"How to Profit From Your Problems"
James 1:1-8
Open: Welcome! It's good to be in the house of the Lord today as we begin a study on a new book. Today we are going to start a study through the book of James as we start a series of messages called "How Faith Works in Real Life" I've heard a number of people through the years claim James as their favorite book in the Bible. I've always wondered about that. I think that this book is one of the most challenging in the New Testament. There's virtually no fluff in this book.
Who is the Author? James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings. James...the Greek, Iakobo, it's really the word "Jacob." James is the same as Jacob. This was a very common name in first century Palestine. Eventually it came to be James in English because it kind of lost its original identity in the translation of Latin. Iakobo became Iakobos and Iakobos became Iakomos and Iakomos became James in the English transliteration. And so what started as Jacob ended up James.
We ask the question then...who is this James? There are 4 "James" in the New Testament.
* James the son of Alpnaeus. One of the apostles. -- We don't know much about him. . The only thing we can sort of assume about him is that he may have been the brother of Matthew. In the gospel of Mark chapter 2 verse 14 it says, "Matthew who's also known as Levi, was the son of Alphaeus." If it's the same Alphaeus then James and Matthew were indeed brothers.
* James the father of Judas. In Luke 6:16 it mentions James the father of Judas, Judas not Iscariot, the other apostle named Judas. But he's a very obscure James and there's no reason to credit him with writing this epistle
* James the son of Zebedee and the older brother of the Apostle John. -- One of the original, "sons of thunder" He was also an apostle -- one of the original twelve. Originally a fisherman who left his nets to follow Jesus.
He wasn't the first martyr, Stephen was, but he was the first apostle to be martyred. Acts 12:2 tells about his martyrdom. He was beheaded by Herod. So it is not possible for him to have written this book.
* James, the brother of our Lord. When our Lord Jesus came into this world, His mother was a virgin. But after the birth of Christ, she went on with her husband Joseph to bear children, male and female, and one of those, most likely the oldest son, was named James. He was a pillar in the early church -- all though he was never called to be an apostle. An apostle was a sent one, he was never sent. By the way, he was present in Acts chapter 1 when they were seeking to replace Judas and they did not choose him, they chose a man named Matthias. He wasn't even in the running. He was not even considered. You read Acts 1:14 to 23 he's not even considered. He was never sent out with the gospel. He does not rank with the apostles. What we know about him is that his calling was to shepherd the church in Jerusalem. -- In Acts 15 when a controversy stirs in the early church over how Gentile believers are to interact with the Old Testament Jewish believers, this James is the one who presides over the meeting and issues the decision that is then sent out among the churches. Josephus tells us that he was martyred in 62 AD -- stoned to death because of his faith in Jesus Christ.
Notice what James calls himself -- "a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ"
- He is a leader among God's people, a world renown leader. Yet his glory is not in the title of his position, but in the fact that he is a servant of God and Christ. Despite his position, and world-wide reputation, what matters to him most is the intimacy of his relationship to God and his Lord. This is clearly seen when the word servant is understood, for the meaning of the word shows that James deliberately chose the word to describe his relationship to the Lord.
How do you define yourself when people ask you; "Tell me about yourself"?
What would you have done if you were James? Hey, being the brother of Jesus Christ could carry a few perks couldn't it? Imagine filling a job application and being able to legitimately put on it, "I'm the brother of Jesus Christ" Just do a little bit of name dropping... That would most likely give you a slight advantage over other applicants, wouldn't it? Or how about , "I'm the leader of the church in Jerusalem." That would certainly impress people, right? James doesn't do any of that. He simply says I'm a servant -- the word is doulos -- it means slave- "one who is deprived of personal freedom, one who is fully come into the control of his master." It's from the verb "to bind," he is bound. A doulos had no concern for his food, no concern for his clothing, no concern for his housing. His master cared for all of that. In the Old Testament Moses was called "the doulos of God." Daniel was called "the doulos of God," Joshua and Caleb, "the doulos of God," Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, so was Job, so was Isaiah and other of the prophets. And when James calls himself doulos, he is identifying himself with many honored men who were the servants of God.
What's the Context? We see the context as he starts out his letter: "To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations" What's he talking about? Notice, the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad...literally, in the dispersion. That's what the Greek says. In the diaspora, dia means the idea of through and spora means the idea of scattering or sowing seed. So these are the Jews who through scattering were dispersed out everywhere. Diaspora gives us the word "dispersed." or scattered. You'll remember back in Acts chapter seven the stoning of Stephen. Following his death we have Chapter Eight and we read this: And Saul was there, giving approval to his death. On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison. (Acts8:1-3) So when James writes this letter, he is not writing people who are sitting back in the living rooms are comfy couches with a chilled glass of lemonade at their side. These people have literally run for their lives. They've had to leave home and jobs and family and possessions behind because of their faith in Jesus. They've been paying a price for their faith. You won't find any health, wealth and prosperity gospel in James. Because it wasn't part of the real world in which they lived. He's writing to people with real problems -- real issues going on in their lives. And he wants to give them counsel as they are facing their problems.
