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If you’ve got a Bible this morning, I’m going to encourage you to turn to the Book of James. It’s good to be back. By the way, was out of town in the country learning, learning my slang, getting my my southern dialect on. So, um, if I, if I sound like I’m speaking Twain to you guys this morning, it always happens when I go back east and come back here. Right? So there we go. Book of James. We’re starting this journey together, and we’re the reason we are starting the book of James. Let me let me set the precedent for this book. It’ll lay the foundation for us as we dive into the discussion this morning. James wants to hit it, uh, very hot and heavy from the very get go in the in the book that he writes just after the book of Hebrews in the Old Testament, just a few books from the end of the Bible. And so you can find it there. We’re going to be in chapter one discussing the book of James together. James is considered in the New Testament the what, what Proverbs is to the Old Testament. And when James writes his book, over a half of the verses contained half of the statements were found within this book are given to us in the imperative form. And so what James is saying in the Old Testament, they had the proverbs and how to live wisely. When the New Testament.
I’m going to give you the imperatives of what it looks like to live a godly life as a follower of Christ. And the theme of this book is all about being bold in Christ. It’s about living in authentic, faithful life in Jesus. This book, many scholars believe, was the first one written in the New Testament. Some of the reasons they would include that is one, because it doesn’t include, historically, some of the things that took place in the New Testament church that you would find in other books. Uh, most scholars would say that James came first and then Galatians came second. Sometimes you’ll find some some that believe maybe Galatians would have come before that. But one of the important things that happens in the early church through James is the Council of Acts, chapter 15 and the preservation of the gospel, the gospel of grace. And James doesn’t discuss that in his book, and he writes this book. It tells us in the very beginning verses in verse one that he writes to the 12 tribes that are scattered abroad. James lost his life very early on as a as a believer and a leader for Christ. Um, James led the Jerusalem church and was thrown from the top of a temple down below. He he survived the fall. And so when he when they realized that that didn’t kill him, they then went down and and beat him with clubs until he he died.
And so this book would have had it been written early in Christian history, that James death is somewhere around 62 A.D.. And so James would have written this book somewhere in the 40s A.D., shortly into the beginning of of the early church. And when James writes this book, the fact that he wrote it to the 12 tribes scattered abroad, talking to the 12 tribes of Israel, indicates for us that James is writing very early in Christian history, because the Christian Church started among the Jewish people. And so he’s writing specifically to Jewish Christians about living their new faith in Christ. And the reason that I so much enjoy and reading and studying the book of James is when I consider the background of the life of James. This book becomes very interesting and intrigues me as to what his purpose is in writing this book. And the reason is, is that when James writes this book. Just a few years previous to his life given to Christ, James would have been referred to as a faithless skeptic, meaning he never embraced Christ. In fact, he he rejected him. When you dive into the history of James and you read about his life, you not only do you find that he rejected Christ, but you find that Jesus, that James rejects Christ as Jesus’s brother. James was a brother of Christ, a half brother more specifically of Jesus.
Now, if you’re thinking, how in the world does that work? In my head, Mary was a virgin. Well, she was a virgin, and Jesus was her first child. Okay. And after that, Joseph and Mary, the Bible tells us they had they had many children. But when you read the book of James, the interesting thought in the life of James, you guys are going to have to click for me. James one one tells us James, a bond servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes who were dispersed abroad. Greetings. When when James writes this book, you know I’m thinking I am a person. That’s all about name dropping. If you were the friend of Jesus, why would you not say or the brother of Jesus? Why would you not say in verse one, I am the brother of Jesus? Um uh. I um, every once in a while will meet someone that’s halfway famous and and I like everyone to know about that. Right. James, for some reason, takes a different approach to this. A couple of weeks ago, we had a friend here that looks like Eric Church. I put that on Facebook and everyone, everyone jumped all over it. It was great. Um, but one time I was going from an airplane, riding from an airplane in Columbus to to Salt Lake, and I happened to be getting on the airplane with the professional soccer team from Columbus that was about to play the real Salt Lake in a soccer game, the year that the real Salt Lake team won the world, the World Cup, the Cup, whatever, the whatever the MLS Cup is.
