The Conversion of James
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
The Covid-19 Pandemic has a lot of people scared, and part of that is because I think that this pandemic is reminding us of our frailty and mortality.
It has humbled us as a nation and as a world, and we have recognized how fragile our grip of control really is over our lives and communities
We are brought face to face with a disease that we cannot seem to control
I’ve been thinking about this question: Where to people find hope in this season?
Do you find hope in the health experts and government officials that are guiding our response to this?
Do you find hope in your own strength and stamina to fend off disease?
Do you find hope in your finances and wealth to see you through this time?
Or are you in a state of nervousness and anxiety?
That you might get this disease and get sick?
That you might not have the provision and resources to weather this storm economically?
I’d like to suggest today that there is precisely zero true and lasting hope to be found in any of those places, but there is great hope to be found in the resurrection of Jesus that we celebrate today.
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Letter of James I. Address and Greeting (1:1)
James’s view of his half-brother Jesus had undergone quite a transformation since the days they grew up in the same household together!
The resurrection of Jesus is one of the most critical beliefs of the Christian faith
Without the resurrection, Jesus was simply another Jewish person crucified by the Roman government, which is sad but ultimately irrelevant to us - many Jews were crucified, and while its sad and barbaric that the Romans did that to them, there is nothing there worth basing our lives around 2,000 years later.
But if Jesus was raised from the dead, then we are put in a place where we must respond to that somehow
Christianity is really an all or nothing religion
If you believe that Jesus was raised from the dead, then he is worth orienting everything else around - your opinions, your beliefs, your habits, your morality, your life
If Jesus was not raised from the dead, then he is not worth orienting everything else around
As we have been studying James, I decided to take a step back today to simply look at the person of James rather than at the text of his letter in the NT.
James was a half brother of Jesus - Jesus was his older brother
Do you have any siblings? As a thought experiment, I’d like you to imagine what it would be like if your sibling started to claim that they were in fact God in human form.
I. James did not always believe Jesus to be the Messiah
I. James did not always believe Jesus to be the Messiah
Jesus’ family thought he was crazy - two texts that speak to this
20 Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat. 21 And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”
1 After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him. 2 Now the Jews’ Feast of Booths was at hand. 3 So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. 4 For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” 5 For not even his brothers believed in him.
Catch that? Jesus would not “go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him…so his brothers said to him, ‘Leave here and go to Judea…’”
20 Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat. 21 And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”
Jesus’ family did not believe that he was who he said he was
English Standard Version Chapter 3
20 Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat. 21 And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”
1 After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him. 2 Now the Jews’ Feast of Booths was at hand. 3 So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. 4 For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” 5 For not even his brothers believed in him.
James was included in this group, and didn’t believe in Jesus, and for good reason!
Jesus claimed to be Messiah, and if that wasn’t bad enough as an overinflated sense of importance,
Jesus claimed to be God
Application: You can give James some flak here, but seriously, think about your own family
If your sibling was claiming to be the promised Messiah, and more than that, God himself, what would your reaction be?
So a critical question we have to ask - how did James come to believe in his brother Jesus? What would have brought that about?
In other words, what would have to happen for you to come to the place of rational, lucid belief that your sibling was in fact God in human form?
The biblical teaching is that James came to faith in Jesus only after encountering him after the resurrection
II. James came to faith in Jesus because of the resurrection
II. James came to faith in Jesus because of the resurrection
1 Corinthians 15:
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
Paul is referring to a VERY early Christian creed, a concentrated teaching about Jesus of Nazareth
He is talking about something he received, and almost every scholar regards what follows as essentially a quotation of a well known Christian creed that dates to as early as a month after the resurrection of Jesus.
Jesus died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures
He was buried (as in, he was really dead)
He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures
He appeared to Peter, then to the twelve.
Paul then says he appeared to more than five hundred people
He is so confident in this as a means by which people could investigate the truth of his claims that he says “most of them are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.”
