Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Good morning. I'll be reading James, Chapter three today.
Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers. For you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.
For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body.
If we put bits into the mouths of horses, so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well.
Look at the ships also.
Though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by very small rudder, wherever the will of the pilot directs.
So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.
How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire.
And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness.
The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.
For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed, and has been tamed by mankind. But no human being can tame the tongue.
It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.
From the same mouth come blessing and cursing, my brothers. These things ought not to be so.
Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water?
Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or grapevine produce figs?
Neither can salt ponds yield fresh water.
Who is wise and understanding among you by his good conduct, let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.
This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.
For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder in every vile practice.
But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.
And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
[00:02:40] Speaker B: This sermon series we've been going through James chapters one and two. Today we are on James chapter three.
Last week in James chapter two, we looked at the relationship between faith and works, specifically, how it relates to faith phrases.
James was talking about how within the church, people were.
People were quick to associate with people that were to their benefit.
If people who are richer, people who are well off, people who were more well liked, they gravitated to them and they were ignoring other People in the church, they weren't functioning like a family. They weren't functioning. They weren't acting as if their heavenly father loved each of them the same, and they themselves love each other, each other the same.
And he was. He was pretty tough on it last week.
He opens up this week with a.
His first sentence is kind of a bridge between chapter two and chapter three.
I'm going to get started with that.
He says, not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness, for we all stumble in many ways. He goes on to say, if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he's a perfect man and able to bridle his whole body.
So he talked about works, the relationship between works and faith that, you know, last week we looked at how sometimes we think of faith in terms of belief or like, this is what I think about things, but the proper relationship. When we think about faith, we should be thinking in terms of faithfulness. How well do our actions fit to this thing that we say? We believe that, like, being faithful isn't just like a statement or like a belief that you have. It overflows, and it results in what you do, the way you interact with the world. You are faithful to what you believe.
And then this next chapter, he's going to be talking about the control that our tongue has on us, the way that we deal with our speech. But in the middle of that, he has this interesting little sentence where he just says, you really don't want to be a leader. You really don't want to be.
Be careful about being a leader in the church to which most of you are thinking, like, no problem. Thanks, James. That sounds good, right? Cause it's, like, just responsibility.
Yeah. I read this, and I think, okay, well, usually when I preach, I'm trying to be careful, to be like, I don't want to just, like, preach at you about something and say, like, oh, this is what you should be doing. I'm. My first role is to look at this and say, how does this apply to me? How do I need to change? What do I need to take on board? How does my life need to change as a result of this scripture?
I need to remove the speck of the log out of my eye before I dress any specks in the room. You know? But this text, it's almost like I feel like I'm up here talking about myself. Like, clay, you shouldn't. You. Are you sure you should become a teacher for, you know, that being A teacher is going to make you, make you most judged. So I'm. I'm in the room usually thinking like, I don't want you to feel more judged than me, but I'm up here thinking like, no. James is like, clay, you're more judged than everybody else.
So this time I'm going to put some back on you.
Yeah.
When I read this, I think like, what. What is it that he's doing? What.
What is it about being a leader that makes a person more judged? Because, honestly, I am of the opinion that we're all brothers and sisters, that we are all called and responsible to following Christ. We're all going to stand before God and he'll say, where were you when I was hungry and when I was weak? And you'll say what?
You'll answer that and say, I didn't see you hungry, or the way that we respond to God. In my imagination, I don't see myself having more or less responsibility than you. I'm called to whatever I saw and to act on it. You're called to whatever you saw, whatever you were surrounded by, and you're called to act on it.
All of us want to hear, well done, my good and faithful servant.
But he says, James is saying, that's not true, Clay. There's more on you than there is on other people.
What is that about?
Obviously, I'm standing up here and I'm saying, here's the word of God.
And when I say it, I'm responsible for uncovering it, for communicating it, for getting it right and to the best of my ability, saying, this is what God wants for us.
You're in a little bit, you know, you're in a little bit of a vulnerable position in that you're kind of just sitting here listening.
And everything that I've studied and everything that I'm done that I've done on this, you're kind of in a position to just. To receive it.
Now, the degree to which you trust me will have a lot to do with how much. The way that you receive what I had to say, the way that you've studied in the past and how that fits into all that will fit into it.
But I am putting myself in a position to tell you this. Thus saith the Lord.
And to put false words in God's mouth is. That's a.
That's a scary thing to do. Right?
We're all called to do it. We're all called to bear witness to God. We're all called to be people who, in our lives, and in our actions and in our words are bearing witness to God.
But I'm doing it on a regular basis in front of a lot of people. And James is saying be really careful about that.
There's an example from the Bible that I like to look to for this that I think is pretty instructive.
