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33 pages

English

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Christians all over the world trust Walk Thru the Bible to help them deepen their spiritual lives through a greater understanding of God's Word. Now Walk Thru the Bible is launching its own small group Bible study series that will uncover the richness of the Scriptures. Each guide explores a book of the Bible or a prominent Bible character, offering rich insights and practical life application.These discussion guides are perfect for Bible study groups, Sunday schools, small groups, and individuals who want a deeper understanding of books of the Bible and heroes of the faith.About the seriesChristians all over the world trust Walk Thru the Bible to help them deepen their spiritual lives through a greater understanding of God's Word. Now Walk Thru the Bible is launching a new inductive Bible study series with Baker Books that will uncover the richness of the Scriptures. Each guide explores a book of the Bible or a prominent Bible character, offering rich insights and practical life application. These discussion guides are perfect for Bible study groups, Sunday schools, small groups, and individuals who want a deeper understanding of books of the Bible and heroes of the faith.

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New Testament

Philosophie et théologie

Informations

Publié par	Baker Publishing Group
Date de parution	01 août 2009
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781441235114
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0230€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

A Walk Thru the Book of
JAMES
Faith That Endures
Walk Thru the Bible
2009 by Walk Thru the Bible
Published by Baker Books a division of Baker Publishing Group P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287 www.bakerbooks.com
E-book edition created 2011
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-for example, electronic, photocopy, recording-without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
ISBN 978-1-4412-3511-4
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
Scripture is taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION . NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. www.zondervan.com
Cover image: Mark Goddard / iStock
Contents
Introduction
Session 1 Christ-Driven Controversy
Session 2 Enduring Trials
Session 3 No Respecter of Men
Session 4 To Tame the Tongue
Session 5 Fully Submitted
Session 6 Patient Endurance
Conclusion
Leader s Notes
Bibliography
Introduction
The audacity of these Gentiles, sighed Manashi, a Pharisee who had converted to the Way. Have you heard what s going on in Antioch? Sha ul and the believers there are welcoming Gentiles into the faith without circumcision-and with absolutely no adherence to the laws of our fathers. This has to stop.
But since Messiah has come . . . , Noach started.
Yes, Messiah has come. So? Does that mean we abandon Moses? Have we forgotten Sinai? That s what Sha ul condones, you know. And that s what brought the wrath of God on us in generations past. Do we really want another Babylon?
Well, no . . . but doesn t Messiah fulfill the law? Hasn t his Spirit fallen on Gentiles?
Are you not circumcised, Noach? Are not all God-fearing individuals to be circumcised as a sign of the covenant? Yes, the Spirit comes upon Gentiles. I do not believe this is the Lord s endorsement of lawlessness; I believe it s his mandate to teach them the law.
Noach looked down and drew in the dirt with the toe protruding from his sandal.
Manashi pressed on. Do you understand how important this is? Yes, we believe in Messiah. But how could we ever abandon the rules and regulations of our fathers? And how could we encourage others to ignore them? Yeshua and the law go hand in hand. Those pagan idol worshippers haven t even begun to get that through their heads. And Sha ul doesn t seem to mind.
What do you propose to do about it, sir?
Go to them. Manashi turned, ducked his head out of the tent, and peered up at the night sky.
Go to them? Noach echoed.
Yes, Manashi came back inside. You heard me.
Sir, it s three hundred miles to Syria.
We ve traveled farther.
But our leaders here in Jerusalem . . . we have no authority from them. They might. . . .
Tell our friends, Manashi said gruffly. We re going to the believers in Antioch. We ll leave tomorrow.
That s at least a three-week journey, Noach mumbled under his breath. Probably more like four.
And Noach, one more thing, Manashi said, gazing soberly at his young friend. Tell the men this is about more than just circumcision. It s about the foundations of our faith-the observance of Torah is at stake. We stand at a crucial moment in our history. Tell them we leave at dawn.

