From Brother to Bondservant | Sermon 01/30/2022

James the Half-Brother of Jesus and the Meaning of Bondservant

As promised, we are starting our expository series in the book of James, the epistle of James. So if you would turn there in your Bibles to James chapter 1. It was a great foundation for us starting with the five solas series.

I think that was a real big help for us to get caught up and lay a foundation for what God's Word says with sola scriptura, sola fide, sola Christus, all those things. It was a wonderful time. But I am eager, brothers and sisters, to walk through this whole book of James with you.

And if you were here last week, you heard me say I've kind of mapped this whole book out. It's going to be about 24 sermons in these five chapters. And so that's almost a full six months. In between that, as the Lord wills, who knows, maybe we'll have a guest preacher or the Lord will lay something on my heart by the Spirit, you know.

But right now, we'll be going through the book of James. We're going to start in James chapter 1, verse 1. And this sermon is titled, From Brother to Bond Servant. From Brother to Bond Servant. So, starting in verse 1, and verse 1 only, hear now the words of the living and true God.

James, a bond servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad, greetings. Thus ending the reading of God's holy inspired word, let's pray. Father, I praise you again for this day.

Thank you, Lord, that you receive our worship and it glorifies you. God, please be present with your people now as we hear the word proclaimed. God, speak through me and give me power in the Spirit, Lord.

And God, I pray that this would be a tremendous blessing to your people as we walk through this book of James. And Lord, I pray that learning more about James and the one who authored this epistle, Lord, I pray that it would be an encouragement to learn the background and everything that has been put behind this letter.

So, Lord, please be with us now and help me to speak always, Lord, in a way that is clear. And let it be helpful to your people and let it always be true. I pray this in Christ's name. Amen. So, if I didn't say we were going to be doing 24 sermons, you'd probably look at, we're just doing one verse today.

If this is a preview for the rest of the book, we're going to be here for a while. No, today's going to serve as a good background, I think, for the book of James. The epistle of James has been called the Proverbs of the New Testament.

That it is like the wisdom literature of the old. James says in chapter 1, verse 5,. But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

James as Wisdom Literature and a Fiery Pastor

I suspect, though, the difference between Solomon and James and what shines through with this letter is not that he is some sage or philosopher or judge. I think James is a fiery preacher. That's who James is.

This man has the heart of a pastor, and his biggest concern is Christ's church. That they attain holiness. That they walk in a way that is reflective of the one who purchased them. James is wholly concerned with how his readers live the Christian life.

This is a book about the Christian life, no doubt. But many have criticized the book of James to be a letter filled with dozens and dozens of disconnected strings of thought. It's kind of like reading Proverbs for the first time, and you're like, I'm going to read Proverbs chapter 12.

And it seems like the idea is changing per one, and that's kind of how, of course, the Proverbs work. It's wisdom. Each new line is a different piece of wisdom. And some people have attacked the book of James, saying there's no connection between any of this.

Where is he going? But again, I see a preacher who is concerned with Christians who have been dispersed throughout the Roman Empire. This letter belongs to a category of New Testament writings called the general epistles.

In this category is placed the book of Hebrews, the book of James, 1st and 2nd Peter, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John and Jude. Those are the general epistles. As we read in verse 1, this epistle isn't addressed to any specific person or church.

It was likely intended to be read like a sermon from James and circulated among various churches in that time. This, of course, was a common practice as Paul requested circulation of his letters in Colossians 4 and Thessalonians 5, that they would take his letters and give them to a church nearby.

It is clear that the Old Testament was something James knew very well. He mentions Abraham, Isaac, Rahab, Job, and Elijah. He alludes to the law, the prophets, and wisdom literature. Remember what I said a few Sundays ago, I talked about imperatives.

Imperatives are commands. There are, by my count, 54 imperatives in this little book. This would make sense that, as a pastor, he is exhorting his people. He is giving them warnings. He is making commands authoritatively.

He's used to having that level of authority as a pastor. But it is also for this reason that many, since its inception, have called it a legalistic book. They've said, this is a legalistic book. Even the reformers like Erasmus or Martin Luther had trouble with it.

