Two Brothers, One Bible
Two Brothers, One Bible
Episode 321 - A New Study! James
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And now, welcome back to another episode of Two Brothers One Bible Podcast from New Song Baptist Church on a beautiful day today, Peter. It's gorgeous, yeah. Absolutely great. Spring and well, summer is in the air, isn't it? It is. It's getting a little warm out here. Yeah, there you go. I tell you what, that is so funny. So listen, uh, it's great to have you here. Any thoughts about our new study before we jump in?
SPEAKER_01I, you know, I I was thinking about this because I figured that was gonna be the question. We're starting the the book of James, and and I honestly think every time we introduce a new book and every time you ask that question, we talk about how much we just love it. Exactly. I you know, uh I just I I just love the book of James. I do too. It is so rich. Um, it's one of those, you know, it's it's a shame he only wrote one, or maybe he wrote more, but it's the only one we have, and it's just like he he could have gone 10 chapters on us or 15 chapters. I mean, we just want more because he's so practical about how the Christian life is lived out. And uh, you know, and a lot of it's kind of like a popcorn thing where he does that, hits that, boom, boom, boom. But it's it's it's just great.
SPEAKER_00It's a great book. And it's one of the it's one of the books that I remember reading the most when I was uh a young man. Yeah. Because it was just simply so practical. Right. And and it and he goes from one thing to the other. So we are starting a new series, and we hope that you're gonna enjoy it. But first of all, yeah, I've got to do something that's very, very important. Okay.
SPEAKER_01I'm Robert Wakefield. Are you? You just yeah, it was burning within you. You had to share that. Okay. I did and who are you? I am Peter Sears.
SPEAKER_00And welcome to Two Brothers One Bible Podcast. And we are going to begin a study of James. So uh this is our introductory um episode, and so it's really great that uh James is uh it's towards the back end of the uh New Testament, and it is it's not a very long book, it's only like five chapters. Five chapters, I think. And and so one of the things that struck me about James is the fact that he was the brother of Jesus. Yeah. Now we'll talk about this in the next episode as well. Right. But that's what a calling card.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. Well, it is, you know, and so um you know, he he was uh the half-brother. Half-brother, I mean, because uh Joseph was the the dad of James, uh, where Jesus had a different dad. Right. He had the father, the father, exactly. Yeah, but you know, um James, as we'll see when we get to chapter one, doesn't he he call himself a bondservant uh rather than say and you know my brother, you know. Uh he he doesn't doesn't exploit that and and we know from the gospel writings that his family misunderstood Jesus. You know, that that whole come home, you're embarrassing the family, you know, just stop this nonsense. Right. And so when when did James see his his half-brother in a different light? When when when did he say right I do think he's Jesus? You know?
SPEAKER_00Yeah I don't I don't know when that took place. Uh I do I do see here in my notes that 1 Corinthians 15 7 uh he was converted after the resurrection, yeah, that Jesus appeared to him personally. Right. So, you know, what what a uh after the resurrection and you appear to your half brother. Wow. Yeah what a moment that had to be.
SPEAKER_01Well, it's kind of like the story of Joseph with his brothers. I mean, Joseph would come down and eat his fruit loops and say, I had a dream last night, and you all bowed down to worship me. And it's like, you know, just get over yourself, you know. Exactly. And so to have an older brother who is Jesus, why can't you be more like your brother? He does nothing wrong. You know, it's like I'm just so tired of being compared to Jesus, you know. Right. And and so that's tough to grow up with. But like you said, when you see, you know, was even at the cross when Jesus died. And so in light of the resurrection and then that personal visit by Jesus himself, I mean, how how can you deny that? This was someone you knew your whole life. Right.
