SERMON TEXT: JAMES 1:1

OUTLINE

Introduction

I. The Writer

A. His Family Relationship To Jesus

B. His Faith Relationship To Jesus

II. The Readers

SERMON TEXT

Well, I'm going to fast-track one this morning so turn in your

Bible to the book of James and I want to introduce this book for you

because for the next several Sunday mornings now, God willing, we're

going to study together the book of James. So I'll just introduce

this book to you this morning. Let's look at the first verse of the

book of James this morning...

1. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the

twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.

A young person was caught stealing; when he was confronted with

the fact that he had been stealing here's what he said, he said,

"Well, I've been saved, I'm going to heaven when I die, so it doesn't

matter how I live." Now probably that young man is more blunt that

many people would like to be or that many people are and yet I am

afraid that that young man was expressing something that many people

who name the name of Jesus Christ live out in their daily life. There

are some people who name the name of Jesus, they have been saved,

they've received Christ as Savior by their profession, and yet somehow

they have not made the correlation between what you believe and the

way you behave in daily life. There are some people who use their

faith like a garment or like a coat that you put on on Sunday morning.

They put on their faith on Sunday morning and they go through the day;

when the day is over they take off their coat and the rest of the week

they live any way they please. In other words they have not

understood that what you believe is to determine the way you are to

behave.

To receive Jesus Christ as your personal Savior ought to result

in a change in your daily behavior. In Second Corinthians chapter 5,

verse 17, the Bible says, "if any man be in Christ, he is a new

creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become

new." So if a person professes faith in Jesus and there is not a new

life there one of two things has taken place. Number one, that person

has not truly been saved or, number two, if they have been saved they

have not understood the moral imperatives of the Christian life. The

Bible says that we have been made saints in the Lord Jesus Christ but

it also says that we are to live as becomes saints, we are to live a

saintly life.

Now that's what the book of James is all about. God has given to

us in the New Testament a book which deals specifically with Christian

behavior, a belief that behaves. Now some people have thought that

James and Paul are in contradiction to one another; I believe that

James and Paul are actually complementary to one another. You see,

Paul talks about faith on the believing side, James talks about faith

on the behaving side. Paul did not minimize the importance of works.

In Ephesians chapter 2 he says, "For by grace are you saved through

faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God", but then he

said, "we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good

works." So James does not contradict Paul he complements Paul and

gives us a perfect balance between our belief and out behavior. What

he's going to do here is just show us faith in shoe leather, he's

going to show us how the Christian life is to be lived out in

practical, every-day experience. So that's why when you read through

the book of James you will find a variety of practical, down-to-earth

topics. For instance he'll talk about the matters of trouble and

temptation. He'll talk about how sin works and he'll show you how it

develops in your life. He will show you the importance of a daily

reading of the Word of God to keep your heart clean. He will talk

about the sin of favoritism. He will discuss faith and works. He

will talk about quarreling and fighting. He will talk about the abuse

of the rich when they abuse the poor. He'll talk about the importance

of prayer in your daily life. He will talk about the dangers of

materialism and wealth. So all through this book of James we will see

an emphasis on the way we ought to live for Jesus every day of our

life.

Now what I want to do this morning is just introduce this book

for you and then we'll be moving in to the verses. In the New

Testament time those who wrote books or wrote letters did it different

from the way we do. We write a letter we say, "Dear Bill", we say who

we're writing to, we give the substance of the letter and then we say,

"Yours truly, Tom". But in the New Testament day they put it all at

the beginning of the letter. Immediately they'd tell you who it was

from and then they would tell you who it was to. So that's what you

find in this first verse here, you find the writer, James, and then

secondly you find the readers, the twelve tribes that are scattered

abroad. Let's think for a moment about the writer, James. Now who is

this man who is writing who is known as James? There are several

Jameses in the New Testament; I personally believe that this James is

none other than the half-brother of our Lord; they had the same mother

but they did not have the same father. Now when you study this James,

the half-brother of the Lord, in the passages that are mentioned in

the New Testament you have a very fascinating study.

For instance you learn first of all about his family relationship

to Jesus. Now the Bible does teach that there were others in the

family of Jesus, the Bible teaches that there were brothers and there

were sisters. You might turn over to the book of Mark for just a

moment, the sixth chapter, and in Mark the sixth chapter and in the

third verse of that chapter I want you to notice what the scripture

has to say. In Mark the sixth chapter and in the third verse here's

what it says...

3. Is not this the carpenter (Talking about Jesus), the son of

Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon?

and are not His sisters here with us? And they were offended

at Him.

