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About Mission to Babylon
A podcast of Christ Church DC. Hear CREC Pastors exposit on God’s Holy Word. Subscribe to hear Doug Wilson, Jared Longshore, Ben Merkle, Toby Sumpter, Joe Rigney, Adam McIntosh, Ben Zornes, Brooks Potteiger, Garrett Craw, C. R. Wiley and many more. Hear their weekly exhortation and sermon. Like what you hear? Join Christ Church DC live on Sundays at 10:30am in Washington, DC.
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- 27 Jul 2025
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- 27 Sept 2026
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27 Sept 2026
Brooks Potteiger; Paradoxical Boasting (James 1:9-12)
Summary In this sermon, the preacher expounds on James 1:9-12, addressing trials faced by both the lowly and the rich within the church, emphasizing a counterintuitive, gospel-centered perspective. The lowly, often socially and economically disadvantaged, are exhorted to “boast in their exaltation,” recognizing their heavenly status and union with Christ despite earthly humility. Conversely, the rich are cautioned to “boast in their humiliation,” remembering the transient nature of wealth and earthly life, avoiding the temptation to idolize riches as sources of identity or security. The sermon highlights that trials come uniquely to each station, requiring paradoxical wisdom that counters worldly values. Riches are affirmed as blessings from God but carry the danger of fostering pride and detachment from dependence on God. The preacher stresses rejecting cultural egalitarianism and envy, encouraging gratitude regardless of social standing. Further, the digital age’s role in manufacturing discontent through consumerism is addressed with a biblical call to contentment. Practical applications include urging the affluent to humbly relate to the lowly, fostering unity and mutual service rather than division. Ultimately, the sermon points to the “crown of life” promised by God to those who steadfastly endure trials, framing suffering as a path to spiritual maturity and eternal reward. This message roots Christian identity not in earthly status but in faithful perseverance under trials, anchored in the hope secured by Christ’s victory over death. Transcription Choose show more to view the transcription. Transcriptions are AI generated and MAY be incorrect. Rely on the spoken word heard in the audio file. show more Our sermon text today comes from the, not the gospel, the epistle of James. We’re still in the first chapter, verses 9 through 12. Give careful attention to the reading of God’s holy and inspired word. James 1, beginning in verse 9. Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation. Because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass. Its flower falls and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits. Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial. For when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God, our Lord and our God. We thank you for your word. And I pray that whatever station, whether lowly or exalted, you have placed us in, in your wisdom and in your providence, that we would inhabit that station well with gratitude and avoiding the snares that are incumbent to each one. We pray it through Christ our Lord and in his name we pray. Amen. Amen. Well, a prayer book that I’m sure some of you are familiar with and that I’ve used to great advantage over the last decade is one called the Valley of Vision. It’s a collection of Puritan prayers and thoughts. And the first prayer in that book, the one by the name Valley of Vision, which is taken from the prophet Isaiah, that phrase, it says this in the prayer, Lord, high and holy. Meek and lowly, thou hast brought me to the valley of vision, where I live in the depths, yet see thee in the heights. Hemmed in by mountains of sin, I behold your glory. Let me learn by paradox. that the way down is the way up, that to be low is to be high, that the broken heart will be the healed heart, that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit, that the repenting soul is the victorious soul, that to bear the cross is to wear a crown, that to give is to receive, and that the valley really is the place of vision. Much of living with wisdom within the economy of the kingdom is learning by paradox, as it says wonderfully in that prayer. Let me learn by paradox that the path to greatness and to joy, to living with the applause of heaven upon you, is counterintuitive. It is precisely the opposite. of what’s natural in the flesh. As our Lord says, to be great in the kingdom is to become the servant of all. Counterintuitive, learning by paradox. Well, as we continue on in our study of James today, James is going to instruct us by paradox. He’s going to teach us to remain steadfast during specific trials, whether it’s the trial that comes with lowliness, of having a humble estate by the world’s standards, or the trial of riches, of having a high estate by the world’s standards. But we must always remember that James isn’t writing vague proverbs, fortune cookie style to anyone who happens upon them. He’s writing a pastoral letter to a specific people with a specific purpose, a specific logic and flow of thought, each section building upon, filling out more of what just came behind. So today, that’s why we know that That while he addresses the lowly and the rich, the frame around what he’s saying is the context of trials. That they are intended to bring about maturity. We know this for at least two reasons. One, that is the heels of what we just came on, was remaining steadfast in trials. But the second is he backends this specific word today to the lowly and the rich within the church with a call, again, to remain steadfast during trials. So there are unique trials that are inherent to each station, which requires paradoxical wisdom. If you would remain steadfast and take hold of the maturity and ultimately the life that Christ intends. And while we may think only one of these comes with a trial, namely the lowly, that they’re the ones who are really in it, James would say, if you think that only the lowly have trials, then you have a very shallow understanding of human nature. You are very naive to where real temptation comes from. Having riches, having influence and affluence also has great potential moral pitfalls. As our Lord reminds us by paradox, it is quite possible, perhaps quite easy, to gain the whole world, but to lose your soul. to wake up and realize you are morally devastated after having achieved all that you set out to achieve. That’s Matthew 16. So, an overview of our text today. Verse 9, James first speaks to the lowly in the church. The lowly, the undistinguished, the anti-influencer, the one with no political sway, no social capital, certainly financially impoverished. And in context, this would have made up a significant majority of Christians. The dispersed church. Remember, he’s writing to the dysphoria, the dispersed church. We talk about how we are in a uniquely challenging economy, which no doubt some of us feel the pinch from with rising inflation and gas prices and all the rest. Well, the lowly in James’ context… had a very uniquely challenging economy. Remember, they had to hightail it out of Jerusalem just to save their skin after Stephen’s martyrdom, which meant not only did they have to leave their homes, they also had to leave the place where they would have had some social capital within the community. Many had to leave most of their possessions, which were likely very humble to begin with. And so you can imagine how hard this present trial would be for them, especially for the men in the community, the providers who have been forced to abandon their land, abandon their labors, abandon their network. This is a hard providence. And this lowliness would have come with a whole host of temptations. It doesn’t take much imagination to envision what that would be. The temptation towards anger, towards frustration and a festering bitterness towards their persecutors. Or on the other side, the temptation towards envying the rich, especially those who had recently joined the church and and who have been shielded from the painful sacrifices that manifested when they had to flee. There is some real social economic gunpowder that is laid out all across the sanctuary, which could blow up very easily if the sparks of anger and envy start to spray out. And so, Pastor James knows this, and so he speaks to them, and he gives them the key. to passing the lowliness test well. They are lowly, all in God’s providence, and there is a way to endure that trial well, and it’s this. He says that they should boast in their exaltation. They should boast at how exalted their office and their standing is. See, if they are upset by their lowliness, worldly speaking, then the test was well brought because it shows that they are measuring their worth by a worldly metric and not in light of the gospel. But James reminds them of the paradoxical wisdom that they might appear lowly on paper, but that lowliness is a mirage. In reality, through their union with Christ, They hold an exalted office. They’ve been seated with Christ in the heavenly places. They have become, to use language we introduced last week, nobility within the new creation. Paul makes this point to the