James: The Prayers of the Saints
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Early Christian Letters for Everyone: James, Peter, John and Judah James 5:13–20: Praying in Faith
Heaven and earth meet when, in the spirit, someone calls on the name of the Lord. And it means what it means and does what it does because God’s new time has broken into the continuing time of this sad old world, so that the person praying stands with one foot in the place of trouble, sickness and sin and with the other foot in the place of healing, forgiveness and hope. Prayer then brings the latter to bear on the former.
Have you ever considered what happens when we pray?
We enter into the very presence of God
And the presence of God is a place where we are undone
If you remember when the Israelites saw the glory of God descend upon mount sinai they were greatly afraid
when Isaiah saw the glory of the Lord he was undone
When we pray we come into the very presence and glory of God.
In the OT The Holy of Holies was the place where the glory of heaven came and dwelt on death.
In that place only did Heaven and earth meet - they were fused together.
And now, when we pray we likewise enter into the holy of holies where heaven and earth are fused together .
in prayer we stand as men and women with one foot in heaven and one foot on earth.
When we pray we pray with one foot in the place of healing, forgiveness and hope, and one foot in the in the place of trouble, sickness and sin.
And there are many examples of the power of prayer in the bible
James looks at the example of Elijah
17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.
18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.
Example of Elijah in Prayer
He prayed boldly
he prayed big prayers
He prayed the bible (blessings and curses)
He prayed as one in the presence of God himself.
And when we recognize what happens when we pray, that we are coming into the throne room of God it makes sense why we bow our heads, why we may extend our hands.
For we come into the presence of God not because of our own merit or righteousness, but we come into the throne room of God because Jesus has cleansed us, washed, us forgiven us, and has brought us into his righteousness as adopted sons and daughters
And this is why jesus teaches his disciples to pray by saying saying, “Our Father who art in heaven”
***Piper Example of coming into our bedroom.
This is how we are to come to God, boldly as his child
And if this is the case when should we come to God in prayer?
And this is, in part, what James address in James chapter 5
Prayer in All Things
Prayer in All Things
1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings.
13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.
James tells us to respond to suffering with prayer
How often do we respond to suffering with anger or indulging in self pity or complaining?
what kind of suffering?
sickness?
Sadness?
Relational suffering? Emotional Suffering?
James tells us to respond to cheerfulness with songs of praise
How often when things are going well do we forget to praise God, do we forget to thank him for the blessings he has given us?
James commands that we pray through the entire spectrum of emotions, whether low or high, at the bottom or the top, in the pits or on the pinnacle.
Either prayer or praise is ALWAYS appropriate.
Prayer for the Sick
Prayer for the Sick
before we look at what james says as far as praying for the sick and how to do it, we need to have a biblical understanding of sickness and healing and what they represent.
We see throughout the Scriptures that God is a healing God.
And this prescription is directed both at the sick, and at the elders of the church.
He healed Naaman from his Leprosy
He healed the women with the issue of blood
He healed the blind, and the lame
He even raised people from the greatest sickness, which is death.
When we look at sickness and healing throughout the bible we see that they are symbolic of greater realities.
Sickness symbolizes Sin
This is not to say that, as some do, that personal sickness is always a result of personal sin. The Bible goes out of its way to unhinge that idea.
Example of Job
Job’s friends kept asking Job, what sin he had committed to bring about his sickness and suffering. To which Job replayed that he had not sinned.
Man blind from birth -
“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “it was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him”
And there are times when sin can lead to sickness like when the Corinthian church took the sacrament of communion without regard to the fractured relationships within the church.
So not all sickness is due to personal sin, however...
So not all sickness is due to personal sin, however...Sickness is always symbolic of sin, from the the slightest cough to terminal illness.
Sickness is always symbolic of sin, from the the slightest cough to terminal illness.
Sickness symbolizes the curse of sin, the brokenness of creation, and the rebellion of the created order.
