The Power of Prayer part 2 Sickness

Thanks Keith. Learning more and more and more, not just through song but through the word, about prayer. And I think that we all need to be in the school of prayer and stay in that school until we leave this earth. Isn't that right? All of the great men that I have known that have been men of prayer were in that school the rest of their lives. Now I introduced to you the portion of scripture in James that we're going to be in for a little while. That's James chapter 5 as you're turning in your Bible, James chapter 5.

And I told you that last week we have a portion of scripture that really all goes together and it's dealing with the subject of prayer. We're looking at verse 13 through 18 and that great subject of prayer is found in those verses. Now you know that I preach out of the New American Standard and in the New American Standard prayer is mentioned seven times in these verses, either the word pray or prayer. That tells us that the subject is prayer. And it's obvious if we read and even study these verses.

Now last week I told you and I shared with us that there are many misconceptions concerning these verses and that there are even some who have abused these verses. I gave you an example of that. And I also told you that there are some interpretive challenges. Now the verses that we're going to be in this morning really show us some of these interpretive challenges and some of these are difficult and there have been men who are a lot smarter than me who have wrestled with these truths for years. Now I want you to understand and I alluded to this last week that the key to biblical interpretation is several things. I call it a process.

First of all you must look at the definition of maybe keywords and key phrases. You will notice that I have a habit in preaching. I will give you keywords. I will give you key phrases. I will explain to you what they mean in the original. Then we move on from word meanings, phrase meanings to context and then we will move on to other examples in the scriptures. I give you an example. This is not one that I had prepared in my notes but when I was in seminary we had an Old Testament course called Amos and Hosea.

We studied those two books and I did not know this until I got into that course but the Little Book of Hosea, it has a lot of strange words and strange wordings that are found nowhere else in the Old Testament. Several scholars when they find a word or phrases when they find them in other places in the scriptures that helps with interpretation, context. But Hosea doesn't have that. It is a very difficult book to interpret.

What I am showing you is we look at words, we look at phrases and then we look at context and then we look at other examples in the scriptures and that is what we are going to look at this morning when we move on to the next verses. This is key to proper biblical interpretation and proper biblical teaching. I was working with a particular individual this week and he was asking me some questions about sermon preparation and how many volumes do I use. I know guys that have stacks of books and I am really not like that. I have several key tools that I use but I really take that process.

I look at words and phrases, I look at the context and then I look at other examples in scripture because at the end of the day when I get through preaching you have got to be able to apply it to your everyday life and where you are right now. It might not be a set of circumstances that you are going through right now but it has got to prepare you for tomorrow or answer questions about yesterday. I guess I am simple enough that at the end of the sermon I want to say so what. So what does it mean for me? And I want you to be able to say the same thing. This is what it means for me. So we are learning about prayer.

Last week we had what was called part one and this morning we are going to get started in what I call part two. Now I will go ahead and put the information or the message title on the screen and we just have two main truths that we are going to look at this morning. They are real simple. But the title of the message is the power of prayer part two sickness. Part two sickness. Now sickness is not necessarily something that we would like to discuss or deal with in our lives. Now sickness is a given. It is going to come to us whether we like it or not. But sickness is a part of life.

Physical sickness is a part of life and that is the subject of these verses. But we do not like to deal with sickness. We do not like to deal with sickness and we definitely do not like to deal with death. As a matter of fact I did a little research this week and I want to show you how hard we work to stay away from sickness. But in 2012 the United States spent an average of $8915 per person on health care. Now I ran across that information from a website that was called the California Health Care Foundation. Well we do not live in California but that takes all of the nation's statistical data on health care and puts it together.

I ran across another article in the USA Today and it gives us similar information just a little different but it says the United States currently spends more per person on health care than any other developed country on the face of the earth. Now the key is developed country. Goes on to say in the article the US led the developed world in 2012 and they said by spending $8,745. A little less. Per person per capita on health care. Turkey, the country of Turkey, by contrast spent just $984 a person. Then it goes on to give us some countries that are listed. I said this just a moment ago.

