Luke 1:5-25

In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years.
Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”
And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” And the angel answered him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.” And the people were waiting for Zechariah, and they were wondering at his delay in the temple. And when he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple. And he kept making signs to them and remained mute. And when his time of service was ended, he went to his home.
After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, “Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.”
(Luke 1:5-25 ESV)

This selection of Scripture is about God’s promises and faithfulness and our response to Him. God sends an angel named Gabriel to Zechariah to tell him that God has heard his (and his wife’s) prayers and that they would have a son. He goes on to tell him that not only will he have a son but that his son would “turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.” God is promising John that he would finally have a son. He is also in the process of making good on a promise He first made to Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden that He would one day send someone who would make all the wrongs of the world right.

We learn a couple of things about God in this text. First we see that God is intimately involved in the life of His people. Gabriel says that John’s prayers “have been heard.” God is a God who listens to our prayers. He is not a disconnected God who is distant from His creation but instead He is intimately involved in all aspects of our lives. He is a gracious God. He has shown grace to Zechariah and Elizabeth by giving them a child even though both of them were beyond the years of child bearing. We also learn that He is a God who keeps His promises. By anointing John as the one who would “make ready for the Lord a people prepared” he is taking another step in the fulfillment of the promise He made to Adam and Eve in the garden. God is good, right, and perfect. He is gracious and He keeps his promises.

So how does Zechariah, a priest, react to God’s promises? In much the same way we all react: disbelief. We see this as Zechariah says “How shall I know this?” Doubt and disbelief wreak havoc in the lives of God’s people. As a priest Zechariah was well read in the Scriptures and knew of all the amazing things God had done in the past and all the unbelievable promises He had kept. Yet he was still full of doubt and disbelief. How do modern day believers react to the now full revelation of God’s promises in the Bible? The vast majority of the time we react in the same way as Zechariah: disbelief. When I think about all the promises in Scripture I realize how much I disbelieve God and what He tells me is true. He tells me that as someone who loves Him all things work together for my good. That means if I get sick or Oksana or Grace get sick or even die that He is in control and is using that circumstance for my good. But I don’t believe Him and I constantly worry about Oksana and Grace because in reality I believe that my ways are better than His and their getting sick could not work for my good. He also tells me that the work of salvation He began in me He will bring to completion, that He will not let me go. But I don’t believe Him and when I look at my life and all my failure I seriously doubt my salvation because in reality I believe that salvation is my work and it is my responsibility through my good deeds to get myself to the finish line. My heart seems to disbelieve under every circumstance in life.

Thankfully for Zechariah and us we have an unbelievably merciful and gracious God. Despite Zechariah’s disbelief God stayed true to His promise to give him a son. Despite the Israelites disbelief from the beginning God stayed true to His promise to send one who would prepare the way for the Messiah. And despite our disbelief God sent His son Jesus to fulfill every promise. Jesus believes all God’s promises on our behalf. Where we disbelieve and sin Jesus believed and obeyed God. In what is often referred to as the great exchange Jesus exchanged places with us. The only one who ever believed perfectly, stood in our place on the cross being punished for our sin and disbelief. We then get to stand in His place, credited with His perfect belief so that God now looks at us and says “This is my son, this is my daughter. Perfect. Blameless. Spotless.”

How are we not believing the Gospel?

They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others.

(Matthew 23:5-7 ESV)

When we, like good religious people do, perform good deeds for others to see, or when we desire to be honored in front of others, we are failing to believe the amazing news of the Gospel. Most of us need to repent of our "righteous" works because they are done out of a motivation that is not in line with the truth of the Gospel. When we do good things so others will see us, or so that we will receive honor and a pat on the back we are fundamentally misunderstanding the truth about who Jesus is and what he has done.

When we do good works so others will see us or so that we will receive some kind of honor we are giving others the position of savior in our lives because we are looking to them for our worth and validation. We are fundamentally believing that what Jesus did on the cross was not enough for us and that we need the approval of others to give us the approval we desire.

