TEST: MEET JAMES

INTRO

Quick question: How many of you here are a younger sibling?

I am an oldest. Any other oldests here? I have two younger sisters. Here’s a picture of them [IMAGE01: DawnAl Muddy]. Before you wonder if this is one of those Muddy Buddy race pictures… no. This is actually how they look all the time. They are a terrible embarrassment to the family.

Actually, that’s not true. Here’s a much better picture of my two beautiful sisters [IMAGE02: DawnAl Pretty].

And me showing you the first picture is really in line with my big-brother-ness. I think Alison summed it up when we were talking this week about what it was like for her to be my younger sibling. She said that I was a great big brother, but I did like to torment them a lot. Which is completely accurate. And in keeping with my personality – if a little is good, a lot must be better right?

I used to pin Dawn down and slowly let spit ooze out of my mouth before slurping it back up… and sometimes not doing it in time.

Alison reminded me of the time I asked her to get me a glass of milk. After protesting repeatedly, she relented – only to find that the reason I asked her to get a glass of milk was so that she could discover that I had put her cat, Max, in the refrigerator. Don’t worry… Max was OK. He was only in there a few minutes.

[TRANSITION]

Jesus was an oldest. Jesus had 4 half-brothers and some sisters… although I’m pretty sure he wasn’t putting any of their cats in Mary and Joseph’s refrigerator.

Two of Jesus’ siblings wrote books of the Bible – and one of them we are going to get to know a lot better in the coming weeks as we study the book of James.

ABOUT THE BOOK

The book of James is unique.

It's not a heavy doctrinal treatise, like Romans or Hebrews. Both of those are heavy in content. They have heavy references to the Old Testament. There are a few statements that can be convoluted and hard to understand.

But James is more like a travel guide – more at home in a biker's backpack than on a theologian's bookshelf - not that it doesn't belong on a theologian's bookshelf… theologians love to study James! But it's not what we would call a deep and difficult book top understand.

James drips with practicality. Very little of it needs to be carefully explained.

It has been called: the bossiest book in the Bible:

There are 61 imperatives packed into only 108 total verses (that's one command every 1.8 verses).

James is full of pithy, short, staccato statements that make you aware of areas you may have been ignoring or rationalizing so that you can pay attention and get back on that journey toward good behavior.

Some have called it the Book of Proverbs dressed up in New Testament clothes.

It’s a book that encourages God's people to ACT like God's people. In the mind of James, Christians evidence their faith by living in certain ways and not others.

For James, a faith that does not produce real life change is a faith that is worthless.

WHEN & WHERE

James is believed to be the first New Testament book to have been written - written around 45-50 AD, around 12-15 years after Jesus died, rose, and ascended.

It was probably written in Jerusalem and passed around for – initially Jewish – Christians to read (this is a time in history when most Christians were Jewish).

James was written during the time when Paul was on his first missionary journey (when his ministry was still primarily to Jews who had come to faith in Christ).