“The Prayer of Faith will Save the Sick”
(James 5:13-15)
Series: Living the Faith (James)
Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD
Henderson’s First Baptist Church, Henderson
I invite you to take your Bibles and join me in James, chapter 5 this morning (page 814; YouVersion).
Someone sent me a text message this past week, a text of a church sign that he had seen apparently while traveling. You know most of the messages on church marquis are rather unimpressive or blasé, but this one I thought was pretty good. On the church sign the words were: “The Bible: the original text message.” I like that.
God’s text for us this morning is chapter 5, verses 13-15. It is a passage about prayer, a passage that actually goes on through to verse 18, but we’re slowing down here to ensure a fuller treatment of this statement by James that, “The prayer of faith will save the sick.”
• Please stand in honor of our reading the Word of God.
13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms.
14 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.
15 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.
• Pray.
Introduction:
Tony Evans tells about a time when he was stuck in an elevator. The elevator stopped suddenly between floors and just came to an abrupt halt. He said people began to panic, talking and moving about, pushing buttons, banging the door, and crying out for help.
And he said there was one guy in the elevator who calmly walked over to the other side of the elevator, pulled a latch open and picked up the telephone and waited. A voice asked, “Is there a problem?” and he said, “Yes, we’re trapped in the elevator, between this floor and that.” And the voice said, “Okay, we’ll be right there.” Evans said everyone forgot about the phone. He added, “All the human effort we put forth, banging and yelling, wouldn’t work, but picking up the phone and asking for help did. We had to seek help using the connection.”
These few verses teach us how to respond correctly in various circumstances and the answer is always to talk to God. You probably noted that as we read the text. James says, “When you find yourself this way, here’s what to do; when you find yourself like this, here’s what to do. When you’re suffering, do this; when you’re happy do this; when you’re sick, do this. And It’s all about going to God, making a connection by going to Him in prayer, talking to hIm.
Prayer is best defined as simply talking to God. Talking to God. It’s like the hymn:
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer!
Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
Are we weak and heavy-laden,
Cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge—
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
So there are three specific circumstances where James teaches that Christians are to pray, to talk to God. First:
I. Talk to God when Suffering (13a)
First part of verse 13, “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray.” Pretty simple and straightforward. Is anyone among you all suffering? Let him or her pray. Talk to God when suffering.
Go to the One who made you and knows you. Talk to God.
You know, it makes sense. If your Ford breaks down, you don’t take it to the Chevy dealer. I mean, you could, but you’d do far better if you took it to the dealer who made it, right? If your Mac computer breaks down, you don’t talk to the Windows guy, you talk to the Apple guy because Apple is the one who made it.
When you break down, where do you go? You go to the One who made you and knows you and has an instruction manual to help you. You don’t go to Facebook and vent about it, rant about it, post ugly pictures about it. You go to the right source. You go to the One who made you—made you in His image—the One who knows you, the One who is always there for you. Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Talk to God when suffering.
Now, look. The Bible doesn’t say that when you are suffering and you go to God, talking to God, that you are guaranteed to stop suffering. Suffering through trials is often a good thing for Christians because it helps us grow. Always remember how James begins his letter in the opening verses:
“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience (or endurance). But let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” (James 1:2-4).
Suffering is a means God uses in the Christian’s life to make the Christian more like Christ. God often uses suffering to remove unhelpful impurities in our lives, worldliness, for example. God uses suffering to grow us and to conform us more greatly into Christlikeness.
Talk to God when suffering. As someone taught me years ago: when you suffer try not to ask God “Why?” but rather ask Him “What?” What are you teaching me God? What are you trying to show me through my suffering? What lessons would you like me to learn? What are you doing right now to make me more like Jesus?
Talk to God when suffering. Secondly:
II. Talk to God when Singing (13b)
Now, I’ve worded this point by stressing the content of its application. The text actually reads there in the second part of verse 13, “Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms.” I am stressing the content of our singing, that we are—in song—talking to God.
James is teaching that we are to talk to God when suffering and we are also to talk to God when we’re not suffering. We talk to God not just in the absence of cheer, but also in the presence of cheer. James says, “Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms.”
When you’re happy, sing. Now on the face of it, someone may say, “Well, of course! That’s easy! When we’re happy we sing!”
La dee dah, la dee do, I’m happy
I’m happy, so are you
But is that what James is saying? Just smiling and singing La dee day and happy songs?
Pharell Williams’ “Happy”
Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth
Because I’m happy
Clap along if you know what happiness is to you
Because I’m happy
Or from my generation, the 80s, Bobby McFerrin’s, “Don’t worry, be happy.”
Good songs, both of them; catchy, too.
But is that the kind of singing James has in mind here? “La dee dah, everything’s great?”
James says in verse 13, “Is anyone cheerful, let him sing psalms.” The New King James is helpful here because most of the modern translations have simply, “Let him sing praise,” or “praises,” which might suggest just the sort of generic singing regardless of the content.
