The Power of a Praying Church: Part 2

Prayer for Personal Suffering and Thanksgiving

I want you to turn with me to James chapter 5, James chapter 5. I'm going to read verses 13 through 18. This is the section that we're looking at. I'd like for us to specifically be looking at verses 14 and 15 today, where we looked at verse 13 last week and looked at the background.

This is part two of a three-part series, The Power of a Praying Church. The Power of a Praying Church. And pretty much the theme of the closing verses of the epistle of James here is focused on prayer.

It's all about prayer. So James chapter 5, beginning at verse 13, hear the word of the living God. Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. Is anyone among you sick?

Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

Confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain.

And it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again. And the heaven gave rain and the earth produced its fruit. May God richly bless His holy word to our hearts this morning as we study His wonderful word.

Let's go to the Lord in prayer and ask His help and anointing upon us as we hear His word and as I speak His word this morning. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for this wonderful day You've given unto us.

Lord, may we truly be thankful and always thankful and may not a day go by that we're not thankful for the eternal, precious gift of Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Without that gift, we would not be into the kingdom of heaven.

For by grace we're saved through faith and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God. Father, we thank You for the gift.

Thank You for the gift of faith.

Because with faith we can take a hold of what Your word has promised. Without faith, it's impossible to please You. For he that comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek You.

So Father, we thank You that we come in faith and Lord, we pray that our faith would be encouraged this morning as we hear Your word. And Lord, I pray that You would anoint us with Your precious Holy Spirit.

He's the real teacher, showing us the things of Christ. So Father, teach us.

Teach us Your word. Teach us Your ways. Teach us Your will.

And may we apply it to our hearts and our lives and everyday living. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. This is a wonderful text before us. The section in this epistle gives to us how a praying church looks like.

And I love this text. It speaks of meeting specific needs within the church and it's all through prayer. Last Lord's Day, we took some time in our study in this section to see the background of the portion of Scripture and to understand its context of what it is actually saying.

I think this was important. That's why I took some time to do this because if we don't really see the context of what the text is saying, it will be pretext. It will not have the meaning that it should have so we need to get the right interpretation.

Prayer for the Suffering and the Cheerful

So first in the praying church, there should be prayer for ourselves first and foremost. Here in verse, and that speaks of verse 13, is anyone among you suffering? The answer James gives is pointed, isn't it?

It's very simple. Let him pray. Let him pray. That meant, those words, those three words mean a lot to a believer that's going through severe persecution. Be encouraged to pray. So he's to pray and take it to the Lord.

Our prayers should always be personal, right? Personal prayer. I like what Ravenhill says, the secret of praying is praying in secret. Well said. The disciples said, Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples.

Well, then he gives another question. Is anyone cheerful? He should sing praises. If we are personally suffering, we should personally pray to God. That's what he's saying. Philippians 4, 6, Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God.

God wants us to hear our voice in prayer. You know, fret and worry indicate really a lack of trust in God's wisdom and His sovereignty and His power, so really worry is sin. We're not to be anxious. It says right here, be anxious for nothing.

And then he says, in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God. We're to delight in the Lord, meditate on His Word day and night, and the peace that passes all understanding will keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

The psalmist says in Psalm 1, 2, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates. He just doesn't read God's Word, he meditates day and night. He devours it. If we love God, we love His Word.

You cannot separate the two. So there's personal prayer. Prayer that's personal. And prayer is the way we speak to God, and we commune with God, and we fellowship with God. You ever thought of this? Prayer is really not for God's benefit.

Prayer is for our benefit. God is all self-sufficient. He really doesn't need our prayers, does He? But isn't it wonderful that He does love to hear us pray? He doesn't need it, He doesn't need us. Actually, God doesn't need no one.

He's self-sufficient. I was thinking about this, about praying, and I said, Lord, you know, it's us that needs God. It's us that needs to pray. Why? Because the changes need to be within us. Because there's no change within God.

So God doesn't need us. He doesn't need our prayers. It's us that needs God, and we need to pray. So we're not self-sufficient. Only God is self-sufficient.

What are we?

We're utterly helpless and powerless without God and without prayer. Prayer is a must for the child of God. As I mentioned last Lord's Day, somebody came up to Charles Spurgeon, what's more important, the Word of God or prayer?

And he replied, what's more important, breathing in or breathing out? Both is very necessary. Like prayer and reading God's Word is just as important as it is breathing to living. That's how important it is.

Colossians 3 .16 answers really what speaks about being cheerful. We should sing praises to God, right? The Word of God says, let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

See, it's that personal relationship with God. Even when we sing this morning, we're really not trying to impress one another or singing. We don't sing very good, but we do sing praises and we sing a joyful song, right?

