Hebrews Lesson 168 August 6, 2009
NKJ Psalm 119:9 How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word.
Well, the
last couple of days have been kind of fun days for me. Some of you know that on
Tuesday night Dan Ingram was here, pastor of The National Capital Bible
Church. I always have to get the
definite article there. Dan flew in on Monday afternoon. He and I have been
friends for many years, and so we always have good time together. We had a great
time the last couple days. After class Tuesday night we jumped in the car, took
off and drove up to San Antonio to spend some time with his uncle who is 87 and
lives there in an Air Force retirement village. That's a totally different
story, but just too sort of tweak your curiosity, his uncle was shot down by
(unfortunately by) friendly British fire as he was returning from a foray over
into France in August of 1942. So
he ended up in the English Channel. The only place he could get to was the
French coast which is only two miles away. As a result
he was immediately captured by the Germans and spent the remainder of the war
in Luft Stalag #3 which
happened to be featured on a on a National Geographic special the other night
on the great escape. What they did at that Luft Stalag was the basis for that film The Great Escape. He was one of three American tunnel diggers on
the tunnels. Unfortunately just before they were to escape, it was discovered
the Americans were moved out to another camp, and so he didn’t participate in
that. We went through a day and a half of stories.
Last night
we had the great privilege of visiting our friend Jeremy Thomas up in
Fredericksburg who is a pastor of Fredericksburg Bible Church. Jeremy did a fabulous job teaching -
just started. I think last week he must have started the study on Hosea, which
is great study. He did a great job teaching the Word last night.
But what was
even more impressive was something that both Dan and I observed what we think
represents a good example, a wonderful example and a challenge to a lot of
Christians today. If you look around this congregation, you will notice that
we’re missing something. We’re missing young families with children. Now last
night when we were at his Bible class, Jeremy has four children. Here he is with
three of them. Of course, what’s the youngest one’s name Dan? Cora. Cora is
just about five months old, and so she was sitting in there. Jeremy’s wife
Robin was taking care of her. But Ribbon and that’s Caleb. His twin Joshua is
the one that’s missing. But those kids sat at the table through that hour of
Bible class. They didn't wiggle. They didn’t make noise. They weren’t a
distraction. They colored. They had their little things that they did during
class, but they were disciplined and they were well behaved.
Up until
about the last generation, it was normal in Christian church life for families
to be at Bible class in the middle of the week. It is not an excuse. You may
think it is parents, those of you watching, seeing this on video. But it is not
an excuse. When I was a kid and I grew up and you know my parents had their
times for me to go to bed, but Bible class was a priority. If Bible class is a
priority, then being in Bible class with other members of the body of Christ is
a priority. That is where you teach that priority from day one to your children
and that means having them there.
I remember
that when I grew up going to church there was no prep school for kids to go to
after about the age of three. I sat in Bible class. It was ten years before I
decided I ought to stay awake and pay attention to what the pastor said. But I
would color in the bulletin or fill in all the little dots in all the letters
and after about five or ten minutes my head would sort of keel over onto my Dad’s
shoulder and I'd be asleep until church was over, but nevertheless,
well-behaved and in a church. You just didn’t miss. You didn’t miss Sunday
night. You didn’t Bible class. That’s just the way it was. That was a priority,
and parents understood that because they were teaching their children that
church (being involved with the body of Christ) was a priority. They understood
their responsibility was to discipline the children so that they could be well behaved
and they wouldn't be a distraction in Bible class. If they were, then the
parents would deal with that immediately, swiftly and certainly. So kids did
not mess up and they did not wiggle and they did not squirm.
If you're a
parent and you think that “Well, the reason I’m not coming to Bible class is my
kids just can't sit still.” That’s your fault and you need to deal with it. You
need to deal with it now because that’s your job as a parent, to train those
kids to be able to do that. We should have kids here. We should have parents
here. Parents should be teaching their kids that priority and it’s really a
failure in parenting to not be able to discipline your kids to sit in Bible
class and it's a failure in parenting not to bring your kids to Bible class. This
was such a great example on the part of Jeremy to have those kids sitting there
very well-behaved. Trust me.
Okay, this
is a just a great example for everyone to see what this is like. We just don't
see it and I don't know a pastor and a church around today that doesn’t face
this.
For some
reason parents have gotten it into their heads in the last thirty years that,
“Well, you know, because I've got young kids I just can't get to Bible class.” That
is just such a phony, phony excuse. If you want to convince yourself that it’s
legitimate then you've got greater problems.
So we're
talking about the church and we're trying to understand the nature of the body
of Christ and the importance of people being in church, coming together and
having that sort of body relationship that involves everyone.
