Be Patient
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Be Patient
Be Patient
When you deal with a particular passage of Scripture, it can sometimes be hard to get at what the main point of that passage is. “What’s the thread that holds these verses together?” Sometimes that’s tough. You read it over and over and struggle to find a theme. We don’t have that problem with our text, this morning. In , there is one idea that clearly dominates - and comes up over and over.
Look at the very first words of our passage in v. 7, “Be patient, therefore brothers ...”; “See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being PATIENT about it ...”.
V. 8, “You also, be PATIENT ...”
V. 10, “As an example of suffering and PATIENCE ...”
v. 11, “We consider those blessed who remained STEADFAST ...” (Different word but similar idea) .... “You have heard of the STEADFASTNESS of Job ...”.
Do you see James’ focus here: “Christian brothers and sisters - if you want to live wisely, you need to live your life with patience”.
It’s no surprise that James turns his attention here, at this point in the letter. Remember the context of these verses in the letter - last week’s passage - in verses 1-6 of chapter 5? James was addressing the wicked rich - the ones outside the church who owned the land, who had the positions of power - who were making their fortunes on the backs of their workers who they refused to pay. Having Thanksgiving feasts, while the people who actually did the work in the fields to bring in the harvest - they are starving. If that isn’t enough - they are using their connections to condemn and murder the righteous - that’s what James says in v. 6.
There is something deep at the core of our beings - in all of us - that is disgusted by injustice and oppression. It’s because we were created in the image of God. We want justice. And when we see justice NOT being done - Asia Bibi, mother of 5 children was arrested in her home country of Pakistan - charged with Blasphemy against Islam. 2009 incident in which she fetched water for herself and fellow farm workers. An argument took place after two Muslim women refused to drink from the same container as Bibi because of her religion.
A fight erupted and a local imam claimed Bibi insulted the Prophet Mohammed – a charge she denies. In 2010 she was sentenced to death by hanging. For 8 years she has sat on death row - waiting to be executed because she is a Christian. That’s all. That’s not fair. We want justice. And we want it now.
But so often, up go our prayers of concern and need - - and it seems that God. Does. Nothing. How am I supposed to go on? How am I supposed to carry on in my Christian life?
In 2010 she was sentenced to death by hanging.
It’s no surprise that James turns his attention here, at this point in the letter. Remember the context of these verses in the letter - last week’s passage - in verses 1-6 of chapter 5? James was addressing the wicked rich - the ones outside the church who owned the land, who had the positions of power - who were making their fortunes on the backs of their workers who they refused to pay. The
James is speaking to us - you may not be on death row, unfairly judged - like Asia Bibi or some of the people in the churches that James is writing to .... but you know injustice. You know what it is to be treated unfairly. You know what it is to think that the heavens are made of brass. Some of you seem to be at the mercy of an unfair boss; some of you have been abandoned by someone you loved and counted on; some of you are struggling with a life-threatening physical or emotional condition - - you keep praying for God to act
In this morning’s passage, James is speaking to you - speaking God’s Word to you - - saying: “Be Patient”. “Be Patient”.
Just FYI - After a rejected appeal and waiting to be executed for 8 years, while God’s people around the world prayed - and nothing seemed to happen … On October 31 of this year, the Supreme Court of Pakistan took up the case and found inconsistencies and acquitted Asia … there have been riots in the streets ever since and she is not allowed to leave the country yet - so please keep praying for Asia Bibi … but pray with patience.
THREE THINGS ABOUT PATIENCE in this text.
BE PATIENT: THE LORD IS COMING, vv. 7-8
2. BE PATIENT: GOD IS AT WORK IN YOU, vv. 7-8
James is painting a picture of farming life in the Israel of his day.
2. BE PATIENT: WITH EACH OTHER, v. 9
The word ‘grumble’ translates a Greek word that is used in the Bible elsewhere
… usually to describe God’s people reacting to suffering or judgment - like back in the book of Exodus, in the slavery of Egypt - ; says that , “… the king of Egypt died. the Israelites GROANED in their slavery and cried out ...”.
James is writing to Christians who are suffering - squeezed and pressed by a world that is hostile - waiting for a Lord who is coming, but seems not to arrive - and the temptation is strong to ‘groan’ against each other - to be at each other’s throats, jumpy - quick to take offense.
It is so easy to start taking the frustrations out on each other. To ‘GRUMBLE’ with our tongues against the very people God has blessed us with, to walk through the trials of life - TOGETHER, HAND IN HAND. It’s so easy to do. And if you look hard enough, there is always something you can find to criticize, to complain about.