Luther is often quoted for his disdain of the epistle of James. Luther says, therefore, St. James' epistle is really an epistle of straw. Straw. Compared to these others, for it has nothing of the nature of the gospel in it.

An epistle of straw. Straw. Luther had spent the majority of his efforts arguing for the grace of God in Christ, justification and salvation by faith, a faith given to you. In fact, in his day, opponents of a Christ-centered, grace-filled gospel would use James against Luther.

They would use this book against him, and he just didn't get it. He didn't get it. But as a minister of the gospel, as a preacher of the word of God, it is my duty to teach the whole counsel of his word.

And that would include this letter. I think what excites me most is that I know we will see Christ in this letter. I know we will see Christ in it. I know we'll even see the gospel in it. And we're going to see the loving concern from a pastor from Jerusalem.

We will be challenged. We will be exhorted. We will be forced to reflect and repent from sin. So if this is an epistle of straw, like Luther said, then let it be the straw that filled the manger of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

If this is an epistle of straw, let it be like sweet bedding for rest from sin. Let it be like food for treading animals to continue to plow. Before we dive into our verse, our single verse for today, let us consider some important background information to the epistle of James.

Identifying James the Apostle, James the Less, and James the Brother of Jesus

So the first thing we ought to cover is authorship. Authorship. You say, well, that's easy. It says James. James. James is the author of it. The question is, which James? Which James? And some of you, you know, when you pick up your Bible and you read kind of the whole New Testament, you're left with, so how many Marys are there and how many James are there?

I don't know. Those things kind of stick out to me. And so, which James? But let me say first, what's interesting about this is James is only our English translation of that name. The Greek manuscripts show his name to be Iacobas, Iacobas, which is the Greek Hellenized version of Iacob, Iacob.

Okay. James' true name would have been the same of the patriarch who was given the name Israel, and that is Jacob. Jacob. That's his real name. So, think about it. The Jacob of the first century church is writing to the first century twelve tribes of Israel.

I think that's amazing. He's writing to Israel. We are Israel now. We are spiritual Israel as Christians. So, scholars aren't quite set on how James became what we use instead of Jacob. Why isn't this the book of Jacob?

A rumor actually went around that King James, King James, you know, when his version was being written and translated in 1611, that he wanted his name to be in the Bible. That is actually a false rumor.

It's not true because even the Tyndale translation, you know, I don't know, roughly 50 to 100 years before, already had James in it. And so, you know, basically they try to follow the line of where the Greek went to the Latin, stuff like that.

But nevertheless, for the purposes of our study and the familiarity that we already have, we will continue to use James. But again, which James? There are five men in the New Testament that bear the name James that we know of.

Okay? Let's go over some of those now. First, we see James the son of Zebedee and brother of John. James and John were both apostles. They were also called the Sons of Thunder. Sons of Thunder by Jesus in the Gospel of Mark.

You see moments when John and James were almost like cocky, you know. They come up to Jesus and say, you know, may we sit on your right and your left when you come into your kingdom? And then the rest of the other apostles, it says they're indignant.

They're asking for this place of authority. It's like, calm down, Sons of Thunder. We'll get to it. Oh yeah, one time even traveling through Samaria, Jesus was trying to find accommodations for the night.

And he was being met with opposition everywhere. It's almost like what happened to Mary and Joseph. All the doors were being shut. He was being offered no place to lodge for the night with the apostles in Samaria.

And James and John, the Sons of Thunder, go, Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to destroy these people? And it's like, again, hey, Sons of Thunder, calm down. You know, I think Jesus gave them that name for a reason.

These are fiery men and they wanted to serve the Lord. And of course, they had to walk through the three years of discipleship along Jesus and have that thunder focused, right? It needed to be reined in.

You know, every lightning strike has a routing plan that God set before it. And God was, you know, honing that in, right? So, those are the Sons of Thunder. This James, along with John and Peter, they were in the inner circle of Jesus.

James and John, the Sons of Zebedee and Peter, were kind of in this inner circle among the twelve with Jesus Christ. But we know from Acts chapter 12 that James, the son of Zebedee, was martyred as he was put to death by the sword of King Herod Agrippa in AD 44.