So we’re
studying the Doctrine of One Another as we’re coming out of our study in
Hebrews 10, which actually relates to the seventeenth point in our study. Because
we’ve spent such a good bit of time on this, I didn't labor on it much last
time. But the 17th point was by way of review to think about one
another to stir them up to love and good deeds. This is brought about by that
word that’s translated “let us consider one another.”
The root
word there in Greek means to give it thought, to meditate on it, to reflect
upon it, to take conscientious actions. So we’re to consider one another in
order to stir up love. That means to stimulate. It is the Greek word from which
we get our English word paroxysm. It means to stimulate activity, to encourage
people.
I talked
about when we went over this. I talked about a couple of illustrations we could
use. Dan and I were out on the road together. We were talking about this. We
came up with different illustrations. But if you've got a background in any
sort of competitive activity whether it's sports, whether it's military,
whether it's in some sort of a team activity; you can reflect on that. When you
would get together with a group of others and you’re all trying to achieve
something and to go through a course of action together that what you do is
instead of trying to put each other down and compete against each other in that
sense, you try to encourage each other and say, “Come on everybody. Let's go.” You
cheer each other on so that encourages and strengthens one another, coming up
with ideas to help those who aren’t quite as adept or quite a strong to also do
that. You have gone through boot camp. You go through various kinds of
challenging activities. This is a good thing to do. It’s the same thing. It
emphasizes that teamwork attitude that should be present in the body of
Christ.
So that
scene in Hebrews 10:24:
NKJ Hebrews
10:24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love
and good works,
Now that's
idea of “one another”. I think some people tend to look at that and say that
means equally every believer. It’s almost a socialist idea. We’re going to
handle everybody equally the same way. This has to do with the people in whose
presence or whose sphere of influence you are: your friends, the other
believers that you know, just to encourage and help one another.
That brings
us to the 18th point, which is what I ended on last time just to
give you a little teaser for tonight. This is an interesting verse. It's been misapplied
many different ways. It's also an interesting context that we’ll have to spend
some time on so that we really understand the verse. Now points eighteen and
nineteen come out of the same verse. In eighteen the point is that we are to
confess to one another. That is, as we’ll see, it's not the idea of getting up
in some sort of public confession. There are some Christian groups that
emphasize that. It's not necessarily confessing every sin to one another. We
don't even do that with God because we don't remember all of them. There are
sins that we don't know about but in the context it really has the idea of
recognizing to one another certain faults, flaws, mistakes we've made that
impact and affect others in the sense of apologizing to others when we've
wronged them. This is not some sort of public self-flagellation, which causes
others to have mental attitude sins and give to many a sense of false humility
and pride. This is in James 5:16 where we’re told to confess your trespasses to
one another. Now that's the first part of the verse.
NKJ James 5:16 Confess your trespasses
to one another,
The second
part of the verse emphasizes the nineteenth point, which is to pray for one
another, to pray for one another. So we have the whole verse, James 5:16.
and pray for one another, that you may be healed.
Now right
away you see that the purpose clause there, “that you maybe healed”, somewhat
narrows the sense of confession to one another and prayer for one another. But
what in the world does that mean “that you maybe healed?” The problem that we
have when we address this particular chapter and James 5:13-18 is because the
way it's been traditionally translated into English people think this relates
to physical illness and physical healing. It's not uncommon that even when
people sort of have some suspicions that it's not and that it’s really talking
about spiritual problems; they also try to sneak in
some sort of psychosomatic type of thing. But that's not what's present here,
and I'll show you why as we go through this.
James 5:16 says that we’re to confess our sins to one another. We’re to
pray for one another for the purpose (for the result) that you may be healed. Then
it ends with a statement:
The effective, fervent prayer of a
righteous man avails much.
So twice in
this verse there is a specific mention of the word prayer. You could add
confession as a third because when you confessed to God that’s prayer. So prayers are certainly the context of
James 5:16. Then it goes on to give an illustration from Elijah, which comes
from 1 Kings 17 which we're familiar with because of our study in the life of
Elijah.
So we look
at this verse and we say there's something here that’s just really hard to get
our hands around. Not only that, but if we look at the previous verse, we look at
the previous we read:
NKJ James 5:15 And the prayer of faith
Notice prayer is mentioned again in that verse.
will save the sick,
That’s not a
correct translation.
and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed
sins, he will be forgiven.
Now look at
that. Is that a promise? “The Lord will raise him up" - the prayer of
faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise him up. If he is committed
sins he will be forgiven.” Is this a conditional or an unconditional promise? Are
there any conditions there? No, no conditions are there. It’s not saying the
prayer of faith will save the sick if it's the will of God; the prayer of faith
will save the sick if you're really fervent in your prayer.
People look
at this and say, “Well, I’ve prayed for people who are sick, who are ill or
somehow injured and nothing changes so obviously God doesn’t answer
prayer.”