The United States spent $875 per $8,745 per person in 2012. The country of Norway spent $6,140 per person in the year 2012 and then it goes on to give some other statistical data on other countries. All of that alludes to or excuse me points to the fact that we in this country spend a lot of money to stay well. Now James deals with this subject of sickness and my point of bringing that type of data to you from our culture is to show us that we don't want to be sick and these Christians here they didn't want to be sick and they were dealing with a subject that we can identify with and that is sickness. Let's go to the scripture.

I'm going to read verse 13 that we looked at last week and then I'm going to go on down there verses this morning. Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. There is the first time the word is used pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praises. Now he changes the subject a little but the subject is still prayer and James says is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let him pray over him anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up and if he has committed sins they will be forgiven him.

Now again after verse 15 he changes subject a little bit but if you will notice the subject from in verse 14 and in verse 15 it is sickness. Now I told you that there are seven times the word prayer is mentioned and I hope that you notice that and underline that but I want you to notice that the word sick or sickness is used twice. In verse 14 is anyone among you sick and then in verse 15 and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick. So it's obvious that the main subject is prayer but in verse 14 and in verse 15 we see that the subject is sickness and how prayer pertains to sickness.

Now I want to go ahead and tell you that I originally planned to preach verse 14 and 15 and keep this as one sermon sickness part two but because of time and the amount of information and the fact that we need to understand some truths here I'm going to spread this out between this morning and next Sunday morning. So let's divide verse 14 and let's go back to that verse notice what he says again he's transitioning from verse 13 is anyone among you sick let him call the elders of the church and let him pray over him anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.

I want to take the time to get into verse 14 so truth number one that you see on the screen I want you to notice the sickness the sickness now this is an obvious sickness because he says is anyone among you sick. It's obvious that there was sickness among them now you might not know it but there is a debate among theologians as to what this sickness means in verse 14 and in verse 15.

Now it is obvious that besides prayer and I've already mentioned this that sickness is the main issue now we've got to realize James is teaching us and teaching these readers how to pray in difficult and different circumstances in life he happens to be in prayer here but there is a debate as to what this word sickness means now what is debate the debate is some interpret this as a physical sickness while some interpret this as a spiritual sickness or spiritual weakness I guess to simplify there's some over here in certain camps they think this means physical sickness some in other spiritual or theological camps they just simply think it means spiritual sickness now let me lay out the issue here let me try to explain it.

