The Joy Set Before Us

Thank you for reading this sermon from Christ Fellowship. I hope and pray that this sermon will be a blessing of grace and truth to you. With that said, let me encourage you not to use this sermon as a replacement for your local church. Christ Jesus did not establish his Church simply for us to consume content. Instead, He calls us to be part of a real, covenant family.

The letter of James is like the Proverbs of the New Testament. It’s very practical. It contains 59 commands in 108 verses.

In fact, this letter has been the subject of some controversy in church history. James is very different from Paul. James is heavy on the law and light on the Gospel, and that makes some people nervous.

We know from Acts 15 that James was aware of and agreed with the preaching of Peter and Paul. But James had a different audience and a different purpose in writing. This letter is heavily influenced by the teachings of Jesus, especially the Sermon on the Mount, and I’m excited to share it with you.

[1] James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the dispersion: Greetings.

This was not James the brother of John or James the son of Alphaeus. This was James the half-brother of Jesus. He was not one of the Twelve. He wasn’t even a believer during the early ministry of Jesus. In fact, he was probably converted after the Resurrection when Jesus appeared to him, something Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 15.

Notice that James doesn’t appeal to any special position because of his family ties to Jesus. He calls himself a servant or a slave of Jesus.

Notice also that James is specifically writing to Jewish Christians outside of Palestine. I’m convinced that this letter was written before the Council of Jerusalem and before any of Paul’s letters. In fact, James is most likely the oldest New Testament book we have, which to me is kind of exciting! Let’s dig in.

[2] Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,

This is a command from God and what is the command? This is accounting language. He’s saying, “I want you to take an account of your life, especially the difficulties… the external pressures… the hardships. And I want you to count those things as joy. Why?

[3] for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

Testing is a word used for refining metal. Put these two verses together and the command is to think of the difficulties and challenges of your life as a means to an end. These things have a net benefit. Verse 4 reinforces this:

[4] And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

This is the purpose of trials, according to James. They turn us into the people we are meant to be. God uses difficulties in the life of a Christian for that purpose… to make us a better version of ourselves. Paul says something almost identical to this in Romans 5.

But let me give you a caution. Be careful of sharing this with someone while they are in the thick of suffering. Don’t show up in an emotional crisis and tell someone to count their suffering as joy.

When Lazarus died, Jesus knew He was going to raise him from the dead. But He paused to grieve with the family. That means it is OK for us to grieve and suffer and feel the weight of sin and death.

James is not telling us to ignore suffering or act like it is OK. “Put on a happy face.”

Instead, I think this command is about looking beyond our present reality, in the same way Paul speaks of Jesus going to the cross for “the joy set before him”. Joy is the endgame or the bottom line. It doesn’t mean the suffering itself is good.

When a woman finds out she is pregnant, she’s probably going to experience some joy thinking about the birth of her child. But that doesn’t mean she’s looking forward to the pain of childbirth and all the difficulties in between.

And so, this is a different way of assessing reality. It’s the kind of thing we find a lot of in the Bible and it’s very different from the way the world assesses reality.

The world is in the business of trial avoidance. Control it. Ignore it. Run from it. Self-soothe your way through it. Joy in the midst of pain is a bottle of whiskey or some other escape from reality.

But the Bible takes a different approach. It offers wisdom rooted in the character of God.

[5] If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.

God gives generously and without reproach, meaning there are no strings attached. God is not stingy. He doesn’t give with a hidden agenda. There’s no debt being created.

He’s offering exactly what we need, when we need it and without charge. It’s available and it’s free. And I’m so glad James says this, because it corrects some problems in the way Christians sometimes think about God.

We are tempted to think of our relationship with God as transactional. And James is about to say some things that could easily be taken that way, except that he says this first.

God doesn’t bless us because we deserve it, or because He’s trying to leverage his gifts to get us to do what He wants. That’s important, because we might try to think of faith or works as some kind of currency to get something from God. And that’s just not how it happens in the kingdom.

