James Introduction | James 1:1

I invite you to turn in your Bibles to the book of James, chapter one. After walking through the Old Testament book of Genesis for almost two years, today we begin a new journey together through the New Testament book of James. And now you may ask, why James? Well, as we walked through Genesis, we saw the foundational beginnings of what it looks like to trust and follow God by faith. God, by His own initiative, called out a people from among a world in rebellion against Him and told them, "You will be My people, and I will be your God," to proclaim to the nations who He is.

And though God unfailingly and patiently proves true to His promises, the people of God themselves often stumbled, tripped over their own two feet, and continually put themselves in all sorts of sticky situations on their journey of faith. And I know many times as we walked through Genesis, reading the accounts of our faltering forefathers, we likely thought, what is wrong with these people? I mean, sure, they didn't have many of the advantages we enjoy today, but come on, how hard is it just to do what God says?

You know, it's easy to look at someone else's faith with criticism. It's easy to look at the fruits of someone else's life and say, can you believe what they did or didn't do? But it can be difficult then to turn the camera around and ask of ourselves, what about my own journey of faith?

So let me ask it this way. If God put your story in the Bible, how would it read? Your family journey, the place and people among whom God has strategically placed you to display His glory, and the ups and downs of your own spiritual walk?

Even with our advantages — God's very written Word, and thousands of years of history of God faithfully working in and through His people, God the Holy Spirit living inside us, and God's salvific work through Jesus Christ on our behalf — if God put our story in the Bible as He did with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, how would we stack up?

You say, well, I don't like that question. Can't we go back and point fingers at other people? Well, the reality is, church, that God still leads His people by grace, through faith. God still calls out sinners to be His people, and He is faithful to be their God. God is still making a bold, urgent, salvific proclamation through His people to the nations about who He, the one true God, is. As Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:20, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us now. Christian, that means something.

That means something for the lives that we live and how we live them. That means faith in God is not just an ascent to a system of ideas or knowledge of some Bible facts. Our faith in God is to be living. Our faith in God is to display the gospel. Our faith in God is to be proof of resurrected life in Jesus Christ through the power of God, the Spirit.

But how do we live that out? What does such a gospel display look like? How can our lives be proof of something so much higher than ourselves and even beyond our reach?

Well, the book of James has been called a practical manual for Christian living. It is not a historical narrative like the Gospels or Acts. It's not a grand theological, systematic exposition like the book of Romans. It's not a prophetic work requiring vast Old Testament knowledge like the book of Revelation. Now, the book of James is a simple book about living out the Christian faith. But just because it is simple, don't think it is easy.

While some New Testament books, especially the letters or epistles, often leave readers saying, if I understood it, I would do it, James can often leave readers saying, well, I understand it, but I can't do it.

In response to this instinct, however, we must remember James is calling us not to good works in and of themselves, but good works that point to something greater. This is important. James is not calling us to earn our salvation. He is calling us to display the salvation that is already there in Christ. Now, this brief five-chapter letter will challenge us. That's okay, it's even good. But the purpose of James's letter is not just to poke at us, or to step on our toes, or smack us around for being bad Christians. Now, in the end, James is meant to point us beyond ourselves and to Christ.

The book reminds us that Jesus Christ came to save sinners like you and like me. And when God saves someone in Christ, He does so for a reason. Ephesians 2:8–10 says:

"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

So as we remember the good news of Jesus Christ, that a perfect God rescues broken people like us, let this book cause us to consider how our lives can serve, in our day and our time and our circles, as living gospel proof.

So let's read James chapter one, beginning in verse one:

"James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes of the Dispersion: Greetings."

All right, let's stop there. I think that's all we can handle for today.

Now, the first word in the first verse of the first chapter is James. Now, it's important, before we read the New Testament letter from his hand that bears his name, we understand who this James is.

Well, in short, James was not an apostle. He was not one of Jesus's twelve disciples. He was not a priest or a scholar. Yet despite his lackluster resume, James had an incredibly unique perspective from which to speak about Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, the rescuer, the Christ.

James was Jesus's younger brother. Now, James is mentioned by name in Matthew 13:55, as people were saying of Jesus, "Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas?" Now, given that Jesus was conceived in Mary miraculously by the Holy Spirit, James would have technically been Jesus's half brother. But by all accounts, people would have known James as Jesus's brother. His parents were Mary and Joseph.

James and Jesus would have played childhood games together, climbed trees together, eaten the same meals at the same family table together. In every way, James grew up with Jesus, having a close, intimate relationship with He who was indeed the Son of God.

Now, early on, even though James was not a disbeliever in Jesus, he cannot be said to have been a believer in Jesus as the Messiah and the truest Savior. In John 7:3–5 we read, "So Jesus's brothers said to him, 'Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.' For not even his brothers believed in him."

In Mark 3, as Jesus was beginning to attract unruly crowds and suspicions from the religious elite for His teaching, Mark 3:21 we read, "When His family heard it, they went out to seize Him, for they were saying, 'He is out of His mind.'"

