1. When experiencing affliction, your first individual responsibility is to pray (13)
2. When experiencing affliction, your second individual responsibility is to call (14)
A few weeks ago, our family went to see a movie called National Treasure. I won’t go into all the details with you, but it was basically a big treasure hunt. And in order to find the treasure, the main characters had to decode all these different encrypted clues. They had clues in books. They had clues in statues. They had clues in furniture. They even had clues in rocks. As a matter of fact, the movie starts with a historical flashback to a person being asked to decode a clue from the pages of a diary. He says that it’s impossible to decode unless he has the key. Of course it’s a movie, so they figure out the key and are able to decipher the code. In real life, the mysteries aren’t always that easy to decode, are they? In the movies, they can figure out any mystery in under 2 hours. On TV, they’re even better at it. They can figure mysteries out in one hour or less. But real life isn’t like that, is it? Real life has some mysteries that we will never solve. Mysteries like: Why do bad things happen to good people? Why do the wicked prosper? Why is that fine Christian saint dying of cancer? Why am I depressed, or lonely, or sick? Affliction is a mystery that’s hard to figure out, isn’t it? The only thing that’s not hard to figure out about it is the fact that it is going to come. How do I know? Because the Bible says it will. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Himself said that the sun rises on the evil and the good and God sends rain on both the just and the unjust alike. Bad things do happen to good people. If you don’t believe me, just look around. That’s what this whole book of James has been about. It’s been about the fact that trials and testing will inevitably come. James certainly isn’t preaching a health, wealth and prosperity gospel here. As a matter of fact, if he saw all the health, wealth and prosperity preachers in the world today, I’m sure he would have been tempted to take the whip to them that his half-brother Jesus used to clear the moneychangers from the temple. James knew that health, wealth and prosperity are not the goal of the gospel. The goal of the gospel is quite the opposite. The goal of the gospel is to be so satisfied with Christ, that our circumstances don’t really matter. The goal of the gospel is to experience joy in Christ no matter what trials we’re going through. No matter what tribulations we’re going through. No matter what afflictions we’re going through. That’s why he gives us this final test of our faith. That’s why he gives us this affliction test. This morning, I want each of us to be able to pass the affliction test when it comes. Notice I said when it comes—not if. Whatever the nature of our personal affliction, I want us to faithfully pass the test. And I don’t want us to just barely squeak by. Barely squeaking by might be fine for 9th grade Algebra, but it’s not fine for the life of a Christian. I want us to pass the affliction test with flying colors. I want us to pass it with joy. But the only way we can do that is if we use the keys James gives us here in our passage this morning. He gives us two keys. He gives us an individual key and a corporate key. We’re only going to be able to get to the first key this morning. Now, even though we’re only going to get to the first key this morning, you need to understand something about both of them. They work together. These keys aren’t keys on a key ring like we use to open our house and start our car with. Instead, these are decoding keys. They are the kind of keys that will decode the mystery of the affliction test so that we can pass it with joy. In order to pass the affliction test, we can’t use just one of the keys—we have to use both of them. We can’t just use them one at a time and we can’t just use them once. Using both the individual key and the corporate key at the same time, and using them all the time is the only way they will work the way God designed them to. Next week we’ll look at the corporate key. This morning we’re going to look at the first key to passing the affliction test—the individual key. The individual key is the key that is yours and yours alone. It is the key that you have to use by exercising certain responsibilities that James lists here. The first of those responsibilities is to pray. Look with me at verse 13:
JAMES 5:13.
