Sunday Worship Service March 16, 2025

Prelude
Call to Worship Psalms 148:5
Hymn JBC # 513 Walking in sunlight, all of my journey
The Lord’s Prayer
Hymn JBC # 388 Lord, lay some soul upon my heart
Offering
Scripture James 1:12~18
Prayer
Sermon “Trials and Temptations”
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 552 Day by Day
Doxology JBC # 673
Benediction
Postlude

　Today’s Bible passage comes from the book of James, Chapter 1, in the New Testament. This book is a letter, written by a person called James.
　In the first verse of Chapter 1, he describes himself as “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ”.
　It is believed this is the same James who was one of Jesus Christ’s brothers. After Jesus’ death (and resurrection and ascension to Heaven), he took up a leadership role in the Jerusalem church.
　As Jesus’ brother, James would have grown up seeing Jesus as his human brother from a young age. He would also have seen with his own eyes when Jesus began his ministry at about the age of 30.

Even though Jesus was his brother in his earthly family, through Jesus’s words (teachings) and actions, as well as His death on the cross and resurrection, James came to believe that his own brother was in fact the Christ, the true Lord and Savior.
As Jesus’s brother James calls himself “a servant of Christ”, we can see that everyone is a servant before Jesus Christ,
This is because all of us, regardless of our birth (even those who were related by Jesus by blood), or our status, everyone is a “servant of Christ” through faith.
　We are servants of our Lord Jesus Christ. This means that our master and teacher is Jesus Christ alone. Under Christ, all of us are servants of the Lord.
We are all people who serve the Lord as servants. And serving the Lord also means that we are also serving each other.
　If we put what Jesus commanded us to do in simple terms, it would be to love each other, and to support (serve) each other.
　We may have been asked questions like “Are there any commandments in Christianity?”, or “Are there any things you cannot eat or drink?”
　For Christians, there is no specific food that is prohibited, nor is it prohibited to drink alcohol.
　In Judaism (in the Old Testament), the religion out of which grew Christianity, there were detailed rules over what could and could not be eaten (clean and unclean food).
However ever since Jesus Christ became a man and offered himself as atone for the sins of all mankind, He made everything new again.

Jesus said:
　11 What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.” (Mark 15:11)

Jesus taught that it is not a question of what we eat, but what comes out of our mouths, meaning what thoughts come from our hearts as words.
This shows the importance of not hurting others with our words, but using our words to show love and consideration for others.
　Then, if we really try to live out the principle of Jesus’ commandment that is, “to love others and support each other”, I think we see just how difficult and challenging this teaching is.
　　How can we really follow Jesus’ teaching?
　To follow Jesus’ teaching, we need to know the heart of our heavenly Father through Jesus, and believe and trust in God.
　We need to know who God is, and know the gifts he has for us.
　What we can fully trust in through Jesus is that the Lord God gives us good things, the best things.
　In verse 17 of today’s passage it says “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights,”.
　Sometimes we are not always happy with what God has given us, and may even feel we are suffering. These are times when we are given trials.
　We go through many trials in life. We are faced with difficult times, times of suffering and times of sadness.
　To know whether these trials are truly given to us by God, we need to prayerfully use discernment.

　　But today’s passage says “Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial”. If it is a trial sent us by God, this passage says it is good for us to persevere through the trial.
　Verse 12 says “having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love Him”.
　One of the points made by this passage is that to persevere through trials is linked to loving God.
　　Going through trials is difficult, but they also help us to understand how other people feel when they are going through the same kind of trials and suffering.
　I think some of us here must also have experience with this, where we wouldn’t know the feeling if we hadn’t also experienced a similar trial.
　One such example is suffering from illness. Suffering from illness is a tough experience, however, when we lose our good health and fall in, we come to appreciate the value of having good health.
　In becoming sick, we also come to understand the feelings of others around us who are suffering from illness.
　If we were always healthy, it would just be normal, and we may not even be thankful to God for that.
　But when we temporarily lose our health and come to know the value of regularly having good health, we truly appreciate being healthy, and give thanks to God who gives us that good health.
If we experience these trials and persevere through them, coming to be thankful to God and see the good gifts He has given us, then we see the truth that ““Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial”.

　　Let us keep believing that when we face trials given to us by God, through those trials we will learn perseverance and come to have love and trust in God.

Let’s look again at verses 13 to 15.
13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

God would never tempt us into evil. According to this passage, if we find ourselves being tempted towards evil, it is our own desires giving birth to sin.
Through trials, God helps us to grow into people who love God and love others. This God would never tempt us towards evil.
If we are being led towards evil, being drawn towards a path of sin and death, that is because of our own desires within us, that is to say, it is we ourselves that are responsible.
Jesus’ teaching and the teaching of the Bible are very strict on this point. This isn’t about upholding a commandment on the surface, such as what not to eat or what not to drink.
Whether or not we persevere through trials, overcome temptation, and become people who love God and love others is important for our salvation.
And the Bible tells us that this salvation is given to us through Jesus Christ.

Verse 18 says this:
18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

　　The “word of truth” is the Word of Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ himself.
This means that through the Word of Jesus Christ, our heavenly father makes us anew.
Each day, God is making us anew through the Word of Christ.
　　When we believe in the Word of Lord above all else, believe in Jesus Christ who is the Word and follow Christ, we are transformed from our old sinful natures into people who are forgiven of our sins with pure love.
　The second half of verse 18 says “that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created”.
　Firstfruits are offerings made to God of the best one has to offer. This passage shows the ultimate purpose we have for living.
　We are made new through the Jesus Christ who is the Word of our Lord God.
We are forgiven of our sins, and are transformed into people who love God and love one another. In this way, we give ourselves as an offering to God and to others.
　Those who truly know God’s love do not live for themselves or for their own gain, but come to live their lives for God and for others. They live their lives as an offering.
　This is not something that can ever be achieved through our own human strength or effort.
The One who is truly God became a man, and suffered through the most painful trial on the cross. Through this act, we are able to know Christ’s love, and to be transformed ourselves through this love into people with love within us.

We receive the love of Christ who suffered in our place, and are transformed into people who persevere through trials, love God, love others, serve God and serve others.
Jesus went to the cross for us so that we could become people with love within us. We are now in the time of Lent, when we remember that road of suffering Jesus took.
Let us now reflect on the burden Jesus bore and the path of suffering he walked.
And shall we not also today offer up our heartfelt gratitude and repentance for all that Jesus has taught us and the love He has given us?