I'm among those that don't sing very well. Or right here it says, let the Word of God dwell. You think about that word dwell. Dwell richly in your heart. That's a rich word. It means to live in, to be at home with.

Richly may be more fully rendered as abundantly or extravagantly rich. So the Word of God should permeate every single aspect of the believer's life and control every thought, every word, every deed. And we know we fail that test many times, don't we?

Prayer for the Weak, the Elders, and Restoration

Well, the next point I'd like for us to look at, as we looked at last week, that prayer is for us. But also, a praying church prays for others. Or should I say the leaders pray in faith for others. Let me say that again.

A praying church prays for others. And it is the leaders, the elders within the church, that prays in faith to one another. And you see this in verse 14 through 16. Let me read it again. 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. The prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

That's a very rich text. Our prayers are to be for others and for one another, but specifically here it speaks of the elders are to pray for those that are sick. Now, when we are suffering, in trouble, we should pray, right?

That's what we do when we are suffering and in trouble. In times of rejoicing, we should lift our hearts to God and sing praises with thanksgiving. And God desires this. He doesn't need it, but He does desire it.

And actually, if you think of it, He's redeemed us, He's redeemed His people to Himself for His glory because He desires this. He desires the praises of the ones that He has redeemed. And we will praise Him throughout all eternity, and our praise in God begins here in this troubled world in which He has redeemed us from our sins.

So we should see God as the first great cause of all that comes to us in life. If we miss this, we're going to really miss the whole scope of why God has redeemed us. I like what A .W. Tozer says, that God's purpose in redemption is to make worshippers that was once rebels.

He takes rebels and He makes worshippers out of them. So God is the great cause, His sovereign hand that orchestrates everything. It is utter defeat actually to allow ourselves to be victims of circumstances or to wait for our circumstances to change.

We should see no hand in everything but God's hand. And really, if we truly believe in the sovereignty of God, we see the hand of God in everything. Isn't that wonderful to know? Now, verse 14 through 16, as I mentioned, is one of the most disputed portions of this epistle.

So we're going to just only look at two verses today because of its importance of getting the right interpretation out of it. So we need God's Holy Spirit to help us to see what He means within this text.

James directs us to prayer and healing. Prayer and healing, restoration you could say. Look at verse 14. Is anyone among you sick? Again, he asks the question. The answer he gives by the Holy Spirit is, let him call, call for the elders of the church.

Now, let's look at this. To understand this text, we need to see what this word sick really means. This is where the misinterpretation comes in. As I was studying this, and all the commentators agree, the commentators that really understand the text and the context, the Greek word, they agree with one another because of the Greek word sick, is astheno, athenio, asthenio, asthenio.

I hope I can pronounce my Greek right. I may be off, but what's the meaning? That's what really counts. It's not necessarily the pronunciation of the Greek, right? But it's the meaning. It really means not necessarily sick or physical sickness.

It means being spiritually weak. Now, doesn't that throw a complete different light on what we have just read? The Greek word, again, it means weak, spiritually weak. So it gives a totally different light.

So James moves beyond the suffering. Now, look what he's doing. He's moving beyond the suffering of believers on the personal sense. In the previous verse, in verse 13, is any among you suffering? Let him pray.

And then he goes, is anyone among you weak, sick? Let him call for the elders of the church. That calling of the elders is speaking of those to whom he's addressing, specifically believers who have become weak by that suffering.

Pastor John MacArthur says, and I quote him here from his commentary, and I thought this is really good, The weak are those who have been defeated in spiritual battle, who have lost the ability to endure their suffering.

They are fallen spiritual warriors. They are exhausted, weary, depressed, defeated Christians. They have tried to draw on God's power through prayer, but have lost motivation, even falling into sinful attitudes, having hit bottom, we've all been there, haven't we?

Having hit bottom, he says, they are not able to pray effectively on their own. So, then he says, in that condition, the spiritually weak need the help of the spiritually strong. End quote. I love that.

And he is right on.

And how do we know this?

Look at the word of God. I have just a few verses, but the word of God really says much more. 1 Thessalonians 5 .14. The Apostle Paul says this to the believers at Thessalonica. Now we exhort. Now he is speaking about, in this context here, he is speaking to the elders, their primary duty, to shepherd the flock of God.

Now he says, now we. Notice what he says, we. He is speaking of himself, possibly of Peter, the Apostle, James the Apostle. He is speaking of the Apostles. We exhort. That means to encourage you, brethren.

