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James 1:1-8
1:1 James, a servant1 of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,
To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion:
Greetings.
2 Count it all joy, my brothers,2 when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
[1] 1:1
[2] 1:2
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
If you all would, open your Bibles to the epistle of James. As you're turning there, I'll just go ahead and point out that we we have a book table over here in which we, we sell, just some really good books. And one of the things we just put out there was some new commentaries on James. We're beginning a series on James. And, the commentary is, it's a good, just not overly technical at all layperson's commentary, but it's pretty solid if you want to pick that up, and, just kind of do it to supplement what we'll be learning on Sunday nights, please feel free to.
Jeffrey Heine:James, I'll begin reading verse 1. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes in the dispersion. Greetings. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
Jeffrey Heine:If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He's a double minded man, unstable in all his ways. Pray with me.
Jeffrey Heine:God, I pray that you would bring clarity to this text. But also at the same time, you would bring so much more than understanding. Lord, that as we hear you speak to us, that you would begin transforming our hearts during this time. Lord, that you would begin speaking life into areas that were dead. So God, speak.
Jeffrey Heine:I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, may your words remain. May they change us. In the strong name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.
Jeffrey Heine:I need to confess something, and I realize that I say that a lot at the start of messages, that I need to confess something. But, here's my confession. I don't really like James. Alright? I'm just gonna go I know I'm about to teach a series on it and I'm just gonna go and put it out there.
Jeffrey Heine:I don't really like it. It's not one of my favorite books. I'm not alone in feeling this way. Martin Luther, called the epistle of James an epistle of straw. We thought about actually using that as our little sermon series logo instead of James the just, you know, epistle of straw.
Jeffrey Heine:But we went against it. Luther, he thought it was an epistle of straw because he didn't consider it as having the same amount of weight as the other new testament books. He didn't say it didn't belong with scripture. He didn't say, you know, you should rip it out of your Bible. He just said, you know, was it the same weight as Paul?
Jeffrey Heine:So he still accepted as God's word. He quoted from it a whole lot. But when he came out with his German translation of the New Testament, he put James at the very end after Revelation. He wanted you to read all the other books first. And the reason he felt this way is because James talks a lot about works.
Jeffrey Heine:A lot about doing things, but not so much about grace. A matter of fact, there are 54 imperatives in this small letter. 54 times, James is gonna tell us to do something. Do it. Only twice does he mention Jesus, in the entire letter.
Jeffrey Heine:Alright? You you compare that to Paul, in which Paul can't hardly go a sentence without just gushing over the Lord Jesus Christ, and now he's been saved by grace. But but James doesn't do that. And so why are we gonna study James? Number one reason we're gonna study James is it's in the Bible.
Jeffrey Heine:Okay? It's God's word, and I believe that. I believe he has an important message for us. You know, and even Martin Luther recognized that. And even though Jesus is not mentioned over and over in this letter, he is the obvious theme.
Jeffrey Heine:He's the obvious foundation for this letter, and we're gonna see that as we go through it. James is also the oldest book that we have in the New Testament. It was written less than 20 years after the resurrection. I mean, so this is easily within the living memory. This is of of Jesus and His resurrection.
Jeffrey Heine:This is written to people who had likely seen the Lord Jesus. And so when we read James, we're gonna see one of the earliest pictures we have of Christianity. We're gonna find out some of the earliest struggles that they had. And what we find here is not, not a people who were struggling so much with doctrine. Not really struggling with who Jesus was, or who Jesus is, because these people saw Jesus preach.
Jeffrey Heine:A lot of these people probably saw the resurrected Jesus, or at least knew other people who had seen the resurrected Jesus. So they weren't struggling with the fact that Jesus died, was buried and rose again. Their struggle was putting their faith into practice. Their struggle was not doctrine, but but the implications of their doctrine. And that's why James wrote this letter.
Jeffrey Heine:And James was uniquely qualified to write about the works of Jesus because James was the half brother of Jesus. James grew up with Jesus, and And I was just thinking about that a lot this week. It would have been borderline amazing and horrible to to grow up with Jesus as your older brother. I've got an older brother, and I am always being compared to him. Always.
