000 ST_Sermon - Enduring Trials Brings Spiritual Maturity (ES 23 Feb 2014)

Sermon - Enduring Trials Brings Spiritual Maturity

I think it is safe to say that most people do not like to take tests. Growing up we all took tests in school. In our teenage years, we all had anxiety when we took our drivers test the first time to get our driver’s license. Even as adults, we may have to take tests in our occupation to obtain a certification or get a promotion. For the most part, if we study enough, we will probably do well and pass.

The Bible talks about tests also, but they are a different kind of test or trial. These are tests or trials that include the many kinds of suffering and affliction that Christians undergo in this fallen world: such as sickness, loneliness, bereavement, disappointments and maybe because of their testimony to Christ. In John 16:33 Jesus said we will have trouble in this world and we do. But the Bible doesn’t leave us without hope. The Bible explains the purpose of these trials and tests in our life and how God uses them in our lives.

If you would, please turn in your bibles to the book of James, chapter 1. The epistle of James as the title indicates was written by James. James was the half-brother of Jesus. He was an early leader of the Church in Jerusalem. We read about him in Acts 15 as he leads the council at Jerusalem to determine how Gentile believers should be accepted into the church (with or without circumcision). Most evangelical commentators think James wrote this epistle in mid 40s AD, or about ten –fifteen years after the resurrection of Jesus. It may have been the first New Testament book written. According to commentator Doug Moo, the epistle of James in one of the three most popular books in the NT. Three factors that make this book so popular with believers are:

First, James is extremely practical; and believers looking for specific guidance in the Christian life naturally appreciate such an emphasis. Typical of the letter is 1:22, one of the the most famous commands in the NT: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says”. James is filled with similar clear and direct commands.

A second factor making James so attractive to believers is his conciseness. He rarely develops the points he makes at any length, being content to make his point and to move quickly on.

Third, James’s use of metaphors and illustrations makes his teaching easy to understand and to remember.

Personally James has always been one of my favorites and I memorized it shortly after becoming a Christian forty years ago

So starting with verse 1 and reading through verse 4. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings. 2 Count it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Prayer: Dear Father, as we prepare to examine this scripture on testing and trials this evening, we pray you would open our hearts to receive the word that you have for us. Give us eyes to see how much you love us. Help us to know you better and how to live our lives for you. In Jesus name, Amen

In the first verse, we see in the greeting that James is writing to the twelve tribes in the dispersion. Who are these people? This dispersion or also referred to the “diaspora” is commonly referred to the Jews scattered throughout the Roman Empire, descendants of their Jewish ancestors who had lived under the Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian and Greek empires. These ancestors had lived Israel but were spread abroad during Assyrian conquest of the 10 tribes in the Israel’s northern kingdom around 722 BC and Babylonian captivity of Judah (the southern kingdom in 586 BC). More specifically James is writing to the descendants of those Jewish people who had become Christians.

In the second verse, James is encouraging his recipients to bear trials with a cheerful mind. The Greek word used here for trial is πειρασμός. It has a couple of meanings. First, it can mean an attempt to learn the nature or character of something such as in a trial or a test. That is how it used here “when you meet trials of various kinds” Another example of this type usage is found 1 Peter 1:6. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials.

Another meaning for πειρασμός is an attempt to make one do something wrong, temptation, enticement to sin. An example of this is in: 1 Timothy 6:9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.

The desire to be rich leads one to fall into temptation.

In what we have just read, James is encouraging these Christians in regard to the trials they were facing. So what trials were these people enduring? If we were to take time to read the whole epistle we would find that poverty must certainly have been prominent among them. James’s letter is filled with references to poverty and wealth (1:9–11; 2:1–7; 2:15–17; 4:13–5:11), and he makes clear that at least the majority of his readers are poor. We’ll take a look at James 2:1-7. My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. 2 For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, 3 and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, "You sit here in a good place," while you say to the poor man, "You stand over there," or, "Sit down at my feet," 4 have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? 5 Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? 7 Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?

James 2:6–7 makes it evident that religious persecution was one of the causes of the poverty the believers were experiencing. Rich people, who were “slandering” the name of Christ, were “exploiting” the Christians and “dragging them into court.” See also 5:1–6, where James accuses rich people of “killing” the righteous by withholding wages from them. We can imagine a situation in which wealthy Jews found the commitment of the original readers’ to Jesus as Messiah perverse and therefore harassed them in various ways. So the trials could include poverty and religious persecution. But by stressing that the trials were “of many kinds,” James deliberately casts his net widely, including the many kinds of suffering that Christians undergo in this fallen world: sickness, loneliness, bereavement, and disappointment.

