AM Bible Study Group; October 3, 2012
James 5:14-16
Theme: James encourages us to make use of the powerful resource of prayer.
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
James’ letter is a pastoral letter—filled with rich and wise pastoral counsel. He addresses many different areas of Christian living; but the one that he addresses in the passage before us is strategic. It effects all the others because it concerns the most powerful resource that God has given us. It’s a resource that can be applied to any trial or circumstance that we as Christians can ever encounter. It’s one that has the power to transform us from the inside out, and to empower us to do whatever it is that God calls us to do. It’s one that constitutes a greater force than any other force on earth; because it actually moves the hand of the Almighty God to sovereignly work through our circumstances, to supply our every need, to lift and sustain our spirits, and even to change the people around us. It’s the resource that unlocks all other resources.
This resource is, of course, prayer—the greatest and most powerful resource God has ever entrusted to man. Consider for a moment just a few of the remarkable things that the Bible tells us have been done by prayer:
1. When a consolidation of Amorite kings sought to attack Joshua, and when he was promised by God that those kings would be given into his hand, he prayed and the sun stood still in the sky for the whole day until he had won the battle (Joshua 10:12-14).
2. When Elijah was being helped by a widow of the town of Zerephath, and her son suddenly became sick and died, the prophet prayed, and the boy came back to life
(1 Kings 17:17-24).
3. When the city of Jerusalem was being surrounded by the dreaded armies of Assyria, godly King Hezekiah laid their threats before the Lord in prayer; and the Angel of the Lord struck the Assyrians in the night so that the men of Israel woke up in the morning to find the army of 185,000 Assyrian soldiers dead (Isaiah 37: 36).
4. When the apostle Peter found that the wonderful Christian woman named Tabitha, in the city of Lydda, had suddenly died, he went up to the place where her body was laid and prayed for her, and then brought her down to her friends alive (Acts 9:36-43).
Our use of prayer—this most marvelous and powerful of all resources—was endorsed to us by the Lord Jesus Himself in the strongest terms. In Matthew 7:7-11, He said, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” In John 15:7, He told His disciples, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” And in verse 16, He said, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.”
As a good pastor, then, James exhorts those under his care to avail themselves abundantly to this resource and to put it to use in everyday life. In this morning’s passage we find . . .
I. AN EXAMPLE OF ITS PRACTICE (vv. 14-15).
A. The example that Pastor James gives is that of prayer for the healing of sickness. He writes; “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. 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’s people are called to pray; but that it’s the Lord Himself who “will raise” the sick person. The power does not lie in the prayer itself, but in the One to whom the prayer of faith is made. As Peter once declared, when a lame man was healed, “Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why look so intently at us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Jesus . . . And His name, through faith in His name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all” (Acts 3:11-16).
B. The procedure described in this passage is intended to underscore the vital element of faith in prayer; and of the need to pray with holiness from sin, reverence toward Christ, and submission to God-appointed authority (1 Tim. 2:8). It is the prayer of faith that moves God’s hand, not the observance of the ceremonies or rituals.
II. AN EXPRESSION OF ITS POTENTIAL (v. 16).
A. Because prayer is powerful (v. 15), James exhorts his readers to make use of it in the practical matters of daily life. He writes, “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.” Note that his words constitute a command based on the assumption of prayer’s potential It’s expressed in a cause/effect relationship: “Confess . . . and pray
. . . that you may be healed.”
B. And this potential is naturally, therefore, expressed in a promise. The promise is that “the effective, fervent prayer” (or “petition”) “of a righteous man avails much.” Literally, James writes, “A petition of a righteous man is strong, being made effective.” As our Lord taught us, “Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them” (Mark 11:22b-24).
III. AN ILLUSTRATION OF ITS POWER (vv. 17-18).
A. As if to give further testimony of the power of prayer, James points to the Old Testament model of a mere human—like us—through whom God did super-human work by his prayers. He writes, “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours . . .” (v. 17). This may seem obvious; but it was vital to James’ argument to stress it. That great prophet of old, Elijah, was a man, literally “of like feeling to us”. In ‘flesh and blood terms’ he wasn’t in any way different from us. There was nothing about him, in any natural sense, that set him above any one of us.
B. The difference—if one is to be noted—is stated in verse 18; “. . . 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” (v. 18). In the dark days of the Kings of Israel—during the ungodly reign of King Ahab—he declared, “As the LORD God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word” (1 Kings 17:1). But we’re told that after three and a half years (see Luke 4:25), God commanded him, “go, present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the earth” (18:1). We’re told that after that meeting—and after the great event of Mount Carmel (18:20-40)—”. . . Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; then he bowed down on the ground, and put his face between his knees” (v. 42). This was an obvious posture of prayer. Soon, the skies became black with clouds and wind; and “there was a heavy rain” (v. 45).
* * * * * * * * * *
There truly is no resource in the hands of human beings that can possibly be greater than prayer. But sadly, we rarely make use of it. Dare we say that the typical attendance to a typical prayer meeting demonstrates how little we think of its power?