The Wisdom of the Cross: Folly to the World and Hope for Every Trial

Prayer

God, we thank you for your generous goodness. We pray that just as you gave all of yourself for us we would give all of ourselves to you. Thank you for allowing us this opportunity to gather together tonight. We’re thankful for the men and women you have used to help secure this civic freedom for us and we pray for those who are unable to gather because of religious persecution. Would you bless their attempts to meet and hear from your Word. Help us understand and apply the truth from your servant James that we’re reflecting on tonight. Thank you for your Son who was also called the Word and the Truth. It’s is only through him that we can have life and have it abundantly. We pray all of this in his name by the power of His Spirit, amen.

Group Question 1:

Highs and Lows and what you are doing for 4th of July.

Intro

Last week we kicked off our series going verse by verse through the book of James. This week we’ll be continuing on in that series by looking at James 1:5-12.

So if you have your bibles, turn or tap with me to James chapter 1, James chapter 1. While you turn there, let me give you a brief recap of what we talked about last week.

Last week we spent time reflecting primarily on James 1:2-4 which says

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” – James 1:2-4

We defined trials as either trials or temptations that could range from something as small as a chipped nail or flat tire, to a cancer diagnosis, job loss, or more.

Then we talked about how we can count it all joy in trials because trials help us grow in our faith so that we might be more satisfied in God and equipped for every new trial until the day that trials are no more.

With that recap in place, let’s look at our passage for tonight. We’ll start in verses 5.

James 1:5-12

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits. 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.”

As we look at this passage tonight, I think we can break it into two parts.

Part one is verses 5-8 and verse 12. This is where James picks up on principles we talked about last week and relates them to wisdom.

Part two is verses 9-11 where James gives a test case for applying all he has talked about up to this point.

Those two parts will serve as our outline for tonight. How wisdom relates to trials and then apply that wisdom to a test case in part two. We’ll spend most of our time on part one and then finish with a look at part 2.

Let’s dive into part one.

James 1:5-8,12

I’m going to read 5-8 and verse 12 again and then we’ll break it down.

Read

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. (And then verse 12) 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.” – James 1:5-8,12

Lacks

One thing we can immediately see in this passage is the way James connects it to our passage from last week. In verse 4, James explicitly says that through trials our faith is grown so that it will ultimately be quote “perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

Then in verse 5 James picks up on this language of lacking by saying, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”

The point is this: we need wisdom to count it all joy in trials and since our faith is not yet perfect and complete we lack wisdom and therefore need to ask God for wisdom.

Trials provide us incredible opportunities to grow in both faith in wisdom. This makes perfect sense. We often learn on a need-to-know basis. You can hear something at a time when it doesn’t seem relevant to you and you often forget it. But the moment you need know the answer you remember the information far better. It’s like in math class when you space off and tune out during a teacher’s lecture but the night before the test you’re cramming the very same lessons hard because the information seems ultra-relevant then. Trials provide opportunities for us to trust in the wisdom of God that just learning about things intellectually without experiences doesn’t allow us to do. Sometimes, the only way we can learn a lesson is by experiencing the lesson itself.

In trials, we are forced to rely on God’s wisdom rather than our own and James encourages us to ask God for wisdom.

Group Question 2:

When was the last time you asked God for wisdom? What trials are going on in your life that you need wisdom for?

So we’ve seen that James encourages us to ask God for wisdom in trials so that we can count trials all joy. In his encouragement to ask for wisdom, James gives us a couple reasons why in verse 5.

Reason #1: God gives generously

God loves to give good gifts. He loves to give His children good gifts and He loves it when His children ask for good things. Wisdom to endure trials so that we might have more joy in God is a great and necessary thing to ask for. Therefore, God loves to give us wisdom in trials.

One of the reasons God loves to give wisdom and one of the reasons we should not feel bad for asking for wisdom is because God will never run out of wisdom. God’s supply of wisdom is boundless and inexhaustible. He will always have more wisdom to give us not matter how many times we should ask. He is not rationing His wisdom when we ask Him for it. He is not begrudging when we ask Him for wisdom. He loves to give us good gifts like wisdom.

Paul reminds us of God’s never-ending and gracious generosity in Romans 8:32 when he says:

“He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”

Reason #2: God Gives Us His Wisdom Without Reproach

This means that God is not making us feel guilty about asking Him for the wisdom we need. When we go to Him for wisdom, He’s not saying, “What did you do with the wisdom last time?” He won’t guilt trip you for asking.