We talked about this, right? James is the pastor of the church of Jerusalem. He was the brother of Jesus who had a.
He apparently had a very strong conversion experience into a total faithfulness of his brother as Christ to the point that he calls his biological brother. He calls him Lord, like literally.
He believes it's his obligation to give over all of his sense of identity to his brother and to say, I trust you to show me how to be the best human possible. You are my Lord.
So this is who James is. But James didn't become that in a vacuum.
He was in Jerusalem at the very start of the church. He was in Jerusalem when Jesus was crucified. He was in Jerusalem when Jesus was resurrected. He was in Jerusalem while Jesus was walking the earth after his resurrection. He was in Jerusalem during the ascension. He was in Jerusalem while the disciples were gathered in the upper room in the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came on the church. He was there for all of that and he saw what happened as the church developed. And he was there for this next story too that comes out of James, out of Acts chapter four that I think is very helpful in helping us to understand the seriousness and the weight of being a leader in the church.
At the very end of Acts chapter four, after, after Luke has just described kind of the way the church has worked together things, the way that they dysfunctionally, the way that they take care of each other.
They say that he says that a guy named Barnabas, his name was Joseph, but they called him Barnabas, which means son of encouragement.
Sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles feet.
I think Barnabas was the most significant person in the, in the New Testament apart from Jesus personally.
Paul writes half the New Testament. He writes almost all the new. He writes most of the different. He writes most of the letters in the New Testament.
But Paul was a persecutor of the church and he had a powerful conversion experience. And when he did, he came to the disciples and he said I'm a new man, I've experienced Christ. And the disciples said we don't trust you, please go away.
All except for Barnabas.
Barnabas said I'll walk with you and I'll see you through and help you become the man that I think God, Christ, that God can make you through Christ.
And Paul became who he became because of Barnabas.
Later on Paul was sharing ministry with a young guy named Mark who couldn't handle it, it was too much for him and he let Paul down. And Paul said I just can't trust this guy anymore.
And Barnabas said I'll walk with Mark, I'll take care of him, I'll disciple him.
Mark ends up writing the first gospel, the New Testament. He captures of stories that Peter ended up writing.
All the disciples called Barnabas the son of Encouragement. When I'm around you Barnabas, everything that we aspire to be we see in you.
You don't encourage me like hey, good on you, great. Like literally all the things that use all the things that we say we should be in following Christ, man, I see it every single day in you. And I see what it looks like, what the kingdom of God can be if we all follow Christ. I see it in you.
Being around you makes it seem much more real that following Christ can actually happen.
This is what it's like to be around Barnabas. Big deal.
He became that guy the day that he took all of his possessions, laid them at the. He was a rich guy, he was well off, independent.
He made himself dependent on the church. He decided that he wanted to not be above any of them, not to be separate from them. He wanted to share the resources that he had and he wanted to make himself dependent on other people sharing as well he was.
When Paul talks about I know what it's like to be in plenty and I know what it's like to be with want. Barnabas was right there with him being in plenty and in want because he laid everything at the apostles feet. And he became the man to the church this day when he loved the church by not being above them.
His faith and his actions were consistent. Everything we talked about in James chapter two.
He became the leader of this early church in a way that nobody else did.
Maybe aside from the apostles. Maybe in my mind I agree with them about Barnabas, that he is literally the son of encouragement, let's put it that way.
But then James chapter five, I mean Acts chapter five happens. The very next story says but a man named Anais with his wife Sapphira sold a piece of property and with his wife's knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid at the apostles feet.
But Peter said ananias, why Has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land while it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after you sold it, was it not at your disposal? You could have given part or however much way you wanted.
Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart?
You have not lied to man, but to God.
When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last.
And great fear came upon all who heard it.
James, who was right there when this happened, a great fear came on him when he thought, oh, my gosh, I've seen what it's like to be a leader in this church. I saw Barnabas and I saw what happened to this church when men like Barnabas became the men of encouragement who set the tone for the church.
The church became what it became because Barnabas was who Barnabas was.
They could see Christ in him and they could follow him to Christ.
Paul says that, follow me as I follow to Christ.
But Barnabas. But Paul followed Barnabas first.
Anais and Sapphira liked that idea.
They liked the idea of having a kind of reputation among the Christians that Barnabas had.
But they didn't want to make the sacrifices that Barnabas made.
They wanted to pretend to be something that they weren't, for a reputation they didn't earn and an influence that would be hurtful to the church.
Can you imagine what would have happened if Ananias and Sapphira had become the mentors to Paul instead of Barnabas?
If they had stood alongside Mark instead of Barnabas?
What would the church have become?
When James says you need to be really careful about wanting to be a leader in the church, it's because certainly it was bad for Anais and Sapphira to pretend to be something that they weren't in order to gain influence they didn't deserve.
