Life in the First Century

Life in the First Century

Understanding what the culture was like back in James’ day is critical for us to understand his letter. If we don’t have the background, we’ll miss out on the richer meaning and significance that it can bring to our lives.

When you think of 1^st Century Palestine (Israel) what comes to mind?

Here’s a look at some of their culture. What are some similarities/differences to today’s world?

 

FAMILY

The family was the center of the social structure with the husband as the spiritual and legal representative; multiple generations of family and extended family lived together in one house (or additions to an original house).

FOOD

Staple food consisted of bread, cheese, fruits, nuts, and mostly fish or chicken. Pork was considered unclean (and off-limits) for Jews.

LANGUAGE

The common language in the Roman Empire was Greek, however, at the time, it was common for Jews to also use Hebrew, Aramaic, and Latin. Jesus’ everyday language was Aramaic.

ECONOMY

The economy was supported by three major elements: agriculture (olives, dates, vineyards, grains, and so forth), trade spurred by the close proximity to the Mediterranean Sea, and large building projects. There was a large disparity between the rich and the poor.

GOVERNMENT

The Roman Empire controlled most of the known world. Many local governing entities were allowed relative freedom, but always under the eye of the larger empire. Jews resisted Roman rule and longed for a Messiah who would overthrow the government and set up a kingdom on earth.

EDUCATION

For a Jew, religion, law, ethics, and education went hand-in-hand. There was no separation of any element. Each informed an affected the other. Greeks focused on science, arts, language, and physical training.

SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT

In Rome, track and field became popular, as did wrestling and boxing. Early board games included early versions of chess, checkers, and backgammon.

One thing that we’re going to talk about further is their RELIGION.

Read these verses:

Acts 14: 8-13

Acts 19: 23- 28

Acts 28:11

What do these passages have in common? What do these tell you about the religion of the 1^st Century Christians?

There were 12 main/major gods and goddesses in the Greek and Roman mythology – each was to be appeased, honored, and worshiped. Making gods happy was a lifelong pursuit: making sacrifices, holding festivals in the god’s honor, establishing temples for worship, does this and other similar acts of tribute.

+ Other gods from other countries

+ Rituals, superstitions, philosophy, traditions

=These comprise their beliefs at that time.

How do you think these religious practices affect the Jewish people? The 1^st Century Christians? Those who chose to follow ONE God instead of many?

What are some words that may describe the Christians at James’ time? Confused, disillusioned, polytheistic, dissatisfied; they must have a skewed worldview, opposing lifestyles, a need for truth. – SOUND FAMILIAR??

While 2000 years may have passed, we face similar problems today.

Those people James wrote to were often ridiculed for their faith in the one, true God, instead of participating in the cultural or state-mandated worship. While our country doesn’t force whom or what to follow—drawing the line in the sand for Christ will draw criticism and even ridicule.

In James’ time, there were many “distractions”, this is true also as of today. Without a strong relationship with Jesus, one could easily be confused by the philosophies, worldviews, and religions that permeate the hallways at your school; the music one listens to, the movies one watches, etc.

Why do you think, having this in mind, this background info on religion is important as you study James?

Day 4 James Life "A Letter to the People" Part2

Day 4 James Life “ A Letter to the people, part 2”

Last Week Question: What would you have done if you’d been forced to leave your home and live in a foreign country?

1. What are you feeling? What are you thinking? What options do you have? How would you describe your feelings toward God during that experience?

-Anger. Fear. Confusion. Grief. The Jews had a few choices. They could continue to rely on their faith and other ancestors-they could keep hope alive and believe one day God would bring them back to their homes and their family and back to the promise land. 

OR they can choose to rebel against their captors and find themselves killed OR just blend in.

Read Daniel 1:1-8 Daniel was a teenager who was faced with a very similar choice.

????What was to happen to the Jews from the royal family and nobility?

??? What were they to learn?

???What did Daniel decide to do according to vs 8? Resolve-means to be committed to a course of action, he was determined to do what is right

-Daniel was drafted as a counselor to King Nebuchadnezzar and interpreted 2 of the kings dreams- Daniel’s friends were rescued from the fiery furnace and Daniel from a lions den

vs. 8-Daniel chose not to eat the meat(pork) against Jewish culture is an example of someone who chose not to fit in with the foreign culture including their gods

-We are just like the Jewish people scattered across the globe. They had to choose between Faith vs. comfort. They struggled to keep their identity as a nation as Gods Own people---and so do we as followers of Christ.

