Here’s a sermon I preached last week at the 8am service at BH.

I do note form, so you need to get in my brain to work out what goes in between!

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Today we start a new sermon series in the book of James…

…so this morning, I want to spend the first few minutes looking at the book of James as a whole – what’s it all about? Then the rest of our time in today’s passage, James 1:1-12

So what do we know about the book of James?

READ:      James 1:1

It’s an early LETTER

Written by James…  an apostle, church leader in Jerusalem, and the brother of Jesus

It’s written to Jewish Christians   (12 Tribes)

…who have been persecuted  (scattered among the nations)
…Acts 8:1 (after Stephen got stoned)

A very PRACTICAL book

…short, punchy, to the point   …often little explanation  …just do it!

BUT… James knows we don’t do things to merit God’s love… we do because of God’s love

James 2  -  “show me your faith without deeds”… faith that leads to action

Famous Verse…    James 1:22
“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”

As church goers… We are in danger… we hear the word… but we must do what it says!

Let’s make that our prayer throughout this series on James (and any other time)… that we would HEAR the word and DO what it says.

Let’s pray that our hearts may be gripped and changed by the word!

PRAYER
READ:      James 1:1-12

Were you thinking what I was thinking??  Did he just say what I think he said??

v.2    Consider it pure joy… ??    Wow, what a way to start a letter!

Context:    Religious persecution (v1)  +  Poverty (v9)

Wider Context:    “Trials of many kinds”  (v2)
Make it personal…  Bereavement, Unemployment, Sickness, Loneliness etc.

“Whenever” - expect them to come, expect them to come again

BIG QUESTION  -  How do we move from trials to joy?

Follow James’ Argument…

Trials = Testing of Faith (v3)  -  (not Judgement for the Christian)

Testing develops Perseverance

Perseverance must finish it’s work so you may be Mature + Complete

This is Joy… being mature + complete in Christ!

But there’s a problem!!

v.4 – mature, complete, not lacking anything …that’s joy!
But…  v.5 – If any of you lacks wisdom he should ask God

We need God’s wisdom to persevere through trials!

v.5 God gives wisdom to those who ask in Faith

What is wisdom??

Wisdom  =  Seeing things God’s way

Seeing…    the BIG picture, God’s plan, Hope in despair, God’s sovereign hand at work

Seeing the Big picture takes us to verse 12  -  CROWN OF LIFE… a picture of Joy!!

I don’t know your trials… But let’s persevere!
…and lets ask for God’s help, his wisdom
…and lets focus on the prize, the joy of knowing Christ now, and reigning with him forever!

Here’s an outline of my talk from camp… it’s all about Jesus, penal substitution, Passover…

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In our time together now we’re going to look at 2 big points that help us to understand Jesus’ death - so please keep your Bibles open as we look at them together. Ultimately we’re going to see that the Cross is the focal point of John’s Gospel and the central point in human history and God’s plan for his world!

CHRISTIAN – keep listening
PRAY

So where are we in John?..
We saw this morning that Jesus physically gave new life to Lazarus – he spoke life into him. We gonna see in this final section of Chapter 11 how Jesus gives us new life.

Come with me into the passage. From verse 47 we see that Caiaphas and he other priests are plotting. He may be the high priest, kindof like the Archbishop of Canterbury, but he’s not a good man, in fact he’s plotting to kill the only, truly good man.

It says (v.51) that Caiaphas ‘prophesied’… that would usually imply that he’s speaking God’s words, but he’s not. He’s speaking his own words, they’re selfish words that expose him, he’s trying to preserve his position and his power (v.48) – he sees Jesus as a threat to this.

John sees the irony of Caiaphas’ words, the fact that unwittingly he does prophecy, he does speak God’s words. Look down with me at v.50, here’s the key verse:

“You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish”
John knows, writing after Jesus’ death that Caiaphas’ words couldn’t have been truer – it was better that Jesus died than the whole nation perish!

1.    Jesus will die for others

Caiaphas reveals two true aspects about the nature of Jesus’ death:
1.    There is a penalty – death
2.    There is a substitution – either Jesus dies or the nation dies

This is a concept that clever theological people call ‘Penal Substitution’ – it sounds long and complicated, but it’s quite simple – there is a punishment to face (death) but there’s someone else (a substitute, Jesus) who takes that punishment.

We’re going to see that this idea of the death penalty and a substitution are repeated throughout the Bible.

Let’s move on to the next section in this passage to see how Penal Substitution is revealed.

