Lesson 4: Laying on of Hands

Intro

continuing our series, Elementary, and to kick things off I want to invite the grads up to the front. We have three grads this year, and one of them has to leave early so we didn’t want to miss the opportunity we have this morning.

I also want to invite the pastor’s council up, as the spiritual leaders of the church. Once the council is up here, I want the rest of the congregation to come up and lay on hands, either on the grads or the person in front you. I want the whole family in on this.

I want you to lay your hands on the grads, and I will pray over them this morning. We also have our grad bibles that we hand out every year. Our mission at OneChurch is to equip people to live effectively, and so we give you this bible in the hope that it will help guide you through life.

Pray for our grads a commissioning prayer as they head out on life’s journey.

As everyone grabs their seat, I want to pose a question to you. Why do we do that? Why do we lay hands on people? If you’ve been in the church realm of life for a while, you’ve probably seen this done more than once, but do you really understand why we do it?

I found it interesting that laying on of hands was included in the 6 things the author of Hebrews considers to be fundament truth. What is so significant about this practice? Maybe, like baptism, we have slowly started to misunderstand what is really going on here. I wonder if we have almost strayed the opposite way of baptism. Where baptism is almost disregarded as unnecessary, I wonder of laying on of hands is become so overused it has lost it’s significance as well.

In order to grasp what is going on here, we need to go all the way back to the days of Moses, back to the sacrificial system. This is going to be a bit of a weird journey but bear with me.

Exodus 29:10–25 NLT

“Bring the young bull to the entrance of the Tabernacle, where Aaron and his sons will lay their hands on its head. Then slaughter the bull in the Lord’s presence at the entrance of the Tabernacle. Put some of its blood on the horns of the altar with your finger, and pour out the rest at the base of the altar. Take all the fat around the internal organs, the long lobe of the liver, and the two kidneys and the fat around them, and burn it all on the altar. Then take the rest of the bull, including its hide, meat, and dung, and burn it outside the camp as a sin offering. “Next Aaron and his sons must lay their hands on the head of one of the rams. Then slaughter the ram, and splatter its blood against all sides of the altar. Cut the ram into pieces, and wash off the internal organs and the legs. Set them alongside the head and the other pieces of the body, then burn the entire animal on the altar. This is a burnt offering to the Lord; it is a pleasing aroma, a special gift presented to the Lord. “Now take the other ram, and have Aaron and his sons lay their hands on its head. Then slaughter it, and apply some of its blood to the right earlobes of Aaron and his sons. Also put it on the thumbs of their right hands and the big toes of their right feet. Splatter the rest of the blood against all sides of the altar. Then take some of the blood from the altar and some of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it on Aaron and his sons and on their garments. In this way, they and their garments will be set apart as holy. “Since this is the ram for the ordination of Aaron and his sons, take the fat of the ram, including the fat of the broad tail, the fat around the internal organs, the long lobe of the liver, and the two kidneys and the fat around them, along with the right thigh. Then take one round loaf of bread, one thin cake mixed with olive oil, and one wafer from the basket of bread without yeast that was placed in the Lord’s presence. Put all these in the hands of Aaron and his sons to be lifted up as a special offering to the Lord. Afterward take the various breads from their hands, and burn them on the altar along with the burnt offering. It is a pleasing aroma to the Lord, a special gift for him.

Laying of Hands as Transference

What we just read was a major part of the ordination of Aaron and his sons. Three times in this passage we read that Aaron and his sons were to lay their hands on the head of the animal. What is going on here? All three times there is a transfering of guilt. When they laid their hands on the bull, it was a transfering of their guilt of sin onto the bull, thus a sin offering. The second and third time was a transfering of the guilt of the people so that they could come into fellowship with God and their worship would be acceptable.

it was through the laying theirs hands on the animal that the guilt was transfered and the animals were able to take the place of the people.

This is really important to understand because for the next little while, this would be the only time people would lay their hands on something until we get to Numbers when we read:

Numbers 8:10–11 NLT

When you present the Levites before the Lord, the people of Israel must lay their hands on them. Raising his hands, Aaron must then present the Levites to the Lord as a special offering from the people of Israel, thus dedicating them to the Lord’s service.

Elevating the Levites

It said in verse 11 that the Levites were to be a special offering to the Lord. In the Exodus passage, we read that the parts of the second ram were to be placed in the hands of the Aaron as a special offering. The literal translation in both cases was to be an elevated offering. The same way that Aaron would take those pieces and lift them to the Lord, the Levites were to be lifted to the Lord as a tribe. Why? In the promised land, they were set apart to serve as priests for the nation of Israel.

