This summer the Olympics will return to Paris France. It’s always fun to see how our American athletes do — and usually somebody from our country wins, and shares their Christian testimony. In 2008 a young man by the name of David Boudia was on the U.S. Olympic team; he did NOT win, and afterwards he went to college at Purdue. He immersed himself in the party scene there, and did everything he could to pursue pleasure, and his own personal glory. But like so many, he found it all proved to be hollow. And when it did, his diving coach was there to lead him to faith in Jesus as His Lord & Savior. As a result David Boudia was a different man at the London games in 2012, and he won the gold medal. He was interviewed by NBC’s Al Michaels, and Boudia summarized his life in a few brief words. He said: “My faith is the most important thing in my life, and this is what’s brought me through this (sic) 2012 Games.”         

James does a very similar thing here in the very first verse of his book: in just a few words he tells us a lot about himself and his priorities:

“James, a bondservant of God, and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad, greetings.”

As is typical in New Testament letters, James begins by identifying himself, and those to whom he is writing. He says he is writing to “The 12 tribes who are dispersed abroad.” The “12 tribes” he is referring to are the 12 tribes of the nation of Israel. This letter of James is the earliest New Testament book. Scholars believe it was written between 40 & 50 A.D. —possibly ess than 10 years after Jesus’ death & resurrection! So most of the Christians James was addressing here were Jews, who’d been saved in Jerusalem, but who’d been scattered to different countries by the persecution the Book of Acts describes that came on the early church.

But I believe there is also a sense in which James was speaking figuratively. Because you couldn’t really identify “12 tribes of Israel” in the first century. The 10 northern tribes had been scattered by war and captivity and intermarriage, and they had not been identifiable as “tribes of Israel” for hundreds of years. So many believe James was speaking figuratively to the “new Israel”, the people of God who are followers of Jesus. In Chapter 2 he writes: “My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ” – so he was writing this book to Christians, to people who had faith in Jesus. The New Testament makes it clear that Christians are the true “Israel of God.” Galatians 3:7 says “Therefore be sure that it is those who are of FAITH that are sons of Abraham.” People talk about Israel as being “God’s chosen people,” and in a sense they are, but the truth is that if you are a follower of Jesus, then YOU are one of “God’s chosen people” today! So just as surely as James was writing to the scattered Jewish church in 40-50 A.D., he was also writing for us today as well. 

He wrote that the church was “dispersed abroad.” As I mentioned a moment ago, the church at Jerusalem had been scattered all over the world due to persecution. Now, when you are in a strange place, it can be hard to hold on to your convictions; it can be easy to compromise with the culture around you, to try to fit in. So James was writing to these scattered Christians, encouraging them NOT to compromise their faith in these foreign countries. 

This applies to us today, too. In a very real sense, all of us who follow Jesus today are “aliens” in a hostile world. Even America, which was founded upon Christianity, and which has a rich, Christian heritage, it is becoming increasingly hostile to Christianity. And even apart from “official” persecution, just the whole worldly system of values and conduct which surrounds us, is constantly seeking to lure us away from godly standards every day! So the Book of James admonishes us too, just like it did those first Christians: DON’T compromise your faith! He says, if you are a Christian, then this is what your “real faith will look like” when you are an alien living in a hostile country!  He was reminding the Jewish Christians of the first century – and us today: hold on to the standards of our faith wherever God has you right now. With the words of this book he’s trying to help us remember “What Real Faith Looks Like.” Don’t lose the standards of your faith, in this world where you’ve been “scattered.” 

So that’s who James was writing TO: to the “first century Christians — but also to US today as well!  But let’s spend the rest of this message focusing on the way James describes HIMSELF in verse 1: “James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.” That introduction is more than just a mere “formality.” It tells us a LOT about what James’ faith; real saving faith looks like:

I.  The God of Saving Faith

He calls himself here “a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.” First of all, it’s significant that he mentions “God” and “the Lord Jesus Christ” together here. Some might take this as meaning that they were “separate” entities, or of uneven worth, but that’s not the case at all. The fact that they are mentioned together is of great significance. It indicates that James’ allegiance to Jesus is equal to his allegiance to God! It’s like Paul said in Philippians 2:6, Jesus did not regard “equality with God a thing to be grasped.” He said there that Jesus was “equal with God”!  James says the same kind of thing here. In fact, in Greek it is possible to translate this “God, even our Lord Jesus Christ” – emphasizing the Deity of Jesus, which is a vital Christian doctrine. During the Arian controversy in the early church, in which some claimed that Jesus was not fully God, this verse was one of the ones quoted to prove that in fact, Jesus WAS fully God, because He is mentioned here in the same breath with God!

