Spiritual Healing Series

Opportunity not only knocks, but sometimes it even breaks the

door down, but still we miss it. Such was the case in the sad story of

the great Viennese surgeon Dr. Lorenz. When he was in America

some years back he was flooded with more requests with help then he

could begin to meet. One woman who sought his help for her child

could not even make contact with him. Dr. Lorenz was in the habit

of taking a walk after lunch, and he instructed his chauffeur to come

after him if it should storm. One afternoon as he was walking it did

begin to rain. The woman who was seeking the doctors help went

out on her porch to put the wicker furniture in a safe place so it

would not get wet. While she was there an elderly gentleman came

up to the door half soaked. He asked if the could set on her porch

until the rain stopped.

In differently, she motioned him to a chair, and without a word

she left him and went into the house. After awhile a car stopped in

front and a chauffeur ran up to the porch with a rain coat and

umbrella, and he took the man with him. The woman who saw all

this paid no mind to it until she read the paper the next morning. An

article told of how the famous Dr. Lorenz was marooned in the rain

storm, and had take shelter on a strangers porch where he suffered

two chills. One from his damp clothing, and the other from the

woman of the house. The woman was shocked and ashamed. She

rushed to the hotel where Dr. Lorenz was staying only to learn that

he had left on a train that morning, and would never return. She

had lost her opportunity forever even though she had it at her

fingertips, and it was all because of her indifference. She neglected

to care for the needs of another, and in so doing she failed herself as

well.

This true story is more than a fact. It is a parable on the danger

that all of us face. It is the danger of being indifferent to the needs of

others, and, thereby, cutting ourselves off from the blessings of God.

One of the reasons why many churches and individual Christians do

not believe in, an experience the healing power of Christ is because

they have no great concern about His healing ministry in the lives of

others. They are indifferent to what Scripture teaches, and how the

early church applied it, and how it ought to be applied today. The

result of this is, though it is at our fingertips, we miss the opportunity

to see the Great Physician work in an through us.

We have established in the two previous messages that the New

Testament teaches that sickness is of the kingdom of evil, and that to

be delivered from it is a part of Christ's plan of salvation. This

means that the ministry of healing is as perpetual as the ministry of

the Gospel of the forgiveness of sin. This means that this passage in

James is not a mere fact of antiquity preserved only for the interest

of the curious. It is still God's Word to us today. It must still find

application and expression in our church, or we deliberately exclude

a part of its clear instruction. To neglect this portion of Scripture

because we are indifferent, or because we are ignorant, it is to reduce

ourselves to the level of those cults we delight in ridiculing because

they pick and choose which parts of the Bible they will stress, and

which they will ignore. We cannot ignore it, for we have an

obligation before God to understand it and obey it along with the rest

of Scripture. We want to examine it and strive to see how it applies

to us today.

In verse 14 we see the action of the sick Christian. The initiative

must come from the person who is ill. They are responsible for

calling in the aid which the church has to offer. They are to call the

elders of the church. The elders played a major role in the Old

Testament, and the office continued into the New Testament church.

They were basically the godly men of each congregation that were its

leaders. They governed, taught, visited the sick, and in every way

represented the church. Acts 14:23 says that Paul and Barnabas on

their first missionary journey ordained elders in every church.

Every church needed some leadership, and these were called elders.

The elders were more fundamental than the concept of deacons,

for deacons were not needed in every church for specific ministry as

they were in the church in Jerusalem. Not every church would have