Then he speaks, first of all, warn those who are unruly. That word unruly is interesting. It means to be insubordinate. To those who are insubordinate or idle. They are idle. So then he says, they are to be warned to those who are insubordinate against the authority of those Apostles and the elders within the church.

And then he says this. Comfort the faint hearted.

Isn't that beautiful?

Comfort the faint hearted. Then he says this. Uphold the weak. Uphold the weak. Be patient with all. Doesn't that fit beautifully of what James is saying? In this context, Paul is discussing how the pastors are to serve the people of God, their flock, and how the people are to respond to the pastors with submission.

And then is what James is referring to as well. Call for the elders of the church. The pastors. The bishops of your souls.

The church.

Now the word call is an interesting word. It means to call alongside. Call alongside. And the caring elders, the pastors of the church, are to come and lift them up. It's the same thought the Apostle Paul expressed in Galatians 6 .1.

You're familiar with Galatians 6 .1. It's a wonderful verse, but it's in context of everything James is saying here. Paul says this. Brethren, even if anyone is caught. That's an interesting word, isn't it?

Is caught in any trespass. Then he says this. You who are spiritual,.

Mature,.

Restore. Don't you love that?

Restore them. Restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness.

You know,.

An old missionary years ago told us in a class. I never have forgotten this. And there's a lot of things I have forgotten, but I never forgot this because it's being called to be a pastor and my duty as a pastor.

He says,.

You know, true shepherds never beat sheep.

They feed sheep.

They care for the sheep. They love the sheep.

They,.

In a pastoral way,.

They,.

And Brother Keith brought this out before too. A false shepherd will drive goats in a sense. But goats need to be driven, right? Sheep need to be led. And that's the pastor's call,.

Is to lead the sheep,.

To encourage the sheep, and to lift them up when they're hurt, when they're in danger. Jesus gave the example of the shepherd in the parable going after that one that left. He leaves the 99 and he goes after that one that goes astray.

Oh, the heart of a shepherd. How important it is, and you see this all through the scriptures. And after all,.

The wounded,.

The exhausted, the broken sheep, the hurt sheep, are casualties. The shepherds are to intercede for. And the shepherds are to intercede for them and care for them and in tenderness and gentleness and ask for God for renewed spiritual strength in the Lord.

And the joy of the Lord is our strength, right? And God is our strength. And you see, the shepherd comes alongside. He's not the one that actually can... He strengthens them, but the true source of strength is God, right?

But the shepherd comes alongside and points and says,.

Look up,.

The shepherd of your soul is the one that's able to give you the strength because He is our strength. So what does He do?

He lifts them up,.

He prays for them, He cares for them, and this is what He talks about. He is called alongside the sheep to give them strength and to help them. So the spiritually weak are to call for the elders of the church and to pray over Him.

And then it says something beautiful here, and this is where a lot of people go astray on the meaning of the verses, anointing Him with oil in the name of the Lord. Let's look at that. Anointing Him with oil in the name of the Lord.

There's a lot we can look at about oil. There's ceremonial anointings. As the prophet Samuel anointed David, he poured the oil over him. That was a ceremonial anointing where as ordaining as a king, inaugurating in a sense of a king, that God had chosen him.

It was like the anointing of that oil poured over him in a wonderful way. That was a ceremonial. But in this context here, this is interesting. The elders pray over the suffering believers. And the anointing with the oil was, oil was used as a healing agent at this time.

And one example that came to my mind here was the Good Samaritan. The Good Samaritan knew that it would give relief to the cut and the bruised man on the road to Jericho. You know in Luke chapter 10 verse 34, he gave oil to bind his wounds and to rub it upon him.

But here, the more natural meaning of the anointing is that it served as a sign of God's grace. Consecrating the individual to the Lord and to the work of the Holy Spirit. But the anointing with oil is interesting.

It's interesting when I was studying this, this could go either way. Done by the elders, it is to be done by the elders of the church. So it is to be translated by rubbing with oil. Rubbing with oil. Possibly this is a reference to ceremonial anointing.

It could mean that. Yet on the other hand, James may have in mind medical treatment of the believers, physical bruised up and battered by persecution. So it could go either way, spiritually and physically.

And that's why there are so many different interpretations to this. Because one goes this direction, another interpreter goes that direction. So it could mean spiritually, it could mean physical persecution.

But overall, wouldn't you think that the context, and we'll look at this, and I personally believe, this is my opinion here, I take the interpretation that it's meaning more spiritual weakness and hardships and persecution than the physical.

There is physical persecution. I'm sure that there was wounds and hurts and cuts, and we know that. We have to bind up the wounds in there physically. After all, medical science was certainly in that time period in history very primitive at the period of time of history.

