Live Like You’re Alive!

English

Live Like You're Alive!

James 2:14-26

Some say that today's text from James 2 comes across as being rather harsh. But, I want to show you that it is filled with good news. In fact, it has made me celebrate the grace of God that promises the Lord will produce a life of good works in me – and in you – when we trust Jesus.
So, let's begin today by remembering some of God's life-transforming news. When you confess your sins, repent of them, and place your faith in Jesus to save you, you will be "born again". Before you and I believed in Jesus, we may have believed there is a God. However, according to Jesus, we were not spiritually alive to God knowing him as "Abba, Father." So, one thing that is true of every follower of Jesus is that we are alive to God through faith in Jesus. This has five implications that I want you to consider:
• Before we come to Jesus, we are spiritually dead. Paul said in Eph 2, "You were all dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live... All of us followed our own desires so, like everyone else in the world, we were by our own nature deserving of God's wrath."
• Dead things cannot bring themselves to life. We needed someone who is spiritually alive to come and breathe life into our souls – someone who loves us in spite of our sins. And Paul said, also in Eph 2: "Because of his great love for us, God who is rich in mercy made us alive in Christ even when we were dead..."
• God's grace is necessary if we are to have any hope for being made alive to him. Eternal life is not something that we can earn for we are dead in sin. It is all a gift of God's grace (also from Eph 2).
• When we believe in Jesus, we are made alive to God and are given the Holy Spirit to live inside us. Eph 1:13-14: "When you believed (the message of truth, i.e., the gospel of Jesus), you were marked with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit from God guaranteeing our inheritance" – that is, the Holy Spirit is God's guarantee that what he has started in you will be completed. God will not only forgive the sins that killed your soul, he will also set you free from your sinfulness.
• When we come alive to God through faith in Jesus, our lives will change. Eph 2 again: "We are God's work of art created in Christ Jesus to do good works..." This is God's promise to you.
The way I have put this in my sermon title: You now must "live like you are alive!"

Pastor James and the Apostle Paul on Faith and Works
I think this good news in our text has been missed because people have wondered how James' words about faith and works fits with the Apostle Paul's message that faith without works saves us. In James' letter in the Bible, Pastor James was writing to his parishioners, to people who had already professed to have turned from their sins and placed their faith in Jesus. Therefore, they were saying that they were alive to God and indwelt by God's Spirit. If so, as I have said, clear evidence of their salvation should be that their lives should be growing in doing the good works that God calls us to do. James wrote firmly and passionately in 2:14-26 that his parishioners' faith should show in their changed lives. You may know that James' words about genuine faith and works have led to endless debates over the past 2,000 years. This is a debate that we cannot settle in a few moments on a Sunday morning. What was James saying when he said, "Faith without works is dead"?
• That we are saved by a mixture of faith in Jesus and our own works?
• That we aren't saved by works but that we must maintain our salvation by works?
• Or, that genuine faith in Jesus always results in good works?
I believe he meant the third of those, i.e., that when we place our faith in Jesus, we will be alive to God and filled by God's Spirit in such a way that we will begin to obey God – to live for him rather than for ourselves. When Paul taught in Ephesians that we are justified by faith alone, he meant that the only thing that makes us right with God is God's grace received through faith in Jesus Christ. But, Paul went on to say immediately that true faith in Jesus will lead to us doing the good works God has created us to do. When James said in James 2:24 that we are not justified by faith alone he meant that the saving faith which makes us right with God will not simply be an intellectual assent to the truth. True faith makes us alive – and that means that our lives should begin to do the good works God intends us to do.
Let me show you how we put this in our LAC Statement of Faith:
God's gospel calls us to Christ-like living and witness to the world. We believe that God's justifying grace must not be separated from His sanctifying power and purpose. God commands us to love Him supremely and others sacrificially, living out our faith with care for one another, compassion toward the poor, and justice for the oppressed. With God's Word, the Spirit's power, and fervent prayer in Christ's name, we are to combat the spiritual forces of evil. In obedience to Christ's commission, we are to make disciples among all people, always bearing witness to the gospel in word and deed.
However you understand how faith and works function in God's salvation process, what is clear is that if our lives continue to be marked by the sin that Jesus died to rescue us from, then that kind of faith is not real faith. It's dead. There's no life in it.