Others on
the other on the other extreme will say, “Well, maybe we have we're just not
doing it right. We’re holding our tongue right. We’re not using the right kind
of oil because the previous verse 14 it says ‘Let them pray over him anointing
Him with oil in the name of the Lord.’ So maybe we didn't use enough oil. Maybe we did use the right kind of oil.
Maybe we used Wesson oil instead of olive oil. Maybe it was a virgin olive oil
and it should have been extra virgin olive oil.”
I mean
people get wrapped around the axle about this kind of stuff. I'm poking a
little fun at it, but I’m doing it because I want you to catch the fact that
embedded in the middle of this section here (this paragraph), there is an
unconditional promise.
So also what
will happen is people say, “You prayed, but you didn't have enough faith. You
have to have the faith of a child.”
If that was
true as Dan pointed out today, if that were true then just go get some kid. Let
him pray.
I point out
in the Spiritual Warfare book that
when I was a kid and I had the faith of child not the faith of an adult. I was
about six or seven or eight years old.
My mother had polio. My mother had polio just before I was born. In fact
for that reason I was born two months early and she was in an iron lung at the
time that I was born. She did it the natural way long before that was the in
thing to do. They just were pulled her out of the iron lung, pulled me out,
pushed her back in and that was that. So she never walked in my lifetime. After
she got passed a certain stage of polio, then it was time to go through
physical therapy. They took her to
Warm Springs, which is where President Franklin Roosevelt had gone for therapy
because he had had polio as well. She was there for a number of months and
during that time I was sort of shunted around from an aunt to a friend to a
college roommate to another friend back to an aunt. So I really didn't have any
close contact. I didn’t have the maternal bonding until I was almost a year
old. I guess that’s a good excuse. I can get away with all kinds of sins now I
guess because I didn't have that kind of maternal contact. Well, all that’s psychogarbage.
But anyhow
so when I got to be seven or eight years old my mother was still had these
braces and would still try to walk once or twice a week. I would just pray like
crazy every night for years that God would heal her and she would walk again.
That never happened. But I had the faith of a child.
So if this
is an unconditional promise related to physical healing, then we've got a
problem. Yeah, we do. The problem is this verse in this section doesn’t have
anything at all to do the physical healing or physical sickness. Now
unfortunately our minds have sort of been preset to accept that because of the
traditional way of translating this that really doesn't fit the context and it
doesn't fit the context of the book or the context of the Scriptures.
We need to
get into this because it helps us to understand in a greater way what the
“confession to one another and prayer for one another” here is really all
about. It's nuanced by the context.
So we have
to look at two interpretive keys to understand this. First of all, we have to
do good word studies. We really have to understand the meaning of these words.
But so often just the words themselves are not enough. You have to understand
words, phrases and context, all these things together. The three key words we
really have to understand are the words for suffering, the words for sick and
the words (There's a couple of them.) used for healing. Saving the sick (sozo) is used
there in verse fifteen. The Lord raising him up is used there. Forgiveness is
used there and healed is used in verse 16. So what do these words connote?
Secondly we
have a context. We have the immediate context of just this section, which
really begins in verse 7. 5:7 begins the conclusion to this epistle to James. So
you have the immediate context of just 13 through 18. You have the intermediate
or a little bit broader context of the conclusion, which is verse 7 down to the
end of the chapter. That's the conclusion to the epistle. Then you have the
whole epistle. The entire epistle itself helps us to understand what the limits
are to our interpretation of this section.
The reason
is because when we read through this entire epistle, the thrust of the epistle
is on challenging believers to hang in there, to hang tough in the midst of
difficulty and in the midst of difficult times. The main theme of the epistle
is endurance in times of spiritual testing or to put it in everyday language.
The theme of this book is that we should not give up on the application of
doctrine even though the circumstances of our lives may not be what we think
they should be, even if we don't have the jobs we should have, we don't have
people responding to us the way we think they ought to respond to us, even
though we don't have the marriages that we think we ought to have or the
children we think we ought to have or the friends we think we ought to have.
When things don't go right (the way we think they ought to go) and we keep
saying, “Well I’m trying to apply doctrine. I’m claiming this promise. It just
doesn't seem to work.” Endurance means that we stick with it because it's God's
Word, and God's Word is infallible. So we're going to stick with the
application of doctrine even when the circumstances don't turn out the way that
we think they ought to turn out. That is the major theme of this epistle.
The epistle
was set up in an easy 3-point sermon. It's all about hanging tough with doctrine
no matter what happens. This specifically relates to three things. This is what the writer James
emphasizes in James 1:19.
NKJ James 1:19 So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to
speak, slow to wrath;
James 1:1-20
is the introduction to this epistle. In that introduction he starts off in
verse 2 saying:
NKJ James 1:2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,
3 because you know that the testing of your faith
develops perseverance.