Jeffrey Heine:He's 4 and a half years older. Can can you imagine James just always being compared? You know, why why can't you be more kind like Jesus? You know, why, why can't you share like Jesus? Why can't, you know, you obey me the first time like Jesus, you know.
Jeffrey Heine:And, and so he's, he's always growing up in Jesus's shadow. And I'm sure he loved Jesus. You know, he was his brother. But at the same time, he probably had a resentment towards him. And we know from the gospels that James did not believe Jesus to be the Messiah.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus, or James did not believe Jesus to be the Son of God until after the resurrection. Before the resurrection, he went around and he thought his brother, half brother was crazy. And then he sees him risen from the dead and kind of things changed. I mean, and when I say he he changed, I mean, he was transformed. He instantly becomes one of the leaders in the church.
Jeffrey Heine:When you go to Acts 15 at the council of Jerusalem, all of the apostles actually defer to his leadership at this time. He becomes an absolute rock in the church. Now, I believe it was through growing up with Jesus, that James can give us such a unique perspective into Jesus' life, and into the Jesus' works. And one of the reasons I think James writes so much about the works of Jesus is because he saw so close, up close and personal, the works of Jesus. From the earliest age.
Jeffrey Heine:For instance, James writes, it's kind of a famous passage. He writes, religion that is pure and undefiled before god, the father is this, to visit orphans and widows and their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. We have to remember that at some point, his mom, Mary, lost her husband, Joseph. And so Mary became a widow. A widow that Jesus, as the oldest son, would have had to take care of.
Jeffrey Heine:He would have to provide for financially, provide for emotionally. And James would have watched that tremendous devotion that Jesus had towards his widowed mom. And so then later he writes, This is pure and undefiled religion. That you take care of widows. He sought.
Jeffrey Heine:When James talks throughout his letter about giving special care to the poor, being slow to anger, not quarreling, being careful with what you say, being a doer of the word, not merely a hearer of the word, not being selfish, not having any ambition. He's writing about all those things because he saw it. So close and personal. James even gives us a somewhat unique view of sin in his letter. In chapter 4, he says, so whoever knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.
Jeffrey Heine:And so he's he's not just defining sin as not doing bad things. He says, No. Not being a sinner and, is not always doing the right thing. And he can say that because he saw Jesus at all times, always doing the right thing. Not just with staining or withholding from bad things.
Jeffrey Heine:And so, James gives us these unique perspectives on works that I think came a lot from his relationship to his half brother. So it's one of the reasons we're gonna study this. That's my my introduction to the book of James. We're gonna we're gonna talk more as a whole over the grand theme, but let's go ahead and just jump right in. Let's read again verse 23.
Jeffrey Heine:Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. What a way to begin your letter. Count it all joy when you experience various trials, when you meet these trials. So right off the bat, James says, you're going to meet trials.
Jeffrey Heine:And by trials, he he means any kind hardship, any kind of suffering. Going through cancer is a trial. Losing someone to death, you know, that someone close to you, that's a trial. Maybe losing your job, going through financial difficulties, that's a trial. And notice James does not say, if you meet various trials.
Jeffrey Heine:But he says, when. Says, this will happen to you. Okay? It's going to happen to every Christian. Every one of us who follow Jesus will experience some form of hardship, and James says, when that happens, you got to count it joy.
Jeffrey Heine:Now, when you first read this, you could kind of jump, I think, to the wrong conclusion. James is not saying that we really need to enjoy suffering. I mean, he's not saying, hey. You know, be really happy if if your child dies. You're supposed to be happy at the funeral.
Jeffrey Heine:I've, I've met Christians like that. You know, who always have that grin on them. I I call them muppet Christians. Because no matter what's happening, they have that same silly grin. On all the time.
Jeffrey Heine:They could be going through the worst circumstance and you ask them how they're doing, they're like, I could not be happier. I'm like, you're you're not in touch with reality is what's really going on. James is saying that, when bad things happen, you weep, you feel hurt, there should be real sorrow. You experience those things, but you are to count it, or you are to consider it joy. And the reason that you consider that, that present suffering joy is because, not what you're experiencing now, but you're looking to the future and you know what this is gonna work in your life.
