Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro:

A couple days ago our nation, with several other nations around the world, celebrated St Patrick’s Day today it gets a little harder to decipher what we are celebrating since as the Babylonian bee comically pointed out, our nation celebrates by getting totally inebriated.

Regardless, we here celebrate a Christian Missionary, who was a witness to the Irish, some of which had held him captive and enslaved him earlier in his life.

As you might have heard before, he is accredited for using the three leaf clover as an illustration to explain the nature of the trinity, but he also did more for the faith.

He ordained priests and he once wrote that he had baptized thousands of people.

His ministry was met with a bit of difficulties, though.

He wrote frequently about how much of the opposition that he had was from other fellow Christians.

apparently they had accused him of some sort of financial scandal at one point since he would not accept payments offered to him for the baptisms, and other ministry work that he performed.

By not accepting money, he wanted to make clear that the gospel is free--even to the wealthy.

With this kind of witness, and the fact that his legend has stood the test of time, a believer is left to assume God will give him his reward.

How might we know that for sure?

Well, listen to the words of James in his epistle picking up at verse 12:

James 1:12

As we saw last week, having just encouraged low believers to think of their high position in Christ and high Christians to think of their low position as mere mortals, James moves to a point that unifies and should thrill Christians of all stages in life.

He writes of ‘the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.’

Be Blessed

This construction “Blessed is the man who...” reflects the formal Hebrew usage seen throughout the OT wisdom literature and is expected with James’ heavy Jewish background.

In the Greek, Makaros can be translated “happy”.

So, we can read this passage as, “Happy is the man who remains steadfast.”

This is the same term used in “the Beatitudes” of the Sermon on the Mount (Matt.

5).

3 Blessed/happy are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 Blessed/happy are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

5 happy are the meek...

6 happy are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness...

7 happy are the merciful....

8 happy are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

9 happy are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

10 happy are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 happy are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

Makaros can also be translated as fortunate.

None of the translations will ever say fortunate, because considering YHWH’s omnipotence are we ever really fortunate?

No, we are blessed!

Same idea applies to luck.

We are never really lucky, we are really blessed!

Remain Steadfast

“the man who remains steadfast/perseveres/endures under trial” This phrase “remain steadfast is just one Greek word, hupomeno, it’s PRESENT TENSE which means continually—even under trial.

This should be familiar from verse 3 here in James.

Endurance, or steadfastness is not Que Sera, Sera (Whatever will be, will be) thinking; it is not passive resignation; Endurance is active engagement.

It is not grin and bear it; it is finding a source of strength outside of the circumstances and ourselves.

James is not saying, “Get over it!”

He is being sensitive; he knows that the only way we can deal with the pain is to replace the pain with joy that only comes from considering Jesus.

Now we know from growing up in children’s Sunday School that if you have a problem that the simple answer is Jesus.

Jesus will rescue, Jesus will save; but when I am going through persecution, how can Jesus really help me?

When does it go from a mental thing to a heart thing that keeps me going?

Hebrews 12:1b-3: Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.

When going through trials it is not about “how long can you endure.”

It is not about considering you or looking to your own strength; it is Considering HIM! (From the Head to the Heart)

It is looking to Jesus! Look how Jesus with great joy endured.

To the degree that we see how He endured with the ultimate stickability is the degree we can endure.

He endured the full wrath of God for our sins,

he was rejected,

he was alone,

he went through hell

he withstood and remained.

Since He endured, we can endure.

C.S. Lewis was asked, “Why do Christians suffer?”

He said, “Why not?

They are the only ones who can take it.”

When trials comes, this world recoils, escapes, becomes bitter; but we as believers can endure trials because Jesus endured the ultimate trial, the ultimate suffering for us on the Cross.

It is because HE LIVES WE CAN FACE TOMORROW, TODAY AND FOREVER!

Stand the Test

“for when he has stood the test/been approved” “Test” is the Greek word dokimos (cf.

v. 3).

It often implies “to test with a view toward approval.”

This approval comes only through testing.

It was used in ancient Greece for medical doctors taking a final test before graduating to live patients.

As I said recently last Wednesday night, this testing is not like when a teacher test a student to find out what he/she has retained.

For if God really is omniscient (all-knowing) what’s the use of testing us as a teacher would?

Rather, God tests us to prove to us where our faithfulness stands before Him.

The Bible deepens the meaning of how God blesses the people to include a deep joy that comes from receiving God’s favor.

As athletes persevere in training in order to improve their abilities and endurance for competition, so Christians persevere in spiritual training as they patiently endure testing that will bring maturity and completeness.

Today’s trials will seem like training when we face tomorrow’s challenges.

The way to pass God’s test is to love Him and stay faithful even under the pressures of life.

Receive Reward

“he will receive the crown of life” The crown of life!

What does it mean?

This is the Greek term stephanos, which was a wreath of either metal or twigs, worn on the head as a symbol of civil prominence or athletic victory.

It is the word from which we get the English name Stephen.

Crowns, crowns, and more crowns

A crown as a wreath:

Metal Crowns were mainly worn by monarchs as symbol of royal authority.

But the Greeks also wore wreaths, worn on joyful occasions, such as a wedding:

Song of Solomon uses the wedding example.

There was the crown of the high priest Exod.

29:6; 39:30

Then a wreath of laurel leaves were worn by the winner of an athletic event which the Apostle Paul refers to in a few of his epistles.

And we are all familiar with the wreath used as a mock crown made of thorns that they put on the Christ’s head:

Mt 27:29

But that is not the only Crown Jesus will wear since John on the Island of Patomos told us:

The word ‘Crown’ is also used figuratively to indicate honor and blessing in both the OT & the NT:

Isa 62:3

Paul uses stephonos to refer to fellow believers: Php 4:1

Some theologians believe that James could be drawing on something with which all his readers would be familiar with, namely, the realm of sports.

Here are some runners preparing for a race as the illustration usually goes.

They strip off everything that would weigh them down and step up to the starting line.

Every muscle is tense and every nerve ready as they await the signal.

Each puts every ounce of strength and energy into the race, straining for the finish line.

What does the winner receive?

He or she is crowned with the victor’s wreath.

While this is very plausible, another option is worth looking at.