"Rich Man - Poor Man"
James 1:9-12
OPEN: So we are continuing our journey through the book of James and one of the things we've noted right from the beginning is that James is a man who thinks in a way that is vastly different from the norms we run into in normal society. (whatever that is) If you're really honest, don't you wonder about this guy James? In the first couple of verses of his letter, he tells us, "Consider it pure joy when you encounter all kinds of trials!" Rejoicing and trials don't go together well in anybody's book. I rejoice over good things, I moan and complain about trials and problems. And now he's telling us that poor people should be happy and rich people should be unhappy. What is it with this guy? Why does he want us to be miserable when things are good, and happy when things are bad?
James is a man whose life has been radically changed by Jesus. Now we remember of course that James is the half-brother of our Lord Jesus. It would have been interesting to know how these two related to one another in the home as they were growing up, wouldn't it? I mean how do you deal with sibling rivalry when your brother is Jesus? (How do you argue with Jesus when he says he wants the top bunk?) I don't know what it was like between the two of them as they were growing up but what I do know is that someplace along the line James saw Jesus for who is truly is - the Lamb of God who came to earth to take away the sins of man. More than that he saw and recognized him as Lord and Master because he introduces himself as a slave of the Lord Jesus. His whole world was dramatically affected - his future hopes and dreams -- his values -- his desires -- his activities -- the way he spent his money, energy and resources. Everything changed because of his commitment to Jesus Christ. So when James teaches, his teachings are radically different than what is normal and common in our culture. He acts radically different because he thinks radically different. He acts biblically because he thinks biblically.
I think that to some large degree we fail to realize how much worldly thinking has really impacted our lives. We've grown up and lived in a culture where the values and morals and the methodologies are so vastly different than what God wants us to experience. How can we escape it? We can't A large part of our walk as Christians is dealing with ongoing struggle with the way the world wants us to think and act and the way that God wants us to think and act.
- So James starts out in this book but challenging us to think radically different regarding the problems and trails we face in this life. Learn how to profit from your problems. To do that you have to realize that every situation you face -- God is involved. More than that, He has arranged the problems in your life and my life to test us.
God's Objective For His Tests (our trails) Are Good
God's intentions for His tests are good. Some of the hardest questions a person will ever have to answer is "Why do bad things happen to good people?" and "Why do good things happen to bad people?" Don't think that we're the first ones to come up with that question. It's probably as old as the fall. We know that the psalmist asked the question. That's what the 73rd Psalm is about. In verses 3-5 he wrote, "For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong. They are free from the burdens common to man; they are not plagued by human ills." The struggle over why the wicked prosper and the righteous struggle is as old as life itself. The Psalmist has a struggle here -- "I know a wicked person when I see one -- I'm poor -- their rich -- they are wicked -- yet they're free from many of the struggles I have to face every day - and they're arrogant about it. -- and what's worse I find in my heart I envy them. Even though I don't like the way the act about their wealth -- I kind of wish I could be one of them. This doesn't seem to make sense!" What God is doing isn't always apparent to us - but His purpose is for our good.
Let me show you what I mean -- Turn to John chapter Nine:
As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life." (John 9:1-3) His disciples asked Him saying, "Master, who sinned? This man or his parents that he was born blind?" You say what kind of question is that? You mean they assumed that whenever there was suffering or whenever there was illness, whenever there was a problem somebody's sin made it happen? That's exactly what they thought. The rabbis taught that all suffering was directly attributed to acts of sin either by the individual or by his parents. And so the disciples' question is a question that dominated Jewish thought. And whenever anybody got sick, whenever anyone was going through a trail -- whenever there was a problem, it was automatically associated with sin. And the disciples must be thinking this, listen, "If his parents sinned, what a dirty trick. He had nothing to do with it and look what happens to him." As if to say, "Lord, if his parents sinned and He got this as a result of his parents sin, that's not really fair, poor fellow." On the other hand, if it was his sin that did it, how come he was born blind? You know how the Jews answered that? The Jews had a doctrine of prenatal sin. Try that one on for size. They had a doctrine of prenatal sin. They believed that a child could sin in the womb and then pay the penalty all its life for prenatal sin. You say, "Where did they get that?" They just made it up, because it fitted the logic of their religious thinking. If you're going to have sin be the cause of disease, and it perhaps wasn't the parent's sin if you've got a pair of godly, godly parents, what else are you going to say except this?
Jesus told them that this man had been blind from the time of his birth for a reason. He had to endure the tests of a physical handicap his entire life for one reason--to glorify God. All suffering is not a result of sin necessarily. "But this man is blind that the works of God should - what? So that the work of God might be displayed in his life." He's not blind because of sin,
this man is a prepared vessel, he is a miracle waiting to happen.
