A Sermon Excerpt from James 5:1–12
“What convinced you to believe and follow Jesus?”
At first, that sounds like a simple question. We might think we could answer it without hesitation. But, beloved, it is far deeper than it seems. It forces us to dig to the foundation of our faith. Why do you believe what you believe? Is it because you went to a revival or church camp and followed a friend down the aisle? Or is it because the Jesus of the Bible came up from His Word, met you in the pit of your sin, and changed you?
The question boils down to this: Do you know Jesus merely by association — because your mom knew Him, your friend knew Him, your grandmother told you about Him — or do you know Him because you have truly met Him yourself?
The tragedy in much of the modern American church is that it is full of people who think they know Jesus personally, when in reality, they only know Him by association. People say things like, “Yeah, I know Jesus because I went to church all my life.” Or, “I know Jesus because I went to VBS or church camp.” Or even, “I know Jesus because I’m from Texas.” But none of those are the same as knowing Him. Now, you may have been introduced to Jesus through a person or event, but that cannot be the foundation of your faith. The only real answer to “Why do you believe?” is, “Because I have met Him and I know Him for myself.”
When my agnostic friend asked me this question years ago, my answer came in two parts. First, I shared my personal testimony — who I was before Jesus met me, how He found me, and how He changed my heart and life. But I could sense he wanted more — more historical proof, more evidence. Back then, I didn’t have the historical and archaeological arguments I know now. So after telling my story, I pointed him to the Scriptures, specifically, to the account of Paul’s conversion and to the testimony of the apostles.
The reason why I pointed my friend to these specific places in Scripture is because these men claimed to have seen the risen Jesus with their own eyes. And they didn’t just make that claim, they suffered for it. In fact, nearly all of them died as martyrs: stoned, beheaded, sawn in two, crucified, or killed in other brutal ways. Only John died a natural death, and that was after being boiled alive in oil and exiled to Patmos. Every single one of them suffered greatly for proclaiming the same message for the rest of their lives — that Jesus Christ had risen from the dead.
Why does something as terrible as the blood of the martyrs solidify the truth of the Gospel? It does so because people will die for something they believe is true, even if it’s not. We see that in radical extremists who commit suicide and/or kill others for a cause they believe will earn them eternal reward. But no one knowingly suffers and dies for something they know is a lie, not one person does that, and certainly not a group of them. So for this group of men to live and die proclaiming an unchanging message that was based upon what each of them witnessed with their own eyes, enduring suffering to the very end, speaks glorious magnitudes.
That conviction drives me back to Acts 4 and 5, where Peter and John, after being threatened for preaching Jesus, said, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.” And after being beaten for refusing to obey man’s command to stop preaching, “they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus.”
That is the kind of unshakable hope James calls us to in chapter 5 — the enduring wait for the eternal weight of God’s glory.
James begins his address to us with a warning:
“Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded… You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.” (vv.1–5)
He’s not addressing the church here, but the unrepentant rich whose greed oppresses others. Their “treasure” for the last days will not be mercy, but wrath. Sin’s pleasures are like the extra grain fed to an animal before slaughter — it looks like gain, but it’s only preparing for destruction. For God’s people, the opposite is true: His eternal glory is worth casting away sin.
Sometimes that means enduring mistreatment like the righteous in verse 6 — not resisting with vengeance, but trusting God to defend and provide. It also means weeping over our sin with godly grief that leads to repentance, remembering the cost: “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21).
This is a verse we need to preach to ourselves and to our hearts every single day, brothers and sisters. It is both humbling and uplifting. When we are in the valley of self-pity, saying to ourselves, “I don’t deserve grace. I am worthless,” God speaks through this truth, “Pick up your head, My child, for I have made Him who knew no sin to be sin for you, so that you might become My righteousness.”
And when we are on the mountaintop of pride, telling ourselves, “I’ve done my fair share. I don’t need forgiveness,” God humbles us with the same truth: “Yes, you do. Because why else would I make Him who knew no sin to be sin for you, so that you could become My righteousness? Not yours — My righteousness. So bend your knee and repent to the One whom I have sent!”
It is this continual remembering, brothers and sisters— in our lowest valleys of pity and our highest moments of pride — that keeps us grounded in the gospel, quick to repent, slow to boast, and eager to obey.
James turns us to patience:
“Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door.” (vv.7–9)
This is not a casual suggestion — it’s a command to keep your heart anchored until Jesus returns. Patience here is not passive sitting; it’s active endurance, like the farmer who works the ground, plants the seed, and then waits for the rains he cannot control. He labors, but he also trusts God to bring the growth in His time.
So what are we waiting for? Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18: “For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive… will be caught up together… to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.”
Hebrews 9:28 says, “Christ… will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.” And Jesus Himself promised in John 14:3, “I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”
So the promise is not that Jesus is coming back on this day or that day. The promise — the one we anchor our lives to — is that Jesus is coming back. And whenever He comes, He is coming back for His people. That’s why our hope isn’t tied to whether His return happens in our lifetime. Our hope rests in the certainty that when He comes, we will be His and we will be with Him, whether we have been long in the grave or still walking the earth.
That’s why James says, “Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.” To establish your heart means to plant your faith firmly — to choose the side you are on. Will you follow Christ or chase the world? You must decide, because the day is coming when the clouds will break and the trumpet will sound, and there will be no time left to choose.
Then he adds, “Do not grumble against one another… behold, the Judge is standing at the door.” If you believe He could come at any moment, you cannot justify bitterness, division, or resentment toward your brothers and sisters in Christ. You can’t harbor grudges against those you’ll be worshiping alongside in eternity. Live now as you will live then — at peace with one another, united in the gospel.
This is part of how we wait: hearts established in Christ, hands joined together in unity, eyes fixed on the sky, ready for the King.
James then calls us to steadfastness:
“Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.” (v.11)
True blessing is not found in having everything or in having nothing — it is in being content in Christ whether we have much or little, whether the cup is full or empty. The prophets and Job weren’t blessed because their lives were easy. They were blessed because they knew the Lord was enough, for if Christ was in them and God was for them, then who could be against them?
And here’s the anchor for our endurance: not only does God have a sovereign purpose, but His sovereign purposes are always good. He wastes nothing — not sin, not tragedies, not loss, not even death itself. All of it is taken up into His plan to display His mercy and His glory. That truth enables us to endure trials with hope, for we know that “The sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed” (Rom. 8:18) BECAUSE, “This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Cor. 4:17). And one day — a day that is coming nearer with every sunrise — “He will wipe away every tear… death shall be no more” (Rev. 21:4).
James ends with a call to truthfulness:
“But above all… let your ‘yes’ be yes and your ‘no’ be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.” (James 5:12)
This isn’t about polite manners — it’s about living in the truth of God’s Word. If you’re not anchored in His truth, you won’t be able to repent, wait, or endure. Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6) and “If you abide in my word… you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31–32). To live in truth means to be honest about our sin, cling to Christ for mercy, and let His Word shape our thoughts, words, and actions.
So, beloved, live in Him. When it’s time to weep over sin, weep. When it’s time to wait, wait. When it’s time to endure, endure. And when it’s time to do all three at once, walk with Him through it — because on the other side of this short, perilous life is an eternal, precious glory which we cannot imagine and the world cannot compare, and it is worth it.
Grace be with you.