A Practical Walk Through James Chapter One

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Ah, come and join us book by book.
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We are doing Bible study right now.
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I'm Richard Buse, and I'm inviting you to join with us here in the barn of the Farm Fellowship about four or five or ten miles from Preston, right here in England.
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I'm joined here by a long-standing colleague Paul Blackham and by another wonderful colleague also, Robin Langford, whose original home, well, really it was Melbourne in Australia, but she's an international ambassador for the gospel, and she's worked in all 12 countries, including Tajikistan, Pakistan, Sudan, Afghanistan, Paraguay, Chile, Argentina, England, of course, Scotland, Greece, Canada.
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So she's very, very international.
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Welcome here to the Farm Fellowship.
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And uh we're doing James, the Book of James, in the New Testament.
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Let's start right away.
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This is study number one, and we're gonna start at chapter one, verse one.
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James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes scattered among the nations, greetings.
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Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.
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Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
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If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all, without finding fault, and it will be given to him.
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Well, that's a wonderful start for our uh our study today.
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And as we look at it, I actually Robin, let's start right away with you, because I mean the book of James.
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Uh what is it?
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Where are we with this?
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Uh what do we know about the author of the book of James, or even when it was written?
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Well, we don't know much about either, not for sure.
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But common belief is that this book was written by the eldest of Jesus' half-brothers.
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So Jesus' brother, a younger brother, but the eldest of those younger brothers.
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Uh so someone who would have grown up with the Lord Jesus, spent his life with him, but did not believe in him, we believe, um, according to the Gospel of John, it says that he didn't believe in.
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The brothers didn't believe in.
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No.
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But he did have a personal appearance from Jesus after the crucifixion and the resurrection.
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And I guess perhaps his belief dates from that time.
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And he became the leader of the church in Jerusalem.
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And although that was a very Jewish-focused church, he also had this wider vision for the Gentiles because he encouraged Paul and Barnabas to go on their missionary journey.
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He there was some anti-Paul feeling at one stage, and he dealt with that.
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So that is who we believe wrote the book, the Brother of Jesus himself.
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And the date, well, again, we don't know for sure, but the indicators are that it was written early.
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It's an early book, because it's quite Jewish, as though the most of the church were still Jewish believers.
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There's not some mention of any Gentile problem or anything like that.
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And they use the word synagoga for church instead of ecclesia.
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So this is the Jewish word.
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So we believe it could be as early as, say, 50 AD, which when you think about it, it's only 20 years maybe after Jesus died.
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It's amazing, amazingly early.
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So James, the earthly brother of Jesus Christ, actually doesn't even say that at the beginning.
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He doesn't say, I'm the earthly brother of Jesus Christ.
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He says a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Actually, the Greek word I think for is dulos, which means a slave of Jesus Christ, which is, oh, it just shows his modesty and his happiness to be under the leadership of the Lord.
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That's it is very wonderful.
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Also, of course, he led, he was in charge of the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15, which is one of the key moments for the developing church.
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And so now, Paul, I'm looking at this to the twelve tribes scattered among the nations.
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Twelve tribes, what's all that about?
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Well, it picks up on what you've just been saying about that council of Jerusalem in Acts 15, and he's obviously concerned.
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He knows that there are all these foreigners from all the different nations and they're joining Israel, they're joining this what is becoming a global Israel, this Jesus movement.
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And of course, um, Gentiles always joined previously in the Old Testament, there were laws for doing that, but they had to cease to be Gentiles and become Jews and all that.
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Now, this big issue that he's he's presided over is the way in which all these nations are becoming part of this global Jesus movement, but they're still Gentiles and everything.
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And in a way, he's writing this general letter that's gonna go out to well it it's go in a way, it's to anybody who says, Well, I'm I'm part of this, because the the phrase twelve tribes of Israel, it isn't normally used to describe the people of God.
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The prophets sometimes use it as a way of talking about how the people of God should be, an idealized way vision of how they should be.
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So he's sort of saying this uh the real the reality of Israel, the people of God, as it exists among all the nations.
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And so there'll be Gentile believers who'll read this, these and who are just newly part of this Jesus movement, he'll be saying, I suppose that's me.
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He's saying you're part of this.
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He's kind of welcoming in whatever nation that you're from.
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And you'll think, Oh, yeah, that's me.
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I'm part of that movement.
