James: From Unbelief to Unreserved Devotion
James 1:1
4-6-08
Intro
I want to begin this morning with a family conflict—a conflict that Jesus had with his brothers in John 7. The four brothers were named James, Joses, Jude, and Simon (Mk 6:3). Of course, they were half brothers since Joseph was not the biological father of Jesus. Jesus was supernaturally conceived by the Holy Spirit. But after His birth Joseph and Mary had four boys and some daughters that are not named. In John 6 many of Jesus’ followers had left Him. John 7:1 tells us that Jesus went back to Galilee to avoid being killed prematurely. Follow as we read, John 7:1 “After these things Jesus walked in Galilee; for He did not want to walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill Him. 2 Now the Jews’ Feast of Tabernacles was at hand. 3 His brothers therefore said to Him, "Depart from here and go into Judea, that Your disciples also may see the works that You are doing. 4 For no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world." 5 For even His brothers did not believe in Him. 6 Then Jesus said to them, "My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil. 8 You go up to this feast. I am not yet going up to this feast, for My time has not yet fully come." 9 When He had said these things to them, He remained in Galilee.” Here is Jesus going through a painful experience. And what does His family do, what do these four brothers do? They “pour salt on the wound.” They essentially say to Jesus, “If you’re the real deal, then why don’t you go down to Jerusalem and do your thing—why don’t you do some miracles and show us all that you’re the Messiah?” I have to believe that this was a hurtful experience for Jesus—essentially being mocked by his own brothers. James makes a comment in verse 5 that explains it all, “For even His brothers did not believe in Him.”
None of the brothers were there when Jesus was beaten and crucified. You remember while Jesus was on the cross how he committed the care of his mother, Mary, to his friend and disciple, John? The common practice would be to commit her to the next son in line. That would have probably been James. But James was not there and neither were the other brothers because they did not believe Jesus was the Messiah. I wonder, there on the cross as Jesus looked down on his weeping mother—I wonder if His heart was saddened by the absence of his brothers. I wonder what it was like for Jesus growing up with those four skeptics. Even as Jesus bled and died on the cross James and the three other brothers still did not believe His claims.
But we discover something very interesting 40 days later, after the ascension of Jesus. Acts 1 takes us to the upper room where the apostles were in prayer shortly before the day of Pentecost. The list of people in the upper room includes these four brothers. Acts 1:9 “These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.” Isn’t that awesome? What happened that caused these four unbelieving brothers to now be with the apostles in prayer? The answer revolves around the oldest of the four, James. The New Testament tells us what turned him around. In 1 Cor. 15:7 Paul tells us that after His resurrection Jesus appeared to James. That’s when James believed. I have to believe that was a precious moment for Jesus—bringing his younger brother into faith. And what a conversion this was—this James became one of the greatest Christian that ever lived. He is probably the one who led the other three brothers to the Lord. How many know what Paul Harvey would have called “the rest of the story”?
James, the brother of Jesus became the pastor of the church in Jerusalem. He became so devoted to Christ that he was known as James the Just. Some people said his knees were calloused like camel’s knees because he spent so much time praying. When we look at his leadership in Acts it is clear that he was the most respected leader of the whole church. In Gal. 2:9 when Paul references the pillars of the church, he lists James before Peter and John. Both Peter and Paul deferred to James. In about 48 A.D. a controversy arose in Christianity that threatened to split it down the middle. The controversy revolved around the issue of Gentiles becoming Christians. Some Judaizers took a position that a Gentile had to be circumcised, become a Jewish proselyte, and keep the law of Moses in order to be a Christian. Paul and others insisted that all they had to do was accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. So a conference of the Christian leaders was held in Jerusalem to settle the matter. The event is recorded in Acts 15. Guess who presided over the meeting? James. Guess who made the final decision as to what would be done? James. Peter submitted to James. Paul and Barnabas submitted to James. James was the most respected leader there. Isn’t it amazing how little people today know about this man?
History tells us that James was martyred at the time of the Passover in about 62 A.D. Annas, the high priest had him taken to a high place on the wing of the temple and demanded that he renounce Christ. Instead he proclaimed Jesus risen from the dead in heaven at the right hand of the Father. When he did that they threw him down off the temple. When he hit the ground they stoned him and for good measure clubbed him to death. This man, James, was one of the greatest heroes of the faith that ever lived.
In October of 2003, Andre Lemaire, a paleographer at the Sorbonne University in Paris, discovered an ossuary with the inscription “James son of Joseph, brother of Jesus” on it. An Ossuary is a small limestone box that was used in New Testament times to hold the bones of a dead person. After a person died, their body would be buried in a tomb, about a year later, the family would collect the skeleton, and put the bones in this small box. It is less than 2 feet long, just over a foot high, and less than a foot wide. The box had been in the private collection of a man in Jerusalem when someone recognized the importance of the inscription.
The inscription is in Aramaic, the language of the day in Israel, and it reads “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.” No one can be sure that this is the body of James the Just. The names Joseph, James, and Jesus were common names. But the probability of this exact combination is remote and the evidence is consistent with it being the James we’re talking about in the Bible.
Sometime before the Council in Jerusalem which was about 48 A.D. while James was pastor of the mother church there, this man wrote a letter. We have it in the New Testament as the Book of James. James’ brother Jude (who was also a brother of Jesus) wrote the Book of Jude. He was not as prominent as James.
