Real Faith Prays

James 5v12-20

Real faith prays

Well I think those final two verses of James chapter 5 summarize the main purpose of this book. If I preach through James again I might read those verses before each sermon.

“My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, remember this: whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins.”

You see I’m sure we’ll all agree that James has been very challenging. And he’s been very good at getting under our skin and exposing our sin.

Sometimes it even feels as though he’s being harsh, as though he’s against us and is knocking us down.

But that’s not James’ purpose. James isn’t here to destroy us. He’s here to save us from death and cover a multitude of sins.

And that’s our hope whenever we are challenged and convicted by God’s Word. God loves us. He doesn’t want us to be destroyed. He sent His Son to die for us so that if we repent we can be saved.

One of the accusations that’s sometimes levelled against Christians is this:

They are so heavenly-minded that they are no earthly good. (x2)

In our passage last week we saw James’ encouragement to Christians who are being oppressed. His main message to them was a passive one. Be patient. Don’t rise up in revolution. Be patient and wait for the Lord.

So you can imagine someone listening to these verses and saying; "There you go. You see! This accusation is true. Christians are so heavenly minded. They are so focused on waiting for Jesus to return that they are just passive. They are not active in this world. They are no earthly good."

Well our passage this morning balances what we saw last week. Yes, Christians are waiting for the Lord. But that doesn’t mean we are just passive, sitting around doing nothing. No, our passage this morning describes a community that is active and involved in each other’s lives. And at the heart of all their activity is a commitment to prayer.

You might think prayer itself sounds boring and passive. But I want to suggest that you've never been very serious about prayer. True prayer is hard work. The Bible uses phrases such as struggling and wrestling and warfare to describe prayer.

And what we are going to see this morning is that a praying person is of great earthly good. Prayer is the best response to the different circumstances of this life. It's through prayer that we experience real power and fruitfulness in this world.

So that’s our theme this morning. We’ve been working through James and the focus has been real faith. What does real faith look like?

Well the title this morning is: “Real faith prays”.

Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist who wrote:

“We do not live an equal life, but one of contrasts and patchwork; now a little joy, then a sorrow, now a sin, then a generous or brave action.”

And that’s true. As John Blanchard puts it:

“Life is seldom a motionless plateau, with nothing happening or changing. Life is full of variety. There are mountain tops and valleys, clouds and sunshine, pain and pleasure, and sometimes they all seem thrown together in hopeless confusion.”

So this has been something philosophers and leaders and teachers have struggled with down the ages; how do we cope with the changeability of life?

The Christian answer is this: We need to pray.

That’s why Ephesians 6 verse 18 says; “Pray in the Spirit on all occasions." And then it adds; "with all kinds of prayers and requests.”

In other words, to live a life of continual prayer doesn’t mean that we need to be locked away in our rooms with our eyes closed and uninvolved in the world. There is a place for that. But praying continually means that we know how to pray in the different circumstances of life. There are different kinds of prayers that are appropriate for different occasions of life.

That's really what we see in our passage this morning.

Hands up if you ever received a Gideon’s Bible when you were at school? I’m sure you have seen them. You often find them in hotel rooms and B&B’s. It’s a great thing Gideon’s have done distributing all these Bibles. At the back, you’ll find a list of the different emotions or circumstances you might be going through. And next to each one, there are some verses and some Biblical guidance on how to respond.

That's pretty much what we see here at the end of James. He takes us through the different circumstances of life. And he shows us how to respond.

There are 4 different circumstances I want us to look at. Firstly, what do we do when we are in trouble?

Look at verse 13vl; “If anyone is in trouble, he should pray.”

It's very simple. I think this is one we are probably not too bad at. It's one time when we often do pray, when we find ourselves in trouble.

Although even here sometimes we might struggle. Our first response might be to try and fix things ourselves; take things into our own hands; get advice from all kinds of people. Only as a last resort do we turn to prayer.

Or maybe we sink so deep into our trouble that we become completely overwhelmed with despair. We’ve probably all spoken to people who’ve been through serious suffering and they have questioned God’s love and His care, maybe even His existence. And when you are in that kind of place it's very difficult to pray.