Now, James knew Jesus's character. He even knew, to a degree, Jesus's otherworldly capabilities and nature. Yet James, like many others, thought of Jesus just as a good man, a gifted communicator, or a teacher, even a miracle worker. But he did not understand or acknowledge Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah.

Now, when James finally came to saving faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior in God, we aren't exactly sure. First Corinthians 15:7 tells us that after Jesus's resurrection, Jesus graciously appeared to James, either to instill or to bolster his faith. Acts 1:14 tells us that James, his siblings, as well as their mother Mary, were with Jesus's initial followers shortly thereafter. And as Acts unfolds, we see James quickly become a pillar and a leader of the fledgling church in Jerusalem alongside Peter and John. So James at some point did become a believer.

Now, if James wasn't an initial disciple of Jesus during His public ministry, did he just hop on the bandwagon after the resurrection, hoping to profit from his unique position as Jesus's brother? Hardly. Like many in the early church, there was nothing for James to gain by aligning himself with the recently crucified Messiah.

In fact, doing so only brought James controversy, persecution, and vast responsibility. With incredibly limited resources, we even learn from first-century historians that James was martyred for his faith in AD 62, stoned to death by scribes and Pharisees for refusing to renounce his commitment to Jesus as the Christ.

Before his death, however, he came to be known as James the Just, because of his humility, his righteousness, and his piety. James the brother, James the skeptic, James even the objector, became James the follower of Jesus Christ.

Now, James likely wrote these words in the mid-to-later 40s AD, as the book of Acts was unfolding in real time and space. And this would have been only fifteen years or so after Jesus's life, ministry, death, and resurrection. So given the time of its writing, this would have been the first New Testament document written, and as far as we know, the first Christian writing of any kind. Now, being the oldest of the twenty-seven New Testament books, James represents then the early stages of Christian teaching among the church, many of whom had also been eyewitnesses to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. So James, who served in a hotbed of unprecedented religious controversy and church growth, was an important figure in the early church.

We know by Acts chapter 12, James was recognized as a leader of the church at Jerusalem, and he even chaired the major council of apostles at Jerusalem in Acts chapter 15. In Acts 21:17–18, Luke records, "When we had come to Jerusalem, the brothers received us gladly. On the following day, Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present." So James was, what might be considered today, a lead pastor among a plurality of pastor-elders at the church in Jerusalem.

But notice, James doesn't introduce himself as a great and significant church figure. He doesn't refer to himself as James the brother of Jesus, or James the pastor-elder of Jerusalem. He doesn't make his appeal as James the son of Mary, or even James, to whom the resurrected Jesus personally appeared.

Rather, James refers to himself and his position most clearly here in verse 1 as James, a servant of God. This word "servant" in the Greek is the word doulos, often translated as slave. One who is completely under the authority and control of another, one sworn to serve their master with both absolute obedience and absolute loyalty. This was how James, the brother of Jesus, leader of the church in Jerusalem, defined himself in light of who Jesus Christ was and what He had done on his behalf.

"I am but a slave, a servant of God," James says. But not just a servant of God, he says, "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ." So here James is making a theological appeal. James is boldly, blatantly referring to his brother, Jesus of Nazareth, as God.

He who knew Jesus from childhood, who even stood before Jesus in public objection to His word and His ways, in the end bowed the knee to Jesus as Lord. James confesses, Jesus is the Christ. He's the Messiah, He is the rescuer, He is my Master, He's my Savior, and He is my Lord.

James continues, "to the twelve tribes." Now, here we learn the initial audience of James's letter, those whom James had in mind as he penned these admonitions and encouragements. From Jerusalem, James explains that he is writing to the twelve tribes, meaning James was writing to the people of Israel, the Jews, God's chosen family that had grown after almost 2,000 years from God's promise to Abraham back in Genesis 12. Yet while James was writing to Jews, he was writing specifically to those of Jewish descent, like himself, who had become Christians.

James was writing to people whose lives and communities had been turned completely upside down by the gospel. These are people who had likely lost relationships, jobs, and social standing by proclaiming Jesus of Nazareth as Lord and Savior.

And as such, James says he is writing to the twelve tribes "in the Dispersion." Now, what is the Dispersion? That sounds bad. Well, the Dispersion references several events in Israel's history. One, after King Solomon, the kingdom of Israel, the twelve tribes, split into two groups. The ten northern tribes together were called Israel, and the two southern tribes together were called Judah.

Now, in 722 BC, the nation of Assyria sacked the tribes of Israel and carried the majority of its people back to serve as slaves. In 586 BC, the nation of Babylon did the same thing to the tribes of Judah. And though in time some of the Jews came back home to Canaan, because of these events, many Jewish people were dispersed all over Mesopotamia, the Mediterranean, Asia Minor, and even in Europe.

But two, after Assyria and Babylon, even near in time to James's writing, various other conquerors, including the Romans, in 63 BC, took over the region and deported Jews from their homeland and spread them throughout the world.

