Feast and Follow with Knollwood

Last time we looked at what it meant to be a true teacher of the Word. There were a lot of characteristics that defined what a leader of the church should look like. Now, we are looking at a group of people who don't fit those categories at all! It turns out that this position isn't for everyone! What do we do with those who don't? That is going to be the topic of this sermon as we pick up where we left off last time.

As schools start back during these weeks, I came across an article by a teacher recalling his first classroom. He had graduated school filled to the brim with all the theory of education, ready to pour into students the novel 1984. He spent hours on the lesson plan the night before, but he didn't anticipate one thing: Kermit. One of the students produced seemingly out of thin air an electronic toy Kermit who that would incessantly say, "Hi, Miss Piggy" with no way to turn it off. Despite eventually throwing it down the hall to the laughter of students, he was unable to quell the conversations of students. He realized that theory is great and necessary, but it means nothing without classroom management.

I read somewhere else this week that "amateurs talk doctrine, but professionals talk governance." (Matthew Schmitz Quoting Altieri in "The Two Pope Leos" Claremont Review of Books Vol. XXVI, number 3, Summer 26, p. 24). If I could add to that, Apostles talk both.

Here at the start of this letter to Titus, Paul is reiterating to Titus what governance in the church is going to look like. But what we find is that it is not devoid of doctrine but based in it. These elders are not sought out because of their mastery of technique but their being mastered by the truth. They are men who have been transformed by that truth such that their character recommends them. They are only required one competency: the ability to pass on that truth.

What is the most important thing you personally know how to do, and do you think it will still be done that way in twenty years? Many of us are working with computer programs that will be obsolete in two. Mechanics tell me how different car motors today than they were at the start of their careers. It seems like the information we know has an expiration date that arrives faster every year. How do you prepare a generation for what's next?

Titus has the answer for us: Teach them sound doctrine.

What is the most important thing you did this week? Did you get something fixed at the house that could have caused major damage down the line? Did you lay out some plans that will course correct your life? Did you have a hard conversation with someone about sin? If it was the third option, according to James, that was far and away the most important thing you did.

In a letter full of admonitions and commands, we might be left wondering what to do if we or someone else violates these commands. If we recognize that in ourselves, then we need to, in obedience to verse 16, confess our sins to those whom we sinned against. But if we see someone else going astray, what do we do? Simply put, we are to go talk with them and try to turn them back.

While I think James has in mind here serious sin or doctrinal error, it doesn't have to be a "blow up your life" kind of sin for you to need to be brought back. When approached correctly, guiding someone away from their sin and to Christ is the most loving and important thing we can do. Whether the person is in the church or outside the church, sin needs to be lovingly confronted.

I think these two verses can be split into equal parts warning and hope.

If you want someone to remember what you tell them, where do you put the most important information, the main takeaway you want them to remember? Maybe you want to lead with your important concept because that is when people are paying the most attention. Maybe you want to put it at the end so it is the last thing that people hear you say.

James does both.

"Dad's coming" gives hope or dread depending on the type of day you've had, doesn't it? If you have been frustrated trying to get something to work, hearing "Dad's coming" is hope. If you've been misbehaving, "Dad's coming" is a dread. It doesn't matter when in the day this is said, hearing those words will have their intended effect immediately. I remember getting a lego robot set one year and I had put almost all of it together, however, I thought I had turned the page on the manual only to discover I had built, after a day's frustration, two left legs. And now it was time for bed. But Dad was coming home. I woke up the next day to find my lego robot—standing—on the kitchen table. All was set right.

Now, most of us have much bigger problems than a lego robot with two left legs (although, kids, I do still see how this as a big problem for your worlds, so blessed are you), so do the recipients of this letter. However, the letter is invoking a much more powerful Being than my dad. James is telling us that the Lord, Jesus Himself, is on the way.

James finally gets to the most practical point of all: how we use our wealth.

James isn't here denouncing riches in and of themselves but their abuse, and the Old Testament is in perfect harmony about that. We find in the Proverbs "A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the sinner’s wealth is laid up for the righteous." (13:22) Or 22:4 "The reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life." Or 3:9-10 "Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine." Abraham was a wealthy man as was Job, whom the Lord points out specifically to be a great servant. Solomon asked for wisdom and as a reward for such a request was given more wealth than the nation had ever seen before or since.

We've all heard the phrase "the final word on the subject." It is meant to get across the idea that once something is said it is authoritative. We exercise this right as parents, don't we? "I've said it, so that's final." We see this in the scientific world once something has been tested and retested a sufficient number of times, that can be considered "settled" science. In the political world, we hear that from the Supreme Court. Once a case has been decided there, that is the final word on the matter.

Or is it? We find as parents that that final word on no ice cream might start to give once a headache starts. We have found that even a Supreme Court decision isn't finalized for all of time, but when new judges ascend the court, such a final word is replaced seemingly by another "final" judgement. Even science isn't static.

There is no human being who is able to utter the true last, authoritative word on a subject because we are not divine. And when I put it like that, we of course all agree in principle, but that is not how we think or, in terms of this passage, talk in practice, is it? James, in returning to the topic of the tongue warns of judging our neighbor and speaking presumptuous plans. These actions are related because they assume the same thing: that I myself am the determiner of other's character and my own future. James is here to tell us that this isn't true. This will come as both a conviction and a comfort as we look at our two points today: You aren't the authority, so don't judge. and You aren't the authority, so don't presume your plans.

This week, we welcome guest preacher Jackson Hice to show us the Good Shepherd out of John 10! 

We are catching up on uploads this week, so here is last week's sermon on James 4:1-10!