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(upbeat music) - Welcome to the end of week four of our look to the New
Testament, day five. We're looking at the book of James today. The book of
James, in two words, is faith works.

It works. We used to have a can opener in our house that it barely cut. It had
to run around like two or three times.

It was automatic, so it like would drop the can halfway through opening and
you'd have to stick it back on. And then at the end, after you took the can off,
you had to whack it on the side because it would keep running if you didn't.
Well, we just sort of got used to it not working as it should and just sort of
automatically did all of those things.

Then we got a new can opener and it was a wonderful day. Do you ever wonder why
we put up with things that don't work like they should? It's okay with a can
opener, but you should never put up with a faith that doesn't work.

James is about how faith works. Begins James 1, James, a servant of God and of
the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes scattered among the nations, greetings.
So who was James?

This isn't the apostle James. He was killed for his faith at the beginning of
the book of Acts. This is James, the brother of Jesus.

You may not know about the family of Jesus. There were at least seven children
in Jesus's family. Matthew 13, 55 to 56, they say of Jesus, isn't this the
carpenter's son?

Isn't his mother's name Mary? And aren't his brothers, James, Joseph, Simon, and
Judas? And aren't all his sisters with us?

So sisters, he had at least two sisters. He could have had 10, who knows, but he
had at least two. And he had four half brothers who are mentioned here, James,
Joseph, Simon, and Judas.

Now they're half brothers and half sisters, obviously, because Joseph was the
father of all these and God was the father of Jesus. His brother, Judas, wrote
the book of Jude. His brother, James, wrote the book of James.

And there's some things that we know about James from the Bible. We know that he
struggled with belief along with the rest of his family in John 7, 2 to 5. We
know that he was present on the day of Pentecost, Acts 1, 14 tells us.

We know that he had a personal meeting with a resurrected Jesus. Imagine that,
your brother resurrected the Lord, the Savior, God, and he meets with him. 1
Corinthians 15, 7 tells us.

We know that he was the leader of the Jerusalem church, Acts 12, 17, 15, 13. And
we know that here at the beginning, he calls himself a servant rather than a
half brother. He could have said James, the brother of Jesus Christ, but he just
says a servant of Jesus Christ.

So you see his humility even in the beginning. His readers we see here are the
first century Christians, scattered everywhere. The 12 tribes refers to the
tribes of the Jewish nation, Simeon, Gad, Asher, the 12 tribes, I won't mention
them all, who are descended from the sons of Jacob.

Remember that the church in Jerusalem was mostly Jewish believers because
Jerusalem was mostly Jewish. And so James, as the leader of that church, was the
leader of a Jewish group of Christians. Even as Paul was the leader of the
Gentile Christians.

He's writing to those who've now been scattered abroad for many various reasons.
And he's writing from Jerusalem to those scattered throughout the Roman Empire
about how to live a life of faith. One sense of this book is that it's working
instructions for the Christian life.

It's how faith works. And he just goes through this list of the times, the
places where we need faith to work. Faith works, he starts in chapter one,
verses one to 12, when you have problems.

Verses two and three, consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters. Whenever
you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith
produces perseverance. That's how faith works when you have problems.

In James one, 13 to 18, he says faith works when you're tempted. He says faith
works to change my actions in chapter one, verses 19 to 27. James two, one to
13, faith works in your relationships.

Chapter two, verses 14 to 26, faith works in all of life. James three, one to
12, faith works to tame your tongue. How else can you tame your tongue, he says.

James three, two, we all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in
what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check. Well,
none of us are perfect.

We all stumble in what we say. We think, even when we think we're saying the
right thing, we say the wrong thing sometimes. I get it when I say the wrong
thing and I know immediately I said the wrong thing, but there's times when I
think I said the right thing and it was the wrong thing.

We stumble in many ways and faith works to tame our tongue. Faith works when you
have envy, James three, 13 to 18. Faith works when you have quarrels, James
four, one to 12.

Faith works when you're hit by pride, James four, 13 to 17. Faith works to
handle greed, chapter five, verses one to six. Faith works when you need
patience, five, seven to 12.