Your first individual responsibility is to pray. A mother invited a group of her lady friends over to the house for lunch one day. She just about worked herself to death doing everything up right. When all the other ladies got there, they sat down to tea and cakes and sandwiches and all the stuff the mother worked so hard on. When they sat down, the mother looked at her 6-year old daughter and asked her to say the blessing. The little girl got all shy and embarrassed. She said, “Mommy, I don’t know what to say.” Her mom looked at her with that comforting, reassuring mom look and said, “Honey, just say what you hear Mommy say to the Lord.” The little girl bowed her head. With all the seriousness and sincerity she could come up with, she said, “Lord, why on earth did I invite all these people over today?” Our personal prayers take all kinds of shapes, don’t they? Sometimes they’re very formal. Sometimes they’re casual. Sometimes they’re short. Sometimes they’re long. Many times they’re filled with things we want God to do for us or for other people. But the sad thing is, most of the time, our prayers are about us. Especially when we’re dealing with some sort of affliction. Our passage says that when we experience affliction, we are supposed to pray. James tells us this in the form of a couple of commands. He says, “If any one of you is experiencing affliction—you must pray.” And then he adds to it. He says, “If any one of you is cheerful—you must praise God.” How does that fit? We’re talking here about passing the test of affliction and then James throws in this part about being merry or cheerful—how does that fit? It fits when you understand what he means by the word that’s translated merry. It’s the exact same word that’s used in Acts 27:22, 25. There, the King James translates it, “be of good cheer.” Do you remember what was happening in Acts 27? Paul was a prisoner on board ship on his way to Rome. But it wasn’t just a typical boat ride. They were in the midst of a terrible storm. Probably very close to a hurricane-type storm. Everyone on board thought they were going to die, except Paul. And Paul the prisoner told the crew to “be of good cheer” because they weren’t going to die. They were going to have to endure a shipwreck and everything they owned would be lost. But be of good cheer, in spite of the storm and the shipwreck and the affliction you’re going to have to endure. James says, are you “of good cheer” as you are enduring your affliction? Praise God for it. There are wonderful people who have the ability to pass through trials and affliction with a smile on their face. That ability is a wonderful gift of a gracious God. If He’s given you that gift—you need to praise Him for it. Because it is of Him—it’s not of you. So how should you pray when you are experiencing affliction? Pray like Jesus did. We are all very familiar with Jesus’ prayer in the Garden before He was betrayed and led off to be crucified. We’re all familiar with the fact that Jesus prayed for the cup of suffering to pass from Him. We know that He prayed that, in spite of His desire for that, He prayed that the Father’s will be done. But do you know what else Jesus prayed? Before He entered the garden where Judas betrayed Him, Jesus prayed. It’s recorded in John 17. In that prayer, Jesus gives us an example of how to pray when we are afflicted. I will leave you to study that chapter on your own, but this is an outline of how Jesus prayed. He begins His prayer by focusing on the glory of God in verses 1-5. Despite the affliction He was enduring and knew that He was going to have to endure, that wasn’t where Jesus’ first focus was. His first focus was on God and His glory. In His time of agony, Jesus lifted up praise to the Father. Then, in verses 6-19, Jesus prays about how his suffering will glorify God in the lives of those closest to Him. He is concerned about the disciples and how they will respond to His suffering. Once again, Jesus’ focus isn’t on Himself. When you look at this part of His prayer, it is even only secondarily on the disciples. His primary focus is that His suffering will glorify God in their lives. It’s not that their lives would be easy or prosperous. It’s that Jesus’ affliction would cause God to be magnified in their lives. But He didn’t stop with the disciples. In verses 20-24, Jesus prays that His suffering will glorify God in the life of all believers—the church. He prayed that through His suffering, the church would glorify God in their unity. That was His focus. That God might be glorified in the unity of the church because of His affliction. Finally, in verses 25-26, Jesus prays that His suffering will glorify God in all the world. Now, I want you to notice something about that prayer of Jesus. Yes, it was a prayer that He prayed in a time of terrible affliction. He understood what was in store for Him. And what was in store for Him was a type of affliction that you and I cannot even imagine. The worst affliction that you or I will ever have to endure is just a small part of what our Savior had to endure on that cross of Calvary. But as He looked to that, He had one primary thing on His mind. The primary thing He had on His mind was the glory of God. Other than one line of “take this cup of suffering from me—but not my will, but thine be done.” Other than one simple request—His focus was never on His affliction. It was always on bringing honor and glory to the Father THROUGH His affliction. Oh, if we could learn to pray like that when we experience affliction. “God, I am in pain. I ask that you take that pain from me. But if not, I ask that your name be glorified in this pain that I’m going through. May your name be glorified in the lives of those closest to me. May your name be glorified in the life of this church. Even if you won’t take the pain away, may your name be glorified in the world because of my affliction.” That’s how we are to pray. The first individual responsibility is to pray. The second individual responsibility is to call. Look at verse 14:
JAMES 5:14