Corinthians. He says in 1 Corinthians 3, 21-23, “…let no one boast in men.” For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death, the present or the future, all are yours and you are Christ’s and Christ is God’s. And see, the Corinthians were big on gauging status by a worldly metric within the church and They found their identity, their cool points, by claiming they had the basest pastor. They listened to the basest podcasters. Therefore, they were very spiritual Christians indeed. And this was causing divisions in the church. I follow Paul. Well, I follow Apollos. Well, I follow John MacArthur. Well, I follow John Piper. Well, I follow Doug Wilson, right? We still see this in the church. But Paul says, though your boast has a Christian veneer, it is carnal reasoning. This is the way the worldlings measure glory, by who they’re connected to, by what social status they have, but not the Christian. Our boast and our glory is that we are united together to Jesus Christ. And the position he has given us is vice regents in his kingdom. And in the same way, James calls the lowly not to fixate on their temporal, earthly status, but to boast in their exalted status in Christ through the gospel. Then in verse 10, he now turns and he speaks to the other side. to the rich, which I take to mean not the rich outside of the church that is persecuting and oppressing them, though some commentators take it that way. I believe he’s talking to the rich within the church who are brothers but of significant means and substantial influence. I take it that way for several reasons, not least because in the next chapter, We’re told that, at the very least, they’re having rich visitors come to the church who some were tempted to fawn over and show favoritism towards. But it’s not just the lowly that have a unique temptation. What’s true is being rich… Being applauded, having affluence, having office comes preloaded with very real trials as well. They are not the same trials as the lowly, but they are just as real of trials. In fact, the rich are one of the most worn groups in all of Scripture. Riches are rife with pitfalls. Now it must be said, and it must be said clearly, this is not because riches in themselves are bad There’s also a massive Gnostic ditch that the church can swerve into, thinking inherently that wealth or resources in general ought to be looked at skeptically, as if they are to be generally avoided, but if enjoyed at all, they are to be seen as guilty pleasures, not good blessings. And that impulse is sub-Christian. That impulse is sub-Christian. Riches and wealth are often put forth as a great blessing from God. And this makes sense when you think about it. We’re physical beings put in a physical earth called to take real dominion, be really fruitful in this earth. And since the Bible says you generally reap what you sow, then a diligent sower will generally have a good and increasing harvest over time. Generally. And scripture celebrates this, calls it a blessing. Proverbs 10, 22. The blessing of the Lord. makes rich. And he adds, no sorrow with it. Proverbs 13, 22, a good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children. So riches or wealth or resources are not bad in and of themselves. They’re often called a blessing in scripture. So why then are the rich so often warned if they’re meant to be a blessing? Why are they so often warned? Why would James say there is a trial baked into that station that you need to overcome? Well, one way to answer this is to go all the way back to the beginning, back to Eden. When Satan first brought a temptation to mankind, how did he bait the hook? What was the tantalizing morsel that he put on it? It was the promise of being like God. Don’t you see? You could be like God if you did this. And that bent Edenic impulse still remains deeply in us. The desire to be like God, of being the sovereign over our little sphere. And riches can give the illusion of godness. If they are not sanctified, they can give the illusion of godness. You have enough money, you can make pretty much anything appear seemingly ex nihilo. You just tap a button and poof, anything you want, you got enough money. You got enough money? You can make people serve you. You can have people do whatever you want. You got enough money? You can buy your way into power. Nuff money? You can be like a god, in fact. Proverbs 18, 16, a man’s gift opens doors for him and brings him before great men. Riches can make you think you pull the levers of reality almost like a god. And that is how riches go from humbly received as a blessing to a burden, when you believe the lies they try and tell, that you were like God, so that they become wrapped around the axle of your soul and become central to your identity and the source of your hope, a false gospel, so that if your situation abruptly changed financially or socially, so that you were no longer rich according to the world, you’d be devastated. You’d lose your godness. This is what Paul warns the rich of in 1 Timothy 1, chapter 6. As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty. Notice he doesn’t say charge them not to be rich. He says, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. So whatever the Lord has given to us, it is to be enjoyed as a blessing, including the blessing of being able to be generous, but it is not to be idolized. One, because they could be fleeting. Proverbs 23, 5, when your eyes light upon riches, it is gone. Suddenly it sprouts wings and it flies like an eagle toward heaven. But even more, even if the riches themselves aren’t fleeting, your life most certainly is fleeting. Even if the riches themselves are not fleeting, your life most certainly is. And that is the angle James exhorts the rich from. If the poor should paradoxically boast in their exaltation, he says the rich would do well to boast in their humiliation. The reminder of the fact that you are not God. In fact, your days are numbered. Warren Buffett has had one of the most impressive business streaks by human standards. But just this past week, at the age of 96, he stepped down as the chairman of his company because, as he put it, father time always wins. Father time always wins. Now, though Buffett is no believer, he’s exactly right. Father time always wins. His $145 billion will give him exactly zero leverage before the throne of the king. No leverage, $145 billion back down on earth. This is the humiliation that James puts before the Christian rich. If they’re to avoid the snare that riches can bring. He fills it out with a vignette from nature. He says, picture a meadow full of bright, beautiful flowers, arrayed in garments, more luxuriant than Solomon, as our Lord put it. and then blink twice, and these flowers will have faded as quickly as they sprang up. That’s every one of us. This mortal body will inevitably fade out. Our days were numbered before we were born, and the clock is ticking. As the great Puritan Thomas Watson said, today we may lie upon a pillow of down, tomorrow we may be laid upon a pillow of dust. And this is good for all of us to remember. that we may know the preciousness of every hour and endeavor to turn each minute for good. As the psalmist said in 90, 12, he says, teach us to number our days that we might gain a heart of wisdom. That’s good for all of us, but especially good for the rich because of the liar that riches can be and the illusion of immortality they can bring. So that’s verse 11. Now, some would say, well, this is all something of a downer. All of this fading flower imminent death talk is something of a dowry. It goes with the weather outside today, Pastor. Some would say that, but I know that you would not say that because you’re most likely a Christian and you know that That death is no longer a cloaked specter to be feared, but death is the defeated foe that is to be mocked as Paul did. Jesus rose from the dead so we can stare down our mortality with hope and a grin and growing joy because it is now the gateway to glory. And this is precisely how James rounds out his exhortation in verse 12. He addresses all the saints again, whatever their tailor-made trial. And then he casts them all in the light of eternity and the promise of the gospel. He says, for those who love God, not only are you being matured through your trials right now, but there’s a great blessing coming. There’s a great reward coming that the Lord himself is hands ready to bestow upon you at the finish line. It’s what James calls the crown of life. Now, the imagery here is not so much of a king’s crowned, But the laurel wreath that a victor in a race would have received in the Greco-Roman world, that’s the imagery here of struggling through a trial, bearing down, digging in, fighting the side cramps, eyes fixed on the finish line, and then finally breaking the tape and looking up to check the standings. And realize you won. And Jesus invites you into the victor’s circle with him. That’s the picture. Paul drew upon this as well. 1 Corinthians 9.25. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath. But we do it to receive an imperishable one. So that’s the picture James wants to hold out. An eternal reward awaits for faithfulness today that will make all earthly riches seem tiny, insignificant in comparison to. So that’s the text. Now in the final stretch here, I want to draw out several practical takeaways for maintaining a godly contentment with our present estate, whether that’s lowly or rich. Few things in the end here. First, If this text teaches us anything, it’s that we all must reject egalitarianism. If you would be content, you must reject egalitarianism. Egalitarianism dominates our current culture, and it’s the idea that there should be a great flattening of the playing field on every front. That inequality of any sort, be it income, be it opportunity, be it ability, is unfair and a problem that needs to be solved. This breeds discontentment and envy, and our world is awash in it. And it’s simply a false philosophy. It is a false gospel. God is no egalitarian. He dispenses blessings upon folks in different ways, in different amounts, all for his good pleasure as he sees fits, including skills, smarts, earning potential, family of origin, and everything else. The parable of the talents torpedoes the idea that flattening everyone’s standing should be the goal. And then our Lord says that God has given to some one talent or five talents or ten talents. And much to our commie overlord’s dismay, he doesn’t even apologize for doing that. He’s God, and he dispenses according to his good pleasure. And the call for each of us regardless of the one or the 10, is gratitude and fruitfulness and a return on that investment. That’s the call. And this is why envy is so corrosive, especially in the church. It is a refusal to enjoy the blessings you have because of the blessings of another. A refusal to enjoy the blessings you do have because in God’s good wisdom, he has given blessings to another. Our culture is awash with envy, constantly comparing, defaulting to grievance rather than to gratitude. But in the church, this ought not be. You must put to death any egalitarian impulse and the sidelong glances they produce. Instead, You should be too caught up in getting the Lord a good return on the talents he has given you that you don’t have time to cast sight on long glances at your neighbor. Comparison really is the thief of joy and is something that needs to be repented of often. Also, as an aside, it is healthy for us to remember that though in James’ context, the rich were a very small minority, if James’ congregation could see all of us today, it They would assume we’re all in the rich category, by their standard, because even the lowliest in the church is still unimaginably wealthy, humanly speaking, in comparison to them. If you need proof, did you know that daily hot showers weren’t an assumed part of the American life until the 1960s? Right? Do you know that? Daily hot showers didn’t exist as, of course, this is what people do, until the 1960s. Common commodities that we take for granted would have been spectacular luxuries, most of human history, including for your great-great-grandpa. He couldn’t even comprehend it. A hot shower every day and a magic cold box that keeps ice cream sandwiches frozen. Astonishing wealth in world history. So if you’re going to compare, compare in that direction that we might consider the lowly, most of human history would have considered us luxuriant. Next takeaway for maintaining contentment in the church, regardless of economic status is, Know that the internet runs on manufacturing discontentment. Understand, have the wisdom to know, the internet runs on manufacturing discontentment. This is what much marketing is by design. Manufacturing a need. Showing you a new thing that you just found out existed but can no longer live without. This has always been the case, but that discontentment flame has been doused in diesel in the iPhone age. This is another way we can place our hope in riches by thinking, if I just had that, just one more thing in my Amazon cart, just, I know I’ve said this before, but this one really is a thing. If I could get that. Finally, I would have arrived. This is truly one of the trials we face in the digital age. Endless scrolling, endless ads, which brings you endless things you need to be happy. We must be weary of this. Being convinced that we’re lowly by all the things we need. Listen to this graphic picture we get in the Proverbs. This is Proverbs 23, one and two. When you sit down to eat with a ruler, Observe carefully what is set before you, and then put a knife to your throat if you are given to appetite. That’s a cool picture. That is, when you sense a craving being manufactured in you that is drawing you, you need this thing, especially that it seems the rich have it. It means you’re becoming a slave to stuff and you need to strike the axe at the root of that discontentment and that craving. So let us recognize this play that’s being run. Stop scrolling. Start praising God for the incredible blessings that every single one of us has. And one final word here in conclusion. And here I’m thinking of those who God really has given significant riches or affluence or influence to. One way to stay grounded and humble is this. Look for opportunities to relate with the lowly. Look for opportunities to relate with the lowly, with the commoner around you, especially fellow Christians. Understand that the Lord has given you your station, that you might have greater potential to serve, not greater reason to swagger. And do so on purpose. Break through the barriers on purpose and let that help protect your soul, lest you start becoming impressed with your own introductions. One of the things I appreciate about Stonewall Jackson is, though he was the general, he regularly slept on the ground with his own men. There’s a story of some men, after waking up in the snow after a hard march, they were cursing Stonewall under their breath for subjecting them to it. That is, until a blanket stirred a few spots down. And it was the general getting up from his sleep as well, which quickly silenced their complaints. Now, of course, honor should be given where honor is due. This is good and right. I’m not saying don’t let people honor you. Yes, honor ought to be given for office. And if you are one to whom honor is due, receive it graciously and then go out of your way to associate with the humble. Recognizing that while hierarchy is real and necessary and good in society, as Proverbs 22 says, the rich and the poor meet together because the Lord is the maker of them all. And how much more for the Christian? How much more for the Christian who knows so keenly that the ground is level at the foot of the cross? It is hard to swagger. It is hard to remain self-impressed by your social standing in the shadow of the cross. But you realize the reason that that man is bleeding out, the Son of God becomes Son of Man, is because you exist. It’s because your sins required that. It is hard to swagger at the foot of the cross. So let us live there. Dwell often, all of us, on what the Apostle Paul said in Philippians 2. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, he didn’t count equality with God a thing to be held on to, to be grasped. but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death and even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name. So may also we follow in our captain’s steps and associate freely with those below us and not in a patronizing way, but because we’ve been humbled through the gospel. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Our Lord and our God, we do thank you. for all that you’ve given us. And we do confess that we are prone towards comparison and envy, but I pray not so at Christ Church, that we would mature in the ways that James is calling us to. If things are thin right now, we would rejoice in our exaltation. If we have been blessed with great abundance, that we would glory in our humiliation and be eager to be generous. And all these things would Christ be glorified in this congregation. And now we would pray the way our Lord taught us to pray. show less
20 Sept 2026
Brooks Potteiger; The Christian Virtue of Flinching Forward (James 1:1-8)
Summary In this sermon, the preacher explores the opening verses of James chapter one, focusing on the call to joyfully endure trials because such testing strengthens faith and produces spiritual maturity. Using the example of a pilot’s miraculous rescue and steadfast faith amidst life-threatening danger, the message highlights how believers are invited to “flinch forward” in faith despite adversity. James addresses the early dispersed church facing persecution, urging them to see their trials as refining fires that develop steadfastness and completeness in Christlikeness. The sermon emphasizes the crucial role of prayer for wisdom amid struggles—asking God in faith without doubting—and clarifies that faithfulness in the trial process, not flawless prayer, is what receives God’s wisdom. The dignity of godly discipline is presented as training for the believer’s royal role as co-heirs with Christ, a process requiring endurance and perspective. The ultimate example is Jesus, who endured suffering joyfully, modeling obedience and fellowship in trials. Listeners are encouraged to fix their eyes on Christ, recognizing that no trial is foreign to Him, and to respond with grateful perseverance, trusting God’s providential work to mature them into joyful, steadfast disciples. Transcription Choose show more to view the transcription. Transcriptions are AI generated and MAY be incorrect. Rely on the spoken word heard in the audio file. show more Our sermon text is the first eight verses of chapter one of James. Give careful attention to the reading of God’s word. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes in the dispersion, greetings. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting. For the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man. unstable in all of his ways. The word of the Lord. Lord and our God, we do thank you for your word and Holy Spirit. We pray that you would apply it precisely where it is most needed to bring about the maturity that you intend through it, through Christ our Lord. And it is in his name that we pray. And amen. About six months ago, over Easter weekend, we, the public, got news of the remarkable and the harrowing rescue of a pilot that went down over Iran after his plane was struck by enemy fire. And last week, he shared more of this remarkable story publicly for the first time since the incident. And what stood out, to me at least, among the dramatic details was… how clearly God scripted this story was and how much Bravo, even in the pain and the intensity of it all, was cognizant of that. That even here, the Lord is with me. It was amazing to hear him recall how he flinched forward in faith even as his life hung literally by a thread. In the interview, he mentioned how his parachute was damaged in the initial explosion and so that he was essentially free-falling to earth. And as he realized his predicament and his hands frantically moved to try to get some fabric out of the chute to catch his fall, he told the reporter that he prayed this. Lord, your will be done, but if I’m getting through this, I need your help. And the Lord did help. He ended up hitting the ground at an estimated 80 miles per hour, give or take, with several broken bones, but still he survived. But the drama was just beginning. He… by a whole lot of grit and a whole lot of grace, then proceeded to ascend 7,000 feet of a climb to find some coverage. And once there, he was able to send off his first communication. And it had these three essential elements. I’m hurt, I’m moving, and God is good. His was a faith that flinched forward while in the teeth of a trial. And as we begin the letter of James today, in earnest, this is the very thing James will be calling the church to. A steady faith that joyfully flinches forward when trials, which must come, do come. This is the main thrust of his message, which he wants this young church to catch a vision of. Last time we did an introduction to the letter written by the Apostle James, we considered the author and the audience and the atmosphere surrounding the writing of this letter. We noted that while church history generally assumes it was written by James, the brother of Jesus, that there is compelling reason to believe perhaps it could have been written by James, the son of Alphaeus and one of Jesus’ closest three, not least because he was martyred in Acts 12 and In the very events the letter addresses are front burner issues in the church, Acts 8 through 11, namely the dispersion of the church out of Jerusalem in the wake of Stephen’s martyrdom and the intense persecution, the intense persecution by the Jews that the church, including many of the new Jewish converts, were now facing. With that, let’s overview our text today. So it begins, James self-consciously is writing this letter, and he’s doing so in Christ’s name and for Christ’s service. He’s writing it to the 12 tribes of the dispersion, and his aim in using that language is not to saddle them with an exile mentality, an escapist mentality, but rather is to identify them as the new Israel. That is the church. And remember, we noted last week that James in the original Greek is actually Jacobus. It’s Jacob. It’s literally Jacob to the 12 tribes, which makes the connection even clearer. That’s verse 1. And he’s writing because… They are now in a persecution pressure cooker. They’re in an intense trial. And this pressure, like pressure always does, started revealing some cracks within the church. Pressure always reveals cracks. Here it was the cracks of fear or frustration or favoritism or even violent quarreling or vitriolic speech. This pressure was revealing those cracks. And so as a wise father, James lifts their proverbial chin and calls them to consider their immediate circumstance in light of the eternal story. Consider your immediate circumstance, the immediate pressure in light of the bigger eternal story. That just as molten fire burns away the dross and filler in gold, so that the hotter the fire, the more precious, the more refined the metal becomes. So the fires of their trials are removing the fluff and the filler of their faith that they thought was so strong. It is a grace. because it’s forging in them a steadfastness, a greater poise, a greater resilience in the good fight of faith. Our Lord uses the same word in the parable of the soils for steadfastness. It’s Luke 8, 15. He says, As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart and bear fruit with patience. That’s the word. Bear fruit with steadfastness over time. It’s a patient endurance that is fruitful. It brings something about this steadfastness. And James tells us one thing for certain, patiently enduring a trial will bring about, namely, it will bring about Christian maturity. It’ll cause toddler Christians to grow up into maturity. That’s really the word that’s translated perfect in our text. That’s what it’s getting at. It’s not perfection in the sense of complete moral purity on this side of glory. That won’t happen until we see our Lord and anyone who says otherwise has wonky theology. One only need to go to 1 John 1.8. If you say you have no sin, then you make God a liar. But that kind of settles that. No, it’s not perfect in that sense. The actual root word is telos, right? That’s the purpose or the ends or the realization of the reason the thing exists. It’s telos, the full mature expression of a thing, which for the Christian is to look more and more like Christ. That is the glorious thing. that the fires of trial ultimately produce in us in the same way that Michelangelo’s chisel strikes brought David out of the marble. That’s verses three through four. But in the midst of a trial, in the fog of a spiritual war, we get disoriented. So we must lean heavily on the Lord when that comes. We must ask him for wisdom to endure it well. James says, if anyone lacks wisdom, remember, that’s not just a general disconnected statement. It’s in context. If you lack wisdom amidst the trial, which is all of us, no one has a saturation point on wisdom, then call upon the Lord as the first and continuous action point amidst trials. Prayer. Say, Lord, help me. Lord, steady me. Bring your word to my mind. Give me wisdom for this moment right now. This is Bravo, calling out to the Lord while pulling out pieces of parachute during a free fall. Lord, I’m hands ready to act. I would like to act, but I need you to do what only you can do. Stabilize, steady, give me wisdom to endure this well. Side note, This is a good reminder that we can go straight to the source in prayer to God himself. We don’t need to go through Mary or through icons or through saints. You go to the Lord, ask him in all of his fatherly embrace and compassion to help. And God hears with alacrity, with a readiness to respond as if Jesus himself were making the request because he is. That’s verse 5. But though God doesn’t play favorites, he hears all of our prayers readily when we come to him, James does give one condition on our prayers. Namely, we should ask in faith. We should ask with a believing heart, not fingers crossed, not hedging our bets. Not while being tossed on the stormy seas like a boat with a sail up that catches every wind of emotion or every wind of the stock market or the winds of scorn or the applause of man that blows us to and fro. He says, don’t do that. Don’t be more dominated by a dopamine hit than by trust in the divine. who is constantly with you. He says, if you do, if you’re constantly staring past Jesus to the waves, like Peter did momentarily that one time, you ought not expect to gain any wisdom at all through the trial. That’s verses six through eight. But, and this is really important, we must understand what James means by asking in faith without wavering when you’re in it. Here’s not what James is saying. Here’s not what James is saying, because that could feel like a lot of pressure. Like, don’t you screw it up at all while you pray, or it’s done. That’s not what he’s saying. He’s not saying you must have perfect poise in every syllable in your prayer, as if the Lord’s staring at your spiritual EKG. And if it quivers at all, if your faith and prayer falters in the slightest, then forget it. No wisdom. You must walk the faith tightrope with zero wobble. That’s not what he’s saying. Now, if you read the text woodenly, you could let it land on you that way, but not only is that impossible, that’s not the picture he’s painting. One way verse 6 could be translated is ask in faithfulness. It’s not so much keeping a perfect spiritual poise in every second of prayer, but it’s rather continually flinching forward in faith, responding in faith, prayerfully embracing, repenting, and rejoicing as we walk through the trials and even stumble through the trials. Pastor Jeffrey