And I met a guy on there and he was a Christian, and I happen to have a Jesus shirt on. And we had this discussion. I think we left like 6:00 at night, flew to Texas, then to Utah, and three in the morning were landing in Utah. And he and I are still talking like a bunch of little schoolgirls. And my wife looks at me and goes, he’s got a game tomorrow. He probably wants you to be quiet. I looked at her thinking, he’s famous. I, I get off, I get off the plane and I just say, hey, since you’re famous, can I tell people? I mean, you don’t have to agree to this, but can I tell people you’re my best friend? He said yes. And so for the next few years, the next few years, I tell everybody my best friend plays professional soccer. I namedrop it so much. I used to make Richie mad. He’d be like, he is not your best friend. Stop telling people that. And one time he ended up getting traded to the earthquake. The year that I think a couple of years ago, when the earthquake was the best team in the MLS and and he retired from that team and he’s driving across the Salt Lake.
And he called me and he asked me if he could stay all night at my house. I’d only ever met him once on a plane. I’m like, yes, yes, sorry. Yes you can. And I had him record a video to Richie saying, Richie, back off Nathaniel, I’m his best friend and main drop. I’m all about that. And James gets this passage and he. And he doesn’t do it. But he does say is a bond servant of Christ. And it’s important to recognize where James wants to qualify himself here. I think in the Jerusalem church that James led, everyone already knew James. Jesus was your brother. Um, and we know that. But what James wanted to be marked by is something more significant than that is the fact that he is a bond servant. And James very carefully chooses the phrase bond servant here. During. During this time in history, people were taken into slavery and slavery. We have a little bit of a different taste in what slavery is about today versus what slavery was at the time. Slavery was not based on race during this time period. Slavery. One person usually typically ended up in slavery because they were either conquered by another nation or they couldn’t pay their debts, and so they would become a slave. And I’ll be honest, sometimes when you study slavery in the early history of slavery, some cases are slaves were treated better than the way that we treat our own people who work the 9 to 5 jobs in society today.
And what I mean is this, um, it’s possible to be faithful to a job in America and work as best you can and not make a sustainable income for your own family. And during this time, slaves, um, when they would serve someone, at least they knew as they served they were going to be taken care of, they were going to be cared for, and they’re going to have their needs met. And sometimes that care was so great that eventually a slave would find his freedom. And as as he looked around at the options that he could do and explore in his freedom, he had a choice. Do I want to leave the household from the job I’m at, or do I want to stay? Well, the word bond slave then begins to describe the individual who willingly chooses to to stay and serve the person or serve their master because they they enjoyed the job that they were given. And James, in this description chooses that for himself. He becomes a bond slave of Christ. James is saying in this passage, I willingly am laying my life down for Christ because I have joy in walking with him. If you were to read this passage as James passed it out, if if you were to have moved from Jerusalem 10 or 15 years previous, and you knew James as James, brother of Jesus, and then all of a sudden you as one of the dispersed tribes of Israel, get this letter from James.
You’re going to be like, what? What? I saw the way that James treated Jesus as his brother. And you’re telling me that James is willingly following Christ and giving all that he has for him? And what happened to James? From skeptic to boldly, faithfully giving his life to serve the King? When you read the gospel stories in Mark three 321, it says this about Jesus from even his own family. When his own people heard of this, they went out to take custody of him, for they were saying, he has lost his senses. And then his mother and his brothers arrived. And standing outside, they sent word to him and called to him. I mean, this this is the response of Jesus’s family when he first began his ministry. He starting that God talk again. Mom, something is wrong with him. I mean, if you had a sibling and said, hey brothers and sisters, you need to know something, I am God. And he’d be thinking, and we love you. And because of that, come with me. We have this special place. We’re going to put you right. I mean to say that you’re God, you grew up with your siblings. There is no way on on God’s green earth that you’re going to say, yeah, that’s God, right? I know my sisters and my brothers.
Right? And Jesus in Mark chapter three and verse 21 is going around declaring his authority as God in this world. And his brothers and sisters are looking at that and just thinking, there is something a little off here. And Mark chapter six, go ahead and give me the next slide. It says this. And in the beginning of Mark six is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joseph, and Judas and Simon naming Jesus’s siblings, are not his sisters here with us? And they took offense at him. And Jesus said to them, A prophet is not without honor, except in his own hometown and among his own relatives and in his own household. I mean, Jesus even knew my brothers and sisters. Literally. They turned their backs on me. They do not embrace what I’m sharing with them. He even goes on and says in John seven and verse two, give me another click. He says, after these things Jesus was walking in Galilee, for he was unwilling to walk in Judea. Listen to this, because the Jews were seeking to kill him. I’m not going to Judea anymore. I’m going to get killed. How much do your brothers love you? Jesus. Well, listen now, the feast of the Jews, the feast of the booths, was near. Therefore his brother said to him, leave here and go to Judea.