Jeffrey Heine:And so you can count it joy. Verse 3 says, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. This word testing is the word that's used to describe when you melt metal. You purify it through heat in order to make it stronger. Scrap metal doesn't get tested.
Jeffrey Heine:But if you were to build a car, that's going to carry precious cargo over difficult terrain, you're gonna need to test the metal in order to make it stronger. And so, what James is implying here is that, as Christians, you were created to do so much more than just survive. Okay? God has created you for a grand purpose. He's created you to do something important.
Jeffrey Heine:To carry weight. To carry precious cargo, to do something for the kingdom here. And in and in order to do that, you're gonna have to be tested. You're gonna have to be strengthened for the task that he's giving you. My my father died, he died suddenly at the age of 54.
Jeffrey Heine:And it completely, rocked our family. It's kind of hard to describe. It was just like, there was this huge vacuum in our family. We we didn't really something huge was just missing at this point. And I got to experience all of the the pain, the, deep sorrow that death leaves in its wake, when my dad died.
Jeffrey Heine:And I can remember about a year after, this happened, I'm going to pray with my pastor. A group of us would go to his house every Thursday morning, and we would pray. And we were praying and I prayed for a girl who recently lost her father. And so I'm praying and I remember I began to hurt. Like to emotionally hurt.
Jeffrey Heine:And and as I was praying, then I began to cry. I began to weep. And then it just became this uncontrollable sobs as I am praying for this for this girl who I didn't really even know that well. But I had never had such empathy for someone. I never prayed like this in my life.
Jeffrey Heine:And all of that happened because a year earlier, I had gone through something like that. You know, you know, before my dad's death, I never prayed like that. I would still pray. I I'd pray, God be with this girl. Comfort her.
Jeffrey Heine:Hold her in your arms. Give her peace. I'd pray that, and I would mean it. I really would mean it and I'd pray that out of faith. But nothing like I was unable to pray at this point.
Jeffrey Heine:Really hurting with her, that empathy there. My heart now breaks when I see widows, because I saw my mom go through what she went through. Before that happened, I gotta confess, I never thought about widows. Ever. And then you see somebody up close and personal going through some something so horrific, and opens your eyes, and also you become compassionate.
Jeffrey Heine:Also, you you really do, you wanna serve and you wanna pray for people like this. So there was a lot more depth and a lot more meaning in my prayers after this. And that's what going through trials do. They they strengthen you. They they change you for the task that the Lord has ahead for you.
Jeffrey Heine:When you go through a trial, know it's because god has created you to be a better person. God's created you to make a difference in this world. Now look at verse 4. Says, and let steadfastness have its full effect That you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. This word, steadfast, I, I really like it.
Jeffrey Heine:In Greek, it means, hyper standing or super standing. That's that's steadfast. You're super standing. This is not a weak, passive, kind of submission to circumstances as they come. You know, well, whatever happens, I'm just gonna let it happen.
Jeffrey Heine:That's not at all what it's talking about. This is, this is standing firm. It's being strong. This is a challenging response to when a trial comes your way. Hyper stand.
Jeffrey Heine:And when you face these trials, he says, you will become perfect and complete. Some of your translations might say that you will become mature. That's right. It means you're gonna grow up. It means you're gonna be ready for every work.
Jeffrey Heine:Some of your translations might say that too, that going through this is gonna make you ready for every work. So let me give you the Joel Brooks modern day translation of this. The trials you go through and the pain you experience give you a resolve, and they make you grow up. So that you have the tools you need to get some real work done and make a difference in this world. That's the thought here.
Jeffrey Heine:Let me repeat that. It's the trials that you go through and the pain that you experience, they give you a resolve. They make you grow up, so that you have the tools you need to get some real work done, and make a difference in this world. And you could see that so obviously in in the life of Joseph. Years back, we went through the life, we went through Genesis and we studied Joseph.
Jeffrey Heine:And when you first meet Joseph, he was arrogant. He was a borderline sociopath. Because he was completely indifferent to the feelings of others. And so, God out of love for him, brought him down. Brought suffering into his life.
