Sermon Tone Analysis

James 1:9-11

Brothers and Sisters.

Most of us are neither the one nor the other but can learn from the both.

We will start, as our text starts, by looking at the poor man.

“Though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich” (2 Cor 8:9).

Our helpless poverty is an evil from which he comes to rescue us; his deliberately chosen poverty is the glorious means by which he does so.

*1.

The exaltation of the poor*

 

"Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted."

Here we have another remarkable statement.

Now let the lowly brother boast in his high position.

It is the paradox of faith that the lowly can boast in his high position.

Who are the lowly that James is talking about?

The word used here could be translated as lowly, poor, or one in humble circumstance.

We remember from verse one James is writing to the twelve tribes who were scattered.

These were people who were victims of persecution and deprivation of many different kinds.

These were people who were refugees.

Oh once before /perhaps/ they had had great wealth, back in the old country of Israel, they had land, position and status in their communities.

They were known, known by the families and clans they belonged to.

But now who were they?

They had lost their identity.

People would walk by them without giving them a second glance.

They were forgotten.

Nameless.

People who really didn't matter in the eyes of the world.

The psalms speak of people who have little significance in the eyes of the world.

*Psalm 138:6*/  Though the Lord is on high yet he regards the lowly; but the proud he knows from afar.

/ We think of those who are widowed or orphaned.

We think of Mary's song when se shays in *Luke 1:52*/  "He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble."/

In the last couple of years I have had opportunity to spend time in a large refugee camp in Kenya called Kakuma.

People who spend their lives living away from home, living away from family, not know if their family is alive or dead, running from their village in a middle of persecution or war, never returning to their farms and homes.

People who in many ways struggle with who they are as a people and their purpose.

They don't have jobs, they simply wait and wait for years on end.

Those camps are the waiting room of the world.

Youth and young men and men living in the fruitful time of their life yet with no work even with education - withering away.

Seeking purpose for life but often sinking into despair at the challenge before them of rising above an overwhelming situation.

Poverty is humiliating.

It can rob us of being fruitful and productive.

It can rob us of our dignity and sense of worth.

Its pressures are a trial on their own.

We may wonder if we have been forsaken by God.

We can be filled with shame.

I think of healthy Christian men who came to me in poverty and also shame begging to have my shirt, not being able to physically provide for themselves.

To such lowly struggling people James writes, telling them to glory in their high position.

Saying such a thing would almost seem like a cruel joke, or a slap in the face.

This however is not his intention.

*The intention of the word of God here is to have us all look beyond our worldly situation and have us take pride in our high position.*

This sounds an awfully like the old teaching of the prophet *Jeremiah in chapter 9:23-24  23* /This is what the Lord says: /

/“Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom /

/or the strong man boast of his strength /

/or the rich man boast of his riches, /

/24        but let him who boasts boast about this: /

/that he understands and knows me, /

/that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, /

/justice and righteousness on earth, /

/for in these I delight,” /

/declares the Lord.

/

/ /

It is also striking and very significant in this passage that James calls these lowly, or poor people "/brothers/".

James points these people to their identity in Christ.

This poor, destitute people are part of God's family.

When they feel poor, insignificant, having lost their sense of dignity, or ability - we think of how Christ esteems us and how God the Father esteems us/.

“Now if we are children, then we are heirs-heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ” /

/ /

(*Romans 8:17*a).

This lowly brother is in fellowship with God, his people, and even his angels, as the writer of Moreover, as Peter says, “/But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God …/” (*1 Peter 2:9*).

If this man could but grab these stupendous realities and hang on, he would realize his height.

The low are truly high!

Let us think on the riches of Christ.

*2 Cor.

8:9 * /For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich./

/ /

/ /Remember also brothers and sisters /the currency of wealth/.

In one kingdom there is one kind of currency, in another country there is another.

In the Kingdom of King Jesus.

/ /

Let us know who were are in Christ.

When we look at one another, when we think about ourselves think about how Christ esteems us.

We are sons and daughters of God.

We have royal blood, princes and princesses of Heaven.

Do you see how faith in Christ changes the way you think about yourself?

People talk today about self esteem.

Without the gospel we truly have little reason to esteem ourselves.

Without the gospel we are nothing but people dead in sin, in rebellion against the living God, we are slaves to sin.

We can try to feel good about ourselves, we can try to make a worldly name or identity for ourselves but it is like the life of a sandcastle of the beach, the waves come and wash it away.

God would have his people find their identity, and attitude in Him - even in poverty, know who you are - you are the children of God. 

 

"Brothers" James calls these people.

Where do you find your earthly joy?  Poverty is a short lived trial, that God can use to strength our faith, as we look ahead in hope to the glorious time of exaltation.

We are to glory in the riches of Christ.

The riches of our identity, and of our hope.

We know how poverty can come upon us for many different reasons.

Injustice, war, sickness, waste or lack of disciplined living, or an economic climate that simply difficult to survive in.

In these difficult situations James calls us to keep our focus, our attitude on the riches that are ours in Christ.

                     

2 Cor 6:10 sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

God gave opportunity to provide for the relief of the poor in the OT law.

Commands not to mistreat the alien, the widow, or orphan.

Leaving the edges of the field for the poor to harvest (Lev.

19:)  The giving of alms was a duty plainly expected by their Lord (Mt 6:2-4; Lk 12:33).

Psalm 10:17/     You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, /

/18defending the fatherless and the oppressed, /

/in order that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more./

*The humiliation of the rich*

 

1.

The acknowledgement of eternal values (v.

10a)

"But the rich, in that he is made low."