Daddy, Help!
James 5:13-20
Introduction:
I remember a scene over twenty years ago when I was a pastor in New Jersey.
Sarah was little, maybe four years old or so. She went into a little washroom
off of our kitchen and suddenly I heard: “Daddy? Daddy? Daddy! DADDY!” With each “Daddy” her voice got louder and more
urgent. First I Iooked up casually, then by the time her voice got to a scream
I was running in the door. She had been cornered by a large, fearsome… ANT! I
guess when you are four years old a black ant can look big and scary? Well,
Dad, the hero, swooped in and smashed the attacking vermin. Sarah’s reply,
“Daddy, where were you? Didn’t you hear me? What took you so long?” When we cry to our heavenly Father for help,
He is there, NOW. In fact He already knows our need before we ever speak. He
knows the urgency of the moment. He understands our fear. And He is always at
the door, ready to help, and here is the hard part: ready to help in the way
that is best, every time. Why then are we so often hesitant to call on
Daddy, why do we turn to prayer as a “last resort”? The hymn writer said it
well: “Oh what peace we often forfeit, oh what needless pain we bear, all
because we do not carry, everything to God in prayer!” That is really the big
idea I want to focus on in this final paragraph of this beautiful, practical
little letter written by James, the brother of the Lord…
The Big Idea: What peace we forfeit, what pain we
bear, when we fail to carry our needs to God in prayer!
I. Prayer for our suffering (13). “Is anyone among you
suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms.”
Prayer, for the believer in Jesus,
is like breathing, or it should be. It is the response of faith to the
pressures and trials of life. “Is anyone
among you suffering? Let him pray.” James had used the noun form of the same
root word in 5:10, when he spoke of the prophets as an example of “suffering and patience.” It speaks of enduring evil treatment by
people. The apostle Paul used that verb three times in what was probably the
last letter he wrote, toward the end of his second Roman imprisonment, the
letter we know as Second Timothy. He used this word to describe both his own
suffering for the Gospel (2 Tim 2:3,9) and to speak of the need to endure
suffering by Timothy (2 Tim 4:5). Writing from a Roman prison, waiting for his
day with the executioner, Paul knew something about suffering. Look at the
passages…
2 Timothy 2:3 “Share in suffering as a good
soldier of Christ Jesus.”
2 Timothy 2:8-9 “Remember
Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my
gospel, 9 for which I am suffering,
bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound!”
2 Timothy 4:5 “As for you, always be sober-minded, endure
suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”
The reality
is that we live in a world infected by sin, and the consequences of sin are all
around us. The equation is unavoidable: A world of sinners + a world cursed
because of sin = the certainly that we who seek to live as light in the world
we will have tribulation. The good news for the believer in Jesus is that He
has overcome the world (John 16:33). So as surely as we breathe to get the life
giving oxygen into our bodies, we pray in the midst of our trials, because we
know that life is in Him. When we suffer we cry out: “Daddy, help!”
“Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing
psalms.” The word translated “cheerful” here doesn’t imply a time of fun and
games. It doesn’t necessarily mean that
we will be “happy, happy, happy” from the world’s perspective. But we can be
“happy, happy, happy” in truth because we have a foundation that is sure and a
future that is secure. We have already been translated out of the domain of
darkness into the kingdom of the Son. The word translated “cheerful” here is
not used many times in the New Testament. Where is occurs, in one scene in the
Book of Acts, it implies “Cheerful courage in the face of danger or difficult
circumstances” (see Acts 27:22, 25). We find Paul using this word toward the
end of Acts where he is in a ship, a prisoner, on his way to Rome to stand
trial before Caesar. The ship is caught in a horrendous storm, and even the
experienced crew is beginning to despair:
“Yet now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of
life among you, but only of the ship. 23
For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong
and whom I worship, 24 and he
said, 'Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And behold, God
has granted you all those who sail with you.'
25 So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it
will be exactly as I have been told. 26
But we must run aground on some island" (Acts 27:22-26).
Paul used
this word to urge others on a ship with him in the midst of a storm, though
they were headed for a shipwreck, to “take heart,” i.e. “cheer up,” despite the
terror of the moment. Think of what Paul was saying, the storm was raging, the
ship would soon be breaking up against the rocks, “Take heart,” “Cheer up!” The
swim may be hard, the water may be cold, but you are going to make it. And
all 276 onboard did make it to the shore alive. God is bigger than the
storm you are going through, he will get you home safely, if you will trust Him. What peace we forfeit, what pain we bear,
when we fail to carry our needs to God in prayer.
II. Prayer for the sick
(14-16a). “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. 16 Confess your trespasses to one
another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed…”
This is one of the more debated passages in James (14). First of all, is
James talking about physical illness or a spiritual need? The word “sick” or
“weak” can be used either way. Also, is
the anointing with oil a ritual to be followed, or is it just using the available
medicinal practice of the day accompanied by prayer? For example in the parable of the Good
Samaritan in Luke 10 we see that the Samaritan poured “oil and wine” on the wounds
of the injured man. It’s probably not strictly an “either/or” situation.
First of all, all suffering and pain came into
this world as a result of the sin of Adam: “By
one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin…” James was also
writing to the believing Jews who were scattered abroad after the martyrdom of
Stephen, so they knew about trials. That’s been a theme throughout this letter:
“Take heart, God hasn’t forgotten you and he is working in the midst of your
pain, sustaining you and strengthening you.”
Secondly, believers get sick too, and it is
as natural as breathing that we should pray to our omnipotent Father for
healing. Sometimes it could be chastening, something which God is
allowing in our life to teach us, to draw us back to Him (I Corinthians 11:30).
In others cases, it can simply be the result of living in a fallen world, and
then somehow God is working even in that situation for our good and for His
glory (see John 9:1ff).