Jesus, we love you. Go visit your killers. And this was James. This was his approach to Christ. And you know what? I can’t blame him. If you’ve got in your life one of those perfect siblings, everything you do can’t measure up to Jesus, right? Like, mom, I brought home an A. That’s good. But Jesus had a pluses, right? Mom, look what I did. I mowed the lawn. Well, Jesus manicured everything. But just a prayer. How do you compete with that? And there’s jealousy among the brothers, so much so that they reject them, so much so that the Bible tells us that they they asked Jesus to go visit the very people that want to kill him. And so what happens in the life of James? First Corinthians 15 tells us. Tells us in the beginning of verse one, it talks about the gospel. Yeah, it says, 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. Bible then begins to describe that Jesus appeared to several people and includes this in verse six. He appeared to more than 500 brethren at one time, and then he also appeared to James. And the Bible doesn’t tell us that James was present at the cross. But the Bible does tell us that the women were there and that Jesus’s mother was there.
And I’d like to even think, as you consider that the ladies are at the cross as Christ is being crucified. I can imagine just being Mary in those moments. I mean, if you’ve ever held your child in their arms and just looked at the delicacy of a child and you see the beauty of their hands and you just appreciate what God’s done, I love, I love it when my littlest son now he wants when he wants attention, he reaches for you and you grab and you pull him up and he just he strokes your face or likes to touch you. He interacts with you by physical touch just to see those hands. When you think about the life of Mary now outside of the cross of Christ, seeing those hands that she loved all of her life, and now seeing her son in those very hands, being crucified. I mean, the women were present. And I think possibly even Jesus’s sisters could be there. And you think mom, devastated by that circumstance, possibly even the sisters of Jesus, devastated by that circumstance, then go to the brothers of Jesus. And even though they had hate towards him in that moment of loss, they just grieve over the absence of Christ. Maybe even the missed opportunities. Maybe they even think back to the time of John chapter seven, where they said things that now that they regret.
And they’re devastated by what’s happened. And then in first Corinthians 15, the Bible tells us that Jesus appears to James. And when James sees the resurrected Christ, it transforms his life. He realizes all the promises and all the things that he came, came to do were accomplished. That Jesus has now defeated sin, Satan, and death. And James now dedicates his whole life into following Christ. So much so that the Bible tells us in acts chapter one that James and his family then go into the upper room, and there with the early church, when it’s established that 120 people gather in that upper room in prayer before the Holy Spirit comes, that when Paul becomes a believer, it tells us that he goes back to Jerusalem. Having visited Damascus, he heads back to Jerusalem and he, he, he visits with James. And in James and Galatians chapter two and verse nine, uh, Paul refers to James and John and Peter as the pillars of Christianity. James became bold in his faith. In James now, having gone from skeptic to now, faithful follower of Christ leading the Jerusalem church, is looking at the Jerusalem church and the condition that it’s in recognizing the pressure that’s facing them. The Jerusalem Church was was a very poor church. They suffered from famine and persecution. And now James, the brother of Jesus, is called to lead this, so much so that eventually it will take his own life and standing for Christ in Jerusalem.
History even tells us that after James lost his life, that that Jesus’s brother Simon then steps in and becomes the second leader of of the Jerusalem church. It wasn’t a choice of James life because of the lavish lifestyle that he received from leading this church, but one of dedication because the church there had little to offer but James, and seeing the resurrected Christ, it so much changed his life that he desired to pursue living for Christ, no matter what the cost was in his life. And it looks at the early church. And the question that he considers is he thinks about what Jesus has done in his own life. How can I encourage him? How can I see the maturity of Christ working in them as God has been working in me? Do you know the number one problem that affects the church today? It’s the number one problem that’s affected the church since the beginning. Let’s. Maturity. James. One of the themes within this book deals with the perfection of our relationship to Christ. To get where God desires for us. We have to be willing to understand where where God desires wants us to gain wisdom in him and and walk in those ways. All of us at some point in our lives, shared the story of James, where we go from no faith to faith.