Meyer says it really well. He says, “‘A person who asks for wisdom and maturity,’ without the faithfulness to endure the hard process, will not receive anything from God, not because of God’s stinginess, but because of their unwillingness to participate in the reception of the gift. You get that? They won’t receive something from God, not because God is stingy and won’t give it, but because the wisdom comes through the trial and they won’t participate with open hands to receive what the Lord says. See, the wisdom God gives in trials is not some secret knowledge that he just beams into your brain disconnected from the trial. And it certainly doesn’t come usually by quickly removing the trial. Rather, the wisdom he gives comes by walking the path in faith through the trial with a steady confidence that even here, God is at work. Even here, God is good. Even here, there is a precision to his providence that is working something good to mature me. Thinking again of Bravo after the miracle, where his life was spared after denting the earth, there was still a mountain on the other side of the miracle. He still had to climb the mountain. His faith was not just in the moment of prayer as he fell, but in every step up the mountain after his life was spared. Genuine faith in God plays out one step at a time through the season. including the faithfulness of repenting when we sin or we do fall into unbelief. Job is the picture of this, which, interestingly, James will reference near the end of the book. James 5.11, he says, you’ve heard of the steadfastness of Job, so that’s the same word in our text, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord really is compassionate and merciful. But Job was not perfect. Job, he had his groans, he had his growing pains. He was deeply perplexed at times by God’s hard providence, but he also tethered himself to the mast. He tethered himself to the mast, refused to jump ship, even when his wife told him to curse God and die. He refused to doubt the essential goodness of the Lord, even when he couldn’t understand it. He said, the Lord gives, the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. That was the banner over his life. And that is the gospel grit James is wanting us to mature up into. The Lord gives, the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And when the dust settles, it’ll all be made clear. So that’s the text. Now, there are two areas I want to drill down some in more on how we flinch forward in faith, even in joy when the rough patch comes. First, we can do this more and more by understanding the dignity of godly discipline. I’ll draw this out in a minute. We can do this by understanding the dignity of godly discipline when it comes. It’s a dignified thing to be disciplined by the Lord. I get this from Hebrews 12. He says in verse 7, it is for discipline that you have to endure because God is treating you as sons, as heirs. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? And verse 10, for earthly fathers disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good that we may share in his holiness. He disciplines us so that as heirs, we become to resemble him more and more in all of his holiness. Let that sink in. God desires that we share. In his holiness. Make it personal. God desires that you, even you, genuinely reflect his holiness in the world in a way that is true. In the way that creation could say that and say, now I understand something better about the holiness of God. God wants that for you. The unbearable weight of glory. And that’s a diamond that takes pressure to produce. That’s a diamond that takes pressure to produce. That’s a dignity that comes through his discipline. And something that’s an extension of this that I’m not sure we consider enough, but we ought to. For the Christian, character formation and personal holiness is not an end in and of itself. It’s not an end in and of itself as if the Lord has a trophy case that he’s really eager to put us in so that we just look pretty disconnected from what he’s doing. But we must understand that we are the nobility of the new creation in training. We are the nobility of the new creation in training. When Paul says that we’ve been seated with Christ in the heavenly realm, that is royal language. That is care paravel language. You have been allowed to sit on thrones in Narnia, as it were, of being ruling vice regents of the king as his kingdom spreads throughout all the land. That’s what that’s getting at. And that takes testing and trials and forging to be able to execute the dignity of that role. Well, what’s true is we often don’t see ourselves with the same royal dignity that Jesus does and has pronounced upon us. We have small thoughts about the high office of being co-heirs of the king. This is something Paul labored to get the hot mess that was the Corinthian church to grasp. They gave him many reasons to bang his head against the wall. Shocking, embarrassing sexual immorality, getting drunk at communion, that’s bad. But there’s an interesting one in 1 Corinthians 6. And it’s that they would debase themselves by bringing lawsuits against one another in front of pagan courts. They would ask pagans to sort out their toddler tantrums with one another. And Paul just looks at them, as it were, with the expression, only a bewildered parent can conjure. And he says, don’t you realize that you will judge angels one day? Don’t you understand who you are? That’s the characters you are becoming in the story. Nobility of the new creation, wise, mature, discerning. And yet you’re so immature that you can’t even sort out your tangles and have to go to pagans to ask them to judge you? Those who will one day judge angels? That’s what he’s trying to get them to see, to wake up and understand who you are in Christ. the dignified role that you’ve been given as a co-heir in the kingdom. And even though we’re not facing the same issues Corinth was here, Paul’s rebuke is instructive in that it does help us better understand the great dignity that we are invested with as co-heirs with Christ. Kings and queens called to rule well in the story that is playing out through the gospel. to grow up and to mature. Well, this takes training. This takes trials. This takes discipline, which is a dignity that one grasp should take our breath away. So let us embrace them joyfully. Quick aside before moving on, this should also be a warning to us who are parents at the dangers of bubble-wrapping our children so that they would never scrape their knees or never face any adversity or never experience natural consequences for foolish behavior or never struggle through something that’s hard. It might feel loving to always run cover, to try to shield every burden, every consequence, but it’s not. Children must feel age-appropriate struggles. This is how they grow up. This is how their soul thickens. This is how they grow in the grace of gaining some grit. Now, of course, we’re with them in the struggle, but we aren’t always lifting every ounce of weight all the time. It is possible to be kind and compassionate without coddling. Indeed, this is precisely how the Lord deals with us. Parental kindness is not measured by how the child feels about something in the moment. It’s measured in the trajectory you’re helping set them on over the long haul. So we should seek to protect our children, but not to bubble wrap them, just like the Lord does with us. Okay, so one way we cultivate the virtue of flinching forward, as I’ve called it, is by understanding the dignity of godly discipline, understanding the ends of where we’re headed. This is why this is happening. He is training us. Another is this. We do so by fixing our eyes moment by moment on purpose on the Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews 12, one and two. Let us lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and the perfecter of our faith. Who? For the joy. set before him, endured the cross, despised its shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. And notice, as we look to Jesus, we’ll find Jesus modeling the very thing we just spoke of. How could he endure the cross? It’s because he saw the joy on the other side of it, that the cross was the path to the crown. His being lifted up on Calvary was the path to his ascension to the throne. And we see that there is nothing the Lord will call us to do that our Lord Jesus has not already done. The Lord Jesus blazed the trail to glory by enduring great trials for us. And he was not guarded from the jagged edges. Jesus did not hover over the earth two feet above it during the incarnation. Now listen to Hebrews 5.8 and really listen to this. The writer of Hebrews says, this is actually beginning in 7. In the days of Jesus’ flesh, he offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death. And he was heard because of his reference. Although he was a son, Jesus learned obedience through what he suffered. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. Now, to be clear and to state the obvious, this does not mean that he was disobedient and learned how to become obedient. Obviously not what it’s saying, made like us in every way, but without sin. Rather, it’s saying he grew in greater obedience as greater tests came. He grew in greater obedience. He grew in wisdom and stature before God and man. With the final exam being willingly nailed to a Roman cross because of the snarling envy of men that he had created. But he did it that we might be saved. And all suffering that a Christian faces is done in union with the Lord Jesus Christ who knows experientially just how real the suffering is and who walks the path with us. So Christian in the fray, Christian in the good fight, Christian whose trials are not something you’re waiting for, but are very thick today, take great comfort. Your captain has not only gone before you, but he has a knowing sympathy for you. And he is with you in them, both to strengthen your heart and to strengthen your hands. So where is the battle forefront right now? Where does this hit the ground for you today, this text? What trial are you in right now, or you might face this week, where you need to get a jovial fighter’s stance right now to receive something hard with great gratitude? Are you slandered for righteousness’ sake, be it at work or walking to church or even within your own family after reading a propaganda piece? Jesus endured that too. Even his family called him a madman, with the elites deriding him. Perhaps it’s a belt-tightening season because of the economy or because in God’s providence, you’re underemployed. Jesus knows that trial. He knows the trial of belt-tightening. Do you know why his mom and dad offered birds at the temple? It’s because that was the provision made for poor people. if you couldn’t actually afford the real sacrifice. That was the family in God’s providence Jesus was born into. He gets economic hardship experientially. Or maybe your trial is one of grief over the loss of a family member or just feeling the mortality keenly as parents age and seasons change. Jesus knows this as he almost certainly lost his father during his life. which is why he made provision for his dear mother while on the cross to John, behold your mother, man, behold your mom. There is no category of trial that Jesus does not know and does not sympathize with. There is no pain you’ll face on the path to glory that he has not endured as he bore the cross before the crown. So look to him, beloved, both as your kingly example and as your sympathetic high priest. Look to him and be strengthened. But not all trials are existential. They come in all shapes and sizes, from the very hard to the seemingly silly but real. Moms, you’re at the bank with three kids when the baby has a blowout, and you have that sinking feeling as you unzip the diaper bag and realize you are fresh out. Ha, ha, ha. Even the Lord sees and knows that and is working something through it. Probably a combination of patience and creative puddling of sorts. So add the sanctified laugh track, swallow your pride, roll up your sleeves, and count it all joy. The Lord says he’s numbered every one of our hairs, which means he is not with us just in crisis mode, but every second of every day, and he cares. There’s never a moment or never a trial too big or too small that he’s not with you in working through with the skill of a sculptor to bring you to full maturity. So hold fast in the trial, beloved, with your eyes fixed on Christ. Let us be like Bravo, hunkered down, burrowed up in the cleft of the rock, bruised but moving with praise on our lips while waiting for deliverance. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Our Lord and our God, we pray. that you would do it, that you would mature us in Christ, not into a spiritual stoicism, but that we really would be happy warriors because we are seeing the crown on the other side of the cross as we look to the Lord Jesus. And now we would pray the way our Lord taught us to pray. show less
6 Sept 2026
Brooks Potteiger; The Author, Atmosphere & Audience (James 1:1-4)
Summary In this sermon, the preacher introduces the Epistle of James, focusing on its practical wisdom for believers facing trials and persecution, especially the early dispersed church after Stephen’s martyrdom. James calls Christians to embrace joy amidst suffering because trials refine faith and produce spiritual maturity. The sermon highlights James’s emphasis that true faith is active and evidential, not merely intellectual, and addresses common misunderstandings about faith and works. It explores the likely authorship by James, the brother of Jesus, and situates the letter historically in a period of intense cultural and religious hostility. Addressing internal church conflicts and the danger of hypocritical zeal, the sermon challenges believers to grow in patience, holiness, and genuine Christian love. It encourages contemporary Christians to resist frustration over delayed victory, to avoid reactive zealotry, and trust in God’s providential work as His kingdom expands gradually but irresistibly. Ultimately, the letter’s timeless call is to mature, faithful living that visibly reflects Christ’s lordship amid adversity. Transcription Choose show more to view the transcription. Transcriptions are AI generated and MAY be incorrect. Rely on the spoken word heard in the audio file. show more Our sermon text this morning comes from the letter of James, chapter 1, the first four verses. Give careful attention to the reading of God’s word. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the dispersion, greetings. Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, and she may be perfect, complete, lacking in nothing. Then Acts 8, verse 1 says, And Saul approved of Stephen’s execution. And there rose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered, dispersed throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. The word of the Lord. Our Lord and our God, we thank you for your word, especially as we push out into a new book. We are grateful for the letter of James, and we will pray, Holy Spirit, that as the apostle inspired by the Spirit would have wanted us, that as we give ourselves to the boot camp of this book, that we would come out on the other side more mature in the faith and more glad in the gospel and more confident in the providence of God over every second of our journey. Through Christ our Lord, and it is in his name that the people of God said, Amen and Amen. Well, today we do begin a new sermon series through the letter, the epistle of James. Real quick flyover over the next few weeks in our sermon time. Today, I’ll do more of an introduction generally on the book of James. It’ll feel a bit more like a sermon flavored lecture that rather than a full throttled sermon as intros are want to be. Then next week, I’ll be here leading the service, but Pastor Ben Zorns will be in town from Moscow. And so he’s going to minister the word to us. And then after that, we’ll get into the meat of the letter itself and begin our exposition of it in earnest. But now in this sermon, I would like to introduce you to the book of James. James is somewhat unique within the canon of the New Testament in that it really reads more as the wisdom literature that we find in the Old Testament, the Proverbs and the Ecclesiastes. James is brimful of on-the-ground, earthy, practical, dirt-under-the-fingernails exhortations. For James, of course, faith is essential. It is important. But he also makes it crystal clear that true faith, the kind that saves, saving faith, is not something that just happens between your ears. Genuine faith lives. Genuine faith flows out of your fingertips. James insists on this so much that he even has that notable verse in 2.24 where he says, This has even famously compelled Martin Luther when he was writing his preface to the New Testament to say, in comparison to Paul and John, he is an epistle of straw. Well, he went on to say, James has nothing of the nature of the gospel about it. Luther didn’t get everything right, just so you know. Got a lot of things right. And that’s because, of course, he thought that James ran roughshod over the doctrine of justification by faith alone, which one can understand if you just abstract that verse out of context. That was so precious to him for good reason. It was the rallying cry of the Reformation. We are saved by faith alone in Christ alone. He didn’t like James. He cast sidelong glances at this rogue letter and far preferred the seemingly more gospel-soaked letters of Romans and Galatians. Now, of course, there would be a problem, of course, if James and Paul were in contradiction. But in fact, they are not when understood contextually and understood given the semantic range of the word justification. What all can that mean when we say that? To use the fancy words, justification can have a forensic thrust. Namely, it can mean a legal declaration in a moment, or it can have an evidentiary thrust. It can mean evidence, fruit that reveals that moment actually happened. As our Lord said, with merciful simplicity, you will know what kind of tree it is by what kind of fruit it bears. This is the angle James is emphasizing in his letter, and we’ll get more to that when we get to that text itself. But what’s true is the gospel and the implications of the gospel, what it looks like when it goes to work in a people, is all throughout the epistle of James. That’s what it’s all about. Of course, we’re saved by faith alone, but what does that look like when it actually hits the ground to quote Francis Schaeffer’s iconic line, how then shall we live if we have trusted in Christ? Does the Spirit have any power