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It's a way which is carrying forward what happened at the Council of Jerusalem, and it it's all part of that.
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It's a it's a very, it's a very clever way of incorporating the nations in.
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I think that's fascinating.
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I mean, you're from Lancashire, Robbie is originates from Australia.
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I was born in Kenya, now a Londoner, and and yet I'm part of the tribes of Israel.
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Yeah, that's right.
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He's writing to you.
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We're all the children of Abraham through the Lord Jesus, and I think that's probably it is a reassurance.
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Actually, there's several is it reassurance, or what is it, uh uh Robbie?
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When we come to verses two to four about the county pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith, etc., but it leads to these various uh attributes of the Christian life.
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I mean, you come, well, you've most recently you've been in the Sudan, which is one of the most uh hot beds of around the world of difficulty and opposition and uh and endurance.
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Uh how do you what do you make of this passage?
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Yes, when you think of the church in the Sudan, this is almost a picture of the church, isn't it?
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That it is pure joy, that despite the war, the church persevered.
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And when you saw pictures of them during the war, it was with joy they were welcoming somebody who had come and and you would see the processions with the the crosses held aloft and so on.
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It was pure joy.
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But it's also it is a challenge because how can you think of a trial as pure joy?
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Um, it is a test, and there is a reason for it because you know it will develop perseverance.
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But James does challenge you in part of the trial.
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Um, I'm looking at verse five.
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Uh, this is part of it, I think.
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If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God and so on.
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And when he asks, he must believe.
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So we need to pray in the trial and ask for wisdom, wisdom to understand it, wisdom to accept it, wisdom to see that it's part of God's will for us at that particular time.
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And what will that develop?
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Well, it'll develop greater trust and greater perseverance.
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Um, we've got to pray, believing, not doubting.
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So, you know, pray and know that the Lord is hearing in the trial.
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He's not a way, or even though you feel abandoned.
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I mean, in my own experience, there have been times when I've felt completely abandoned.
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I think of um Argentina in the first 24 hours after I arrived, speaking no language practically.
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The only person I knew in South America was killed, was knocked down by a car and killed.
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And I had nobody, I knew nobody, I had no language.
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But the Lord sent his servants to comfort me, to look after me.
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And they were not fellow missionaries, they were local Argentine people.
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And the Lord and his Holy Spirit were so close to me at that time.
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Um, I mustn't ramble on.
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I could think of many times when Jesus became as real as Paul sitting here to me, when I have been abandoned in the swamps of Paraguay by my Indian guide, um, miles ahead.
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And I always thought, Jesus, you're here.
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I could speak to Jesus in English and the horse in English.
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And that was the only time I'd be able to speak English.
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But uh, you know, the Lord was near, he was, and it was it was a trial, it was suffering, I believe.
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But um it did lead to a greater trust, and that trust will lead to to greater maturity, I believe.
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It's it's so helpful because it ties right in with the scripture, really, what you're saying.
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Of course, there are these two reasons, I suppose, that why we face trials and opposition often as well.
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One is that we're on the receiving end of the anger that Christ's mission has generated, but then the other reason is what you're exactly harping on, that the trials will lead to greater strengthening, especially as we, as you say, ask for wisdom as to how to deal with these matters.
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So that when we ask for wisdom, this is chapter one, verses five to twelve, Paul.
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When we ask for wisdom from the Father, verse six says we must believe or not doubt.
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So, what kind of doubt is James talking about?
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I mean, how can we ensure that our faith is strong enough to receive the wisdom that we're asking for?
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Well, that's right, because you might think, oh, I need wisdom in this situation, but I'm actually filled with anxieties and doubts and concerns, so I'm not gonna get answered.
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No, James isn't thinking like that.
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He's going much deeper than the day-to-day feelings of the up and down on the emotional level.
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He's saying, No under all that, are you a person who really just has has entrusted the your have I entrusted my life to the living God through the Lord Jesus Christ?
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If I'm fundamentally someone who's done that and tr and trusted myself, he will hear that.
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He will hear when I pray and call out for help and say, Lord, I I don't know what's happening to me.
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Can you give me wisdom and help?
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He will do that.
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But the person who fundamentally doesn't trust the living God, and they'll sort of say, Oh God, you know, he's like, No, you don't really trust.
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You're doesn't you're coming out of a place of unbelief.
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So he's saying it doesn't matter about the day-to-day feelings.