In verse 14 we see this word sickness it is traditionally understood as physical sickness all of the English translations will render it sickness but in verse 15 we have a different word in the original language it is better translated weak or exhausted or even depressed but yet our English translations they translate that word in verse 15 as sickness as well but what am I trying to show you in the original language the word for sick in verse 14 and the word for sick in verse 15 are slightly different it seems to excuse me in verse 15 it seems to allude to something other than physical sickness this word for sickness in verse 14 is used I listen to this for physical sickness 18 different times in the New Testament but this same word in verse 14 is used 14 times in the New Testament for spiritual sickness what am I trying to show you this word in the original in verse 14 is used in two different settings physical sickness and spiritual sickness let me give you an example Matthew chapter 10 verse 8 that word that word in the original this used in verse 14 in James 5 is used to deal with healing of a physical sickness as a matter of fact in Matthew 25 verse 36 that same word is used to deal with a sickness visiting and dealing with sickness physical sickness I give you an example of how this same word is used with spiritual sickness in Acts chapter 20 verse 35 it talks about helping the weak that word in the original call is the same that we see in James 5 14 and in Romans chapter 4 verse 19 it deals with the weak faith of certain individuals the same word what am I trying to show you this word seems to be interchangeable and it all comes down to context the context tells us what is meant so we see this word in James chapter 5 verse 14 this word that is translated in our English versions as sick it is used in different ways throughout the New Testament sometimes referring to spiritual sickness now what am I trying to show you there are interpretive challenges here this is what I talked about when we got started in this portion of scripture last week both physical and spiritual sickness are very important but yet many people debate over what James is trying to communicate now I say it like this I believe that both were an issue for the readership physical sickness was a big issue in that day they did not have modern medicine like we have now we know that doctors were important because I don't know if you know it but Luke who traveled with Paul who pinned the gospel of Luke he was a medical doctor by trade a matter of is to just to put it in simplistic just simplistically observing Paul the great apostle of the Gentile had a traveling doctor his own personal physician so physical sickness was an issue wasn't it Paul that wrote Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach what that meant was you need a little bit of wine for medicinal purposes sickness was an issue but also spiritual sickness was an issue we're learning that in our study in the Ephesian church in first and second Timothy are we not they were a sick and weak people Timothy struggled with being sick and weak but what I want you to see is both are here in the readership didn't we haven't we learned that they have experienced persecution haven't we learned that they were scattered from Jerusalem these Jewish Christians into the the four corners and they just went here and there some suffered some prospered somewhere or were being persecuted physically somewhere not what am I showing you both of these could be found in the readership I thought about two different examples that apply to this I know that I have referred to my friend Ray losing his wife to cancer for a for a long time but I communicated with Ray this week and I asked him I said Ray in your years of ministry have you ever followed this this pattern here have you ever had physically sick people that you have gathered the leadership of the church and you prayed and you've anointed them have you ever done that he said yes I said have you ever seen people healed they were healed through the prayer and they are walking testimonies of this verse and he says yes and I said have you ever prayed and anointed some and they did not get healed he said yes my wife and he went on to explain we don't understand the ways of God the happenings of God but I thought about my friend Ray I also thought about my own home church pastor brother Dennis he used to talk about there were certain times when he felt led of God to follow this prescription and he anointed with the leaders of the church certain individuals and he testified there were people who were healed but I also thought about that there have been times in my life and I have known individuals who were spiritually weak they were spiritually sick now I don't mean they have just they just they've just taken a hiatus from Christianity and they're out living this way and that way no that's not what I mean what I mean is I have known people because they have been through trial they've been through some of the things that we've learned in James and they have just been down they've been down in the dumps maybe they've gone through trial and they become bitter and angry maybe they've gone through trial and they become depressed and and weak in their faith they've just gone through trial and they have become weak in their faith they become spiritually sick and you know I don't think I've ever known of an individual that have come to the church leadership and said you know I've gone through a lot I've been through this and I've been through that and I'm spiritually weak and I really want you to lay hands on me because I want my my spiritual strength restored.

So what I wanted you to see is is there is a debate as to what this means some go one way some go other the other way but I think it is important to see both of the issues now I'm not trying to straddle the fence because I'm going to get off the fence at the end of the message but I think the point is we need to see that there is physical sickness that we know and we see and it's obvious to all some of us because we see it in our own lives and our families but we do have the issue of spiritual weakness and I think that was real and alive in the readership of James letter in those fellowships.

Let's move on and I want us to see truth number two I want us to see the plan the plan go back to the verse he says is anyone among you sick question mark it's obvious a question he says let him call for the elders of the church let them pray over him anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. Now one of the Bible commentators that are read is called the New American commentary it's a respected conservative commentary that utilizes different Bible theologians they simply say it like this this verse presents a simple threefold pattern that is to be followed on the behalf of the sick within the life of the church.