Faith works when you pray, chapter five, verses 13 to 20. 17 to 18, James
writes, Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not
rain and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.

Again, he prayed and the heavens gave rain and the earth produced its crops.
Prayer works, faith works. Now the key verse in the book of James, I believe is
James one, 22.

Do not fool yourselves by just listening to his word. Instead, put it into
practice. So the key word is practice.

James is a book, a how-to book on Christian living. James teaches us how to be a
doer of the word and not a hearer only. For that reason, some people have called
it the Proverbs of the New Testament 'cause it gives us statement after
statement after statement about how to live out the life of faith.

James also reminds us in many ways of the Sermon on the Mount. To me, it's the
Sermon on the Mount just expanded. It obviously draws from the Sermon on the
Mount of much of what it says.

It lives in the shadow of the Sermon on the Mount. Let me just show you the
comparison with some verses between James and the Sermon on the Mount. Sermon on
the Mount is found in Matthew chapter verses five to seven in one place.

James one, four says that God works so that you may be mature and complete. And
Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount that we are to be perfect as our Heavenly
Father is perfect. So they reflect each other.

God wants to grow us. Now, none of us are perfect, but we can be being perfected
by God's grace in Jesus Christ. You have a beatitude in the book of James.

James one, 12, blessed is the man who perseveres under trial. Just as Jesus
spoke, beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount. Chapter five, verse 10, blessed
are those who are persecuted.

In James one, 22, be a doer of the word. In Matthew seven, 24, Jesus said,
everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like the
man who built his house on the rock. James two, five, God has chosen the poor in
the eyes of this world to be rich in faith, to inherit the kingdom.

In the Sermon on the Mount, chapter five, verse 12 of Matthew, blessed, Jesus
said, are you when people persecute you? In the same way they persecuted the
prophets who were before you. In James five, 10 to 11, as an example of patience
in the face of suffering, take the prophets.

We consider blessed those who persevered. Matthew five, 37, simply let your yes
be yes and your no, no. Anything beyond these comes from the evil one.

Above all, my brothers, do not swear, not by heaven or by earth or by anything
else, let your yes be yes and your no, no, or you will be condemned. That's
James five, 12. So you see how these two books, these two passages very strongly
correlate with each other.

You also see as I've talked to the book of James, I haven't given you as strong
an outline as many of the other books because it really is like a book of
Proverbs. Just again and again and again, verse after verse after verse, God has
some things to say to our lives that can encourage us today. So what I want to
leave you with as we come to the end of this is just some simple things that God
might want to be working in your life today.

Maybe you're facing some problems and you need to be reminded of the truth from
James. I need to consider it pure joy, not that I have a problem, but that God
can work through this problem. Maybe you're facing some temptations right now
and you need to be reminded from the book of James that God who cannot be
tempted by evil is the one you can look to in your temptations.

Maybe you've said the wrong thing to someone. You've stumbled in many ways and
it's been with your tongue. And you need to be reminded that God is able to give
you grace even with your words.

Maybe you've been struck, James chapter four talks about quarrels with others.
Maybe you've had quarrels even with other Christians. And you need to be
reminded from the book of James how deeply hurtful those quarrels are and how
God can help you to live in a new way.

Maybe you've been feeling lately that God's just not answering your prayers. You
certainly haven't prayed that it wouldn't rain and it didn't for three years and
that it would rain and then immediately it did. But I'm here to tell you that
even though the answers don't come maybe as obviously as in that moment, God is
working through every prayer.

He's working in their life, he's working in your life, he's working in the
circumstance. And sometimes his answer is yes, sometimes it's no, sometimes it's
wait. But he is at work because faith works.

Don't fool yourself just by listening to his word. Today, put it into practice.
Jesus, we thank you.

We thank you for God's word. We thank you that we have something to put into
practice. And so today, help us to do what you said, to build on the rock, to
not only hear what you said, but to put it into practice.

And what we say and how we pray and how we talk and the way we face temptation
and problems and the way we love the people that are around us. We want to put
your word into practice in our lives today. We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen. Well, don't miss next week, I want you to finish as we complete our quick
survey of the New Testament.