Side note, what a beautiful way to describe those who had died
“Death, which is an antagonist no-one can withstand and which was viewed with horror by most people in the ancient world, has become for the Christian nothing more than sleep.” Leon Morris, 1 Corinthians: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 7, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985), 199.
Leon Morris, 1 Corinthians: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 7, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985), 199.
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1 Corinthians: An Introduction and Commentary A. The Resurrection of Christ (15:1–11)
Death, which is an antagonist no-one can withstand and which was viewed with horror by most people in the ancient world, has become for the Christian nothing more than sleep
Paul then says, “then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.”
Jesus appeared to James
James encountered the resurrected Jesus, and it changed everything for him
James was not looking for a reason to believe in his brother - he thought he was crazy
He was not superstitiously expecting a miracle like the resurrection of the dead - the ancient world did not believe in resurrection of the dead
Sometimes we think, “oh those people only believed that nonsense because they were superstitious and gullible”
But Paul’s entire argument in is occurring because it was such a common belief in the ancient world, and indeed even in the church, that there was no such thing as life after death and no such thing as resurrection
James placed a reasonable, lucid, coherent faith in Jesus because he encountered him after his death in a physically resurrected body
He wrote the letter we have been studying, and this letter is not the ravings of a madman but rather the coherent teaching of a man who has been convinced that Jesus is who he said he is
Application: The reason I point this out is because m any people tend toward viewing Christianity as this sort of mystical wishful thinking for people easily given to superstition, and that we just sort of have a blind faith and vague hope that maybe God is real and we should be moral people
But that’s not the truth - Christians do not believe that people ordinarily come back to life after they are dead
The reason we orient our lives around Jesus is because we are convinced that a miraculous event took place in human history that changes everything - we believe that he was raised from the dead
I accept the teaching and testimony of James because I believe that he had an encounter with a bodily resurrected Jesus, and so I’ve come to the lucid conclusion that Jesus was raised from the dead, and that changes everything with how I view the world and live
And by the way, Paul goes on to say that if Jesus has in fact not been resurrected, then our faith is worthless - in other words, you cannot be a Christian and not believe that Jesus was raised from the dead, and to try to be one is a complete waste of time
If Jesus was raised from the dead, then everything has changed
If Jesus was not raised from the dead, then nothing has changed and we should not base our lives around him
III. What did it look like for James to put his faith in Jesus?
III. What did it look like for James to put his faith in Jesus?
James believed in Jesus
Two texts in James that mention Jesus
1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,
To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion:
Greetings.
1 My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.
James believed that Jesus was the Lord and Christ
The Messiah, or anointed one
The OT paints a massive and beautiful picture of the coming Messiah
He will defeat the forces of evil
He will deliver people from their sin
He will bring about the Kingdom of God
He will reign forever with justice and righteousness
He will bring about the kingdom of GOd
The king who will reign forever over all creation
Lord
The one who reigns
James believed that Jesus is God
The “Lord of Glory”
By using this description, James is using language that in the Bible is only ever used of God
God is the “glorious one”
Application: If Jesus actually was actually raised from the dead, we must believe that he is who he said he was
He is God himself who is worthy of our worship
He is the king who is deserving of our allegiance and obedience
James trusted Jesus with his future
That in our suffering, God is working with purpose and love for our ultimate good and joy eternally
That Jesus is returning and will right every wrong, comfort every broken heart, wipe away every tear, and banish all disease and death
7 Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. 8 You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
James obeyed Jesus
James
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
Hope for the future
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
Conclusion:
Believe in Jesus
Trust Jesus with hope for your future
Obey Jesus
Two particularly responses today
Offering
Communion
Transition to communion
A time for Christians to remember and celebrate the gospel, the death and resurrection of Jesus.
If you are a Christian, we welcome you to take these symbols with us as we do this together, knowing that as you celebrate the gospel you have great hope now and for eternity.
If you are not a Christian, here’s what I’d like to do: I’d like to invite you to place your faith in Jesus right now and then take communion with us, and those symbols will then have great meaning for you!
We will give a few minutes to pray and meditate and then come together in five minutes to take it together.
Two songs
Benediction
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