The Wisdom of Jimmy

This Sunday we begin a sermon series on the book of James. James packs a lot of teaching into a short book.

James closely tracks many of the teachings in the book of Matthew. Were the two writers in similar circles? Was the two books written by the same person?

James is also called a catholic (universal) or general epistle. This means that the epistle was not written to a particular church. James was written to the twelve tribes of the diaspora (the church scattered throughout the ancient world).

The words of James are sometimes troubling and always challenging.

Sermon Title: Single-minded Faith

Text: James 1

Sowing & Reaping

"Sowing & Reaping" will begin to have regular blog entries again, mostly random thoughts and links. Sermon info will continue to appear here on Thursdays. A link is also available in the "links."

Road, Unforgotten, Life-Form

This Sunday's passage is often used at funerals and has been a flashpoint for heated theological discussion.

We will focus on the three words of the I am saying: way, truth, and life. "Life" is a recurrent theme throughout the "I am" sayings.

In Acts, the earliest Christians were called people "who belonged to the Way" (Acts 9.2).

In John's gospel, Pilate asks, "What is truth?" (John 18.38). Jesus also says in John, "You will know the truth and the truth will make you free." (Jon 8.32)

John 12 marks a distinct shift in John's gospel. Some scholars say that John moves from an account of the signs and wonders of Jesus (John 1-11) to an account of the exaltation of the Son of Man (John 12-21).

Read John 11.45-13.38. Raising Lazarus from the dead is the final straw for the authorities in Jerusalem. Jesus must die; the Palm Sunday/Good Friday/Passion narrative begins. The chapters following the foot-washing scene of John 12 read like a farewell address. The "I am" sayings are the bridge unifying the two sections of the book.

PS - there is a bonus "I am" saying in John 6.20.

John 11 - Resurrection and the Life

John 11

"I am the resurrection and the life...."

What separated Pharisees from Saducees, among other things, was belief in the resurrection of the dead. At the judgment, at the end of this age, the Pharisees (and probably a majority of Jesus' Jewish contemporaries) believed that the dead would rise and be judged. Mary believes like her contemporaries. In Christian doctrine, we call this teaching the "General Resurrection" . As the Westminster Larger Catechism says, "at the last day, there shall be a general resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust" (Book of Confessions - 7.197).

Jesus wants to clarify this final resurrection for her and for us. When we believe in Jesus, the resurrection and the life, "the bodies of the just, by the Spirit of Christ, and by virtue of his resurrection as their head, shall be raised in power, spiritual, and incorruptible, and made like to his glorious body" (BoC - 7.197). Good news indeed!

Yet when Jesus spoke of eternal life, he spoke of more than life after death or the final resurrection. Jesus spoke of the eternal life that begins now! If we have eternal life, what does that mean for the way we live today? Does what we do today have an impact on eternity?

(Click here to read more from the Book of Confessions on PDF)