But I think more than that, James understood what could have happened to the church if they had had that kind of influence.
Okay, that's what I think is behind what James has to say there.
Then he goes on and I told you that's kind of the anchor between the previous chapter where he's talking about the relationship between faith and works. This next chapter, what he's going to be talking about, the way that you speak.
So in between both of those, James is imagining people who are growing to Christ, people who are going, as you are growing to be more like Christ, that will necessarily mean that you become more influential. Let me be very clear. About this when he says, most of you shouldn't aspire to be leaders.
It is impossible to not be a leader if you are following Christ.
A lot of times we imagine following Christ means being a nice person. Like, oh, he's a nice boy. He does all the things that he's supposed to do. Jesus was not a nice boy. He was not a safe boy.
He was a good man, and he was quite the threat.
A result, he did things that got him killed.
So there is a boldness that necessarily comes from following Christ.
So when he says not many of you should.
Not many of you. How do you put it?
Not many of you should become teachers, my brother, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. I think he means, yet it is impossible for you not to teach.
Your life is a living testimony. The way that you follow Christ will teach. If you have kids, you will teach them.
If you have friends, your life will teach.
You would have to isolate yourself from the world to not teach.
The question is, are you in a position where you need to be learning far more than your teaching?
Are you at the point that you need to. What you need to say is, I am at a spot where I'm still. I'm early on in developing my knowledge and my practice and what it means to emulate Christ.
Many of you are not at the point yet that you should teach.
But if you are going to follow Christ necessarily you will teach. Imagine Jesus not teaching.
What does it mean to follow Jesus if you're not teaching?
You understand?
Okay, so this is why the whole thing about language, I think, becomes so important.
He says, a forest can be set ablaze by a small fire, and the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness.
The tongue is set among our members, straining the whole body and setting on fire the entire course of life, and in turn set on fire by hell itself.
Your tongue is setting the world on fire, and your tongue is set on fire by hell.
That's the way he's describing your tongue.
For every kind of beast and bird can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can. Can tame the tongue. Now that's interesting because I just remember him saying, and where he's just said, everyone, no one should, like, don't think you're ready to teach. And then he says, if anyone is what he says that.
And if anyone does not stumble on what he says, he's a perfect man.
But now he's just said, nobody can control your tongue.
Nobody is a Perfect man.
I think what he's doing in this first one is kind of like tongue in cheek. Oh, are you able to control your tongue? Well, you must be perfect because I am not able to control my tongue. I still require a savior. There's a reason I call Jesus my Lord.
I am not Lord of my life because my tongue is not under my control.
When I give my tongue free reign, it sets the world on fire.
I am constantly working towards my own good. I have an imagination about the way the world should go that is left to its own devices.
Initially, I might think I'm on the right path, but over time it deviates and it finds itself far from Christ. And my tongue expresses truths that have nothing to do with the truths of God. If anything, we'll call those my truth because they're certainly not true.
This is where I think James is going here.
It is necessary that we recognize that we are not going to be perfect people.
It's obvious even just by our tongue. That small thing, that small rudder that steers us, puts us in positions where it writes checks that we can't cash, where it makes exclamations about how true things are that have nothing to do with the truth of God. Out of a self righteousness, we make claims that have nothing to do with the righteousness of God. It shows up at. It shows up on everyone else when it comes out of our mouth.
He says a forest can be set ablaze by a small fire and the tongue is a fire.
A world of unrighteousness.
A tongue is set among our members, straining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life and set on fire by hell for every kind of beast and bird and can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no human being can tame the tongue. And then he says it is a restless evil full of deadly poison.
With it we bless our Lord and Father and with it we curse people who are made in likeness of God.
From the same mouth come blessings and cursing my brothers.
These things ought not be so.
That this passage is my most like of all the times that I've been convicted in meditation and prayer and reading the Bible.
This day, there was a day that's just burned in my mind because I felt a strong conviction about something.
The way that I had not just treated, but the way I'd been thinking about somebody else was, let's just say, like they were my enemy, let's put it that way.
I felt, I felt righteous about that.
They were bad, they were terrible people, you know, and then as I was meditating on this passage, it was like all I could see was the way that God saw them.
And I knew that God saw that person.
Like that person was their kid.
And I just had. We just got Rachel, not too long for that.
And to think about somebody trying to tell me that they loved me, they really appreciated me, they really respected me.
But man, Rachel, I can't stand her.
I just hate the way she does whatever, you know.
And I thought about how it would feel like for somebody to try to tell me, I really love you and I respect you and I appreciate you, but gosh, your daughter, she's the worst. Your wife, Clay, I really like you. But Allison, I can't stand her at all.
I promise you, you don't love me. If you think that. I guarantee you you don't.
