The Prayers Of God’s People
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Good morning! This week, our progress in James brings us to this passage on prayer. If I am being completely honest, this week has been a week where our family has been in prayer in a real and powerful way. We met with a neurosurgeon who was not only optimistic about my upcoming surgery, but was pretty positive that my headaches and brain fog are not coming from my head. He is pretty confident that finding the brain tumor was a “happy accident” or an “incidental find” from an unrelated ailment. We are working on getting clearance from the insurance company to proceed, but also getting medical clearance - otherwise, answering the question of whether or not I am healthy enough for surgery. A guy my age is generally not questioned in that respect, but I’ve been through a lot and it is a valid question. After getting an EKG, they were pretty sure they knew where my headaches and brain fog are coming from. So before I can get my surgery, I need to first go in and get seen and be treated by a cardiologist to help get my ticker where it needs to be for surgery and for a healthy life for, Lord willing, years to come.
Nevertheless, God uses situations and circumstances in our lives to remind us of the importance of being in prayer. I will admit, there are times I unintentionally emphasize Scripture over time in prayer, when I know that both are key to Christian growth, maturity and the daily Christian walk. James reminds us today of the need for prayer, of the effect of prayer and the power of God exercised through the prayer of righteous people.
This morning, we are going to walk through our passage and look at these three ideas:
Prayer in Every Season (13-15)
Prayer that Brings Healing (16)
Prayer with Powerful Results (17-18)
God works powerfully through the prayers of His people.
Prayer In Every Season (5:13–15)
Prayer In Every Season (5:13–15)
Please read with me in…
13 Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone cheerful? He should sing praises.
14 Is anyone among you sick? He should call for the elders of the church, and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
15 The prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up; if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
James shows prayer in suffering, joy, and sickness — all of life.
Notice how he’s careful not to only include examples of when things are hard, but in all circumstances - if you are suffering - pray. The Greek word the author uses, κακοπαθεω, does not refer to physical suffering from an ailment or pain, but rather the idea of going through some kind of unjust misfortune - he is talking about suffering in the sense of the stress and grief caused by the various trials we go through in life. So he is building up a contrast to this idea of being cheerful. Are you enduring trials in your life that are stressing you out? Take it to the Lord in prayer! He should pray! This simple three word suggestion seems to be like the most obvious answer to what we do when we find ourselves in stress, but if you’re anything like me, you feel you need to run a few mental laps with it before you are in a place you can do anything, and by the time you’ve calmed down and situated yourself, you’ve already made a plan and left the Lord out of it completely. Sometimes, we can get wound up like a 13-hour clock and forget the promise of the Lord that we can bring our burdens to Him because his yoke is easy and his burden in light.
But when we are in trouble, we should call on the Lord! Look at the promise God makes through the psalmist in
15 Call on me in a day of trouble; I will rescue you, and you will honor me.”
How many of you here would admit that you tend to worry a little more than you should? I think we all can admit that there are some seasons where worry seems to be more natural to us than prayer.
I love the words of Dr. D.A. Carson, who said…
Either worrying drives out prayer, or prayer drives out worrying.
D. A. Carson
He rightly points out that there is no such thing as a happy balance between worry and prayer. We either give something to the Lord or we carry the stress of it on our own shoulders. Between you and me, God is a way better problem solver than I could ever hope to be - so not only is He willing to take my suffering, but He’s capable of working it out.
There’s a promise in Romans that I have been clinging to:
28 We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.
Knowing this, why should we worry? We should, as James says, pray. Suffering and anguish should inspire us to prayer because the Lord is available, capable and willing to carry these burdens and guide us to the other side of it. Sometimes, getting to the other side of it means going home to be with the Lord - other times, we get to not only experience and see how God works through our suffering, but we get to rejoice at the fact that God not only heard but answered our prayers and proved, yet again, His faithfulness to His people.
One of the most powerful reminders about seeking out the Lord in all season, especially as it relates to suffering, is…
6 Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
It’s reminiscent of Jesus’ own words in
34 Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
If we are suffering, we should pray.
If we are cheerful, we should pray. Notice a pattern starting to develop? It might be quicker if he simply said, “Whatever you are experiencing, take it to the Lord in prayer: whether it be suffering or rejoicing - share in that experience with God and walk with Him through it.” In other words, we talk about being in relationship with God - this is how that gets born out. How many of you are married? How many of you would expect to remain married for a long time if you never told your spouse anything, just expected them to observe and intervene when necessary? I’m not saying our relationship with God has the propensity for separation like our earthly relationships do, but what I am saying is that a relationship with God means bringing our sufferings, joys and everything in between to Him and walking with Him in relationship.
