5. Faith that Works
Notes
Transcript
Welcome to part five of our sermons series, All Day, Everyday. An in depth look at what it means to follow Jesus well in every part of our lives. For this series we are using the New Testament book of James as our guide. James was the brother of Jesus, who after seeing and talking with Jesus post resurrection, became a devoted follower of Jesus…and a leader of the church in Jerusalem. In this letter, James is writing to Jewish people who have become Christians, helping them to live a complete Christian life.
If you have Bible or device, find James chapter two. If you are using the YouVersion Bible app, go to Events, then look for Iowa City Church. All the Scriptures and Sermon Notes will be there on your device.
If someone makes a crazy, unbelievable statement, how do you respond? When we were kids, when someone made a crazy, unbelievable statement we would say: Prove it! Did you do this? So the kid had to somehow back up what they were saying.
In today’s culture, with technology and the access to information, we can literally fact check people as we talk. With the preachers and pastors that I’m connected with, one of our reminders to each other is to always fact check what we say. So whether it’s a story or quote, we try and make sure they are legit. Because, if we make a statement or claim or have an amazing story people can literally pull out their phone while we are speaking and fact check our claims. In other words: We need to be able to back up what we claim.
If someone came up to you and asked: Are you a Christian, Muslim, Buddhist or Atheist? And you replied: I’m a Christian.
How would you prove it? How would they fact check you? Let me put it this way. If you were on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?
What do you think? Would there be enough evidence to convict you of being a Christian?
Well, let’s do a little investigation of our own…with James’ help of course. In chapter two, James is addressing people who call themselves Christians, they attend worship service. But they show favoritism. His point is that Christians treat everyone the same. In this second part of chapter two he points to people who claim to be Christians. He takes a look at what evidence needs to be collected to convict someone of being a Christian. Let’s take a look.
14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
The first thing we need to do is define faith. This has become a problem within our Christian culture. For many people, faith simple means agreement or mental ascent. For example, someone can say, “I believe in God.” You can say, “I agree with you, I believe in God too.” That is agreement. It’s belief. That is not faith. Faith in something moves us to respond and living accordingly.
Here’s a great example. I have faith in gravity. Not only do I agree that it exists, I have such so much faith in gravity that it convicts me in how I live my life; I order my entire life around gravity. I know that if I am carrying a valuable picture in my hand, that I have to be very careful because if I let go, I have complete faith that gravity will pull it to the ground. I also know that I have to be careful how I walk or run because if I lose my balance, gravity will pull me down. So my faith in gravity has led me to live in response to it. My faith in convicts me about how I am to live my life.
Faith, by definition moves a person to respond through their trust or convictions. Better words for faith would be the word faithful. Suzi and I have been married 28 years because we have been faithful. Another word is fidelity. Fidelity means, faithfulness to a person demonstrated by continuing loyalty.
Let’s try that in verse 14.
“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faithfulness but has no deeds? Can such faithfulness save them?”
Our belief in Jesus merits a measurable response. James gives another example. If you jump back to verses 2 through 4, James gave the example of a poor man and a rich man coming to worship service, and favoritism was shown to the rich man, while the poor man was ignored. He continues with that example. If that poor man came in and you only said, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed” but took no action, that is dead faithfulness.
What should happen, according to James this this: Our faithfulness to the God who showed us mercy is supposed to spur us on to show mercy to others. That is what faithfulness looks like.
What we believe to be true, is supposed to convict us to respond by taking action. That is faithfulness.
Let me give you an example. On June 30, 1859, Charles Blondin became the first man in history to walk on a tightrope across Niagara Falls from the United States into Canada.
The tightrope was suspended 160 feet on one end and 270 on the other above the raging waters of the falls. The tightrope had no safety harness or net. Some report that over 100,000 people gathered to watch him walk the 1,100 feet across the falls the first time.
The Niagara walk made Blondin famous and wealthy, and he was asked to perform for audiences worldwide. He would make 17 subsequent, more daring walks across Niagara, which drew more and more crowds.
He traversed his tightrope on stilts, riding a bicycle, blindfolded and stopping in the center to do tricks, like cooking omelets with a small stove he carried on his back. He walked across carrying people on his back. [Here are a few pictures.]
At one point he asked a man in the crowd if he thought he could carry a person in a wheelbarrow across the rope. The man excitedly said, “Yes!” When asked if he would get into the wheelbarrow, the man emphatically said, “No!”