AD 44. We do not think that he is the James of our epistle, okay? The next James is the son of Alphaeus, another apostle of Jesus Christ. Honestly, nothing is mentioned of James, the son of Alphaeus, in Scripture except his name among the list of the other apostles in the Gospels and in the book of Acts.

We have no indication that James, the son of Alphaeus, would be our James of this letter, alright? Then, you have James the Less. You ever seen that? James the Less or James the Younger in your translation?

You're like, again, how many James are there? So, James the Less also translated James the Younger. His title could be in reference to either his age or his stature. He could have been a young James or he could have been a small James.

We're kind of not sure, okay? It says, James the Less had a brother named Joseph and a sister, Salome, whose mother's name is Mary. And this would have likely been the Mary who was the wife of Clopas.

Some scholars do believe, however, that James the son of Alphaeus, the apostle, and James the Less were one and the same people. But we don't have any proof or indication of that and we don't have any indication that James the Less or James the Younger, as some translations say, is our James of our letter.

Then there is another James recorded in Acts chapter 1 and all it says is he was the father of Judas. In Acts chapter 1, James the father of Judas, but obviously not Judas Iscariot, okay? Yeah, neither, neither.

Neither James Iscariot nor Judas Iscariot. This James was father of Judas and it says that this Judas was in the upper room. So obviously by then Judas Iscariot was already dead by the time Acts chapter 1 comes around after the ascension of Christ.

So we know that Judas here is not Iscariot and there is this James who is the father of this Judas in Acts chapter 1. Some scholars say, however, that Judas also went by the name Thaddeus. Thaddeus was an apostle.

But again, we are doubtful that this is our James. So that leads us to the last James, the fifth James that we see in the New Testament. We have James the half-brother of Jesus Christ. When Jesus is performing many miracles and teaching at the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth, the people ask in Matthew 13 .55, is this not the carpenter's son?

Is not his mother called Mary? And his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? What was the dynamic or relationship between James and his older brother Jesus? What was that like? You ever think about that?

James and Jesus and all the brothers and what would have happened in that household? It is kind of interesting to consider. For what it looked like, at least in their adult ages, we look to John chapter 7.

John chapter 7, starting in verse 2, it says, Now the feast of the Jews, the feast of Booths, was near. Therefore Jesus' brothers said to him, Leave here and go into Judea, so that your disciples also may see the works that you are doing.

For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If you do these things, they're talking to Jesus, the brothers are saying to Jesus, if you do these things, do it to the world.

Show the world, okay? And it says here, it makes note, For not even his brothers were believing in him. I don't know if you caught that, but he was kind of being a bit mocking a little bit. If you're going to do your works, don't do them in secret.

Go do them for everyone, okay? Go ahead, Jesus. Go show everyone your works. That's what his brothers were saying. So it says, For not even his brothers were believing in him. Jesus said humbly, My time is not yet here, but your time is always opportune.

The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify of it that its deeds are evil. Go up to the feast yourselves. I do not go up to this feast because my time has not yet fully come. Having said these things, he stayed in Galilee, but when his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he himself also went up, not publicly, but as if in secret.

So, For not even his brothers were believing in him. We've talked about this before. Are you, brothers and sisters, are you treated differently because of family for following Jesus Christ? I know a lot of your stories.

I know a lot of you are experiencing that. Jesus knew that all too well. He can sympathize with you in your pain when your family ostracizes you for your faith. There's a reason he said, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.

No doubt he's talking, of course, about being on the road for ministry and how he did that so often for so many years, but he didn't say he had a special place to go back that he calls home in Nazareth.

He says, I've got nowhere to lay my head. I've got nowhere. Because he even says, A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown. When his earthly ministry began, and he did signs and wonders and miracles calling people to believe on the gospel, his family and the people of Nazareth knew him since childhood.

They knew who he was, and so they didn't honor him. They didn't honor him as a prophet. He's not honored in his hometown. They didn't respect him. They didn't take him seriously. And it truly was to their judgment as he decided, it says, not to do many miracles and signs and wonders there because of their unbelief.