The good news of the Gospel is this: Jesus did EVERYTHING necessary for your approval and salvation by living a life of perfect obedience to the Father. Sin deserves death. Since Jesus never sinned death was not required of him. But because of his love for you he exchanged places with you. He died for you in your place for all of your sin, past, present, and future so that it is forgiven. He also gave you his perfect righteousness so that NOTHING else would be required of you. Everything God requires of you has been done in Jesus. Because of what Jesus has done God now sees Christ's perfect life when he looks at you. You do not have to prove yourself to anyone ever again!! You don't have to put up a front so that others will think highly of you. You don't have to fake your way through life so other Christians will think you are holy or approve of you. You have the approval of GOD through the person and work of Jesus. All the worth and validation you ever need or desire is found in the amazing news of the Gospel!

Next time we find ourselves doing something to gain the approval of others let us be reminded of the good news of the Gospel and rest in what Jesus has done for us.

James 1:1-4

"James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. " (James 1:1-4)

James first identifies himself as a servant of Jesus and addresses his letter to the twelve tribes of Israel scattered throughout the world because of persecution. He then gives a short introduction: Greetings. James then wastes no time in getting to the meat of his letter. What he says next is shocking and counter-cultural to us as Americans:

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you experience trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

How many of us get excited and joyful when we think about the trials that lie ahead of us in our lives? I certainly do not. I can't imagine the tribes to whom this letter was addressed were very excited or joyful about the persecution they were most likely enduring when James wrote this letter. How can we make sense of the command James gives us?

Let's first identify some key terms James uses in these verses. What does James mean by trials? More often than not the Bible interprets itself and that is the case we find here. In verse 3 James uses “the testing of your faith” synonymously with the word “trials”. So we can say that a trial is anything that tests our faith or would cause us to question any aspect about who God has revealed himself to be or what he has commanded us to do. Eve experienced a trial in the garden when the serpent raised the question “Did God really say...” The serpent got Eve to question a command that God had given to Adam. Oksana and I recently went through a period of about a week when we thought we had a miscarriage. This was a trial for us because it caused us to question certain aspects of who God has revealed himself to be, namely a good, loving God. When we are tempted to gossip so others will think highly of us we are experiencing a trial and faced with the question of whose approval we seek more, man's or God's. So we can safely say that trials are tests we face in which we have a decision to believe or disbelieve God.

Another key term in these verses in the term “steadfastness”. I'd like to define steadfastness as a perseverance which has faith or hope for its basis.

James says that steadfastness or perseverance is a product of trials or the testing of our faith that comes every day. As we experience trials we are faced with the decision to either trust in God or to trust in something else. James is clear in saying that the test or trial is what produces the steadfastness, not our decisions in the face of those tests or trials. In Psalm 1 David compares the man who delights in God to a tree planted by streams of water. That tree is a great picture of steadfastness. That tree will persevere through storm or hardship but only because it is planted by the streams of water. If we go back to our definition that steadfastness is a perseverance which has faith or hope for its basis we can see that just as the streams of water were the tree's source of perseverance in Psalm 1, who God is and what He's done, also known as the Gospel, is where our hope for perseverance and steadfastness comes from. Our steadfastness is rooted in the Gospel, not in our right decisions.

Why then should we follow James' command to “count it all joy” when we experience trials? Because when we experience trials God reveals to us the truth about who He is in very real and tangible ways. When we see God reveal to us that he is a perfect loving father who in all things is working for our good we become less dependent on our own strength and more dependent on His. As a result we are able to persevere through trials when they come because our strength is found in who He is, what He has done, and what He continues to do, and not in ourselves. This ever-growing dependence on God is process is called sanctification. God uses trials in our lives to sanctify us.