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It's are you fundamentally a person who's entrusted their life to Lord to the Lord Jesus?
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You're not double-minded.
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Not double-minded, that's it.
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Yeah.
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We have to take that into account, especially when it comes to the matters of possessions, um, position, and riches, poverty.
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I mean, Robbie, you've well, you've lived among some of the poorest people on earth.
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And as I look at chapter 1, verse 9 to 11, we could ruminate for a minute or two as to what James has to say about poverty and wealth in those in those verses.
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Yes, I mean, I think the focus here is because most people in James's church, days of James's church, were poor.
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I think most believers were poor in those days.
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And so he's speaking to them very strongly.
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And it's true in the in the world today that most believers are poor.
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Numerically, most believers are poor.
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So this still speaks very strongly to them.
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And they are told to take pride in their position.
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Now that's a hard thing to do if you are living from day to day when you can't feed your children and so on.
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Um, yeah, it's it is a challenge, it is a kind of trial, and again, it will lead to greater trust in Christ.
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Um, when poverty is there and you don't have the resources, then you have to depend on Jesus.
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I think of the people in the slums of uh Salta, Argentina, that I used to uh worship with every Sunday, and they did not have a few cents to go to the hospital on the bus with their sick child.
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So they would call the believers around them and they would pray for the sick child and the children would be healed.
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And this was because their faith was such they did not have the other resources.
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This was a trial, their poverty.
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They didn't want to be poor, but in that poverty they learned tremendous trust.
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And I mean it's a challenge to the poor, but it's also a challenge to the rich because the riches are so ephemeral, and the rich man is told to take pride in his humble position, which you it's hard to think about that.
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But this is this reminder about treasures in heaven.
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You know, where is your treasure?
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If it's in heaven, then you are very humble in the thought of that.
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So you can take pride in your humble position, even if you're rich.
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Uh, I think it's a challenge to both ends of the spectrum here, the economic spectrum.
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And we are rich.
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I mean, we are rich by in the world's terms.
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One understands that.
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I suppose we do learn here from about the irrelevance of wealth in one sense, as it affects a person, also the transitoriness of wealth, also the danger of wealth.
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It's not evil in itself, but it can get a hold on you.
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Either whether you've got money or not, it can get a hold on you.
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So, Paul, the different reactions we're talking really about trials.
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See, verse 13 onwards, what two different, I think there are two different reactions to trials that James outlines for us here.
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Yeah, well, we've Robbie's made it so powerfully clear how the the person who's uh believing uh in the Lord Jesus will approach should approach trials one way to say, Here are these trials.
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I I I don't necessarily understand them right now, but I'm gonna pray for wisdom and and the Lord will come near and support and and and I'll persevere and and maturity will come.
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And ultimately, even the experience of joy, great joy, and nothing but joy in this situation.
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That's one approach, and that's a fabulous uh road leading that way.
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But James is saying there's another path that people might go down, and that's that one of doubt, of unbelief, of saying, I don't trust the I don't trust the living God, and he's made a mess of things, and I'm in all this mess.
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And then what might they do?
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They may accuse God of tempting them, of causing trouble, then they may turn to their evil desires.
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They'll say, Oh, how am I gonna find any comfort in this situation?
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I tell you what, I'm gonna I'm gonna trust in money, or I'm gonna pursue my own evil desires, or I'm gonna go for status and things like that.
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So then you have evil desires, which leads to sin, and then sin produces death.
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Two roads, one pure leading to pure joy, the other one leading to death and destruction.
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That's the challenge.
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Which one are we gonna go down?
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Hey, what a passage, what a passage, can't it?
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All joy.
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Robbie, give me your Bible for a minute.
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Give me your Bible.
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This is Robbie Langford's Bible.
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She's had this in Afghanistan and in many other places.
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When she was in Afghanistan, her home was raided by the Taliban, looted by the Taliban.
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The only thing they left was the Bible.
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And even that had been stamped, this very Bible had been stamped on, torn in two, with bootmarks all over it.
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Robbie rescued it, pulled it together again.
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She still got it together, but that was all she was left with.
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But that's a wonderful treasure to have been left with.
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Because it symbolizes, of course, our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
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The biggest things of all are with us all the time if we're believers.
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Thank you very much for joining us.
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And before too long, we'll have another in this series of studies on the book of James.
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Thank you very much.