SPEAKER_00You know, and I just can't imagine, uh and we'll talk about this in in our again when we do chapter one, but I just can't imagine being uh in a household and your half-brother is Jesus. Right. And you know, brothers are brothers, you know, m me and my brother Terry, we would we would fight all the time. Sure. You know, and and I'm sure there was arguments between those two because they were they were human. Right. And and then when James finds out that he really was the son of God, yeah, and he looks back on his life and says, You know, remember when that fight that we had, and you didn't throw that rock, but I threw a rock at you. And you know, it's just it just has to be a different, he's got a more unique perspective than anyone.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it's it's similar to how we talked about Paul with his conversion, how he had to rethink his whole thinking about Judaism, and then as he did that, he saw traces of Jesus throughout this, and it was like, oh man, there he was all along. I missed it. Right. And the same thing for James when he looked back on his life with his half brother, was like, Oh, I missed it.
SPEAKER_00Oh wow. Can you imagine that? Well, another thing, uh, too, that we're talking about, James, he was not the apostle James. Right. So I think we need to c clarify those two. Yeah. Because that James was martyred in Acts uh 12. Right. So uh it's not the apostle, but again, he was a former skeptic. We read that in our John series. Yes. Uh John 7 and 5, which you were just mentioning. Yeah. Um and then he was a leader of the Jerusalem church, we find out in Acts chapter 15.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, which is key for the the timing. Mm-hmm. Uh because this had to be early. There was a Jerusalem council that was in AD forty-nine. Okay. And so what James is talking about has to be before that. So it's probably a window between 45 and 48, he's writing this, because at this point, the Judaism uh Christians in Jerusalem are being dispersed out, and and it hasn't yet made it to the Gentiles. Okay. So we know that for the timing. So Paul is or or James is writing uh from Jerusalem to those who are Christians throughout the world.
SPEAKER_00Well, that and that's so true. And you know something that I read that I had never heard before? What's that? Uh church early church tradition calls him camel knees. Uh-huh. I did not know that. Yeah. Uh, because he was known for his holiness and his prayer life.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well, he had such I mean, his knees looked like camels. That's why they called him that, old camel knees, because he prayed so much he had these huge calluses on his knees. Yes.
SPEAKER_00Wow. So he had calluses on his knees and he was known as camel knees. Isn't that amazing? I had never read that before.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you know, of all the the titles you can get, you know, uh that nickname's just endearing. You know, it's he they're not they're not making fun of him at all. They're just saying, you know, what what you know what's up with your knees? And it's like, well, I just spent a lot of time in prayer.
SPEAKER_00I spent a lot boy, I that would be a great accusation to be called. Absolutely. Yeah. You know, to to know that you you pray so much that you have calluses on your knees. So also um there in verse one, we'll talk about this again in a little bit, but he talks about the twelve tribes. Yep. And that kind of mentions on what you were hitting on just a second ago. So if you were to to come up with a statement of what you think James is about, if you were going to summarize what James, what is the purpose of the message, what do you think he is calling?
SPEAKER_01I I would have to say it's practical wisdom. That's good. Yeah. I like that. Yeah, and um something we'll we'll talk off and on when we look at James, but there's 20 things that James parallels with Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah. So again, was James in the crowd as a as a doubter, listening to his brother do this sermon? Was he taking notes? Did some things stand out? Because he kind of he doesn't hit them in necessarily order, but you can do this parallel between those two things.
SPEAKER_00That is fascinating. I did not make that connection. That's so good. Uh one of the things that uh this this author wrote was he he's call he thinks James is calling everyone to an authentic faith. A faith that works, a faith that shows, and a faith that lives. And uh his message can be summed up in one sentence real faith produces real fruit.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that he says that in chapter two. He sure does. You know, they think that's may have been the first New Testament book written.
SPEAKER_00I did not know that. I did not read that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, um 1 Thessalonians would have been for Paul, and that was probably like 54 A.D. So this could have been as early as 45.
SPEAKER_00So this is good and you when you think about it, that's only about what, 10, 15 years after Jesus ascended to heaven. Exactly. So this is really fresh as far as uh, you know, writing it something that you just happened. I mean, it's pretty it's pretty recent.
