James 6: Wisdom in Community
Notes
Transcript
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Opening
Opening
Welcome to our Family Worship service here at Eastern Hills. Those joining us online, welcome. Those here in the room, it’s great to see you. I truly love being a part of this church, and it’s a joy to get to worship the Lord with you each week.
Veterans Day
A group of people who really help in that regard is our AV team, and I want us to say thanks to those guys, whose responsibility has gotten more complex in the last couple of years. Thanks for your faithful service, guys.
Announcements
Announcements
Business Meeting tonight. Special called next Sunday following morning service if we don’t make quorum tonight.
International Mission Sunday next Sunday. Excited to have Kit Klein, who serves with European peoples, to come and share with us next weekend.
There will be no Wednesday night activities for any age group on the night before Thanksgiving.
Message
Message
This week is our last week in our series on the book of James. I know that we could spend a whole lot more time in James, but I know that the time we’ve spent has been incredibly convicting for me personally, and I pray that God has done some serious remodeling in your heart through this study as well. Remember that we are defining wisdom as “knowing how to live a life that glorifies God.” This last message answers the question: “How do we do life together as a church for God’s glory?” As we read our focal passage from God’s Word this morning, let’s stand together:
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. 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. 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. 19 My brothers and sisters, if any among you strays from the truth, and someone turns him back, 20 let that person know that whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.
PRAYER
When the apostle Paul was on his second missionary journey, he founded the church of Corinth. In Acts 18, we read that Paul was in Corinth for about a year and a half, so of all the churches he had been a part of starting, the Corinthian church was the one he had spent the most time with at that point. After he left Corinth, he corresponded with the people there from Ephesus during his third missionary journey, and we have that correspondence in 1 and 2 Corinthians.
Now, the city of Corinth had some interesting issues. It was a wealthy city in an important location for trade, the capital of the province of Achaia at the time, and was home to the temple of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of the body and of love. So commerce, power, money, sensuality, and pagan worship ruled the city of Corinth. The church that Paul founded there was predominantly Gentile in makeup.
We can tell from what he wrote in what we call 1 Corinthians that the Corinthian church had some problems. They weren’t all on the same page. They argued about who their primary teacher was: some saying Paul, some saying Apollos, some Peter, and some saying Christ. They were in conflict. They struggled with a lack of wisdom, with immaturity, with worldly perspectives instead of eternal ones. They had to deal with the cultural preoccupation with sex and money, and with lawsuits between themselves. It was a mess in Corinth.
One of Paul’s teachings to the church at Corinth during this time was his attempt to get them to understand who they were as a church family. He wrote in 1 Corinthians 12 perhaps the greatest explanation that we have in Scripture of how we should view the local church body. His summary of this teaching is found in verses 24-27 in chapter 12:
1 Corinthians 12:24–27 (CSB)
24 Instead, God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the less honorable, 25 so that there would be no division in the body, but that the members would have the same concern for each other. 26 So if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. 27 Now you are the body of Christ, and individual members of it.
Those in the church belong to each other. It’s a family dynamic, a body dynamic. We are to show concern for each other in the church body.
I know, we’re not studying 1 Corinthians. We’re studying James. But the book of James was also written with the idea of the community aspect of the church in mind. Sure, we can take this book and make application individually, which we have done. But if we only look at the individual applications of the things that we find in this little book, we miss the bigger picture. Remember that James was writing to the pockets of Jewish Christians who were scattered around the diaspora:
1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ: To the twelve tribes dispersed abroad. Greetings.
So he’s not writing to a single local church, but to several local church fellowships throughout the Roman Empire at the time. His focus on the community aspect of the church is seen throughout the letter, speaking of how they were to treat others who came to their worship gatherings in James 2, of how there were those in their congregations who wanted to be teachers but were not qualified to do so in James 3, about their internal conflict leading to church conflict in James 4, and even about how they spoke about one another in the first part of James 5. And now, James is landing the plane, so to speak. He’s addressed some of the negatives about how they are relating to one another, and now he speaks to the kind of community they should be, which is the kind of community that Eastern Hills should be. When we live like this, church, we live in wisdom together, glorifying God in how we function as a body.
First, the local church is to be a community of prayer.
1) Community of prayer
1) Community of prayer
The truth is that this could be almost the only point for this message this morning. Prayer is seen throughout our focal passage today. Our problem is that it’s easy for us to see prayer in really anemic terms: boxes to check before and after we do things. We might even get so used to praying that we stop actually thinking when we pray: just say the same words in the same way. But this isn’t who we are supposed to be. As God’s children, He wants us to pray, coming before Him in humility in every situation we find ourselves in. So James writes:
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 starts out with the individual. The one who is suffering a trial. The one who is cheerful. Both of these people in the church family are to go before the throne of God: the suffering in prayer, the rejoicing in praise (which is also prayer). So a part of our community life is to be individuals of prayer.
