Introductory Comments
1. Ifelt very awkward and uneasy just being there. First heali1ng service I had ever been to and I was very skeptical about the whole thing. Heard about phonies who pretended there were healings when there were not This man from England was at our Saturday morning full gospel meeting to heal people. Almost felt like we were expecting a performance - focus on man not God. If God wanted people healed, why should he do so through this man? Healing part of the service began - I felt even more uneasy. He pointed to areas of the room and told us there were people with specific problems. A man with a stomach problem. A woman with chronic back pain . He prayed for them and claimed healing in the name of Jesus.
2. Were these people really healed? Was it a set-up, was it all in the power of the mind?- they thought they were. Henry had back prolems - I had know him for years - his pain was real. He was healed of a back problem -as time went on healing remained.
3. I have come to accept that God has given some people the gift of healing and that the miracle of healing does happen through them. Yet still uneasy, skeptical - for there are true healers and phonies.
4. Many of us are very skeptical when it comes to healing services. If someone is healed - we rationalize it away . Like the story of the child coming home from SS to tell his father about Moses at the Red Sea. Described how the Israelites had put down pontoon bridges for their jeeps to cross on. Then, as Pharaoh approached and his army came over the bridges, they were dynamited and the whole Egyptian army sank in one fell swoop. Father calmly asked the excited son if that was really the way it happened. Child's response was, "No, but if I told you what they really said at church, you sure wouldn't believe it."
5. Perhaps we believe that Jesus healed people when he walked upon this earth. May even believe what we read in the book of Acts -that the early apostles performed the miracle of healing. But we may find it hard to believe that the miracle of healing still takes place today. We are told in Corinthians that some people, like the man from England I experienced, have been given the gift of healing- God does heal through them.
6. But as we read in our scripture lesson today, God also performs the miracle of healing through the local church. Through the elders of the church and through you and me. It is our responsibility, our duty is as a church to provide a healing ministry to those in need. I believe this happens in different ways - word heals us of sin, bitterness, forgiveness, confession, counsel and encouragement.
7. These important but not our focus today. Today we focus on the words of James 5.
James 5:14 Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord.
Again, we may feel uneasy about us being used for healing - if God wants to heal someone, He can do it directly. command the body to be healed, and as all of nature, the body has to obey Him. Or He can heal that person through a doctor. But to use the elders of the church - that makes us uneasy.
8. So much for our feelings - let's look at the word of God.
Teaching
1. James presents 3 situations to us. Is Anyone..
2. 1st, James asks if anyone is in trouble. Experiencing some misfortune, some physical circumstance or personal situation that is causing us distress? Perhaps a financal problem, a worry, a problem with someone. What James is really looking at is the inner experience of having to endure misfortune rather than a specific problem. Our circumstances may create problems for us, but the real pain and turmoil is the inner struggle we face as we deal with things - our reaction rather than problem itself.
3. It is so easy to complain, to strike out at someone, or perhaps indulge in self-pity and quietly resign ourselves to our situation. James says that all of these responses are wrong. We must respond in prayer, asking God to help us with the trouble and then trusting that He will.
4. God, in repsonse to our prayer, may not always remove the problem but He most cerlainly will transform it by bringing any trouble . He will either remove it or give us a new perspective on the trouble - or give us strength to endure it.
5. Second situation. Life is not always difficult -we also experience times of joy. When we are happy, James tells us to sing songs of praise. Greek here is the word psallo from which we get the word psalms. This is easiest of 3 situations for us to deal with and respond to, yet we need to be told. In joy, easy to offer thanks through praising God. In all things, whether good or bad, we must prayerfully come before God and acknowledge our dependence upon Him.
6. Third situation that James is talking about is main focus of our passage. "Is anyone of you sick? He should call the elders of the church tc pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord."
7. James gives us three instructions to deal with sickness. NB - since He uses the imperative verb, he orders us to do these things and so we do not really have a choice.
8. Call The Elders. Talking about a serious illness, for it appears that the sick person is to ill to go to the elders and they have to come to him. While I don't think that this means that we have to be on our deathbed to get the elders to pray for us or that we have to be unable to go to them, I believe also that James is not suggesting that we follow these instructions for every cold that we have. It should be a serious illness. When we are sick, we are to call for the elders to come and pray for us.
9. They could pray for us as a distance but they should be with us. Somehow when they are present, the needs of the sick person are more immediate and real and their prayers become more fervent. It also says something to the sick person when the elders actually pray in his presence. As he hears their prayers and experiences their faith, he somehow finds it easier to trust in God for healing as well.
10. This is only passage in NT that specifically calls for the elders to pray for healing. Just as Jesus sent out the disciples to go and preach the word and heal the sick, the elders have also been given the ministry of healing . Not mean that they as indlviduals have the gift of healing, but that there is a healing power attached to the office of elder.
