James 1 Introduction to Christian Living
Some of ya’ll never consider how things get done around here. We are a small church, with a limited budget, and so the things done around here are done by volunteers. The place is mowed and trimmed by volunteers. The pavilion and plastic walls are cleaned by volunteers. The wood is split and buildings built, and Christmas in the Country decorated by volunteers. The music is led and the church records are kept by volunteers.
I remember speaking with one of our volunteers one time and I mentioned how nice the bathroom looked and what a great job she did and how much I appreciated it, and she responded, “After what the Lord has done for me, this is nothing.” The true heart of a servant.
Wednesday night, during prayer meeting, I mentioned a man in our community who had a need. He loves and has served the Lord for many years. He called me while Gladys and I were out of town and asked me to come see him. I got to visit with him earlier this week. Even though he is on hospice, he said the Lord still has him around for a reason and he wanted to know how he could serve, what ministry he could be a part of.
I got to thinking and I remembered that a few years ago, he had a prayer and card ministry. If there was a death at Meadowlea, or if someone was sick there, people would let him know, he would pray for the person and send them a card. I suggested he start that again.
He said, “Yeah, I could do that, but my computer is broken and I’ll to see what I can do.” His hand shakes so much that he can barely write. So, during prayer meeting Wednesday night, I mentioned that this man had this need and asked folks to keep their eyes and ears open for a computer.
Yesterday, as I was arriving at Highbanks Marina for George’s celebration of life, a lady came up to me and said, “Brother Gene, I have a computer for that man you mentioned Wednesday.”
I took it by his place yesterday afternoon and he was so exited. He was beside himself. He said, “I can’t believe you got one and that you got it so quickly.” And then he said, “This is just like the one I had that got broken.”
This, my friend, is Christianity lived out. This is Christianity with skin on it.
Over the past several years we have covered several books of the Bible and a number of subjects and topics along the way. Two years ago we went through the Gospel of John, and we examined Jesus’ life and teachings as presented by John.
Next we traveled through the book of Romans, and we looked at man’s need, due to his sin. We looked at God’s provision, and His means of salvation as made available through Jesus Christ.
Earlier this year we went through the book of Nehemiah and examined how God raises up a people to bring about changes and to restore what seemed hopeless and destroyed.
We just finished a short examination of heaven, and through scripture we saw together how heaven is not the way many depict it. The glories of heaven are beyond our imagination and dreams. Those living there are so much better off than we are, and it is a magnificent place the Lord Jesus has prepared for those of us who are followers of His. Included in that study, we saw that not all roads lead there. To be heaven bound requires a definite choice. It requires a definite decision to make Jesus the Lord of your life.
If you remember, Jesus said in Matthew 7,
> Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
Not all roads lead to heaven.
Today I would like to begin a series on living the Christian life in the real world. What makes us different? Open your Bibles this morning and turn with me to the book of James. It will be there near the end of your Bible. We’re going to begin in James 1 and verse 1.
- Read James 1:1
If you remember, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us that we are to be salt and light. Salt helps stop rot and decay, and brings flavor to food that would otherwise be tasteless; and light exposes truth and dispels darkness.
That’s what Jesus calls you and I to do. He says, “Ya’ll aren’t supposed to be like the rest of the world. Ya’ll aren’t supposed to have the same priorities as everyone else in the world. Ya’ll aren’t supposed to live like the rest of the world.
In 1 Peter 2 we are told,
> 1 Peter 2:1-9 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all slander. Like newborn infants, desire the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow up into your salvation, if you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to him, a living stone—rejected by people but chosen and honored by[c] God— you yourselves, as living stones, a spiritual house, are being built to be a holy priesthood[d] to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and honored cornerstone, and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame. So honor will come to you who believe; but for the unbelieving,The stone that the builders rejected— this one has become the cornerstone, and A stone to stumble over, and a rock to trip over. They stumble because they disobey the word; they were destined for this. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Oh my friend, you and I are not to be or to live like the world. We are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation with different standards, different priorities, and different desires than the rest of the world.
Turn to someone near you and tell them, “You are a royal priest.” Tell them, “You are called out of darkness into light.”
Oh, how often do we set our standards too low. How often do we make excuses for the sin that so easily ensnares us. How often do we make excuses for compromise and lukewarmness in our own lives.
Remember what Jesus said to the church in Ephesus?
> Revelation 2:1-4 “Write to the angel of the church in Ephesus: Thus says the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand and who walks among the seven golden lampstands: I know your works, your labor, and your endurance, and that you cannot tolerate evil people. You have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and you have found them to be liars. I know that you have persevered and endured hardships for the sake of my name, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you: You have abandoned the love you had at first.