            -by the time jesus died and rose again, there were the same amount of jews living outside of Palestine as they live inside. In every city Paul visited on his missionary journeys he found a Jewish synagogue. God works things together for his good (rom 8:28) the transport of people from their home to other countries helped spread the gospel.

-God wants you to be the light in the dark world. This is not our home, heaven is our home. You have the choice not to accept gods of our culture and the pressures of life: money-what you have in your heart not in your bank account matters to God and endures for eternity, popularity-people pleaser or are you pleasing God, beauty- Proverbs 31:30 Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised., self-satisfaction, instant gratification, and sex and drugs than waiting for the one person God intended you to be with-settling for Mr. Right Now than Mr. Right.

-You can choose to blend in and look like everyone else adopting the customs, or you can have higher standards. And accept “being ordinary  Christian is not enough” You can become less of what God designed you to be or fulfill the purpose that far exceeds anything this world can offer. A life with God is better than anything you can find outside of Him.

Going back to James 2:1*** Why in the world would James call these Jewish Christians “ the twelve tribes?” And how do we know James was even writing to Christians/

Read James 2:1
          
           -What did James call the people to who he was writing?
         
           -He calls them “brothers” and “believers in Jesus”
        
           -Why not call them saints or beloved or new creations ? instead of the 12 twelve tribes.
       
    Remember the 1^st century Jew did not have a youth ministry, choir, a pastor or a building. Being a Jew brought a sense of identity a shared community but if you were a new who chose to believe in Jesus as the Messiah, where did they leave you? James brought up the 12 tribes as a way to remind the people that they still had a history, they shared a common story of faith that started in Abraham but was fulfilled in Jesus Christ They needed to be reminded they were family (and when you’re a Jewish Christian living across the world) every member matters.

We are just like the early Christians, we disagreed, showed favoritism, argued, let our speech go in the wrong direction, tempted by the devil.

Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us..

Just as the Jewish people shared a common heritage-a shared story that could be told across centuries-you have a shared history , too. As a believer there are millions of faithful followers who have walked this journey of faith throughout history. You may feel alone-much like those early Christians felt-but you are not. You are part of an eternal family. We are running this race .

Who are the Twelve Tribes?

"1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,

To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion:

Greetings."

Who is James (the brother of Jesus and slave of God & Jesus Christ) writing to in this letter?

Before we take a look at who the "twelve tribes in the dispersion" are, there are a few questions we can ask ourselves as to why knowing this matters.

• How is a note you write to a friend different from an english essay that you turn in to your teacher?
• How do you talk to your teacher/professor/boss? Your parents? Your best friend?
• How do you talk to a little kid who just started preschool? How about someone you know that gets easily offended? Someone who's mother or father just died unexpectedly?

The way we talk/write to different people can be drastically different, based on who they are, who they are to us, and what we know them to have been through. Although this may be obvious to you, have you ever thought about why books of the bible are written a certain way, or talk about what they do? The more we understand the context, the more we understand the intent of the author and, in return, better understand what it means to us personally.

?Who are the they?

Where does the bible talk about the twelve tribes? When we find this in scripture, we can work our way backwards to figure out who these people are and what they may have experienced to make James write to them specifically.

EXODUS 1:1-5:

1 These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.

Count how many sons Israel (whose name is also Jacob) had, add one more because Joseph was already in Egypt, and you get 12. Jacob had 12 sons in Egypt at this point, who are the ancestors of each of the twelve tribes, which are named after them. (Rev 7:5-8 refers to these tribes again).

• Who was Jacob's father? - Isaac (GENESIS 25:21-26)
• Who was Isaac's father? - Abraham (GENESIS 21:1-6)

Now that we know who the Twelve Tribes are and who they descend from, let's search scripture to see their history to find out what we still don't know:

?Why are they in dispersion?

God's promise to Abraham:

Read GENESIS 12:1-7.

God promised him a great nation, so he set out to Canaan - the land God promised to his offspring. (Who are his offspring again? The 12 Tribes!)

Read EXODUS 1:1-14.

Here we begin to see what the tribes of Israel went through.

1. Where are the Israelites in this passage? - Egypt
2. What happened to them? Why? - They were enslaved by the Egyptians. The Pharoah saw the fact that they were growing in number as a threat.
   