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, Imagine going through what these early Christians had experienced and the first words you read from James is "Consider it pure joy when you've got problems of various kinds" How would you have responded? "You've got to be kidding!" James wants to help them change their perspective about their problems. He wants them to see problems as opportunities. Life is a series of problem-solving opportunities. The problems you face will either defeat you or develop you - depending on how you respond to them. Unfortunately, most people fail to see how God wants to use problems for good in their lives. They react foolishly and resent their problems rather than pausing to consider what benefit they might bring.
- FOUR "FACTS OF LIFE" YOU NEED TO KNOW
1. Problems are Inevitable. Scripture doesn't say, "If you encounter problems consider it joy" but whenever -- count on it, you're going to have problems. If you don't have problems, check your pulse. It is a fact of life. Jesus said "In the world you will have tribulation." Peter said, "Don't be surprised when you have problems." Count on it. Problems are not an elective in life. They are a required course. You don't get out of them by saying you don't want to have any problems. Nobody's immune. God had one Son without sin, but no son without a cross. It just goes with the territory. We're going to have trials
2. Problems are Unpredictable. He says, "...whenever you face problems ..." The word "face" in Greek is "peripipto". It literally means "to fall into unexpectedly." It is the same word used in the story of the Good Samaritan where the man fell among thieves -- it was unexpected. Trials are not planned. We seldom can anticipate the problems we're going to experience in life. That's probably good because if we could anticipate them we'd run the other way and we wouldn't get the benefit from them. We don't plan to have a flat tire, or a crisis. They are unplanned and unpredictable -- when we least expect them. That's what makes a problem a problem. Often it's inconvenient when you fall into it suddenly. Ill. - a guy who was riding on a New York subway for the very first time. He got motion sickness standing cramped in next to the door. The subway stopped suddenly, the door opened and he lost his lunch right on the first guy standing in line. The thing was, the doors shut immediately and the train took off again. "Why me?"
3. Problems Have Variety. They come in all shapes and sizes. One thing about problems, you don't get bored with them. There are a wide variety of them. Have you ever tried to match paint? The word in the Greek for "many kinds" is literally "multi-colored" There are problems of many shades and varieties. They vary in intensity, they vary in variety. They vary in duration. Some are minor inconveniences. Some are major crises. We have all kinds and shapes of problems. They come in more than 31 flavors. Some problems are custom made and you know it.
4. Problems are Purposeful. They have a purpose. Pain can be productive. Pressure produces. Suffering can accomplish something. It has value in our lives. Ill of building program in Maryland. The dirt contained a high amount of red sand. Red sand is better than white sand because it is compactable. But before the ground could be built upon it had to be compacted. A dozer would spread out 3-4" of dirt and a huge machine would roll over and press it in. And that process was repeated over and over until the depth of it reached the engineer's specifications. But before it was built upon -- it had to be tested. A guy came out with a machine and drilled a core sample and that sample was sent to a laboratory to make sure that enough pressure had been applied to make it ready for construction. - It was the pressure that prepared the soil to be built upon. Without the pressure- you could grow grass and play ball. With the pressure -- the ground was prepared to become a ministry center. Right now God is at work in some of our lives and he's applying pressure to one or more areas of our families and our relationships and our finances and our personal lives. He's always done that with his people through the ages. It's how he prepares the soil of our lives so that he can build us into the house he wants us to become.
What is God's Purpose in Our Problems?
What does it say in the next verse? because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. Notice he uses the word "testing". It's a very rare word in secular Greek, but a very common word in biblical Greek because the testing of faith is such an important part of spiritual life. Whether it's gold or silver or precious metals, whether it's diamonds, precious stones or money, anything that is in and of itself of intrinsic value is subjected to testing to affirm its true worth. Peirasmos, means to put someone to the test.
Nothing becomes valuable without first being tested.
