We've seen in our study of James that there were some circumstances going on in Jerusalem where James was the Virtual Bishop the leader of the church. They were extremely difficult They were poverty-stricken. We know this because Paul in his journey at the same time was constantly collecting offerings From the new Christians in Macedonia and Accha and all over Asia and Europe to bring offerings to Jerusalem To relieve the poor of those in the mother church. This was kind of the Vatican if you will of the early church and they were very poor Why? Well, we saw last week that the Sanhedrin a Jewish council that was in charge of the citical life But who served under the Romans Was made up largely of the wealthy class In fact, I didn't mention this last week, but many on the Sanhedrin were Jews from the dispersion the diaspora Who were not even residents of Jerusalem, but they were brought in because the Romans knew that they would be supportive of Roman imperial rule So you had a wealthy class There was whose prosperity was being promoted by the Romans and therefore they were very happy to promote Roman rule and Underneath all this you had what were known as the zealots the Jews who were the poor But who were loyal to Jewish rule and Jewish kingdom mentality And they were certainly not in favor of the Romans and they were the ones being oppressed the zealots were because what was happening with the rich ruling class We saw there were several ways in which they were hoarding their wealth They weren't paying their wages. They should pay they were gobbling up the neighboring small farms and then oppressing them First of all is tenant farmers and then his virtual slaves We saw that they were oppressing those under them and that James addresses them very directly You don't see this too often the New Testament. You see some in the old Where as in Isaiah he God will speak to the neighboring nations and tell them why he's gonna judge them Doesn't happen too much in the New Testament here. You got it big time James 5 verses 1 through 6. He says you know, basically what do you rich people and what he means is those who are Using their rich to oppress the poor and especially the Christian poor James Sided very clearly with the poor very clearly. He got him in trouble. We'll talk more about that later But we're going to see James did not take a revolutionary zealot approach. He never bore arms But he suffered because he was identified with the zealots James was in the middle of all this Now what happens when you get into an environment like that We all have our natural tendencies every single one of us to go to our pride because we defend our own egos because we want comfort and convenience we strike out and There are some behaviors that are common to all of us and they come very naturally to all of us and They came very naturally to those who were in the church of Jesus Christ To whom James was addressing himself and here are their typical responses First of all, I'm gonna fight fire with fire Someone oppresses me. I'm gonna use the same manipulation political mechanisms. I'm gonna use arms I'm gonna use things their expressions of my own human anger. Of course, it's the reason James did man's anger does not work the righteousness of God He's talking about this very issue. That's the first instinct will fight fire with fire The second instinct is I'm going to blame you for it It's so pitiful the very people who are being oppressed they start attacking each other Don't you see it in the history of oppressed peoples that they pretty soon they can just implode because they fight with each other and Thirdly, you hear people complaining about God swearing taking his name in vain and then being really bold and saying by God, I'm gonna do this and do that There's the kinds of things very natural instincts when someone's oppressing you and taking advantage of you Now James is already addressed the case of the rich people Now he's gonna address the Christians very distinctly. He's gonna tell them exactly what to do and We're gonna see that what he tells them to do is not to demand their twinkie He's got some very radical contrary advice It's very difficult to hear it because it's impossible to do it Apart from the grace of God, but with the grace of God We could be a very very different people for the glory of Father Son and Holy Spirit. Let us pray Father, we confess that we're just like the people in Jerusalem who've given their lives to Christ and expected you to make a life easy for us And we want to complain because it's not We look around to see the oppression in the world and it just burdens us sometimes to the breaking point Especially when it happens to us And we share with all of humanity that common instinct to sin The Lord you have instructed us to be different And we ask your help that we will visit us Lord, visit us Speak Lord to every single person in every chair in this room That we may really be different and may really give you glory Speak, O Lord, for your servants. Listen, O man. Let us look at James chapter 5 Verses 7 through 12 hear the word of God Be patient then brothers until the Lord's coming See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop And how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains You too be patient and stand firm because the Lord's coming is near Don't grumble against each other brothers or you will be judged the judges standing at the door Brothers as an example of patience in the face of suffering Take the prophets Who spoke in the name of the Lord As you know we consider blessed Those who have persevered You have heard of jokes perseverance And have seen what the Lord finally brought about The Lord is full of compassion and mercy Above all my brothers Do not swear Not by heaven or by earth or by anything else Let your yes be yes and your no no Or you will be condemned All men are like grass and all their glory is like the flowers of the field the grass withers and the flowers fall But the word of our God stands forever. Amen Little boy went to the grocery store And he came to the counter just a little boy And he had