that shows up on a Tuesday afternoon? James would say, well, of course. And so would Paul, of course. James wants to make it clear that lip service about Jesus’ lordship means nothing if you are not living under Jesus’ lordship. It doesn’t matter if you say, Christ as king, I don’t care how big the font is or how bold it is. The question is, are you actually living like it? Or James would say, do you love the royal law that flows down from your king? This is what he’s getting at. Side note, Luther did personally edit out that slander against James in the later editions of that work, though he never actually retracted it, though. I don’t think he had it in him. James doesn’t sound exactly like Paul, of course, not because he has a different theology, but because he’s writing to a different audience. in a different context who needs a unique exhortation to address their specific challenges and their specific temptations. See, when God chose to communicate to us through a book, The story of his redemptive dealings in the world, that’s what scripture is. He did not send it to us as a shrink-wrapped set of systematic theology. Neatly formatted, properly indented, cold, blunt facts. He did not do that, thanks be to God. It came to us as a grand, true story. Different genres, different authors, different contexts, different audiences. And this is important. The good Bible student always remembers that when he’s reading scripture, What he was reading wasn’t written to him, but it was written for him. What I’m reading, okay, wasn’t written to me, but it was written for me. And to rightly understand how it applies to you, you have to understand the author’s original audience and the atmosphere he was writing into. And we’ll look at that in just a moment. But first, let’s consider the author himself. So what we know is it was written by James. Verse 1, James, a servant of God, of the Lord Jesus Christ. Notably, James is actually, in the original, the name Jacob. It’s Jacobus in Greek. James actually is Jacobus. The late Latin got us all confused because it softened the B to an M, and then when we took it on, we just said James is easier to say. But it really is Jacob. So that’s where we got that. So in this letter written by Jacobus or James, we know that much, but which James is it? Which James could have had the apostolic authority, the pastoral gravitas to write this letter in this context? We have three James in the New Testament that in theory could fit that bill. There’s James, the son of Zebedee. He was one of the 12, the brother of John, one that the Lord called one of the sons of thunder. There’s James, the son of Alphaeus, also known as James, the lesser one of the 12. He only ever shows up in the listing of the disciples, nothing else notable. And there’s James, the brother of our Lord. who before the Lord’s resurrection was actually himself something of a skeptic. John 7, 5 tells us that even his brothers did not believe in him during his life. But that changed. After the resurrection, Brother James became not only a believer, but a stalwart leader in the church, the first bishop of sorts, actually oversaw the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15, and would ultimately give his life for the faith. He would die for his faith in his brother, who he knew was the Messiah. Well, the overwhelming consensus has been that this letter was written by James, the brother of our Lord. There were some outliers. Calvin, for instance, was open to it being James the Lesser. Now, I’m going to throw a little wrench into things. Bear with me. I’m not prepared to go against the majority of church history yet, but I will simply say there’s a minority view that has compelling reasons for seeing James, the son of Zebedee, and the brother of John as a likely potential author. I just want to offer it to you. I don’t want to spend too much time here. It doesn’t change the authority of the letter, of course, but a little detective work is warranted because considering it helps situate us more closely to the actual atmosphere that this letter was written within. Here’s how. The main reason that it is assumed that James, the son of Zebedee, could not have possibly written this letter, he’s just dismissed from the get-go. It’s not even considered. The reason is because he died in AD 44, in Acts 12. He died really early. And people say, well, he couldn’t have written it yet. He just died too early. That’s how the argument goes. He lost his head. He can’t write the letter because obviously it could not have been written before 44. And James, the brother of Jesus, became the leader. It must be him. But there’s one issue with that argument. There’s really no strong reason to believe the letter was written after his death in Acts 12. In fact, there’s quite compelling reason to believe it was written very early on in the 30s before his death. And this brings us to the atmosphere. So it’s written to the 12 tribes in the dispersion. James says that at the very beginning. James, servant of God, to the 12 tribes in the dispersion. That’s the audience. Look at that more in a minute as well. But for now, I simply want to connect that So who he’s writing it to, to the other verse I read at the beginning, namely Acts 8. So that was the moment that the dispersion, the scattering happened. So it’s right after the stoning of Stephen, what Saul slash Paul over Saul approved of, great persecution breaks out against the church. So they run, they disperse, they flee deeper into Judea and Samaria. Later in Acts 11, we get another report about this dispersed church. This is before James’ death, son of Zebedee. We hear that the ministry is growing. Even the Gentiles are getting converted through their work, through their witness, and the church starts to take greater roots and sees more structure form. Well, that is precisely the context James is writing to. He’s writing to the 12 tribes, that is the new Israel, the church who have been dispersed, who are facing fierce, violent resistance to them. He’s writing to call them to remain steadfast during that trial, to understand God is forging and purifying and maturing their faith through the persecution, through the displacements. So this is clearly one of the front burner issues in the church that the letter speaks directly to before his death. So the timeline of Acts 8 to 12 spans 10 to 14 years. It fits surprisingly neatly in the narrative. And to make a compelling argument for his authorship at a later date just isn’t assumed. There’s no conclusive reason a later date must be assumed. A few other quick drive-by pieces that might add a little weight to this argument in his direction. Not only was he martyred in Acts 12, the text says that Herod saw that the people approved. They loved that James got martyred, which means he was a snare in their side. Could it be? Even writing this letter was partly evidence that he had become a big deal and was encouraging the church that was being persecuted. Two, he was one of Jesus’ three closest apostles. Remember, there’s Peter, and then there’s James, and then his brother John, the one who wrote the gospel and the epistles. Obviously, Peter wrote an epistle as well. It is not a stretch at all to imagine James would have as well. Three, it’s likely that Matthew’s gospel was the first New Testament book and written very early as well. I don’t have space to argue that here. But if entertained, which I think it should be, the overlaps between James and Matthew are absolutely striking, specifically with the Sermon on the Mount, which Matthew alone records. James makes no less than 16 clear references to Jesus’ most famous sermon in that gospel. He speaks of joy amidst persecution. He speaks of a generous Father bestowing good gifts, of being doers, not just hearers. He speaks of mourning that will lead to rejoicing. He speaks of not serving two masters because friendship with the world is enmity towards God. He says, be slow to judge your brother. Don’t worry about tomorrow. Don’t store up treasure that will rot. And on and on and on. And so if the writing of the New Testament goes Matthew, then James, both quite early, we’d expect James to draw heavily from it, which he clearly does. So which James was it? God alone knows. But I believe a good case can be made for James, the son of Zebedee, with this letter written during the post-Steven scattering, 8 through 11, when that situation was so hot before his death in Acts 12. But we’ll leave the topic there for now. This is obviously not a test of orthodoxy, but hey, I have Rich Lusk on my side, which is always really fun. Okay, now let’s move on. So we already saw that this was written to the 12 tribes in the dispersion. Now, this is James’ way of addressing the church, the true Israel of God, in opposition to the Jewish Sanhedrin who, in their unbelief, obviously maintained that they were the true Israel of God when, in fact, their age was sunsetting and would come to an end in 70 AD with the destruction of the temple. And this beginning lands with a greater thud when we recall James is actually Jacob in the original. And so this is Jacob saying, giving a word to the 12 tribes of Israel. Draw any connections there? How about Jacob in Genesis 49, giving a word to his 12 sons before they established the 12 tribes. This is another Jacob instructing 12 new tribes, the