STIRRINGS AT BETHESDA A Monthly Publication of Bethesda Baptist Church May 31, 2016 Church Picnic! The annual Bethesda Baptist Church Picnic begins at high noon on Saturday, June 18th at our church. The church will provide the meat as well as lemonade. Families are asked to bring a side dish or a dessert and, if you don’t want lemonade, something to drink. Come out and join us for some good Christian fellowship! Bethesda Church Picnic Saturday, June 18 Noon BUSINESS MEETING Wednesday, June 8th 7 p.m. HAPPY BIRTHDAY… ! Happy Birthday to the following Bethesda family members: * Ken Romans on the 13th * Samuel Bounds on the 16th * Austin Wildgrube on the 26th HAPPY ANNIVERSARY… ! and Happy Anniversary to: * Dennis & Pam DePriest on the 7th * Jeff & Alicia Mueller on the 12th The Book of James Having completed our exposition of Paul’s letter to the Romans, beginning this Sunday we turn our attention to what is likely the oldest of the New Testament books: James. Come and hear the Word of God this Sunday! The Luther Monthly Martin Luther was very much a theologian. He lived and breathed theology and loved teaching, preaching, discussing, and arguing the doctrines of the faith. His love of theology is one of the reasons he adored the Gospel of John, the Epistle to the Romans, and Paul’s letter to the Galatians. However, concerning the less theological and more practical book of James (which we begin this Sunday), here is what the good doctor had to say: “In fine, Saint John’s Gospel and his first epistle, Saint Paul’s epistles, especially those to the Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, and Saint Peter’s first epistle,--these are the books which show thee Christ, and teach thee everything that is needful and blessed for thee to know even though thou never see or hear any other book or doctrine. Therefore is Saint James’s epistle a right strawy epistle in comparison with them, for it has no gospel character to it.” As far as I know, Luther never denied that James was inspired by God. Actually, on my bookshelves are some of Luther’s sermons. One that he preached and was first printed in 1536 is on James 1:16-21. I do not believe Luther would have used this text for any sermon if he did not believe it was the Word of God. In the above quote Luther says “in comparison with them” which I believe supports that opinion. His problem with James was likely two-fold. First, as I have already mentioned, James does not contain a great deal of teaching on the doctrines of the faith which Luther thoroughly enjoyed. That doesn’t mean there is an absence of theology in the book, rather, there are simply no extended discussions on the person of Christ, justification by grace through faith, or other doctrines. A second problem I believe Luther had with James is the fact that his Roman Catholic opponents misused James chapter 2 in their attempt to defend justification by works. For Roman Catholics, Luther’s idea that one could be saved on the basis of his faith in Christ alone was heresy. They read James 2 to imply that salvation required the performance of good deeds (e.g., baptism, observing the mass, confession, penance, etc.). James chapter 2, as we will see, is not at odds with Romans chapter 3. James is not teaching a salvation requiring works. The Roman Catholics are wrong in their understanding of the text and Luther was wrong to lessen the value of James when compared with other books of the New Testament. The Epistle of James is the inspired Word of God. It is far more practical and less theological than many of the Pauline epistles. Nevertheless, as Scripture it is profitable to us. So let’s see what we can learn from this small but very powerful book! Pastor’s Postscript As I mentioned at the beginning of my sermon on Sunday, while we spent over 2 years in the book of Romans, there is so much more gold to be mined from that book that I almost feel guilty leaving it! Yet I sense God wants us to move on to other texts. Given our society’s demand for “satisfaction now” and our short attention spans, I applaud you who regularly attend our worship and listen to the preaching of the Word. There are some (perhaps many based on what other preachers tell me!) who do not like preachers who preach from one book for many weeks. They believe such expository preaching “robs them” of other parts of God’s Word. Personally, I believe expository preaching is the best way to proclaim the Word of God. Some time ago I took some time and prayed about my future direction in preaching the Word. Given my age as well as my commitment to preach expository messages, I realized I will never be able to preach through every book of the Bible. So I decided to focus on the New Testament for my sermons. Do not misunderstand my decision to mean that I consider the Old Testament of no value. To the contrary, it has so much to offer. No, my decision to focus on the New Testament is simply based on the amount of time I have left to preach and the need to proclaim the message of Christ. The New Testament is the best place for doing that. There will likely be some Sundays when I take a “time out” and preach a message from the Old Testament. At the moment the adult Sunday School class is looking at an Old Testament book. So your pastor has not “disowned” the Old Testament! But until God changes my mind, I will continue to preach through New Testament books. Beginning this Sunday we turn our attention to the book of James. I do hope you make every effort to join us each week as we see what God has for us from this wonderful book. May the Lord bless your June! Pastor Bruce
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