We take our second mid-James break to look at the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Someone who James doesn’t refer to in his book, although we have and will see His characteristics especially in the form of ‘wisdom’.

Mostly from the gospel of John, but also some of the Pauline letters, we will ask:

Who is He? What does He do? Where is He working? When is He working? How does He work? And finally, Why is he so important to the believer?

James tells us that your works will show if you have a living faith, or not. Yet, his point was not that we should all start running around trying to do good things and be nice people. So what does your faith need in order to become living? Well, for that James takes us right back to the beginning of his letter. What makes your faith a living faith is not works, but wisdom.

James teaches us that ‘the events of life’, especially the difficulties, are meant to being us to maturity (testing leads to perseverance, leads to maturity 1:4). The real issue is whether our faith or trust in Jesus is the real thing or what James calls ‘dead faith’ (2:20). He says that the real thing, real faith produces changes not just intellectually in our belief system but in our actions (2:18).

What does, then, a mature faith, a grown up faith start to look like – James continues with what he calls the number one ‘mark of maturity’ - how we use language. This Sunday we will be looking at what He says in James 3:1-12, as well as some practical advice from the Proverbs.

There has always been a tension between faith and deeds for followers of Jesus. In the Scriptures - like that of Ephesians 2 - it clearly confirm that deeds (works) are not at the root of salvation. Faith is. However, in James 2v14-26, he seeks to underline how there is an important link of the 'fruit' of our faith, seen and expressed in deeds.

James continues to build upon this idea that mature, healthy faith involves the whole man - heart, soul, mind, and strength. It is much more than a set of ideas that we affirm as factually true. This Sunday, he reminds us that God doesn’t play favourites and neither should we. Because the way we act towards others actually reveals what we truly believe about who God is and how we would like him to treat us.

Moving on into the book of James - the second half of chapter 1 - we are challenged again about our faith, as to whether it works in our lives each day. He asks us to examine just how our faith, our walking with/in Jesus, impacts our thinking, listening, speaking and acting. Such a challenge can prove to be uncomfortable, but rewarding.

As we commence a journey with James on practical Christian living, still relevant today – we will start by looking at how the events of life - trials and temptations in particular, ought to push us to the Lord in asking for Wisdom for ourselves, and his promise to supply it!  Ultimately of course is the reward for His people who persevere in life.

We have been looking at 3 different encounters in the gospel of John to show that an encounter with Jesus as Lord is what makes Him relevant to all cultures: An honour/shame culture, a power/fear culture and a guilt/innocence culture.

We want to conclude the series by looking in Genesis 1:26-2:14 and see the roots of mankind’s rebellion against His maker.  To see how God’s design for us to have Significance, Acceptance and Achievement result in these different cultural patterns so that our relationship with him and others  has been twisted and distorted so that we are ‘alienated from the life of God’ (Eph 4:18)

The 3D gospel is an expression that many use to show that the Gospel – The Good News about Jesus (Mark 1:1) - is good news for all cultures. We will look at 3 stories in the Gospel of John to show that Jesus work - his life and death, resurrection and Holy Spirit-Sender affect all cultures.

John 11v1-44

As we look at the story of Lazarus this Sunday, we discover that Jesus is the one we need to trust. Faith, ultimately, is not about what or how much you know, but about WHO you know. Jesus, himself, is the resurrection and the life. He frees us from sin, fear, and death.