Christian church, as the Lord establishes them in these early hard years. And he’s writing not primarily to the church generally, though the entire church obviously could benefit from what he’s saying, but it seems he’s writing specifically to the leaders within the dispersed church. There’s a very important detail in Acts 8 that we could skip right over, but is actually important for the context. It says, Acts 8.1, they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, everyone except the apostles. Everyone except the apostles. Now, of course, the apostles still had a pulse on the happenings in the dispersion. Acts 8.14 says that when they got wind that Samaria had received the word, they sent Peter and John to encourage. However, this providential scattering, this shakeup, would have caused significant leadership challenges. They would have needed more leaders, and these leaders would have needed more wisdom, more more encouragement, not only to know how they should be responding personally to what they’re encountering, but also how should they pastor this church with these specific temptations as they do ministry in a pressure cooker. To appreciate what this letter addresses, we must labor to get in the skin of these folks. Remember, The Sanhedrin, driven by rage and envy, had murdered Jesus. Obviously, that was not successful. He didn’t stay dead. He rose. He ascended on high. However, this did not dampen their resolve to try to destroy Jesus. It only intensified it. And since they could no longer get at Jesus himself at the right seat of the Father, they The Sanhedrin unleash their special forces, as it were, to go after Jesus by trying to destroy his body, the church. Going back to Acts 8, in verse 2, we get the burial of Stephen. He’s martyred. Then verse 3, it says this, but Saul, also the apostle Paul, Saul was ravaging the church, entering house after house, dragging off men and women, committing them to prison. Now, just imagine how disruptive this would be to a new Jewish convert to Christianity. Not only are they entirely displaced from their home, they had to flee from Jerusalem. But just months before, these same men who are literally hunting them down Gestapo style were their Sunday school teachers at the synagogue. They’ve murdered Steven. They’re coming for me now. This is the context. This is what James is talking about when he says, counting it all joy when you face trials. This is not waiting five minutes for a latte when you have a meeting. This is hard to fathom persecution that’s very close to home. Leave your home. Sunday school teachers killed Stephen. Coming for you. You’re the enemy. Another disorienting factor arises, and it’s the question, Now, again, think new convert. This would have been true for the apostles, no doubt as well. But if the Messiah has come, the one who is to lay low our oppressors and to establish his kingdom of peace, why aren’t we winning? Like what in the world is happening now? Not only does it seem like we’re losing, things have gotten so much more worse since his ascension. We see even at the beginning of Acts, this is the question. This is on the front burner of the disciples’ mind. Before the Lord ascends, this is the last thing they say to him. It’s a question. The question is, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? Are we going to see this in the next 10 minutes? This is what their expectation was. That’s Acts 1.6. And the Lord tells them they’re not going to get a detailed timeline. Rather, they are to wait for the Holy Spirit, whom He will send, He will empower, and then they are to get to work with where the Spirit leads them. Now Jesus has ascended, but their enemies only seem more empowered and they only seem to be more oppressed. And this tempts some, not only towards discouragement, but towards taking matters into their own hands, towards taking the zealot’s path and starting to actually look and act like they’re oppressors, even within the church. Through their vitriolic speech, James hammers on this. They bless God and And they turn around and curse men, just like those who are coming after them. James likens their words to setting forest fires, vitriol going viral within the church. So these things ought not be. What are you doing? You’re Christians. They quarrel amongst themselves. So much so, it appears violent clashes are happening within the church. Chapter 4, what causes quarrels and fights among you? Is it not this? Your passions are at war within you. You desire and you can’t get, so you murder. We often think that’s hyperbole. I’m not so sure it is. Far from modeling a striking contrast to those who are hunting them down, seeking to destroy them, the church is starting and being tempted to look like them, to employ the same tactics, to allow their persecution to inflame their own sinful passions. So that they start to resemble the enemies of Christ and not Christ himself. And so Pastor James grabs them by the shoulders, throws water in their face to wake them up. How inconsistent this is. How unbecoming of Christians their actions are. And how, to be frank, they need to grow up. They need to mature. They need to be adult followers of Jesus. And so, beloved, In 2026 in Washington, D.C., James is a very timely word for us as well. It wasn’t written to us. Oh, it was written for us. Because we face the same temptation in our day, especially given the trajectory of our country over the last century and the active hostility that we face as Christians. There’s a temptation towards frustration, towards discouragement, towards being perplexed as to why Jesus isn’t winning quicker. Why isn’t he moving with greater power? Why would he allow this good land, a land that was founded in his name, to be overrun by those who hate him and hate the faith and hate virtue that it was built upon? This can tempt the church not merely towards discouragement. but towards impatience, towards an unhinged zealotry, a Boromir impulse that wants to grab the ring to fight under Gondor’s banner, which becomes looking like Gollum in the process. This is James’ concern that a good and holy zeal for Jesus can turn into a hypocritical zealotry in Jesus’ name. He says, how unbecoming, how unbecoming to pour out the fresh water of blessing during service on Sunday and then gush the brackish water of bitterness and cursing the other days. Chapter 3 says, brothers, these things ought not be. A true well, a life-giving well, a Christian well cannot flow fresh living water and salt water at the same time. Instead, James is going to give them wisdom. earthy, aged Christian wisdom on walking well amidst the disorienting dispersion. And the first thing they must gain is patience. Patience amidst trials. Because what Jesus is up to in redeeming the world is is going to be a far longer, far more dramatic, far more unlikely and better story than they first realized. The kingdom isn’t Amazon-primed with two-day delivery after the ascension. Rather, it is like a mustard seed. So small, but grows slowly and unstoppably through many twists and turns. They need the wisdom that understands the affliction that they’re facing does not mean Jesus isn’t winning. Rather, the affliction they’re facing is actually an essential part of the expansion of the kingdom. The gospel does not take root in the world or in a city by quickly overthrowing Rome or stopping the Sanhedrin. Of course, Jesus could have done that. if you wanted to, but it also comes through sanctifying the church, making real sinners grow into real holiness after they’ve been saved, which it turns out takes immense pressure. So even in this current hardship, what’s true is all the sinful reactions that are oozing out of them amidst the persecution, it was not caused by the persecution. All that gunk was already in them. This was just the mechanism that exposed it. And he wants them to realize this so they can become grown-up Christians whose faith has been refined and purified by fire and now produces the fruits of maturity, even in the trenches, which does not look like being a keyboard warrior who starts firestorms through rage baiting. It looks like earthy, practical piety. Having a patient passion for the advancement of the kingdom. Having a tame tongue that knows how to cast the light of truth, but not in the way a flamethrower does. And having generous hands that look to bless the needy. not to use the rich or influential in the church like rungs on an ambition ladder. It looks like mercy towards widows and orphans. It looks like having a holy zeal that does not devolve into a hypocritical zealotry. And under it all, it looks like an unwavering faith in the providence of God, even and especially through the twists and swerves and sorrows and trials that are sure to come, trusting that for the Christian, He is working all things for good, turning us into grown-up, mature Christians who will, by faith, leave a massive dent in D.C.’s darkness. In Jesus’ name and over the long haul. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Our Lord and our God, we are thankful that you are more committed to our holiness than we ever would be, which means you’re more committed to our happiness. Help us to believe that through this study. And now we would pray the way our Lord taught us to pray. show less
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