And hopefully, as we put our faith in Christ, that faith continues to grow. And that is James desire in this passage of Scripture. And when James starts to begin his conversation with us to the 12 tribes who are scattered abroad, the contents of this are addressed, addressed to the Jewish Christians. But the application can be drawn to all of us because it’s speaking to the church and the maturity of their faith as they walk with God. And James, as he starts his discussion with us, doesn’t start lightly. He starts with the topic of struggles. He starts with the topic of trials. And I got to be honest in talking about trials, every time I read this section in the book of James, I say to myself, you know, that’s good, but I want to skip it. You know, I’ll do 99% of everything else in the Bible. And one of the things I understand is I look at this verse, is that God is still working the contents of what this verse talks about in my life in these moments, and will continue to do it for the rest of my life. Do you know why? Because the trials never end, and every time I’m faced with a trial in my life, I must answer a question, walk faithfully with God, or turn away from him and trust myself in the circumstance in my own flesh. When I go through the trials, what I want to do is react in those trials and say, God, that’s good.
Hold on just a second. I got to live for me for a minute and handle this and then beat it up and then come back and let’s get this right. Jesus. Let’s fix this right. One of my own tendencies. This is just me talking about my sinfulness. Whenever I am very tested and I feel myself about to pop, usually if my wife’s with me, she recognizes it and says something. My remark is always the same. It’s wrong, but they’re just lucky they didn’t see me 15 years ago before I knew Jesus, right? Now I got to live for Christ. And there’s tension and struggle with that. And James says it in verse one or chapter, uh, excuse me, chapter one and verse two. Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials. Meaning he’s saying to you and I. It’s not that you might encounter trials, but that you will encounter trials. They’re going to happen in your life. You can’t escape them. You live in a fallen world and we see that recognition daily. And so for us in our lives, we’ve got to answer the question do you desire to live in those trials apart from God, or learn to walk with God through them? In this verse that James is about to share with us is basically going to say. If life hands you lemons.
This is how you make lemonade. In your life. Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials. Knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance and let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Uh, you read that at first glance, you think is is this a joke? Right? Consider it joy in my trials. I mean, that sounds like a contradictory term. How does how does one even begin to reconcile joy and trials together? I mean, one of my one of my favorite books to wrestle with in the Bible is the book of Philippians. They say usually that the theme of Philippians is joy. And when you look at that book, you understand that Paul is writing that from prison, and James is talking about joy and a church who’s suffering with famine, lack of money, and persecution. Consider it all joy. We all have trials that we will struggle through. I can’t help but think that as James starts his book with this, there is nothing more relevant to touch every person’s life than that of trials and how how we experience joy. Before I talk about the joint trials, what it really is, let me tell you about what it what it’s not. I see some Christians that try to make this verse mean some really wacky things. Um, let me let me just first tell you that nobody wants to be picked for a trial, right? When you leave here today.
Don’t be like, man, I got to. I’m going to go find trial after trial after trial. That’s not even what I’m talking about. Trials are going to happen naturally, okay? And when trials happen, that doesn’t mean that the trial in of itself is what brings you joy, but the circumstances around it, you can discover joy in that. It’s not like saying, you know, punch me in the face. Oh, that felt good, right? I’m so happy. Punch me in the face again. Yeah. It’s not that is. That’s torture. That’s not the type of joy that the Bible is talking about. I mean, you don’t wreck your car and be like, man, I’m so glad I’m Joy, right? That’s not what James is saying here. It doesn’t mean also that that you find the more worst scenario to fix your bad scenario. Meaning? Meaning if, if if your dog gets run over by a car, you don’t walk by somebody and be like, hey, well, at least it wasn’t your kid. Have joy, you know, or, or your, your car got gets smashed and you say, well, at least it wasn’t your house. You know that, Joy? It could be worse. That’s not what James is talking about in this passage either. You know, when we think about the pain of this world. I don’t see Jesus excited for the cross when I read the Gospels.