The way that gold is purified is that it is heated up until it is very hot -- until the impurities or the dross was burned off. You heat it up very hot until the impurities -- the dross -- gets burned off. Job said "He has tested me through the refining fire and I have come out as pure gold." You wouldn't want gold that wasn't tested and refined. I could just about guarantee that you wouldn't buy a diamond that hasn't been examined. You wouldn't but a car that hadn't been through as series of tests. Have you ever watched on television those tests that auto manufactures put their cars through? They will put two dummies in a car and ram it into a wall. There will be one dummy behind the wheel and one dummy on the passenger side. The goal for the manufacturer is not to be mean to their vehicles; they are testing them. They want to see how much their cars can take. They want to find out where the flaws are that need to be corrected. They want to see how much their cars can stand with the ultimate goal to make a better car. Some of us act like dummies! We get rammed into the wall and we think God is trying to mess us up when He is simply trying to make us better Christians. He lets us run into the wall so we can identify our flaws. He shows us things about ourselves, things we said we'd never do -- BAM! Language we said we would never use -- BAM! Places we said we would never go -- BAM! He allows us to see our own imperfections so that we realize we are not like Him as much as we thought we were. God allows us to have encounters that show us our need for him.
Absolutely everything we purchase in life is tested and inspected. Everything -- we expect it and in fact we demand it. If you buy some form of technology -- it will have in the advertising -- "We put our product through the most rigorous tests imaginable." That's one of the major the selling points. But a lamp --it will have a little sticker on it -- inspected by #35. But anything -- lumber, clothing, books, food, medicine almost everything we buy -- we demand that it is inspected and tested. The last time I purchased a package of underwear -- it had a little tag inside that said inspected by Employee #57. How would you like that job? "What do you do for a living? I'm an underwear inspector." But here's my point -- we won't allow anything of value in our life to be uninspected or untested, right? It would be unthinkable that we would buy food that was not being tested. Unthinkable that we would purchase untested medicine. We have scores of government agencies overseeing that proper testing and inspections are done regularly.
So why should it come as any surprise to us that God is going to test us? What's more valuable to Him than you? If something is of value -- it must be tested. If something is of great value is must be tested and examined even more rigorously. This is the way that God relates to his people from the very beginning to the very end. He is a testing God - Is it possible to find any book in the Bible where faith is not tested? Start with Adam and Eve -- they failed the test. Move on to Abe. He obeyed -- he journeyed to a land that God had not told him -- God said Go. Abe said OK. Come to Gen. 22 and it says "God tested Abe." This is what it says in Hebrews about this moment in Abe's life:
By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned." Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death. (Heb. 11:17-19)
If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a miraculous sign or wonder, and if the sign or wonder of which he has spoken takes place, and he says, "Let us follow other gods" (gods you have not known) "and let us worship them," you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. (Deut. 13:1-3)
Then the LORD said to Moses, "I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days." (Exodus 16:4-5)
Do you think God didn't know what the result of the test would be? He knew -- he knew because of his omniscience. But he knew they didn't know. Test are for teacher to find out where the student is -- tests are so the student can find out where the student it.
The tests don't end in the New Testament era by the way. We just celebrated communion and one of the things the Lord emphasized when he gave us instructions on how to partake in a worthy manner is that we are to test ourselves: A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world. (1 Cor. 11:28-32)
Now I could go on with this -- but it is crystal clear throughout the Bible that our problems have a purpose. All of them. Now what I want to do with the short bit of time I have remaining is to show you what God is hoping to accomplish in our lives through our problems. You can profit from them -- if you understand what God is trying to bring about in your life.
Problems Come To Test The Strength Of Our Faith.
Check this verse out from the book of 2 Chronicles: It was Hezekiah who blocked the upper outlet of the Gihon spring and channeled the water down to the west side of the City of David. He succeeded in everything he undertook. But when envoys were sent by the rulers of Babylon to ask him about the miraculous sign that had occurred in the land, God left him to test him and to know everything that was in his heart. (2 Chron. 32:31)
In this verse Hezekiah had been miraculously healed from a deadly illness. His heart was proud and filled with rebellion. But he came to a point of repentance in his life -- and he led his people in a time of repentance & God healed him. God blessed him - almost as greatly as Soloman. But then here comes this envoy from Babylon -- spies actually -- spying out his land and plotting to take over. And interesting enough it says God left him at that point -- for what reason? To test him. So here's the question: God didn't know what was in his heart? Of course he did. There was a point in time when Hezekiah had turned away from his pride -- but now because of the blessing, he became full of himself again. And here comes trouble -- here comes the spies -- and God needs him to see and understand where he actually is. He's got a huge problem coming his way -- and he thinks he in a good place spiritually and he isn't.
God wants us to know the reality of the strength of our faith. And so, God brings trials into our lives to demonstrate to us the strength or weakness of our faith. If you're right now going through a severe trial, it is revealing to you the strength or weakness of your faith, isn't it? And that's a good thing - I always want to know where my faith is so that it can be stronger. For the stronger my faith is the more likely I am to be useful to God.