Jeffrey Heine:It wasn't because God, you know, hated him. It's because God loved him, because God wanted to use him for a noble purpose. God brought suffering in again and again and again. And so God would use him after God had changed him. That's what James is talking about.
Jeffrey Heine:Look at verse 5. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith with no doubting. This is one of the most well known verses in the book of James. It's probably also one of the, most quoted out of context because we usually quote this for, like, wisdom in general.
Jeffrey Heine:God give me wisdom because you say I've asked for wisdom, you'll give it to me. But James here is talking about a very specific wisdom. He's talking about a wisdom as it relates to suffering. You see, when you go through a time of suffering, it's gonna hit you, it's gonna rock your world. You're gonna start asking questions like, God, why are you why why are you doing this to me?
Jeffrey Heine:What are you trying? What are you what are you trying to do? How am I gonna get through this? And in order to navigate through these waters, you're going to need wisdom. When you're going through a time of trial, everybody's going to give you advice.
Jeffrey Heine:Everybody's gonna tell you what you have to do. How do you know what's the right advice? You need wisdom. And that's what James is talking about here. And James says that we are not just to ask for wisdom, but we're to ask in total faith and with no doubting.
Jeffrey Heine:I hate doing this, but I hate, like, keep giving, little word studies. This is gonna be my last one. Okay? My last little word study for you. But if you want to understand what James means here, you have to understand what he means by the word doubt.
Jeffrey Heine:Because it's not the normal word doubt. He's not talking about what we would call an intellectual doubt. He's not saying that, you know, when he says, you got to ask this thing without doubting. He's not saying, you got to give yourself a pep talk saying, I believe, I believe, I believe, you know, and do this. I've been a part of prayer times, in which that's really what they've been.
Jeffrey Heine:They're pep talks. They're like, God, I believe you could do this because I believe it. I believe it because it's the truth, and it's the truth, and I'm believing it now. I mean, they're like going on and on. I'm like, alright.
Jeffrey Heine:We get the point. You believe this. It's the truth. It's what it is. It's a, you know, just a spiritual pep talk, to try to talk themselves into believing this.
Jeffrey Heine:That's not what James is talking about here. The word is not so much an intellectual disbelief. He's talking about conflicting loyalties. The word is used to describe elsewhere in the Bible. It's used to this to describe disputes or making a judgment, when one has to take a side.
Jeffrey Heine:So when Jesus said, you you cannot serve both God and mammon, he's saying, you've got to decide. You can't do both. You either love God, you either love mammon. Choose. That's the word here.
Jeffrey Heine:And so, this is what James means when he says, we're not to doubt. It's it's not that we're supposed to have this perfect intellectual belief, but that we have clearly chosen, in the midst of a trial, where we're going to stand in the midst of this trial. We've decided, and we're not going to waver. So, in our moment of suffering, we're going to choose, Lord, we're gonna lean on you, not on anything else. That's that's what he's talking about.
Jeffrey Heine:That our identity is not gonna be found in this circumstance. My identity is gonna rest firmly on you, Jesus. Because if your identity is not in Christ, and is on something else, you're gonna be what he describes next. Tossed about by the waves with every circumstance. You're gonna be really up one moment, really down the next.
Jeffrey Heine:Up and then down. So if your identity is on how you're doing in your marriage, your identity is how you're doing with your spouse, Well, when you're all lovey dovey, you know, everything's just wonderful. Man, you're you're gonna be up here. And then you get into argument and all of a sudden, you're just crashing down. If your identity is in your work and you're really performing well, you're being productive, your boss is praying you, praising you, and so you're thinking, yes, things are going well.
Jeffrey Heine:God is really for me. God is really blessing me. And you're up. And then all of a sudden, work's not going well, and your boss criticizes you, then all of a sudden you come crashing down. You know, for some of you, it's it's if you're currently in a relationship, if you're currently dating.
Jeffrey Heine:Yes, things are great. God loves me. And then all of a sudden, you're not dating anybody, you're sitting home on a Friday night and you're like, life is miserable. Or parenting, if your children are really good, life's great. If they're bad, it's horrific.