I think that's obvious go back to the verse is anyone among you sick let him call for the elders of the church let them pray over him anointing him with the oil in the name of the Lord. So what I want us to do is I want us to break this verse down so if you're taking notes I really want you to write these down first I want you to see call the elders that's obvious is anyone among you sick let him call for or sinned for the elders all of the English translations that I refer to excuse me basically say the same thing now it's important for us to see who the elders are the elders are the spiritual leaders of the church those of you who are in the pews this morning you should know this we learned what elders were back in August in 2013 in our series calling us back to the biblical church most of us have come from backgrounds where the deacons of the church were the leaders of the church that is erroneous as false as wrong the deacons as we learn in that study the deacons of the servants they are the ones who roll up their sleeves and their job is to serve not to lead they do not govern the affairs of the church but it is the elders who govern the affairs of the church I like how John MacArthur describes the elders he says they are the spiritually strong the spiritually mature and the spiritually victorious that that describes the type of spiritual makeup they should have but I think it's important that we need to see their position their function in their role their position is a god appointed a position you understand that I see myself and brother Keith as elders god called god appointed but we also should see not just the position but we see their function the elders govern the affairs of the church now we learn that the elders don't lord over us they don't dictate to us no they lead in by serving they lead by striking out in serving the fellowship and we see their role but see from the scripture first call the elders second I want you to see they should pray anyone among you sick let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him so the elders are called and then second the elders they should pray now how should they pray notice the language and every translation says the same thing they should pray over this sick individual now this word is not found there in the text but it's obvious what this is this is intercession this is intercession now you know me I like to use other examples in scripture to help us understand what we're learning but one of the greatest examples of intercession can be found in the Old Testament and in the Old Testament book of Exodus and in the leadership of Moses you know who Moses was he was the one who led the Egyptians excuse me the Israelites out of Egyptian captivity remember God called Moses to lead his people out of the grip of Pharaoh and they crossed the Red Sea and they embarked on that journey of becoming God's chosen people they were the ones that God was to fulfill his plan through but in that we saw that the Israelites were hard hearted they were stiff neck they just had a hard time following the leadership of the Lord as a matter of fact if you study these books that all come together that tell the story of the Exodus they tested God ten times and after the tenth test God said that's it that's enough you're not going into the promised land turn around and go back and you're going to wander in the wilderness for 40 years but in that story it's a wonderful picture of intercession Moses constantly interceded for the people he would climb up the mountain of God intercede for the people climb back down and deal with him in their sin deal with him in their rebellion deal with him and they're being this slow to follow the Lord then he would intercede he would go to that tenet meeting time and time again he was constantly going to God on behalf of the people even when God was justified in saying Moses get out of the way I'm going to judge them I'm going to put them all to death and I'm going to fulfill my promise through you Moses stepped up and it said that he stood between the living and the dead he stood between God and the people and he said to the Lord no Lord you cannot do that these are your people that's intercession standing between God and man standing between God and a set of circumstances and that's exactly what what James is saying they should pray now this is this is dispels these trivial little pitiful prayers that we hear lots of times in the life of the church what James is saying is these leaders these elders I like how MacArthur says it the spiritually strong the spiritually mature the spiritually victorious but those who have been chosen to lead the fellowships are to come and pray over this individual interceding stepping in between a living God and the individual in need the third thing that we see is they should anoint them go back to the verse is anyone among you sick let him call for the elders of the church let them pray over them anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord now there's a lot of confusion and curiosity in dealing with this verse we really have to two extremes some rush to this verse and they abuse it I mean some in certain theological camps they rushed to this verse and they abused it but yet the other extreme is some will stay away from this verse out of fear I'll never forget in some of our studies and seminary I've said it before one of the older more wise professors stood up and he had that head full of gray hair and he said boys the Pentecostals and Charismatics have made all of us Baptist afraid of the Holy Spirit and see what all the wackos and cuckoos do with this verse they've caused us to really run in fear and see those are the two