SPEAKER_01It is, yeah. You know, because of the, you know, it's such a difficult task to write letters, to distribute letters, and so um you had to have something really important to say that you wanted to document because most things were just passed along verbally. And so I think as the persecution's happening and people are leaving Jerusalem and Christianity is is going out, he's he's saying, I've got to have something that encourages, binds them together, gets them all on the same page, and they're pursuing what it means to be holy. Right. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00So and I think James is really excellent at doing that in this epistle. I mean, he is he takes from uh he talks about trials and perseverance, he's talking about wisdom, he's talking about faith and works. I mean, so all of this is not individual topics necessarily. They all tie together.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And and they tie together, and I had never made the comparison to the the Sermon on the Mount. That's gonna be fun to watch as we go through this study because I have not made that comparison, and that's really gonna be something to see.
SPEAKER_01Well, it also has the flavor of Proverbs, because proverbs is kind of that popcorn thing where it's like, you know, you get a sentence or two of this, and then it's a sentence or two of that. And that's what James does. I I don't think, you know, I think it's obviously as the Holy Spirit was impressing upon him, well, you need to tell him that. But there's nothing wrong with that. Because, you know, whether it's anger, your relationships, or how you treat people, sometimes you you favor the rich rather than the poor, and so he just hits these variety of topics.
SPEAKER_00He does. And you know what's since we've been doing this podcast, I I've noticed that the Bible has so many different writing styles. Yes. You you've got the poetry, you've got the history, you've got uh the stories. We went through the entire book of uh John, yeah, and he tells the story of Jesus, and then we looked at Hebrews and uh and discovered that could have been a sermon and how different that was. And James it falls into a different category for me.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I would agree with that.
SPEAKER_00He he j he falls into a category of okay, I'm going to hit you with everything that I can think of, right as succinct as I can make it. Right. And so I kind of think of that like your proverbs is a great comparison. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Well, and if it's first, he there is nothing for him to follow. There's no script. Oh no. There's no like, well, I I read this one, you know, and it it kind of I wanted, you know, and so he's not saying, let me tell you about committing you imagine if you wrote a gospel, the things he could tell, the insight, because he knew Jesus his whole life. It would be a totally different gospel. But that wasn't his point. The point was I knew what I was like before Jesus, and I know what I'm like after. And these are the things that are important to me, and they need to be important to you.
SPEAKER_00Right. And so, what is the most exciting thing you think about James as we're about to get into the study? What are you excited about reading or discovering?
SPEAKER_01You know, I I think it is that perspective because you know, I I think we all appreciate those people that were diehard atheists or agnostics. People, you know, that that um oh I you know, C. S. Lewis was was one of those people. Um the uh Lee Strobel was it was another one. You know, these guys who were adamant, diehard. I I don't believe.
SPEAKER_00And then they believe that's James. That is James.
SPEAKER_01And so the takeaway is we have five chapters of kind of like we don't see the before, but we see the after. And I think that's so important to us because if that's this is the takeaway for James, it needs to be the takeaway for us. Right. Because he's he's not giving us you know the fluff, he's giving us the meat and potatoes.