I see Jesus faithful to the call. But even in the garden he says, Lord, let this cup pass. Nevertheless, not my will. But your will be done. And he endured the pain. I see Jesus in thinking about pain. We looked at Matthew 23 just a couple of weeks ago, weeping over Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. How I’ve desired to gather you to myself as a mother gathers our mother hen gathers her chicks under her wings. I see a Jesus who sympathizes with our struggles and recognizes that our trials are real in our trials cause pain. So what does it mean to find joy in trial? What a trial means to us is that you don’t run two trials. But what it also means to us is that you don’t run from them. Sometimes when I’m faced with a trial, I selfishly make it all about me. You know, one of the things that just blows me away about Jesus is when when you read John 13 to John 17, the last six hours Jesus has spending with his disciples and me, in that circumstance, I would be all about me. I’m thinking I’m going to the cross here and you guys need to know that, and you need to be sad and you need to talk to me. You need to pat me on the back. You give me stuff. Just do whatever for these last six hours. Make it about me, please.
You know what Jesus does. Washes the disciples feet. He serves, even the one who betrays him. Christ in the final hours of his life, you would never even know he’s going to the cross, except that he he shares it as he’s serving other people. He’s completely selfless, and trials for us don’t mean that you have to run for them. Um, but it also means that you don’t have to run to them. When I read a passage like this. Count it all joy, my brothers. When you encounter various trials, what what James is first giving us the opportunity to do is simply just be honest with them. Be honest with the fact that you’re in a trial. You know, one of the most helpful things I get when I walk with Jesus is for me to acknowledge before I go into something that I know is difficult, is that I’m about to go into something that looks difficult, because in the midst of that difficulty, I’m looking for God to direct me with joy in that circumstance. Um, I call this rich people problem. So listen to me complain for a second. Um, I’ll tell you why I call it rich people problems in a minute. But when I when I was flying back east last night, I had a flight. We left at like 330 in the morning from here and got back at, I don’t know, 6:00 yesterday. And we have two little kids and at some point they test me.
Right. I don’t know if you’ve ever gone through, through an airport with a three year old and a one year old, but but it’s not easy, especially when you’re one year old wants to get down and crawl and you’ve got to hold them through dirty airports on planes. They scream, they cry. It’s difficult to do. We had a delay, a layover. God, I got tested even more in that, you know, you don’t. You don’t necessarily want that. So. So you know what you do before you go through something like that. As you acknowledge that this situation isn’t exactly the easiest of predicaments. I want to make myself aware of where my weaknesses might come out. Because where we tend to get weak as peoples, where we fall. The reason I like to skip a passage like this is the challenge that’s found in it. A verse like this shows me my my weaknesses. Consider it joy. Brothers, when you encounter various trials. I don’t want to do that. I want to be selfish and think about me and cry and complain. The reason I call that rich person problems is because I get to fly a plane. You know, we’re looking at James and he’s talking about people that are no money and famine and persecution, and I’m comparing it to a little plane trip that’s rich people problems, right? But even in that.
I’m tested. And I’m tried. The reason we have a problem with a passage like this. When we look at it as challenging as sometimes we we come to a verse like this and we think that what the Christian life is about is just to be happy, right? And so if you think you know, the Christian life is about you just being happy, and you don’t walk with Jesus in the difficult circumstances, but act in the flesh, but then choose to walk with Jesus when things are going right. That is not the Christian life. The Christian life is not about being happy though. When you walk with Jesus, there is joy. The Christian life. That’s why James says this the Christian life is about sanctification. The Christian life is about what God is doing in you and through you. And you can never escape difficult circumstances in this world because you live in a fallen and broken world. And so if you look at this passage of Scripture thinking that the Christian life is just about being happy, it won’t make sense. Meaning, if you value comfort more than character, then trials will upset us. If we value the material and the physical more than the spiritual, we will not be able to cope and discover the joy. If we live only for the present and forget about the future, then trials will make us bitter and not better. And what James is saying in this circumstance is that, yes, the circumstance may be difficult, but there’s joy to discover it because God has a greater purpose in the trial that you are going through.
And so he writes the whole passage. Consider it joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance, he distinguishes a trial for us as a test, and let endurance have its perfect, perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Remember for us that trials are all about this test. It gives us an opportunity to discover where we are in our relationship with God. And when James describes it for us, he says this count it all joy. Or consider it all joy. The thought and the Greek text means this to evaluate. A faith that is tested is a faith that’s proven. A faith that is tried demonstrates to us really where our hope is in Christ. And the Bible shares with us what’s called the fruit of the spirit love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness. I love this one long suffering in some Greek or some English translations. It’ll say like, you don’t get to experience those things without the adversity to those things. And what I mean is this anyone in the world can love when it’s easy to love any. Anyone in the world can have joy when things are going your way. Anyone can have patience when they don’t have kids on an airplane, right? Anyone can be long suffering.