James bid his readers to rejoice when these trials come upon them, and not to let the trials rob them of their joy. The situation in our text with Jewish Christians isn’t much different to us Christians in our present world. We all experience trials in our life, some which can very devastating and generally produce grief and sorrow. But according to God’s word, these trials, by help of the Holy Spirit, should not prevent us from rising above our sorrow and grief, and to be able to rejoice in trials when they come..

In verse 3, “for you know the testing of your faith produces steadfastness”. The Greek word for testing is δοκίμιον (do kee me on). It is a rare Greek word found only once in NT and only found twice in the Septuagint. The Septuagint is a Greek translation of the Hebrew OT. Around 300BC, Koine Greek was the primary language spoken and fewer of the Jews understood Hebrew. So in Alexandria, Egypt a group of rabbis translated the Hebrew OT into Greek. This helps us in word studies to understand the meaning of Hebrew and Greek words. This word do kee me on means the process or means of determining the genuineness of something. In the notes, you will see: “Psalm 12:6 The words of the LORD are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times. And Proverbs 27:21 The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and a man is tested by his praise.

These two OT occurrences both denote the process of refining silver or gold, which is the way James uses the word. The difficulties of life are intended by God to refine our faith: heating it in the crucible of suffering so that impurities might be refined away and so that it might become pure and valuable before the Lord. The “testing of faith” here, then, is not intended to determine whether a person has faith or not; it is intended to purify faith that already exists.

As we move to verse 4, we see that we are to “let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may become perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”

The word steadfastness (or endurance) denotes the spiritual fortitude that bears up and is made even stronger by suffering. It suggests the stick-to-itiveness” which is required if the word of God is to produce fruit in us. A picture of this is of a person successfully carrying a heavy load for a long time. It reminds me of the “The World’s Strongest Man Competition” they show on ESPN. Where they have a man carry an extremely heavy load over a long distance. And when he man that carries the load over the finish line he is usually exuberant with a big smile on his face while those that can’t make have a look of frustration and bewilderment.

I used to think different about trials than I do now. I thought there was category for suffering caused directly by the believer’s profession of Christ, and another category for everything else, (that is all the grief and sorrow that happens in life). But as I have studied and thought about it, for a Christian in reality all sufferings are on the behalf of Christ. This is so because the evil the Christian experiences with trials reflects the conflict between “this age” dominated by Satan, and the “age to come” to which we have been transferred by faith. All suffering betrays the presence of the enemy and involves attacks on our relationship with Christ. If trials raise doubt in God’s goodness and promise, or bitterness toward others, or despair these sufferings can bring spiritual defeat to the believer. But if trials are met with the mind of Christ, these trials will produce steadfastness.

There are two other passages in the NT that convey this same truth.

Romans 5:1-5 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

We see here that the people of God rejoice not only in future glory but in present trials and sufferings, not because trials are pleasant but because they produce a step-by-step transformation (suffering " endurance " character " hope) that makes believers more like Christ.

The other passage is found 1 Peter 1:3-7 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith-- more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire-- may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Here we find these sufferings are God's will for his people, so that their faith might be purified and shown to be genuine. Such faith has a great reward, for at the revelation (that is, the return) of Jesus Christ, honor and praise will belong both to Christians and to Christ.

We have an example of how this is applied in the life of Paul. If you would turn to 2 Cor 1:8-10

2 Corinthians 1:8 For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. 10 He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.

Paul was driven to the point where he could only trust God and not himself. Calvin wrote in his commentary that Paul was no different from other human beings in being tempted to place his confidence on his own powers rather than on God. The roots of human pride grow deep, and they are not easily dislodged. And Calvin reflected that “we are not brought to real submission until we have been laid low by the crushing hand of God.” We frequently need a good dose of helplessness when we are reduced to extremities and stripped of all false self-confidence before we learn humility and open ourselves up to God’s power. Deep certainty of death for Paul led to a deeper trust in God

I think most of us would like to live our life trouble free, but it is only through trials and afflictions that we can learn how to trust God. The goal of the Christian life is found in Romans 8:29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. This means believers are conformed to the image of his Son in holiness and suffering in this life, in glory in the life to come.

And finally in James 1:12, God gives a promise to those who endure: Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.

This passage begins with a beatitude or a blessing for obedience. Endurance will show people as “having passed the test”. Those who remained steadfast will receive the crown of life. We see the firm promise of God to his followers, we don’t strive in futility with a vain, blind hope but instead endure purposely with the goal of everlasting life with God in sight.

So dear ones, what should our response be to God’s word. For the Christian, we know that God loves us and we are under sovereign hand. We know that we can trust God for the things that come into our lives, even sorrow and grief. That through them he is giving endurance that will sanctify and conform us into the image of his son Jesus. We don’t need to fear, but to trust God.

Now for the ones who does not believe in God. Now is the day of salvation. I plead with you not to wait any longer. Turn your hearts to Jesus.