05 03 2010 ASHINGDON
TIME TO CHANGE
No matter where you are in your walk with Christ, you did not just suddenly appear there.
No, you started as we all start;
becoming aware of a need inside your heart that you probably could not explain.
Then, you became aware of Jesus Christ,
the One known as the Saviour
and how He could save you.
And then, with more information and education, you started to know more about Him and you could start seeing that this was a different kind of journey you were on, and you liked it!
You got excited and began looking forward to the next step of your Christian walk.
And how far you go on this path depends only upon your love, trust, and obedience, to Jesus.
And you are not alone.
There was another man who was quite close to Jesus. Actually, it was one of his half brothers;
the half-brother named James.
James was not a believer in Jesus and actually joined others in scoffing at Jesus.
James went from scoffer to powerful preacher; from non-believer to totally devoted.
We are going to talk about him today,
to show that what he went through we go through; and where he ended up we can end up,
if we choose to.
Let’s take a look at what the Bible has to say about James, the brother of Jesus.
Most people know that he was an important member of the church in Jerusalem, but that’s about it.
There are only about a dozen passages that mention James,
but the picture of James these few passages reveal tell us quite a bit about him.
For one thing, he is one of the few people,
other than the apostles, who is mentioned many times in the Gospel.
There is a time when Jesus is well into His earthly ministry and He returns to Jerusalem.
Let’s begin in MATTHEW 13:54-57
‘He came to His hometown and began teaching them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished. They said, ‘Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers? Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?
‘And His sisters; are they not all with us? Where then did this man get all these things?’ And they took offense at Him. But Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is not without honour except in his hometown and in his own household.’
We learn in this passage that Jesus had at least two half sisters, as well as four half brothers:
James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas.
We also learn in this passage that at this time the people of Nazareth did not believe in Jesus, and other than his mother, neither did the rest of his family.
Lets read a little more about James in JOHN 7:2-5
Now the feast of the Jews was near. Therefore His brothers said to Him,
‘Leave here, and go into Judea, so that Your disciples also may see Your works which You are doing. ‘For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world. For not even His brothers were believing in Him.’
So far, you get the picture of James, a man who mocks his brother Jesus and who Jesus professes to be.
This is most clear in this passage out of JOHN 7, where his brothers tell him to show himself to the world as they are all going to the Feast of the Jews.
I’m sure James and his siblings grew up hearing about the angel visiting their mother and everything else about how special Jesus was.
No wonder there was some distance between them and Jesus as far as their believing all these stories.
But all that changed drastically right after Jesus was resurrected.
There was a switch from a non-believing perspective to one of great exaltation and love.
Let’s look at what Paul told us about the number of people who saw Jesus after, Jesus was raised from the dead.
1 CORINTHIANS 15:3-7
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
‘After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles;
James knows that his brother had been crucified. He knew everything else, too, like how he had made fun of his brother and how he had disbelieved Jesus.
But now - he was standing here -
seeing his brother stand before him,
What do you think went through his mind?
How do you think he felt?
How would you feel?
Right then, I imagine James was thinking about all the times he had mocked Jesus,
just to find out now that Jesus was right all along.
And looking back, we know that, sometime after Jesus visited his brother, James believed, because it gives this account in: ACTS 1:12-14
‘Then they returned to Jerusalem from the Mount called Olives, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. When they had entered the city, they went up to the upper room where they were staying.
‘They included Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James.
‘These all, men with one mind, were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.’
By the time Peter preached that first gospel sermon on the day of Pentecost,
James had already a devout believer in Jesus,
as the Christ sent to be the Messiah.
From there, we have to skip ahead a few years.
And during these few years, James had come to embrace his faith that his older brother was indeed the Son of God.
During this time, the apostle Paul was converted, and James had already become a very prominent person in the church of Jerusalem.
The Apostle Paul confirms James’ true belief in Jesus in: GALATIANS 1:18-19
‘Then three years later I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Cephas, and stayed with him fifteen days. But I did not see any other of the apostles except James, the Lord’s brother.’
Here, Paul is calling James an ‘apostle’.
An apostle is one who has been called out and separated by the Lord to lead other Christians and leaders into the pathway of Christ Jesus.
We must remember that James had become a very important person in the early church, and this is shown when the story of Peter, who was in jail was released by the angel.
Let’s quickly go over the story of why Peter was in jail in the first place.
First of all, we know that, as Christians, people will hate us.
We read about it in the Bible, and we can see the same thing happening in our nation today;
people persecuting Christians.
They mock us, confront us, and all the while they say it is because we are intolerant of them when, in truth, it is because they are intolerant of us.
King Herod arrested some Christians, and intended to persecute them.
The other James, the brother of John, was killed.
He saw this pleased the Jews, so the king had Peter arrested, intending to do the same thing to him.
People say the Bible is boring and has no excitement or suspense!
Listen to this.
Peter was put in prison and guarded by 16 guards. King Herod was going to put him on a public trial right after the Passover Celebration.
The night before this was to happen,
Peter was in his cell praying.
I am sure he wasn’t praying the type of prayer we often offer to God, you know – the prayer of
‘I want this’ and ‘I want that’.
Peter was actually communicating with God
Later, when Peter was asleep, between two soldiers and bound with two chains.
More soldiers stood guard at the entrance.
And suddenly, an angel appeared and his cell lit up with a bright light.
The angel struck peter on the side and said, ‘Quick! Get up!’ And as he said this to Peter, the chains fell of him.
The angel told him to get dressed and follow, which Peter did.
Peter didn’t understand it, because they kept running by more guards who apparently did not see him.
And when they got to the city gates, the gates opened by themselves! As they walked down the street, the angel disappeared.
At this point, Peter understood he had been rescued by God’s angel.