As long as you don’t have to suffer for long. But it’s when trials come that you are able to see if the Spirit of God is truly directing your life, because the fruit of that spirit is all of those things at one time love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness. See, it’s when trials come that it gives us the opportunity to discover within ourselves where our hope is really resting. To find out if if the sanctification of our walk with Christ is really what’s important. Because here’s what happens when it isn’t. When things are tough, you react in yourself. You want to know if your walk with Jesus is genuine? Look at where you are when life gets hard. I can pacify. I can justify my behavior based on someone else’s. But Jesus holds us accountable for that. God says His Spirit works in all circumstances. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. It displays itself even in adversity. Jesus was able to do that going to the cross because Jesus was led by the spirit. Consider it all joy or count it all joy. Meaning? Evaluate. Trials give us the opportunity to evaluate the circumstance, to see if what we’re doing is really holding true to what Christ has called us to in this world. The trials are going to happen. But Jesus can walk with you through that. Philippians Paul said the same thing in chapter three and verse eight.
He says, count it all things to be lost, or evaluate all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish, so that I may gain Christ. And Paul says, you know, I don’t run to trials, but I don’t run from trials. And what trials do for me is they give me an opportunity to evaluate really where my faith lies. A faith that is tested is a faith that is proven. And God builds our faith in trials, really more than any other circumstance. Paul says in second Corinthians 417 for our light affliction, which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. And in Romans five three says, we glory in tribulations also, knowing that the tribulation works, patience and patience brings experience, and experience offers for us hope. The trials work as an opportunity to test the faith that we have in Christ. And when our faith shines forth, it brings us joy in walking with him. The best way we develop our faith. So the patience and character resting in Christ through our trials. You look at this passage first four verses and you say, okay, I get it. I get we. It gives us an opportunity to evaluate where our hope really rests.
I mean, you read Hebrews chapter 12 and verse two. Jesus says that he endured the cross for the joy set before him, meaning the circumstance looked difficult. The the cross was not easy, but he saw the bigger picture of what it brought and the opportunity to reconcile us to him. In our trial, we see the bigger picture taking place that through adversity, it’s demonstrating the genuineness of our faith and what Christ is doing in you. And in a moment where you would normally have reacted as your sinful self years ago, now you’re seeking the will of Christ because Jesus is transforming your life, and you can see it through the test of a trial, and in that it brings you joy because you recognize you’re not alone. But now that Christ is working in you. But even in the midst of the trial, if I’m just being honest with you, I’ve got to say to you, I never feel prepared. You know, here. Here I am in ministry, serving as a pastor. But every time someone comes to me with a challenge, I go through that brief moment in my mind where I just brace, say a quick prayer, talking to Christ, and then interact in the conversation. And I think James knows that’s what happens to all of us in trials. You go through that trial and you have that holy cow moment, you know, like what is about to come my way.
My God, I hear you saying, find you in this and experience joy in you in this. But I am not ready for this. And you grab a hold of your seat and you you grin and you get ready to bear it. And then James writes verse five, and he says this. For us in our faith. He talks about wisdom. He says. But if any of you lack wisdom, let me just stop there and say, That’s James nice way of saying everyone who is ignorant. I mean, if this is you, yes, it’s all of us. Here we go. If any of you lacks wisdom, all of us lack wisdom. Well, then let him ask of God. Who gives to all generously, generously, and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting. For the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For the man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord. Being a double minded man, unstable in all his ways. Meaning when that trial comes. Let your faith rest in Christ. Because if you’re not doing so, you’re not finding joy in the circumstance and you begin to rock and teeter. You don’t know if God’s going to supply the wisdom that you need to get through the circumstance. And so you begin to waver in what your expectation is in Christ, and it tells you that you’re just tossed back and forth.