That's what he says. But something happened to James, brethren. Something happened to James. Paul reports in 1 Corinthians 15, 7 that aside from all the apostles, Christ also appeared after his resurrection to his younger brother, James.

He appeared to his brother. At that point, James couldn't deny all the teachings of his older brother, all the claims to divinity, all the signs and wonders that he had seen for so long. In that moment, regeneration, belief, and faith, all of it was granted to James, the half-brother of Jesus.

It is even possible that he witnessed Jesus' ascension into heaven because it says after this spectacular event, Jesus going into heaven from the Mount of Olives, they all went back to Jerusalem and went to the upper room.

And who is noted to be there after that moment in the upper room? James, the brother of Jesus. It lists all the apostles. And then verse 14 specifically says these all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer along with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with Jesus' brothers.

With his brothers. That's what it says. It was at this point, beloved, that James' involvement with the early Christian church exploded. After the Lord helped Peter escape from prison in Acts 12, verse 17, Peter asks the saints to report all that had happened to him to James and the brethren in Jerusalem.

James, the half-brother of Jesus, became the main leader of the church in Jerusalem. James was the leader of the church of Jerusalem. In addition to this, James spoke as the authoritative voice at the council of Jerusalem in Acts chapter 15.

That was James, the brother of Jesus, in Acts 15. After Gentiles were being saved and the apostle Paul recognized James even to be a pillar. A pillar in the Christian church and of high reputation. That's recorded in Galatians 2.

It said Peter is the leader of the Jerusalem church. He's a pillar. A pillar of the church, this James. We believe, of course, that it was this James, the half-brother of Jesus, who wrote the epistle of James for several reasons.

First, James, the brother of John, again, he died too early in 44 A .D. James, the son of Zebedee, died in 44 A .D. He's very early. He's the only other kind of prominent James in the Bible. Next, James, the brother of our Lord, speaks similarly in his quotes.

In Acts 15 .23 and James 1. Very similar wording. You have Acts 15 .13 and James 2 .5. Almost the same wording. Acts 15 .15 and James 2 .7. There's just so many parallels to when he was speaking at the council in Acts and then how he writes in this epistle.

Clement of Alexandria commented on the epistle in A .D. 220. In origin, even refers to James by name and says his letter is scripture. By the 4th century, the historian Eusebius reported that the epistle of James was read publicly in all the churches and he himself calls James a holy apostle as he has seen the risen Lord.

And again, remember how I said his true name is Jacob? Get this, in the lineage of Jesus Christ, in the genealogies, we see that Jesus' and James' grandfather, his name was Jacob. So, you know, the angel Gabriel says, you're going to name your first son, you're going to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sin and then they wanted their next son to be named Jacob, which was the grandfather.

Then he has another brother, who is named Judas too, which comes from Judah. So, you could see in the genealogies even how it would be him. So, through biblical research and patristic tradition, we hold to this authorship to this day.

That is the majority view, James, the half-brother of Jesus, for the epistle of James. So, verse 1, verse 1, James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the twelve tribes who were dispersed abroad, greetings.

James the Bondservant and the Grace That Changed Him

So, James, a bondservant. That is interesting. You see, I grew up with an older brother. Everything he did, I wanted to do it and I wanted to do it better than my brother. Right? Some of you who have older or younger brothers know what I'm talking about.

My parents would say, ah, loving competition, and I'd be like, where's the love? There is no love. I just want to beat him and do better than him at what he does. Okay? My brother ended up becoming a very studious young man and was salutatorian, almost valedictorian at our high school with a 4 .67 GPA.

He was a smart dude. And my brother went on to full-ride scholarship to U of A civil engineering, and he's almost a master engineer for the city of Tucson, designs bridges and roadways for the city there.

So, my brother is, I admire him, I love him. He's a smart man. I remember my guidance counselor was trying to create goals for me just to be able to simply graduate. It's okay, if you do this and this and we move this around, we think we can get you to graduate in May.

Yeah, it was pretty bad. The Lord did something in me actually after I left high school and I had to start paying for it. So, I wonder, again, what it was like for James and Jesus. James could never tattle on Jesus without it being false witness.