Kind of exciting, isn't it? He was born blind for one reason, so God's glory could be seen in this healing by Jesus Christ. That's why He was born blind...for the glory of God...sometimes this is why suffering comes. You know, Job's friends tried to tell him that the reason he was having such problems was because he was such a lousy person, such a sinner. And Job couldn't figure it out. But it was all for God's glory...sin had nothing to do with it and doesn't here. Affliction can be for the glory of God. All these things can happen for the glory of God and this was a prepared vessel, a miracle waiting to happen. This was a blind beggar sitting at a gate waiting for the time planned in eternity past that Jesus would pass by and manifest His glory by touching his eyes so he could see. His problem has a purpose.
God intended good for the tests and trials of that man's life. Just like He intends good for all the tests and trials of your life. So, understanding that God's intentions for His tests are good. So someone might say -- "Wait a moment here -- you're telling me this guy had to endure all the agonies of being born blind just so God might be able to bring glory to himself? Really? You're telling me that's fair? To have to go through that kind of suffering for a lifetime? He has to live a beggar's life in abject poverty -- so that God can be glorified?"
Hang on, let's see what happens in the rest of the story - the religious establishment was all in a flurry over this healing. It occurred on a Sabbath- they were unwilling to accept the facts as they stood and realize that Jesus had performed a miracle. The question the man --the question the man's parents -- they question the man again. All he can say is, "Hey all I know is I was blind -- and now I see -- and in between those two realities is Jesus. What else can I say?" So they through him out of their church. (drop down to verse 35)
Now look what happens: Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" "Who is he, sir?" the man asked. "Tell me so that I may believe in him." Jesus said, "You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you." Then the man said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped him. (John 9:35-38) Jesus did more than open the man's eyes -- he gave light to his soul. He rewarded him with eternity. Jesus was the light of the soul. He's the only one that can turn the soul's lights on. You know, this world is occupied by people with sightless souls, black souls who see nothing. And all of a sudden, Jesus Christ reaches in there and gives him eternity. Now you tell me, if we had the ability to interview this man this morning in our worship service what he would say about the problems he faced while on earth. Having experienced the breathless glory of the throne of grace -- do you think it would even be imaginable that he would commiserate over the trails of his earthly life? You tell me who is rich and who is poor. The ones back at the temple who are rich in all their own knowledge but blind to the reality of the gift of grace? or the one whose eyes are opened - not just physically but spiritually?
Jesus Is Always Doing More Than We Think In the Trails We Encounter.
In every trail and problem that we face Jesus is always doing more than we think. There is more going on than what meets the eye. (pun intended in connection with this parable) The struggle we have with finding joy in the midst of our problems is that we can't see from our angle what God is actually doing through the trails we face. We suffer from spiritual myopia. If your eyes are myoptic -- distant objects appear blurred. See -- that's the problem the natural man has. He sees only on a physical plain. He's unable to take the distant view. He interprets life through the tunnel vision of his own narrow understanding. So his problems are always overwhelming. He's always struggling with discouragement and depression and anxiety -- because his life is about the immediate. His resources are limited to what he can see from his personal point of view.
So James says, The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position. But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, because he will pass away like a wild flower. (James 1:9-10)
Now remember this verse in the midst of James teaching us about how to properly understand the problems, trails, & difficulties we encounter in this life. Now here, James wants to put that into the context of responding to our money problems. Notice he has just said, "if anyone lacks wisdom -- he should ask God" People struggled with financial issues in those days just the same as we do today. James dives right into the topic of money because there's a fundamental connection between our spiritual lives and how we think about and handle money. We may try to divorce our faith and our finances, but God sees them as inseparable. KJV says Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted: The word translated "humble circumstances" or "low degree" in the KJV is tapeinos -- poor. Let the poor people rejoice.
So there are two different groups of people in these verses. Each group has its own problems -- they face their own temptations.
Temptations common to being poor: jealousy, envy, coveting, discouragement, anger, addictions. Temptations common to being wealthy: pride, conceit, apathy, lack of prayer & commitment, greed, addictions.