4 Perseverance must finish its work
Completing
or maturing result
so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking
anything.
That is the
opening command. The rest of this epistle is all about how to do that and how
to have that kind of a metal attitude so that you can relax and have joy and
happiness in the midst of difficult or adverse circumstances. So that first
section has to do with being quick to hear.
So in verse
22, James says:
NKJ James 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
See he's
talking about being quick to hear. Hearing involves doing or applying the Word.
Just substitute that idea of application. Hearing is listening, studying,
taking notes, gathering the information into your soul; but application means
that it's not just filling your doctrinal notebooks. It means putting into
practice what the Scripture says to do.
When God
says, “Do this,” you do that. When God says, “Don’t do this,” you don't do
that. It's a matter of doing what the Word of God says to do.
He gives
various applications. Then he deals with this specific instance of a prejudice
in the congregation starting in the first part of chapter 2, the showing of
personal favoritism. Then he comes back to parallel concepts of faith and
works. Faith is comparable to hearing. You hear it; you believe it.
But Paul
says, “What good is it my brethren if someone says he has faith, but he doesn't
have any works.”
He doesn't
have any application. Is that faith? Does that faith do anything good for him? That
word saved there doesn't mean justification-salvation. It means does it have
any value for his spiritual growth? No. If you're not applying doctrine, you're
not growing. No matter what you say you believe no matter how much you gather
into your doctrinal notebook; it's only application of doctrine under filling
of the Holy Spirit that provides or builds spiritual strength and growth in
one’s life.
So that
whole section from 1:21 to 2:26 deals with being quick to hear.
Slow to
speak has to do with the tongue.
3:1 says:
NKJ James 3:1 My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall
receive a stricter judgment.
NKJ James 3:2 For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle
the whole body.
The whole
issue in chapter 3 deals with the sins of the tongue – be slow to speak. Don’t
get involved in the sins of the tongue. Slow to anger involves mental attitude
sins. Another problem that besets the Christian life and this is the topic
covered in chapter 4. There is a transition into that at the end chapter 3.
From 13 to 18 there is a connection there with some of the earlier application
statements in the first part.
Now we come
into 4:1.
NKJ James 4:1 Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure
that war in your members?
NKJ James 4:2 You lust
Mental
attitude sins
and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain.
You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.
It’s all
about the impact of mental attitude sins. Judging comes up in verse 11. Arrogance
and boasting come up in verse 13 through 17. Then we get down to 5:6. That’s
where that section ends.
In 5:7 we
come back to the main theme, which has to do with endurance. Two words are used
– hupomone
for endurance or hanging in there. Hupo means under. Mone comes from the Greek word to remain or to abide. The
idea is to remain in a situation. In other words don’t take the wrong way out
just to get out from under the pressure. Stay there, applying the Word. Don’t
bail out through human viewpoint to get out of the situation. Stick with it
with the Word.
That also
involves patience. Notice how many times (verses 7 to 12) patience or endurance
is used.
James says:
NKJ James 5:7 Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of
the Lord. See how the farmer waits
That’s
related to endurance and patience.
for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently
for it until it receives the early and latter rain.
NKJ James 5:8 You also be patient.
Third time
now.
Establish your hearts, for the
coming of the Lord is at hand.
NKJ James 5:9 Do not grumble against one
another, brethren,
That would
be a sin of the tongue.
lest you be condemned. Behold, the Judge is standing at
the door!
NKJ James 5:10 My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in
the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience.
NKJ James 5:11 Indeed we count them blessed who endure.
Hupomone
You have heard of the perseverance
of Job and seen the end intended by the
Lord -- that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.
What's he
talking about here? He’s talking about enduring in times of testing. Does it
make sense of all of a sudden he shifts to getting healed? You can stretch it
and say, “Well healing is a kind of test.” But we're in a conclusion where
you’re summarizing. You’re dealing with generalities. You're not dealing with
specifics like that. So that doesn't fit. He's talking about enduring, having
endurance in times of testing.
So what we have
to do is we have to understand the words that are used here and we have to
understand the context. Physical healing (if that's his topic) comes abruptly
into focus in verse 13. He says a few things about it and that's it. Where did
that come from? He hasn’t talked about the physical problems or sickness at all
through the whole book. If that's physical healing it comes to right out the
leftfield and doesn't have anything to do with the context whatsoever.
So let's
take a look at what's going on here. In the first couple of verses we’ll deal
with our key words and understand what they're focusing on.
In verse 13
we read the first of 3 rhetorical questions the writer raises focus their
attention. He says first:
NKJ James 5:13 Is anyone among you
suffering? Let him pray.
Second:
Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing
psalms.
See that
goes right back to “counting it all joy” in the first chapter.