But James takes it a step further. This is family life. Trials, rejoicing, sickness, and struggling with sin are a part of what we’re in together. Remember from 1 Corinthians: when one of us suffers, the whole body suffers. We belong to each other in a very real, very tangible way, and we should act as such. This is life, and it’s being lived out all around us and between us in this body of believers.
So when one member is sick, they are to call the elders of the church, who are to come and pray and anoint the person with oil. Now, it’s not that the elders of the church have some more direct line to God or anything. They don’t go and pray because they are more holy than other members of the body. No, they go because as those recognized as leaders of the church community, they are representatives of the church body as a whole. The image here is that of the church body sending trustworthy representatives to stand in the stead and with the backing of the entire body, as the entire body can’t be there in person to pray over the sick member. Here’s how David Platt sees it in his commentary on James:
“No special power is reserved for the elders: the power is in God, and it is available to the praying church. Care and prayer for one another are not just intended to happen within the context of leadership in the church but in the context of the church as a whole. When we are sick, we call on one another to pray, not just this or that leader.”
— David Platt, Christ-Centered Expository Commentary: James
Just a quick note about the anointing with oil: Oil in this case is likely symbolic of health, as it was often used medicinally in Israel, however, I doubt that actually using it as medicine is what is in view here, as if the oil would heal the sick person. Instead, it’s God who heals both our physical and spiritual infirmities, as we see in verse 15.
Verse 15 can be a difficult verse. James 5:15 “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.” Does this mean that if we pray in faith, then every sickness will be healed? Or that if a sickness isn’t healed, then we didn’t have enough faith or pray enough? This isn’t how we are to read this. Instead, we need to keep in mind that James says that it is the “prayer of faith.” Faith how? That healing will take place? No. The object of our faith is the God to whom we pray, not the words of our prayers or the heart of our prayers or the passion of our prayers.
14 This is the confidence we have before him: If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
The prayer of faith is the prayer that comes before God declaring that whatever it is that God wants to happen in a situation, we want that too. But that doesn’t preclude us from asking for a miracle from the only One from whom miracles come. We can boldly come to God asking for what for us is impossible, but we come seeking His will and not our own. God chooses in His sovereignty what the result will be. For the believer, the healing will come either way: either now, or at the resurrection. The point is that we pray for one another, not that we approach God as if our words control Him and what He does.
And finally, for many in Bible times, there was a direct correlation between sickness and sin. And while sometimes that is true—our sinful choices bring about physical illness—James intentionally disconnects the two, saying “if” the brother or sister has committed sins, they will be forgiven. I’m reminded of the healing of the paralytic in Mark 2 as I think about this passage.
The paralytic and his friends were so desperate for the paralyzed man to see Jesus that they dug through the roof and lowered him down: they did this because of their faith. Jesus’ first response was not to heal him physically, but to say, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” (Mark 2:5). Then He healed the man physically to show His authority over both the spiritual and physical realms of life. And who brought the man to Jesus? His community.
We need to be willing to pray for one another. We should be such a community of prayer that when we face something: something good or something difficult in our lives, then we know there are people in our church family who will join us in prayer, who will join us in praise, who will come to the throne of God with us and for us. Do you have those kinds of people in the church family? I think the reason some don’t is that we are such isolationists when it comes to our faith. We need to step outside of our comfort zones and build relationships with each other, so we can pray for each other. Which takes us one step deeper.
2) Community of confession
2) Community of confession
This is a hard thing for us to talk about, because we’re not good at it. We don’t want to be a community of confession because we know human nature might make the church a community of condemnation in response. And I’m not going to sugar-coat it. It’s that way sometimes, unfortunately. But again, James gives us the right response to the repentant confession of sins in the body of Christ. It’s prayer:
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.
I’ve said it many times. When we see a “therefore” in Scripture, it’s often helpful to know what it’s “there for.” This therefore is referring to what we just saw: that the one who has sinned who offers a prayer in faith to God for that forgiveness will be forgiven. But that prayer of faith was offered in the context of being prayed for by the community through the elders. Because of that promise, we are to confess our sins to one another. Not for absolution as some might think, but for prayer.
This isn’t easy. In fact, it’s a trial. But as we’ve already seen in James, trials lead us to maturity and so we should embrace them with great joy:
2 Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.
So the difficult part here is actually stepping out and telling a brother or sister in Christ what your sins are. And it’s not the same if they have to ask. Because of the hope of the Gospel, knowing that there’s no sin we can commit that Christ doesn’t know about, we should be the most honest community on the planet, because we’re all in the same boat. We should have people in the church body in our lives who are so concerned for our spiritual well-being that they are always ready to pray for us when we struggle with sin, and so we WANT to tell them when we are in the midst of a struggle: not retelling the gory details, but being humbly honest about our sinful choices. And I think that if I were to ask everyone here, we’d all say that we would LOVE to have that kind of person in our lives. What if all of us were so mature that we could be that person for someone else, and that we had several people we could go to when we struggle?
