Online Bible Study - James 1:1-12

hey everybody welcome to the very first lesson in our brand new series that we are calling authentic faith this is a study of the book of james and so you'll need your bible or your bible app open to james chapter 1 for today's lesson there is also a listening guide for this lesson you'll find at the same place you found this video just scroll down click on that link download the pdf and then print it out so that you can fill in the blanks during the lesson portion but much more importantly there are some discussion questions there for you and your small group or your family to go through after the lesson before we jump into lesson number one today let's pray shall we father we are so grateful for your word we're grateful for the way it provides truth to us in a an otherwise otherwise chaotic and broken world we're grateful for the way that it guides us the way that it orders our steps and our prayer father is that that you'll use your word today as we open it to change us and to transform us and to continue this transformation process going on in each of us our prayer is that as we open your word today you will open our hearts and that you will help us even more and more to become the people that you have called us to be in this world we love you father we love your word we love its place in our lives we pray all of this in jesus name amen authentic faith is what we're calling this and i love that title because that is a kind of as opposed to or the the implication behind it is that there is such a thing as a less than authentic faith or an inauthentic faith and that could not come this lesson this uh whole series of lessons could not come in our culture at a better time than now because we're hearing a lot in today's culture about what i think the term that we're using is deconstruction of our faith and people deconstructing their faith usually because of either some crisis of their faith some crisis that has happened in their lives or perhaps just the overall angst of the world as they look around them or because of christians behaving badly and it therefore causes it kind of shakes their faith but at any rate the idea of deconstructing one's faith has become very prominent today and the the implication behind deconstructing faith is that you would be deconstructing it for the purpose of eventually reconstructing it into something more authentic and so the question that that whole idea of deconstruction of our faith raises is it causes us to look at ourselves and ask is my faith an authentic faith how would i know if my faith is an authentic faith and this entire series of lessons out of the book of james is going to give us some very practical guidance uh in terms of understanding what authentic faith looks like like all scripture and i i i think this is an important thing to remember like all scripture though these lessons are best used as a mirror to reflect back on myself as opposed to as a magnifying glass to look at someone else so this is not these are not lessons to help you determine whether someone else's faith is authentic as much as it is a mirror that helps you look at your own faith and ask yourself some hard questions about your own faith whether or not your faith is an authentic faith the uh let's just begin uh let's just start this uh this series of lessons the same way we would start any new series and that is by asking who is the author what do we know about the authorship of the book of james and unfortunately the answer to that question is it's not absolute most of us believe we think we know who the author is but the book itself the letter itself gives us very little information to help us know exactly who the author is most people though believe that of all the possible james's that we read about in scripture or that were there it was a very common name at the time of all the possible james is the one that most of us kind of centered in on and feel like this is probably the author is james the half-brother of jesus mary was his mother as well jesus had several brothers james was one of them and we believe uh that that that is the author that that james is the author of this material for several reasons uh one is there's very little introduction um to the author just that just says i'm james a servant of god and the lord jesus christ um james jesus's brother james eventually became like the senior or lead pastor of the church of the flagship church in jerusalem and so he would have needed very little introduction the brother of our savior the brother of jesus and the pastor of this huge flagship church would not have needed much of an introduction and there's not much given here and so that's one indicator that this may well have been that very popular central figure of james jesus's brother another one is that we see a lot of similar speech patterns in the original language of the letter to jesus's speech patterns uh which which would be easily explained if these were two people who had grown up together um especially uh speech patterns out of the sermon jesus's sermon on the mountain we see some of those same words and phrases and speech patterns used in the book of james as well which leads us to believe that that it would be someone who was around jesus a lot and would have picked up some of those same kinds of patterns it also has a similar greeting style the letter itself has a similar greeting style to the style of the letter that was drafted by the jerusalem council in acts chapter 15 which was uh james the brother of jesus and the the lead pastor of the church in jerusalem was was the lead signatory of that jerusalem council letter and so there are some similarities there that make make us believe this is probably james the brother of jesus so if that is the author then what about the exact time of the writing and again the letter doesn't give us a whole lot that helps pin down an exact timing of the letter there are no historical references in the letter that that we can tie to specific historical events to help us know when this was written it seems it seems that the letter was probably written before the jerusalem council the reason for that is because some of the some of the topics that are that are talked about in the letter of james leave leave open some issues that were actually resolved later by the jerusalem council so it seems to fall before the jerusalem council jerusalem council happened in ad50 it also if it was written by james the the brother of jesus then it would certainly have been written before a.d 62 