NKJ James 5:14 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.
Does he
really mean sick? He doesn’t. So let’s just take it apart.
NKJ James 5:13 Is anyone among you
suffering?
The word for
suffering is a kakopatheo.
It means to suffer physical pain or hardship in distress, to suffer distress,
to suffer pain, suffering hardship. It is a basic word for adversity. It
doesn't mean that you're just crying and whining about things. Sometimes it’s
just that things don't go the way you think they ought to go. You've been
dealing with a physical problem or you've been dealing with anything from a
medical situation or maybe you're dealing with the problem at work or maybe
you're living in an environment where there are a lot of problems economically.
You've lost your job. It could be any number of things where you're facing
difficult life circumstances. It could be difficulty in a marriage. It could be
difficulty in a job. It could be difficulty dealing with certain circumstances
that you have in your life.
So what's
the solution? The solution is “let him pray.” That's the focal point in this
whole section. Prayer is mentioned in verses 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and then it
is implied in verse 19 because that's the way someone turns someone else back
from sin in their lives.
So the first
question is “is anyone among you suffering?” We could paraphrase that: is
anyone among you going through some kind of adversity? Solution: let him
pray.
Second: is
anyone among you cheerful? Are you experiencing joy in
the midst of your adversity? Then, sing psalms. That is sing praise to
God.
Now in order
for you to sing praises to God when you're going through situations in your
life and you’re joyful, you have to know them. That means that you need to sing
them rather frequently at church, which is why we have sung a number of hymns
quite frequently. I'm hoping that people can learn those hymns and memorize them
so that they can sing them. You can’t apply a verse like this if you can’t go
home and sing at least fifteen or twenty hymns from memory. You start off with the first line and
then all of a sudden you know what you do. You start humming the next three
lines. Then you remember the next two words and then you go on. We’ve all done
that. But we need to learn these hymns so that we can sing them. There's a
method, a strategy, to why I do what I do on Sunday mornings so we can really
learn and know some hymns.
Now the word
for suffering was used just 3 verses earlier. Verse 10 as an example:
NKJ James 5:10 My brethren, take the
prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and
patience.
So the
prophets went through this kind of suffering. When they did what the Lord said
to do, they faced opposition. They faced adversity. They faced negative
consequences and that is what's going to happen to us when we are faithful to
the Lord in doing what He says to do. We're going to face opposition, adversity
in life. Satan hates anyone who’s trying to consistently apply the Word of God,
and so we know that they're going to be problems that we face because that's
just the way the cosmic system is.
We have one
basic problem that always gets every single one of us, and that is the problem
of our own arrogance. Suffering basically for most of us is just because things
don't go the way we think they ought to go.
Now
sometimes some of you have heard it said that maybe one reason a lot of you are
going through some suffering in life because you just have a lot of unrealistic
expectations. Now my experience is that most of us quit having unrealistic
expectations when we were in our 20’s. We began to get a pretty good handle on
the way life was. We may have thought that we may succeed in this area or that
area and we discover that well we're probably not quite going to do that. We
may have a measure of success in whatever it is we do, but we're not going to
be President the United States or President/ CEO of some great corporation. But
we are going to have realistic expectations.
I find that
most people have realistic expectations about life. They expect to have a good
happy marriage. That's a realistic expectation. They expect to have children
who grow up and to be happy and to be successful and to love the Lord. That is
not an unrealistic expectation. They expect to have a job and to enjoy their
job and to be involved in a good local church and these are not unrealistic
expectations. They are realistic expectations.
The real
contrast is that we have legitimate expectations, but in arrogance they can
become illegitimate expectations because arrogance takes us from the realm of
legitimacy to the realm of presumption. Presumption is arrogance. When we
think: “I have a right to have a certain kind of marriage. I have a right to
these children growing up a certain way and following what I have taught them. I
have a right to a job. I haven’t had a job in 9 months Lord. I have a right to
a job. You said so. You take care of me.”
Well, you’re
not dead yet. The Lord has been taking care of you. It's insidious; it’s easy;
every one of us does this. We start thinking we have a right to that. We have poured all this time and
effort into those children that they should be obedient to the Lord and
obedient to us and agree with us, with our beliefs and what we’ve taught them.
If they don't go that way, then that’s a test. The Lord has a habit of bringing
tests into our lives that expose when we've taken these legitimate expectations
and we've made idols out of them and we have falsified them and we have become presumptuous
in those expectations.
All of a
sudden what happens is when the Lord takes that away from us or when something
happens, like with Job. What did his wife say? “Curse God and die.” See that's
when the legitimate expectation became an illegitimate expectation by virtue of
arrogance. When people think they have a right to something and then God does
something else, then they get angry. They get depressed. They get bitter
against God. It's because they reacted wrongly to the change in those circumstances.
