STUDY THEME: TRANSFORMED ATTITUDES. 1-06-02

"INACTION TO ACTION." Acts 6: 1-4; James 1:22-27, 2:14-18.

Acts 6: 1, 2-4; James 1:22-25, 26-27, 2:14-18.

PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO ACTS 6.

Is Christian a noun or a verb? In other words, is Christian something we are or something we do? The question is answered both ways in the N.T. The texts from this week’ lesson focus on the second answer for they call Christians to act in accordance with who they claim to be.

We begin today an eight-session study theme that focuses on the power of Jesus to transform the attitudes and behavior of believers. In the next eight weeks we will explore Bible passages that relate to specific changes. The lesson titles will present a negative attitude and the positive attitude to which it is changed. William James wrote, "The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their attitudes of mind." This Study theme is designed to help us demonstrate our faith by right actions.

We Christians believe that becoming a disciple of Jesus, God’s Son, is a life changing experience. Our new relationship to Jesus should have implications and relevance for all of life. Although some believers try to compartmentalize their lives, keeping the spiritual area totally separate from the rest of life, this series of lessons will remind us that discipleship affects even thing we say and do. Authentic discipleship involves transformed attitudes. Webster defines "attitude" as a manner that shows one’s disposition. A maturing Christian will experience many transformed attitudes. The way we look at our finances, our entertainment options, our family members, and other ethnic groups, for example, should we be impacted by our relationship to Jesus. Our attitudes and actions should be distinctively Christian, and, at times, a Christian will be out of step with cultural values, or be politically incorrect.

During the early days in the Jerusalem church, the church grew in numbers. The figure could have reached over 20,000 men and women. The best problems for a church are "growing pains." Such problems, however, can be deadly if they are not dealt with in the right way. A growing church brings in more people and usually more diverse groups of people. For example this church found the problem arose over the distributing of the food to those who were suffering. The problem erupted between the Hellenistic Jews (Greek speaking), and the native (Aramaic speaking) Hebrew Jews who had become Christians. Thus there were differences in language and culture between these two groups.

Widows were dependent on others for help in ancient society. The Old Testament has many passages devoted to the need for the people of God to care for the widows among them. The Jewish believers continued this practice in the early church. The Jerusalem church had set out to try to see that everyone in need was helped. The widows were of special concern because they often had real needs. Thus the church had committed itself to distribute food (or money) to them. This was the daily distribution over which the problem arose.

Greek-speaking church members murmured against the Aramaic-speaking members. Actually, the complaint was against those in charge of distributing the food. The complaint was that the Greek-speaking widows were being neglected in the daily ministration. Neglected means "being overlooked." Apparently they were not being deliberately shunned: they simply were being overlooked. Apparently the complaint had some basis in fact. It was not just someone grumbling about something unimportant. There is no indication that this oversight was deliberate. Food was important. Fairness in distributing it was essential. Wise church leadership listened to the complaints and took action.

Let’s see what action was taken to correct this problem.

The twelve here refers to the apostles. Disciples in this passage refers to the believers, who were not called until Acts11:26, in Antioch in Syria. The disciples were also called brethren. The apostles had been in charge of the sharing of material possessions in Acts 4:37. They may have turned the duty over to others, but the others were probably Aramaic-speaking believers like the apostles themselves.

The apostles wisely did not allow the situation to continue once-it-was brought to their attention. (l.) They did not ignore the problem, (2.) They did not resent the problem. (3.) They did not over-react to the problem. (4.) They faced the problem by delegating the responsibility to responsible people.

They called together all of the disciples. The apostles began by saying that it was not right for them to leave the word of God, and serve tables. Prayer and the ministry of the Word define the highest priorities of church leaders. They were responsible for seeing the distribution was made, but they felt they were not the ones to do it. Serve tables probably refereed to tables on which the food was laid. However, some bible-students think it referred to distribution of money, which the widows in turn used to buy food.

The apostles suggested that the church members select from among them seven men, whom the apostles would appoint to this duty. This action then would free the twelve to concentrate on prayer and the ministry of the word.

The qualifications of the seven men are spelled out in Vs. 3. They were to be men of good reputation. They were to be full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom. Thus they were to be men who had he divine insight that comes when God’s Spirit is in control of their lives. Were these the first deacons? Many people believe they were. The noun deacon is not used but the verb "wait-on" from which it comes is found in Vs. 3. The names of the seven are given in Vs. 5. All had Greek names. This may not mean that they all were Greek-speaking disciples, but they were the choice of the church.