because that's when we know that james the brother of jesus died in a.d 62. so probably this letter was written before any of paul's letters in the new testament and the reason that's such an interesting thing is because paul's letter developed so much doctrine so much rich christian doctrine was actually developed and laid in place by the letters of paul and this letter does not would not have the benefit of any of that doctrine that's been laid in place already and so some of the doctrines that paul's letters were so good about that about laying out are still kind of open and and yet developed as of the time of the writing of what we're about to study uh in the letter of james but what i love about james is it is just extremely extremely practical and that is so important for us so important for us in today's culture for us to have very practical step-by-step approach to faith today's lesson today's lesson is going to be all about adversity uh one of the ways that we identify authentic faith one of the ways that we nail down what authentic faith is all about is that it it has a mechanism for dealing with struggles with hard times with crises that come along and that is a that's what today's lesson really is going to center in on so with all of that kind of laid that groundwork laid let's just jump in and let's see where the book of james takes us we're going to begin with chapter one verse one here's what it sounds like james a servant of god and the lord jesus christ to the twelve tribes in the dispersion greetings so it appears first of all to be directed primarily to jewish christians the 12 tribes is a reference to to judaism james himself we believe if this was the brother of jesus then james himself the writer of this was jewish and he's writing to jewish christians who had been dispersed out of jerusalem now this dispersion that he's referring to actually would have happened during the time of jesus the reason we know that is because by the time the second chapter of acts rolls around and pentecost happens there are already christians that are descending upon jerusalem from all different places and speaking all kinds of different languages but they're jewish christians they're jews who have made the journey to the temple for pentecost but they're but they're speaking a lot of different languages and so this dispersion had already begun to happen but it was intensified under the roman empire it was intensified as the persecution of christians particularly uh was increasing after jesus was gone and so the the the dispersion of jewish christians is who he was writing to and and there's a very jewish way of learning the torah that included life together that included their culture of living together and that's that was an important way that uh in ancient judaism especially that they would have learned the torah that they would have learned the scripture they didn't all have reference to a written bible that wasn't like it is today where we all have a bible on our coffee table or on our end table or in our bed stand they didn't have that and so a lot of the learning of torah would have been would have been verbal and would have been through the culture and so the reason this dispersion ended up being so critical is because it took them out of their otherwise learning environment it took them out of that community that sense of community and learning the torah learning to live out the law of the torah learning to live that out in community took them out of that in many many cases and so they would have particularly as christians particularly as jewish people who are now following this rabbi yeshua this rabbi jesus and following him as their messiah they would have had a ton of questions and questions that would not have been easily answered because they were not living in community with one another so much anymore because of this dispersion that's where the book of james becomes so very helpful and very practical because it is he is writing to them out there in the netherlands saying here's the way you follow jesus as a as a jewish person so so we view this letter as critical during this transition this dispersion it's critical for jewish christians in that regard how should jewish people who choose to follow christ how should they be living that's the answer that's the question that the book of james is setting out to answer let's keep reading verse two though count it all joy my brothers when you meet trials of various kinds for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness and let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing so we see from the very beginning of this of this uh book james in his practical advice about what authentic faith looks like he starts off with what may be one of the most difficult pieces of authentic faith and that is how do we handle adversity and there are a couple of realities about adversity that he acknowledges and points out right from the beginning the first is not if adversity comes but when adversity comes the book of james helps us all understand that as christ's followers we will experience adversity we will experience crises of our faith and our faith will through those crises be tested it's not if it will happen it's when it will happen he says count it all joy my brothers when you meet trials of various kinds uh and then the idea of meeting these trials that the the word that is translated into english for us as meat is really more of a word of it's it's it's a word that has a more of a connotation of falling into like falling into a hole as opposed to intentionally jumping into and so these are adversities that happen to us not ones that we choose not ones that we jump into but ones that we find ourselves falling into without any intentionality or choice on our part that's the connotation of what he's saying when he says count it all joy when these things happen to us one of the commentators that i like to read in preparing these lessons is a guy named bob deffenbaugh he writes at bible.org and and and in his commentation in his commentation on uh uh commentation on this lesson he says that adversity in this regard the metaphor that james is almost drawing on is it's very much like a stress test for us at the cardiologist it's going it's a test that is going to be difficult for us but it's an an important test to help show us some deficiencies in us some places where we are lacking and without that test we would not know that we are lacking in these ways and so what james is saying is be happy when these things happen because