trials. We’ve learned about the futility of claiming to have faith without acting on it in anyway. We’ve learned about the evils of partiality, and we’ve learned quite a bit about the Gospel and evidence for faith. All of these are posted on our website, and you are able to access them readily.
This is the 5th sermon in the series. We’re just about half way through our journey through this book, as we enter chapter 3 today and read verses 1-12.
Let’s ask God to prepare us for the reading from His Word:
Lord of all wisdom, Lord of Truth, speak to us today. As we open your Word speak to our hearts and minds by the power of your Holy Spirit, that as the Scriptures are read and your Word is proclaimed, we may hear with joy what you say to us today. AMEN.
Hear what the Spirit is saying to the church.
A reading from James 3:1-12:
Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.
For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body.
If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well.
Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs.
So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!
And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.
For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind,
but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.
From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.
Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water?
Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.
Holy wisdom, holy word.
Thanks be to God.
When you need inspiration from the Bible, how do you find it? Do you just open it up, and wherever your finger lands, read that sentence and do it? That can be dangerous!
Wanting to be inspired and live out her faith biblically a young Christian determined to open her bible and do whatever it said. She opened her Bible, put down her finger and read from Matthew 27:5, “Then Judas went out and hung himself.”
Not quite happy with that result, she decided to try again, so she closed her Bible, let it fall open, put her finger down and read Luke 10:37, “You, go and do likewise.”
Well, now this was not the inspiration she was looking for, she decided to try one more time. She closed her Bible, let it fall open, put her finger down and read, John 13:27, “What you are about to do, do quickly.”
I think we can all see each one of these verses is taken completely out of context. Which, unfortunately, is true for a lot of verses people hold on to for inspiration. Whenever we choose a verse for inspiration, we must allow it to speak from it’s context.
Once I was asked, “How do you choose your texts for your sermons?” I can honestly say the process is much different now than when I was first asked to share anything from the Bible. My first “preaching” engagement was on a bus touring through the area around Washington D.C. with a group of Boy Scouts. I was 16, and I had been a Christian for almost 2 weeks when our Scoutmaster asked if I would put together a Sunday service for our troop that morning.
I had never given a message before from the Bible and didn’t know where to begin, but in the zeal of this new found faith I was eager to try. I had just bought a new Bible and it had a “Cyclopedic Index” - that gave you a virtual treasure trove of scripture references on a variety of topics. I chose a topic that sounded good to me, and that led me to the texts. Which I then created a short message from.
Today, I recognize how serious it is to teach from God’s Word. With the great privilege comes great responsibility. I can tell you that there is a whole lot more prayer involved than when I was 16. I also have the privilege of being able to preach over several weeks rather than a one-and-done format. James would affirm my caution in the handling of God’s Word.
James takes it even further than that. James often in this chapter is using examples of the bit and the rudder - small items that control something large. He often refers to the larger part as the “body”. The church is often referred to as the church “body” or “body of Christ.”
There are two levels on which James is speaking in our passage this morning. One the one hand - the personal level. On the other hand, the corporate or church body level.
Our reading begins
Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.
James recognizes the profound responsibility of those who teach, while at the same time recognizing the judgment he too will face. The words spoken indeed have the ability to turn the body (the church) one way or the other. James speaks of the power of a tongue - the words that come from our mouth they have the ability to inspire, to raise up, to encourage, and they have the ability to wound, tear down, and destroy.
The bit in a horses mouth allows us to control the horse, a rudder on a ship allows us to choose our direction. Yet the tongue… such a small member of the body…yet words rightly spoken are like apples of gold in a setting of silver, says the proverb.
We also, each of us knows the pain of words wrongly spoken: rumors, lies, angry words, deceptive words… they hurt, and they lead to destruction.
James reminds us that with our tongue we “bless our Lord and Father, and we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.”’
With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.
Isn’t that crazy? On the one hand we can be praise God and in the next breath cursing people made in the image of our God.
Jesus said,
it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”
The words we use not only impact our hearers, but they are also a reflection of the one speaking. Jesus understood that actions and speech reveal our character.
A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.
Back to our seeking to tame our tongue:
With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.
In the next verse we read:
From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.
This should not be so.
The passage is speaking specifically to teachers, but it is applicable to all of us. How well are you able to control your tongue? How do you talk about others? Others you know? Others you don’t know?
Are your words building others up or tearing them down? Do they honor God or demean God’s character? As James says in vs. 8, “no human being can tame the tongue.” Chances are it’s both. I know it is for me. It ought not to be so, but this reminds me once again of my need for a savior. I cry out with Isaiah, “Wo is me, I’m a man of unclean lips!”
Throughout James we have seen that we fall short, we stumble in many ways, and we can take that and feel bad about ourselves and that’s an end in itself. OR we can recognize that we’re not Holy, we’re not pure, we’re not what we were created to be, we simply can’t do all the good God would have us do and we need a savior.
What this passage should remind us all of is to remember that everyone (even the best teachers) stumble in what they say. So extend them grace as we would hope others would extend to us. For me as a preacher and teacher it is also a reminder of how ill-chosen words, or erroneous teaching can hurt the church body. So it’s a reminder for me as a teacher and preacher to seek to be faithful to God’s Word.
For you as a listener to God’s Word, I would hope that it would be a reminder to be like the Bereans. Paul spoke of the Bereans in Acts 17:11
Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.
I’ve shared with you in the past weeks about how so many today believe that they can earn their way to heaven. If they can just be good enough, give enough, attend church enough, … then God will allow them in. This heresy has haunted the church since its birth. It’s not about what we do, it’s not about the Law, it’s about what God has done.
Paul summed it up so well when he wrote:
I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.
All your hard work to get God to love you is like trying to earn an invitation to a party you’ve already been invited to; all that’s required is a simple RSVP.
We had a great discussion this past Thursday in the Mid-Week Bible study led by Lance. It’s not that works are not important in our faith, they are.
They are not the way by which we enter into a relationship with God, they are the result of that relationship. They are not the currency of a transaction with God, they are to be the fruits of our relationship with our Creator God.
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
God’s Word to us today.
Thanks be to God.
Let’s Pray
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