You ever you ever seen someone that’s intelligent but not wise. Sometimes you can meet this. You can meet people that are really intellectual. They go through school and they’ve got all the brain knowledge, but they’re dumber than a box of rocks. Lack wisdom. Knowledge is about information and wisdom is about transformation. Knowledge is about knowing, and wisdom is about application. When James is talking about praying before God here, he’s not telling the church, pray for truth because he’s walking with us, understanding they’re smart enough to read the Bible. You’re gaining God’s knowledge. But where we lack is how to apply it in circumstances. And to do so, we need wisdom. And so when we’re faced with a circumstance not quite sure what to do with our hands. Or bring it before the Lord. God, I’ve been walking with you. God. I’ve been reading your word. And now here comes the storm. I see it. And God, I’m not quite sure how to respond to it, but I’m not running away from the trial. I’m not afraid of the trial because I know within these moments, Lord, you’re working in me. I’m trusting with joy in you, in this. And I have joy because of this, Lord. Because I know you have been working with me. Because if you hadn’t, I would have already gone to that circumstance and beat that person up.
But Lord, what you want me to do in this is to let your glory be made known. And so God with joy I walk in this. And got through the back end of this test. I see my faith in you growing. If any of you lack wisdom. Let him ask of God. Wisdom gives us the details of how to specifically endure. If you ever read the Book of Job, that is a long, longer poetic book on a circumstance of a man who endures great trials in his life. Do you know in that whole book of job suffering, he never really gets an answer as to the specifics of why he’s suffering. But do you know, you know, what job is looking for in that whole book? All he demands is just presence with God. He wants to come before the presence of God and cry out before him. And at the end of the book, he gets the opportunity to do so. And God’s response to him is this he, God? When God meets job, he fires off like 60. Some questions to job. Like could you imagine job? Maybe thinking he’s so smart in those moments and then all of a sudden, God, pop quiz, it’s 60 some questions job and job’s are, I don’t know the answer to that. God. Like he’s just firing after him. He’s like, job, where were you when this happened? Job, where were you when this happened? Job.
Do you even understand what I’m doing here? Just like. No, no I don’t. But here’s here’s the comfort that job gets. God’s with them. When it comes to trials. Um. I don’t know that we can always, at least in the moment of the trial, understand the purpose that God has for it, or how God can work it out for his glory. This is what I always rest. Assuring is that if Jesus can take the cross, the most despicable place on earth, and work it out for his glory, God can take any trial that I face and work it out for his glory. In that circumstance more than just knowing everything that I need to know about the trial. You know what I really need more than anything? Is that I have the strength to get through it. And the only way that I’m going to do that the right way is through God. Maybe I’ll say it this way. When it comes to wisdom, which is the right application of the truth, that’s God that God has given us. Real wisdom only comes from God. And so when I’m facing a trial, more than just understanding the why of the trial, what I need to know is that God’s presence is with me. And that God will offer his wisdom to the circumstance. And James gives us that promise here. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach.
Meaning he’s saying to us church, he’s not going to hold it back from you. God doesn’t want you to fail in circumstances through the trials that all of us will face, regardless if we want to do it with God or with God. God wants us to live victoriously in that. And God wants us to have joy in that. But most importantly, God wants to walk with you in that. And God, as he’s walking with you, he wants you to see the transformation that he is bringing into your life. God wants you to think about the fruit of the spirit in the midst of trial of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness. God wants to manifest that in your world. And rather than you take hold of your trial and fight it on your own and run away from God and then come back to God when it’s over, God wants you to walk with him in it and just trust him in the midst of that adversity. God’s desire for us is not to walk with sea legs in this world. But to walk with him in the midst of those circumstances. And James is writing this to the early church thinking, you know, what we always will lack in our lives is maturity. We don’t handle circumstances right. And he’s looking at the early church, and he’s thinking to them, you know, their circumstance looks hard to them, but they’re not thinking of the bigger, the bigger picture of what God desires to do in them and through them in this moment.
And I know that we shared just during the Old Testament. We shared the life of Daniel. But I love the story of Daniel because Daniel in chapter six and verse ten, the Bible tells us that he’s told not to pray before God, uh, because it’s a law of the land now. And Daniel then decides that he’s going to pray anyway. And he goes and prays, and he gets thrown into the lion’s den. And I look at that circumstance and think, God, where were you in that? Like Daniel prayed, you’re not supposed to throw him in jail because he prayed. That’s what that’s what you do. You make things happy. But the Bible tells us that Daniel was thrown in jail. And I think in those moments, Daniel’s probably thinking the same thing. God, where in the world are you in this? God, give me wisdom for this. The Bible tells us that God seals the mouths of the lion, then takes them out of the jail. And then King Darius, in verses 25 to 27 of that same chapter, then praises the God of Daniel. Daniel’s faithfulness. In that moment, Daniel sees the Babylonian king praising her, the Medo-persian king praising the God that Daniel worships. Even the midst of adversity.
