The Least of These: Orphans

I. Intro
A. We’ve been talking about the least of these, a group of people Jesus refers to in His parable of the sheep and goats in Matt.25. They are the outwardly needy in this world, and they are the objects of special compassion for the Lord and His people.
1. Widows and orphans would definitely be included in this group. Last week we focused on widows, this morning we think about orphans. Both weeks our passage was:
II. James 1:27 “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”
A. Two signs of true faith: care for widows/orphans, keep unstained from the world.
B. Orphans: parentless, fatherless
C. “Affliction” “distress” — This world is a sad place for many, many children.
1. Hebrew: alone or bereaved
2. Over a quarter of a billion parentless children in the world. How many more are fatherless!
3. And how many more might as well be fatherless, because their father has no involvement in their lives. So many sad stories.
4. 100 million street children, growing up on the streets of the world’s big cities
5. 13 million children who are victims of human trafficking. Heart-breaking.
D. “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God” implies that there is there is religion which is impure and defiled. There is a Christianity which is impure and defiled.
1. Polluted by superstition, by human tradition, by other religions, by worldly-mindedness, by human philosophies, by love of money, by insincerity and hypocrisy.
2. There is a form of Christianity which is all about me, all about my prosperity, all about my success and happiness, all about having God help me find something I think I need to be happy.
3. There are many whose faith is impure and defiled. There always has been, there always will be — until the Lord comes back.
4. The Bible tells us about this false Christianity over and over again.
5. This impure and defiled Christianity turns a lot of people off, doesn’t it? It makes it easy to criticize Christianity.
6. They point to a hypocrite and say, “See, that’s what Christians are like!” Well, that may be what that hypocrite is like, but it’s not what Christians are like.
E. But just because there is an impure and defiled version of Christianity doesn’t mean that there isn’t a pure and undefiled Christian faith.
1. I have had the privilege of knowing many believers who’s faith was true and not defiled — many in this church.
F. And caring for the least of these is one of the earmarks of a true Christian, specifically here caring for widows and orphans. Why is that?
1. Is it because Christians are good-deed-doers? Is it because Christians are good people who do good things?
2. That’s the way a lot of people think. But that misses the point.
G. To understand why a true Christian has an impulse to reach out to widows and orphans, we need to think about what it means to be a Christian.
1. There’s a helpful description of it in Galatians 4:4–7 “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”
a. So what are Christians? Christians are ex-slaves, redeemed and adopted as God’s own children.
b. Christians are those who know God as their daddy. Christians are those who know they have a Father who cares about them, a Father who is there for them, a Father who loves them with an eternal love.
c. We are not His slaves but His children.
d. Gal.4:6 “Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” — Our sonship is rooted in Christ’s Sonship.
e. Somehow we’ve been made to tap into Christ’s sonship, and become sons & daughters ourselves.
2. The only other time the word orphan is used in NT: John 14:18 “I will not leave you as orphans.”
3. 1John 3:1 “See what love the Father has given to us, that we should be made children of God.”
4. In Ephesians 2:13 we read about how we who once were far off have been brought near to God by the blood of Christ.
a. You see, the reason we could be received by the Father is because Jesus took the Father’s rejection — which we deserved — upon Himself.
b. Taking our deserved rejection, He gave to us His right to be God’s son.
c. John 1:12 “To all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”
d. No one knew the Fatherhood of God like Jesus. He is God’s Son! And He came so that we might no longer be orphans, but know the love of the Father which He had known from all eternity. But on the cross He was cut off from the Father so we could be grafted in to the Father.
5. Christians are also those who know what’s it’s like to be alone in the world. They know the emptiness and homelessness of not knowing God.
a. True Christians remember that they were once separated from Christ, remember when they had no hope and were without God in the world, and yet they know that now in Christ Jesus they who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. (Eph.2:12–13)
b. For instance, I’m a person who knows what it’s like to be separated from God, and alone in the world. Before I met Christ I had family and friends, but I was spiritually homeless and alone.
(1) At the time I would never have admitted my sense of homelessness and aloneness. Even to myself. But when I received an invitation to make my home with God, I suddenly realized how alone and how homeless I was.
(2) That’s when I came to Christ — when God reached out to me and said “Come to Me and I’ll be your Father.”
6. And Christians also are those who know what it means to be welcomed and loved and accepted and adopted and embraced and received and eternally cherished by the heavenly Father.
a. Christians know that they were once orphans. But they are orphans no longer.
7. Now does it make sense why caring for orphans is a litmus test of true Christianity?
a. If you really grasp the grace of Christ, you will also extend the grace of Christ.
b. If you have received the love of Christ for you in your great need, then that love will drive you to love others in need. Though you are far from perfect, you are a person of compassion. You care about people who are hurting. You care about people who are needy. You try to help. Your heart breaks over human trafficking and the problem of street children. You don’t look down on others, even drug addicts or prisoners on death row. You know that but for the grace of God, you could be there.
c. However, if one’s faith is just a way to be liked or get ahead or feel good about oneself, and the reality of Christ hasn’t gotten hold of your heart, then there’s no wind in your sail to help others. It’s all about you.
III. Conclusion
A. Look around at this world. It’s a mess. There’s wars, there’s poverty, there’s anger, there’s violence, there’s cheating and stealing and lying, there’s the powerful taking advantage of the weak. It’s all around us.
1. Some people say, How could a good and all-powerful God allow these things to happen?
2. But what if God has a purpose in it? What if the world is like this because God is showing us what life is like without Him?
3. But now in His Son He has come to bring healing and restoration and reconciliation.
4. And the people of Christ become agents of reconciliation (2Cor.5:18), people who love widows and tell them about the heavenly Husband, and who love orphans and tell them about the heavenly Father.
B. But what if you’re double-minded? — James 4:7–10 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.