Live in the Light of the Whole Gospel

Live in the Light of the Whole Gospel

Introduction:
One of my favorite movies is Pollyanna
And one of my favorite scenes is Pollyanna’s preacher, this guy.
He gives the most amazing fire and brimstone sermon:
Death comes unexpectedly!
He speaks of all the terrible sins of the congregation
And the listeners start sweating and mopping their brows as the little boy, Jimmy Bean, ties together the pigtails of the two girls sitting in front of him.
Well, one day, Pollyanna finds him in a field preparing his next fire-breathing sermon and asks him if he’s ever noticed all the glad verses in the Bible.
She says that her father, who was also a preacher, found 800 such verses.
Her father said that if God said over 800 times that we should be joyful and happy and glad, he must meant it.
Well, the preacher apologizes to the congregation and starts a new chapter in his pastoring. Instead of only preaching warnings of God’s wrath, he also includes a message of love and hope and forgiveness and joy.
We’ve been studying the book of James and I think we would have to conclude that James has a significantly different style of preaching when compared to Paul or Peter or John.
You might call it white-hot—scorching hot
In the letter’s 108 verses, James uses 54 imperatives, an average of one call to action in every other verse.
He was very action-oriented
In my 43 years of pastoring, I’ve served alongside many different types of leaders with different leadership styles and discipleship emphases.
One of my early mentors was extremely action-oriented
Like James, he was very exhortative.
And, honestly, his preaching was extremely life changing for me.
But sometimes it did seem to go overboard a little.
Years later, one of my fellow-pastors under his leadership would joke, “In management, the proper sequence is “ready, aim, fire,” not “ready, fire, aim.” But with us, it wasn’t even “ready, fire, aim,” it was “fire, fire fire.” No readying or aiming, just firing.
Well, it wasn’t that bad, but let me say that some of my fellow workers joked about coming to work with an extra pair of underwear in their briefcase because you didn’t know if you might be sent to another city that night to lead a meeting there.
Some of you, when you attend a leader’s meeting or a member’s meeting here at Stonebrook can get a bit antsy, because it takes the leadership some time to develop and articulate a vision before we swing into action.
Let me tell you from experience that it’s better to ready yourself, and aim carefully before you start firing.
PT boat vs. Battleship

So, one thing we can learn from the book of James is that God has given the church different leaders with different gifts and passions.
Just like in the First Century, we have Pauls and Peters and Johns and Jameses, men with very different styles.
One style is the exhortative, action-oriented style and that is good, useful, and needed in the church.
When we see a leader like James, often he is accused of being overbearing or legalistic or lacking in grace or off balanced.
He’s not emphasizing the unmerited forgiveness of God and so is preaching salvation based on our own works and not on faith in Christ.

There is a hymn that I love, many of you may love it too. It’s called, Trust and obey.
I like that because those two words express what it means to be a Christian. There are things we need to believe (or trust) and there are things we need to do (or obey).
Several of the apostle Paul’s books are organized around these two necessities for a Christian.
For example, Ephesians has three chapters of truth to believe and three of commands to obey
Romans has eleven chapters to believe and four to obey
Colossians has two chapters on what to believe and two on how to live in light of what you believe
But James, with imperatives in half of the verses, seems to be all about what to obey with little to nothing about what to believe.
In fact, James says nothing about what God has done in Christ. It doesn’t mention His death for our sins, or His resurrection.
It says nothing about forgiveness through faith in the substitutionary death of Christ
It’s almost as if the gospel is missing from the book of James.
Is it any wonder that Martin Luther once mentioned it as “an epistle of straw?”
But then, again, we saw that James’ teaching content and even his style most closely resembles that of Jesus than any other New Testament writer
So, you could easily say that James’ style is the most “Christian,” since it most closely follows the teaching of Christ.
Let’s look at what he does say: It’s not entirely absent:

Let’s look at the gospel Truths referenced by James

God is generously gives wisdom, without reproach (1:5)
Perhaps you had a parent or siblings or a classmates who ridiculed you because you didn’t know something and they called you “stupid” or worse.
We can learn that it is shameful when we don’t know how to do a book report or can’t climb the rope in the gymnasium that everyone else can climb or don’t know the “in” terminology or say something dumb.
God is not that way. He doesn’t reproach us for our weaknesses or ignorance or stupid ideas that looked so great, but in retrospect were just stupid.
He is generous. He loves to give. And He is understanding and patient.
That’s good news!

God has promised the “crown of life” to those who love Him and persevere under trial
This can be nothing other than eternal life!
Think what it would be like to have eternal life, to have an imperishable body. It would be impossible to die.
You would never have to fear again. No fear of heights, if you fall off, no big deal. No fear of water, you cannot drown. No fear of hunger or starvation. No fear of accidents or getting beaten up or stabbed or buried underground.
It’s hard to understand because our bodies will be physical, but they will also be immortal.
That is really good news!

1:13 God tempts no one
He never arranges any circumstances hoping we will fail. He is always for us! He never desires our demise, but always our good.
That’s good news

1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above
Every breath we take is a gift from God. Every meal we eat, every possession we own, every person that blesses us, every experience that brings joy
Everything that is good, comes from God above.
And it’s not just accidental. It is flowing down from Him. He is intentionally giving it.
And His generous, giving attitude never changes, in fact there isn’t even a shadow that dims His goodness
Last week, my wife and I spent several days at our family’s cabin in Illinois
We had been in the lake and it was cold, so we got out and got on top of the new tube and just basked in the sun.
That sun felt so good and warmed our bones
But then a cloud came and blocked the sun and we started to get cold again.
The light of God’s goodness and generosity never dims like that. He is always for us, always desiring and working to bless us, even in our trials.
Again, that is good news!