If you are familiar with the story, you now that Moses brought the people out of Egypt.

After wandering for 40 years in the desert, they finally reached their promised land, Canaan. However, the Israelites continued to rebel against God (much like we do) and appointed a "physical" king over themselves although God himself was their king. Eventually, a dispute broke out over the people, and the Israelites split into the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom.

Read 2 KINGS 17:6-7.

• What happened to the Northern Kingdom? Why? - They were captured by the King of Assyria. This happened because they sinned against God and started fearing false gods.

Read 2 KINGS 25:1-12.

• What about the Southern Kingdom? - The city of Jerusalem was destroyed, and their king, Zedekiah saw his sons slaughtered and had his own eyes put out and was bound in chains.
  
• The remainder of the people? - v11: They were carried into exhile.
  

This is what is called the Dispersion.

What we now know about the "twelve tribes in the dispersion":

1. Descended from Abraham
2. Promised a land for a great nation through Abraham
3. Were enslaved by Egypt, escaped, and (after 40 years of wandering) finally received their promised land.
   
4. They rebelled against God which led to being attacked and dispersed.
   

Next week we will see how this all applies to the book of James, as well as our own lives.

For next week: What would you have done if you were taken away from home to a foreign country against your will?

JAMES // THE SLAVE

> If you were to describe your relationship with God, what words would you use?

Friend? Follower? Skeptic? Curious Seeker?

I can be fairly certain that the word slave didn't make your list. Why, you ask? Because no one likes that word. The connotations are just too negative.

Here are some examples of images that we picture when we hear the word slave:

Imagine being held against your will, forced to work without pay, treated like an animal, being beaten, and living in poverty. Slavery is not a pretty picture, whether you're talking about slavery in America's history or slavery as it occurs today (yes, it is still a reality in many parts of the world). Yet, James used that very word to describe himself.

JAMES 1:1

James, a servant/slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,

To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion:

Greetings.

In this verse, James is referring himself as a "slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ."

Why would James use that term? - the term slave is totally foreign to us living in the United States today. No one would voluntarily write in an email or text message, "I'm a slave of..." It just won't happen! Our culture is opposed to any idea of enslavement. No one controls us, right?

The term is even more foreign to you as a teen. At this time in your life, you probably crave independence, to make your own decisions, to be on your own. You don't want anyone telling you what to do.

So what makes James different from us? Why would he be willing to call himself a slave? Why didn't care about his own freedom?

Let's read John 8:30-36 and get some answers.

The Truth Will Make You Free

³¹ So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; ³² and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” ³³ They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, ‘You will become free’?”

³⁴ Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. ³⁵ The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. ³⁶ So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

What we get from these verses:

Jesus himself is the truth that sets us free (8.36). He is the source of truth, the perfect standard of what is right. He frees us from continued slavery from sin, from all deception and from deception by Satan. He shows us clearly the way to eternal life with God. Thus Jesus does not give us freedom to do what we want, but freedom to follow God. As we seek to follow God, Jesus' perfect truth frees us to be all that God meant us to be.

Sin has a way of enslaving us, controlling us, dominating us and dictating our actions. Jesus can free us from this slavery that keeps us from becoming the person God created us to be. If sin is restraining, mastering or enslaving us, Jesus can break its power over our life.

Try answering these questions:

> According to Jesus, how does a person become a slave?

> According to these verses, how does a person find true freedom?

> How do you think the Jewish people felt when Jesus informed them that they were slaves? (Remember, their ancestors had spent their lives in slavery to Pharaoh until God delivered them)

REMEMBER THIS:

If your life is given to anything but Jesus, it's really not freedom at all. Sin takes us captive, and the only thing that can set us free is Jesus.

APPLICATION:

Stop for a minute and think about your own life and the things that captivate you. Anything that drives your actions, anything that you can't live without or dominates your thoughts and feelings–those are the things to which you are a slave.

Some examples:

Money, Sex, Popularity, Alcohol, Friends, Pornography, Self-centeredness, Food (or not eating), Makeup, Hobbies, Otherr' opinions, Caffeine, Pride, Boyfriend, Media (iPod, TV, Movies, etc.), Cellphone, Clothes, Gossip, Grades, Jesus

Which master enslaves you the most and how do you know?

My prayer for all of us is to be free from sin and to be slaves of righteousness.