Instead, faith is more like relational trust. I can pray to God asking for something like wisdom because I know He can provide it AND because I know He loves me. He’s not just my wealthy benefactor. He’s my Father in heaven. Look at verse 6:

[6] 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.

[7] For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;

[8] he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

I’m further convinced that faith is about relational trust because of what James says in these verses. He’s not condemning weak faith. He’s condemning split faith.

The only way you can split faith is by treating faith as a commodity. In gambling and investing, they call it “hedging your bets”. Instead of putting all your trust in one option, you spread it around to limit your losses.

But you wouldn’t do that if you knew one option was a sure thing, would you? That’s why I don’t think faith has much to do with me at all. It has far more to do with the object of my faith. Is God a safe bet? Is He a good investment?

James is saying far more to us about God’s character than he is about our performance. He’s telling us that we can count it all joy when we face trials because God can be trusted. And we can ask for wisdom to understand because God can be trusted. But if we don’t think God can be trusted, that reveals a deeper problem.

And now, James applies all this with a brilliant application. He comes after our money, or lack thereof.

[9] Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, (he’s talking about poor people)

[10] and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away.

[11] 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.

This really is a brilliant way to apply everything James said before it. James says, we know being poor is a struggle. But being rich is a struggle too.

Wealth and poverty are both trials! And this is straight out of Proverbs 30:

[8] Give me neither poverty nor riches;

                  feed me with the food that is needful for me,

                  [9] lest I be full and deny you

                                    and say, “Who is the LORD?”

                  or lest I be poor and steal

                                    and profane the name of my God.

Proverbs 30 says that being rich is just as dangerous spiritually as being poor.

James is borrowing this philosophy. He’s not over-spiritualizing poverty, nor is he demonizing wealth. He’s just changing the perspective on both positions relative to God’s kingdom.

Don’t let your present circumstances distract you from the ultimate reality, summarized beautifully in verse 12:

[12] 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. 

He’s not talking about a royal crown. It’s more like a victory wreath worn an athlete or a war hero. And who is promised this crown? “Those who love God.” What does that sound like?

Relational trust. I’m sticking with God to the end because I know He loves me and I know He can be trusted, no matter what.

Notice again the word “steadfast”. James has mentioned this now three times. What does it mean to be steadfast?

It means finishing well. It doesn’t really matter how you start. It matters how you finish.

It’s been a while since I’ve told you the story of George Matheson.

George was a Scottish pastor who was engaged to be married, but during the engagement he got sick and the illness resulted in permanent blindness. His fiancé broke off the engagement because she didn’t want to marry a blind man.

Soon after this heartbreaking event, George wrote one of my favorite hymns. The entire song was written in just a few minutes, and this is my favorite verse.

O Joy that seekest me thru’ pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace the rainbow thru’ the rain
And feel the promise is not vain
That morn shall tearless be.

Beautiful… But here’s a fun fact about this hymn.

These are not the original lyrics. The first edition said this: “I climb the rainbow in the rain and feel the promise is not vain.”

This was the 1800s in Scotland and, believe it or not, a church committee told him that the words were too ridiculous for grown men and women to sing. They made him change the line.

But the original was far better, because Matheson was out in the storm when he wrote that song. The woman he loved left him because he lost his eyesight. His only hope was the promise of God. He wasn’t tracing it with a distant finger. He was clinging to it.

And this, I think, is the point James is making to us. This isn’t about knowing and believing information about God. This is about trusting Him. Remaining steadfast is about clinging to the promises of God in the rain.

Turn away from the false promises of this world to Christ. Put your faith in Him and stop hedging your bets. Suffering is real, but so is God’s promise. Jesus has paid the penalty for our sin. He has destroyed its power and one day He will remove its presence.

God’s promise to us in Christ is what gives us meaning in a world full of suffering. I pray that the God of grace will reveal Himself to you this morning, like a rainbow at the end of a storm.