Joy In The Midst Of Trials Series

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

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 into the meat of the letter, with just a brief review of the background.

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

James 1:1 ESV

1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings.

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.