Your second individual responsibility to pass the affliction test is to call. I must admit, this is a difficult passage. But it’s not difficult because of what it says or what it means. It’s difficult because of the way it’s been mishandled and taken out of context so much. The way this verse has been abused is all the more reason we need to be diligent in our study of the Bible. One of the main reasons I preach through books the way I do is to show how to read and understand the Bible on your own. To give you the tools so that when you see some huckster on TV selling “James 5:14 Anointing Oil”, you can look at this text in its context and see what a fraud he is. I trust that in your own studies, you will see James 5:14 in the context of this whole passage. And you will see this whole passage in the context of all of the book of James. And you will see the book of James in the context of all of the New Testament. And you will see the New Testament as the fulfillment of the Old Testament. That is true Bible study. One verse cannot be understood in isolation from the rest of Scripture. 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” How much of it? All of it. Together. Each part understood as it fits into the whole, complete, total self-revelation of God. So, that gives us a foundation with which to look at this verse, so we don’t immediately send some TV preacher three easy payments of $9.99 plus shipping and handling for the latest in holy frankincense anointing oil. Verse 14 starts the same way as verse 13 did. “If any one of you is sick—you must call.” It’s the third command in this passage. “If any one of you is experiencing affliction—you must pray.” “If any one of you is cheerfully enduring affliction—you must praise God.” Now we see, “If any one of you is sick—you must call out.” The word that is translated sick here is used 32 times in the New Testament. 18 times it is used to describe to physical sickness. 14 times it is used to describe emotional or spiritual weakness. At its core, it means deep, intense, personal affliction—whether physical or spiritual or emotional. When you experience that kind of affliction in your life, first pray. Then call out to others to pray over you. But not just any others. Yes, everyone in the church is to pray for those who are experiencing affliction. We’ll talk about that in the second part of this sermon, next week. But for this kind of deep, intense, personal affliction, you are to call on the elders. There was a young Baptist preacher who was kind of committed to preaching through Bible books like I do. One thing that preaching through books does, is it forces you to deal with difficult passages. He had just started preaching through the book of Titus when he came to the passage where Paul gives Titus a list of the qualifications for elders. He said, “Now Paul is dealing with elders. Since we’re Baptists, we don’t have elders. So we’ll just skip down to verse 10.” Well, we are Baptists, but James clearly says that you are to call on the elders to pray over you. Literally, to come along side you and pray with you. So, since we are Baptists and our Baptist church doesn’t have a separate office of elder, what do we do with this verse? Do we make someone go visit a Presbyterian church to have their elders pray over them? No. Throughout the New Testament, elder can mean one of two things. It can mean a person who holds a specific ruling office within the church. And by the way, the church at Jerusalem where James was the pastor had those kinds of elders. Or it can mean men within the church who are specifically recognized and known for their godly character. These men did not necessarily hold a specific office within the church. It seems that the further away a church was from Jerusalem in time and distance, this is more likely the type of elders they had—good godly, spiritually mature men rather than a specific office. Let me get this clear—the office of elder is not the same as the office of deacon. But let me also get this clear—all deacons should be elders in the sense of being good godly, spiritually mature men. And I have every confidence that our deacons are. The point of the verse is this. When you experience deep, intense, personal affliction, where are you supposed to go? To a counselor? To a psychologist? To a telephone hotline? Who does James say you are to call on? An elder in the church. A good, godly, spiritually mature man in the church. If you are a lady and you wish to meet alone, find a good, godly, spiritually mature lady in the church. It is your responsibility to call on them. What is their responsibility? They are to come along side you in prayer. That is what “pray over him” literally means. It means that they will unite their heart with yours in prayer and spiritual support. But that’s not the end of it. Because they will also anoint you with oil. Now, hold on a minute before you send off for your buy-one-get-one-free case of anointing oil. In the ancient world, olive oil was an extremely important product. It was used for food. It was used for ceremonial purposes. And it was used for health purposes. Of course if it is used for food, the context makes that clear. If the oil is used to anoint a person in a ceremonial way—like immediately comes to mind when we think of anointing someone with oil…. If it is used that way, a very specific original word is used. That word isn’t used here. The word that’s used here literally means “to rub.” The picture here is taken from what the spiritually mature believers did when someone like Paul was beaten and persecuted. They would take him in, come along beside him in prayer and rub his wounds with olive oil. The point is, James isn’t calling for spiritually mature believers just have a little ceremonial prayer service with a person who’s experiencing affliction. Don’t just pray something—do something! We don’t use oil as a medicine any more, so when you are experiencing affliction, don’t expect to be rubbed down with it. But when you come to a good, godly, spiritually mature person in the church with your affliction—expect to be anointed. Expect to be encouraged. Expect to be strengthened. Expect to be refreshed.
The affliction test is a difficult test. That’s why James includes it last. It is difficult because affliction is the fire that tests us. It is the fire that will either burn us up or temper us and make us stronger. For the true Christian, affliction purifies. It strengthens. It perfects. “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” Do you have the kind of faith that will pass the affliction test? The kind that can face affliction with prayer. And the kind that can face affliction with a call. Whatever kind of affliction you’re going through—you don’t have to face it alone. If Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior, call on Him. He will bring you through. He will give you the strength to pass the test. Call on a good, godly, spiritually mature believer to come along side you in your prayer. You are not alone. You will persevere. You will make it. If you are afflicted and do not know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you are on your own. You have no one to turn to and no one who can help. But you don’t have to stay that way. If you turn to Jesus, He will save you. He will save you from your sins and He will give you the strength to endure the affliction. All you have to do is call out to Him. Cast yourself on Him this morning. He will save you today.