So James says, I am a bondservant of God – and not just any God, but God as revealed to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is a HUGE statement.  There were all kinds of “gods” being worshipped in James’ day — as there are all kinds of gods worshiped in our society today — but James says, I am a bondservant of the one true God as revealed to us by the Lord Jesus Christ. That is a commitment that we need to hold today as well.

Then James describes this One he followed with 3 significant terms: “Lord”, “Jesus” and “Christ”:

— “Jesus” is the name of the earthly man he knew and followed. James was the earthly half brother of Jesus. Jesus was the son of the Holy Spirit and Mary, and James was the natural son of Mary & Joseph. Now, I know that the tradition of some churches is that Mary never had any children after Jesus, and that she was perpetually a virgin — but we don’t follow tradition, we follow the Bible, and the Bible is very clear. Matthew 13:55 says: “Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His BROTHERS, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?” The Bible tells us that Jesus had 4 half brothers. James was one of them. He was the earthly half-brother of Jesus. So “Jesus” here in :1 was the real “flesh-and-blood” human being that James grew up with in his home. 

It is so significant that James, and Mary, and the other family members ended up following Jesus, and believing in His Deity. They grew up with Him!  They knew everything He did in their home. You know how important that is: it’s one thing to put on your best “religious face” at church; it is another thing to live it out at home. Over the years I’ve seen many children of church families rebel because what they saw from their parents in their home did not match up to the false front they put on at church, and the kids didn’t want more of that hypocrisy when they left home. This is a challenge for all of us. Your family members know better than anyone else what YOUR faith “really looks like”! So knowing that, it is a very powerful witness for the truth of the claims of Jesus that HIS OWN FAMILY – especially His own brother, who grew up with Him in His home – could point at Him and say, “This is not just a man; this is God!”

— And that is just what James did; he did not just call Him “Jesus”, as you might expect him to call his brother, by His name. He also called Him “the LORD Jesus Christ.” This word “Lord” is significant here, especially for someone with a Jewish background, because the Greek word “kurios” was the word that Jews used to translate the Hebrew word “Yahweh” – the personal name of God — from the Hebrew scriptures. So James, who grew up with Jesus, called him “Lord.” He was saying, this One I grew up with in my home, is not just my brother, HE IS GOD! That is a powerful statement for a brother, who grew up in this Man’s home, to make! 

— Finally, James call Him the “Lord Jesus CHRIST.” Now, we often think of “Christ” as being Jesus’ last name, as if His name were “Jesus Christ.”  But our English word “Christ” comes from the Greek word “christos”, which translates the Hebrew word “meshichah”, or “Messiah”.  So really, when we say “Jesus Christ”, we are saying, “Jesus the Messiah.” This word “Messiah” literally means “anointed one.” The promise of the coming “Messiah” or “Anointed One” was the focus of the whole Old Testament. 

In the Garden of Eden, Adam & Eve sinned against God. When God confronted them with their sin, He announced the punishments they would receive. But then He also made a promise: that there would come One who would crush the head of the serpent. That verse, Genesis 3:15, is called by theologians the “protevangelium”, or the “first gospel”; the very first promise of God in the Bible that He would send Someone Who save Man from our sin. The whole Old Testament from that point on is the unfolding story of how God was preparing a chosen people, from whom this Savior would come: 

— In Deuteronomy 18, God promised Moses and the people of Israel that there would come “a prophet like … you” who would bring them His word.

— In Psalm 110, David prophesied that there would come a son after him, whom he would call “Lord”, and who would sit at the very right hand of God.

— Isaiah 53, that we just studied, predicted that He would come as a Suffering Servant, upon whom God would lay all of our iniquities.

— and Isaiah 61:1, speaking of this Suffering Servant says: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because He has ANOINTED me to bring good news to the afflicted …”.   It is this Hebrew word “anointed” which is “meshichah”, from which we get our word “Messiah,” or “Christ.”  So when the New Testament calls Jesus, “Christ,” it’s saying that HE is the One the Old Testament was pointing to all those years, who would come to save us from our sins.    