So we know that there were at least four other boys in that family and

more than one girl and one of those half-brothers of Jesus was this

man named James. Now we know that Jesus was not believed on by His

village. Jesus was brought up there in Nazareth and yet you and I

know that they rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. That must have been

embarrassing to the family of Jesus. Can you imagine how the brothers

and sisters of our Lord must have felt? So when the village rejected

Him that was probably personally embarrassing to His family. Later

on, when Jesus began His ministry, the Bible tells us that the friends

of Jesus and that the family of Jesus came to get Him because they

thought He had lost His mind, they thought that Jesus had gone crazy.

And that's the occasion when Jesus was told that His mother and His

brothers were outside to receive Him, that's when Jesus said, "My

mother and my brothers and my sisters are those who do the will of my

Father."

Now, down in Mark chapter 6, I want you to listen to what Jesus

said in verse 4...

4. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honor, but

in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own

house.

Jesus experienced one of the bitterest of human sorrows:

misunderstanding by His own family. Now then move quickly to the book

of John, the seventh chapter. As Jesus continued His ministry we

learn in John the seventh chapter that His brothers did not believe in

Him. In fact they seemed to have ridiculed Jesus a little bit. Look

at John chapter 7 and in verse 3, and here's what it says in verse

3...

3. His brethren therefore said unto Him, Depart hence, and go

onto Judea, that thy disciples also may see the works that

thou doest.

4. For there is no man that doeth anything in secret, and he

himself seeketh to be known openly.

What they're saying is, "Listen, if you want to get a name for

yourself, go on out there in public." See, they misunderstood. And

then they said, "If thou doest these things, show thyself to the

world." In other words grandstand this thing, Jesus. Now look at

verse 5...

5. For neither did His brethren believe in Him.

And so, so far as the family relationship was concerned, James was one

of those brothers who did not believe in the Lord.

Now fortunately the family relationship is not the last word in

the matter because in First Corinthians 15 where it talks about the

resurrection of Jesus, in the seventh verse it says, "and He was seen

of James." After Jesus rose again from the dead evidently He made a

special appearance to James, his half-brother, and the result of that

was that James received Him not as his earthly brother but he received

Him as his Savior and his Lord. So now he entered in to a

relationship far more important than the family relationship, he now

has entered into a faith relationship in the Lord Jesus Christ.

James, the brother of our Lord, became one of the leaders of the

church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Acts chapter 1, when they met in the

upper room, the mother of Jesus and His brothers were there. On into

the book of Acts James seems to have become a leader of the

congregation. The first church council to decide a matter of debate

among believers was moderated by none other than this James. In fact

in the book of Galatians James is referred to as one of the pillars of

the church. He became a very devout man, he was referred to by some

church historians of the day as "camel's knees" because he spent so

much time on his knees in prayer to God. He was known as James the

Just. Tradition says that he was martyred for his faith in the Lord

Jesus Christ. Oh, what a difference it makes when you received Christ

as your Lord and as your Savior.

So James introduces himself and he says, "James, a servant of God

and of the Lord Jesus Christ." Now that's not what he could have

said, is it? He didn't say what he could have said. He could have

said, "James, a leader in the church"; he could have said, "James, a

moderator of the first church council"; he could have said, "James, a

pillar of the church", but he didn't say that; he could have said,

"James, a brother of Jesus Christ", but he didn't say that. He said,

"James, a bondslave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ."

You see, friends, he has now come to understand that the most

important thing in life is to yield your life to the lordship of

Christ, to receive Him as your Savior and as your Lord. This word

translated "servant" in your Bible is a much stronger word, it is a

word that means to become a slave of someone, it means to yield

yourself in total obedience to the will of another. See, that's what

happens when you come to Christ; the Bible says you're to receive Him

not only as your Savior but you're to receive Him as your Lord. Now

somebody says, "Preacher, isn't that mighty confining? Isn't that

kind of oppressing to just yield your life, to become a slave to

someone else?" Well it's according to who you become a slave to. You

see, everybody is a slave to something, everybody yields himself to

something or to someone.

I heard a story about an Englishman who was here in America

during the days of slavery and he went to a slave block and he bid for

the purchase of a slave. He got the highest bid so he got the slave.

The slave was aware he was an Englishman and he was aware that in

England slavery had been abolished and was illegal, so he began to

chide the Englishman for breaking his own laws, the laws of his own

land. The Englishman looked at him and he smiled and he said, "You

don't understand. I have bought you to set you free." And the slave

broke down in tears and he said, "I'll be your willing servant

forever." Well, ladies and gentlemen, that's exactly what Jesus does

for us. When you yield your life to the Lord Jesus Christ, when you

bow the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ He sets you free and you are now

free in Jesus Christ to be the man, the woman, the person that you

ought to be.