So one group is the poor -- What's their problem? They're poor. And their poverty is robbing them of their joy. James says to the poor in Christ -- if you are poor you ought to rejoice. Rejoice in what? Rejoice in what Christ has purchased for you. NIV says take pride in your high position. James is saying, "You may be hungry, but you have the bread of life. You may be thirsty, but you have the water of life. You may be poor but you have eternal riches. You may be cast aside by men but you have been received by God. You may have no home here but you have a glorious home in the life to come. So he says you poor folks rejoice that you have received divine attention and that your trials are making you perfect and that is to exalt you in the spiritual dimension. The test for the poor is to live in the joy of their salvation - treasuring their relationship with Christ far above the pain of their poverty. There can be something fortunate about suffering misfortune. There can be something very rich about being poor. You can rejoice in want -- because God is bringing you to a future glory. You will have a full inheritance -- given to all the saints that love God. The pain of poverty is short lived trail -- it doesn't last very long.
Then there is the second group of people in these verses -- the rich. We don't normally think of wealth as testing do we? God can test us with prosperity. Now you might think, "Boy, let me get in line for that one. That's the one I want to volunteer for." But is it? You can define prosperity a lot of different ways, but the one that comes to mind first is by money - big money.
Ill - I went on line and goggled the question, "What happens to people who hit the lottery?" I found an article that tracked 8 different lottery winners. Listen to their stories: Evelyn Adams won the New Jersey lottery--not just once, but twice, in 1985 and 1986. She went from average middle-class to multi-millionaire overnight -- winning a total of 5.4 million dollars. Today she's lost it all, she's in debt up to her eyeballs and lives in a trailer. Bud Post won 16.2 million dollars in the Pennsylvania lottery in 1988. Now he lives on food stamps and social security. Post even spent time in jail for firing a gun over the head of a bill collector. Within a year, he was $1 million in debt. Suzanne Mullins won $4.2 million in the Virginia lottery in 1993. She borrowed a huge amount of money which she agreed to pay back with her yearly checks from the Virginia lottery through 2006. When the rules changed allowing her to collect her winnings in a lump sum, she cashed in the remaining amount. But she stopped making payments on the loan and presently has no assets. Ken Proxmire was a machinist when he won $1 million in the Michigan lottery. He moved to California and went into the car business with his brothers. Within five years, he had filed for bankruptcy. Willie Hurt of Lansing, Mich., won $3.1 million in 1989. Two years later he was broke and charged with murder. His lawyer says Hurt spent his fortune on a divorce and crack cocaine. Missourian Janite Lee won $18 million in 1993. Lee was generous to a variety of causes, giving to politics, education and the community. But according to published reports, eight years after winning, Lee had filed for bankruptcy with only $700 left in two bank accounts and no cash on hand. The article goes on to talk about others -- but each one of them failed the test of prosperity. They "hit the big one" and think they've arrived only to find out that worldly wealth didn't bring them the joy they thought it would. Money is one of the most seductive idols of our time, and the desire for it leads millions to believe that they are fortunate if they have it and unfortunate if they don't. That is a false perception that can ruin your life if you aren't careful.
James says to the wealthy brother - you might miss some of the trails that are related to being poor -- any it might seem to some that you have it all going on and you've got it all in place -- but don't try to find joy or sufficiency in riches or wealth but in your low position -- in other words -- in your humble with the King. the humble person rejoices in the provision of God. And the wealthy person rejoices in the provision of God the same way. The person who has nothing rejoices in what God provides. The person who has everything and realizes it can't buy what he needs, also rejoices in what God has provided.
Salvation calls for a radically different view of people. Just to set the record straight, let me give you a very short biblical primer on wealth and Christian. Sometimes cultural values are carried into the church and that begins to affect how a church operates -- so we occasionally need to set the record straight
Money Does Not Equal Personal Worth.
That is a continuous, consistent, counter culture message of the Word of God. James had to address it in AD 46 because it was already a challenge way back in the early days of the church. You had many believers who were poor when they accepted Christ, and stayed that way the rest of their time on earth. James knew their temptation was a temptation to look upon those with money with jealousy, or envy. A temptation to look upon those with money, and measure their personal worth accordingly, in comparison. So to those poor brothers, he tells them to rejoice in their high position. Jesus said it to the church in Smyrna, "I know your afflictions and your poverty, yet you are rich!" Paul says in Ephesians 1:18, "I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints." Money does not equal personal worth. James knew that was also true for the rich. He reminds them to be humble in their state because they should realize it is all temporary and insignificant from the perspective of eternity.
Money Does Not Equal Security
He gives a warning to the wealthy. For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich man will fade away even while he goes about his business. The contrast here is not so much rich against the poor - as much as it is the perishable with the imperishable. To live to accumulate the world's junk and to strive after the world's acclaim is futile. When it rains, the hillsides around Palestine would bloom flowers almost overnight. Then the scorching heat would come and burn away the flowers to the point that you couldn't even tell they had been there. The Middle East is especially known for these scorching winds, known as the sirocco, that are like a convection oven. It can blow day and night for three or four days straight. With little water in the summer, and blistering heat all day long the flowers are baked and destroyed by these natural, weather elements. All the grass and blooms that came up during the cool of the spring, within days can be killed off by the incredible heat and wind.
