Word of Salvation – Vol. 25 No. 33 – June 1979

 

The Church's Healing Ministry

 

Sermon by Rev. Keith Vethaak on James 5:14-20

The first of two Sermons on HEALING - PART 1

Readings: 2Kings 20: 1-7; Luke 18:1-8

 

Brothers and sisters in our Lord, Jesus Christ.

The subject of healing is very much in discussion these days. At this very moment there are healings going on all around us. Many of the Eastern religions which are coming into this country offer healing in some way or another. Then there are the Psychics and the Spiritists, and all sorts of weird groups who claim to be able to heal.

It's not surprising that as Christians we sometimes get rather confused. Exactly what are we supposed to do about healing? Should we or shouldn't we as Christians get involved in this business of healing?

Some say that we should enter into competition with all the pagan healers. When they zap we double zap ― just to show them that the power of Jesus is greater than the power by which they heal.

Others say, "Don't be stupid. Let's keep our feet firmly on the ground. All this miracle healing belongs to a past long gone and we shouldn't get involved with these things."

A lot of Christians are somewhere in between these two extremes. On the one hand they admit that God can heal, yet on the other they seem to be very pessimistic, and very often when a person is seriously sick they don't really dare to ask for healing.

It seems to me that as Christians we are often very confused about this whole business, and thus I think it would be good if we had a close look at a couple of passages which outline for us in a simple and plain way what our attitude to these things ought to be.

First of all let's open the Scriptures at James 5 where we will read the verses 14-20. We'd like you to keep your Bibles open as we run briefly through this passage and pick up the main points.

In vs.14 James makes a very plain statement.

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.

Notice that James wants the elders to be called to the sickbed. And the elders in those days were more or less the same as our elders today ― they were the ones appointed by God to rule the Church.

Now James was making quite a statement. "Call the elders! What on earth have the elders of the Church got to do with my sickness?" You see the normal practice at that time was to go for things like witchcraft and magic. When a person in those days got sick he went to the healers who more often than not were tied in with magic and superstition and the occult. He went and got himself some charms, or magic potions to rub on.

And now here comes James and he says to the Christians: "For you, that's out! When you get sick, no witch doctors, no magic healers. My command from the Lord is that when you get sick you call the elders of your local Church.”

James wants the ministry of healing to be something that belongs to the local Church. James doesn't tell us that, when we are sick, we ought to seek out healers, but that we ought to ask for prayer by the elders of our Church.

Times haven't changed all that much have they? It must have been a temptation for those people to seek for healing outside the local Church, and in the same way this can be a temptation for us. We can so easily be tempted to think that the prayers of our elders – sober Reformed men they may be – just aren't going to do any good, and so we are on the lookout for other healers with more promise.

But James has very good reasons, we believe, to urge us to keep healing withn the local Church, for he knows that when we are sick how easy it is to be misled by those with healing power who do not belong to Jesus. And they are about, right now in this country. And James also knows how easy it is to forget that it is God who does the healing – that's why we are not just to ask for one elder to come, but the elders who come as representatives of the whole congregation.

But let's leave this for the moment and move on.

Notice that the elders are to do two things. One of them is a major thing, the other is a minor one. The main thing that the elders were to do, (and this is clear not only from the whole thrust of what James is saying, but also from the verbs used), is that the elders are to pray over the sick person. The minor thing that the elders are to do is that they are to oil the sick man. Our translations use the word anoint, but strictly speaking this is not correct, for James doesn't use the Greek word for anoint, which has a spiritual significance but he uses the word for everyday ordinary oiling.

It was normal and common for the sick to be oiled with special oils in order that they would recover. Oiling in those days was the normal medical treatment used by everyone. But notice that even this medical treatment was to be done in the name of the Lord.

But obviously they didn't have all that much confidence in the medicine of the day, for in vs.15 James is back to prayer alone – the prayer of faith will restore to health – and that's the literal meaning of the word save – the sick man.

And now just briefly notice that James also connects all this with sin – if he has committed sins he will be forgiven. In vs.16 sin is mentioned again: You want healing? Then first of all confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed.

It is interesting at this stage to ask why James brings in this matter of sin. Why does he connect sin with sickness? Perhaps there are several reasons.

First of all sometimes our sickness can be the result of our sins, sins against God or sins against our fellow man. Sin is a terrible thing, and sometimes sin so eats into us that we become physically sick. And of course once those sins are confessed and are washed away by the blood of Jesus, the sickness will disappear too.