Pastor James Caring about His People – he loved them too much to leave them as they were.
If you are going to understand what James is writing about in James 2:14-26, you have to go back and remember what his church people had experienced with God. You can read all about it is Acts 2-6:
• They had experienced the unmistakable presence and the miraculous power of God's Spirit at Pentecost in Acts 2 when the mighty "Wind of God" had blown into their lives, empowering them to speak the languages of the people there who had come from all over the world. This had resulted in thousands of people from many nations and many social backgrounds coming to faith in Jesus and coming into their Jerusalem Church.
• Then, in Acts 4:32-37, they had experienced beautiful, Christ-centered community in which the rich and the poor worshipped and served together and helped one another. The result was that God's Word reports, "God's grace was so powerfully at work in them that there were no persons among them who remained in need."
• Then, in Acts 6, when problems arose related to all the related to ethnic and language diversity in the church, they had responded quickly and wonderfully to God's leading by changing their structures and redirecting their resources so that all people, would be welcomed and served.
But, time had passed. Difficult days had come starting with Acts 6:8. These parishioners had been driven out of Jerusalem and away from their home church by persecution. When James wrote this letter, many of his people were in smaller churches scattered into many cities and were facing trials of all kinds. So, the experiences of Acts 2-6 must have felt like they were long, long ago and in a place far, far away. And, their lives were no longer characterized by the love for one another and the courageous faith that had been present in Jerusalem.
But, as I read the letter, James loved his people. He loved them way too much to let them grow complacent about their lives with God. And, he knew those he was writing to had also once experienced a church alive to God, caring deeply for one another, and reaching out in witness and ministry to the world. This letter is a firm but loving letter calling them back to a living faith.
One thing is clear when you read James' letter: Many of his parishioners were no longer simply obeying God – even the most basic "royal law" Jesus had given, i.e., "You must live your neighbor as yourself." He wanted his people to get back to having their relationship with God change their lives. So, in today's passage, James wrote to help them to shake off their lethargy and fear. James loved his people too much to leave them as they were. And, from the evidence we have from church history, God used James' words to revive his people. I'm praying the same thing will happen in our church today.

What Specifically Was Going Wrong
James walked them through three problems:
Problem #1: The Disobedience to "the Royal Command" (2:14-17)
Going all the way back to 1:26-27, James had been saying that genuine religion will always be marked by those things that marked the life of Jesus and the character of God the Father – 1) staying away from worldliness (living God's way) and 2) caring for those in distress like orphans and widows. James' church people had drifted so far from this that they were not even welcoming the poor into the church. James said that a follower of Jesus becomes committed to all that God has commanded. And, James was especially concerned that his people were not even obeying the most basic part of God's command, what he called the royal command, "Love your neighbor as yourself."
He takes this up again in 2:15-16: Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?
So, I ask you the same question: "What good is that kind of faith?" In our day, I can imagine some people answering, "Well it may not help anybody else but at least that kind of faith gives me eternal life and saves me from hell." James says, "Don't be so sure." (In case you wonder, this is the very same thing Paul said in Gal. 5:19-21). That kind of faith doesn't make you alive. It's dead faith!
In saying this, James was passing on what his half-brother Jesus had said in his Sermon on the Mount: Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven... There will be many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord"... but I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you."
Here's the point: Genuine faith in Jesus always leads to our lives being shaped by him, by his teaching, and by his example. If we're not doing his will, then we need to examine whether we are genuinely living for him or still living for ourselves.

Problem #2: The callousness that says, "I believe the right things so I'm fine as I am (2:18-19)."
I want to be very clear about this: Believing the right things is essential to our Christian lives. If we do not know God's Word, we will find it difficult to know God because God's special revelation of himself is in Scripture. And, if we do not learn God's Word, we will not know how God would have us to live. His instructions for how he designed us to live are found in Scripture. And I want to give testimony to you that the godliest people I have ever met have all been people committed to learning about God and his world through God's Word. However, I also know many Bible scholars who have no commitment to obeying what is in the Word.
Listen to what James wrote in 2:19: You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. So, according to the Bible, faith that does not lead to works is not only dead faith. It is also devils' faith. "Lord, save Lake Avenue Church from devils' faith." I say this because it is in this area that I often have the greatest concern for the evangelical church in America. Many people seem to love to go to church to be "fed" – to learn about God. That is good. However, when we go to church and open the Bible, we must be ready to obey what it says – for it is God's Word. It is a thrilling – but also a dangerous – thing to open the Bible. In it we will discover the way our Maker created us to live. But, we also see that he commands us to live in keeping with his commands. Even devils can know about God. Satan quoted Scripture to Jesus in the temptations. But he was not a Christian.
Here's James' point: Simply knowing the truth is not what Jesus died to bring about in us. He wants us to be transformed by the truth. He wants to live like we are alive!