So James here says his faith was in the “Lord. Jesus. Christ.”  The man Jesus, who was more than just a man, but God Himself, the One who came to earth in fulfillment of His Old Testament promise to redeem us from our sins. It is important that we understand that James’ faith was NOT just that Jesus was a good teacher or philosopher; he believed in Him as his Savior and his GOD. That is “what James’ faith looked like”!

And if we are going to have real, saving faith today, our faith must be in this same “LORD Jesus Christ” as OUR Savior and God. It’s not enough to believe that there was some man named Jesus who lived 2000 years ago. It’s not enough to believe that He was a good teacher. Everyone knows there was an historic figure by that name; there is too much evidence to back it up. But to be saved, we have to believe that He was and is more than just a figure from history. 

In His classic book, Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis wrote:

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

James did not leave that open to US either. He said his faith was in “the Lord. Jesus. Christ.” And if you are going to be saved, your faith must be in this same Jesus as YOUR LORD & GOD too. The most important question of your life is: have you ever made that personal commitment to Him? If you haven’t, you need to do it today.  

And because Jesus is Lord & God, He demands our total commitment and obedience, as we see next as we look at “what James’ faith looked like”:

II.  The Commitment of Saving Faith

We talked last week about how virtually everyone in the “Bible Belt” claims to have faith in Jesus. But James models here in this first verse, “What REAL Faith Looks Like” in his own personal commitment to Jesus. 

A.  The Personal Nature of the Commitment.

He just calls himself “James”, but he’s being very modest. He’s not just “some guy” named James. As we saw a moment ago, this James is the earthly brother of Jesus — NOT James the brother of John. Acts 12:2 tells us that James the brother of John was executed by Herod in the early days of the church. The James who wrote this book was the half brother of Jesus. He was widely recognized as the leader of the church at Jerusalem. Acts 15 shows us that when Paul & Barnabas came back to Jerusalem from their mission journey, James was the leader of the church they reported to. Everyone in the first century church knew James. He was the brother of the Lord, and the leader of the church at Jerusalem.

But how humble it was, that James did not describe himself here as “the brother of Jesus”, or “the bishop of the church at Jerusalem”, or anything like that. He called himself, “a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.”  He didn’t try to “name drop” and say, “I am the earthly brother of Jesus!” No, the most important thing about him was NOT that he grew up with Jesus, but that he was personally a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This teaches us something right here: that it doesn’t matter what “connections” you have, or who you are related to; you will be saved or lost, based on YOUR OWN PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP to Jesus: do you have a personal commitment to Him? That is what it means to have saving faith. 

The last time Cheryl & I were at Disney World, we used a special “magic band” bracelet that they’d scan to let us in the park, and our hotel room, etc. It’s that way with a lot of concerts and events these days. You’ve got to have a certain wristband to get in. You could say, “Hey I’m somebody’s cousin”, or “hey I know someone who has one of these” — it doesn’t matter; YOU personally have to have one if you want to get in. 

It is that same way with heaven. It doesn’t matter who you are related to, or how long you’ve gone to church; YOU must personally have a commitment to Jesus as YOUR Lord to be saved. A personal commitment to Jesus is like the “wristband” that will get you in to heaven.  Your wife’s faith, husband, will not get you in. Too many men say, “My wife takes care of the religion for our family.” No sir, your wife’s faith will only take care of your wife’s salvation! YOU must have your own commitment to Jesus! Your parents’ faith won’t get you in to heaven. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard people say things like, “My grandpa was a deacon at your church.” Well, that may be great historical trivia, but I hope they know that has NOTHING to do with them getting to heaven. Every person must have their own personal commitment to Jesus as Savior & Lord. Even James did not say “I am Jesus’ brother.” No, he had to have his own personal commitment to be saved — and you do too! 

B. Secondly, notice the DEPTH of his personal commitment. James does not call himself the “head of the church at Jerusalem”, but “a bondservant” of the Lord Jesus Christ. A lot of our translations read “servant” or something similar, but this is actually the Greek word, “doulos,” which translated “slave” throughout the whole rest of the New Testament, and it should be translated that way here. James is saying: “I am a SLAVE of the Lord Jesus Christ.”    

James models for us here the commitment that every Christian should have to Jesus. A Christian isn’t just someone who “likes” Jesus. I feel like a lot of people in America consider themselves to be “Christians” because they “like” Jesus. They think of Christianity as being like Facebook, where you can “like” a page, or “like” a business, or “like” someone’s comment. So they see Jesus, and think “He’s pretty cool”, so they “like” Him and they might call themselves Christians. But you’ve got to understand: “liking Jesus” is NOT saving faith!

