Final Thoughts

What would your last words be?

Show about last words.

How we finish things is important.

What we end on is usually significant.

Saving the best for last.

We are about to look at how James closes this letter to various Christians.

Intro

James 5:13–20 ESV

Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. 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. 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. 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. 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. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, 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.

What Prompts us to Prayer

Is anyone among you suffering?

This can happen to anyone.

There is not a person above suffering. We have all suffered at one point or another.

Suffering Misfortune. Things going badly for them.

Let him pray.

Suffering Prompts Prayer

This is not our natural response.

When there is a need, we meet it. “The squeaky wheel gets the grease.”

The suffering person should pray.

What is prayer?

Communicating with God.

ACTS Model

Adoration

Confession

Thanksgiving

Supplication

Praying the Bible.

Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.

Happiness Prompts Praise

Not our natural response.

Happiness denotes emotion not circumstance.

Difference in posture toward God.

Is anyone among you sick?

Need Prompts Prayer

We should not be afraid to ask God to intervene in our situations.

Need prompts involving others.

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.

The Role of intercession

Call on Elders

What is an Elder? (Presbyteros)

Spiritual leaders of the church.

Functionally Pastors.

Annointing with Oil

Possible reasons:

Medicinal

Religious

What Prayer Can Do

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. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed.

Prayer Heals

Various approaches to this understanding.

Spiritual situation understanding.

Physical Only

Both

Paul was not healed of his ailment.

Healing can only come from a prayer of faith.

no doubting or double-mindedness.

The intertwining of the spiritual and the physical.

Pray for the sick so they may be saved.

Confess your sins and pray so you may be healed.

Does sin make us sick?

Not usually, but it is not impossible.

Jesus said...

John 5:14 ESV

Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.”

Paul said to the church in Corinth regarding the Lord’s supper.

1 Corinthians 11:29–30 ESV

For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.

So what does this mean?

God punishes sin, we see in scripture, times where people are punished in this life for sin.

This is not an outright condemnation, but is sometimes disciplinary leading to repentance.

Sickness is not usually caused by sin.

John 9:1–3 ESV

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “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.

Jesus rebuked the idea that this man sinned, but said that instead it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.

Sickness is a part of a fallen world. We will deal with these consequences as long as we live.

Sickness should be a time of self-reflection.

We should never only seek our physical good while neglecting the spiritual.

As we seek to become physically whole, we should use the opportunity to reflect and seek spiritual wholeness also.

Confess our Sins to One Another

An atmosphere of accountability and encouragement.

Do you have someone you can share your struggles with?

Are you a person who can have struggles shared with?

For more accurate prayer.

For our sanctification and holiness.

The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

Prayer is Powerful; but what prayer?

of a righteous person

We often wonder why our prayer is not effective.

When we are living righteously, we are more likely to be praying within the will of God.

The Example of Elijah

Man with a nature like ours…

Proper understanding of these people from the Bible.

Prayed it wouldnt rain

It didnt… for three years and six months

until he prayed again and it rained.

What We Do for One Another

My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, 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.

This is a difficult passage. The thing with difficult passages is we need to run headlong into them, not avoid them.

We spoke about doctrine Wednesday. This seems to challenge a doctrine that we hold.

Permanence of Salvation. “Once Saved, Always Saved.”

My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back....

If anyone

Reminder that we all are susceptible to disobedience.

I have known people who lived as faithful Christians who have left the

someone brings him back

This is not something reserved for certain people.

This does not say call the elders as it did previously.

whoever brings back a sinner will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

The word for sinner is harmatalos, from the word hamartia for sin.

In Scripture the 47 times this word is used, it is almost always in reference to people who are lost and living in rebellion toward God.

The one who wanders shows themselves to be lost.

1 John 2:19 ESV

They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

In some ways a semantic argument. The result of a person who wanders and is lost and does not return is the same. They are lost.

Not for the confidence of our salvation though. It matters for that.

The primary focus is the lost being saved.

We must all be vigilant in that.