Jesus did this, and Mary's like, we know, we know. We know you're lying. I don't think it's possible for Jesus even then to hold it over him. I don't think he did. I'm certain that Jesus, even as a young man, remained humble.

I believe that. But James probably didn't understand why his nature seemed so opposite of his older brother's. Why am I different, Mom? Why can't I do the things that he does? Why can't I not do the lying?

Why can't I not do the tricks? Why can't I be like Jesus a little bit? I'm sure he thought that. Why is his nature different? John's Gospel reported that James didn't believe Jesus in his earthly ministry.

What's interesting about verse 1 is James didn't say, James, the brother of our Lord to the twelve tribes. He didn't say that. This word is doulos. Doulos is often translated slave or bondservant because in this life, everyone has either one of two masters.

Sin or Jesus. That's it. That's what the Bible highlights. James was done being a slave to sin and Satan. He was changed. He was changed. Jesus' brothers mocked Him. They didn't believe Him. Can you imagine knowing the truth of something and no matter what you say or do, your family won't believe you?

They won't believe you. And that's the most amazing part. The Scriptures say after His resurrection, as He emerged from the tomb, the brother who James thought was dead and rotting stood before Him. He stood before Him.

Do you understand what grace is in that? Jesus stood before His younger brother. James' sin nature was enough to condemn him to hell and then he openly displayed his unbelief towards Christ. And the most shocking part is that Jesus didn't just go to the women and the apostles.

He came to His brother. He came to His brother. He could have never revealed Himself to His brother, but He did. He could have never revealed Himself to you, but He did. He did. And that's grace. That's grace.

Who's the Gospel for? The worst kind of people. People like us. The worst kind of people. The kind of people also in your life who are your family and they mock you and they don't believe you and they whisper about you.

Jesus shows us the Gospel is for our family members, especially when they don't deserve it. When our family members don't deserve to hear from us, they deserve to hear the Gospel. That's what Jesus' example shows.

Because grace is only for the undeserving. Grace isn't for the deserving. Grace is for the undeserving, brethren. We don't deserve it, so we give it freely like our Lord. What do you think you could do this week to show love to unbelieving family?

Have you ever thought about finding an old photo of you and that family member and write a letter? Just write a letter or something. Show them the Gospel in that letter. If the phone call is going to be too much, if they won't answer it, I tell you what, send a written letter.

Start small. You just need to start. It doesn't need to be big. You just need to start. James saw beyond the physical relationship he had with Jesus in verse 1. He saw Christ ascend into the heavens and considered His relationship to Jesus now in the spiritual sense.

Not the physical, but now in the spiritual, James is saying, I am a servant. I am a slave of Christ and He is my Master now. He's no longer my brother in the flesh. Jesus is my Lord and I will follow Him.

He is my Master. I am a bondservant of Christ. That's what James is proclaiming now. Christ is my Lord. He is a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. James is saying a couple things though here by his choice of words.

First, he is drawing a connection between God the Father and Jesus the Son. You see that? Remember, as a man raised in the law in Jewish tradition, it was unthinkable to worship anything or anyone else besides God for James.

And yet, James puts God, Theos, and he puts Jesus, which has Kurios, Lord, and he puts them together. He puts them together in the same divine type of category. Secondly, Jesus is given technically two titles here.

If you didn't know, Christ is not the last name of Jesus. It is not the last name. Some people don't know that. Christ is His title. So he's got two titles here according to James. Christ means Messiah.

James, a servant of the Lord and Messiah Jesus. Lord and Messiah Jesus. It's a recognition that Jesus is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy and He holds deity. James in his own salutation validates the deity of Christ.

In fact, Lord or Kurios is used 13 other times in James' letter and he often uses it interchangeably with God the Father. He says the Lord referring to the Father and he uses Lord referring to Jesus Christ.

He uses Kurios interchangeably for both of them. Once again, ascribing the divinity to the Father and to the Son. James gives us the example that in our speech, we ought to define who we are in Christ.

Like him, a servant, and simultaneously ascribe glory and exaltation to our triune God. When you write to people, when you speak to people, could one walk away knowing who and what you stand for? Could they do that?