We can go to Him and ask for wisdom without fear because we know He loves to generously give wisdom and will do so without reproach.

Explain Doubt

Now what do we make what this section about doubt?

On first read it can seem as if James is saying that if we ever have any doubt ever then our requests are unheard and unheeded by God. That’s a scary and disheartening thought. But that’s not what James is saying.

James is saying that if the consistent posture of our faith is to doubt God and trust the world for wisdom instead of Him, then we’re in trouble. Put another way, James is not calling for absolute perfection but rather a consistent posture of trust in God. One way I know this is that Paul points to this very same reading. In Romans 4:20, Paul says that Abraham did not waver through unbelief with the promise of God. Of course Paul knew that Abraham doubted God at least once because we see a clear example of that doubt in Genesis 17 when God promises to give Abraham many children and Abraham laughs. But Abraham was faithful and trusting over the long haul in his walk with God. Similarly, James is not saying that we cannot have any shred of doubt at all. Instead, he means to say that we need to have a basic consistent and integrity in our trust to God over the whole course of our faith journey. If we constantly go back and forth between serious doubt and faith then it’s hard to call our faith deep and lasting. The doubting man instead shifts between desiring the wisdom of God and the wisdom of the world. So James is calling for us to have a consistent trust in God and we’ll be beckoned to do that the more we ask God to give us wisdom in trials and we watch Him come through.

How God gives wisdom

So we’ve talked about why we need to ask God for wisdom in trials and why we shouldn’t be afraid to do so. Now the question before us is this: how does God us wisdom. There are a lot of answers to this question, but here are the most primary we can say.

God gives us wisdom through…

His Word

Wise Friends and Mentors

Good books

Sermons

Worship that points us back to God and reminds us of His truths

Life experiences where God teaches us

And more

All of these things point us to God and His truth so that we can be given help to count it all joy in trials.

Group Question 3:

What godly wisdom have you received lately? Where did you receive it from?

Wisdom of the Cross

We’ve talked a lot about why we should ask God for wisdom and how God gives us wisdom, but now we need to think about what the true essence of God’s wisdom is. What is true wisdom?

The Bible speaks a lot about wisdom within its pages, but one of the clearest discussion of wisdom comes in 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 which says this:

“For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”

Explanation of the Wisdom of the Cross

So what is the wisdom of the cross?

The wisdom of the cross is a sacrificial wisdom. Jesus gave up all He had for the glory of God and our salvation.

The wisdom of the cross says what Merle said to us this past weekend: true wisdom calls for us to give all of ourselves to God. Just as Jesus gave all of Himself for God and for us.

The wisdom of the cross is counter-intuitive and folly to the world around us. Paul explicitly says this in the passage. This means that we should not expect our secular culture to understand the claims of our faith or the wisdom of the cross. It also means that if the wisdom we espouse sound essentially the same as the wisdom of the world, the wisdom of a political party, the wisdom of a cultural movement, and is never corrected by Scripture then we’re not actually receiving the wisdom of the cross. The wisdom of the cross challenges some element of every culture and generation and nation that has ever existed and will ever exist. Another element of this discussion of how the wisdom of the cross is folly to the world is this: We would not expect that the path to power and life is to give up our power and life yet that’s exactly what Jesus did. Philippians 2:5-11 describes this counter-intuitive path to life and power like this:

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

The wisdom of the cross is hope-filled. No matter what comes, we can have hope if we put our trust in Jesus. If God can take the greatest trial in history, the unjust killing of the Son of God, and turn it for the greatest good the universe has ever seen then He can take any trial we experience and turn it for our good and His glory. That should give us hope.

We have to remember that our secular world has no ultimate hope in trials. They have no hope filled wisdom by their own standards. There have no true foundation to stand on when the waves of life come crashing down. Hopelessness is real for non-Christians but it’s impossible for us that are Christians.

Suicide Hope Story

Last week I was the pastor on call for PV. That means that when someone calls the church in need, I was the guy they spoke to. The needs we get called about are many, ranging from people asking for prayer, to food, for someone to talk to, and more.

Early last week, I spoke with a non-Christian young woman who was contemplating suicide. We talked for multiple hours as I helped calm her down, show her that she was surrounded by people that loved her, and helped her take the necessary steps she needed to so she could get vital treatment. I’ve been checking in on her since and she is in treatment and is doing much better.