one thing a big box of tide And he put it up on the counter and the grocer said to him son is it's kind of unusual I don't see too many little boys that come in and get a box of tide He said you sure you want this he said yes sir he said well can I do my my asking what you want it for and he said I need to wash my cat And the grocer Said you know We have some other things that are good for cats and this really isn't this might even harm your cat I don't think you want to take this side and the little boy said I like the tide sir So he bought it The next week a little boy came back to the grocery store and the grocer saw him and said well son Tell me how did your experience go with the tide. He said well sir Unfortunately my cat died And the grocer said well son. I am so sorry. I you know I tried to warn you I didn't think we'd kill your cat. He's and the little boy said oh no sir. It wasn't the tide It was the spin cycle that finally got him I
Hope nobody goes away here with an idea like that in their heads But you know I I love you. I get to spend time with you and Sometimes you know what you just look like you just got through the spin cycle And sometimes you've got problems that really do put us in the spin cycle And when that happens to you you too are subject to the same natural instinctive responses That the believers in James Day had You get angry The loser patients You want to take up arms You criticize or blame somebody else And you get real huffy And start even taking the name the Lord the Lord's name And using it for your resolve Same thing James people did and James said That is not what the Lord wants us to do So James then telling us what our natural instincts are and letting these people these poor New Christians know what the natural instincts are is his look my instructions are the exact opposite And for those of us who are Christians our instructions are the exact opposite This is not easy Some of you have experienced some incredible difficulties some of you have had reports from doctors that you don't like Very much Some of you in this very room have lost loved ones recently that are very precious to you And some of you have been stunned By the pain and the suffering and evil of life And when that happens it can be like a two before just hit you over the head and you begin asking all the questions again About what kind of God do I really serve is there really a God like the one in the Bible And James concludes this whole story with verse 11 our God Is published what nurse he is fall a compassion and mercy And it's hard to believe sometimes James is going to show us The instructions that come from someone who really believes that God is full of mercy and compassion And he says first of all Be patient. I think my mother taught me that And my kindergarten teacher my first great teacher and everyone who's known me ever since Be patient. I remember when I became the senior minister at lookout Mountain Presbyterian Church my predecessor dr. George Long is still living and still mentor of mine He was my immediate predecessor and he gave the charge to me When I became the pastor you know you have a sermon then you have a charge to the pastor and then charge the congregation Well, Dr. Long gave me the charge and George said Be patient he knows me And some of you are known as well reminds me of a little boy who was Standing over the escalator. He was just watching the stairs come up and he's watching it And you know the handrail and you're sitting there watching it. I've been watching it for several minutes No more man came up to him and said some would you lie for me explain how this escalator works? Is it oh no sir? I'm just waiting for my gum to come back up And what James is saying is you've got to wait You've got to wait Now we're going to see that being patient is more than just Floating down the river on your inner tomb waiting till you hit the destination It's a very active progressive proactive almost athletic waiting So be patient He says that's the first thing And we'll see the reason for it in a moment Secondly, he's basically saying to them be peaceful in two ways Number one You will see the word brothers. I think four times in the text Does James have a stuttering problem? Well, I don't think so. We might have but that's not the reason it's there Brother, brothers, brothers, pleading with them and what does he think to them? He's saying I am not ignorant of your suffering It's not as though I'm in earth To human pain It's not as though I'm just a cerebral bishops Who doesn't feel your sufferings? I do feel and you're my family And dear friends any of you who have been in various parts of this world And seen the church in its struggles It's sometimes difficult to see it here. Although we have our own little problems that we escalate You know into these massive problems But you can see that in other parts of the world I can still see myself sitting in a little room outside the Outside the sanctuary of the Calvary Baptist Church in Minsk, Belarus And talking to the pastor of that church, an old man Suffering from gout and arthritis Who struggled even to walk and whose son-in-law had become a good friend of mine Pastor Constantine Who had served in prison for years beaten and tortured for his faith And you see his wife an elderly woman with a little scarf overhead Very humble person who had lived without her husband in a very difficult economy for years and years Because this man preached the gospel You want to get down your knees and kiss his feet
And I've been in China And I've talked to Pastor Joseph Who suffered unspeakable terrors and horror and his family as well because He preached the gospel and he pastored the people of God and he evangelized the people who are not Christians Some of you have been in the slums of the world and I've not been in all of them But I couldn't even describe for you the conditions what people eat And the ages at which they die and what they die from And you see that and you get back on your 747 You fly back to Amsterdam and back to Boston back to Memphis You're left with this question, what is God doing?