they they highlight for us some ways that perhaps our faith is not authentic or some ways that we may be deficient or missing something or lacking something some of us know that we need salvation jesus for salvation but how in touch are we that we need jesus just for everyday life uh we we we know we need him for salvation but otherwise we got this we're okay i'm fine without with or without jesus as far as living my life and that's that's a lie that's just not true and so authentic faith is a faith that recognizes no i need jesus for every breath for every step for everything i'm doing in this life and when the struggles come they force that reality on us they help us to look at that and acknowledge it i think it's important to note here that james does not seem troubled by the question of where do the adversities come from he doesn't really even address that he doesn't seem troubled by the question of wait does god permit adversities in our life does god even ordain adversities in our life he's not really getting into that question that's not a question that he's really even toying with the reality is all of us face adversities whether they've been ordained by god whether they've come by the hand of god or whether they came because of we live in a broken world that's not the issue the point is what happens to our faith when we face those adversities if you have your listening guide let's fill in the first blink on your listening guide struggles and hard seasons whether ordained by god or merely brought about by this broken world show the christ follower that we need god for more than just salvation they are a critical part of our spiritual formation process all right so what james does next is he turns to a particular kind of adversity a particular kind of struggle one that we all face and that is needing wisdom that's what this is what he says in verse five if any of you lacks wisdom let him ask god who gives generously to all without reproach and it will be given him but let him ask in faith with no doubting for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind for that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the lord he is a double-minded man unstable in all his ways all right so first of all we see the the very first word in verse 5 is if if any of you lacks wisdom the connotation we don't have this in the english language but in the greek language the connotation of the tense that is used here is really almost more of an assumption it's not if per chance this happens to happen it really is almost assuming this will so it will happen uh the closest we could come to saying that in english is in so far as we lack wisdom but that's not an exact translation so we use the word if but the if is assuming that it will happen we all need wisdom and especially when we're facing adversities do we need wisdom i was taken this week i i i look at a lot of different translations and paraphrases of the passage each each week as i'm reading through it one day at a time and when i looked at the voice paraphrase of this listen to what the writers of the voice say about this wisdom they say as james understands it is the ability to live life well and make good decisions so it's not just about knowing stuff it's about living life well and making good decisions wisdom doesn't come from old age or from hard knocks wisdom begins with knowing and depending absolutely on god who is never stingy when it comes to wisdom for those who seek it he supplies all the wisdom we need when we ask but when we try to go it alone without god trouble is around the corner and so when he says in this let him ask in faith with no doubting let's unpack that and talk about that that doubting is not in this context it's not talking about doubting my salvation it's not talking about the kinds of doubts intellectual doubts that we all struggle with within our faith from time to time it really is talking when it goes on to describe him as a double-minded man it's talking about a doubt that is really more about wavering in our commitment to the lord or wavering between two ways of thinking do i want to follow the ways of the world or do i want to trust in the ways of god that's the kind of doubting it's a pretty significant wavering in our commitment to god in the first place and what james is saying is look if you're not going to be committed to the counsel that god gives you to the wisdom that he gives you then why would god be interested in giving it to you in the first place god is interested in people who are trusting in him and if those people need to know what does my next step look like then that's good the concern here though is this kind of this thinking that the world tends to think which is well tell me the wisdom first and then i'll decide whether or not i want to follow it that's exactly the kind of doubt kind of covering all my bases keeping all my options open that's exactly the kind of doubt that james is talking about here where he would say that's not going to work you've got to you've got to be asking god for wisdom with a heart that says i'm going to follow this wisdom when you give it to me as you give it to me because i know that you know what is best for me god's wisdom is available to those who are committed to following it if you have your listening guide let's fill in the second statement now on your listening guide the world says give me your counsel and i will decide whether or not to follow it christ followers pray god give me your counsel and i will follow it even if i don't fully understand it godly wisdom requires commitment it requires commitment and so what james does next is he turns to an idea of wealth versus poverty which in the jewish mindset would not have been a change of topics at all and let me explain why that is because in the jewish mindset the prevailing mindset among anxious jewish culture would be that that wisdom and spiritual understanding and wealth and prosperity all go together they all belong together that was very much a mindset we we we heard that in in a lot of the ways that uh that the the jewish people would approach jesus uh and we saw that in a lot of ways and and james is just here to say similarly to the way jesus would have in the sermon on the mount james is here to say something very different they are not necessarily all tied together and we shouldn't think of them that way look at what he says starting in verse nine let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation and the rich in his humiliation because like a flower of the grass he