And James has already made clear in chapter 3:18 - that you can’t experience a harvest of righteousness in your own life, unless you are growing it in the soil of peaceful fellowship that your tongue helps to nourish.
How can you make sure that a Christian will not walk in the joy that God intends him to enjoy in Christ? Persuade him to focus on the weaknesses of the Christian brothers and sisters God has put around him. And watch him grumble.
There’s lots there to grumble about - Remember why we need patience in the first place - we are waiting for that day when Christ comes back and makes all things new - no more tears, no more death, that day is coming. But it’s not here yet. That means that all of us are in process of being finished products. There’s more work to be done.
What’s true is on that line, toward that day, none of us is complete. The Lord is still working in each and every one of us. This means we’re in varying stages and varying places on that line. God’s grace for us stays lavish and extravagant throughout our progressive sanctification. The way I’ve tried to teach it to you historically is the Lord knew what he was buying on the cross. Since God is an inexhaustible well, his grace for you never runs out.
And we see the unfinished state of others much more clearly than we see our own. If you’re a normal, everyday Christian, you look around at the losers you’re stuck with in the church and you feel pretty good about yourself. And you think, “Well, thank God He put me here to save the Kingdom of God.”
And James says, “the Judge is at the door” — “Excuse me - I would maybe watch your mouth - The real judge is at the door and when you grumble against your brothers and sisters, you look pretty foolish.”
Be patient with each other.
3. BE PATIENT: LEARN FROM HISTORY, vv. 10-11
James’ argument is, “Hey, bro. The real Judge is standing in the door. I’d watch your mouth.” To understand the mercy that has been extended to us enables us to extend the mercy to others. Don’t grumble. Be patient with your brothers. They’re works in progress.
3. BE PATIENT: LEARN FROM HISTORY, vv. 10-11
The last point about patience from our text - “Be Patient and Learn from History.”
VERSES 10-11
One of the great temptations we have in the Christian life, is to confuse OUTWARD SUCCESS with God’s Blessing - - to think, when things are humming along in life - “God must be happy with me - the bank account is full, my health is great, the church is growing ....”
And when trouble hits - suffering comes. We think, “I must have done something wrong. This must be God’s judgment”. That’s not the storyline of Scripture. In the Bible, we read about people like Jacob: a schemer and a liar who, made a pile of money BEFORE he was converted.
Meanwhile, James points out that great prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Job led God-honoring lives and yet suffered greatly. Isaiah preaches and no one listens to him, according to tradition, and he ended his life dying a martyr's death by being sawn in two. Jeremiah preaches and is beaten up and thrown into a well. Job suffered great physical and emotional pain.
The people we know with the greatest character, wisdom, and courage (not to mention perseverance) are not usually people who have led a so-called charmed life where they have never experienced any real pain. Rather, they are people who have gone through some kind of deep suffering or loss.
Meanwhile, James points out that great prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Job led God-honoring lives and yet suffered greatly. Isaiah preaches and no one listens to him, according to tradition, and he ended his life dying a martyr's death by being sawn in two. Jeremiah preaches and is beaten up and thrown into a well. Job suffered great physical and emotional pain.
Meanwhile, James points out that great prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Job led God-honoring lives and yet suffered greatly. Isaiah preaches and no one listens to him, according to tradition, and he ended his life dying a martyr's death by being sawn in two. Jeremiah preaches and is beaten up and thrown into a well. Job suffered great physical and emotional pain.
Jesus lived the only perfect life anyone has ever lived, and yet he is called a man of sorrows. At the end of his life, he's beaten up and nailed to a Roman cross. How do you explain that? And James comes along and says, "If you think you are suffering, don't necessarily think you are being punished because of some evil. It might be because God loves you and wants to produce something of greater value in and through you through your suffering."
The people we know with the greatest character, wisdom, and courage (not to mention perseverance) are not usually people who have led a so-called charmed life where they have never experienced any real pain. Rather, they are people who have gone through some kind of deep suffering or loss.
In his book A Sweet and Bitter Providence, John Piper offers these thoughts about God's providence:
In his book A Sweet and Bitter Providence, John Piper offers these thoughts about God's providence:
In his book A Sweet and Bitter Providence, John Piper offers these thoughts about God's providence:
Life is not a straight line leading from one blessing to the next and then finally to heaven. Life is a winding and troubled road. Switchback after switchback. And the point of biblical stories like Joseph and Job and Esther and Ruth is to help us feel in our bones (not just know in our heads) that God is for us in all these strange turns. God is not just showing up after the trouble and cleaning it up. He is plotting the course and managing the troubles with far-reaching purposes for our good and for the glory of Jesus Christ.