Trouble in your life can either harden you against God, or it can bring you to your knees before Him. And so we need to decide:

Will you see trouble as an opportunity to pray?

But generally I think we are better at this one than we are at the next one. Look at verse 13 again. Not only should we pray when we are in trouble, but:

“Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise.”

The temptation when we are happy is forget about God. We feel strong in ourselves. We lose that sense of dependence upon Him.

The way some Christians respond to this is to make themselves feel sad, they put on a sad face, they focus on their suffering. They might even go so far as to inflict suffering on themselves as if there’s something intrinsically wrong with being happy.

No! It's good to be happy. It’s a gift from God.

The way to keep that sense of dependence when you are happy isn’t to make yourself feel sad. Rather, its to praise God for the good things in your life.

Acknowledge that they all come from Him.

According to Sinclair Ferguson this is the most repeated command in the Bible. I haven’t checked it, but I suspect he’s right. If you think of the Psalms, over and over again we are commanded to sing praises to God.

And so yesterday when you were swimming in the sea, or laughing with a friend, or just enjoying the fact that the holiday has arrived, were you singing? Even if its just in your heart? Were you singing praises to God?

I’ve spoken to a number of Christians who testify to this being a turning point in their spiritual lives; when they started being more deliberate about praising God and thanking Him for what He’s done; maybe setting aside time each day, (even if it's just five to ten minutes) to draw up lists of all the blessings that they’ve received.

It’s a very healthy thing.

So when you are in trouble, you should pray.

When you are happy, you should sing songs of praise.

What about when you are sick?

Verse 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. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up.”

Now this is probably the most abused and controversial little section in the whole of James. It’s difficult and its been twisted and turned to support all kinds of unbiblical practices in the church.

Let me just mention a few of them.

Firstly, extreme unction.

This is a practice in the Catholic Church, where just before a person dies the priest will go and anoint them with oil and pray that their sins will be forgiven. The whole purpose is to prepare that person for their death. And so in the Doui version of the Bible, which is a Catholic version, there’s a footnote next to this verse saying; “This is clear support for the practice of extreme unction.”

And yet you just have to glance at this verse to see that this is not what James is talking about.

He’s not talking about preparing someone so that they can die. He’s talking about praying for someone so that they can live.

And so that’s the first false interpretation.

Secondly, some people use this verse to support divine healing ministries. They claim that they’ve got this special gift of the Spirit, which enables them to heal. They set up whole ministries and crusades focused on their gift of healing.

We don’t have time this morning to discuss the gift of healing. But I want you to notice what James doesn’t say in verse 14. He doesn’t say that if anyone is sick, he should call the person with the gift of healing to pray over him.

No.

It says that he should call the elders of the church.

In other words, James isn’t talking here about a special gift of healing. He’s talking about something any elder in a church is called to do. And so you might want to use other passages in the Bible to support the gift of healing. But not this passage in James.

Then thirdly, (and this is the probably the most dangerous abuse of this passage), some people use these verses to argue that it's always God’s will for a sick person to be healed. And so if you don’t get healed, then it’s simply because of your lack of faith.

This view has done so much damage in the Christian church. I remember, as a student in Stellenbosch, there was a church teaching this. And there was a girl there who was praying for healing, but she wasn't healed. And the church put all the blame on her. It was because of her lack of faith. It did so much damage. She ended up having to go for counselling. She was struggling with serious psychological damage.

The leaders of this church seem to have missed the fact that the faith in verse 15 is describing the faith of the elders, not just the faith of the sick person.

And so if anyone was lacking in faith it was these leaders.

Yet this is a difficult verse to understand. At first glance you can see where this kind of teaching comes from. Look at verse 15. It seems so certain.

It doesn’t say that the prayer offered in faith might make the sick person well, the Lord might raise him up.

No it uses the word, “will”.

“The prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well. The Lord will raise him up.” It does almost seem as though healing is something you can claim, as if it's always God’s will for you to be healed. And the only qualification is faith. As long as you can conjure up enough faith, then surely God will heal you of your disease.