And James is ministering to some people who are in poor and oppressive circumstances And he says Number one be patient There's a reason for this Number two be peaceful with each other And sympathize with each other First of all feel each other's pain Paul says it to the Europeans and the Asians You've got to feel the pain of Jerusalem These people are suffering let me hit your money I'm going over there and I'm going to take it with me when I go And sometimes our missionaries say that to us don't they? And that's biblical Because we are in sympathy with those who suffer And then secondly James says Not only be peaceful with each other by feeling each other's pain But please don't grumble with each other Don't you realize your siblings? Of course siblings grumble every once in a while But we love each other and we will not divide The Second Presbyterian Church has been given a great gift of unity and commonality and purpose It's a gift that we've enjoyed for decades and over 150 years And we thank the Lord for it. We don't want to squander it We certainly don't want to lose it And James is saying this is precious. Don't grumble against each other In fact he even says the same Lord who's waiting at the door To come and bless you in the last day is the same one who could be your judge If you turn your back on the church and start dividing her You will face the judge he says so he turns the whole thing around the very Reason where to have hope is the second coming but he's saying if you're not careful That reason is going to be a reason for you to be in despair Don't grumble against one another he says So be patient And be peaceful with each other then he says thirdly be persevering Now James uses the analogy of a farmer you notice when he's talking about patience Isn't that a great analogy? And the analogy is look a farmer has to wait for the early rain and the latter rain Those that's the literal translation of the United He calls it autumn and spring because first rain comes in the autumn Second one the spring you got to have those rains in order for your crop to come Forward and James is saying what would it be like if a farmer goes over and he Yeah, so I'm wondering if this is going to grow and take the flower rips it out of the ground See if it's growing see if it has roots You're going to destroy it. He says a good farmer has to be patient You have to wait Now he's going to talk about perseverance. It is not just that you wait For what someone else is going to do namely God No, you are participating in the work of God so you are patiently waiting But you're very actively patiently waiting In fact he uses the word he says stand steadfast Stand firm The word is strengthen your heart It literally There's only one other place in the Bible where that's used Luke chapter 9 verse 51 Jesus Resolutely With a strengthened heart Knowing that he was going to heaven Turned his face toward Jerusalem. You get this Jesus Resolutely with a firm heart Went to Jerusalem. Why? Because he knew about heaven. That's why As the writer Hebrew says in Hebrews chapter 12 For the joy set before him heaven He endured the cross Scorning its shape Persevere Now folks this sounds so far Just like the self-help books that you can get in the B terminal the land of airport Remember be good and don't give up That's the summary of all the wisdom on the bookshelves in the B terminal of the land of airport And most other terminals and most other bookshelves So far I haven't said a whole lot more than what they're saying Now I'm going to say something because James said it There's absolutely the contrary of what they're saying And it has to do with the incentive for obeying the instructions The interesting thing is nobody can do what the authors in the B terminal of the land of airport tell you to do Nobody can do it It's impossible Nobody can be good and not give up You don't have the strength to But the Bible shows us where the power is Now get ready because I mean you hear who are not Christians I'm going to go into another world now, okay You know like I do in Star Wars you're going to hit it and boom You know we're going we're now we're going to go into this new realm So get ready You want to know what the gospel's all about I'm going to tell you now. Here's the supernatural part of it Here's the part that requires a faith of things you can't see Here's where it is The incentive for patience and peace and perseverance Is the second coming of Jesus Christ in all this glory you see it in verse 7 and in verse 8 and verse 9 You think James is trying to make a point This is the big incentive the second coming of Jesus Christ He's saying this is where we put all of our eggs we put them all in that basket Anything that we enjoy in this life Yes, there are things that we enjoy by virtue of the gift of creation the beauty of music the beauty of wonderful flowers the creation In all this majesty friendships and so on we share in common with all humanity some things come to us that way But that we all know their martin broken and smeared in some way and then we enjoy certain things by virtue of redemption Begin to taste the relationship we have with the father but the problem is we can't get our arms around him And there's frustration in it if we find ourselves turning our back on him from time to time in a distance there Dear friends if I had to live in this this is health If this is all it is Says Paul in 1st goodness 15 if for this life only We have put our hope in Christ. We are of all people most to be pitted But both Paul and James say here is the big royal incentive. It's a supernatural incentive The Lord Jesus Christ is coming back And dear friends what James is saying to the poor Believers all around the world He is saying your day is coming And if you believe this it is not pine the sky It's not a fairy tale. This is reality The farmer knows it Because he's been through this before he's always daddy do it when he was a little boy And the rains came twice a year and the crops come up and then you harvest them The farmer has an advantage. He's seen this happen before and he knows that patience pays off You're at a disadvantage You are going by what someone else has told you If there was a resurrection in the past And there was an ascension into heaven and there were promises given to you And you are looking to the future about something that you Have never seen before with your eyes This is called faith And it absolutely dramatically changes everything so that no longer When your spouse irritates the living daylights out of you Did you say you know the way to handle this is to fight fire with fire