So there is some important imagery starting to emerge. We have a transfering and an elevating, and it all comes together in Numbers 27.

Numbers 27:15–23 NLT

Then Moses said to the Lord, “O Lord, you are the God who gives breath to all creatures. Please appoint a new man as leader for the community. Give them someone who will guide them wherever they go and will lead them into battle, so the community of the Lord will not be like sheep without a shepherd.” The Lord replied, “Take Joshua son of Nun, who has the Spirit in him, and lay your hands on him. Present him to Eleazar the priest before the whole community, and publicly commission him to lead the people. Transfer some of your authority to him so the whole community of Israel will obey him. When direction from the Lord is needed, Joshua will stand before Eleazar the priest, who will use the Urim—one of the sacred lots cast before the Lord—to determine his will. This is how Joshua and the rest of the community of Israel will determine everything they should do.” So Moses did as the Lord commanded. He presented Joshua to Eleazar the priest and the whole community. Moses laid his hands on him and commissioned him to lead the people, just as the Lord had commanded through Moses.

Moses Commissions Joshua

Moses is going to die and he will not lead the people into the promised. It is Joshua whom God has chosen to lead the people. So that the people know that it is Joshua who is chosen, Moses is to take Joshua, before all the people, lay his hands on him, just like the priests, but instead of guilt, Moses is to transfer some of his authority and commission Joshua to lead the people.

Joshua is elevated, not to the same level as Moses, but as a leader with authority, commissioned by God and Moses to lead.

It is this model that we begin to see in the New Testament

Acts 6:1–6 NLT

But as the believers rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings of discontent. The Greek-speaking believers complained about the Hebrew-speaking believers, saying that their widows were being discriminated against in the daily distribution of food. So the Twelve called a meeting of all the believers. They said, “We apostles should spend our time teaching the word of God, not running a food program. And so, brothers, select seven men who are well respected and are full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will give them this responsibility. Then we apostles can spend our time in prayer and teaching the word.” Everyone liked this idea, and they chose the following: Stephen (a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit), Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas of Antioch (an earlier convert to the Jewish faith). These seven were presented to the apostles, who prayed for them as they laid their hands on them.

The Deacons Commissioned

There is a need that arises in this quickly growing church, and the apostles recognize that they cannot be the ones to fill the need because they need to focus on the things that God has called them to do. So they take 7 men of good standing, lay their hands on them, commission them the serve and lead in the area of need. There is an elevating, and sending to serve.

1 Timothy 4:14 NLT

Do not neglect the spiritual gift you received through the prophecy spoken over you when the elders of the church laid their hands on you.

2 Timothy 1:6 NLT

This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you.

Timothy Commissioned by Paul and Elders

Timothy is leading the church in emphasis, and Paul is reminding him that the elders and Paul laid hands on him, to commission him to do the work that he is doing, with the authority he needs to do it.

It is all this overwhelming evidence that the author of Hebrews is leaning on when he identifies laying on of hands as fundamental. It was through the laying on of hands that believers were set apart for roles of leadership.

This is the primary function of laying on of hands. It was so important that Paul even tells Timothy to not lay hands on people too quickly. Paul is telling Timothy to not be too hasty when establishing people as leaders of the church.

Other cases?

now outside of this, there are a couple other instances in scripture where people laid hands on others. OK, not people, one person in particular. A guy by the name of Jesus.

Mark 10:16 NLT

Then he took the children in his arms and placed his hands on their heads and blessed them.

so Jesus laid His hands on children to bless them.

Mark 5:23 NLT

pleading fervently with him. “My little daughter is dying,” he said. “Please come and lay your hands on her; heal her so she can live.”

Jesus would lay His hands on people when He healed them.

We read in several places in Acts that the Apostles continued to lay hands on the sick to heal them.

Blank

I started off by saying that the laying on of hands is probably overused. Of the three things we talked about, commissioning leaders, blessing people, and praying for healing, which of those three reason do we typically lay hands on people? The second 2. Yet according to scripture, it is the first one that seems to be the more important.

I point this out simply for this reason. When we lay our hands on someone in prayer, let us not take it lightly. There is something significant that happens in those moments and I want us to be a people that don’t miss those moments. When we lay our hands on people, do we expect healing to happen? Do we expect blessing to happen? Do we believe that we are giving people authority to face the challenges that life is throwing their way? Or are we simply doing what we’ve always done and going through the motions? Let us not be a people who get caught up in same old same old and may we understand the signficance that laying hands on one another can truly have.

Let’s pray!