There is a really powerful sermon that you can find on YouTube from the late pastor and theologian Leonard Ravenhill. The sermon is about an hour long, and if you want to feel convicted about your prayer life, boy-howdy! I would highly recommend this sermon. I believe the Christian church has lost its way in terms of prayer - refusing the discipline of prayer out of a suspicion of legalism or ritualism. However good being cautious against those things may be, perhaps we’ve gone too far and thrown the baby out with the bath water. We should be a people who are quick to pray - no matter the circumstance.
When we come together and sing our praises to the Lord, that’s not for us, but we treat it that way so often. After having spent nearly 20 years in worship ministry, I only ever had feedback from the congregation on the theological breadth of a song a mere handful of times. But when it came to opinions on fast music, slow music, energetic music, contemplative, contemporary or hymns - it was literally, no joke, practically every week. Personal taste in music is often elevated over the theology in the songs we sing, and its sad. I’m not wanting to accuse anyone of anything specific, but I know I have a tendency within myself as a sinner and as a musician, that I can be pretty opinionated and sometimes unfairly, or hyper-critical of others in these matters, but what right do I have to think my opinion must be followed? It’s hubris and sin to exalt ourselves and our opinions so highly. But if we suffer, we should pray. If we rejoice, we should sing praises - which usually are prayers of praise set to some kind of melodic and rhythmic scheme.
Notice how after addressing suffering and rejoicing, he also mentions being sick? Here, James is talking about the various physical ailments we run into that cause us actual physical suffering. unlike how he used κακοπαθεω earlier in the passage, here he uses the term ἀσθενέω, which means physical weakness, feebleness or experiencing some kind of physical malady. He then calls believers to have the elders of the church - that’s those who are appointed within the church who teach and work as gate-keepers for the church’s doctrine and direction - to anoint the sick person with oil and then, we come to an interesting part in v.15
15 The prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up; if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
Let me start out by saying this - This is not, as some have suggested, a promise for physical healing - though it doesn’t dismiss that as something God might do - but James’ focus here is on ultimate healing - salvation; and the ultimate hope - being raised with Christ again. God doesn’t promise physical healing for everyone, but he does offer spiritual restoration whenever we seek it. That’s the idea that James is talking about here - that prayers made in honest faith will always restore the truly important part of a person back to wholeness. He uses soteriological language - that is - language specifically used when talking about a person’s salvation - not jut physical healing. From the surrounding context, we know that James wants believers to live in a way that accurately reflects the Lord to the outside world. That would mean here that if God’s priority is for our spiritual healing, then that should be ours too. I had a friend who died of Leukemia about 15 years ago, and I’ll never forget how his mom broke the news on Facebook - she said, “Today my son, Mitch, has been fully healed and is now in the presence of Jesus…”
To be fully healed sounds absolutely wonderful doesn’t it? I’ve said this a few times already, but the older I get, the more I realize that everything in life seems to be designed to make us more and more homesick for heaven. The kind of healing we should be longing for is the full restoration of our spirit - that’s why James places so much emphasis on the fact that healing and the forgiveness of sin are very much related. This isn’t to discourage anyone with chronic maladies, pain or diseases that would make anyone in their right mind cry out to God for deliverance, but this is designed to give us all hope in the fact that we will rise up with Him at the end and find complete spiritual and, eventual, physical healing when we get new bodies in heaven. I, for one, am looking forward to an upgrade. I would never accuse God of selling me a lemon, but boy howdy!
When we are sick, we should lean on the church and corporately gather together to pray. I exerienced a powerful time of prayer last week when at the end of Sunday School, a group of people came to lay hands on me and pray. My hope and prayer is that it wont be the last time and that God will give us reason to rejoice - no matter what my physical condition evolves into. But I hang on to this:
16 Rejoice always, 17 pray constantly, 18 give thanks in everything; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
God works powerfully through the prayers of His people.
Prayer That Brings Healing (5:16)
Prayer That Brings Healing (5:16)
Let’s continue reading…
16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect.
James highlights community, confession, and prayer as the pathway to true wholeness.
This passage has widely been mistaken as a defense of the Catholic practice of the confessional. To make it clear - nowhere in scripture are we told to go to another person and confess our sin in order to receive absolution from our sin - absolution is where we are given a task, like 50 recitations of the “Hail Mary” prayer by a priest in order to cover the sin we have committed. Scripture is clear that believers are a special priesthood - each and every single one of us can go directly to God the Father, directly to God the Son and directly to God the Holy Spirit without the need of a human intercessor. He have Christ in the office of High Priest who ultimately goes to God on our behalf to provide our defense, but also who provided the sacrifice capable of covering our sin once and for all - God’s wrath is completely satisfied because of Christ’s death on the Cross and now Christ intercedes on our behalf to God the Father. No sinful human can do that - that’s why the Protestant reformation still matters - there are those within the Catholic church and even other formerly protestant denominations who insist in the priesthood of the church and demand to be first in line when going to God for the forgiveness of sin. Let me be equally as clear on this point - the things assigned for absolution from sin is evidence of a works-based-salvation - something Scripture fights hand-tooth-and-nail to deny - God saves by grace through faith, Eph 2:8-10.