Come with me to verses 55-56…
Let’s read…

Why did John include this section?  - it seems like a fairly mundane question…

Isn’t He (Jesus) coming to the (Passover) Feast at all? (v.56)

But the question asked by the crowd, and John’s reason for including it here takes on a whole new significance, when we understand what the Passover Feast is, and who Jesus is…

Passover Feast = lamb sacrificed to remember the Exodus (God’s rescue of his people) from Egypt
Celebration for the Jews

“Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

So of course Jesus will be there! Why? Because He is the Lamb (Jn 1:29)
Paul - Christ, our Passover lamb – 1 Corinthians 5:7

2. Jesus will die at the Passover (v.55-56)

What else do we see… (v.55) People had come for ‘ceremonial cleansing’
Cleansing from Sin…
What is the job of the lamb? – (Jn 1:29) ‘who takes away the sin of the world’, it is Jesus (the lamb) who will do the cleansing

How does he take away sin?  -  by dying!

To really understand what’s going on we need to take a closer look at the first Passover… Exodus 12:

(DEATH) PENAL(TY)

Come with me to Egypt, over 1000 years before Jesus. God’s people are in slavery. God sends a judgement of 10 plagues against the whole land, after the Pharaoh refuses to set God’s people free. The final plague is that the first-born son in every household and every first-born animal would be killed by God…
(v.12) I will pass through Egypt and strike down every first born – both men and animals – and I will bring judgement on all the god’s of Egypt. I am the Lord.

…a death penalty

SUBSTITUTE

God promised that if his people sacrificed a lamb for a special meal and then spread its blood on their doors then the angel of God would pass-over, and spare judgement on that household. God provides the substitute.

We know that those who sheltered under the blood of the lamb were passed-over, they were spared God’s judgement. The substitute took the penalty from God, blood was spilt so that those who trusted in it and in God’s promises would be spared – they found shelter and safety from God because of the blood of the lamb.

This great rescue of God is a huge flashing arrow pointing to the cross. That’s why John includes this section, it’s reminding us of God’s great rescue of his people in the past, to point us forward to his great rescue at the cross.

We know the whole of John’s gospel is building up to the cross…  my time has not yet come! (John 2, Wedding at Cana)

PENAL
We Sin  -  Thoughts, words and actions
We do stuff God hates
We fail to do stuff God loves
God judges us, we deserve death

SUBSTITUTE
-    Caiaphas was right! Better that one man die (Jesus) than we all perish
-    God provides the substitute
-    At the cross Jesus takes our death penalty

RESULT
Life… eternal
No Condemnation

This is why the Cross is the biggest event in human history…
…because rightly sinful humans like you and me deserve to face the full force of the right and just anger of a perfect, holy God – that means we should face the death penalty.

But here’s the shock, Jesus – God himself – gave up his life for us, he was our substitute, he stood in our place, he exchanged his goodness for our rebellion, and suffered under God’s punishment, that which we deserved.

CHRISTIAN
Look to the cross. Enjoy the fact that you have eternal life, that you have no punishment to face because Jesus took it for you. Don’t be ashamed by the apparent weakness of the cross – it saved you. Don’t move on from the Cross – it is sufficient to save you and sufficient to keep you.

NON-CHRISTIAN
Where is your substitute!  You have none! So as it stands you will face the death penalty. You will face God in judgement for eternity, standing alone, with no defence and no shelter from his just anger. Come to Jesus and find life, shelter under his blood, begin eternal life today.

Only when we understand that we are sinners, rebels against God, and that we deserve to face the death penalty for our rebellion - and only when we look to the Cross, to see Jesus hanging and dying in our place as our substitute can we truly and rightly understand how far God’s love for us goes.

This, the power of the cross:
Christ became sin for us;
Took the blame, bore the wrath—
We stand forgiven at the cross.

This, the power of the cross:
Son of God—slain for us.
What a love! What a cost!
We stand forgiven at the cross.

Matt Chandler from the Village Church is currently on sabbatical, but I need to let you know about some recent good sermons. He’s got to about chapter 9 of a big series on Luke (20 sermons so far), it’s awesome stuff!

Back in May, Matt finished a 5-part topical series on the church core-values which is well worth a listen to:

What is Truth?

What is Christian Spirituality? -  really good, what true Spirit-filled churches should be like!

What is Community?

What is Foot-Washing?

What is Missional Living?

These sermons and others will go into my good sermons database page - it’s just a bit of fun for me but hopefully as I keep updating it, it will be a great resource to find good sermons in one place!

Also, Matt Chandler’s church, The Village are doing a building project and have launched a new website for that including some video testimonies from some members - here’s an example…

Here’s a little outline from the talk I did at Medical Christian Union at Sussex 2 weeks ago…

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Isn’t the Bible full of errors?

The short answer is NO!

If the Bible is God’s word as it says (2 Tim 3:16), then it will be true.

That is a massive circular argument, BUT it has to be - just like the American Constitution!

God’s word must be ’self-authenticating’, but we can look to other evidence to expand this circle of argument.