The man's response is a great lesson between believing and having faith. While the man believed Blondin could carry someone across the falls in a wheelbarrow, he did not have the faith in Blondin to get into the wheelbarrow himself.
If we are gathering evidence of convicting you of being a Christian, we would need to look at your faithfulness to the commands of Jesus. So we would look at how you treated other people. How you served the least and the lost. How you forgave. How you showed justice. How you loved. How you were generous.
To be clear. We aren’t doing these things to be saved. James is writing to Christians. He’s writing these words to remind them about what faithfulness to Jesus looks like.
In this next section, James does exactly that. He gives three examples of faithfulness.
18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
Again, our faithfulness is measurable in how we love God and love people. As Jesus said,
Matthew 7:20 (NIV)
20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
I know if something is good or bad, productive and unproductive through the fruit that is produced. We can measure our faithfulness through the “fruit” of our lives.
James gives an interesting example. Remember, he is writing to people with a Jewish background. These people prayed the same prayer every day, called the Shema.
4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
So the argument might be made against James, “Hey look, we pray the Shema every day, we are faithful!” James counters with, sure you may believe it and pray it, but so do the demons…and they shudder.
This one might make us a bit uncomfortable. We could use as evidence for our trial on our proof that we are Christians that we attend church worship services, pray, and even read the Bible. All good things, important things but that doesn’t necessarily mean you are being faithful.
Maybe you’ve heard the saying, “Just because you put a rock in an oven, doesn’t mean it’s a biscuit.” Hitler went to church, sang in the church choir and even considered becoming a priest…and we all know how that turned out! James’ point is that one needs more evidence then simply belief or church attendance for one to be deemed faithful.
Look at his next example.
20 You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? 21 Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. 24 You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.
Abraham is an interesting case study in faithfulness. He was far from perfect in this category. There was the big moment of faithfulness when Abraham left his home country to go where God called him. There were other moments when Abraham far from being a model of virtue, and God never gave up on him. However, he is set apart by God because of his actions of faith. When called upon by God to sacrifice his only son, Abraham takes Isaac and walks all the way…even to the point of tying him up and putting him on the altar. God stops him and provides an alternative sacrifice. But the point has been made. Abraham isn’t just a big talker, his actions reveal his faith.
What’s so fascinating about Abraham is that even with all of his flaws, he’s called God’s friends because he trust God and was faithful. You maybe thinking about your own life, and all of the missteps you have had, the ways you have not been faithful. Abraham shows us that one act of faithfulness can turn our story around.
One last example from James.
25 In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
Rahab is an very unlikely example of faithfulness. As Isreal is spying out the Promise Land, it’s this Canaanite prostitute, a complete outsider, who believes God and acts. Keep in mind, her life wasn’t spared because he believed in God. She was spared because she believed and she acted.
I find Rahab’s story compelling because she is a complete outsider and I know that maybe some of you might feel the same way. There are too many horrible things you have done or you’ve rejected God in the past or you’ve just lived a life of unfaithfulness. Rahab’s story reminds us that when it comes to God, he’s always offering opportunities for people to demonstrate faithfulness.
James leaves us with a powerful image. It’s the image of a dead body. When is someone pronounced dead? Here’s the best answer: If you are in the hospital, this most likely will be at, or very close to, the time your biological processes stopped—your heart stopped beating or breathing stopped. Simply put, nothing is happening.
James makes that comparison with faith. Faith where nothing is happening is dead faith. It’s like a dead, decomposing body. Powerful image, isn’t it?
Okay, let’s go back to our original question: If you were on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?
If you are like me you are left wrestling with how best to answer this question. If your answer is no. Your next step isn’t to roll up your sleeves and do more stuff. In fact, just the opposite. Our ability to live out the convictions of our faith comes from a source.
The mercy I give flows out of the mercy I have recieved. The forgiveness I show, flows out of the forgiveness I have received. The low that I share, comes from the love that was shown. The service I give comes from the servant who died for me.
Jesus himself said that he didn’t come to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many.
That’s exactly how James sees it as well. Go back to James 1:1
1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings.
James identifies himself as a slave to God and the Lord Jesus Christ…King Jesus. Why? Because Jesus was faithful carrying out the work his father had given him. Jesus worked for me…and I will faithfully work for him.
Write this down:
The truth about who Jesus is, should convict us to live a life that demonstrates to the world everything Jesus has done for us.