Although these are fictitious characters, a faction within the Jerusalem church did indeed travel to the church at Antioch more than three hundred miles away. They wanted to uphold the Torah, the sacred law given through Moses. God would not violate his own Scripture, they insisted; therefore, salvation through Jesus must include full observance of all rituals and regulations, not usurp them. A Gentile must convert to Judaism before becoming a follower of Jesus.
The controversy prompted a meeting in Jerusalem between the apostles who had seen the Spirit fall upon Gentiles and the leaders of the Jerusalem church. This meeting is described in Acts 15. James, a half-brother of Jesus, was there. Not only was he present, he was one of the most prominent leaders of the Jerusalem church. In fact, he played a significant role in diffusing the faith vs. works time bomb that threatened to split the fledgling movement. He was a key mediator between people like the fictitious Manashi, who insisted that Gentiles follow Jewish law as part of following the Jewish Messiah, and people like Paul (Sha ul in the above story), Peter, and Barnabas, who believed that faith in Christ alone was all that was required for salvation.
James
The James who penned the New Testament letter was one of Jesus s brothers, a natural son of both Mary and Joseph. He didn t believe his brother to be the Messiah during Jesus s earthly ministry. In fact, he, along with his other brothers, had once urged Jesus somewhat mockingly to go to the Feast of Tabernacles in Judea and prove himself, in spite of the imminent danger to Jesus s safety (John 7:3-5). When Jesus entered a house and an enormous crowd swarmed around him, his brothers went to take charge of him, for they said, He is out of his mind (Mark 3:20-21). This family tension shows up again in Matthew 12:46-50, when Jesus is talking to a large crowd and is told that his mother and brothers are outside, wanting to speak to him. His reply was less than flattering: Who is my mother, and who are my brothers? Pointing to his disciples, he said, Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother. Clearly, those who grew up with Jesus as their older brother couldn t see him as the one to whom all Scripture pointed.
James s spiritual turning point must have come when he saw the resurrected Jesus face to face. That meeting is described by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8: What I received I passed on to you as of first importance: Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James , then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
Soon James became a pillar of the Christian church in Jerusalem and acquired the title James the Just due to his zeal for righteousness and his ability to oversee with fairness and impartiality. He became known for his wisdom, steadiness, and peacemaking skills between believing Gentiles and dyed-inthe-wool Jews who also had come to faith in Christ.
The Book of James
The first century, and particularly the time in which James probably wrote, was a volatile era marked by rampant oppression of the poor by the rich, primarily in abuses of laborers by wealthy landowners; political rumblings against the injustices of Roman dominance; and persecution of early Christians by the majority of Jewish leaders. From this latter situation, messianic believers spilled out of Jerusalem and into the countryside, as well as into cities across the empire where Jewish communities already existed. Those who fled the threat of persecution in Jerusalem often found work on farms and therefore became subject to landowners abuses. It was not a pleasant time. Steady perseverance was needed to avoid two extremes: joining revolutionary movements, on one hand, and falling away from the faith and reverting to Judaism, on the other. For those who remained faithful to their calling as Christians, James urges patience and warns against adapting to a culture in which oppression is acceptable and violent rebellion is contemplated.
In addition to that context, James was faced with some mind-bending questions before, during, and after the Jerusalem Council of Acts 15: What was essential for salvation? Who constituted the people of God? What was the basis for their relationship with him? And how could the chasm between Gentiles and Jews be mended so both groups could become one as God s accepted people and remain a united body? These theological questions along with unsettled social conditions seem to have spurred James to write his letter, most likely in the AD mid-40s.
Audience and Message
It is believed that James wrote most of the content of his letter to Christians scattered among the nations. Why were they scattered? Many Jewish communities had been dispersed during the political turmoil of preceding centuries. Some readers of James s letter had fled Jerusalem because of anti-Christian terrorism (Acts 11:19). And others were faithful members of James s fold in the holy city itself-not yet on the run, but not entirely free from oppression. In every case, the trauma of being a Christian was weighing heavily on believers, which explains why James addressed topics like experiencing trials, being poor, being taken to court by wealthy people, and being oppressed by wealthy landowners. Indeed, James s letter clearly indicates his concern about the spiritual conflict created as a result of both riches and poverty.
There are no formal greetings or references to specific people at the opening of the letter, and James does not identify a particular situation that triggered a need for it. For these reasons, it is thought that James intended the letter to be read and meditated upon by Christians in general, Jews and Gentiles alike. Indeed, it is a treasure house of wisdom, similar to Old Testament wisdom literature like Proverbs. James even mentions the importance of praying for wisdom without doubting (James 1:5-8), and he refers often to Jesus s deep and poignant lessons from the Sermon on the Mount. While some scholars say the letter is disorderly-it jumps from one topic to another-others say J