Today we begin a study of the Book of James. I have just given you the background of it’s author. Look with me at James 1:1. The author introduces himself as “James 1:1
James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ...” I think the NIV says, “a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ...” Only James, the brother of Jesus, had prominence to introduce himself by simply using his given name James. There were a couple of other prominent men in the New Testament names James, both were apostles. One was James the son of Zebedee. He was the brother of the Apostle John. But he was beheaded by Herod Agrippa I in about 44 A.D. (Acts 12:1-2). The other apostle, James the son of Alphaeus we know little about and it is unlikely that he had the prominence to author this epistle. Most scholars agree that James the Just, the brother of Jesus is the author of this book. Knowing that, will help us understand his message.
He has no need to flaunt his credentials. He does not refer to himself in James 1:1 as James, the brother of Jesus. He does not refer to himself as James, the leader of the mother church in Jerusalem. He does not even call himself, James the Just as so many did. There is a humility about this man that we see from the beginning in his epistle. In chapter 4 he calls upon his readers to humble themselves. But he also models humility himself.
And while he does that he exalts the Lord Jesus Christ. James is recognizing the deity of Jesus in this salutation. In the same breath he links Jesus and God. He owns Him as the Christ, the Messiah. He declares his undying loyalty to the Son and the Father. Just as Jesus did not do his own will, but the will of the Father, James is saying, “I’m a servant of Christ. I am not here to assert my own will but His will. I am writing to you as His servant.”
James is writing as a Christian Jew to Christian Jews and perhaps Jews that he might persuade to become Christians. The letter is not addressed to a specific church. Like Peter’s first epistle it is addressed to Jews dispersed all over the Roman Empire.”
“To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad” – the diaspora. The dispersion of Israel into the Gentile nations is a major theme of Bible. Early in their history they were warned it would happen if they were not faithful to Jehovah. God told them He would bless and prosper them if they were obedient and faithful to Him. But He also said that if they were unfaithful He would allow the Gentile nations to plunder them and carry them away captive. And that is what happened. In 722 B.C. the Assyrians conquered the northern ten tribes and carried them away into their empire. By 581 B.C. the Babylonians had done the same thing to the southern two tribes, Judah and Benjamin. We get glimpses into all that in the lives of Daniel, Nehemiah, Ezra, and others. The Jews developed synagogues to preserve their faith at some point during their exile since Solomon’s temple was destroyed.
Now remember that James is probably writing from Jerusalem, the city of David—the place where the Spirit was poured out on the Day of Pentecost after the ascension of Christ. Remember on the Day of Pentecost how Jews from all over the Roman Empire had come to Jerusalem to worship. An the distinct miracle in Acts 2 is that when the hundred and twenty spoke in tongues, God gave them the languages of all these people from different regions. Many of them were saved and went back throughout the empire and spread the news in their synagogues. James is the pastor in Jerusalem of the mother church of all Christianity.
This is one of the most Jewish books in the New Testament. In the second chapter when he refers to their assemblies he uses the word for synagogues. He uses a number of illustrations from the Old Testament with references to Abraham, Rahab, Job, and Elijah.
In fact, this book has many characteristics of a synagogue sermon. It’s simple, direct language is more like an oral message than a written one. My personal opinion is that the messages in this book were preached by James and his secretary wrote it out for him; so it could be sent out to other congregations. There is no way to know that for sure. But the Greek that this book is written in is best in the New Testament with the possible exception of Hebrews. It doesn’t really matter whether James wrote it out or preached it and his assistant wrote it out. The important thing is that God inspired it and principles taught apply to you and me.
We will see very quickly that the people James is writing to were in hard trials. He addresses that specifically. He gives counsel on what to do about that and we will gain from that counsel.
This is one of the most practical books in the Bible. James is not trying to write a dissertation on theology. He is telling Christians how they can live in community with one another. He is telling Christians how to deal with the trials of life. He is telling these people things we need to know in our own lives.
Look with me at verse w, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials.” James doesn’t beat around the bush much, does he? I think I would be inclined to kind of lead into a statement like that. Sometimes people who are in a hard trial might react a bit to a statement like that. I know there have been times when I would have. “Count it all joy? Why I can’t see anything joyous about this mess?” How many know, it can be dangerous to talk about joy to someone who is fed up with a situation? But James is not one to beat around the bush. He speaks forthrightly and plainly.
The Greek word, adelphos, that’s translated “brethren” was often used in a generic way in the New Testament. It was a masculine word but it was used at times to refer to men and women like we use the word mankind. James was addressing his brothers and sisters in Christ.
At the end of verse 1 he uses a common greeting. But it works as an intro to his first statement. The word translated greeting is “chairein”. It literally means “be joyful.” Then he uses a companion word “chara” in the next verse translated joy. So “be joyful” then “...count it all joy when you fall into various trials.” Certainly a statement like that is going to require some explanation. That is not the natural response to problems and hardship.
And James will explain himself in this book. Next week we’re going to talk about this a lot. We’re going to talk about why we can count trials with joy. We’re going to address some specific actions we can take in conjunction with that. And we’re going to talk about how we can not just survive in hard times but tap into God as a resource to bring us through it victoriously.
Invitation/Communion
For Footnotes/Sources go to www.crossroadsnixa.org
Richard Tow
Gateway Foursquare Church
Nixa, Missouri
www.GatewayNixa.org