When God created the world He pronounced it good.
there was no sickness, no pain, no sin.
The agony of watching a loved one suffer was not part of God’s original creation.
Yet, when sin entered the world God’s good creation was cursed. And the curse of sin introduced a demented reality where sin sickness and death pass to all people.
And the curse of sin affected not only humans, but all of creation.
We see in the bible that the curse of sin not only results in physical sickness of people, but creation itself is sick and is withering under the curse of sin.
So every time we see grass withering, or flowers fading, or tree’s falling, we are seeing the results of sin on the created order
And every time we have an ache or pain, a cough or sneeze, cancer or diabetes, we are seeing the effect of sin on the created order.
Not only does sickness symbolize sin, but in sickness we are more prone toward sin.
When sickness comes we can quickly doubt the goodness of God
When sickness comes we can become angry and bitter toward God
not only those, but those who are close to those who are suffering.
Now, if sickness symbolizes sin in the bible, we also see that healings symbolize salvation in the bible.
From all the way through to the end of Revelation we see that the hope of the gospel is that Jesus will come and heal that which sin cursed.
Israel longed for the day when the land and the people would be healed
Paul says that creation itself waits with groaning for its redemption
Malachi prophesied about the day when the sun of righteousness shall rise and there would be healing in its wings.
And we see Jesus fulfilling this prophesy when he healed the woman with the issue of blood.
she touched the wing of his garment and was healed.
The healings in the bible always symbolize the salvation that comes in Christ. And it is a holistic salvation, its not just a spiritual salvation, but it is a physical salvation as well.
T
When Jesus healed the paralytic in , the Pharisees were outraged because Jesus connected the physical healing with the forgiveness of sins.
And why would Jesus do this? Or perhaps the better questions is why were the Pharisees so upset with this connection?
well perhaps because they saw the spiritual and the physical as two distinct things -
you have the physical world, and you have the spiritual world, and the two shall never meet.
Now if we are honest, we also struggle to connect the physical and the spiritual
We have physical things like sickness and health, and you have spiritual things like temptation and Joy.
And we view these as mutually exclusive
And in Christ we healing, a physical thing,
Look with me at v. 14
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.
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 one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
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 one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
What does it mean to anoint the sick with oil? Why does James tell the elders of the church to do this?
Some say its an early form of medical attention, oil having medicinal purposes in scripture was often used as a medicine to bring about healing for the sick.
However, this is not what James is saying.
Not one time in the bible do we see this word for “anoint” used for physical healing.
Some say that God uses the oil as a vehicle for healing. The Roman Catholic Church sees this practice as a sacrament they call anointing the sick. They see the practice as removing any remnant of sin and of strengthening the soul.
This however is not what James has in mind either. James knows the power of the gospel and how all of our sins were taken care of on the cross. There is no need for removing remnants of sin, for Christ was thorough in his cleansing on the cross.
So what does James mean when he says elders are to anoint the sick with oil?
To understand this practice we must think the way James thought - and James’ whole worldview was not like ours, but rather he thoughts like Hebrew, he thought the way the OT thinks.
So for us to understand what James is saying we likewise need to look to the OT for guidance.
Anointing with oil was common in the OT as a symbolic action that set people or even things apart for God.
Priests, kings and prophets were all anointed with oil for their vocations.
with a high view of God’s sovereignty and rule, priests would anoint priests, kings, and prophets as set apart in their vocation for God.
The oil was a sign that they were set apart to God.
Arrons and his sons were anointed with oil
King Saul and king David were anointed with oil for what God called them to do.
Not only were people anointed
but we see in that even the furniture of the tabernacle received this same sort of anointing that would set them apart for holy use.
25 And you shall make of these a sacred anointing oil blended as by the perfumer; it shall be a holy anointing oil.
26 With it you shall anoint the tent of meeting and the ark of the testimony,
27 and the table and all its utensils, and the lampstand and its utensils, and the altar of incense,
28 and the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils and the basin and its stand.