He immediately went to Mary’s house.
This was Mary, the mother of John, also called Mark. There were many believers gathered there.
When he knocked on the door, a servant girl named Rhoda heard Peter’s voice and got so excited she ran back to the others and told them who was knocking.
Here is how it is recorded in; ACTS 12:16-17
‘Peter continued knocking; and when they had opened the door, they saw him and were amazed. But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had led him out of the prison.
‘And he said, ‘Report these things to James and the brethren.’ Then he left and went to another place.’
In a large part, because of James, the brother of Jesus, the early church grew in strength and numbers.
This caused more and more people to become aware of the saving grace of Jesus Christ as their Saviour.
And because of the strength of the early church, the church has lasted thousands of years, and has grown around the globe; always reaching more people for Jesus.
And so, James was in high authority in the early church in Jerusalem.
But his job was not about him – it was about those he could help.
Leadership within the church is not for man’s glory but for God’s glory.
It is not about authority, but about servant hood.
James settles disagreements among other church leaders and answers questions about the Old Law.
And the men listen to him and acknowledge his wisdom. Because of his absolute devotion to the Lord Jesus, he was given great authority.
In GALATIANS 2:12, Paul says that Peter even had the authority to send men to check on and help other congregations.
In this day and age, many denominations refer to that position as the position of a ‘Bishop.’
In ACTS 21, we read the story of where Paul had made a collections of funds from the different churches he had visited, and he returns to Jerusalem to present the offerings.
The Bible says Paul went in and spoke to James and all the elders, and he began telling them what all the glorious things God had done in the ministry to the Gentiles.
And this is the last time we see James,
the brother of Jesus, being mentioned in the Bible.
He did write the book of JAMES, a book to the Jewish Christians who had been dispersed throughout the Roman Empire, where the church had been severely persecuted.
-----
So, we have a brother of Jesus who went from non-believer to pastor.
What are some of the things we should try and take away from this story that would help our walk with Jesus today?
James gives us many valuable bits of information, far too many to look at in a single sermon so, I’m going to be selfish and pick a few of my favorites.
In CHAPTER 1, James begins by telling us that we should rejoice when we are faced with many kinds of trouble.
To understand this, we need to understand that our walk with Jesus is not based upon our comfort level of having no problems, but on the level of having absolute faith in God when we have problems.
When we have problems,
it gives us yet another chance to put our faith to work, making it stronger than ever before.
So rejoice in your troubles, and depend fully on God to help you.
Again, in CHAPTER 1, James tells us that we had better be totally focused on our Lord.
Part of our focus on Him and the rest of our focus on the world around us is a very dangerous thing, because a lack of focus on God will leads to doubts and confusion.
In JAMES 1:6-7, it explains it this way;
‘... he who doubts is like a wave of the sea – blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord, he is double minded and unstable in all he does.’
How focused are you on God?
Be honest - do you need to focus your own heart toward God by growing closer to Jesus?
Are you more focused that James was before he became such a strong believer in Jesus?
Are you trying to be as focused on the Lord as James was after he became a believer?
Unfortunately, most people are still more focused on the things they are involved in than they are with their walk with Christ.
To focus on God, you may need to look away from some things you enjoy in this world.
You see, when you focus is on the Lord,
you will also get something else;
a knowledge of what the devil would rather you waste your time focussing on.
In Chapter 1:22, James gives us some of the best advice a Christian can receive. He tells us not to lie to ourselves by just being willing to listen to the word, but to actually do what it says! Jesus reiterates this when He tells us that to be His friend, we must do what He commands.
Do we try to do what Jesus says, or do we just pretend for a couple of hours on a Sunday?
Do we pretty much forget about Him the rest of the week?
Can I ask you to take the time to read the book of James this week?
If you need encouragement read JAMES 4:8 - ‘Come near to God and He will come near to you.’
or JAMES 4:10, he gives us a Father’s promise: ‘Humble yourself to God and He will lift you up.’
In Chapter 5, James gives us some very important information about how to pray.
And, again, he is not talking about the type of prayers most of us are used to saying.
He is talking about the type of prayer where your heart is involved in a very deep and personal talk with God’s heart.
The kind of prayer that nothing seems to exists at that point but your conversation with God.
JAMES 5:13 says that if we are in trouble of any kind, we need to pray.
But along with praying we need to pray while believing we will get God’s answers.
Maybe not exactly when we want it or how we want it, but we will receive it in His way and in His time.
---
The last year has not been easy, but the blessing of serving God here has helped me to focus on the fact that God has a plan and a purpose for my life.
On the 8th of March 2009 I was told that I would be made redundant. Hanna and I worked out that if we were careful with my redundancy pay and our savings we would be ok for 52 weeks.
51 weeks later on the Wednesday 3rd of March 2010 I started a part time job - a job that will provide for us as a family and still give me time to serve God here!
51 weeks later
Coincidence? I don’t believe in coincidences.
I believe in a God who takes care of His children
I believe in a God who answers prayers in the way He knows is best.
Jesus, is still in the miracle-making business,
if you pray, He has already promised that He will answer!
Why? Because He loves you.
You have shown you trust Him enough to believe Him!
But the answer will still be in His way and in His time.
--------
We all need to live as real Christians,
not just people who live the way they want and then go to church on Sunday.
We all need to get serious about eternity.
We need to get real about where our very soul is headed for.
In 2 TIMOTHY 4:7-8, Paul wrote,
‘I have finished the course and have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord – the Righteous Judge of us all – will award to me on that day: And not only to me, but also to all who have loved Him enough to live for Him.’
Live your live according to the principles Jesus set forth in His life.
Not because you are following rules, but because you want to please Him.
And that is the key - we need to want to please Jesus more than please ourselves.