Several lessons can be learned from Acts 6: 1-4, but this study focuses on taking timely action instead of doing nothing to resolve a potential problem.

PLEASE TURN NOW TO JAMES 1.

The Epistle of James is a practical letter. While Martin Luther called James an "Epistle of straw," the truth is that if you read this letter carefully, you’ll find it remarkably close to the spirit, as well as the actual words of his half brother Jesus. For example, you’’ find no fewer than twenty three references to, or quotations from the Sermon on the Mount. More importantly, the major theme of the book ties in quite closely with Jesus’ own warning in Matt. 7:22: "Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord," shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven."

The Hebrews ha such reverence for the Torah or Law hat they felt that just hearing it was a blessing. Yet the Hebrew word for hear is the same word for obey. Jesus surely stressed the priority of doing as well as hearing. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount in Matt. 7:24-27, He told the parable of the man who built his house on the rock and the man who built his house on the sand. James said that people who hear the Word without doing the Word deceive themselves. They are like the man whose house was built on the sand. They think they are secure, but they are only deceiving themselves. There is a difference between reading a menu and eating a meal! There is a difference between reading the Bible and growing in grace! How easy it is to be deceived is the issue.

James uses an analogy to contrast hearing with hearing and doing. He said that the former group are like a man who looks at his face in the mirror; "for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was." "The mirror is the key for understanding this section of James. In the ancient world the mirror, a specially shaped piece of polished metal was used to inspect or decorate one’s body. It is a metaphor for moral development. Thus the mirror here probably stands for the moral and spiritual aspects of life.

One who looks in a literal mirror sees only his face. One who looks in the mirror of the Word of God sees his moral and spiritual life. Unlike any natural mirror, God’s Word shows what we are in sin; and it also shows what we can be in righteousness. The problem is that we so soon forget what we saw and never act on what we beheld. This is in contrast to the person who looks into the perfect law of liberty, and continues therein. This kind of person is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the word.

The key word to the wrong kind of hearing is forgetting; the keyword to the right kind of hearing is continues. The wrong kind of hearers forget what they have heard; the right kind of hearers remember and continue to allow the word to direct their actions.

What is the perfect law of liberty in Vs, 25? It seems to refer to the same thing as the word; God’s Word is the perfect law. James obviously was influencd by the teaching of Jesus. The gospel is not only a gift but also a demand. "The "good news" of salvation brings with it an unavoidable demand to complete obedience. Ultimately it will make perfect those who keep it in Christ.

How does this apply to you and to me? First of all, it means that we must do everything possible to hear the Word of God. This involves personal reading and study. It includes studying with others. It emphasizes hearing the Word proclaimed. The Word of God is like a measuring stick for our lives. When we dare to expose ourselves to it God is able to show us how we fail to meet His standards. If we truly have heard the Word, then we will live according to its teachings. This is one reason that we never graduate from Sunday School. During all our lives we need to see ourselves as God sees us and to make changes with His help.

To many people one of the dullest words in the English language is the word ‘religion’. It seems to speak of dull, dreary discipline, a morbid mixture of what J.B. Phillips calls ‘rites and robes, bells and smells’. And when these people read Paul’s testimony that as a Pharisee he had lived ‘according to the strictest party of our religion’, their worst impressions seem to be confirmed.

These two closing verses of the first chapter of the Epistle of James deal with the subject of religion, and in them James, down to earth as ever, shows the difference between the caricature of religion which some people hold and the true expression of living faith in God. In other words these verses tell us something about false religion and something about true religion.

In Vs. 22-25 James was dealing with what we might call the foundation of the Christian’s life—the need to come to the Word of God and to trust and obey the Christ who is revealed there. In the first place false religion is lacking reality. The picture here is of something that on the surface seems to be fine. It has the right name, the right shape, the right general appearance, but once you begin to examine it closely, you discover that that is all there is to it. It is lacking in reality. How penetratingly the Bible exposes that sort of thing! In 2 Timothy 3:5 Paul speaks of men ‘having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof’ and the Lord ‘s piercing analysis of the Church in Sardis in Rev. 3:1 was ‘…you have the name of being alive and you are dead!’ A form! A name! But nothing more.

