James 5_13-20
Affliction Confession and Conversion
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As Pastor James looks around his congregation he sees:
• the rich suffering from too much consumption
• the poor suffering from too much envy
• They are both:
o Physically sick
o Mentally exhausted
o Spiritually under nourished
Over a period of time he has addressed their sins - he wants to see their lives healed.
As a faithful and knowledgeable pastor in the ways of God, He has a prescription for the congregation’s illness.
• Prayer
• Praise
• Church prayer for the sick
• Public Confession of sin
As he looks out over his congregation, he addresses them;
Jam 5:13-15
Are any among you afflicted? Pray!
Are any merry? Sing psalms! 13
Are there any sick (weak) among you? Call the elders of the church; and pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: 14
• Very few conservative churches outside of the Catholic church do this. Why not?
• I think we need a period of prayer in every service where all three of the above items happen at the same time.
o We pray
o We praise God with a merry heart
o And the elders of the church, lay there hands upon the sick, mentally exhausted, Spiritually under nourished, anointing them with oil, and praying for them.
o I think that it should be a good 10 to 15 minutes of our service every week
Pastor James then says:
And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, (êάìíù, one who is weak and has fainted) and the Lord shall raise him up; (óῴæù, literally “save” him) and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. 15
Frequently, when Jesus Healed, there was accompanying forgiveness of sins.
Mat 9:2-7 And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you. And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This [man] blasphemes. And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Why do you think evil in your hearts? Is it easier, to say, “Your Sins be forgiven; or to say, Arise, and walk?
But that you may know that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins, (then he said to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up your bed, and go unto your house. And he arose, and departed to his house.
Another part of Pastor James’ prescription is Confession;
Jam 5:16
Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, you may be healed. 16a
Without Confession of sin there is no deliverance from sin.
There are several types of confession in the Bible:
• The first is confession of sin to the Lord - Psa 32:5 I acknowledged my sin unto you, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah. 1Jo 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
• The second type of confession is confession that brings salvation; confession of the name of Jesus aloud and clearly among the lost of the world. - Mat 10:32, 33 Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven
Rom 10:9, 10 That if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall
believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
• The third type of confession is confession of sins to one another. I have not seen this done to any great extent among the people of God; Primarily, because we are not one, in reality.
We say we are one in the Spirit, but are we? Yes there is one Spirit, but oneness of Spirit comes when we are all living on one equal playing field. And unless, we feel the freedom to confess all our sins to one another, we are not one.
Why do we not feel the freedom to confess our sins to one another?
1. Pride
2. Afraid others will no longer esteem you
3. Afraid the public knowledge of the sin will be used against you.
4. Afraid you will have to give up the sin, and you don’t want to.
So what is the cost of holding back confession of sin?
• Guilt – no confession, no forgiveness = guilt, no guilt, then you are lost
• Sickness – Spiritual, mental, and physical
• No true fellowship with the body of Christ, no oneness of Spirit
• A brick wall between you and God
• Prayers will not be answered until the wall is removed between you and God
Pastors (Elders – ðñåóâύôåñïò or the English word presbyters) - In the Catholic church hear the confessions of the saints and the sins stay hidden. That is not what pastor James has in mine. He wants everyone to understand that oneness comes when we all understand that we are all sinners, no one better than the other. That only comes when we clearly see each other for the sinners we are. That is what foot washing is all about. “Cleansing each other.”
So Pastor James loudly proclaims; Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be healed. 16a
Pastor James closes His letter to the congregation of Jerusalem with an appeal to prayer and evangelism
The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. 16b
• Effectual Fervent (ἐíåñãέù) – a verb, used as an adjective, to energize, to work, to put forth energy as you pray
o Prayer that is not worked at is not effective.
o Prayer that cost you nothing is not effective.
o Normally work is assessed in hours.
o You get out of it what you put into it
• Righteous (äίêáéïò) – in the Greek, the word man is not there. It is just “righteous” There are two aspects to righteousness
o Positional – In Christ
o Fruits of the Spirit – As a person spends more and more time with the Lord, the sins of their life, have less and less hold on them.
Pastor James gives us an example: Jam 5:17-18
Elias (Elijah) was a man subject to like passions (like passions – he was a sinner) 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. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
If any of you pray that it not rain then I will see you are booted out of the church.
Rather, I am waiting for the fervent prayer warrior who prays that we get some nice, calm showers that fill up our cisterns and water our grass and trees on a regular basis.
Jam 5:19-20 Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; Let him know, that he which converts the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.
Who of you error from the truth?
Who of you needs God to cover a multitude of your sins?
Then I command you this day: Covert Sinners from their ways, save a soul from death.