Problem #3: The failure to live courageous, faith-filled lives (2:20-26).
In vv. 20-26, James illustrated his point – as any good preacher does. He spoke of two examples of living faith that pleased God. I want you to notice how different these two people are: the first was the great Jewish patriarch and spiritual leader Abraham and the second was a Gentile prostitute named Rahab. Do you see what he is doing here? James is pointing out that God welcomes and blesses people of active faith regardless of their background or status. They surely would have realized that Abraham would have been welcomed in their churches but not Rahab. But, God honors both because of their faith.
I am personally encouraged by this. It means that there is hope for a church leader – like a Ministry council member, a missionary and even a Sr. Pastor – to be a person of genuine faith. And it also means that if you have a background of addiction, incarceration, or failure, you too can be welcomed and blessed by God. It starts when you place your faith in Jesus as your savior – and, as I've been saying, this leads to a whole new life of trusting God and living for God everyday.
Both Abraham and Rahab were asked by God to do very difficult things – and they obeyed. God used Abraham and Rahab to do great things. When you and I leave church today, we will also find that there are huge opportunities to give witness to Jesus, to come alongside the poor, to pray for the sick... Look at every encounter you have this week as a divine appointment – and every appointment as an opportunity to further the work of God. This is how God has made us to live – and to find our lives. Live like you are alive.

Pastor Greg's Challenges Based on Pastor James' Challenges
I think we need to continue to hear James' words just as much as James' parishioners did. So, let me ask you some questions based on his powerful words.
1. Are you alive to God? Have you turned from your sins and placed your faith in Jesus Christ as your savior? You may pray something like this (though using your own words), "God, I have sensed for a long time that you are real but I have never known you. Now, I realize that my sins have kept me from you. I confess those sins to you now and ask you to forgive them. I now receive the Lord Jesus Christ as my savior. Come into my life and make me alive to you today."

2. Maybe you are a Christian but something is amiss in your life. Are there areas of your thoughts, attitudes, words, or actions that you know are in disobedience to God's commands? Most of us know that there is often a disconnection between what we say we believe and how we live. Pastor Jeff Liou sent me an article from Psychology Today discussing this. It was entitled, Are We Living a Lie? In it, Dr. Ben Fletcher provides lots of everyday examples of what he calls "incoherence":
• Carol loves watching cooking programs but lives on fast food.
• Jim has renewed his wedding vows and is sleeping with his secretary.
• Kathy tries to park as close as possible to the gym where she is going to an exercise class.
Fletcher calls the gulf between the two aspects of the self, incoherence. When a person is incoherent, what he says he believes or wants is at odds with what he does. Fletcher says that we can only have internal harmony and honest relationships when find coherence.
I agree with him. But, I am convinced that the only thing that can bring coherence to your life is a life shaped and directed by following Jesus. Faith in Jesus accompanied by the gift of the Holy Spirit begins to bring our divided lives together. So, confess your sins to God, ask him to forgive you, and then ask him through His Spirit to give you power to live as he has made you to live. Let me assure you of this: If you repent of your sins, God is ready to forgive you and to start with you anew.

3. Are you open to doing anything God calls you to do or have you grown comfortable in the life you live? Remember Abraham and Rahab. God asked them to do very, very hard things – and they obeyed. When they did, they found that their lives with God truly came to life. People often complain that, if there is a God, why doesn't he do something about all the pain and injustice in the world. And God says, "I have. Among the many things I have done is that I have created you and have placed you in a church like LAC! I command you to carry the good news of my forgiveness and new life through faith in Jesus to the world. I command you to love your neighbor as yourself. God and minister to those in distress and you will know my presence, see my power through you, and experience my joy!"
It's good news, isn't it? God has created you and me to do good works. God has created you and me and has placed us together in the Lake Avenue Church in the San Gabriel Valley to further his kingdom in this area. So, I say: Live like you are alive to God – for you are.

You were once darkness – but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of the light!
Ephesians 5:8

To His glory,

Dr. Greg Waybright
Senior Pastor