The Identity of the Lord’s Servants in Dispersion
James, the half-brother of the Lord Jesus, writes one of the earliest letters of the New Testament to Jewish Christians who have been scattered out of Jerusalem by persecution. They have lost homes, livelihoods, and neighbourhoods. They are trying to hold on to Christ in conditions they did not choose. And before James says anything else, he gives them a single verse that resets their feet.
In this opening sermon of our series in James, we walk slowly through James chapter 1 verse 1 and find three realities every Christian must own. You are a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, bought with his blood and belonging to him body and soul. You are among the twelve tribes in the Dispersion, the true continuing people of God, scattered not by accident but by sovereign deployment. And the greeting of heaven to you, in Christ, is rejoice.
A message for the drifting Christian, the suffering Christian, and the one who has never come to Christ at all. Anchored throughout in the finished work of our Saviour.