extremes there's a lot of confusion in dealing with this verse but let me break it down first of all write this down the word what in the form of a question what is the purpose of the oil here now we must answer that question by looking at the scripture now the oil was used here the oil that would have been used here and is always referred to would have been olive oil now the oil in the Old Testament olive oil was recognized for its medicinal purposes so there would have been a medicinal purpose here let me give you an example in Luke chapter 10 verse 29 Luke chapter 10 gives us the story of the Good Samaritan many of you are familiar with that but let me read to you what takes place here with the Good Samaritan what does it say a certain man was going down the road or going from Jerusalem to Jericho and what did it happen he fell among robbers and we know that a priest walked by and then a Levite walked by but verse 33 but a certain Samaritan who was on a journey came upon him and he saw him and he felt compassion and he came to him and he bandaged up his wounds what pouring oil and wine on them that was medicinal so we see in the Old Testament and the New Testament that oil it had a medicinal purpose we know that wine has alcohol in it we know that what does it do it cleanses and sterilizes wounds this was for a medicinal purpose so that kind of answers the what but how but excuse me back up excuse me there's another portion to the what also in the Old Testament the oil was symbolic of the Holy Spirit it was a symbolic of the work of the Spirit we see in first Samuel chapter 16 in verse 14 when King David was anointed king over Israel you don't have to turn there the stories was that Samuel came to the house of Jesse he was called of God to go anoint another king for Israel and it's amazing Samuel was a man of God a man of prayer and he walks in Jesse's house and he says oh Lord look at the oldest he must be king he goes one by one by one and the Lord says no no no no no no no no to every one of them and finally Samuel says to Jesse do you have another son he says yeah the youngest one he's out tending to sheep well David comes in and what does it say verse 12 so he sinned and he brought him in and he was ruddy with beautiful eyes and a handsome and appearance and the Lord said arise anoint him for this is he then Samuel took the horn of oil and he anointed him in the midst of his brothers and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David what does that tell us that is a work of the Spirit and the oil is symbolic of the work of the Spirit it is mystical and it is spiritual so we see the twofold what the oil it did have a medicinal purpose but it also was symbolic of the work of the Spirit the next question is how how how should they anoint them go back to the verse is anyone among you sick let him call for the elders of the church and let him let them pray over him anointing him with oil and this is the how in the name of the Lord this calls the Lord to the situation in hand but I want you to listen it does not make man the center of the situation it makes God the center of the situation this is placing the situation at the Lord's feet and calling the situation in line with his purposes and with his will because see one of the mistakes that some people make is they just think because they call on the name of the Lord that everything that they ask will be done that's not what this means God doesn't have a chain on him for us to jerk and he's not a coke machine for us to go push the button no that is bringing God to the situation that is taking the situation to the Lord laying it at his feet laying it under his lordship that is allowing him to be Lord over the situation in hand that is the how so what do we see the plan anyone sick call the elders those spiritual leaders over you then they should pray in an intercessory way and then they should anoint them with oil and if there is medicine involved then so be it see that tells me that modern medicine is good because they use it in that day but that is calling upon the Spirit of God to work and then it is how how it is placing the whole situation at the Lord's feet calling upon his name see this is where a lot of people make horrific mistakes they take this verse is a quick formula for healing of any kind see I agree with what the new American commentary says I read it earlier this verse presents a simple three four pattern that is to be followed on behalf of the sick but see a lot of people just come casual but I also agree with what Warren Wiersby says he says I do not think that James gave us a blanket formula for healing the sick no that is not what that means but it is a pattern and it is a plan see I think that we have two reactions when we deal with these type of verses some rush some rush I mean some just rushed you mean to tell me I might can be healed and they just rushed to this and then I think the other reaction is some recoil see I think you have two abuses in both set of circumstances and you know to be honest with you I have known very few ministers who have engaged in this only two I mentioned my friend Ray and I mentioned my friend brother Dennis and I have known of them to follow this I can remember my home church there was a woman in the life of the church who had cancer a long arduous ordeal and I remember brother Dennis and the leaders of the church they did this privately secretly they did pray for her and they did annoy her but you know years later brother Dennis said you know there were other spiritual issues at hand they were things going on deeper he didn't allude to anything more I just think that maybe that person wasn't what they should have been spiritually