No longer When you don't have the income that you wish you had Do you go blaming other people or feeling guilty or in despair or going to self-pity over it? no longer When there are social injustices Do you then say we've got to do something about this even if it means war and revolution no longer why James has taught us by the power of the spirit that there's coming another day And we wait for that day Let me just close with this Does it work if it works you would expect that it would have worked for James Let me tell you what happened to James We have on really good authority in fact first century Jewish authority from Josephus who is not a Christian who tells us That James was put to death Let me tell you how that happened You know the name Festus Before whom Paul appeared in cesarea on his way to Rome you may remember the name porceus Festus Festus died in 62 AD As procurator in cesarea which was the Capital from which Jerusalem in surrounding area was ruled by the procurator Before Festus was replaced it takes a few months to get you know the new procurator in place and getting there on site the high priest of the Sanhedron Decides that in this little interim of time he's going to queen house The high priest remember sanhedron wealthy class Landowners oppressors of the poor and especially the christian poor his name was ananas the second Ananas decides to wipe out all the zealot leaders he can find And he assumes it because James took up a position in favor of the poor he must be with those poor zealots And James is killed But we know from a second century source climate of Alexandria a theologian of the second century a little bit more about what happened When James was put to death by ananas the second He was taken up to the pinnacle of the temple and thrown off And just like an insect who's been hit once with a fly swatter He was still kicking when he got to the bottom and so they bludgeoned in the death with clubs
But climate of Alexandria tells us what his last words were When he was standing on the pinnacle of the temple being ready to be thrown off and executed. This is what he said He said you ask me about the son of man He now sits at the right hand of the majesty on high And he should come back with great glory in the clouds And then they threw him off Here's a man who stayed steadfast and persevered who promoted the peace and the purity of the church Until his last day who never let the oppression And the injustices in this world Take away his love for Christ and his absolute certainty that these things are getting straightened out And especially in favor of those who have followed Christ never to his last day Well some of you who are skeptical might say well look what happened to him he died
You want to talk to James now you think he's sorry James said Blessed are those who are persecuted Because his older brother Jesus Christ said the same thing Blessed are you who are persecuted for just as the prophets who are persecuted before you you too shall have blessing And you know what happened within 40 years after his death after James and the other leaders in the church Had given their lives for this message We started off with one Savior and 12 men And by 180 we had a million believers around the world And it's still growing exponentially Dear friends James tells us this is the way I said I was going to close but I have one more thing to say It's very interesting that he uses Job as an illustration isn't it? He's a let me give you an illustration the prophets and Job If you read Job you'll find out Job does a whole lot of complaining Completing Lord what was I ever born He tries the pitiful approach. He tries the angry approach But why does he use Job? Well you know what happened to Job he had three daughters seven sons He had 7,000 sheep and 3000 camels and 500 yoke of oxen 500 donkeys very very wealthy person Big family and disaster hits And Job has no explanation for it and he complains But here's the reason he's an example He says make it from our mother's wounded we come and make it to him show we return The Lord give it the Lord take it the way bless it be the name of the Lord And we are told that in all Job said and did he never cursed God He never renounced God never turned his back this is an amazing thing of what graced us for a heart And Job says this Job says in chapter 13 though he slay me yet will I trust him and he says in chapter 19 he says in my flesh I shall see him Job believes that in his blistering flesh with all of these wounds all over it from the hand of God He believes he shall see God in a renewed flesh That is what a Christian believes And that is the incentive to follow all the instructions even to our death
Some of you I know are facing very difficult things in life and my heart goes out to you I just want to say to you no matter what happens to your flesh in this life You're going to get a new flesh and you're going to see him face to face No matter what happens to that loved one that you've lost When they are in Christ you shall see them too once again No matter what has happened to your financial life here or with anybody around the world There's coming a day when God's people will be the true wealthy royalty in the universe That's the reason the God's people in their right minds Her patience and peaceful and persevering that is pray Father we thank you For the calling upon our lives to be Just like Jesus Christ With all of its impossibilities With all of its complexities and all of the things we don't understand God to help us Help us to keep our minds focused on the things that are above Where Christ is seated at your right hand and not the things that are below That lead to confusion We pray that you will enable us to press on toward the goal for getting what's behind We pray that you'll enable us to bear the traits of someone who really believes This we pray in Jesus precious name. Amen