The point is that we cannot place eternal significance on that which is temporal. Material wealth does not last. We cannot depend on it to secure eternal blessing. We will die one day and our wealth will be gone. We cannot depend on that which we cannot take beyond the grave. ILL: There was a man who loved money more than anything. He worked all his life and hoarded as much as he could. Just before he died, he told his wife, "When I die, put all my money in the casket with me. I want to take my money to the afterlife with me." She promised him that she would. At his funeral, just before the undertakers closed the casket, his wife put a box in the casket. The casket was closed and rolled away. The wife's friend said, "I know you didn't put all that money in there with that man. You weren't foolish enough to do that." The wife said, "I promised him I would put the money in the casket." "You mean to tell me you put that money in the casket with him?" her friend asked. "Yes" she said, I wrote him a check."
The trial that rich people go through is that they, we, tend to believe ourselves to be self-sufficient. We tend to trust in ourselves so much that we can't bring ourselves to trust in God. Most of us think, "This applies to Donald Trump, Bill Gates, and those type of guys." But by the world's standards, most of us qualify as "rich." Many of us own our own homes. We have computers, TV's, and dozens of other gadgets to make life more comfortable. Most families own more than one car. Our closets are bulging with so many clothes that it takes us a while to decide what we want to wear each day. Much of the rest of the world lives in crowded shacks with no indoor plumbing or electricity, and no clothes except those on their backs. We live better than the kings of years gone by. Caesar couldn't have contacted anyone in the world on a moment's notice. King Solomon didn't have access to 1/10 of the knowledge we have at our fingertips. In the scope of world history, we are among the wealthiest 1%, the elite of history. You see when your hands and pockets and garages and basements and safety deposit boxes are full, it is difficult to say "Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to the cross I cling."
Money Does Not Equal Power or Advantage
One of the mistakes churches often make is to place wealthy people in positions of leadership in their church. The thinking goes something like this: "If they are successful in the world they've obviously got leadership qualities about them. So let's put that to work in the local congregation." Well they might be great spiritual leaders or they may not -- but the way to go about determining that is not the size of the checking account. Ill of wealthy business owner during a workday at church. (one of the primary leaders in that church) He watched a person drop a hamburger wrapper in our parking lot. They guy came over to us to talk and he chastised him to the point that he drove him away. Then he turned to me and said, "we don't need his kind around here anyway." "Really? That's just the kind of people we need around here! Do we only want people like you?" I've checked the qualifications for leadership in Timothy and Titus and being wealthy and successful in the world isn't listed there. Because a person has money or wealth is not what we look at. The standard view during James' day was that spiritual blessing was indicated by material standing. The poor were ignored or punished by God and deserved no special courtesy. "Hey, if you are in that state, it is because you have done something against God, so who am I to interfere with God's punishment." Remember, that was the argument Job had to listen to from his so called friends. The wealthy were blessed by God and should be shown favor. (see James 2:1-4) God sees all of us the same. As a parent with several children, you do not love one child more then the other, you may love them in different ways. But the love is the same for all your children.
So James closes up this section by reminding us to focus on that which really matters. Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. Being poor and being rich have their own type of trials that go along with those circumstances. Being healthy or ill has its own type of trails that go along with those circumstances. Being married or single -- being young or old -- being employed or out of work -- having children that do the right thing or having kids that go off on a tangent -- being a marriage that is wonderful or living in a difficult relationship -- blessed is the person who perseveres (hupomone) - because when he has stood the test -- note the word test -- that which God is using to perfect us -- there is reward. Not just life -- but the crown of life -- the stephanos -- the victor's wreath. Ill - -of Boston Marathon -- winner immediately gets a wreath to wear indicating his victory. No one receives the crown until the race is over. -- Run with endurance.
Real Wealth is a Matter of Understanding Sufficiency in Christ
Paul writes in II Corinthians 8:9 "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich." Jesus Christ died to provide you with that crown -- so that you might enjoy the richness of being a member of his family. He's provided real eternal wealth. You won't find real wealth in the green of our currency but in than the true gold of our eternal inheritance. Your fortune is not determined by your checking account balance, or the trade in value of your car, or the equity of your property, or the size of your portfolio -- but in Christ, your great matchless priceless treasure -- who became poor so that you might share in his richness.