So how does steadfastness lead to us being “perfect and complete, lacking in nothing”? When we experience trials we inevitably become more dependent on the Gospel for our strength. God shows us through trials that we cannot live our lives on our own strength much less rely on our own strength and good works to reunite us with Him. Steadfastness has its “full effect” when we realize and trust that every time we face a trial, our hope and strength is found in the person and work of Jesus and not in ourselves. The result of this trusting in the Gospel with each trial is that you are now being made perfect or sanctified through the work of Jesus.

Paul gives us an explanation of how we are made perfect through Jesus' work of dying on the cross: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor. 5:21). We have all sinned. We have all turned from God and chosen to worship other things. But while we were in the midst of this rebellion God sent his son to live a life in perfect submission to Him, the life we were meant to live. Jesus lived a perfect life. He is the perfect man. When Jesus was crucified on the cross he took the sin of all of God's people on himself. He was punished for our sin. That is what Paul means when he says “he made him to be sin who knew no sin.” Not only did Jesus satisfy God's wrath against sin by going to the cross, he also gave us his righteousness. Martin Luther called this the great exchange. Jesus took our place on the cross and gave us his place with the Father. He took our sin and gave us his perfection. That is how it is possible for us to be “perfect and complete, lacking in nothing”, by trusting in what Jesus has done for us and continues to do in us.

As followers of Jesus are able to then “count it all joy” when we experience trials and hardships in our lives because of the amazing news of who God is, what He has done and what He continues to do. Through trials we realize that God is revealing to us in personal ways the truth about who He is. Through trials God shows us that He is all that we need. Through trials we see that He is a God who keeps His promises. Through trials God shows us how insufficient we are and how sufficient He is. Through trials we realize that God is deepening our dependence on His work and not ours. This dependence on the person and work of Jesus means that we can truly "count it all joy" when we experience trials because we know that we are made "perfect and complete, lacking in nothing" not through our decisions in the face of trials but in and through the person and work of Jesus.

If you'd like to listen to more on this topic here is my friend and pastor Brent Thomas talking about joy in the midst of trials: http://bit.ly/gBcbyY

James Intro

Some background information on the book of James before I dive in to the text:

Author:
The author of this letter is Jesus' half brother James. After Jesus' resurrection James went on to become a leading figure in the early Jerusalem church being mentioned several times in the account of the early church, the book of Acts.

Date:
James died in A.D. 62 so this letter was certainly written before then. It is likely that James would have mentioned the meeting of the apostolic council in Jerusalem in 48 A.D. had he written this letter after that. This puts the most likely date for this letter in the mid to early 40's A.D., certainly within a lifetime of Jesus.

Addressees:
In the opening of his letter James addresses it to "the twelve tribes in the Dispersion". These were Jewish Christians living outside of Jerusalem scattered about because of the persecution facing the early church as mentioned in Acts 11:19

You Don't Save Yourself

One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.
(John 5:5-9 ESV)

It's not what we do, how we behave, what rules we keep, what music we listen to, what movies we watch, how much we pray, how much we give, how much we know, how clean our language is, what political party we belong to or whether or not we believe the correct doctrines that saves us.

We are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus alone. This is not your doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one can boast.

Soli Deo Gloria.

Everyday Faith: A Study in the Book of James

The community of believers I worship with, Church of the Cross, is starting a new series this Sunday on the book of James. We practice expository preaching at COTC, which just means that we preach through entire books of the Bible. Since we are beginning our study in James this week I thought it would be helpful for me personally to study the book a little bit more in depth than we are able to go on a Sunday morning and share my thoughts and questions here.

If you are interested in going through the study of James with our community we would love to have you on Sunday mornings at 10:30. You can get more info on the website here. We also have community groups, the heart of who we are and what we do at COTC, which are smaller gatherings that meet weekly. Currently we are going through "The Story of God" which is an amazing retelling of the Bible from Genesis, the beginning, through Acts, the start of the church as we know it. Oksana and I have a community group that meets in our home every Wednesday night at 6 PM for dinner and then the telling of a portion of the story. Again, we would love if you would join us.

Matt Chandler / CJ Mahaney on Suffering

T4G 2010 -- Special Session -- Matt Chandler from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.