I know not every context will offer that opportunity, but when it does, are we obedient with it? Are we bold with that as James did? I think we should be a people who desire that all people know Jesus Christ is Lord by what we do and how we speak.

We'll definitely talk more about that too in the taming of the tongue passages in later chapters of James. Now, who is James' audience? Who is his audience? Who are his readers or the recipients of this letter?

It says, to the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad. Twelve tribes. It appears, according to theologians, that he is writing to Jewish Christians. Of course, twelve tribes shouldn't be taken literally, but figuratively.

It doesn't indicate that he is addressing the Gentile Christians in any way, actually, throughout the whole letter. You know, in Paul's epistles, he always mentions both Jews and Gentiles. Jews and Gentiles.

But here, Gentiles are not mentioned once. In fact, in James 2, verse 2, he says, when a man comes into your synagogue, when a man comes into your synagogue, the NASB and ESV translate it assembly. But just this one time, only this one time, the other 55 times this word is used in either the Gospels or in Acts, it's always translated synagogue.

It is literally the Greek word for synagogue. So James 2 .2 says, when a man comes into your synagogue, which that also kind of points to how early this might have been in the Christian church. Because they were often early on giving sermons in synagogues in their area.

Not always in the temple. Remember, the temple is in Jerusalem, but Jewish synagogues were kind of spread throughout. In fact, the modern day church is largely kind of the synagogue model today. And the preaching of the word and the reciting of the law and things like that.

They would have gone to service and heard the law and the prophets recited from like a pulpit. And that started in Ezra and Nehemiah and when the third temple was rebuilt and stuff like that. So this is an early Christian period, possibly.

He calls them dispersed. The dispersion took place in 722 BC when the Assyrians deported the ten northern tribes out of Israel. Okay? The Assyrians came, the Assyrian captivity. They took the ten northern tribes and they were dispersed.

If you remember at that time, the two southern tribes were Judah and then the ten northern tribes were Israel. And Assyria came in, gobbled them up and they were spread everywhere. That's what happened to the ten northern tribes.

Alright? That was called the dispersion. Then the southern tribe suffered captivity in 586 BC by the Babylonians, of course. So because of these events, early on, before even Christ came, Jews were spread all over the Mesopotamian area, all over the Mediterranean, Asia Minor, and even Europe.

They're called the Diaspora. Diaspora Jews, the dispersed. And the Diaspora Jews would return to Jerusalem year after year for Passover and for other feasts, if they were able to. These are the dispersed ones.

But I think James is referencing something else here. Okay? In Acts chapter 7, Stephen became the first martyr for Christ. He was stoned to death after giving a magnificent overview of Scripture and how it all has pointed and always led to Jesus Christ.

That is such a wonderful part of Scripture. But after that, after he gives a defense for the gospel in Acts chapter 8 verse 1, it says, Saul was in hearty agreement with putting Stephen to death, and on that day...

Okay, here it is. On that day, a great persecution began at the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. So there was a persecution that came in really heavy on people after Stephen's death, and so then they were dispersed.

Acts chapter 11 verse 29 speaks even further to this point. It says, so then those who were scattered because of that persecution that occurred in connection with Stephen, they made their way to Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch.

Speaking the word to no one except the Jews alone. So even at that time, they weren't even giving the gospel largely to Gentiles. This would make sense with the possible early stage of the Christian church for this book.

These are the recipients of James' letter. They are early Jewish Christians who were forced to disperse after Stephen's martyrdom due to a severe persecution on the church in Jerusalem. Many have been suspicious of James' Greek here as it is not Aramaic or Hebrew.

They don't get why it wouldn't be those. And he's also being charged with having some of the best Greek in the New Testament. That his Greek is as good as Luke's in Acts and in the Gospel of Luke, and it's as good as Hebrews.

Which I always believed that the book of Hebrews was a homily or sermon of Paul, the Apostle Paul, and Luke was the one who recorded it. So I believe that Hebrews is from Paul. But they nail James here for having such good Greek.

Which is interesting, right? So we hear that Peter and James and John, that these were unlearned men, they say, that they were fishermen. But we don't necessarily hear that about Jesus and His family.