SPEAKER_00That's a great way of putting it because he really is he's laying it on the line. Absolutely. The whole book is just that way.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well, and you know, he he doesn't when we get into chapter one, you know, he he takes one verse to just say, okay, here we are, and then verse two, here we go. Here we are, giddy up. You know, he's not wasting any time at all. Right. You know, he starts out consider it all a joy. I mean, he just gets right into it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's it's it's an amazing book, and I think that you uh our listeners, I know I'm going to enjoy getting into these this these five chapters and really breaking them down in a way that uh that we hope is beneficial for everyone. Right. Especially uh anyone who's never known Jesus. And uh I think that's the perfect this is the perfect one after you after you've read the story of Jesus, yeah, and then you get the half brother's perspective on how to live. Boy, that those two together, that's a that's an amazing contrast.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you you made the point when we did Ephesians that you know the Gospel of John should be your first book that you read. And I and I heartily agree with that. Right. And then I think the second book should still be Ephesians because it's very doctrinal. I think you get enough of the doctrine where you've got your feet starting to be grounded. I want to say the third book is James. Okay, yeah. Because, you know, how do you make doctrinal statements a life reality? Right. How do how do I live that out? And so that's I think that's what James does because he doesn't really talk a lot. That's where people say James says this, but Paul says this, and they're saying the same thing, they're just saying it different ways. Oh, yeah, we'll get into that. And James is really more focused on how do you live that life. I think we kind of make Christianity a little, you know, kind of you know, foggy, mystical kind of thing. And and for James, it's like, no, no, this is what it looks like, this is what you need to do. Right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Uh one of the things that we we touched on, and I want to touch on it again, that that he he wrote it to believers that were being persecuted. Yeah. And believers that are living under that kind of pressure and and having that kind of stress can read James and say, Oh, yeah. Okay, so this is how I'm supposed to live, although I could die tomorrow with with with my belief. Yeah. And I see James as one big cheering letter in a way. He's he's he's going to the point, he's telling these Christians on how to live, but he's being more of a cheerleader than you, you know, uh pounding the doctrine in your head. Yeah. That's kind of how I view it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's that's good. You know, and and we we look at the life of James, you know, old camel knees, he didn't, he didn't follow the crowd. Christians are leaving because of persecution. And they undergoing to areas where they're again persecuted. And James, I mean, he didn't run to be the leader of the church in Jerusalem. No. He he ascended that because they they saw his wisdom, you know, because he's on his knees. He sought them and he stayed there. Right. He could have left, he could have done something else. Sure. Yeah, uh, but yet he stays. He's the one that that Paul comes back to, you know, and and Peter's in front of, you know, and and and here, you know, Peter was an apostle. James wasn't, you know.
SPEAKER_00And they want they want to be in his company, yeah, yeah, and his wisdom.
SPEAKER_01You know, and Paul's the same thing. He comes back to Jerusalem, he talks to James, and knows it's it's James and these these other people who are there who are saying, This is what we're gonna do. This is what Jesus intended. And so, I mean, we're we're looking at someone who is just coming out in this early formative stage of the early church, you know, long before Paul even made his first missionary journey, long before they were called Christians in, you know, in in Antioch, you have James.
SPEAKER_00Oh, that's so good. Well, this study is gonna be fantastic, and I hope that as you go through this study, that you will uh have your Bible open to James. Yeah. And and we're going to break this down uh because we have these lofty goals to get two verses in 15 minutes. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Well, let me let me say this. So I was an interim pastor for a whole year as they were searching for the next pastor. I was on staff and they said, Would you be the pastor while we're looking for someone? I said, sure. And so, you know, you're having to preach Sunday mornings and you're having to preach Sunday nights, and so for Wednesday nights, I said, We're we're just gonna do the book of James. And literally, Robert, it took me a whole year to go through the five chapters.
SPEAKER_00The five chapters, it took you a year.
SPEAKER_01I was astounded. I honestly, I thought, well, we're gonna start here and you know, get a few more in. But it's so deep, it's so rich. And and I did it kind of in the same style of just, you know, and so for about 30 minutes I would just talk about it, and and uh, you know, I had probably about 300 people that we would do this together collectively on Wednesday nights.
SPEAKER_00How was the feedback when you did that on Wednesday nights? How did it be? It was tremendous. Was it really tremendous, yeah? Yeah. Well, we want your feedback as well. We please, yeah. And you can go to your wherever you get your podcast, you'll see it says send fan mail. Yeah. And we're not asking for fan mail, but but we okay, yes, we are. Sure. No, we're asking for feedback. Yeah. And we would love to hear from you. So if you've got questions about James, if you have questions about what we're talking about, you just click on that. You send us a it it sends us a text message. We get it in our emails. We don't know who you are unless you tell us. Right. And so please send those questions to us because we want this to be an interactive study. And that would be fantastic. So that is the introduction to James, and we're going to get into chapter one when we uh do our next podcast. I'm Robert Wakefield. I'm Peter Stears. And you're listening to Two Brothers One Bible Podcast. Thanks so much for listening, and God bless you.