Secondly, sometimes it happens that unconfessed sins are a block to healing. Paul Tournier, a Christian doctor who has written many books about this subject, says that sometimes he came across people who should have been getting well, but they hadn't; - And he said that almost always there was unconfessed sin, there was a spiritual blockage preventing the healing power of God from operating.

For don't forget that all healing comes from God.

Medicine merely helps the healing process, but no amount of medical care will heal the cut on the hand of a dead man.

Healing, all healing, comes from God, and when sin breaks our communion with God, it can break this healing process.

And when sins are confessed, the healing can go ahead.

Thirdly, sickness often brings our own shortcomings and sins into a very s sharp focus.

It happens very often that when a person becomes ill, that he begins to think about his relationship with God, and that he also realises just how great a sinner he really is.

And if this is the case, it is so terribly important that there are fellow believers who come and point such a person to the saving work of Jesus Christ, and assure him that though he is sinful, Jesus died on the cross to take all his sins upon himself.

Are you now beginning to see why it is so important that the Church - the whole Church, elders and congregation - is involved in the support of those who are sick, for a sick person needs much more than just medical attention - he needs prayer and spiritual comfort.

Right, let's now try to put some of these things back together in a practical way.

Imagine that you are suddenly struck down with a serious illness. What should you do?

Well first of all James tells us that it is your responsibility to ask for the prayer of the Church; that you call the elders to come and pray over you.

Secondly, you are not to ignore the gifts of medicine which God has given to mankind.

Medicine has a place.

The elders used medicine as well as prayer, God can and certainly does use doctors and nurses and hospitals, but... make sure that you get these things into their proper perspective.

We often think that medicine is the most important thing and that prayer is secondary.

When one of us gets sick the first thing that we do is to call for a doctor and the last thing, if we do it at all, is that we ask for prayer.

But the Bible tells us that if we do that, then we have it the wrong way around, we are looking at things upside down, back-to-front.

Prayer is the most important thing but we ought also not neglect medicine, because God often uses medicine to heal. Just think of Hezekiah. God healed, but the prophet, and the medicine he put on the boil were God's instruments of healing.

Healing, all healing, doesn't come from doctors or medicines it comes from God, and God in turn may use medicine.

And when you see it this way it makes a lot of sense that the main thing that we must do in sickness is to pray.

Thirdly you must be sure that you have confessed your sins before God, and that if there is something between you and another person that you have straightened it out.

And fourthly, when anyone of us is sick we are commanded to pray for one another.

In a way it's all very simple and straightforward, the question is of course, Do we as a Church put it into practice? Do we pray for our sick in the way that James tells us to pray, do we place our trust in the Lord for healing, or have we been seduced into thinking that God has nothing to do with it, that it is all the work of the medicine man?

Jesus, in Luke 18, makes a very close connection between prayer and faith.

If we truly believe that God is God, that He is almighty and all-powerful and able to do miracles, then this will be reflected in our prayers.

What happens in our midst when someone is sick? Is there the urgent, believing, persistent prayer that James is talking about?

Or has our praying just become a routine formality, a Sunday morning classified ad, and nothing more?

Remember in the early Church when faced with a crisis. Herod had just finished off James, and all the Jews had applauded and Herod thought, "Wow! Now I'm on to a sure way to win votes."

And so he decided to send Peter down the drain as well.

Crisis, emergency! - Have a look at the way the early Church handled it. Did they say to themselves, well, we'll give him a 35 second classified ad in the Sunday morning prayers?"

The Bible tells us that the early Church made earnest prayer for Peter, so earnest that in the wee depths of the night they were still gathered for prayer in Mary's house.

And of course you all know the result of that prayer. Peter was miraculously freed.

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Now I can hear some of you say, “Ah, but that was in the days of the apostles, when they had all these miracles and this terrific faith."

But really... was that so? Did they have such fantastic faith?

How come then when Peter 'came and knocked on the door, and it was answered by a young girl who then ran back to tell the others that Peter was there that they didn't believe her?

She said: "God's heard our prayers. Peter is free, he's outside!" And they looked at each other and smiled, and said: "She's gone bonkers. Around the bend. Call the men in white.”

Here they were, praying all night, and they didn't even expect an answer to their prayers. But yet God heard their prayers, and man oh man, wasn't that a lesson for the early Church to teach them that when you ask God for something, you had better watch out, because God may well give it to you? To teach them that God can answer prayer, not because our prayers are good and powerful but because God is good and powerful.