And yet when we look at the rest of the NT, clearly sickness and suffering and even death are still very much an expected part of the Christian experience. There are many examples of Christians in the NT who get sick and even the apostles are unable to heal them. Even Paul himself speaks of a thorn in his flesh and most commentators think it was an eye disease. Paul prays three times for God to take it away. You would think that of all people, the apostle Paul would have the faith to be healed. But God doesn’t heal him. And God doesn't accuse him for his lack of faith. Instead God teaches him this lesson from 2 Corinthians 12v9; “My grace is sufficient for you. For my power is made perfect in weakness.” So clearly sometimes it’s not God’s will for us to be healed. It’s God’s will for us to be sick so that we’ll learn more of His grace.

And so coming back to James, what is he saying? We don’t want to go to the opposite extreme of explaining this verse away and making it irrelevant for our lives. Possibly that’s what we are more guilty of here at St James, of just avoiding these verses because of all the abuses.

What is James teaching us in this section?

Well the first thing to notice is that the word for sickness here is a strong word. It literally means without strength. It's not talking about a slight headache or indigestion. Please don’t call the elders every time you have a cough.

And I don’t think the focus here is so much on the oil. There are one or two references in the Bible to oil being used as an ointment or a treatment. But that’s for specific types of illness, an outward wound or a scar. James seems to be speaking more generally of any type of illness. The most common use of oil in the Bible is as a symbol of consecration to the Lord. And I think that is James’ point. When you pray for someone, you are consecrating them to the Lord. You are placing them in the Lord’s hands. So I do think there’s a place for anointing someone with oil when you are praying for them, as a visible symbol of what you are doing. But there are examples in the Bible of healing without oil. And so that’s not the main focus. The main focus is on the prayer.

And there are two phrases here which are important for us to notice about this prayer. The first one is at the end of verse 14; "...anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord.” The second one is in verse 15; " ...and the prayer offered in faith..."

I think those two phrases; “in the name of the Lord” and “in faith” are really just two sides of the same coin.

When the Bible speaks about the Name of the Lord, it’s not just talking about a magical formula, like 'abracadabra', that we add at the end of our prayers. He is not saying that because we say; “I pray this in Jesus Name", suddenly there’s this power and we can expect things to happen.

No, the Name of the Lord refers to His character and His purposes and His will. And so that’s why, if you look at chapter 5 verse 10, it says the prophets spoke in the Name of the Lord. What does that mean? It means they were His ambassadors. They spoke on His behalf. They represented His purposes and character and will. So that’s what it means to pray in the Name of the Lord. It means to align your prayer with God’s character and will. Are there Biblical principles and reasons and promises to support a prayer for this person’s healing?

It's in that context that we should understand the prayer of faith. Sometimes (not always, but sometimes) as you seek to align your prayer with the purposes of God, you’ll find there really are good Biblical principles and arguments and promises to support a prayer for this person’s healing. And then occasionally God does sometimes grant the conviction that it is His will for this person to be healed.

And so that’s what I think James means by the prayer of faith. He’s not talking about something we can force or conjure up for ourselves. Rather, he’s talking about something God sometimes grants as we seek to pray in line with His will.

Let me apply this to our church, St James. I think it’s probably true, we don’t pray for healing as much as we should. So I want to encourage you, if you are seriously ill, to call me or one of the other council members or senior leaders in the church. Ask us to come and pray for you. These verses are clear. We should be ready to do that. And as we seek to pray in line with God’s will, he might grant us this faith that it is His will for this person to be healed. And then we can expect healing to take place.

Now sometimes there’s a link between our sickness and our sin. The Bible is very clear that there’s not always a direct link. Sometimes we might feel like God’s punishing us when we suffer or we get sick. But often it’s just God’s way of working in our lives. The clearest example is Job. He suffers terribly. And his friends argue that he must repent. It's because of sin in his life. But one of the main points of the book is that he’s not suffering because of a specific sin that he’s committed. So we can’t always draw a direct link between suffering and sin.

But sometimes there is a connection. There are some obvious examples, if you get drunk, you get a hangover; If you overeat, you will feel nauseous.

But sometimes it’s less obvious.

For example in 1 Corinthians chapter 11. The Corinthian church is dishonouring the body of the Lord. When they celebrate the Lord’s supper, they don’t wait for one another so that they can eat and drink together. In that way they are dishonouring the Lord’s body. They are not recognizing the body of believers.