will pass away for the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass its flower fails falls and its beauty perishes so also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits what james is pressing all of us towards here is a more eternal perspective rather than being tied just to our physical circumstances in this life he's giving us a little bit more of the eternal perspective very much the way jesus would do on the sermon on the mountain jesus would say you have heard it said you should love your friends well i'm telling you a more kingdom-oriented approach a more eternal perspective is that you should love your enemies as well so jesus spent a lot of the sermon on the mount helping us see that god sees even our worldly existence very differently than we do and we should learn to see it the way god sees it that's what james the brother of jesus is talking about here very much the same way in in matthew chapter 20 jesus is talking about the parable of the workers of the fields he says and so the last will be first and the first will be last what he's doing there is he's saying in the kingdom of god it's all different the pecking order is all mixed up it's all different it's very different from the way you think today and so what james is really doing here he's saying okay if you are a poor person in your current circumstances you should rejoice because that's going to be different in as as as you begin to experience the kingdom of god that's not going to be nearly as important to you and if you are a wealthy person you should also recognize that a humbling is coming because you're not going to be like that in the kingdom of god we're not going to have these differences among us in the kingdom of god it's going to be very very different if we find our identity in our worldly status whether that status is an economic status or a social status if that's where we find our identity then the kingdom of god is a rude awakening to us it's a whole different thing it will feel like exaltation to the poor person it will feel like humiliation to the rich brother to the one who has lots in this world james is emphasizing that all of that all of that is just temporary all of the the the way we we tend to to strategy stratus ourselves put ourselves in these strata these social strata into in this world that's all temporary and there is a bigger way to look at all of that than the way we tend to it's extremely short-lived he effectively what james does is he effectively disavows his jewish readers of this notion that our wealth and our status in this world is somehow tied to our status before god it's somehow tied to our status in heaven is somehow evidence of a better status before god that's james is saying that's not true at all he's disavowing them of that notion for us we make a huge mistake when we build our identity our very core identity around our status or around our stuff the things that we have if you have your listening guide let's fill in the third statement on your listening guide authentic christian faith does not find our identity in our social status nor in our economic status our identity is grounded in something much more eternal much more eternal and so he's still then talking and when he rounds this discussion out he's still talking about adversities forms of adversity when he says in verse 12 blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life which god has promised to those who love him in other words keep the faith keep the faith hold on to your faith that's what he's saying this is a word of encouragement here keep trusting in god and you will be rewarded there will be an eternal significance to that keeping the faith even in the face of adversity it's a difficult concept uh admittedly for us particularly in our instant gratification type culture that we live in uh we're in we live in a culture that that wants our reward right now that wants to see the results right now but but what he's saying is there's an eternal significance that you may not be in touch with right now but you will see if you will keep the faith if you will hold on to that faith we want our reward now and uh when we get adversity instead we begin thinking about completely deconstructing our faith because of that and that's a mistake i think authentic faith preserves through adversity it preserves through those struggles and those hard times if my faith deconstructs is such an important concept if my faith begins to deconstruct in the face of adversity if i begin to deconstruct my faith in the face of adversity that's not necessarily a bad thing as long as there is a reconstruction that follows in other in other words it's not a bad thing to take away the pieces of my faith that are not authentic to deconstruct them as long as the idea is to rebuild it and to build it up in a way that is actually authentic in that case it's a very good thing fill in the last statement on your listening guide god promises eternal rewards for those of us who deconstruct our faith in the face of adversity and then reconstruct a stronger more authentic faith fill in those blanks more authentic faith so here are some observations here are some observations about faith in the face of adversity some take away some summary statements number one adversity is a necessary part of our spiritual formation uh it is what highlights for us that there's something wrong or something missing in our faith that needs to be fixed or adjusted number two authentic faith says yes to god even before we've heard his counsel so that when we are asking for wisdom we're asking for counsel we're asking in faith i'm going to follow this god because i know you have my best interests at heart i just need to know what the next step looks like give me wisdom thirdly authentic faith finds our identity in eternal things not in temporary things and lastly deconstructing our faith in the face of adversity can be a good thing as long as we are reconstructing it in a more authentic way that these are some of the takeaways uh with faith and adversity and what happens to our faith in the face of that adversity you guys this is gonna be an awesome awesome unit i'm glad you're joining me here we will be picking up right here where we've left off in chapter one next week in the meantime i hope you have a blessed week i love you guys i will see you right here next week

Channel: First Baptist Church of San Antonio

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Length: 29min 25sec (1765 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 04 2021