But the word for praise is this word “psalms,” like the psalms of the Old Testament, words of praise to the One True and Living God. So James is talking about our singing to God, talking to God in song.
“Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms,” songs of praise to God. So, for example, we find ourselves singing: “Praise God from whom all blessings flow, praise Him all creatures here below, praise Him above ye heavenly host; praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.” Talking to God in song.
Or maybe we find ourselves just sining, “Hallelujah,” or, “Alleluia” which means—what?—Praise the Lord.
God loves to hear His children praise Him in song. I really stress this in our corporate worship, how important it is for us all to sing. The worship service is not a performance by the choir or the praise team. The choir and the praise team lead us in worship. We are all worshiping. That’s why we have the words on the wall so that we can all see and read in case we can’t always hear correctly the words. The words are to be spoken by all of us, either silently or aloud. We are here to praise Him!
And the same is true when we are in private worship, driving in our cars or walking outside, or kneeling in prayer. We praise the Lord in song.
Now, at first reading of verse 13, we might find ourselves more easily drawn to the first part of the verse. Verse 13, “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms.”
So we may say, “Well, I can relate to the first part there because the second part, well you know, of course when we’re cheerful it is much easier to talk to God in song. That’s not the hard part. The harder part is the suffering; talking to God in suffering.”
But I’m not so sure. I actually find the second part of the verse the harder thing to do. Because I find that when things are going bad, it’s easier and more natural to talk to God than when things are going good. When things are going really well, I find it harder to remember God. It’s so easy to neglect Him.
When it’s dark and we’re hurting, we’re so inclined to go to God. And often we do so in anger: “Why are You doing this to me?!” But it’s true, isn’t it? We are more inclined to go to God when we are suffering. Yet, when it’s not dark and we are not suffering, when the sun is shining and everything feels good, in those moments it’s so easy to forget God. Remember James says back in James 1:17, “Every good and perfect gift comes from above.”
James reminds us here that we are always to talk to God. We talk to God not just in the absence of cheer, but also in the presence of cheer. Worship is ongoing. We ought always to be talking to God, talking to God when suffering, talking to God when singing.
Thirdly, James teaches that Christians are to:
III. Talk to God when Sick (14-15)
So here is another circumstance where the Christian is taught to go to God. Look again at verse 14:
14 Is anyone among you sick? (If so, here’s what to do) Let him (or her) call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
15 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.
The text assumes a kind of sickness that requires special prayer. This is a physical sickness that seems to imply one is perhaps bedridden as a result of the physical ailment—though we need not restrict the application to such a situation, nor be too dogmatic here in our interpretation.
The truth is, verses 14 and 15 are rather unique in their placement within the wider scope of Scripture. That is to say, there are not many other places in the New Testament that sound a lot like verses 14 and 15. That is why, if you were to go home today and pull a commentary off the shelf, you might find that there are scholars of various opinions as to what these verses teach.
That alone should give us pause in our study and lead us to practice humility in our study of this passage. Some of us have been told years ago what these verses meant or we read a favorite commentary and just went along with what that person said, but sincere Bible study should always be about allowing our pre-understandings to bow before the authority of Scripture.
We must always be aware of our presuppositions. If “presupposition” is a new word, a presupposition is what we “pre-suppose” before studying a passage. We have a preconceived understanding of what we believe that passage teaches. If I were to define the word “presupposition,” I like to think that, “a presupposition is what we believe until we really study the Bible.”
So we’re always willing to allow our presuppositions to be challenged. There are some things in the Bible that are really clear. Jesus Christ, for example, is the only way to be saved. The Bible is very clear on that. It is a primary teaching. But there are many secondary or tertiary teachings that are not as clear and therefore must be held in greater tension as we seek to understand their meanings.
When it comes to biblical interpretation, when it comes to interpreting the Bible, figuring out what a passage means, I like to say, “If the plain sense makes sense, seek no other sense.” So we read and interpret in a straightforward manner.
14 Is anyone among you sick? (If so, here’s what to do) Let him (or her) call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
I believe we take verse 14 at face value, just let it stand on its own. Here’s what to do. Call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord.
So the passage assumes there is this situation where a person is likely bedridden—though again it need not mean only that—and this person is to call for the elders of the church. Now note that carefully: it is the person himself or herself who makes that call, who gets word out that he or she would like a pastoral visit for the purpose of praying for healing.
It is not, then, that the ministers themselves, or some other church member takes it upon himself or herself to get this thing going, but rather the responsibility is upon the individual who is sick. He or she calls for the elders of the church.
So this is not a roadshow, a going out and starting some kind of healing crusade or even opening up the church building and inviting a so-called faith healer to come and lead a healing service. This is a person who is sick calling upon the elders of the church to come and pray over him or her.
The word “elders” there is a term used interchangeably with “bishops,” or “ministers” or “pastors.” They all refer to the same office, a pastor of a church. The New Testament assumes a plurality of pastors or elders in the congregation. That assumption is seen especially here in verse 14. Note the plural, “elders of the church.”
