James Writes to Scattered Christians And then the persecution started, oh, suddenly, men like Saul of Tarsus, who became Paul, enraged by the fury of the religious leaders from the high priest down, to try and stomp out this sect, this heretical sect that had risen up amongst the beloved Judaistic belief that was causing thousands to turn daily, thousands, the whole world was turning upside down, when men realised this Christ that had been crucified, the miracles, they couldn't deny it, as if everything was put together, the scriptures were pouring out, showing from the Old Testament how this must be done to him, how he would die, how he would rise from the dead, three days later, everything was being revealed suddenly in the light of what had happened, now suddenly the whole New Testament becomes living, understood, and as they preached, thousands turning, the fears that gripped hold as they realised how many they were losing, losing, losing, that this was the Messiah, when they didn't believe it was the Messiah, the leaders, they stirred up people like Saul, young Saul of Tarsus, zealous, zealous, and they tried to stomp them out, they began to stone them, Stephen stood and Paul stood by as they stoned them to death to try and stop, oh the persecution was unbelievable as it spread right across, throughout Jerusalem, right across Israel, they were just hounding them like dogs, to stamp them out, to do something to stop them, anything at any cost, the thoughtless, even death, stoning them, and so they spread, they fled from Israel, in their thousands and thousands, the first fruits of the church, the Jewish Christians, before the Gentiles were effectively being reached, they fled, they fled, all across the Roman Empire, they fled, leaving whole, leaving everything, just fleeing for their lives so that they could escape death, that was certain, they fled to all parts of the Roman Empire, taking with them, taking with them the gospel, God knew what was happening, taking with them the gospel, yes, but now, without the protection of the apostles, who remained in Jerusalem at this point, there they were with all that was going on, they remained in Jerusalem, and then God came upon James, the Holy Ghost took hold of this man and gave him such a burden for all these children of Christ, scattered throughout the Roman Empire, the burden that came upon him as God moved him to write what is believed by most scholars as the first epistle of all the epistles of the New Testament, the first ever moved by, God moved a man to write that, to become part of the scriptures, God took hold of this man and the burden, the compassion, the throbbing, longing for them to be kept pure doctrinally, to be kept pure from becoming worldly or compromised, every verse throbs with love that you seldom find on any page of the entire Bible as this book of James, this letter of James, that he knew would be spread and taken and rewritten to all these Jewish converts, all these Christians, these Jewish people, scattered throughout the Roman Empire, and so this heart -burdened he writes, he writes and he addresses his letter, he addresses his letter from James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting, greeting, my brethren, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations, this word means trials, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations, knowing this, knowing this, that the trying of your faith, work with patience, but let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing, wanting nothing.