Daniel’s faithful. So give me another click. So James starts to conclude this way, but the brother of humble circumstances, to the glory in his high position, and the rich man is to glory in his humiliation, because like a flowering grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with a scorching wind, and withers like grass. And it flower, flower falls off, and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed. And so too the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away. So James just takes two people and two circumstances, and he’s just saying, listen, we’ve all got trials. Doesn’t matter if you got money or you don’t have money. We’ve all got trials. In fact, he goes further on the life of a rich man. I think the more wealth I have, the more responsibility comes from that and the more accountability before God. All of us have something that we struggle with. I mean, when you go in this world and you fight trials, don’t compare yourself to someone else, because someone may be really good at handling one circumstance and you’re comparing them to, but really bad at another one they don’t want you to even be aware of, right? We’ve all got trials to go through. And James is saying in these moments, regardless of what position you find yourself, on what side of the road you may lie on, it’s important to recognize your position in God regardless of what you face.
And so he says in verse 12, the conclusion of this passage. Blessed is a man who perseveres under trials. For once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him. Jesus indicates or excuse me, James indicates at the end of this. Really what significantly holds it all together? He talks about joy again at the end, but he says this it’s promised to those who love him. I mean, the thing that draws you near to God in the midst of your trials is the love that you carry for God above your circumstances and your expectations. Where you say to God, God, I don’t understand maybe exactly everything that’s happening here, but I know it’s hard and I’m recognizing it’s looking difficult, and I want to lay it down for you. And I know the most important thing in this world is my relationship with you, God, because you you supply the wisdom that I need in this circumstance, Lord. And so it’s that love that brings me here. He says in this passage that you’re going to receive the crown of life. I’ll read some different commentators on what this crown of life was talking about, but I enjoyed the last one. I said, and this is this is the last one I read, and this is what he said. Um, the Crown of Life is really figuring out how to live this life the way that God has created you to live it.
I mean, when you understand how to walk with Jesus, even in the most difficult trials that you face, that is that is the crown of what life is all about. Faithfulness to Christ and loving lovingly walking with him. When I look at what James is saying to the early church in this passage of Scripture, I’m thinking James is looking at what the church started off as skeptical people who wanted Jesus dead. They go into an upper room of just 120 people, which is usually what the typical Alpine Bible Church is. And you think, man, how are we even going to begin to do what God has called us to do in this world? That looks like a trial to me. May I see Jesus saying, storm down the gates of hell? And then I think of the numbers that we have and I say, God, impossible. That is a trial. The. That is an obstacle that we would have to overcome. God, how could we even do that? And James, looking at this early church scattered abroad, facing persecution, all the trials ahead of them says this to live victoriously, as Christ has called you to, to watch the Christian church conquer the known Roman Empire. It learns how to walk with maturity in Christ in the midst of all circumstances, that the glory of Jesus would be made known.
Anyone can reflect a Jesus looking life. When life gives. Easy. But I would say this only ones that are concerned with the Kingdom of Christ walk with joy in Christ in the midst of trials, because of the power of the Spirit of God working within you. So here’s here’s the reminder for us this morning. Reflect on what God desires for you to do and the trials you face in this world. Reflect on what God desires for you to trust in and the trials that you face in this world. Anyone can display the fruit of the spirit when it’s easy to display the fruit of the spirit. But it’s the glory of his church that has the power to display the fruit of the spirit in the midst of trials, that the goodness of who Christ is can be made known. You know, a thing that destroys the earth. The church. The lack of unity in the church. The lack of unity in the church comes from a distrust in the trials that we face in relationships with each other. We care too much about our own personal feelings, to lay ourselves down and die to the greater good that God has called us to. And so we’ll fight. And we’ll leave. And will win our battle on our own selfish way, but totally abandoned what God’s called us to. It’s in the midst of trials. The God’s glorious made known. And you resting in that find his joy and completion. Walking with you.