The rub comes from the fact that we generally aren’t these kinds of people. We condemn and criticize, we gossip and embellish, we say one thing and do another. In fact, we walk in direct violation of Galatians 6:1-2 most of the time when we are faced with a brother or sister in sin:
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.
We should want to restore our brothers and sisters when they are beset by sin. But did you notice what Paul said, “watching out for yourselves so that you also won’t be tempted.” This is either to their particular sin or something similar, or to our own sinful use of the confession itself. Having the knowledge of someone’s sin is a powerful thing. And power tempts us. We need to be people of faith with such maturity that we can pray for our brother or sister who is struggling with sin without using that transparency for our own sinful choices. If you know that’s not you, then don’t volunteer to be someone that another person confesses their sin to, please. But strive to grow in maturity so that you can be that kind of person for someone someday.
And we are to be the kind of people who stand in the gap for each other, “carry[ing] one another’s burdens,” as Paul wrote. Like Aaron and Hur stood by Moses’ side to help him in his physical weakness in Exodus 17, so we need to stand next to our brothers and sisters in the church when we are spiritually weak (and physically weak, for that matter).
Now, this doesn’t mean that we don’t bring correction when necessary. But we don’t normally need to bring correction to a person who is confessing their sin to us. They’ve likely already experienced the correction of God, or they wouldn’t be confessing. It’s usually when they don’t think their sin is sinful that correction needs to be brought, and that’s a dangerous place to be. We will see this in just a couple of verses. But for now, we move on to being a community of trust:
3) Community of confidence
3) Community of confidence
The last part of James 5:16, which we just looked at, said, “The prayer of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect.” The prayer of the righteous person is powerful in its effect for the very reason that they are righteous, so that they are always seeking the will of God in their prayers. James uses the prophet Elijah as an example of a righteous man whose prayers were powerful in their effect because they were based on the will of God:
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.
The narrative that James is referring to here took place in 1 Kings 17 and 18. King Ahab and his wife Jezebel were basically the worst of the worst as far as the kings of the Northern Kingdom of Israel during the divided kingdom time. They led the Northern Kingdom to worship false gods, and even put most of the prophets of the One True God to death. And as a result, the Lord prompted Elijah to make a declaration regarding Israel:
1 Now Elijah the Tishbite, from the Gilead settlers, said to Ahab, “As the Lord God of Israel lives, in whose presence I stand, there will be no dew or rain during these years except by my command!”
It doesn’t say that he had had a particular prayer time with God and so the drought came. He said that he stood in the presence of the Lord God. And because of that nearness in relationship with God, he knew exactly what God wanted: that there would be a drought until God told Elijah the drought should end. And Elijah based his life on this confidence.
We saw in 1 John 5:14 just a bit ago:
14 This is the confidence we have before him: If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
This is the confidence. God wants to answer prayers that are in accordance with His will, because those who pray those prayers will be able to see the connection between their prayers and the movement of God. This deepens their faith, and helps them to know more about what God is doing in and around them. It reinforces their confidence.
But the problem with the people in Elijah’s time was that they didn’t really believe that what the Lord God wanted was what they wanted. Following other gods might be better. But the drought had caused some problems, and so now they weren’t really sure. Look at what Elijah said to them before he faced off with the false prophets of the false gods:
21 Then Elijah approached all the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him. But if Baal, follow him.” But the people didn’t answer him a word.
There was no confidence! They wavered between the two. Right before the showdown was over, Elijah prayed this:
37 Answer me, Lord! Answer me so that this people will know that you, the Lord, are God and that you have turned their hearts back.”
Then God answered with fire, showing His power and glory to the people, who responded appropriately. And shortly thereafter, the drought ended.
We are to be people of prayer, certainly, but we must also be people of confidence in the God whom we pray to. He has all authority and power and dominion. He can do whatever He wants to do whenever He wants to do it. He is in the process of taking all of history to the appointed end of His will, and nothing can thwart His plans. We can confidently approach Him in prayer for ourselves and for others.
4) Community of care
4) Community of care
Finally, we are to be a community of care for one another. We saw earlier that we are to confess our sins to each other and pray for each other. However, there is a time when we need to step up and confront our brother or sister when they are in sin. Again, however, the purpose is restorative: we want them to walk with God in faith.
19 My brothers and sisters, if any among you strays from the truth, and someone turns him back, 20 let that person know that whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.
