James - Faith Part 1 - Connecting the Dots
Date: 3/30/08
Sermon Series: James – Faith, Wisdom and Behavior
Sermon Title: Connecting the Dots
Text: James 1:1-4
Theme: This sermon will introduce the author of the book: James Jesus’ half brother and the series. I will talk a little about faith, wisdom and behavior and talk about a faith that is tested and completed in Christ.
I. Brotherly Love
a. When I think about the relationship which my brother and I shared I think of three things, cold chisels, feed trailers, and lambing pens.
i. The cold chisel in the back seat as a toddler
ii. The feed trailer on the farm as a pre-teen
iii. The lambing pen and Beauregard as a young teen.
b. Can you imagine growing up as the brother of Jesus?
i. There would only be one thing worse then having an older brother who thought he was perfect, having an older brother who was actually perfect.
ii. Can you imagine having your Mary come and say to you: “Come on James, why you can’t you be a little bit more like Jesus?” Are you kidding me! That is just not a fair thing to have happen.
c. Scripture shows us a glimpse of this attitude in the family.
i. John 7:1-5 It is obvious that his brothers were deriding his ministry.
d. What a transition takes place in these men.
i. This must have a particularly difficult path to faith than what most people travel, they not only had to hear and believe the message they had to overcome their own jealousy and confront the fact that all of those childhood years they were not justified in believing less of Jesus.
ii. While we don’t know about all of the brothers and sister we do know that at least two of them became not only disciples but important Christian leaders and writers.
iii. What an incredible testimony to the factual nature of the events which finally broke through and transformed them from jealous sibling rivals into powerful leaders in the Church.
e. James here is not even willing to take on the title of the Lord’s brother, instead he signs his letter: Slave of God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
f. A brief word about the destination of the letter.
i. Those who have been dispersed – originally a title which signified the Jews which had been scattered across the world because of persecution James uses to refer to the Christians (he says later that was who he is writing to) who have been scattered because of the persecution they are facing. 2:1
II. Tested Faith
a. “Count it all joy my brothers when you encounter various trials”
i. As we study the book of James together I am hoping to stretch your thinking just a bit. You will find that I will refer back to the original language quite a bit as we go through this book. The reason for this is that James is full of very good grammar and language usage that we miss unless we occasionally take a foray in to the original language it was penned in. I will try not to bore you to tears and I hope that if I cover something which doesn’t make any sense that you will stop and ask me what in the world I am talking about.
ii. I said all of that in order to say this. The word which is translated count or consider here is used in its secondary sense. The first meaning for this word is lead: as in lead the way or a leader of people. James uses it here in rather an odd way. He uses a middle voice a past tense and an imperative mood.
iii. So the idea here is not that we are supposed to have some kind of weird joy that we get to go through some horrible kind of suffering but that we have to allow ourselves, as partners in the covenant of grace, to be led along the path of understanding that this is not all that there is. This pain, this suffering, this un-comfortableness is temporary.
iv. You see God knows exactly what you are going through right now, but he also know that this is a spot, a mud puddle, on the road to eternity, not the whole thing.
v. Another interesting thing is that the word James uses for trials could mean either internal or external difficulties.
1. In other words, the difficulties which we experience can come from ourselves, in the form of temptation, weakness and lack of self control, or they could come from the world that we live in where there is constant friction because we are salt and light in a flat, dark world.
III. Complete believers
a. James 1:3-4 - 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.
b. James uses another grammatical technique in this verse which isn’t available in the English translations, he utilizes what is called a paronomasia, in other words he uses the same word in two different applications in order to carry a more profound effect on the readers.
c. When He says let steadfastness have its full effect and that you may be made perfect he is using the same noun in Greek.
i. The Word is telios and it has several synonyms: it can mean: “achievement,” “fulfillment,” “execution,” “success,” it can also refer to “completion,” “perfection,” “final step,” “supreme stage,” “crown,” “goal,” “maturity,” “result,” “conclusion,” “end,”
ii. So a better translation might be something like this your steadfastness in being tested will bring about completeness and you will be completers who are perfect or better yet perfectly called.
iii. Do you get the idea? Illustration of Diet Eman and her fiancé Hane, whose suffering during World War II at the hands of the Gestapo in the concentration camps had huge kingdom significance.