Adversity is often self-induced simply because of our own arrogance. But
adversity also comes along simply because we go through unexpected turns and
circumstances in life that aren’t what we would desire. We have to learn how to
submit our will to God's will.
So the
passage says:
NKJ James 5:13 Is anyone among you
suffering?
That is
going through adversity.
Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful?
Let him sing psalms.
That's the
Greek word euthumeo, which has to do with being encouraged
and hence being cheerful. This is the positive response for the believer who
looks at those difficult circumstances and is able to count it joy. It's not
because it’s the way he wanted it to be; but because he understands God’s plans
and God's purposes.
Then the third
question comes up in 5:14.
NKJ James 5:14 Is anyone among you sick?
And that’s
how it is normally translated. But the real issue here has to do with
understanding this word. Unless we understand the question, we can’t really understand
the answer, which has to do with calling the elders of the church.
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.
So let's
first deal with the question - is anyone among you sick? The Greek word for sick
is astheneo, a verb. It is formed on two words. The alpha prefix (the “a”) is like our “un”. It's a
negative. Stenes
(the noun, or steneo)
is a word for strength. It literally means without strength. Now we can be
without strength in any number of areas.
There are
three areas of being without strength that this word is used in terms of its
application or its usage. One is to be without strength physically and that
implies some sort of sickness or illness. The word is legitimately translated
that way in a number of passages. In fact almost two thirds of its uses or more
in the Gospels has to do with being physically sick. But the other third
doesn’t have to do with being physically sick. It has to do with having another
way of being without strength. That is without strength spiritually, beings
spiritually weak, being spiritually worn out, giving up spiritually. So the
second idea is to be without strength spiritually. And the third is to be
without strength financially, to be broke, to be without any money, without any
financial capability. Those are the three ways in which the word is used.
Now let me give
you a couple of examples. In Matthew 25: 44, which is towards the end of the
Olivet discourse, the Lord gives to His disciples the parable of dealing with
the sheep and the goat judgments. In the midst of that He's talking about the
fact that there were those who are who are rewarded because when they saw the
Lord hungry, thirsty stranger, naked sick or in prison that they took care of
Him. So He has that response here, that quote
there.
They’re
asking Him, “Lord, when we did we see you hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked,
sick or in prison and did not take care of You?”
There the
word is asthenes
and has to do with being sick, physically sick. But in the very next chapter in
Matthew as Jesus is speaking to His disciples and as He's in the Garden of
Gethsemane He says, “Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into
temptation (testing, which is a major theme in James). The spirit is
willing but the flesh is weak.”
They say the
flesh is sick. So here are the two examples: one where it’s physically sick, one
where it’s spiritually sick. Notice that the spiritual weakness is in context
talking about temptation. That's the context of James.
A third
verse that comes along that uses this word is in 1 Corinthians 11. Now the
context of 1 Corinthians 11 is when Paul is talking to or rebuking the
Corinthians because of their coming to Lord's Table and abusing the Lord’s
Table.
And so he
says, “For this reason (because they haven't been confessing their sin) many
among you are weak and sick and a number sleep.
NKJ 1
Corinthians 11:30 For this reason many are
weak and sick among you, and many sleep.
Guess what
that word is that's translated weak there. It’s the word asthenes. The word that’s
translated sick is the word that’s on the screen arrostos. That word means ill,
sick or being an invalid. That is a specific word that always has to do with
being sick. So Paul is saying that some of you have become spiritually weak and
weary because of unconfessed sin in your life. That’s
part of that divine discipline. “Some of you have become physically ill” –
divine discipline, a little stronger divine discipline. Others have died the
sin unto death because of their arrogance towards God, toward the Lord’s
Table.
So we come
to our verse and we see that it says, “Is anyone among you asthenes?”
Well, the
idea there is that this is being weary. It fits the context of James more than
physical sickness does.
Now the next
thing that we ought to look at, the next verse that we ought to look at to
understand this a little bit is the parallel that comes up in verse 15.
NKJ James 5:15 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.
It’s
translated sick, but it’s a different word in the Greek. It’s not astheneo, it’s kamno - to be
weary, to be exhausted. Now this
word is only used twice in Scripture, but it’s use a third time in Revelation
2:3 in a variant reading in the Greek text. But even though it's not the
accepted scriptural reading, it still shows us that the word was understood to
mean weary as opposed to sick.
It’s used in
Hebrew 12:3.
NKJ Hebrews 12:3 For consider Him who endured
such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and
discouraged in your souls.
And then Revelation 2:3 says:
NKJ Revelation
2:3 "and you have persevered and
have patience, and have labored for My name's sake and
have not become weary.