The fact that the sick person is to call for the elders of the church to
“pray over him” implies that he is unable to go to them, apparently sick in
bed. They also “pray over him”
implying the sick person is in bed, so it’s a serious situation. By the way we
do practice this in our church: when someone is sick and calls for the elders,
we go to their home and pray for them, and anoint them with oil, which for us
is neither medicinal nor mystical, but it is symbolic, affirming our
recognition of God’s presence and our dependence on Him. He is the Great
Physician.
“And the prayer of faith will save
the sick…” I don’t think we can interpret this to say that prayer offered
in faith guarantees healing in this life (15). I do agree with those who
say that healing is in the atonement, in this sense: ultimately, because of
Jesus, we who know him will receive a transformed, glorified body. That is certain, that is God’s promise to
us. We will indeed be “by His stripes,
healed” (Isa 53) since one day, because of Him, “…this corruptible will put on incorruption, this mortal, immortality”
(I Cor 15). And I do believe, that when it serves God’s purposes, He does grant
healing in this life. So it is good and proper to pray for healing, not
presumptuously, not thinking that we can “name it and claim it,” but
recognizing his sovereignty, and, as always, praying in submission to his
lordship. Whether now or then, He will answer.
Some sickness is the result of
sin, and confession will lead to spiritual healing (16a). This is one of those
“one another” passages in the New Testament, and it pictures an interdependent
body of believers, a family where we can be transparent, and truly “confess our
sins” asking for the prayer of a brother or sister that we would get victory over
that area of struggle. This goes beyond
the previous statement about calling on the elders for prayer and extends this
ministry to the whole church. Friends,
we need to be that kind of a family, with relationships like this, able to
speak to one another honestly and confidentially, knowing that our
personal struggle is not going to be posted on facebook but that it is going to
be personally lifted before the God of the universe on our behalf. I think
we need to exercise discernment here, we don’t want necessarily to “spill our
guts” before just anyone, but if the sin affects someone, or if it is known to
them, or (and this is important) if they are of sufficient spiritual
maturity to be trusted with what we are struggling with, it is a truism
that “confession is good for the soul.” I believe this is part of “bearing one
another’s burdens.” There is blessing in praying together. What peace we
forfeit, what pain we bear, when we fail to carry our needs to God in prayer.
III. Prayer in the will
of God is effective (16b-18). “...The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. 17Elijah
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. 18 And he prayed again, and the
heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.” James turns to an illustration from scripture.
James wants
us to know that even a great prophet like Elijah was a mere man, no different
than us, and he prayed to God and was used to tremendous effect. Well, he was
surely a man of great faith, and God used Him to speak to the nation and its
king.
We can take from this a couple of things: 1)
we should pray in faith, knowing that the believing prayer offered in
accordance with the will of God will be heard and is effective. God works
through the prayers of His people. That’s the main point. 2) We can also see by
example that we should pray for needs beyond our immediate circle, and pray for
our nation, for the church, for those in authority, for persecuted Christians
in other parts of the world, and for the unreached who need to hear. It’s a
mystery, but God works through prayer. What peace we forfeit, what pain we
bear, when we fail to carry our needs to God in prayer!
IV. Prayer for the straying (19-20). “Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from
the truth, and someone turns him back, 20
let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a
soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.”
Though
prayer is not specifically mentioned in 19 and 20, it fits the context to
consider the need to pray for those who might be wandering from the truth. It
is certain that James would assume that “turning back” a sinner from the error
of his way is a matter that cannot be attempted merely in our human weakness
without asking God to work in the heart of the stray sheep we are seeking. The
language here is very much that of the parables that speak of a lost sheep.
The shepherd seeks to find it and bring it back. That is God’s heart, and it
should be ours. The wandering can be doctrinal (notice they “wandered from the
truth”). The implication is that they were forgetting sound doctrine and
perhaps had been influenced by false teaching. He also speaks of “turning a
sinner from the error of his way.” The two ideas are related as wrong
thinking will inevitably be related to wrong living. James may once again have
two groups in the community to which he is writing in mind.
First,
there are those who are saved but have drifted away – we need to pray for them
and to look for opportunities to turn them back to Jesus. Believers who try to live without recognizing
God’s sovereignty in their life are inviting his discipline. We have that kind
of situation referred to in I Cor 11:29-32 where Paul is discussing those who
presumptuously partake of the Lord’s table:
29 For he who eats and drinks in an
unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's
body. 30 For this reason many
are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.
31 For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be
judged. 32 But when we are
judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the
world.
This is not punishment, but loving
correction. Who the Lord loves, He chastens.
Secondly,
there may be some who have heard and not been genuinely converted. That need is
urgent, and we should seek to bring them back to the One who is Life and Truth,
the only Way to the Father (see John 14:6). I want to leave some DVDs on the back table,
produced by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, My Hope for America. Take one only if you will watch it, and then
prayerfully consider if there is someone who might benefit from watching it
with you. I’d encourage you to invite them over to see and to consider the
message of hope that is only found in Jesus (you can also check for the
broadcasts of this message in coming weeks). But first pray. Then pray more.
What is God saying to
me in this passage? O
What peace we often forfeit, what needless pain we bear, all because we do not
carry, everything to God in prayer.
What would God have me to do in
response to this passage? Are you in need of prayer? Do you feel burdened to pray for someone you
care about? A friend who is sick, or a child who is wandering? Maybe like
Elijah you are burdened with the big picture we face and need to pray for
showers of blessing to fall on our country… we have the privilege of doing that
personally, at home, with our family or small group, we can also pray here, as
a church, so I invite you to come, to cast your burdens on Jesus, and to allow
us to pray with you. AMEN.
