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!

…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!

My mum passed into glory 8 days ago. Here are some words she was reading recently and wanted to be read at her funeral.

You are taking down my earthly tent with much tenderness and love. You have prepared a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. May you never leave me nor forsake me, ’till I be with you, where you are, and be like Christ and enjoy him for ever and ever! Yet a very, very little while - hold on, faith and patience - and I shall see Jesus in his glory, which is the heaven of heavens. - William Romaine

She was also able to choose some songs; ‘See what a morning’ and ‘The Lord’s my Shepherd’…

And we are raised with Him,
Death is dead, love has won,
Christ has conquered;
And we shall reign with Him,
For He lives, Christ is risen from the dead!

In Romans 8 Paul reminds us of two great promises…

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

1. Nothing shall separate us from God’s love that we find in the cross of Christ, not even death.

2. We are conquerors of death, no more than conquerors, through Christ.

Go back and listen to Piper’s talks again… he says that we are more than a conqueror of death because death serves us, he says “Death! Get up and serve me well!”. Death serves us by bringing us to see Christ face to face, so in him we conqueror death and make it serve us. - Isaiah 25:8

In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul taunts death…

“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Death has no victory. It is only sin that makes facing death scary, but Christ has defeated sin and defeated death. The victory is ours in Christ!

Go and listen to John Piper’s talks on suffering and sovereignty from New Word Alive again…

I think this was probably the highlight of New Word Alive for me. Partly because I’m a bit of a preacher groupie, actually it’s more than that, Piper’s preaching through its freeness at DesiringGod.org has really helped me during my time at Uni, really shaped my view of God, and although I haven’t read much of his writings, Don’t Waste Your Life was great! So getting to see him preach live (yes we were sad and made it to nearly the front row) was just great, he is a great communicator, passionate and dynamic, visibly in love with Jesus and deeply influenced, to the core by a massive view of God in His sovereignty . More importantly, it was the highlight because of the topic and passage.

Piper spoke from Romans 8 (in two parts) under the title ‘Treasuring Christ and a call to suffer’, it really needed 3 messages as he spent 30 minutes of the 2nd giving qualifications and expansions on the 1st, my solution is let him preach for as long as he likes! I didn’t take any notes, I just wanted to listen (you can find some notes on Adrian Warnock and Tim Chester’s blog).

Three big points on the first night were; first, suffering is universal, everyone suffers (except God and non-fallen angels), second that suffering is historical, it had a beginning and will come to an end, and third that all suffering is judicial, God’s judgement on a rebellious world. For the non-Christian that suffering is the foretaste of eternal condemnation, for the Christian there is now no condemnation, so all suffering is purifying.

The second message was the why and how of the first message, it’s aim was to try and be practical response to the theological grounding of the first, in reality he still had much theological grounding that he wanted to give - which is good, you need a robust theology of suffering to be able to in God’s grace, stand through the storm. The big point here was Ephesians 1:5-6 - “He predestined us… to the praise of his glory” - Piper passionately explained that this groaning world exists to give glory to God, and ultimately this is displayed through Christ on the cross, the suffering of which we will sing FOREVER!

Piper concluded with a quote from ‘Shining Like Stars‘, which is sourced from Howard Guinness (in the book Sacrifice. A call to faithful suffering, and obedient service…

Where are the young men and women of this generation who will hold their lives cheap and be faithful even unto death? Where are those who will lose their lives for Christ’s sake – flinging them away for love of Him? Where are those who will live dangerously, and be reckless in His service?

Part 1, Part 2

What do you do when your world falls apart? What do you do when everything goes wrong? What do you do when as the Psalmist says, your flesh and heart fail (Psalm 73:26)? What do we do, how do we respond when we face suffering, and what seems like pointless random suffering?

I thought those were just theoretical questions before a few years ago, and they were challenged again after receiving the news of a mate from back home dying suddenly on Friday. He wasn’t a close friend, but he was a mate; we played football together, we went to the pub together, we played Football Manager together… we grew up together. From perfect health, to illness and death within a few days, 23 years old - it is tragic and sobering.

(some of) The Riseley Boys: Campbell, Czaicki, Stu, Me, Bonce, Boom

How do we respond? Shock - sometimes when people die it’s a long process, people have time to prepare, this was sudden and shocking. Grief - I cried, I’m a long way from home right now, I’m not there with the guys to grieve, but am still in mourning. Shaken - it shakes me up to the reality, the brevity of life… will I make my life count?

How do I respond as a Christian? How do I respond to the fact that I believe in an all-powerful, all-loving God who has power over life and death and all things in this world, yet let this tragedy take place? First, I grieve (John 11:35), I cry out to God to bring the pains of this world to an end. But why would God let it happen, surely this suffering is pointless? Jesus is asked some tough questions like this in Luke 13… there’s some people at a place called Siloam who get crushed by a falling tower (18 people die)… Jesus doesn’t focus on those who die, but on those who are left, those asking the questions… he says that one day you’ll die too, and face God. The only way we can escape death is to trust the One who beat death, Jesus Christ.

Why do I keep going? Why do I keep trusting a God who lets this stuff happen? Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:25-26). Why then must I persevere - because there is hope! There is hope of life, true life, eternal life, for whoever puts their trust in Christ.

I’ve just come back from New Word Alive. On the final night Richard Cunningham spoke on our call to serve God, in his talk he spoke about David, his nephew. David was diagnosed with Leukaemia at the age of 11 (he died a few weeks ago) at his diagnosis he said to the doctor - “I’m not scared of death. I’ve got a friend called Jesus who will keep me safe”. That is simple, child-like faith, but that is all that is required to receive new life, a simple trust that Jesus is king, that he died in your place for your sins, and that he rose to new life that we might too.

If you’re not a Christian, can you give any answers to the problem of suffering, do you find hope or meaning in tragedy? Seek Jesus, only the One who has suffered to the point of death, and now lives can help, can give answers. If you are a Christian is your view of God big enough, is He sovereign enough to answer these questions? If you’re not currently experiencing suffering, do you have a theology of suffering which is rooted in the cross and the glory of God’s sovereignty - if not, how do you expect to stand when the storm comes? I can’t commend highly enough a book by Marc Maillefer called ‘God in the Storm‘, it will help you to focus on Christ in your suffering.