And the realization of how little I loved God in this moment was devastating.
Really the most painful spiritual experience of my life.
So James is like a jewel for me that I read pretty often and I like all of it. But this here in the middle of chapter three is the thing that's been the most valuable for me because for whatever reason, I just don't seem to have it in me to keep this lesson. I need to keep coming back to James because in my own righteousness I confuse the person with the action.
And I can be so frustrated with the action that I see. And I can begin to hate or like really begin to despise an individual.
And I need to be convicted of that over and over again.
You probably have some other thing that's like you're probably jacked up differently than I am. There's probably some way that you're really a terrible person. This is the way that I'm. This is something, this is at least one way that's tough for me. And so this passage is very helpful, humbling for me.
And in order for me to be so. Like when I look at Anais and Sapphira and I look at Barnabas, for me I'm not looking at like laying stuff like laying the possessions of my house at the apostles feet. I'm looking at laying my judgment of other people at the feet of Christ.
And I need to agree with, I need to agree with him about you.
And if I don't, then I am Ananias and Sapphira. And if I do, I'm Barnabas. And if I don't, we're all busted.
Like I'm really in trouble and the church is in trouble because I think I could cause A lot I'm in a position to cause. We would all cause a lot of damage if we do this. I think I'm in a spot to cause more damage than most in doing this. Does that make sense?
Okay.
Oh, man, this past is super confessional, isn't it?
He then goes on to say, who is wise and understanding among you by his good conduct, let him show his works in meekness and in wisdom.
But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and and be false to the truth.
If you're the kind of person who has a humility to recognize that you are not perfect, You strive to leave the worst of yourself at Christ's feet, and you're willing to go to him over and over again and lay that down in meekness and humility, then you have something of truth that you can communicate. But if you don't, if, if you are attempting to be influential in any way, to project who you are as, as a result of selfish ambition or jealousy out of your hearts, you better just be silent. The best thing for you is to just shut your mouth and don't say a word because it will be like a fire that comes out of you.
It's not wisdom that comes down from the above, but it is earthly, unspiritual, and demonic fire from hell.
For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be a disorder in every vile practice.
There will be an unfamiliness to the church, a disorderliness.
God is our Father, we are brothers and sisters. We love each other like family. That's literally the kingdom that Jesus lays out for us. That's the best analogy that he gives us. There will be an unfamiliness about us if we don't do this. There'll be disorder among us.
But the wisdom from above is first, pure and peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.
These are the marks of people who have humbled themselves to God. These are the marks of people in and around us in the church that we need to pay more attention to.
Whether or not these people are like, affirmed as pastors in the church. They are the leaders in our church because they are leading us to Christ.
That's the only thing, that's.
There's only one thing that we are producing in the church. We're not like, making widgets. We're not like making like, awesome music. We're not making great sermons. We're not. We're not. The only thing that we're making in the church is. Is people who are humbling themselves and following Christ, who are making disciples. That's all we're making. That's literally all we're called to make.
Your leaders are the people who are making you become that. Those are the only leaders that exist in the church because that's the only purpose of the church.
And so when you notice people around you who. When you interact with them, what you experience is a wisdom that comes above from above, that is first, pure and peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. Those are your leaders. Those are the people that are leading you to Christ by definition.
And he says a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
Not many of you should strive to be a leader at the church, to speak or to become influential.
All of you should strive to lay down at Christ's feet anything that is keeping you from being these things that are described that lead to righteousness and peace, all the things that are demonic, all the things that lead to you appearing to be something that you're not.
You claim to follow Christ, but there is some way that you are not.
I told you a little bit about my struggle. You get the benefit of being a little bit obscure this morning. I don't get to know the thing that makes you a terrible person.
But I bet you have got to lay something at Christ's feet so that you can become with integrity a person who demonstrates Christ in your life.
When you do that, the other people in this church will see that and you will become a person that is leading them to Christ. You will be fulfilling the Great Commission as you humble your heart before God.
And you will necessarily be becoming a leader because that's the only thing that we are leading towards. That's the only thing that we make disciples.
Father. God, we love you. This morning we want to pray again for Leslie and that she's resting and that she's whole.
Thank you. That it was not as bad as she feared.
And, God, for my brothers and sisters here that have been Great Barnabas to me. Lord, to be able to look out in this room and to be able to remember specific moments where I was encouraged to follow you in times where my heart wasn't in it.
God, it is a great relief to be among.
To be in a church of people who are leading, who are speaking out about you in their very lives.
God, I pray that.
I pray that this is something that becomes more natural to us, Lord, that we are constantly laying all these things at your feet, Anything that is separating us from you, Lord. And that we are becoming a community.
More like you, more like your family.
One that is unified and whole.
We love you. In Jesus name, amen.