1:18 — Of His own will He gave us birth by the word of truth.
Just as parents choose to have children, He chose to give us birth.
It’s not something that we initiated or earned.
It came from Him through the word of truth, which is assuredly the word of the coming of James’ brother, Jesus the Messiah.
He wants us!
“Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom. (Luke 12:32, NASB95)
That’s good news

1:18 Firstfruits of His creatures
And we are the first fruits of his creatures
This was an offering of the first portion of the crop in Israel year after year
God has given us new life, and that is just the beginning of a transformation that He will bring about in all of creation.
That’s good news

1:20 The implanted word is able to save your soul
Receive with meekness the implanted word (gospel), which is able to save your souls.
Where do we look to save our souls in our modern world?
Psychiatry, If you have a soul problem, take these medications, go to this counselor.
And there can be some good in that.
But do we go to the Word implanted? If we turn from any wickedness we are aware of and humble our hearts before God and receive the Word, the good news, this will save our souls
In my experience of a care giver, almost entirely in the area of soul care, I’ve witnessed God’s healing hand in hundreds of souls. And always, always, always, healing comes from more deeply believing the good news of God, His love, His power, His providence, His grand plan for each life.
Soul healing inevitably comes from more deeply trusting in the truths of God and Christ.
And I would venture to say that no true soul health can ever be found apart from the truth from God.
Again, this is good news. The Word can save your soul. It can transform you from the inside out. It can heal the deepest hurts, the most obstinate addictions, the most intractable relationship messes, if we turn from wickedness and humbly receive what God wants to tell us.

4:4 You adulterous people! God loves us so much that he is like a jealous husband with an adulterous wife—personally grieved and heart-broken.
4:5 He yearns jealously for the spirit He has made to dwell in us.
4:6 He gives more grace (gifts). As our God and husband, He gives much better gifts than the world
He gives more grace than what we could ever gain through adultery with the world
4:6 He opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.
4:8 He will draw near to you
4:10 He will exalt you. You don’t need to promote yourself and fight for what you want.
Humble yourself before God and He will give you so much more than you could ever wrest for yourself.
All this is good news
5:8 The coming of the Lord is at hand
Be patient, Like a farmer, we wait for the coming reward
Pilipino farmer
Digs ditches, plants, waters, weeds, waits,
Why? How can he work so hard without even a bit of gain in the present? How can he be so patient?
He knows that a crop is coming!
Endure hard work! Endure deprivation! Endure suffering for the sake of God! Why?
The Lord’s coming is at hand! It is very near. It will be here sooner than you expect.
And even if He tarries, as we know he has, your life will be over sooner than you expect.
And the next thing you know, you will be with Him.
His reward is just around the corner.
The harvest is coming, the crop will produce. Keep it up! You won’t regret it.
That’s good news!

So what about this claim that the gospel, the good news, is not present in the book of James
It is true that the death of Christ on our half for the forgiveness of our sins is never mentioned in the book of James
But, as we have so abundantly seen, there is all kinds of good news in the book of James
Good news of God’s love and goodness, of the power of the Word, of eternal life and immortal bodies to come, of a renewal of all creation, of truly drawing near to God and knowing Him as a wife is close to her husband, of greater gifts than anything this world has to offer, of future exaltation if we humble ourselves.

You see, The gospel is broader than we sometimes think
There is more good news than that Jesus died in our place so that our sins are forgiven.

Bob George, in his book, Classic Christianity
Talks about how we often only preach half the gospel.
We emphasize the Christ’s death and our forgiveness from it so much that we don’t teach people that they now have the power of God’s Spirit within them to change their lives and have the power to live an entirely new life in a loving, interactive relationship with God, Himself.
The analogy of prostitutes being forgiven

Transformation comes from emphasizing all the story of God, especially what He has done in Jesus Christ.
He died on our behalf, but He also rose again so that we, too could walk in newness of life
He ascended into heaven and has been enthroned at the right hand of God, where He intercedes for us
He sent us the Holy Spirit as our helper to be our companion and guide and advocate and power source.
And He is coming back, bringing His reward with Him.
And nothing we do for Him will go unrewarded, Jesus said, not even a cup of cold water.
Just as a farmer’s many months of hard work don’t gain him anything in present, but when the harvest come, bring him wealth, so, all our work, which so often seems to have no little to no effect, will be rewarded. It will have an effect. Nothing we do for Him is in vain. Because Jesus is coming back and bringing His reward with Him.

We need all the truth of God,
who He is, what He has done, what He is doing, and what He will do in the future in order to have the necessary understanding and motivation to love Him and serve Him in this corrupt and evil age.
No, the book of James is not an epistle of straw. It is not a book devoid of the gospel, the good news.
It is not a book that says, “Do this because just it is right” without giving the truth and promises of God as a foundation for obedience.
It is a book of good news.
Good news of eternal life, of a completely good-hearted, generous, loving God, who wanted us and birthed us into His family and gave us His powerful, transforming Word that can save our souls. Good news that, if we seek Him and trust Him and love Him, He will give us far greater gifts than anything else in this world could ever possibly give. Good news of a King, enthroned in heaven, who will soon return to straighten out the mess of this world and bring His reward with Him.
James is, indeed a book filled with the gospel, the Good News of God in Christ.