It’s easy to look at this and just focus on the identity of the “any among you” who strays from the truth. This “wayward brother or sister” might be a true brother or sister in Christ who has wandered off into false teaching or useless faith. It could be someone who claims to be a brother or sister, who might even believe that they are a brother or sister, but who aren’t… they are actually lost. To be honest, I’m not sure it matters.
Our response to both situations is the same: we remind them of the Gospel, calling them to repentance and faith. If the person is truly a Christian, what we see is that their faith and choices don’t match. They’ve wandered from the truth. They need to remember the Gospel, repent of their sin, and return to trust in God. If they will not, then perhaps they aren’t actually saved at all, as we saw in chapter 2. And then that takes us to the second option: that they aren’t actually saved. And how do we respond to the lost? We tell them about the marvelous Gospel of Jesus Christ: that God loved us so much that He gave His perfect Son to take the place we deserve in dying for our sins. When we surrender ourselves in faith to Him, turning from going our own sinful direction and trusting Him to save us, we are forgiven and have eternal life. This is our primary purpose, church.
Churches are communities of faith, not merely a bunch of individuals who happen to come together at the same place at the same time to worship the Lord. We belong to one another, and it is together that we are to fulfill our ministry.
24 And let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works, 25 not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.
The church community is a gift to each believer, but sadly, sometimes we don’t see it that way. It’s a resource that God has provided to help us as we walk the path of faith. We are supposed to look out for each other, care for each other, and love each other. And sometimes, that looks like correction and conviction based in truth and shared in love—not because we want the other person to feel bad or look bad, but because we want them to walk in righteousness.
Paul David Tripp wrote about how the church body should function in its corrective love for one another in his book “Lead: 12 Gospel Principles for Leadership in the Church:”
“An isolated, independent, separated, and self-hiding Christian life is alien to the Christianity of the New Testament. Biblical Christianity is thoroughly and foundationally relational. No one can live outside the essential ministries of the body of Christ and remain spiritually healthy. No one is so spiritually mature that he is free from a need for the comfort, warnings, encouragement, rebuke, instruction, and insights of others. Everyone needs partners in struggles. Everyone needs to be helped to see what they cannot see about themselves on their own.”
— Paul David Tripp, Lead: 12 Gospel Principles for Leadership in the Church
If we truly love each other, we won’t just overlook sin. We won’t encourage sin. We won’t minimize or ignore sin. We will lovingly correct our wayward brother or sister because we know that they need us to do so, and we will do so from a motivation of loving them for the glory of God, so that they would be saved either from eternal death because they are lost or from the death of their joy and peace with God because they are making their faith useless through sin. This isn’t easy, but it’s what we’re called to.
Closing
Closing
This brings us back to where Trevor started us on this journey: the auto shop. The church is the family in which wisdom is lived out: it’s where we undergo repairs and have our brokenness corrected as we confess our sins and have our brothers and sisters bring correction; it’s where we have maintenance done to prevent those breakdowns as we pray for one another and care for one another actively out of love; and it’s where we are customized to look more like Jesus as we sharpen one another through encouraging each other with the confidence that we have in our awesome God.
What about you? Christian, is there some confession that you need to make to a brother or sister who will pray for you? I’m going to ask Joe, Kerry, and Trevor to come down and be available for this purpose in just a moment when the band comes. We are glad to pray for you. If you’re online and you need prayer this morning, send an email to me at bill@ehbc.org and let me know how I can pray for you. I’ll look at my email as quickly as I can after service and pray for you.
Are you looking for a church that lives like this? It’s what we want to be, even though we don’t live it out perfectly every day. If you want to join with this church family in formal membership, believing that God can use this church family to help you grow in your faith, please come and let us know so we can set an appointment to talk with you about membership, to hear your faith story and answer any questions you might have. If you’re online and in the Albuquerque area, send me an email and we can set that appointment.
This morning, you’ve heard the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And if you believe that Gospel and this morning have or want to surrender your life to Jesus Christ in faith, please come and let one of us know that. We would love to celebrate your new life with you. If that’s you but you’re online, send me an email to we can reach out and help you on this new spiritual journey.
This time of invitation is also a good time for you to worship God through giving. You can give online through the church website, or if you’re here in person, you can give using the plates by the doors as we leave this morning.
PRAYER
Closing Remarks
Closing Remarks
Tonight and the Associate Pastor for Senior Adults. God leading to Rich.
Rich & Lara Willard Testimony
Bible reading: Psalm 46
Instructions for visitors
Benediction:
9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Detest evil; cling to what is good. 10 Love one another deeply as brothers and sisters. Take the lead in honoring one another. 11 Do not lack diligence in zeal; be fervent in the Spirit; serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; be persistent in prayer. 13 Share with the saints in their needs; pursue hospitality.