but yet as I communicated with my friend Ray yes he did testify there have been times when we have followed this the Lord has healed we gave him glory him glory and we moved on but he was quick to say but the Lord didn't choose to heal my wife what was he saying I acknowledge that this is at the Lord's feet it is his choice it is his desire it is whatever your will your will be done that should be the attitude now in conclusion we have the two views remember I talked about that in the beginning there are some that think that this is physical sickness and that there are some that think that this is spiritual sickness now I respect John MacArthur I get a lot of information from him especially word meanings he believes this is spiritual sickness and you know there's an argument against physical healing a lot of people believe that the miracles have died out when the apostles died out I don't understand all those things some believe that when the apostles died the miracles the signs the wonders they died out but yet it's a funny thing here verse 14 is anyone among you sick let him call for who the elders does not say the apostles James was an apostle if the only way this could have been performed was that his hands he would have said hold on I'll come but what does he say call the elders so this cannot this argument cannot be applied here because these were the elders of the church we've dealt with the elders of the churches remember it's the elders and emphasis who didn't quite do their job that's why Paul and Timothy were just fighting to correct those problems these are the leaders of the church but again I know the abuses I know how some people have just taking these verses and they've just run amok they've just brought them down and they've just done all types of things that shouldn't be done I'll tell you a little story that has a little humor in it but it has a lot of has a very serious tone as well Jared who will come lead worship with Keith sometimes and is led in Keith's absence at times in his high school and college years he worked at a local Christian bookstore and you know it used to bother him at and how much stuff was marketed in the name of Jesus and he said they would say all those little bottles of anointing oil and he would see some come in and how they would treat it and he would refer to it we've seen those abuses but I guess in concluding and wrapping up this message I will give you my view and it's the way I understand it and I can see it not that we can have clarity 100% I believe that James is dealing with physical sickness I do because we see so many other places in the New Testament where this word was used for physical sickness but also we never see this anointing with oil anywhere but physical sickness it is never used in the New Testament other than physical sickness what did Jesus do he commissioned the 12 to go out and preach the good news and to heal the sick and what anointing them with oil and so for me the usage of this word dealing with physical sickness in so many other places 18 times in the New Testament and the fact that it is used in anointing with oil that tells me that I believe the main idea behind James was physical sickness but we must not ignore those who are spiritually sick see for me it is reminded me of some of the times when I have struggled and I can remember a time in my life when spiritually I was weak spiritually I was wounded spiritually I needed strengthening from the Lord and listen and when I sought encouragement from some of the leadership I did not get it and I needed men to come to me and say brother we need to meet we need to pray brother I'm your pastor I need to lay hands on you because you need your strength renewed I didn't need to just go get back in the saddle and get behind the pulpit no I needed an inner work so I do not discount the other interpretation as well but I believe James is dealing primarily with physical sickness but but I warn you I warn you against taking this casually I'll tell you how most people take this casually and then we will close and like I said earlier we will continue in verse 15 wrapping these two up together next week there are a lot of times in the life of the church people will sow their wild oats they will make their bad decisions and then they come into the life of the church they must deal with the consequences can God take away those consequences yes but many times he will not I think lots of times people will come and they have lived a certain way they have practiced certain habits they have engaged in a certain lifestyle and they have gone out and they have sown the seeds of bad choices and a lot of times those people will come forth and they'll say preacher I want you to anoint me I want you to pray over me and as I have seen that in the past that's when I have had a check in my spirit I won't perform a marriage ceremony for just anybody and I sure wouldn't anoint in just anybody and pray for God to heal them but I do see that there are sometimes when good what I mean by good righteous God fearing people who walk with God they do experience sickness and we don't know why this is a mystery this is a stumbling block to many but I would say this if the Lord chose to heal someone he would do it for his glory and for his honor and for his purposes in the people and in the circumstances they are involved in so what do we see this morning the title of the message the power of prayer part two was sickness I want to ask you to bow your head close your eyes if you would ask the Lord to teach you ask the Lord to teach us I know that last week the Lord really taught us that we should pray constantly when we deal with suffering surrounding people.