There were a lot of people in the Bible who “liked” Jesus but who were not saved:

— the Rich Young Ruler “liked” Jesus, but Jesus sent him away because he wouldn’t leave his possessions and follow Jesus when He told him to. It wasn’t a matter of just “liking” Jesus; it was a matter of obeying Him. He wasn’t ready to really make Him his Lord. 

— The Jewish teacher Nicodemus “liked” Jesus too. He said: “we know that You have come from God as a teacher” – but Jesus told him: “You must be born again.” It wasn’t enough for Nicodemus to “like” Jesus as a teacher. He had to be born again, so that Jesus was MORE than just “a teacher” that he liked, but His Lord & Master & Savior that he would follow.

Real, saving faith has the kind of commitment to Jesus that James had, when he said “I am a SLAVE of the Lord Jesus Christ.” The disciples modeled saving faith for us by leaving everything when Jesus called them: they left their family; they left their nets (their business); they left their future plans – they left everything to follow Jesus.  And He makes the same call to us today. He says in Luke 9:23, “If ANY man will come after Me, let him deny Himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” 

When you really make a commitment to Jesus Christ, it means that every area of your life is under His control. This is what James says “real faith looks like.” He says it’s like being “a slave of Jesus Christ.” And then he shows us in the rest of this book what it looks like to live as a slave of Jesus Christ; that every area of your life is controlled by your commitment to Jesus:

— what you say

— how you spend your money

— how you treat people

— what you watch on television, the music you listen to, the movies you see – EVERYTHING in your life is controlled by Jesus, because you are His slave! It means there is “No other person, no other possession, no other priority” greater to you than Jesus. To really have saving faith means that you are Jesus Christ’s slave. 

Now, this does NOT mean that only people who are perfect in every area of their life really have faith. We all fall short of obeying Jesus in many ways – and I am foremost in that, I can assure you! But what I’m saying is that a person who really has saving faith has a real commitment, with God’s help, to bring every area of their life under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. They may not be perfect yet, but they know everything they have is His. There is no area of their life that is “exempt” from Him as Lord:

— It’s not that you follow Jesus in everything except your business practices. 

— It is not that you follow Jesus in everything except your sexuality. 

— It is not that you’ll follow Jesus in everything except your money. 

No, to be a REAL Christian means that in every area of your life, without exception, you are Jesus Christ’s slave, and you are committed to obey Him. It means that you cannot continue in blatant, unrepentant sin, and be happy with it. If you are living with sin in some area of your life, and you are just happy and content living that way, you need to seriously examine whether you are a Christian at all, because you cannot be a slave of Jesus Christ, Who is a Holy God, and who suffered excruciatingly and died for that sin, and be happy living in it!  You can’t be happy with that; His Spirit inside of you won’t let you be happy like that, if you are His slave. To really be a Christian means that you are a “slave” of Jesus Christ, and that He is the single most important priority in your life. 

During David Boudia’s interview with Al Michaels after he won the gold medal at the London Olympics, he said: “My faith is the most important thing in my life.” 

That is what James is saying here, when he called himself “a bondservant of Jesus Christ.” He was saying that nothing in his life was more important than Jesus Christ. THAT is the commitment of saving faith. Being saved doesn’t just mean that you “like” Jesus. It means that nothing else in your whole life is more important to you than He is. 

This is the question we all need to face today: is this true of YOU?

Can you say: “I am a bondservant of God, and of the Lord Jesus Christ?”  The truth is, a lot of people SAY it; but the real question is, can you say it and MEAN it? Is YOUR commitment to Jesus “What Real Faith Looks Like”?  

INVITATION:

Every one of us needs to examine our hearts today, in light of James’ words here:

— Do you consider yourself to be a Christian? WHY do you think that is true? Because your family is Christian? Because you were born in America?   Has there been a time in your life when you made a real, personal commitment of your life to Jesus as the Savior of your sins and the Lord of your life?  And if you say you have, does your LIFE show that commitment was real? Can you say like James that you are Jesus Christ’s slave, and really mean it? 

— Is there any area of your life today, in which you are doing something you know Jesus does not want you to do? If you are really a Christian, you need to change that, TODAY! Talk to God about that; ask Him to help you change that area of your life right now.

— And if you’d say, I really need to give my life to Jesus as my Lord & Savior for the very first time, why don’t you do that right now!