Please take the Bibles and turn with me to the book of Jacob!
I’m hearing murmurs! The Book of James – James 1 And the intention was to look at James 1: 1-4 but when I looked at the time, as of writing this sermon, I already hit 30 minutes…and counting other things that I tend to add as I go through, I thought, OK, I’m gonna stop here. But it was amazing because I’ve always said John MacArthur takes too long. It is one verse and then it goes on and on and on. Here I am today! And we will be looking at the first phase. And I have titled this sermon How Faith React to Trials…How Faith React to Trials.
Now I… I… like I said the last time that I started James with the introduction. James is not an easy book. I didn’t know this when I went to James. In my discussions with Karl trying to see where we could go, I had no idea that choosing James would bring about what I am seeing – just in the first verse! We haven’t even gone in yet. John, think it’s John – Karl, whose named the son of thunder? – John-James?. Is it John-James or just John? James, I think… he’s the one who is the son of thunder. I think I’ll stick with John being the apostle of love and James being the son of thunder! James does not mess around He doesn’t need there is to him. There is no grey In a Christian’s life. There are only a Christian, or a false Christian. There’s nothing in between – and others see James as a test – Like 1st John – a test of faith. And that’s fine! One could look at 1st John and say: “John, test whether you have two faiths. “And James, test whether your faith reflects in your life. That’s fine – can look at that! But others look at James as a series of conducts behavior that must be present In the Christians life, for them to justify their Christian claim of being a Christian. Look… look at it that way! Others look at it as…Christians will come across things in life. Christians will come across things in life. A true Christian will react to the events of life in a particular way – look at it that way! All those Summarized explain James.
Now the main point for the book of James – I’m not even going to divide this main point into different sermons, because James has one point and he just keeps hitting one with all different things and his point is this: It is not enough to be a Christian if this fact, of being a Christian does not show in ones’ conduct.

Now we always go to the historical background because that helps us to frame our understanding. Of envy and with regards to James, we’ve gone through at length in my previous sermon, which is in YouTube, if you want to go in there and get a historical background in more detail. But I just touched on some of it.
Well, who wrote the letter of James? Well, it was written by James and James, the Lord’s brother. Cos, there’s four people in the Bible called James. And go back to the last sermon, and you will find out. But we know that it was the Lord’s brother who wrote it, and he was also the leader at the Jerusalem church.
OK, so who are the recipients of the letter of James? Well, James is writing to Jewish Christians who fled Jerusalem because of the persecution that led to the death of Stephen – I’m talkingActs 6..Acts 7 – around that time. They are very poor and oppressed and were caused immense suffering by the rich. Their Christian lives were in shambles. As a result, and they began to reflect more the world than Christ. Because of what they were going through. So, when and where did James write this book? Or this letter or this epistle?
While the most probably is in the middle to the late 40s. That is, between AD45 to AD48. It is the most probable time that he could have penned this letter – and he was in Jerusalem at that time.
Why did he hide this? Like, what is the purpose?
Well, the purpose of the letter is that James commands his readers… his recipients to stop compromising with worldly values and behaviour and give themselves wholly to the Lord. Now spiritual wholeness is the central concern of the letter and the main point of the whole book.
As I said, is that it is not enough to be a Christian, if this fact, that’s not so you want context. Now, that’s the historical context. That’s the first thing you do when you study any bible, you go to the historical context.

The second thing that you go to is the literary context, the book content. What’s… what’s the content of the book itself? Well, James is not the easiest books to…to determine his point… his logic is not chronological – in a sense. He picks up everything, everywhere – as he wishes.
He’s the leader of the Church, I suppose he can do as he wishes.
It’s very difficult then to and… and… and commentators and scholars are all over the place where it comes to this but in general
You’ve got an opening verse which is James 1: 1 and then fromJames 1: 2-18, the opening statement introduces 7 of the basic concerns of James.
• The of endurance and testing.
• The importance of unwavering faith.
• The problems of poverty and wealth.

And then that – that’s sort of the first part from James 1: 2-18, from James 1: 19 - 2: 26. The thing there is the need to put the word of God into practice. Christians are to be do-ers of the Word for true religion, involve practical opinions, such as showing love to the poor by not discriminating against them. A faith that has no works is a gross representation of true Christian faith. That’s sort of the 2nd stance and this really just a “general brush.”
The third one is community strife, and its antidote is the general topic of the third main section. Starting from James 3: 1 - 4: 12. Here wisdom from below, with its envy and selfishness, leads to harsh critical speech and is the root of quarrels playing in the church. These things can be overcome to humble repentance before God.
And the last one, the second last is which is the 4th section which as we do 4 verse 13 to chapter 5, verse 11.
And then gives you the kind of attitude and behavior that should characterize life in the last days. Because life is too uncertain, Human arrogance is to be renounced and believers should look patiently to the Lord’s return as we struggle with the oppression brought on them by worldly prosecutors…persecutors.
The final section, which is fromJames 5: 15-20, takes up the issue of hopes and failure and concludes with the encouragement to bring sinners to repent.

 

This Week in Part 1:

The Author –vv1a James 1: 1

• The Recipient – vv1b James 1: 1
• The Command – James 1: 2

• The Reason for The Command – James 1: 3

• The Purpose of The Command – James 1: 4