But three, Jewish Christians were highly persecuted in Jerusalem after Jesus's resurrection. In Acts chapter 7, we read of Stephen, who was the first Christian martyr, after whose murder many Jews fled throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria.

So the twelve tribes James addresses, the Jews who are now trusting and following Jesus, weren't just hanging out and high-fiving at Mardel's and going to Chick-fil-A. They were being persecuted, hunted, evicted from their homes, and their brethren overseas and in foreign lands were hearing word of violent oppression to their people in their home city of Jerusalem. And as another layer, many of those who had fled Jerusalem after Stephen's martyrdom had probably been personally known and loved by James, as he was one of their pastors.

Thus, to those in the church that he loved, to those he hurt for, to those he knew carried burdens and questions and temptations that were perhaps tempting them to abandon Christ and the faith altogether, to them James says, "Greetings." Greetings, in the Greek, this carries the connotation of rejoicing, or be glad. James wants his readers to know that the words that follow are meant to gladden and encourage their hearts. They're meant to uplift his readers in fellowship together, and to provide a mutual sense of Christian love and unity and devotion to Christ.

But how could such strong admonishment, and the particular proddings that we find in the book of James, serve to make a dispersed and persecuted people rejoice? Well, again, James isn't seeking to be the morality police. He isn't just offering a list of do's and don'ts to make people try and measure up, or feel bad for not doing so. What James is offering in this letter is a means to test and prove the genuineness of one's faith in Jesus Christ. It's encouragement to find that in Christ, each and every one of us matters in service to our King, in whatever circles of influence He has placed us. James is reminding his readers that they are members of a chosen people who have been rescued by God for life, eternally to come, and service to God now as shining beacons of hope amongst a dark and decaying world.

James wants to encourage his readers in their status as God's adopted children, and as such, to remind them that they are instruments of the greatest proclamation the world will ever hear, the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. Church, in the end, while James offers encouragement, admonition, even rebuke, he does so because he loves his readers and he wants them to remember Christ.

He does not want them to be deceived about the Christian faith, or to live ineffective lives that claim the name of Jesus but take His name in vain, living in ways that neither represent Christ nor evidence the living and active work of God the Spirit. As Peter would later say in 2 Peter 1:5–11:

"Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election. For if you practice these qualities, you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ."

James knows that our responsibility to be living gospel proof is not simply a call to bland servanthood, but a loving relationship with God through Christ. And how does James know that this is truly Jesus's call and Jesus's desire? Well, in John 15, Jesus said to His disciples:

"No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide."

You know, Jesus gave these words to His disciples in John 15 on the very night of His betrayal, just after the Passover meal, of which we read in Matthew 26:26–29:

"Now, as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it, broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, 'Take, eat, this is my body.' And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, 'Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.'"

In Christ, God was reconciling a people for a purpose, and that purpose was that God's people would live lives that glorify Him and call others to joyfully submit to and obey Jesus as Lord and Savior. Today, church, just as God was faithful to call out and encourage those first generations of believers, He continues to call out and encourage us in ours. And He calls us, James says, to be living gospel proof, not as lone-ranger Christians, but as a body, as a family, seeking to trust and follow Jesus together.

This is one reason on that night Jesus gave us the Lord's Supper, as a physical sign of our communion as God's people, and in remembrance of Christ's sacrifice on our behalf. And church, we are going to participate in that act of remembrance today.

So if you are a baptized believer in Jesus Christ, we invite you to participate in this communion, this Lord's Supper, with us. If not, we ask that you respectfully abstain from partaking as we do. We're not trying to leave anyone out, we just want to rightly observe this time together.

So I'm going to invite our deacons to come forward and go ahead and pass out the elements. Invite the band to come in, in preparation to lead us in response. As they do so, I want to remind us why we observe the Lord's Supper together. See, the Lord's Supper is a family meal at a family table. When we take it, we are identifying that we are God's adopted children, by His grace through faith, as we take this morsel of bread and drink from this cup.

Just as our baptism was our initial public declaration of faith in God and participation in His family, the Lord's Supper is our ongoing declaration of these realities. We declare that we have surrendered to Jesus as Lord over our lives. We declare that we cannot trust and follow Jesus in our own power. We declare that it is God who works in us to accomplish His will. And we declare that Jesus does this work in us together, as His people, as the church.

So church, First Corinthians 11 tells us to examine ourselves first, before we take the bread and the cup, to ask, do we really mean what we are declaring in this ordinance? Are we truly surrendered to Jesus? Are we at unity with our brothers and sisters in Christ, so that we can faithfully declare these truths together? If there are parts of our lives that show otherwise, we need to turn from them, seek restoration, and then take the Supper together.

So I invite you to stay seated as the deacons continue to pass out the bread and the juice, and as the team leads us in a communion hymn. But enter a time of contemplation and introspection, and in due time I will lead us in taking the Lord's Supper together.