Sermon Tone Analysis

NOTES:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message.

The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

This message was “team preached” with my co-pastor, Ryan Fregoso

Engagement

PAT

We live in a culture that values comfort over character.

And unfortunately, especially here in the United States, that is often true of those who are disciples of Jesus.

We have been conditioned to think that suffering is something to be avoided at all costs.

Even the remotest suggestion that there could be value in our trials is viewed as insensitive or uncaring.

But the Bible paints a completely different picture:

God’s chosen people - Israel - spent over 400 years in slavery in Egypt.

Later, the southern kingdom of Judah spent 70 years in captivity in Babylon.

God’s prophets were constantly rejected by God’s people and often suffered persecution

The early church suffered tremendous persecution and with one exception, the apostles all suffered horrible deaths at the hands of those who opposed them.

And ultimately, the foundation of the gospel is the suffering of Jesus on the cross that makes it possible for us to have our sins forgiven so that we can have a relationship with God.

So it’s not really surprising that the letter we’re going to be studying for the next twelve weeks jumps right in and addresses the topic of suffering after a very brief, one-verse opening.

Tension

Many of you are going through some kind of trial or difficulty in your life right now.

Or maybe it’s a family member or friend who is in the midst of a valley.

And if you’re not experiencing that kind of difficulty right now, based on the words of Jesus, I can pretty much promise you will be at some point in your life.

John 16:33 (ESV)

...In the world you will have tribulation...

And how you respond to that suffering will either push you away from God and make you miserable or it will draw you near to God and you will allow Him to use it to make you more like Jesus.

For the most part, you can’t control your circumstances, but you can control how you respond to them.

Truth

As I mentioned a moment ago, today we begin a twelve week series on the book of James.

This is one of my favorite books and I preached a series on it back in 2013.

At that time I spent one whole message just covering the background and authorship of the book.

But this time we’re going to jump right in to the meat of the letter, with just a brief review of the background.

RYAN

The first verse helps us identify the author, the audience and the purpose of the letter:

Author

Although there are four men named James who are identified in the New Testament, there is nearly universal agreement that the author of the book is James, the half-brother of Jesus.

Although he is mentioned only twice in the gospels, he rose to prominence in the early church in Jerusalem after the day of Pentecost.

By the time of the Jerusalem Council, almost 20 years after the resurrection of Jesus, we know from the account in Acts 15 that James was well respected as a leader of the church in Jerusalem and Paul referred to him as a “pillar” in the church in his letter to the Galatians.

In addition to the external evidence in the writings of the early church fathers that he was indeed the author, the letter itself contains a great deal of internal evidence that supports his authorship.

But in the opening of his letter, James does not appeal to his audience on the basis of the fact that he is the half-brother of Jesus.

Nor does he claim his authority as one of the leaders of the church in Jerusalem.

Instead, he calls himself “a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ”.

Audience

I don’t want to get bogged down here by going into too much detail, but the intended audience appears to be Jewish Christians who have been scattered outside Jerusalem and possibly even outside Palestine.

They had been dispersed because of the tremendous persecution they had faced in Jerusalem.

Based on the letter itself, as well as historical writings, we also know that these disciples of Jesus were mostly poor and oppressed.

Purpose

Interestingly, James’ letter doesn’t contain a lot of basic doctrine, but instead focuses on how that doctrine ought to impact the way that his audience lived their lives on a daily basis.

So it’s a great follow up to the series from Proverbs that we finished a couple weeks ago.

And that is why we’ve titled this series “Faith Works” because we’re going to focus on how our faith ought to impact the way that faith should work in our lives.

With that background in mind, let’s read the rest of our passage for this morning:

Here is the main idea we’re going to develop from this passage today:

I find joy in my trials when I embrace them as God’s instruments for good

PAT

Before we go any further, it’s important to point out the difference between joy and happiness.

While the two are certainly related, happiness is more of a feeling or emotion that depends on external circumstances.

Joy, on the other hand is more of a choice that is not dependent on those circumstances.

Probably the best way to explain the difference is by looking at this verse, which may be familiar to many of you:

Obviously Jesus was not happy about going to the cross.

But He did have joy, knowing that what He was about to do was going to provide the way for man to have a personal relationship with God.

And as we talk more this morning about how to have joy in our trials, we’re going to see that James likely developed these principles by observing how his half-brother, Jesus, chose joy in His journey to the cross.

Application

So the first thing we need to make sure we understand is that...

Experiencing joy in my trials is a matter of my mind, not my emotions

James begins this passage with a command – “count”.

That command to “count it all joy” is the main theme of this passage and the remainder of the passage then explains further how we are to do that.

That verb - count - actually has several different potential meanings.

Its primary meaning is “to consider”, but it can also mean “to lead”.

The word is actually derived from an accounting term that means “to add up all the figures and come to a conclusion.”

When we put all those ideas together, we find that James is commanding his readers, and us, to make a deliberate and careful judgment after considering all the facts, rather than making a quick decision based on emotions.

So exactly how do we do that?

Fortunately, James give us some very practical advice on...

HOW TO COUNT IT ALL JOY

Expect trials

One of the first things we notice in verse 2 is the little four letter word “when”.

It’s instructive that James chose to use that word rather than another one he could have chosen – “if”.

The implication here is clear - we shouldn’t be surprised when trials come into our lives.

We saw that earlier when Jesus told His disciples that they would face tribulation as long as they are in this world.

So when trials come, instead of asking, “Why me, Lord?” we really should be thinking, “Why not me, Lord?”

RYAN

Trust that God has my best interests at heart

This may very well be the most important thing that we can take away from this message today.

Ultimately the reason most of us don’t want to go through trials is that deep down inside we don’t really trust that God has our best interests at heart.

James addresses those doubts directly in verse 3.

He writes that we “know” that the testing our our faith is intended to produce steadfastness.

In other words, God wants to use the trials that come into our lives to help us develop steadfastness in our lives.

We’re going to talk more about what that looks like in a few minutes.

Let’s pursue this idea a bit more.

We’ll begin by looking at the word that is translated “trials” in verse 2:

“trials” =

Greek “pierasmos” =

“testing”

When we get to verse 13 next week, we’ll find that when James uses the same Greek word there, it is translated “tempted”.

That is because the word in Greek has neither a negative nor positive connotation.

So the context has to determine the proper translation.

In the passage we’re looking at this morning, the testing is being applied for the purpose of demonstrating the good in the object being tested.

Peter comments further on this idea, using this same Greek word:

The illustration that Peter uses here is very instructive.

When gold is tested by fire, it for the purpose of proving that the gold is the real thing.

According to both James and Peter, God either allows or brings trials into our lives so that we can demonstrate that our faith in Jesus is real.

He does not bring trials into our lives to bring us down or hurt us, but rather to build us up and help us see that our faith is genuine.