Jeffrey Heine:And James is saying, no. No, no. Choose. Choose. Are you gonna, are you gonna build your identity on a circumstance, or are you gonna build it on Jesus?
Jeffrey Heine:But choose. Build it on the solid rock of Christ. Let me just say this. I'm gonna be really honest. This is gonna hit a number of you.
Jeffrey Heine:I know a number of you that are being tossed about by the waves. I know I've sat down and I've talked with you, and you're up and you're down, and you're up and you're down. You have understanding, means you know the gospel. You have an understanding of the gospel, but you lack wisdom. Because wisdom is the ability to apply understanding to your life.
Jeffrey Heine:Wisdom is the ability to apply the gospel that you understand to your life every day, every moment. I've had conversations with with people who have said, gosh, my life is crazy right now. It's just work. It's just an incredible stress. My family life is terrible.
Jeffrey Heine:Our finances are horrible. We hardly have any time to do things and, and so, that's why you haven't seen me there on Sundays. That's why I'm not, you know, I'm not there at church. Everything's just going crazy. I will have that exact same conversation with somebody else who would say, my life is crazy right now.
Jeffrey Heine:Work is horrible. Marriage is just, gosh, it's just so hard right now. My finances are crazy. That's why I'm there every Sunday. Every Sunday, I can't miss it because I need the gospel.
Jeffrey Heine:And I need to hear it over and over and over again. What you see there, right, is is the definition of doubt. Same circumstances, hitting hitting 2 different people, and one is like, my allegiance and loyalty is here. And I will be tossed about by waves. Another person saying, my allegiance and my loyalty is here.
Jeffrey Heine:No. I need the gospel and I'm gonna rest my identity on Christ. Both of those people have understanding, but only one of them had wisdom. Let me just say, you could see early on where James's loyalties lie, in what he's resting his identity on. I don't know if you got it when he started the letter.
Jeffrey Heine:James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Alright? Now, that'd been me. I'd probably just kind of, you know, put it out there a little bit, James. No big deal, but brother of Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:You know, without, you know, with with Joseph gone and there's, you know, Jesus is now ascended, If you see Jesus as a king, and He has no children, and He has no wife, well, the next person is James, to carry the torch. James to be the man. That's that's how kingdoms work. James could have easily just used that as his identity. I'm on the inside here, because you know, we're we're blood.
Jeffrey Heine:But he doesn't. You see where his identity is. This is James, a servant of God, and of the Lord Jesus, the Messiah. Says, I relate to Jesus just like all of you relate to Jesus. Like all of us should relate to Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:He's my Lord. He's the one who I'm gonna build my life on. I'm not gonna build it on some kind of, like, blood relationship, not like that the inside track. No. I'm building it on his lordship.
Jeffrey Heine:I'm gonna build it on the solid rock of Jesus Christ, the Lord. Let me ask a question. Is this whom you're building your life on? Just even as you look back at this past month, has it been up? Has it been down?
Jeffrey Heine:Has it been up? Has it been down? Lauren and I were this way, at the start of the church, you know, 3, 4 years ago. I can remember when we're trying to see who would come, you know, who wouldn't come and, somebody would come 1 week and they would leave and we're like, we'd crash down. What are we doing?
Jeffrey Heine:Why are we here? You know, why are we doing this? Well it wasn't to serve the Lord Jesus Christ, obviously. Our identity was built on getting people, being affirmed by people. It wasn't being built on the solid rock of Jesus Christ.
Jeffrey Heine:And we had to make this conscious decision, you know, no matter what happens with the church, no matter who comes, who doesn't come, our loyalty is here. And this is where we'll build our identity. Let me tell you this is an ongoing conversation with us in every area of our life. So are you being tossed about by the waves? Or have you landed on the solid rock of Jesus?
Jeffrey Heine:Pray with me. Lord, we are more loved than we can ever imagine, more accepted by you than we could ever imagine. We're also more sinful and flawed than we could ever imagine. We thank you for the cross that washes us of our sins and draws us to you. Our hope, our righteousness is built on that.
Jeffrey Heine:Our identity is built on that. No matter what comes our way, may our loyalties rest with you, lord. So god, we pray for wisdom, for the trials that are ahead. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.