So asthenes is this
big broad word that can mean one of two things. But kamno was word that is narrower,
and it doesn't ever mean sick in the Scriptures. It always means weary. So that
more specific, tighter synonym tells us that in this context the writer is
thinking of astheneo
not in terms of physical sickness but in terms of being spiritually weary as
they undergo the tests of faith going back to the first chapter in James. All
of this ties together.
Now turn
back with me (just hold your place), turn back with me to that first chapter in
James.
NKJ James 1:2 My brethren, count it all
joy when you fall into various trials,
2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many
kinds,
3 because you know that the
testing of your faith develops perseverance.
What's the
opposite of endurance? The opposite of endurance is growing weary, wanting to
give up. And so what we're dealing with here in James 5 is the one that is
giving up in the midst of the adversity.
The next
thing we ought to look at is the last part of verse 14.
NKJ James 5:14 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.
Now there's
a couple of different ways people try to handle the anointing with oil that
sound good; but they're not. The word that’s translated “anoint” is the verb aleipho. There
are actually two words translated anoint in the New Testament. The first one is
aleipho and
the second one is one that I have pointed out the bottom line there. It’s chrio. That’s the
verb that’s related to the noun Christos.
Christos means the anointed one, the mashiach, the anointed one. Chrio has to do
with a ceremonial or spiritual anointing. That's not the word that’s used here.
This is used of the everyday act of anointing.
The every
day act of anointing is: some of you guys may be involved in this; probably not,
but some of you may be. I know most of you ladies are. You get up and you
anoint your face every morning and you anoint your face every night and you put
various creams and makeup; things like that. You put sunscreen on, various
lotions things like that. Some of you guys may put sunscreen on your face
during the day. It's a great idea to deal with the threat of a skin cancer, something
like that. That's what they did in the ancient world just as a part of the
normal activities of hygiene. They would put oil on the hair. They would put
oil on their skin. This was what was fairly normative. It was also done as
refreshment.
In the Gospels
we have the woman who came and who anointed the Lord’s feet. It was a sign of
honor and respect, but she was doing it as an act of a refreshing Him. With her
perfume she anointed His hair with oil, thing of that nature. This was an act
of refreshment and an act of encouragement. So that was the purpose of
anointing.
The Lord was
rebuking the Pharisees when it came to the way that they would fast. They would
fast and pray.
They would
say, “You know. Don’t fast and pray in public so everybody knows that you're
going through this fast and suffering. But anoint yourself. You know. Keep it
quiet. Don't go around looking like you're suffering for God. Anoint yourself.”
In other
words, to bring it into our modern context, get up in the morning, take a
shower, wash your hair, shave, put on clean clothes. Don't
walk around like you're going through some sort of spiritual ascetic exercise. If
you haven’t shaved or taken a shower or combed your hair for 3 or 4 days then
that may somehow makes you a closer to God. We may all wish you were closer to
God because of the way you smell but that that doesn't make you closer to
God. That was the idea.
James is one
the earliest epistles. I think it’s the earliest epistle written. It’s written
a long time before the church takes on a Jewish-Gentile and later mostly a Gentile
orientation. It’s written a long time before Paul has received any revelation
about the organization, order of the church, a long time before he writes 1 Timothy or 2 Timothy. I think James was written as early
as 40 or 41. Some think it might have even been written in 38 or 39 AD. It's
very, very early. In these early epistles like 1 Peter and James the church is
viewed as – and the word here for church is really the synagogue (sunagoge). It’s not ekklesia. So we're not talking about the church. We’re talking about the
assembly rather. The word for elders there should be understood a technical sense
of a church leader later on, but as mature believers.
Look back to
chapter 2. It says:
NKJ James 2:2 For if there should come into your assembly a man
with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in
filthy clothes,
Here it’s
talking about ekklesia in 5:14; they are not sunagoge but it
still has been a non-technical sense there – not
that leader that you have in 1 Timothy, but a mature person in the assembly. Ekklesia is
used and non-technical and also a technical sense in the New Testament. This
would be the meeting of believers, but as I pointed out earlier in James 2:2,
it’s sunagoge.
So it’s a
Jewish context. The letter of James is written to the twelve tribes who are
scattered abroad. It has this Jewish orientation very early, very early in the
Church Age. So the application there is that if you're really struggling
spiritually in your life, then you should have mature believers who know how to
get their prayers answered praying for you. That is also supported by the last
verse there, the last part of verse 16.
NKJ James 5:16 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.
He's not
talking about an office of the church; he's talking about a mature believer. So
we have to understand it that way in terms of the early part of church.
We have a
short amount of time here and I want to point out the words that are used for
healing. The words that are used for healing are really four. We have sozo, which means to save, to keep from
harm, to deliver, persevere or rescue. In a lot of cases in the New Testament
the words saved doesn't mean justification. It means deliverance from a
problem. Also we have the fact that apheimi is used
here – forgiven. The problem here has to do with sin and forgiveness. It’s
a spiritual problem, not a physical problem.