So as we started with earlier, God’s ultimate priority for us isn’t physical healing, but rather for spiritual healing and restoration - this notion that God wants us to be happy healthy and wealthy is a trap laid by those who would try and make a profit off of gullible people trying to find relief from their suffering - the prosperity gospel is the worst case of a wolf in sheep’s clothing the church has seen in a long time.
This week, a well-meaning brother sent me a clip trying to encourage me about my recent diagnosis - I had a hard time recognizing the preacher’s voice but it was familiar. He started promising all sorts of healing and miracles - and that’s when I recognized the voice - it was Joel Olsteen! I didn’t have the heart to tell my friend he was sending garbage, I just politely thanked him and told him I was looking forward to whatever the Lord wanted to do through the situation.
The reason why James brings up confession here isn’t for the sake of legalistic ritual, but rather fellowship - we are to confess our sin in the spirit of
17 Iron sharpens iron, and one person sharpens another.
We get together and talk about things - including areas where we are falling into sin - and we pray for one another to be delivered from that sin, we hold each other accountable to help one another turn away from sin and turn towards Christ. The worst thing we can do is ignore our sin
13 The one who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.
And then, what’s my favorite verse, church?
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
We want to seek after the healing that comes from being free from the burden of sin - and James is suggesting that we gather together, talk about our sin and pray for one another. Specifically because the pryer of a righteous person is powerful in its effect.
1 Brothers and sisters, if someone is overtaken in any wrongdoing, you who are spiritual, restore such a person with a gentle spirit, watching out for yourselves so that you also won’t be tempted.
2 Carry one another’s burdens; in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
And we do this through prayer and loving confrontation! We should be comfortable enough with one another and open to one another enough that if we see one another in sin, we should call them out on it! If you see me in sin, call me out on it! If someone sees you in sin, you should welcome them calling you out on it so you can pray and be healed from your sin - restored to God by faith, forgiven, cleansed and sanctified.
God works powerfully through the prayers of His people.
Not only should we pray in every circumstance in life, but we should also gather together for prayer to dig deeply and pray for one another for deliverance from the areas of sin we are drawn to. Lastly, we pray with an expectation of powerful results.
Prayer With Powerful Results (5:17–18)
Prayer With Powerful Results (5:17–18)
Let’s continue…
17 Elijah was a human being as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the land.
18 Then he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the land produced its fruit.
James points to Elijah as proof that God works through the prayers of ordinary - but righteous - people. He points out specifically that Elijah was a human being “as we are” - he was no special angel or messiah, but an ordinary man with an extraordinay calling in his life as a prophet. His main goal and concern was for the will of God to be accomplished - he spoke down to kings and armies who stood against the Lord and God protected him and made his presence known to him throughout his life. He was a man of faith. In the Old Testament, faithfulness to God was counted as what? Righteousness! Does scripture say that Elijah never sinned? No! He wasn’t perfect! He was an ordinary person like we are, but he was faithful to God and that faithfulness was counted to him as righteousness.
Scripture makes it clear that God works powerfully through the prayers of righteous people.
29 The Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.
Brothers and sisters - if we are - indeed in Christ - then our faith in Him is counted to us as righteousness too. We stand as righteous before God because of the substitutionary nature of Christ’s life lived on our behalf (counted as righteousness) and the satisfaction of God’s wrath against our sin (counted to us as justification) - so we stand before God in righteousness if we have placed out faith in Jesus.
If that’s you, then John says this to you:
14 This is the confidence we have before him: If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
15 And if we know that he hears whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked of him.
Does this mean that we can ask for anything that our heart desires expecting that God will fulfill it? No - it needs to be in line and in accordance to his will. There are many who take the passages of Scripture like this and try to turn it to mean that God will give us everything we pray for - and somehow, if you don’t get it, you don’t have enough faith. It’s ridiculous to think that God would work on a quantified kind of faith in terms of answering prayers - that transfers the power of his answering the prayer to you as the one praying -
friends: is the power in the prayer or in the one who answers the prayer? We know it’s in the one who answers it, because he is the one who is benevolently and lovingly caring for us out of his own good pleasure, mercy and grace!
Elijah prayed it wouldn’t rain to cause the Israelites to see the power of the Lord - it was all for God’s glory, not Elijah’s! God wanted them to listen to Elijah’s message because he was the one who sent him with the message in the first place! So when Elijah prayed for the rains to cease for such a long time, he was asking God to intercede in the mission God assigned him for the purpose God assigned Him - Elijah’s motivation for praying for this was perfectly and succinctly in-line with the Father’s will, so God answered him.