And there were few trustworthy doctors, let's admit that, during that time period. So it would have been a gracious and a kind act on the part of the elders to rub oil on the wounds of those who had been beaten, or they had very sore muscles of those that were made to work very long under tyranny and under severe harsh treatments.

That would make sense. Metaphorically now, the elders anointing the weak, defeated believers with oil conveys the responsibility for the elders to actually stimulate and to encourage and to strengthen and refresh the believers.

There's some verses I'd like to bring into this. It's speaking from Isaiah 1, verse 6.

It says,.

From the sole of the foot of even the head there's nothing sound in it. Only bruises, welts, and raw wounds, not pressed out or bandaged, nor softened with oil. Isn't that interesting? Nor softened with oil.

So lacking godly leaders and the people of the nation of Israel had not had spiritual wounded treated, so David expressed God's gracious, compassionate spiritual restoration of him that these deep and simple, familiar words in Psalm 23, verse 5, You have anointed my head with oil.

So, the elders. The elders' primary ministry is intercession and restoration. It's always about restoration. Always. That's the goal. You know, even if you look at it when Jesus laid down the rules in the sense of the church, the first thing He speaks of is discipline.

But do you notice, even in the steps of discipline in the church, it's always to be in restoration. To restore the believer. And you notice, first you go to them privately, then second, you take a witness, with two going to them, and then third, if they don't hear you, you take it before the church.

Before the believer is strike one, two, and three, and is put out of the church and adds communication, there are three gracious chances that God gives to restore that believer. And even at its communication, that, okay, we release them because they have not repented, but even then, God can bring a person back if they repent.

And we know that story about the prodigal is always hope there, as long as a person's breathing, right? But it's always about restoration. And that's what this text is speaking of, is restoration. Restoration is to be done.

And notice, I love this, not in the name of Pastor so-and-so, not in the name of Pastor David, not in the name of Pastor John MacArthur, or Pastor so-and-so, and we can go on, but in the name of the Lord.

It's about God's name. Notice that here. In the name of the Lord, the anointing is to be with oil. The anointing, I'm sorry, Him with oil in the name of the Lord, in the name of the Lord. Any true biblical encouragement must be consistent with who God is because God's name represents who He is.

And that means something. That means something very important. To do something in the name of Jesus Christ is to do what He would have done in this situation. So, namely, to pray in the name of Jesus is to ask what He would want, right?

And to minister in the name of Jesus Christ is to serve others on His behalf. Because when we represent Jesus in His name, we're representing all that He is.

Think of that.

The Holy God. The Holy Christ. We represent Him. We represent someone that is worthy, who is King of kings and Lord of lords. We are ambassadors. That's what a representative is. An ambassador of Christ.

Jesus told the disciples this right before He was to go to the cross. And He was telling them about persecution and actually He gave comfort to them and that the Holy Spirit would come alongside to help them.

But He also said this. It was the great promises that He gave in John 14, 15, and 16. In John 14, 13, and 14, Jesus says to the disciples,.

He says,.

Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do. And that the Father may be glorified in the Son. That's the purpose of answered prayer, isn't it? That God would be glorified. Just not of Himself, but in the Son, through Jesus Christ.

So in verse 14, He says, If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. There's another verse that's totally thrown out of context. Jesus means anything. He means anything. But we always pray according to God's will and what He desires.

So here, in the hour of loss, of departure, Jesus is comforting His disciples. And He comforts them with the means that would be provided them without His immediate presence being there. That's what He's actually doing.

That's why He promises.

He says,.

Well, I'm going to go to the Father after I'm raised from the dead. I'm going to send the promise of the Father, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth. He will abide with you forever. He will be with you.

And here they are. Think of it. These disciples are so used to Jesus' immediate presence. But what is He saying here in this verse? So to ask in Jesus' name does not necessarily mean to tack His name on an expression at the end of a prayer to any formula that He's speaking of.

So what does it mean? What does it mean? Well, there's three things I'd like for us to look at just in this verse here because it's important when we pray in Jesus' name that whatever we ask in His name,.

He would do it.

Well, first of all, we always, a believer, is to pray always for God's purposes and God's will to be done. And it is for God's kingdom and not for selfish reasons. A lot of people pray for selfish reasons, say like God's a genie in a lamp or something or a genie in a bottle and it's like they rub it in Jesus' name.

I can have whatever I want. Hey, God's not going to listen to those kind of prayers. Number one, it's full of sin because Scripture says that my heart, if I have iniquity in my heart, God's not going to hear, even if I am praying.

So if there's sin in my heart, which coveting is sin, God says He's not hearing that prayer.