11. Elders are to anoint the person with oil in the name of the Lord. While we are to follow this teaching, be careful not to make it something that it is not.
12. Roman Catholics use these verses to warrant their sacrament of extreme unction. Apply oil to eyes, ears, nostrils, hands, and feet of person believed to be near death. Oil as medium of forgiveness for those who can no longer make a conscious confession of their sin before the priest. We believe wrong - not need to confess to priest, also oil for healing not primarily for forgiveness - unless that required for healing.
13. Also, we are not told that the oil needs to be consecrated. I have a little bottle of olive oil that I use for this purpose. Ordinary oil and it does not contain any mystical or magical healing powers.
14. The actual application of the oil is an outer sign of faith and an opening to the healing power of God
15. Why God chose oil, we do not know. Perhaps because oil was the most common medicine used in NT times. Perhaps because anointing indicated that God's hand was upon a person. Or perhaps because oil was used by ancient warriors to symbolically prepare them for the struggle ahead of them.
16. Fact that oil was used as a medicine, is affirmation that when we ask for God for healing, we are totally correct and we are not showing a lack of faith by using medical techniques and doctors for healing.
17. We know that it is God who heals - whether through a direct miracle or a medical miracle. The anointing must be in the name of Jesus for it is He who heals and not the oil.
18. Main part of the solution is that of prayer. English version makes it appear that prayer and anointing are of equal importance. Greek, prayer is the main verb and anointing is subject to the praying. Proper reading is "Pray, anointing the person with oil." Healing comes not through the anointing but through the prayer of faith.
19. Result of the prayer is that the sick person will be made well and the Lord will raise him up from his sick bed. Also, if the person has sinned, he will be forgiven. Shows the wholeness of God's healing - not just a physical healing but a spiritual healing of forgiveness as well - sodzo - heal or save. Jews thought that all sickness was due to sin. But for now, sickness can come as a result of our mistakes and our sins, but not always. So James says that if the man sinned, he would be forgiven. If sin was the cause of the illness, then he will be healed both of the illness and its cause
20. Addtional teaching. In verse 16, James turns to each one of us, whether we are sick or not, He tells us to do two things for healing in our midst. We are to confess our sins to one another and we are to pray for one another. The prayers of a righteous man are powerful and effective. Energetic, working prayers that lead to results. NB of confession is stressed - confession purifies the community of believers from sin.
21. By confessing our sins before God we are forgiven and made righteous through the saving grace and work of Christ. When we confess our sins to those we have wronged we create an atmosphere of love and caring that is a healthy one - a redeemed, forgiven one. One in which we are able to pray for one another in love.
22. Prayers of Ordinary Believers. NB - each of us. Sometimes we think that only he prayers of super-Christians are answered. That God does not answer prayers in the midst of our weakness and doubts. Yes faith is need , we need to believe God can heal but God is not dependent upon our faith.
23. And we can all have that faith - Lord , I believe you can heal if it be your will (not that I believe I can believe person well). The Jews hado built up Elijah as a man who never wavered or doubted. Yet if we read about him in the OT, we see that this prophet had his momets of doubt and questioning - He was a man just like us.James uses Elijah as an example of how God does answer our prayers.
24. At one time, Elijah prayed earnestly that it would not rain. By earnestly, we do not mean that he prayed louder or with more motions than others but he continued to pray until he got his answer.
25. Is All Prayer Answered? When we pray for healing, we do not always see the ansvers to our prayers as Elijah did. We have prayed for certain people who never got healed and perhaps even died. This may make us very cynical of God's promises in these verses.
26. We need to see these promises in light of how great and good God is. Sometimes we seek immediate, particular healings and we do not get them. But that does not mean that God has not healed us. God heals us in different ways. Sometimes He allows us to struggle and grow over time as healing slowly takes place. Other times He may not give us physical healing but rather provide us with the strength to endure our illness or struggle .
27. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12, about His infliction, his thorn in the side He prayed for healing but never got it in a physical. He learned to endure it by relying on God's strength
28. Pastor Robert Wise in Oklahoma City had a healing ministry. He tells of the woman whose husband was about to die. Wise was struggling with the fact that the man not healed. Woman turned to Wise -"Death is the greatest miracle of all. Death is the final healing!" When we die and join our Father in heaven - no sickness in heaven.
29. We do not have answers for all of our questions, but we must follow God's word. It tells us to call for the elders who will anoint us with oil and pray for us and we vill be healed - because of our skepticism we would rather build bridges over the Red Sea and ignore God's word here.
30. We are called to a healing ministry and we must obey.