During that conversation, she spoke at length of how hopeless she was and how meaningless life seemed. She couldn’t any good reason why she could or should endure the trials in life she was facing. It was in the midst of those comments that I was able to share the Gospel with her and show her the hope-filled wisdom of the cross; a wisdom that gives us the hope to endure anything. After I explained that she paused and then said that because of her views about the world she didn’t have that hope. She recognized that without the wisdom and sacrifice of the cross, she couldn’t have ultimate hope. She realized that there was no guarantee that trials would end for her in her worldview. And I believe she’s been mulling over all of that ever since. My prayer is that after our positive conversation that I’ll have the chance to share the Gospel with her again soon when she gets out of treatment.

Without the wisdom of the cross, we have no foundation to endure trials. With the wisdom of the cross we have every reason and hope to endure trials.

James 1:9-11

Now that we’ve talked about why we need God’s wisdom to endure trials and we’ve seen what His wisdom is, we can turn briefly to part two of our discussion. We’ll look at how James applies all of this to a trial his audience is facing. Look with me at James 1:9-11.

“Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.” - James 1:9-11

Test case: Poor and Rich are Both Trials

Remember that James is writing to a primarily impoverished audience but there are also a few wealthy people he is writing to as well as we’ll see later on in the book. So James is talking to two Christians in two different trials: the trial of poverty and the trial of wealth.

Poor

Let’s look first at how James applies the wisdom of the cross to the poor Christian.

Even though the poor Christian is looked down upon by the world around him, James says that the poor Christian should be comforted. The poor Christian can be comforted because he knows that he will be exalted with Jesus in the last day. Because of what Jesus secured at the cross, not only will the poor Christian have all of the riches in the universe and more in glory because Jesus owns all things, he will also rule and reign with Jesus even over the angels. The wisdom of the cross gives the poor Christian great comfort in the trial of poverty and beckons them to rely on God and His wisdom more.

1 Corinthians 1:26-31, the passage directly after the one we read earlier about the wisdom of the cross says this:

“For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

The Apostle Paul is telling his people the same thing James told his audience. They can count it all joy in the trial of poverty because of the wisdom and hope of the cross.

Rich

Now how does this all apply to the rich Christian? James takes a different approach here in applying the wisdom of the cross.

Rather than encouraging people who are already exalted because of their monetary wealth to be exalted even more and potentially fall into pride, James tells the wealthy Christians to humble themselves.

Wealth and material goods in this life don’t last. They’re fleeting. The rich can take comfort in their humbled status for associating with Jesus, the suffering and rejected servant, whose reign will never fade.

The rich are tempted to think they are self-sustaining and it is easy for them to believe they don't need God which causes them to stray from God whereas in poverty and pain we are often drawn to more clearly trust God more.

This is why Jesus can say in Matthew 19:24 that "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!”

The rich should rely on God, rather than themselves for wisdom and sustenance so they may inherit the Kingdom which will never fade.

Similarly, the wisdom of the cross also encourages the rich to be sacrificial with their wealth. It encourages them to help and serve those in need. Just as Jesus gave up His glory in Heaven to take on flesh and live a poor life to serve those around him for God’s glory, so the rich can use the power they have to serve those around them for God’s glory.

The wisdom of the cross applies to every trial and James applies it to very real trials in the context of his people. What might the wisdom of the cross have to say for the trials in our context?

Let me mention trials at two levels within our context.

National example

First, let’s look at a trial on the national level. It’s obvious and evident that we are facing a number of trials in our nation between a pandemic, political tribalization, racial unrest, and more. Everything has become polarized and politicized in our day.

So what might the wisdom of the cross have to say to this? For one, it tells us that only God can and will bring ultimate healing to our world. One of the reasons we are watching such rage in our nation is because millions of people are putting their deepest trust in politicians, cultural activists, judges, and others to bring true healing in our day and it’s not working. And the wisdom of the cross tells us that it will never fully work. It may help, but the forces of our world cannot bring true healing to our land.

What’s worse, both political sides have turned into their own religions. We are watching multiple civil religions clash violently. And this talk of civil religions isn’t an exaggeration. Every major political or cultural movement clashing right now has all of the qualifications to be their own religion. They have creeds or particular beliefs that must be accepted to be part of the group. They have heresies or particular beliefs or ways of speech that when uttered immediately get people excommunicated, or mobbed and cancelled if we could put it another way. All sides have worship ceremonies where people cry out and sometimes sing their beliefs whether in rallies or other gatherings. And this isn’t to say that everything said on in either civil religion is wrong, but it’s clearly not enough. Only the wisdom of the cross. And only the wisdom of the cross offers true forgiveness. If you sin, or say something considered heretical by any of the civil religions, there is not forgiveness. You are out and mobbed.

