The Book of James Part 1: Patience
“The Book of James Part 1: Patience” was preached on Sunday evening by Pastor Mike Ray at Hopewell Baptist Church on Sunday evening, 8/8/2021.
If you have your Bibles, let’s open them please to the book of James and chapter 1. And we’re going to look at a little background to this book, and then we’ll try to teach and preach a little of the first section here. I’m going to read the first twelve verses this is all we’re going to deal with tonight. Notice how he starts:
James 1:1–12 “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. 2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; 3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. 4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. 5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. 7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. 8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” Skip down to verse 12: “Blessed [or happy] is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.” We’ll give you some background, then we’ll get into the message.
Let’s pray. Father, bless the reading of Thy Word. Thank You for including this in the Bible. Help us to see how we are to use it even right now in our everyday life. In Jesus’ name, we ask, Amen.
The theme of the book of Hebrews — the book before this — is faith in the Christian life. The theme of the book of James is works in the Christian life. One person argues, “But aren’t we just saved by faith?” Oh yes. “Well, what about works? Faith without works is dead (James 2:17).” Well, here’s how it works. Because of His finished work, we don’t have to work our way to Heaven. It’s all by faith, but real faith works.
So, if someone really gets the kind of faith God wants us to have and we’ve trusted Him as our Savior, it will make us want to work. We do not work to earn Heaven; We work because we’re on our way to Heaven. And that’s how it is.
It’s like someone asking, “Are you ironing all your husband’s shirts because you have to do that?” The wife says, “No, I get to do that. I do it because I love him, not because I have to.” And so, we don’t have to serve the Lord. We get to.
Who is this guy James? There’s a couple of studies. One person thinks it was the cousin of Jesus. Many scholars believe he was actually His half-brother, one of the children born to Joseph and Mary after the virgin birth. There’re several arguments about that, but I believe this James was a very mature Christian.
We see him mentioned in the Book of Acts. They had a council. Paul and Barnabas came, and they preached the Gospel to the Gentiles — the non-Jews, and the Jewish Christians were upset. So, they had a meeting. Guess who was in charge? James. James was called to the meeting to oversee it and give his opinion. So, he was a very respected man, a very respected Apostle.
He’s also one of the three that when Paul got saved, Paul said in Galatians 2:9, “And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars…” in the church. So, the new convert, Paul, said that whoever this James is, he’s carrying a load, and he is respected. And then we see in Acts 15, 17, and I think 21 several times there’s an assembly, and James is leading the talk. So, he was very well respected by people like Paul and Barnabas. They looked up to him. The early church leaders — they looked up to him. You would call him a mature Christian. They cared about what he said.
James, the author of this book. He’s the one in 1 Corinthians 15, the “resurrection chapter,” where it says after Jesus rose from the dead, He appeared to the disciples, to Peter, and 500 others. It says He also appeared to James (1 Cor. 15:7). He singled out James. Isn’t that amazing?
If James really was the half-brother of Jesus, then Jesus was a lot older than him because He was the firstborn. Maybe Jesus was already out of the house by the time James was a teenager. We don’t know. But I know how hard it is to recognize greatness in your own family. You ever notice the plumber that fixes the neighbors leaky faucet is the hero. If he fixes his own faucet, the family says it’s about time! And so, Jesus is doing these miracles. “Oh yeah right. We never saw him do a miracle in our house.” Paul says, “By the way, James saw Jesus resurrected from the dead.” Maybe that was the clincher for James. “I heard all these miracles You supposedly did, but now, because I’ve seen You rise from the dead, I’m in.”
God uses James to write this great, great book. Someone would call it the proverbs of the New Testament. It includes the marks of a mature Christian, that’s what this whole book is about. Very practical. Almost every chapter deals with a different subject.
How important was this to James? In AD 62, James was killed for his faith. They called him “camel knees.” They had a legend that he prayed so long and so hard on his knees that his knees were swollen, and they look more like camel’s knees than human knees.
He’s the only Apostle we know that stayed in Jerusalem. The others scattered because of persecution and mission work. James stayed with that early church. It is said by several different historians that James was called up to the pinnacle of the temple, the place where they tried to push Jesus down and kill Him. They told James to stand up there and tell the crowd, “Tell us Who you believe Jesus is.” And he said, “Jesus is the Son of God. He sits at the Father’s right hand. He’s the Savior of the world.” At that time, they pushed him off the pinnacle to kill him. He landed but did not die. They say he knelt and began praying for his enemies. At that time, they began stoning him with stones. Finally, a man with a club took the club and beat him to death with it. That’s the man that we’re reading of right now. So, did he believe what he wrote? He must have. He died for his Savior. This was real to him. It wasn’t just words.
Pastor, why is it so important to be a mature Christian? Well, let’s think just a moment of the difference between a baby and a mature person. All right, let me say it’s going to be hard for me to remember. It’s been years since we had a little baby. But I know this: babies cry a lot. Baby Christians sometimes cry. A lot of babies are selfish. If you say “Not mine,” put him in the church nursery, and give him a toy. Then put another child in there. If he puts his toy down and the other kid starts playing with it, he comes all the way back and says, “Mine!” And besides “Jesus” and “Bible” and “tithing,” usually the first word a child learns is “mine” because it just comes naturally. For the immature person, it’s all about them. “Mine.”
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Hopewell Baptist Church is an Independent Baptist Church in Napa, California pastored by Mike Ray. It is Bible-based with a warm, friendly atmosphere. Hopewell is dedicated to bringing the water of life to the Napa Valley and beyond.
