Christians, Camels, And Calluses

"Christians, Camels, and Calluses!"

James 5:13-20

James 5:13 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. 14 Is any sick among you? 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 shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. 16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. 17 Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. 18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. 19 Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; 20 Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.

Introduction: I think it would be valuable for me to spend just a minute or two to introduce you to the author of this little book. You see, there are three men in the NT named James so it's important to know who which one is responsible for the words we just read together. This man is called James the Just because of his unimpeachable character and conduct. He is in fact the step-brother of the Lord Jesus mentioned in Mark 6:3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him. And by the Apostle Paul in Galatians 1:19 But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord's brother...and Galatians 2:9 And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision. He was the leader of the Jerusalem church and was martyred in either 62 or 69 AD when he was thrown off the pinnacle of the Temple and beaten to dead with clubs.

There is one other very interesting anecdote about the life of James the Just. It is said that he would spend many hours each day praying on his knees in the Temple for the people to be forgiven of their sins, so much so that he developed calluses on his knees and he was said to have the "knees of a camel," and if you have ever seen a camel either in person or in a picture you can see why he received this label, so the title of the message today is "Christians, Camels, and Calluses!" James was a man of prayer and there is much that we can learn from his example.

First, let's look at the key phrase in this passage:

"...The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."

I. The Opportunity of Prayer

a. An examination of prayer in Scripture

There is every reason to believe that after Adam and Eve were expelled for the garden of Eden, where that they talked to God face to face, that they communicated with God in prayer and that it was primarily private prayer but in the 4th chapter of Genesis we read the following:

Genesis 4:26 To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to call upon the name of the LORD. ESV

It seems that at this point prayer became a regular part of corporate worship.

b. An example of prayer by a Servant

The first thing that James does is to remind us of the humanity of Elijah, that he was a "...man of like passions..." which means that he was not super-human or exceptional in any respect. In other words, he was just like us! The key word in verse 17 is "earnestly," which is translated intensity and indicates that this was a prayer of great concentration, passion and power. How many of us can say this about our prayers. Many Christians don't pray at all while many others pray as a matter of habit or tradition but real prayer, prayers that get heaven's attention are characterized by an intensity of mind, heart and soul! It is an "all in" kind of praying!

17 Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. 18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.