4. BE PATIENT:
One day a Man’s only horse escaped from his yard and ran away. His neighbour came over and said “bad luck, your only horse ran away”, and the man replied “Good luck, bad luck, what do I know.” The next day the horse came back with a bunch of other wild horses. The neighbour came over and said “Good luck hey, you now have a lot of horses”, but the man replied, “good luck, bad luck, what do I know.” The next day the man’s son had his leg broken after being kicked by one of the wild horses he was trying to tame. The man’s neighbour came over and said, “Bad luck hey, your son has a broken leg from that wild horse you ended up with!” The man replied, “good luck, bad luck, what do I know.” The next day, the military came around looking for able bodied young adults to fight in a violent war that had broken out. They could not take the man’s son because of his broken leg. The neighbour came over again and said,”good luck hey? Your son doesn’t have to go to a war that he could die in!” but the man simply replied, “Good luck, bad luck, what do I know”
In his book If God Is Good: Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil, author Randy Alcorn recalls when his friend, writer Ethel Herr, had a double mastectomy. Two months later doctors discovered that the cancer had spread. One of Herr's friends, shocked and fumbling for words, asked her, "And how do you feel about God now?" Reflecting on the moment the question was posed to her, Herr says:
As I sought to explain what has happened in my spirit, it all became clearer to me. God has been preparing me for this moment. He has undergirded me in ways I've never known before. He has made himself increasingly real and precious to me. He has given to me joy such as I've never known before—and I've no need to work at it, it just comes, even amidst the tears. He has taught me that no matter how good my genes are or how well I take care of my diet and myself, he will lead me on whatever journey he chooses and will never leave me for a moment of that journey. And he planned it all in such a way that step by step, he prepared me for the moment when the doctor dropped the last shoe … God is good, no matter what the diagnosis or the prognosis, or the fearfulness of the uncertainty of having neither. The key to knowing God is good is simply knowing him."
CONCLUSION
a whole sermon filled with needing to be patient because the Lord is going to come, needing to be patient, believing God has accomplished something, needing to be patient with one another, needing to be patient because the Lord’s promises are true, needing to be patient because God is creating a community of faith that doesn’t just live in this last day but is in process right now.
Here’s what I know. For some of us, we’re just going to write some of these things down. We’re going to kind of categorize it, and one day we’ll revisit it and go, “Man, that was great.” Six weeks, eight weeks, ten weeks, two months from now, we’ll be like, “Gosh, I’m really struggling. Wait, I think Chandler said something in May. Let me see. Oh, wait. Yeah, here it is. Here are my notes. Ahh, that’s right. The Lord is coming.”
For others of us, we dragged ourselves in here today. For others of us, this isn’t some idea we’ll need to consider in the future; this is a helpful word from God right now. See, some of us have come in here, and it has been a hell of a week. What I mean by that is it has been a torment-filled, from the depths of hell type of wrestle.
For some of us, that’s with depression. For others of us, that’s sexual perversion. For others of us, that’s drugs and alcohol. For others of us still, that’s doubt. For others of us still… We’ve dragged ourselves in here, not being confident in how long we’re going to be able to hang in there. For you this morning, is not today an objective evidence of the grace of God being for you, being merciful toward you?
Is not this text falling on this weekend with you being here, coming off what you’re coming off of yet another mercy of God on your life? Is God not right now stepping into your space and saying, “I’m coming. Hang in there.” Is God not right now going, “No, no, no. I’m at work. Hang in there. You have not been betrayed. I’m accomplishing something in you that will bring worship into your heart in times to come. Hang in there. Hold tight. Don’t give up.”
Is he not in some ways for many of us going, “Why do you grumble all the time? Do I grumble about you? Don’t you fail me far more than they fail you? Do you not see the hypocrisy in your own self-righteous heart? I’m at the door, bro. I’m watching this. I, who extend such mercy to you, extend such grace to you, am watching you refuse to do so to others who have not sinned against you like you have sinned against me.”
For others of us, it’s just to be reminded that his promises are true. What a gracious God we serve. To meet us on a day like today, to sow seeds that will bear fruit in the future when it is our turn, because nobody gets out of a world unscathed. For those who are children of God, he holds us fast and to the end. The last couple of lines in the book of Jude say, “To him who is able to keep you from stumbling be all glory and honor and praise.” Let’s pray.
Father, for my brothers and sisters who crawl in here today, who limp in here today, who with great difficulty are enduring, I pray you would encourage their hearts,