So James is the writer. You say, "Preacher, what's so important

about that? Why is it so significant that this book is written by

James, the brother of our Lord?" Well keep in mind I've told you this

is a book about practical Christian living, this is a book about how

to live the Christian life every day of your life and, you see, here

is a book written on that subject by someone who lived in the same

house with Jesus in all of his growing up years. Do you see the

importance of that? Do you see the impact of that? Let me ask you a

question. Suppose some member of your family were writing a book on

the Christian life on the basis of your behavior in the home, what

kind of book would it be? What would be their evaluation of

Christianity if they just wrote a book about the Christian life on the

basis of what they've seen about the Christian life in your daily

life? So you see, here is James who seems to be saying, "I saw Him in

the home, I saw Him grow up right there in the family, I know that it

works because I saw it work in His life. I saw that Jesus Christ

practiced what He preached. I saw that His faith was a faith that

behaved. He's everything He says He is because He proved the reality

of it in our own family." Oh, that's the importance, dear friend, of

living for the Lord Jesus Christ on a daily basis. That's the writer.

Now let's talk for a moment about the readers. He says to the

twelve tribes scattered abroad, greeting. Now the twelve tribes,

that's a statement about the nation of Israel; scattered abroad,

that's the dispersion, and that is referring to Jews who lived outside

the land of Palestine. There were Jews inside the land of Palestine,

Jews outside the land of Palestine. But when you read this book it

becomes obvious that he is not talking just merely about Jews living

outside of Palestine, the dispersion, but he is talking about

Christian Jews who are living outside the promised land, or outside

the land of Palestine. Now the word "scattered" there really is a

word that means to sow through, it's an agricultural word, it means to

take seed and scatter that seed through a field. And when you read

that you think about Acts chapter 8 don't you? where it talks about

the believers who were scattered abroad and it said those who were

scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the Word. In other words

God intended the fact that they were scattered to be an opportunity

for them to scatter the good seed of the Word of God everywhere they

went.

But now the Greek culture of that day was a culture was immoral

to the extreme. I mean that business in that day was filled with

partiality and injustice, art and drama had stooped to the lowest

level of shame and debauchery, home life was disintegrating, Greek

culture was immoral to the extreme. And, you see, these believers

were now living in that kind of society and the danger was not that

they would have an impact on their society but that society would have

an impact on them. And that's really what happened to a lot of

believers; they became so like the culture in which they found

themselves that they lost their distinctiveness as Christian

believers. And James, seeing these Christians coming from other

lands, began to notice that there was no correlation between their

faith and their behavior. He began to notice that they were speaking

the Greek language, they were observing the Greek customs. In fact

their religion was being influenced by the pagan religions of the day.

Archaeologists have found on the walls of the meeting houses of these

Jewish Christians in many lands drawings of the gods of the time. In

other words they had just somehow begun to adapt all of the religious

beliefs of other religions into some kind of synchronism. In other

words a little of this religion, a little of this religion, a little

of this. It's really a fancy word for our word "hash", but that's

really what they were doing.

And, you see, though this book is not addressed specifically to

us it certainly applies to us because God has put us in the society in

which we are to be a witness for Jesus Christ and to scatter the good

seed of the Word of God, but if we're not very, very careful we will

allow the world in which we live to so influence us that we lose our

distinctive Christian testimony. So the danger is that in the schools

there will be very little difference between the Christian kids and

the unsaved kids, and the danger is that in business there will be

little difference between the professing Christian and the non-

Christian; and the danger is that we'll go to the same places, have

the same habits, use the same words, adopt the same moral patterns and

become like the society in which we are, and James is saying dare to

be different, dare to live for the Lord Jesus Christ.

There's a story that as the wild ducks were migrating one year

one of the wild ducks came down to a barnyard where the chickens were

and began to feed himself on the corn that the chickens were eating.

So he grew accustomed to it and so he just stayed, he didn't go on any

further. And the next migration time when the wild ducks flew over

they called for him and he looked up and he had an urge to go but he

had fed so well in the barnyard that he could barely get to the top of

the barn and then he fell back down. And the next year when the

migration season came his friends called him as they went overhead but

he didn't even hear. You know, there are some who name the name of

Jesus and there was a time when they soared like eagles for the Lord

Jesus Christ but they have become accustomed to the barnyards of this

old world and the call of the higher Christian life no longer even

interests them. Ladies and gentlemen, it is time for you and time for

me and all of us who name the name of Jesus to demonstrate that it

makes a difference when you come to Jesus Christ and that it changes

your behavior and puts your life on a higher moral plane.

Do you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior this morning? If you

have never received Jesus Christ as your Savior I want to tell you

what, friend, you can have purpose, you can have meaning, you can have

peace in your life that you have never known before. So we're going

to give an invitation and I'm going to invite you to do the most

important thing you will ever do: to come this morning and receive

Jesus as your personal Savior.