And it isn't always a negative discovery: When Habakkuk was going through the mystery of his own situation in the devastating promise that the Chaldeans were going to come and wipe out his people, in spite of everything he said: Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. (Habakkuk 3:17-18) at the end he says, "To the chief singer on my stringed instruments, this is praise, sing it." In the midst of an absolutely unsolvable mystery, his trust never wavered. He learned through that the strength of his faith.
Problems Come to Humble Us.
You asked, "Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?" Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. You said, "Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me." My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. (Job 42:3-6)
In other words, he said "I want to confess my sin. Lord, I have never really seen You the way I see You now. And I realize that some of the things I thought about You and said about You and felt about You were sinful. Lord, my faith in its weakness has been revealed." So his trail brought him to a point of deeper humility.
This is the same lesson Paul learned through the painful thorn in his side in 2 Cor. 12.
To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. (2 Cor. 12: 7)
He prayed three times for God to take it away -- but three times God allowed the problem to continue. I think that one of the battles you and I fight is the battle of self-reliance - depending upon our education or intelligence or experience or age or anything besides absolute dependence upon Christ. God allows problems to remind us that we can't and won't find real victory without him.
Problems Teach Us To Find Answers In A New and Different Way.
When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?" He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. (John 6:5-6) Philip comes to Jesus and he says, "Boy, how we going to get bread to feed these people?" He's looking at things from a worldly viewpoint. "How...where we...there's no stores around here. And there's not enough bread anyway. We've got a multitude here, a massive crowd. How are we going to get food for 5,000 men plus women and children?" And so he says, "Well, Philip, you tell Me, where are we going to buy bread?" And notice says in verse 6, "And this He said to test him." He wanted to find out whether Philip looked to worldly resources. And, of course, he did. But it wasn't any good at that point, and the Lord then created a meal and very quickly showed him how to solve his problem in a new a different way -- the way of faith. See --he was in the process of weaning Philip off of trying to solve the problems in his life using worldly methods. This ought to blow your socks off! God has provided you and me with a new way to solve the problems in our lives. We are not restricted to solving the problems in our lives using only worldly resources, worldly wisdom, worldly methods -- one of the most frustrating things to see is a church of believers -- when they come up against a problem to start wringing their hands and start to say, "We better be careful -- we better think this through carefully -- we better strategize carefully -- brothers and sister listen to me -- every problem that comes our way is a test -- a test to see if we are going to trust God and step out in faith and lean into what He can do versus what we can figure out to do with our own resources and our own wisdom.
Problems Help Keep Us Focused On The Glory of Heaven.
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away,yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Cor. 4:16-18)
In this passage as Paul writes to the Corinthians he tells them of the countless problems he has experienced: But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body But he says -- I don't loose heart I get renewed everyday because I know what waits for me afterwards. I don't focus on the momentary struggles -- as pressing and as severe as they are. I know I'm moving toward a goal --towards a reward -- towards peace and joy and eternal fellowship with my God and Creator and Redeemer and Friend.
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. (Romans 8: 18)
He's saying it again here -- I have persevering power because my focus is fixed on my reward in heaven.
Problems Teach Us How To Assist Others Who Are Experiencing Problems
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. (2 Cor. 1:3-5) What's Paul saying here? God brought us comfort in the midst of our problems for what reason? -- with the specific purpose in mind that we will teach others how to find the same comfort that we ourselves found.
You see the same idea when Jesus is talking to Peter in Luke 22:
"Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers." (Luke 22:31-32)
Jesus says -- you after you have turned back -- your mission is to what? -- to strengthen your brothers. Jesus knew he would deny him -- but he knew he would also come out on the other side of it and serve him. He would become an emissary to teach people how to find victory with the same struggles he himself faced.
Problems Teach Us How To Love God With All Our Heart
During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him. (Hebrews 5: 7-9) There is no better example of this than Jesus. The Bible says he was a man of sorrows and familiar with grief. He knew what it was like to live with problems. But He never retreated from his purpose -- because of his great and wonderful love for you and me. Real love requires perseverance.
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. (Hebrews 12:2-3)
Close: That's why James says - Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. God is at work in your life and my life -- growing us into what he wants us to become. Get a proper perspective on your problems -- What kind of test you are going through this moment? I could just about guarantee you are facing something. Make the decision that you are going to pass the test. This seems simplistic, but honestly, the reason some students fail the test is that they just never decide that they want to pass. Thirdly, Ask the Lord for the wisdom to respond properly according to his plan for your life and the strength to persevere as you are going through it.