James says that in the matter of a man’s walk with God, ‘superficial activity that is marked in the ways we have noticed it this verse is "vain", it can have no results. Void of benefit and blessing. Let us underline it in two ways: The man himself will get nothing from that kind of religion. There may be a lot of activity in it, but no advance, and there is a great deal of difference between the two.

It means nothing to God. To put it bluntly, that sort of thing cuts no ice as far as God is concerned. To the One who searches our hearts, superficial religious observance is a vanity. The Bible has a devastating indictment of this kind of thing. In Isaiah 1:10-15 we read "Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom! Give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah! What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? Says the Lord; I have had enough of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of he-goats. When you come to appear before me, who requires of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and sabbath and the calling of assemblies—I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me, I am weary of hearing them. When you spread forth your hands, I will hid my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood."

All of our outward religion and service that is merely superficial, anything that is characterized by self-interest or pride or a critical spirit; all of this is nothing more in God’s sight than what the Apostle Paul in 2 Cor. 3:12 calls "wood, hay, stubble’. It is condemned by God in the here and now and will be consumed by the fire in the there and then.

James says that true religion will show itself in the kind of situation by the Christians identifying himself with people’s need, and doing so in terms of practical helpfulness. When James uses the term "and to keep himself unspotted from the world" he is not saying that a Christian does not need God’s help in order to live a godly life. He is not suggesting that while salvation is entirely a work of God’s grace, sanctification is entirely a matter of man’s effort.

An inquirer sometimes says that he hesitates about becoming a Christian because he could not ‘keep it up’. He has a high opinion of the moral demands of Christianity, and an acute sense of his own inability to measure up to them. When a person says this to me, I always hasten to agree with him! No Christian can ‘keep it up’ on his own. He has moral responsibilities of course, which only he can fulfill, but this needs to be balanced by the truth that a Christian is ‘…kept by the power of God". It is all God’s work, and yet it is entirely our responsibility. The Apostle Peter says in 2 Peter 1:10 "…brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure’. James burden is that the Christian should do all in his power to "keep himself unspotted from the world."

What is worldliness? I is not so much a way of life as an attitude to all the circumstances and "things" that go to make up life. It is the attitude that puts ‘the things on the earth’ before the ‘things which are above. The New Bible Dictionary says: "Worldliness is the enthronement of something other than God as the supreme object of man’s interests and affections; and that is really the acid test of one’s religion.

PLEASE TURN TO JAMES 2

In these next verses from James 2 he continues his series of tests by which his readers can evaluate whether their faith is living or dead.

Apparently James was dealing with people whose religion was more of something they claimed to have than something real and transforming. In Vs. 14 James asked two questions: "What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? James does not say that the person has faith, but that he claims to have faith. James was akssing wheher that kind of faith, the kind without works, could save anyone. He was not denying that faith does save.

James was dealing with people who professed to believe in God but whose faith was only an intellectual belief. Just believing in God’s existence is not real faith. One evidence of this is that such faith does not produce good works.

Vs. 15-16 give an example of a failure to practice good works. James pictured a brother or sister who was naked, and destitute of daily food. A fellow Christian sees this needy brother or sister and only says, "depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled." Or, as he NEB reads: "Good luck to you, keep yourself warm and have plenty to eat" These words were probably spoken with a well meaning smile. But the problem was just that: The words were just words.

Perhaps the statement in Vs. 18 could be paraphrased, "You theologians can debate about faith and works all you desire. Some folks are doers, and some are believes. We are all trying to get to the same place." But faith and works cannot exist separately. In every Christian they are as inseparable as the spirit and the body. We love to quote Eph. 2:8-9 "For by grace are you save through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works lest any man should boast."

Yet we seldom continue to Vs. 10 "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained hat we should walk in them." Only Christian deeds show real faith. Faith is an inward attitude toward God; without Christian deeds, it remains invisible. Faith never stands alone without works that demonstrate it. God saves by faith only, but faith never is alone.

NEXT SUNDAY FROM ACTS 9 WE FIND THAT KNOWING JESUS AS SAVIOR AND LORD CHANGES A PERSON FROM GOD’S ENEMY TO GOD’S SERVANT.

A.V. DAUGHERTY 1-6-2002