To the church Jesus said, “Ya’ll are doing some good stuff, and you have a good reputation, but you just don’t love Me like you used to.”
Do you remember what Jesus said was evidence of your love for Him?
> John 14:15 “If you love Me you will keep My command.”
Oh what a high bar the Lord has set for us followers of His.
True holiness, expressed in the life God created each new Christian to live is at a premium in every age. Churches are filled with mediocre disciples, who say and believe one thing mentally, while their conduct reveals a much lower standard. This split personality in the church is not the life Jesus described. Jesus said,
> John 14:12 “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in Me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these.”
Is that what we see being lived out in the church today? Lord let us become a people who cry like Joseph did in the Old Testament, when he was tempted by his boss’s wife, “God forbid that I should do such a thing.”
This book moves us from a focus on what the church believes into a focus on how the church behaves. The disparity between the beliefs of today’s Christian and their daily actions and attitudes is alarming. My friends, the purpose of James is to remind us that we have to practice what we preach.
I know that was a long introduction, but let’s move back into our Scripture. Look there again at James 1 please.
- Read James 1:1
I. THE AUTHOR
Notice as we begin, who the writer of this epistle is. It begins, “James.”
There’s no introduction. No build up. The writer begins by simply giving his name. James.
There are a number of men mentioned in the Bible by the name of James. There is:
· James, brother of John and son of Zebedee, the first apostle martyred and also known as James the Less (Matthew 10:2, Mark 15:40, Acts 12:2).
· James the son of Alphaeus, another of the twelve disciples (Matthew 10:3).
· James, the father of the “other” apostle Judas (Luke 6:16).
A number of men are named James, but this is James, the 1/2 brother of Jesus.
James and his other siblings didn’t always believe their 1/2 brother Jesus was the messiah. Can you imagine how difficult that must have been for them? They grew up with Jesus. They did chores with Him. They worked in the carpentry shop with Him. They slept in the same room with Him, and then to have your brother claim to be the Messiah? That must have been a tough idea to swallow.
Up until late in His ministry, Jesus’ siblings didn’t believe in Him.
Save your places and turn with me please to John chapter 7.
- Read John 7:1-5
Even Jesus’ brothers didn’t believe in Him.
Oh, but one day the light was turned on. One day their eyes were opened, and they began to see and understand.
In Acts chapter 1 and verse 14 we read,
> Acts 1:14 They all were continually united in prayer, along with the women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
By the time the disciples were in the upper room praying and waiting on the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, Jesus brothers had become believers and disciples of Jesus as well.
Part of that may be do to the time Jesus specifically presented Himself to His brother.
> 1 Corinthians 15:1-8 “Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel I preached to you, which you received, on which you have taken your stand and by which you are being saved, if you hold to the message I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. Then he appeared to over five hundred brothers and sisters at one time; most of them are still alive, but some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one born at the wrong time, he also appeared to me.”
Jesus’ brothers became followers of Jesus, and looking back with new understanding, their lives were so changed that the Lord ended up using 2 of them to write 2 books of the Bible, James and Jude.
Can you imagine? James became the pastor of the largest and most influential church in the world at the time. He became the pastor of the church in Jerusalem. It is to that church and its leaders that Peter and Paul and Barnabus, and the other first century missionaries reported.
God used James and He used him to call Christians to living victoriously.
II. THE CALL TO VICTORIOUS LIVING
- Read James 1:2-27
Does that sound like Pollyanna make-believe? No. James is saying, this religion, this Christianity is to impact your life. It’s to give you victory in every area of your life.
If your Christianity is real, it will impact your life in the midst of trials. If your Christianity is real, it will give you wisdom.
I saw a quote by Spurgeon a couple of days ago, where he said, “You should always tell a Christian the truth, because if he is a praying Christian, Jesus is going to tell him anyway, so you might as well be honest to start with.”
If your Christianity is real, it will help control your tongue and your temper. If your Christianity is real it will impact your actions and attitude.
If your Christianity is real it can help you live victoriously. It is because of a real, living, vibrant Christianity that Paul, inspire of beatings, false accusations, imprisonments, and other attacks, was able to write in Romans 8,
> Romans 8:31-39 What, then, are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He did not even spare his own Son but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him grant us everything? Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the one who died, but even more, has been raised; he also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us. Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: Because of you we are being put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
James writes, brothers and sisters, this Christianity is real. Don’t let the world get you down. You can be victorious. And I believe James gives us in his book, 2 primary keys for victorious Christian living, one at the beginning of His book and the other at the end. The first is found right there in verse 1.
- Read James 1:1
III. THE KEYS TO VICTORIOUS CHRISTIAN LIVING
1. Decide Whose Boss -
In verse 1, what did James call himself? Did he call himself an apostle? No. Did he call himself the pastor of the most important church in the world? No. Did he name drop and identify himself as the 1/2 brother of Jesus? No. He said, “I am a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,.”
