James 5:13-16a “Prayer and Healing”
Intro:
We live in the world of Wireless – Cell phones wifi –
A) PP can conduct business
send emails from Cell phones PDA’s, laptop computers – Starbucks / Panera /
Hotel in Israel
B) Even sitting in their car
in Traffic – Wireless wonder – Hooked up
C) You know who was the
first to go wireless? God – Prayer
James
ends this letter to these suffering saints by talking about Prayer
A) Tradition tells us that James knees were callused because
he spent so much time in prayer.
B) He has been
nicknamed, "Camel-knees" for his persistence in prayer.
C) Prayer is the obvious
theme of verses 13-18, with the noun pray or
Verb
prayer occurring in every verse.
I
begin this message with a disclaimer that I do not consider myself to be an
expert on prayer – a prayer warrior –
A) In many ways – prayer has
been one of the weakest parts of my Christian life –
B)
Although I have been liberated in the last few yrs – started seeing prayer
rather than an invent – or even a discipline –
1) but more of an ongoing
conversation – Prayer life has gotten much better
C) See there was a time when
I viewed prayer as a part of devotions
1) Get up in the morning
Devos – and I pray: Talk to God –
D) I pour out my heart pray
for the Church – family – staff – friends needs –
Then
I read my Bible – like ok God now it is your turn to talk to me Talk….talk ….talk / Listen / Listen / Listen
A) You know that is not how
any of my other relationships work – Denise – I don’t sit her down and talk………
/ Ok now it is your turn – Listen
B)
Nor do I have a set time each day where Denise and I sit down for 30 minutes or
an hour – talk / listen
1)
No our communication is throughout the day – cell phone – car – office
C) Then we have moments where
we will sit down significant time together – really share
1) My relationship with God
is very much that same way!
The
other day: Woke up family freezing – Furnace broke again Fuse blew – Ok –
options
A) Got to have my prayer
time – I fix it in an hr – Pray in the car – in the store – off to find a fuse
B) So encourage you in your
prayer life – Ongoing conversation with God
Today
3 Things:
1.) What to do when you are
suffering?
2.) What to do when you are
satisfied ?
3.) What to do when you are
Sick?
1.) What to do when you are
suffering?
RD V. 13
Is anyone among
you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms.
The
Greek word for “suffering” refers to any difficulty.
A)
James’ readers were suffering because of their Christian testimony.
B)
But the word may refer to all types of problems that we encounter in life,
whether spiritual, physical, emotional,
financial, or relational.
C)
If you’re going through trials of any sort, James’ answer (a single word in the
Greek text) is like a rifle shot to the bull’s eye: “Pray.”
It’s
easy to sit here and nod in agreement, but the question is, “When you encounter
difficulties, is prayer your first response?”
A)
How many of us are guilty of our first response being to worry, or complain,
strategize, make some calls
B)
We often pray as the last resort, after we’ve done everything that we
can do to try to fix the problem.
1)
We scheme, we plan, we work hard, and then maybe we remember to pray, “God,
bless my efforts.”
C) I was thinking the other
day – studying for this message –
1)
furnance broke wife sick a few other problems
I hadn’t stopped to pray about one of them – BUSTED
D)
Listen Problems with your spouse: Pray / Children Pray / Financial problems –
Pray /Car problems – Pray
Been
said
“You can do
more than pray after you’ve prayed, but you shouldn’t do anything until
you’ve prayed.”
E)
Prayer acknowledges that you are totally dependent on God.
So when we are going thru a
difficulty our first response needs to be to pray – go to our Father who is in
heaven.
A)
All the fathers here understand this – You love your kids – you want them to
come to you with their problems
B) Hurts when they don’t –
hurts when they try to do things on their own or worse yet – go to someone else
for help
C) God is the same way: He loves you and is
interested in every aspect of your life – Hairs on head – thoughts like the
sand
D)
SO go to Him! – Pray – “Cast all your cares upon me
because I care for you!” 1 Peter 5:8
E)
So when we are suffering we need to pray – What about when we are
satisfied. Sing !
Now I understand why James
would need to remind us to pray when we are suffering – But why does he need to
remind us to sing when we are Satisfied ?
Our
tendency when things are going good is to forget the Lord and start walking in
the confidence of our flesh.
A) That is why Moses warned
the Jews as they were about to enter the promise land – not to forget God. Deut
6:10-12
B)
For the same reason, David talks to himself in
Psalm
103:2,
“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget
none of His benefits.”
C) So first off James wants
us to understand that whether we are suffering or satisfied – we need to have a
God ward focus.
Next
James instructs us what to do when we are sick! RD V.14-16
14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call
for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with
oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and
the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you
may be healed.
Now
this is not an easy passage to interpret – for one reason at first glance it
makes it seem like James is saying –
Those who are prayed for
will always be healed – and yet we know that God doesn’t always heal everyone.
Now a few
commentators that I really respect and enjoy reading in an attempt to lessen
the confusion have tried to say that the word – sick in v.14 and v.15 should
really be translated weak.
So
that those who are weak when they are prayed for will be refreshed and built up
Now that is a Biblical
concept
Galatians 6:1-2
“Brethren, if a
man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a
spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. 2 Bear one
another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”
Romans 14:1
“Receive one
who is weak in the faith……”
1 Thessalonians 5:14
“Now we exhort
you, brethren…. comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with
all.”
So
that is a Biblical concept – but I don’t think that is what is being talked
about here for this reason A)when the verb weak is
used to refer to spiritual weakness it is usually made clear by some qualifier
ie
Rom 14:1 Weak
in faith
1 Corinthians
8:7 weak in conscience.