But if it's a prayer.

That is to God's desires, what God loves,.

To His kingdom, to His will,.

God's ear is open to the call and the prayers of the righteous. Amen. And He's ready to answer that, especially in the name of His dear Son. And I tell you what, He is ready to answer that. Amen. Second reason would be to believe that the prayer should always be on the basis of the merits of Jesus Christ alone and not any personal merit of our own.

We know that He has all merits. And when we come to Him, it's not on our own merits. It's on the merits of Jesus Christ. That's the second important thing. The third would be the believer's prayer should always be in pursuit of God's glory.

You know I love to read Jonathan Edwards and that's one thing, that man just strikes me more than anything. He had a passion for the glory of God. Now he's hard to read. I will grant I have to get the abridged readings.

He's tough.

But I tell you what, when I get a hold of what he is saying, this man is, he is a heavenly minded man. A God feared man and one of the greatest theologians that ever lived. And I say greatest theologian, I'm not talking about orthodox.

This man knew the word of God and he knew God. And the one that probably influenced him more than anyone was, his kin was David Brainerd that only lived to be like 25, 26 years old. A missionary to the Indians which was a very godly man.

And I would encourage anyone to get the diary of David Brainerd and read it. It's incredible. It's full of great prayers. But if you think of it, what the text is saying here and Jesus is speaking of, we always to pray for God's will and God's purposes and God's glory and the pursuit of God's glory alone.

And we need to always keep this before us when we pray in Jesus name. It means something. It doesn't mean our selfish desires. It means God's desires to be fulfilled. What about Jesus when He taught the disciples?

A lot of people call it the Lord's Prayer. It's actually the disciples prayer. But He is the master of the prayer but that's why we call it the Lord's Prayer. But He's actually teaching the disciples.

And what does He say? He says, Our Father, which art in heaven, and what does He say? Hallowed, hallowed be Thy name. Hallowed be Thy name. God's name is holy. God's name is holy above all. So James 5 .15 says, In the prayer of the faith, let's go to this next section.

The prayer of faith shall save the sick. I don't know what your translation says but the word save the sick is very good to the original. And the Lord, don't you love this? The Lord shall raise him up and if he has committed sins, listen to this, they shall be forgiven him.

The prayer that offered in faith will restore the one that is weak. The one that's sick.

The weak.

Not just necessarily physical illness but rather James is speaking here of a spiritual restoration of weak, defeated believers. And to restore necessarily refers to not necessarily physical healing but most commonly translated to save.

The authorized version says that. To save the sick. To save the sick and the Lord will raise him up. Now the idea here is that the elders' prayer will deliver weak, defeated believers from spiritual weakness and to restore them to spiritual wholeness.

So those prayers of course is but a channel for God's power. So why am I saying this? It doesn't mean that the pastor in of itself has this special power or this hotline with God. But he is the spiritual strength and he is the strong.

He comes alongside to pray for the spiritually weak that's heavy laden and burdened. And the Bible says the Lord will raise them up. See, the pastor doesn't raise them up. The Lord raises them up. You know what that word raises up means?

It means to awaken. To arouse. Through the prayers of the righteous. And that's why it says the effective prayer of a righteous man avails much. We'll see that later on in part three. But God restores the battered, bruised sheep.

And God is so desirous to do this. Psalm 23 .3. Again, I go to Psalm 23. Such a simple psalm. Six verses. But try to study that psalm sometime. You will get solid meat. I knew one preacher. It took him months and months to preach through those six verses.

But it's so deep.

But it's so simple.

But notice what David says in Psalm 23 .3 by the Holy Spirit. He restores my soul. Then he says, He leads me in paths of righteousness. For whose namesake? For His namesake. So the prayer that is offered in faith if one of the spiritually weak believers has committed sins,.

This is beautiful,.

They will be forgiven him. He will have his sins forgiven. That doesn't mean that the priest or the pastor does the forgiving here. It's God that does the forgiving. Right? So this text provides the evidence that in the context of what James is saying here that this passage does not refer to necessarily physical healing.

Why?

Because notice what he says. The prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise him up. And if he's committed sins, he will be forgiven. Well, let's look at that a little quickly. The Bible nowhere teaches at all that sickness is a direct result of individual sins.

Read the book of Job. That's a classic illustration. Yet, his so-called friends came alongside and they thought Job did sin. But he didn't.

It was a test.

It was a test.

It was a trial.

So the spiritual defeated, however, is those often both the cause and the result of sin. Did you ever think of that? Let me say that again. Those that are spiritually defeated is often both the cause and the result of sin.