We can even see Christian on multiple sides of debates who are vastly more outspoken and passionate about current events than their faith because in fact, they are more drawn to put their trust in judges, leaders, politicians, and activists than they are the God of the universe. They don't really trust the Lord or the wisdom of the cross. Instead, they worship cultural movements and political leaders. They unknowingly reject their true Savior and put their deepest trust in saviors that come in the form of laws that will be changed and elected officials that will either run out of their term, retire, or eventually die. Either way, their true Saviors that they put their deepest trust in are not incorruptible and eternal like ours is. Professing Christians on both sides of the political aisle even contradict basic principles of their faith in their civil religions because they are more committed to the civil religion of a particular political party or cultural movement than they are their Christian faith. Loving their neighbor is thrown out the door and replaced with venomous language and hatred in God-belittling and dishonoring rhetoric to those that disagree with them. They have rejected the wisdom of the cross and exchanged it for the wisdom of the world. And while that exchange may feel wise right now, it will look utterly foolish in the scope of eternity.

None of this is to say we shouldn’t vote or be involved in politics. On the contrary, we Christians should certainly be active politically, but we should do so trusting in the wisdom of the cross. Not putting all of our hope in politicians and cultural activists.

Personal Example: Hurt and Comfort

Now that we’ve looked at a national example in our context, let’s briefly see how the wisdom of the cross applies to two examples on the ground in our day that are parallel to examples James uses. Let’s look at how the wisdom of the cross applies to those of us who are experiencing the trial of hurt right now as well as those who are experiencing the trial of comfort.

Hurt

Some of you are hurting deeply right now because of sickness in your family, or jobless, or cancer diagnoses, or other trials. It can be easy to look at the world and have despair. But the wisdom of the cross reminds us that pain is not forever, that God provides for us, and that God loves and cares for the brokenhearted.

The wisdom of the cross reminds us that we can have hope and that the hurt we feel is not God pushing you away, but rather pulling you in. He is inviting you to deeper intimacy and joy with Him.

Our truest circumstances call for hope because God can took the worst hurt in the world at the cross and turned it for infinite good and He can and will do the same for us in our hurt.

Comfort

For others of us, we’re not experiencing deep hurt in this time. In fact, for some of us, life is really comfortable. Maybe we have the summer off of school or we’re living comfortably on unemployment with all of the time in the world. You’re able to sleep in and do whatever you want. Enjoy that blessing! But know that this can be a trial too. In comfortable times like that, leaning on God feels less urgent because you feel pretty self-sustaining. We must lean in more to Him lest we think we can sustain ourselves.

The wisdom of the cross applies to you as well. It tells us that all of our earthly comfort is fleeting. All of our material goods are transient and temporary (like a money bag with a hole in it). It also tells us that this comfort is not enough to truly satisfy us.

The wisdom of the cross beckons you to ask yourself to ask yourself what you will do with the great deal of time you have. Will you serve? Will you take next steps in your faith? Will you foster meaningful relationships? The wisdom of the cross calls for you to be sacrificial and generous with our time and resources just like Jesus was. Comfort those who are hurting. Your comfort is not meant to be a license for self-serving but an opportunity to specially serve the Lord and others. This doesn’t mean that we can never relax, but it does mean that it’s not actually helpful to do nothing.

For some of you this temptation, or already reality of functionally living without God because of comfort should be a wakeup call for you that maybe you weren't really walking with God before as you should have; that maybe your relationship with God was only every live and vivacious when there was tragedy in your life where you were forced to rely on God, which tells you that you only ever wanted God for the comfort He could give you; you didn't want God for Himself. That's not real Christianity. You need the wisdom of the cross to turn to God and love Him for who He is.

The wisdom of the cross says that you could use this great comfort and freedom to grow your relationship with the Lord, to put in place spiritual disciplines that will help you endure future trials, and to comfort those around you who are hurting.

Group Question 4:

How might you apply the wisdom of the cross to the trials you are facing now or have faced in the recent past?

Conclusion

The wisdom of the cross gives us hope for every trial so that we can count each trial as a joy until the day that trials are no more. And James encourages us to ask God often for His wisdom, the wisdom of the cross, so that we can endure trials which will go our faith and joy in Him.

Let’s pray.

Prayer