B) Also we have seen that
James derives most of his theology and vocabulary from the gospels –
1) and in the gospels the
word sick is always used speaking of bodily illness
So
I believe James is speaking about Physical illness and Physical healing in this
passage!
A) But, that leaves us with a
difficult problem, namely, that this text
seems to guarantee healing for those who follow the procedure.
B)
We will answer that question as we go along – What do we do when we are sick
C) 1st Call for the elders!
Note this is the sick person’s responsibility!
1)
The elders are not omniscient. –
Also
note these verses intertwine physical
illness with sin.
A)James
does not assume that the person is sick because of sin, but he indicates that
it may be a cause (“if he has committed sins”).
B) In Mark Ch.4 We have the
account of the man with palsy – who was lowered thru the roof to Jesus.
1))Palsy
was a sickness that was connected to Syphilis – and so the tradition has been
that this man was sick because of sexual sin
C) Which seems to be
supported by the fact that Mark tells us seeing their faith – Jesus said to the
man son your sins are forgiven
1)
Disappoint to his friends – but the greatest thing this man could have heard –
YOU TODAY ! JESUS FORGIVES SIN
So
Sin can cause sickness – but is not always the cause of sickness
A) So before the sick person calls for the elders, he
needs to search his heart and confess all known sins to the Lord.
B) He should be prepared that the elders may ask, “Are you aware of any unconfessed sins in
your life?”
C)Which I believe is why James mentions confessing our
sins to one another in v.16 in this context
1)We
confess our sin we are being real about where we are at.
1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
2nd James directs the elders to “pray over him”
(“over” may imply laying on of hands),
3rd “anointing
him with oil in the name of the Lord.”
Now
there has been some confusion over the purpose of this anointing oil.
A) I can tell you what it
doesn’t mean.
B)
This verse provides no basis for the Roman Catholic Church’s sacrament of extreme
unction,
1)
wherein the dying is anointed with oil with the purpose of removing any remnant
of sin and strengthening the soul for dying.
C) A simple
reading of the text makes it clear that the anointing with oil is to promote
healing, not to ease dying.
So
what does it mean There are several possible
interpretations suggested.
A)
Some say that it refers to the ancient medicinal application of oil to wounds,
such as the Good Samaritan did with the wounded traveler (Luke 10:34).
B)
They think the verse means, “Pray and use medical means.”
1)
While I agree that we should use medical means, I am not convinced that James
is saying that.
C)
Others say that the oil was a physical expression of concern that was used to
stimulate the faith of the sick person, much as
1)
Jesus used mud to anoint the eyes of the blind man in healing him (John 9:6-11).
D)
Paul’s sweat bands
That is possible, but I
prefer the view that the oil is a
symbol of the Holy Spirit,
who is the divine agent in healing.
But now we must
deal with the questions, “What is the prayer of faith?”
A)
And, “Is James guaranteing healing in every case?”
B)Best
commentary on the Bible is the Bible – In the Bible Elisha was one of the great
men of faith in the Scripture
C) Probably the man in the Old Testament, through which
God performed more miracles than anybody else was Elisha, the prophet.
He had asked for a double portion of Elijah’s
mantle. And it fell upon him.
D)And there are twice as many miracles recorded in the
ministry of Elisha than there was with Elijah.
1)But you have that interesting passage of Scripture,
that says now Elisha felt sickness, of the sickness whereof he died.
E) And yet the tremendous power that this man possessed
in prayer!
Paul was another great man of faith who moved in the
miraculous and who healed many pp and yet Paul was not healed of his thorn in the
flesh and he did not heal Epaphroditus (Phil. 2:25-30) or Trophimus (2 Tim. 4:20).
He
urged Timothy to drink a little wine
for his frequent stomach ailments (1 Tim. 5:23), not to claim his healing by faith.
I
am sure in all those situations Paul prayed in faith
So
what is the Prayer of faith that heals the sick?
I
believe the answer to that is found in the manifestations of the HS found in 1
Corinthians 12
There Paul talks
about 2 gifts – or manifestations of the HS that can come on believers at
specific times of need.
A)There are times praying
for those who are sick – that I have been filled with faith in knowing – God
was going to heal them
B) I love the story PC tells
– a family that came up after service pushing their crippled dad in a wheel
chair
1) Asked Chuck if he would
pray for their Dad – without even hearing what they wanted prayer for – he
began to pray for healing
C) What Chuck did not know
is they simple wanted prayer because Dad had a cold – Pastor Chuck prayed –
heal him – crippled
1)Pulled him right out of
the wheel chair because he was healed
D)I have always wanted to
ask if God also healed his cold
Next
week another family – father in a wheel Chair –
A)Prayed but didn’t pull him
out of it – sent them on their way
B)Someone
asked – Why didn’t you pull him out of the Chair ?
1)Simple answer God didn’t
give me the faith.
C) I believe that this is
what the prayer of faith is that James is referring to there.
A supernatural confidence
that God is going to heal – Pray with
an assurance
So
lets put this all together: People are sick – call on the elders [ PLURAL] I
need prayer.
A)After every service –
Sunday night prayer times – we go to house or hospital
B) The elder is to anoint
with oil a symbol of the HS
1)Lay hands on the person
and pray
C) Are only the Elders
qualified to pray in this way?
1) No – If you don’t know
who to call on –
D) We can all pray in this
way! Prayer team pp
C) I want to encourage you –
Pray confidently – don’t make excuses for God
1) Pray confidently – believing
that God can heal
D) And there might even be
times where God gives you that gift of faith that God is going to heal that
person – right then !
Passage
reminds us!
A) God is there – Suffering
PRAY
B) Satisfied: SING
C) Sick – Call for elders
Also reminds us – God’s
heart is to heal and to forgive
Today: Not right with the
Lord – sin
Confess – Humble yourself
Saved !