Our church here, as in most churches our size, has a ministerial staff that functions like a plurality of elders. Many churches, however, are of such size as to have only one elder, a single pastor. I believe the Bible allows for both models, but the New Testament teaching suggests that a plurality of elders is the preferred model.
Also note that verse 14 assumes the existence of a church. James refers to “the elders of the church.” The New Testament takes for granted that every Christian is an active member of a local church, a local fellowship of believers with whom each Christian worships, prays, and serves, and to whom each Christian is accountable. There is no biblical support for an individual Christianity where the Christian is a sort of “Lone wolf,” not engaged in the local church. Every Christian is to be an active member of a local fellowship of believers.
So the person who is sick and likely bedridden is to call for the elders of the church, the leaders who are ministers of the church—but even here I don’t think the text requires only the elders. There may be others who have gifts for praying and healing—but James mentions the elders coming than and “praying over him,” praying over the one who is sick. And James adds, “anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.”
I believe the verse means exactly what it says: anointing with oil. I don’t think James has in mind the medicinal use of oil as in the parable of the Good Samaritan, but rather the use of oil as a symbol for the powerful work of the Holy Spirit. Especially in the early church, the Holy Spirit’s coming for healing was symbolized in the anointing with oil. The Bible teaches in Mark 6:13, for example, that Jesus’ disciples “anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them.”
But of course, it’s not the oil that heals but, last part of verse 14, “the name of the Lord.” So it is praying over a person, “anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.” The oil is not necessary for healing, but is a powerful visual reminder of the work of the Holy Spirit.
And while the oil is not necessary for healing, why not use it? Why not use the oil if, in fact, it is a powerful reminder of the wonderful work of God’s Spirit, why would the elders, the ministers, not use it when praying in these circumstances for the sick? I can find no good reason why not to use oil other than perhaps there was none around at the time, but it is a powerful symbol that James teaches should be used in these particular circumstances.
He goes on to say in verse 15:
15 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.
So prayer is the means of healing the sick, specifically “the prayer of faith.” Before we talk more about that phrase it is helpful to review why we even have sickness in the first place.
It is important to remember that physical sickness originates in the Fall of Mankind in Genesis 3. When our first parents, Adam and Eve, sinned, they brought death into the world. Unless Christ returns every one of us will die a physical death and most of us will die as a result of some kind of sickness. In a very real sense we all have a terminal disease.
Christ’s atoning work on the cross redeems Christians from the finality of sickness and death. When He returns, His coming will eventuate in a perfect state where there is for the Christian no more sorrow, sickness, and death.
In the meantime, as Christians await His coming, we get sick from time to time. He chooses on occasion to heal us through the miraculous provision of medicine, medicine coming from substances He placed in the earth at creation, which creation He called “very good” and God chooses on occasion to heal us through the power of prayer. These intermediate healings are, of course temporary insofar as we will eventually get sick again or contract some other disease.
But it is important to recognize that every healing is ultimately to the credit of God—though often administered through the giftedness and skill of doctors and care givers—but God ultimately getting the credit. That is why James says in verse 15, “and the Lord will raise him up.” The Lord ultimately does the healing.
It is also important to acknowledge that every healing is something of a foretaste of that glorious final state of perfection. Every healing sort of foreshadows the splendor and wonder of the heavenly state where again there is no more sickness, sorrow, nor death (Revelation 21:4).
So James says in verse 15:
15 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.
Note that God uses “the prayer of faith,” and that is the faith of the elders, the ones doing the praying—not the faith of the sick person himself—the “prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up.”
Too many sick persons have been told that they were not healed because they didn’t have enough faith. The Bible does not teach that a person is healed only when he or she has enough faith. Sometimes the one being healed has faith for healing and sometimes the one being healed does not have faith for healing. What James stresses here is the faith of those doing the praying, the elders.
And he says it is, “The prayer of faith” that “will save the sick.”
I believe “the prayer of faith” is that unique working of God within the ones doing the praying, when God gives a special sense that He is indeed going to heal. God sometimes gives a strong intuition, a subjective assurance of faith, a strong sense that this sickness will be healed. And God gives this faith, on occasion, to those who are praying.
I am looking for a video clip I hope to share with you next time where I witnessed on a mission trip a woman in Toronto Canada who I believe had this special sense of “praying in faith,” and “gifts of healing,” as I watched God use her in healing a woman who was previously blind in one eye.
I don’t think it happens all the time. So we must be very careful here. It is not always God’s will to heal. Remember that Paul was not healed of his “thorn in the flesh.” Timothy was not healed of whatever ailment he had with regard to his stomach. Trophimus was left sick in Miletus. Epaphroditus was sick and nearly died. It is not always God’s will to heal.
But there are occasions when God chooses to heal though the means of faith, and exactly as spelled out here in James 5.
We’ll pick up this subject again next week, Lord willing. In the meantime, let me share with you in closing a personal application of this passage.
[Closed with story of God’s healing of back pain, no surgery, over 4 years ago, staff prayed over me at staff meeting, tingling reminding me of God’s healing,]
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