Iaomai is the word that’s translated healing down in verse
16.
NKJ James 5:16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you
may be healed.
Iaomai can mean to be cured from an illness. But it also has
the idea of being restored. Then the word eigeiro (The Lord will raise him
up) is used literally for someone who is raised up from a sick bed. They’re
been lying down and they stand up. Or it can refer to someone who’s just lifted
up, encouraged spiritually, someone who is able now to go forward and they've
resolved that problem.
Now as we
come to the conclusion of this section what we see when we come to the next
verse is that the illustration doesn't have to do with physical healing. The illustration comes from verses 17
and 18 where we have a reference to Elijah.
NKJ James 5:17 Elijah 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.
Now where
did that happen? What chapter in the Bible? 1 Kings 17.
It happens in the first part of 1 Kings 17. What happens in the last part of 1
Kings 17? The widow’s son dies. Elijah goes up, lies on top of him and brings
him back to life. You have physical healing there, right? So if James is
talking about physical healing, why does he choose an illustration from the
first part of the chapter, which has to do with prayer and perseverance and
testing, instead of the event in the second half of the chapter, which has to
do with physical healing? See if I’m going to talk about physical healing, I’m
going to choose the event at the end of the chapter because that fits the topic
of physical healing. But if I'm talking about spiritual strengthening in times
of adversity; then I’m going to talk about what happens in the first part of
the chapter. So the illustration that comes, comes from the first part of 1
Kings 17 and not the last part, which fits the context of James dealing with
perseverance in times of testing.
Now let's go
back the first part of the chapter and sort of tie this together, the first for
the book. James 1:2-4, the emphasis is on counting it joy when you encounter
various trials because you know that the testing of your faith produces
patience. It produces endurance, hupomone.
NKJ James 1:4 But let patience
Same word, Hupomone
have its perfect
work, that
Telios
you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
What's the
next thing going to say? If you lack something, that is if you lack wisdom,
which is the application of the doctrine, let him ask of God who gives to all
liberally and without reproach it will be given to him.
So what's
the solution? If you don't have wisdom, you don't know how to apply doctrine in
the test you're going through, what are you supposed to do? You’re supposed to pray. Now what happens
if you doubt?
NKJ James 1:6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he
who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.
So you get
the weak believer who is weary and worn out and he wonders if God even cares
about him anymore.
“He has fallen asleep. He’s forgotten about me.”
What's the
solution? Well, you're not going to get your prayers answered because you’re doubting. So who do you
call? Not Ghostbusters. You call for the mature believers, for those who are
righteous, the righteous man whose fervent prayer avails much.
So this is
the focus. If you are the weak believer, you’re doubting
God. You are told:
NKJ James 1:7 For let not that man suppose
that he will receive anything from the Lord;
NKJ James 1:8 he is a
double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
So the
solution is to call on the mature believer in prayer.
Now this
also fits with the closing verses of the passage. Verse 19 says:
NKJ James 5:19 Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth,
and someone turns him back,
The one
wandering from the truth is the believer that’s weary, that’s falling away.
Someone turns him back. How? By praying for him, by encouraging him.
NKJ James 5:20 let him know that he who turns a sinner from the
error of his ways
That’s not
going across to somebody after church and saying, “I know that sin that you’re
committing.”
It’s praying
for them in their time of testing.
will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.
What kind of
death is that? It's not eternal death. It's carnal death. Here’s somebody who's
going to go into carnality, give up on God and just live out of fellowship on
the sin nature. Here is a mature believer who’s going to pray for one another
and if he turns, the one who is falling away from the error of his way it will
deliver a soul from carnal death, staying out of fellowship and cover a
multitude of sins. So that's the context of confessing your sins to one
another. The “one another” refers to those who are within this problem context
of the one who is weak and struggling, giving up on God and the mature believers
who are praying for him. That's who the confession is
going to.
NKJ James 5:16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another,
In that
context
that you may be healed.
"That
you may be restored" would be a better way to translate that. That you may be strengthened instead of being without strength,
i.e. weary or weak and then the promise.
The effective, fervent prayer of a
righteous man
That is one
who is experientially righteous, mature.
avails much.
The whole
context here fits together, fit with the message of the epistle. It mirrors the
message of the first chapter, expands on it, tightens it up for the conclusion
and makes us realize how important it is for us to be praying for others
because we know of others who are struggling in their spiritual life. We know
of others who were facing particular trials and difficulties. It's also good
for us to have good communication with believers that are more mature than we
are so that they will be praying for us as we go through various times of
testing in our own lives.
Let's bow
our heads in closing prayer.