What does the New Testament say to us today?
7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you.
Again, there is a predication here that our hearts need to be aligned with God’s. God’s not separating our prayers by those who are more perfect, somehow giving them priority - His main criteria is whether or not we are walking with Him in faith and trust. There is a book circulating out there called the Prayer of Jabez, and it tries to pull a formula for praying for material wealth, influence, health and prosperity so that those who pray in the same vein can be encouraged that whatever they pray for will be answered in abundance too. The reality of the situation with Jabez is that his motivation was pure - he asked for an increase in his land and heards so that people would know who his God was, and God answered him.
People have a way of trying to synchronize their materialism with their Christian faith - that God wants me to be happy, healthy and wealthy. And many of the people who peddle this awful theology do so with cunning and skill and deceive the church into believing a lie. Is God’s priority for us to be happy, healthy and wealthy? Nope! He’s happier with a cancer-ridden beggar with good and godly character than he is with any rich person who’s god is their money.
Prosperity should mean that the things God is wanting to accomplish in our hearts is actually taking root - not our social and material comforts. Ideas like the prosperity gospel are where ideas like “God doesn’t answer our prayers because we don’t have enough faith” comes from. The thing that should prosper is the peace of knowing that God is with us, no matter what our circumstances. Let’s imagine a completely hypothetical scenario in which you get diagnosed with cancer - cause that only happens in movies, right? Is God any less good because we have cancer or is he still God? He is still God! We don’t know everything, but we do know that there is an effect of sin in the world that wreaks havoc on the human body and riddles us with all sorts of diseases and death that we were never designed by God to endure.
Faith, real faith and real righteousness is walking with God in the midst of these things and pressing in to Him. The prayers that he hears are those that cry out to him for deliverance from the main antagonist of our story - sin. When we press into God and ask him for anything, if it is in line with his will, he will answer that prayer. Sometimes, we have a hard time understanding what his will in a given situation is, and that’s when we get an answer of “no.” There have been many faithful and trusting people who have prayed to God for healing from their infirmities, only to fall asleep in the Lord - but guess what, they experienced full and complete healing from their infirmities and anything that would ever challenge their health again. There are times we don’t know how to pray - and that’s okay! The big thing is whether we being steadfast in our faithfulness to him and asking him to move.
God works powerfully through the prayers of His people.
As such, we should be in prayer in every season. We should remember that prayer brings ultimate healing, and that God works through the prayers of righteous people.
Conclusion
Conclusion
I don’t normally like to spend a whole ton of time on quoting writers and theologians unless it pertains specifically to the passage at hand. In this case, however, when speaking about the power God working through the prayers of his people, I think it is not only appropriate to help us get a sense of what other people have said, but also to see where the larger community of faith has landed on this topic.
So here are a few quotes on prayer that I pray will not only help you see the point of the passage, but will encourage you to move toward being a person committed to the Lord in prayer.
Every prayer is an inverted promise … If God teaches us to pray for any good thing, we may gather by implication the assurance that he means to give it.
Charles Spurgeon
8927 Prayer is not flight; prayer is power. Prayer does not deliver a man from some terrible situation; prayer enables a man to face and to master the situation.
William Barclay (New Testament Scholar)
Prayer is not wrestling with God’s reluctance to bless us; it is laying hold of his willingness to do so.
John Blanchard
God does not keep office hours.
A. W. Tozer
8988 The prayer of the feeblest saint on earth who lives in the Spirit and keeps right with God is a terror to Satan. The very powers of darkness are paralyzed by prayer; no spiritual seance can succeed in the presence of a humble praying saint. No wonder Satan tries to keep our minds fussy in active work till we cannot think in prayer.
Oswald Chambers (Lecturer and Missionary)
The first prayer is not prayer for statesmen, nor for friends or relatives, nor for other nations, that is not the first prayer. The first prayer is to plead with him to come into his Temple, to manifest his glory to show us something of the might of His power and to fill us with that power.
Spiritual Blessing, 134
David Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Welsh Preacher and Writer)
Next to the wonder of seeing my Savior will be, I think, the wonder that I made so little use of the power of prayer.
Dwight Lyman Moody (Evangelist)
The goal of prayer is the ear of God.
Charles Spurgeon
Fervency in prayer by the power of the Holy Spirit is a good preservative against thoughts rushing in. Flies never settle on a boiling pot.
Dwight Lyman Moody (Evangelist)
My prayer for us all today is that we recognize that studying Scripture isn’t enough to satisfy our souls - at least it shouldn’t be. We should be communing with God through prayer: praying without ceasing, and