29 You shall consecrate them, that they may be most holy. Whatever touches them will become holy.
So with this in mind, lets look back at
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.
So we have seen that sickness symbolizes sin, which is separation from God.
And those who are suffering from sickness can often feel like they are separated from God. So what should be done?
You call the elders of the church to come and pray over him, and anoint him with oil.
Anointing with oil symbolizes the fact that the sick person, even in his sickness, is a redeemed, set apart child of God.
And therefore his suffering is not in vain, its not stupid dumb luck, but somehow a share in the suffering of Christ.
This is a great assurance to the sick person. The anointing, laying on of hands, and prayer gives hope that, whatever the outcome of his illness, whether he lives or dies, he is Christ’s own possession, and Jesus will keep him.
This is what the anointing means: It means that the sickness is not victorious, but it is a vocation;
the anointing deputizes the sick to a unique ministry in the body of Christ.
Anointing with oil and praying over the sick symbolizes the guarantee of the gospel, that Christ will indeed save the sick and raise him up.
For this is the hope of all believers:
That though sickness is a result of sin, there is forgiveness
That though sickness my bring to an end to our mortal bodies, there is a resurrection coming.
However, the anointing with oil is not all James tells us to do. We also pray over the one who is sick.
We enter into the very presence of God through prayer and intercede for the one who is sick.
We pray for healing.
We pray that the eternal realities of salvation and healing symbolized by the anointing with oil will be made manifest in the present.
We believe that God heals, not only in the future, but also in the present.
Church, there is true healing in Christ, and if we receiving healing in this life, we receive a taste of the glory that is yet to come.
This is our prayer for the sick, that God would save them, that he would raise them up.
and if we are raised with Christ, in this life or in the next, we receive this healing by grace alone
When we are raised if there is sin, there is forgiveness.
And James says IF he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
If there is sin, there is forgiveness,
Which leads us to James now zooming out just a bit from the sickbed and the elders to the entire church in verse 16.
16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
Confessing sins to one another and praying for one another always brings healing to the church.
It may be physical healing
it may be spiritual healing
it may be relational or emotional healing.
Sin wants to keep you in its sickness of its grip - therefore when we confess to one another and pray for one another healing is the result.
Confessing and Praying for One Another
Confessing and Praying for One Another
Confessing sins is not an easy thing to do.
we live in a world that loves to accuse
and to confess sin to one another flies in the face of our personal miranda rights - anything you say can be used against you.
What if you confess your sins and you are judged by the one whom you confess too?
what if you confess your sins and you lose respect or influence?
well, James does not qualify this - he does not say
If its comfortable, confess your sins to one another
Rather, he just says to do it, to confess our sins to one another
We must not only be good as confessing to each other, we must learn to receive confession rightly.
when someone confesses their sins to us, we are to remember that we also stand condemned for our evil works, yet we have found forgiveness in Christ. so we take that forgiveness and share it with those who are confessing.
The judgement of sin was taken care of on the cross, we must never think we should judge the sin of a brother or sister who is confessing.
Not only do we confess, to one another, but we are also to pray for one another.
we are to take each other by the hands and bring them into the throne room of God and pray for each other.
We pray for healing
we pray for well being
We pray for faithfulness
We pray that brothers and sister don’t wander from the truth
And this is what James address at the close of his letter
19 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back,
20 let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
As we have seen in this letter James has talked about
trials
wisdom
faith
how to treat the poor
Justification
the dangers of the tongue
wisdom from above and below
And prayer for one another
Yet he ends with a call to truly love one another
To truly love one another is to go out when one is wandering from the truth and seek to bring them back
To truly love one another is to care about each other, to know each other well enough to know when things are not right.
And to truly love one another is to actually go out and bring those who are wondering back to the truth.
Church, may this be true of us
my we love one another to bring each other before God in prayer
May we love one another enough to confront, sin and call each other back to the truth.