Sermon Tone Analysis

Let Your Yes Be Yes

Introduction

Somebody asked if we were going to be doing an Advent series this year.

I wasn’t sure how to respond, because the answer is ‘yes’ and ‘no’.

Yes, because we are attention is especially focused on the approach of Christmas - our eyes are on the finish line, when we celebrate the Incarnation: The birth of Christ, when the Eternal God took on our flesh, joined himself to our race and came to live with us in the person of Jesus … truth that makes the weary heart to sing.

And from now until Christmas, week by week, we will be taking one step at a time … closer and close to that celebration, by focusing on an implication of the coming of Jesus Christ to our world.

So, in that sense, ‘yes’ - we are going to do an Advent series.

But we have been journeying through the letter of James for a few months and are in the home stretch of the letter - the finish line is just ahead and we’re not going to leave this letter to go to some other passages that are more ‘Christmasy’.

That’s intentional.

I want us to see that Christ is the theme of every book, every page, every chapter of Scripture - we believe that, I hope.

But here’s a chance to see it up close.

Let’s read our text of Scripture this morning.

It’s short - only one verse.

James 5:12.

Thought about doing a special Advent series - going through some texts that

If this verse sounds familiar to you - it’s because it is familiar.

James took this teaching directly from the lips of his older, half-brother Jesus, who said pretty much exactly the same thing in the Sermon on the Mount.

Keep your finger in , but turn with me to Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 5. -

If this verse sounds familiar to you - it’s because it is familiar.

James took this teaching directly from the lips of his older, half-brother Jesus, who said pretty much exactly the same thing in the Sermon on the Mount.

Keep your finger in , but turn with me to Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 5. -

Jesus turns the wrench and drives the screws deeper into the heart:

A STRANGE EMPHASIS

Did you notice the way verse 12 begins?

“Above all, my brothers (and sisters) do not swear ...”? Doesn’t that you strike you as strange?

Verse 12 follows directly on the heels of verses .

He has been dealing with people -

There was a time when western culture was distinguished from many other cultures in the world by everyone at least AGREEING that the TRUTH matters - not that everyone practiced what they preached - but at least with their mouths - people in the society

George Washington as a kid, chopped down a tree - “I can not tell a lie”.

That was a story held out for us as an great example, “That’s the kind of character you should have.

Tell the truth, even when it hurts”.

Things have changed.

Now, little George Washington would be seen as a fool.

“Doesn’t he know how to evade, or muddy the waters with his answer?

...“Well, dad - it depends on what the meaning of ‘is’ is”.

“Well, dad - it depends on what the meaning of ‘is’ is”.

The concept of truth has been dying a slow death for many years and has become more noticeable in the past decade or so.

In the early 2000s, comedian Stephen Colbert picked up on this cultural phenomenon by coining the term "truthiness," which went on to become Merriam-Webster's word of the year in 2006.

Similarly, in 2016 in the wake of our presidential election, Brexit, and accusations across the political spectrum about "fake news," Oxford Dictionaries named "post-truth" its word of the year.

Shortly thereafter, commenting on the presidential inauguration, Kellyanne Conway famously spoke of "alternative facts."

In response, Time blazoned the question "Is Truth Dead?" on its April 3, 2017 cover.

2. WHAT WE AVOID

First comes what we are to avoid: “Above all, my brothers, do not swear ...”.

The word ‘swear’ here, James isn’t talking about the ‘four letter’ words that we think of when we hear ‘swear’.

The Bible speaks against that kind of swearing elsewhere and repeatedly.

If you are a Christian - I have no business speaking crudely, or coarsely or with vile language.

You praise the Lord with that mouth - I have no business speaking the language of hell with it, too.

But that’s not James’ concern in THIS text.

The Greek word he uses here is ‘omnyo’ - and it is used in the Bible for a very specific kind of speech.

It’s used for ‘oaths’.

And what James is concerned about, in our verse, is Christians taking oaths to guarantee the truth of what they say.

James is concerned about Christians taking oaths to guarantee the truth of

,

Some people think that this verse means that you shouldn’t take an oath in a courtroom.

They want to obey God’s Word, which is great - that should be the desire of all of us.

But I don’t think that James is saying, “Never swear on a Bible in the courtroom, when the judge asks you to do just that.”

First of all, in the Old Testament, God encourages oaths in His name.

, “You shall fear the LORD your God; you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him, and by HIS NAME YOU SHALL SWEAR.”

God Himself makes oaths - , “For when God made a promise to Abraham, since He had no one greater by which to swear, He swore by Himself.”

In the New Testament - Jesus on trial in , the high priest looks at him and says, ‘I charge you under oath by the living God, are you the Son of God?’ Jesus says, “Yes”.

Paul made oaths.

In , “I call God to witness against me - it was to spare you that I kept from coming to Corinth ...”.

, “In what I am writing to you, BEFORE GOD, I do not lie!”

Oaths in and of themselves are not always wrong.

That’s not what James is saying - the Bible doesn’t contradict itself.

The problem that James and Jesus are concerned about is truthfulness.

In the OT, Moses stressed how important it is to keep your vows.

, “You shall not swear by My name falsely and so profane the name of your God; I am the LORD.”

, “If a man vows to the LORD, or swears an oath to bind Himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word.

He shall do according to all that proceeds from His mouth.”

, “If you make a vow to the LORD your God, you shall not delay fulfilling it, for the LORD your God will surely require it of you, and you will be guilty of sin.”

Vows were a part of a godly life - the important thing was that, once you made the vow - you kept your word.

And unfortunately, by the New Testament times, when Jesus stepped into our world, the Bible’s teaching had become massively abused.

The

Some people think this prohibits them from taking oaths in a courtroom, or from taking an oath of allegiance.

Their desire to obey God’s Word is admirable; but I submit they have really not understood it.

As usual, Jesus is preaching in antithetical fashion; and it is important to discover just what he is saying before we take his statement with such insensitive absoluteness.

It needs to be noticed, first, that the Old Testament does permit men to take oaths, even oaths in God’s name.

“You shall fear the Lord your God.

Him you will serve, to him you will cleave, and you will swear by his name” (Deut.

10:20).

Even in the New Testament, Paul, for example, regularly swears by God’s name.

Unfortunately, by the time Jesus came, the Jewish religious leaders had built up a whole legal system of their own around the Old Testament teaching.

In the law code called the Mishnah, there is a whole section devoted to the subject of oaths: when they are binding and when they are not binding.

Some rabbis were teaching that an oath isn’t binding if it leaves out God’s name.

So, if you swear by your own life or someone else’s life, or the life of the king - but don’t mention or at least imply God’s name, then your promise isn’t binding.

Or, if you swore BY Jerusalem, that vow isn’t binding; but if you swear TOWARD Jerusalem, then your vow IS binding.”

So what you have is a game - you find out the rules and then you can play - and know when you are allowed to lie and when you have to tell the truth in your vows.

If this ‘swearing by Jerusalem’ seems like it has absolutely nothing to do with you today .... let me say, ‘Not so fast’.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

And we humans don’t change.

Remember back to elementary school?

Remember trying to persuade someone that you were telling the truth about something?

ILLUST ....

… so you make a promise?

I promise, if you trade me your lunch today, I’ll trade you my Wayne Gretzky rookie card for your Petri Skriko card.

Next day comes - ‘Where’s the hockey card?’ ‘Oh, I’m not doing that anymore.’

‘But you promised!’

‘I had my fingers crossed’.

Do you remember that?

If you made a promise, you were supposed to keep it.

But if you made a promise, while you had your fingers crossed, behind your back, where nobody could see them … then you were good to break your promise.