Let me remind you that in Luke 18 Jesus Himself taught us to pray, to keep praying and never to lose heart.

Remember the wicked judge and the persistent nagging widow?

If the wicked judge gives her what she wants, because she is persistent, do you think that God who is good and who loves you will not answer your prayers?

So keep at it, don't lose heart.

Is there any sickness among us?

The message of Scripture is clear. Keep praying. Don't lose heart, keep praying, says, James, for healing.

Remember, the prayer of a righteous man carries great weight with God.

Finally, I want to raise just one more issue.

Should we really pray for healing?

If a person has a terminal disease and the doctors say that he will die, then isn't it a bit silly to pray for healing?

And in any case, shouldn't we always pray that God's will be done? And what if it is God's will that a person dies?

What right have we really got to pray for healing?

I think that in answer to these questions there are two things that we should remember.

First of all we should realise that physical healing is not everything. The most important thing in life is not bodily health but a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

That's why people who call the doctor when they are sick but who don't call the elders or who don't bother to pray are running such a grave risk. Eternal death is the thing that is really to be feared, and when we are right with God through Jesus we are assured of eternal life, the greatest healing we could ever hope for.

James makes a note of this in vs.20. Never forget that if because of your praying with the sick, because of the fact that you pointed him to Jesus, that person by the grace of God comes to place his trust in Jesus, then that person has been healed from the power of sin and saved from death. What a fantastic answer to prayer that is!

Secondly, believe that when James tells us to pray for healing he means pray for healing. And Jesus Himself has given us the right to pray for healing, even if we know that God is calling us home.

Jesus Himself gives us the right to pray for healing.

Let's explain this, for this is very important.

In the first place Jesus gives us the right to pray for healing, because when He died on the cross, and when He arose from the grave, He had conquered Satan and death, sin and sickness.

As Christians we know that we must fight against sin, knowing that we can and must do this because Jesus has won the victory, even though it is true that there is still plenty of sin in this world and even in us, and that sin will not finally be completely done away with until Jesus comes again.

We are sure that there is not one of us who would say that we ought not fight against sin because in this life we cannot win anyhow.

And if these things are true of sin which Jesus has conquered in principle but which still lingers on, aren't they equally true of sickness?

We know that sickness and death will not be banished until Jesus comes again, but at the same time we know that Jesus has won the victory over sickness and death and that we must fight with all that we have against these last terrible evidences of Satan's power until at last he is completely overthrown.

In the second place think back to when Jesus was in that place called Gethsemane, just before his crucifixion.

Jesus knew why he had come into the world.

Jesus knew that His road was leading to the cross on which He would die as the sacrificial Lamb of God.

But then, in Gethsemane, what do we see Jesus doing? Something absolutely astounding!

Jesus, who knew that it was God's will that He should suffer and die, asked God to be relieved of this suffering and death.

Jesus, there in the garden, was asking God not to let Him suffer, not to let Him die. Jesus sweated in prayer about these things.

But God said 'No' to Jesus, and Jesus was ready to accept God's answer. 'Not My will but Yours be done'.

And of course God knew what He was doing. If God had said 'Yes' to Jesus and relieved Him of the suffering on the cross, then you and I would now still be damned.

But the fact that Jesus prayed this way gives us the right to pray this way. To ask and to seriously pray for healing, to plead with God that we may escape death, for death is still an enemy that we must fight.

On the other hand, the fact that Jesus was prepared to accept God's will, to accept His 'No', helps us to accept that answer too, trusting that God knows what He is doing, and that He is ever faithful and loving.

Brothers and sisters, healing is something which is coming more and more into the fore-front in our time, not just among Christians but also among non-Christians.

In a world which will offer you all sorts of different ways and names by which you will be healed, let us hold fast to what the Word of God teaches us.

Let us hold fast to the fact that all healing, true healing of the total person, comes only through Jesus Christ, who in His death and resurrection has conquered Satan, sin and death.

Let us take encouragement from the fact that Jesus dared to ask for freedom from suffering and death, and that Jesus Himself had to face the answer 'No!'

And let us not forget what James has to tell us about healing: that healing is basically the business of the local Church; that healing comes about in two ways which both work closely together: prayer and medicine, with the main emphasis on prayer, for true healing is more than just physical healing.

May God's Holy Spirit help us in simple faith to put His Word into practice in our daily lives.

Amen.