James thought of himself as God’s servant.
In the book of Romans, if you remember, Paul painted a picture of man’s great failure. He said, “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” He showed us man’s great need. He said, “For the wages of sin is death.” He showed us God’s great love. He said, “But God proved His love for us in this, that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” He showed us God’s great promise, “For whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Oh and then, at the end of the book, after telling us all God has done for us he says, “Because of this, I beg you, make yourselves living sacrifices, holy acceptable unto God.”
You know the problem with living sacrifices? They can get up off of the altar.
Being a victorious Christian and living a victorious Christian life requires a daily commitment. It requires submitting yourself to God every day.
James says, “I am a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
A better translation of that word servant is slave. He says, “I am a slave of Jesus Christ. I made that decision a long time ago, and I’m not about to change now.”
Now, some of you will likely remember when Jesus said in John 15:12-15, “This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants anymore, because a servant doesn’t know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from my Father.”
Two things we need to notice in this passage. First, Jesus said, “You are My friends if you do what I command you.” So, that friendship is conditional.
Second, we need to remember that Jesus is expressing His unique love and relationship with us, because unlike a dictator who only works for his own good, Jesus is working for our good and tells us His Father’
s will.
Think for a moment of all the saints of old and the impact they made with their lives.
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob - Deut 9:27 ("Thy servants")
Moses - 1Ki 8:53 ("Thy servant")
Joshua - Josh 24:29 ("Servant of the Lord")
Caleb - Num 14:24 ("My servant")
Job - Job 1:8 ("My servant")
Isaiah - Isa 20:3 ("My servant")
The prophets - Jer 7:25 ("My servants”)
{A Servant of God and The Lord Jesus Christ 1:1 Mark A. Copeland]
Well Gene, that’s the Old Testament. Paul referred to himself as a slave of God. Peter called himself a slave of God. Jude called himself a slave of God and here James calls himself a slave of God.
What an honor it is to be a servant of God.
We talk about wanting to make a difference with our lives, we talk about wanting to impact the world for Jesus. Could it be that our attitude about our relationship with Jesus needs to change?
Perhaps we are taking our relationship with Jesus a bit too casually and forget that we are called to obedience.
Oh, how many of you can truthfully say, Wherever He leads I’ll go?”
You remember the words to that old hymn?
"Take up thy cross and follow Me," I heard my Master say;
"I gave My life to ransom thee, Surrender your all today."
Wherever He leads I'll go, Wherever He leads I'll go,
I'll follow my Christ who loves me so, Wherever He leads I'll go.
James says, “You want to be victorious in Christian living, then quit playing games. Decide right now that Jesus is going to be the Boss in your life.”
Two keys to victorious Christian living. First, decide Who’s going to be the Boss in your life.
Second, ask Him to work.
2. Ask Him to work.
- James 5:13-18
James says, “I have decided, Jesus is my Lord.” Second he says, “I’m going to ask for His help.”
Imagine looking back, James realized the secret of Jesus’ strength when they were growing up. He began to understand that the reason Jesus was able to resist temptation like He did, and teach like He did, and perform the miracles He did, was because of His relationship with God and because of His prayer life.
James, emphasizing that in his own life, became such an ardent praying man, that he developed callouses on his knees from kneeling so much. Historians say the people referred to him as old camel knees.
James says, “I want to live differently than the world. I want to be salt. I want to be light. I want to be victorious instead of making excuses. I’m gonna ask for the Lord’s help.
Can you imagine if instead of making excuses for our failures when tempted, we started the day praying like Jesus commanded us, “And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one?” Can you imagine if we asked for help with our road rage, with our bad tempers, with our irritability? Can you imagine if God’s people prayed that they’d be able to turn the other cheek, and go the extra mile? Can you imagine if God’s people began to pray for those who despitefully use us?
Can you imagine if God’s people began to pray for wisdom and for God to lead them in each situation and then as servants of the Most High God, they committed, even before they knew God’s will, to doing whatever He said?
James says, “Enough of your excuses. Enough of your defeated living and lukewarm devotion. Don’t be salt that has lost its saltiness. Come up from among them and be ye separate!”
You are not children of the devil, you are a child of the King! Act like it!
Oh Lord, please help us to practice what we preach. Please help us to do what we claim to believe.
My heart, my life, my all I bring To Christ who loves me so;
he is my Master, Lord, and King, Wherever He leads I'll go.
Wherever He leads I'll go, Wherever He leads I'll go,
I'll follow my Christ who loves me so, Wherever He leads I'll go.