Expanding the Circle

Internal One message from Genesis to Revelation Harmony between 40 authors, over 1500 years, in 3 languages Prophecies fulfilled, in detail! Factual, eye-witness, reportage style of writing

External Secular historians like Josephus and Tacitus Christian historians like Tertullian and Justin Martyr Dead Sea Scrolls (copy of Isaiah dated to 150 BC) Archaeology (Ebla archive proves existence of Hittites)

Textual Errors?

• Eyewitnesses still around when words are committed to paper
• Huge number of copies to compare with one another for errors (see manuscript table)

Factual Errors?

• Written when eyewitnesses were around, starting around 15 years after Christ
• Early Church and historians have no problems with so-called errors
• Eyewitnesses are named (Mark 15:21), 500 at one time (1 Cor 15)
• Secular history is not 100% accurate - see Hittite example where the Bible was right from the start
• If the Bible is fabricated then it’s a bad job - women witness the resurrection, first church leader denies Jesus, and the movement is based on a crucified leader

Social / Cultural Errors?

• Different cultures are offended by different bits of the Bible (see Mark 14, example from Tim Keller - Reason for God)
• We are arrogant when we assume our culture is more progressive than others!
• The Bible should contradict us (see Keller, ‘Stepford God’)

4 Main Points of Christianity

We shouldn’t ignore possible errors in the Bible, we need to think, discuss and research.

But we shouldn’t use possible errors to dismiss the Bible completely or to avoid addressing the central claims of the Bible…

1. We were created by God, for God
2. We’ve been happy to live in God’s creation, but without God, we deserve to die because of this rebellion
3. Jesus Christ, God-as-man, died. His death acts as a substitution, he dies where we should have died.
4. When we face God in judgement, we can take the punishment for our rebellion on ourselves or trust in Jesus that his death in our place restores a right relationship with God.

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There was about 15 people at the MCU meeting - I was going to talk about how we as Christians ‘make our own errors’ in the Bible by poor theology or poor handling of the Bible, and how we can best respond to non-Christians. However, there were I think 4 non-Christian guests, so I went more evangelistic, there was good discussion afterwards, although this inevitably focused more on Genesis 1 than on those 4 central claims of the Bible. But it was a good discussion anyway!

“All of life for the Christian is Trinitarian - this doctrine is so amazingly practical!”

It’s not as good as Mike Reeves on the Trinity but worth a listen! This sermon on Trinity is the first of a 13-week series on Doctrine, that takes us up till then end of June, then Driscoll comes to Brighton!

So here’s where I’m going on Sunday morning…

Setting the scene
Jesus has been teaching parables about the Kingdom of God around Galilee… last week, we saw the parable of the net and the sobering picture of the separation of righteous and wicked at the end of the world… now Jesus travels 20 miles south to his home town of Nazareth… this section seems a little out of place (it’s not a parable) but it’s here for a reason…

What’s going on here? - People don’t recognise who Jesus is!
v54 - he’s just a man… the people can’t see the source of his power
v55-56 - the people are blinded by his humanity… they think they know who he is, they know his family
v.57 - they took offence… no surprise, in Luke 4 they tried to throw him off a cliff!… ‘Familiarity breeds contempt’ - he’s the boy from next door, why should they listen to him?

Same situation today… Jesus is a prophet, great example, good teacher… and if he says anything offensive (like last week… weeping and gnashing of teeth) then we just ignore that…

C.S Lewis “Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

Have you fallen at his feet and called Him Lord and God?

Why is this section here? - to show that the word of God divides
We know that’s true because it says so… Hebrews 4:12
Matthew 13 = division… seeds that grow and seeds that don’t… wheat and weeds… good fish, bad fish

Matthew 13:11-17… Jesus quotes Isaiah 6… v.15 “Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.”
v.58 “And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.”
This section shows us what Jesus was talking about… the people don’t see, don’t hear, don’t understand, don’t have faith… hence v58, no miracles

The word of God divides… some believe, some don’t
Origien (early church father) put it like this… “The same sun that melts wax hardens clay”… God’s word provokes a response!
Psalm 95 “Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts”
BHMC SofFaith… Bible is supreme authority in all matters of belief and behaviour

So… when we hear God speak in his word… let us not harden our hearts… but let us trust and obey
As the hymn says… “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way. To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”

What about us? - Do we have a right view of Jesus?
Have you fallen at his feet and called Him Lord and God? Maybe you have, and have continued to do so for many years…
But let us not forget Jesus’ humanity… Hebrews 4:15 – “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin”

Let’s have a right view of Jesus…. Lord and King and Eternal God… yet personal, one who has known the pains and struggles of this world, one who left the joys of heaven, who humbled himself, becoming obedient to death on a cross, so that we might live!