James 5:13-18, "Overcome Evil through Prayer"

Ken MacLeod

Prayer • Sermon • Submitted 7 months ago • Presented 7 months ago

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I’d like to take you on a train ride this morning. It’s really more of a train of thought than anything else. But we’ll make some stops along the way and if I don’t lose you, we’ll come back to where we started. I hope by the end we will see how our prayer life connects with current events and real world problems.

God cares about the events and problems of our lives. He cares about the problems in our world. Jesus taught us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” We will see today how these two requests are connected. How should we pray about the problems and needs in our world? Let’s start the journey.

Our starting place is an event on everyone’s mind.

Responding to Evil

Last Saturday, October 7, Hamas attacked Israel from the Gaza Strip. As of this morning, ____ thousand people have been killed, _____ injured, and _____ hostages remain in Gaza. Someone asked after the service last Sunday, “out of all the needs your prayed for, why didn’t you pray for Israel?” The fact is, I still hadn’t heard about it. As the next couple of days progressed, we heard more about the atrocities committed by Hamas against the Israelis, especially children and the elderly. By Tuesday night, many people very rightly were angry and frustrated. Not only has evil been perpetrated against innocent people, but there is an infuriating lack of leadership worldwide and a lack of moral clarity in the media coverage.

How do we respond in the face of this kind of evil? What should we think and how should we pray in light of events in the Promised Land that cause us to think about the end of the world?

We have a Psalm just for this. Psalm 122 is a pilgrim song, the Israelites would sing as they came to Jerusalem for the Holy Feast Days.

Psalm 122 (ESV)

A Song of Ascents. Of David.

I was glad when they said to me,

“Let us go to the house of the Lord!”

Our feet have been standing

within your gates, O Jerusalem!

Jerusalem—built as a city

that is bound firmly together,

to which the tribes go up,

the tribes of the Lord,

as was decreed for Israel,

to give thanks to the name of the Lord.

There thrones for judgment were set,

the thrones of the house of David.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!

“May they be secure who love you!

Peace be within your walls

and security within your towers!”

For my brothers and companions’ sake

I will say, “Peace be within you!”

For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,

I will seek your good.

The land of Israel is special to God. It has a unique place in the course of all human events. It is the place He intended all the nations would come to seek Him in prayer and hear from Him. When Solomon built the temple of the Lord God in Jerusalem, God promised,

2 Chronicles 7:12 (ESV)

Then the Lord appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice.

2 Chronicles 7:15–16 (ESV)

Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that my name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time.

I left a couple of verses out of that, and we’ll visit those near the end of our journey. For now, we pray for the peace of Jerusalem and the land of Israel.

The answer to this prayer will come when the throne of the house of David is once again occupied by the One who will judge us all in perfect justice.

Psalm 122:5–6 (ESV)

There thrones for judgment were set, the thrones of the house of David.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! “May they be secure who love you!

Praying for Peace through Justice

So, we pray for justice and ultimately for Jesus to return. He will overcome evil.

Those feelings of anger and frustration on Tuesday night take us to our next stop on this train of thought. Hamas is not the only evil in the world. It takes us back in time to the Thursday before the Hamas attacks. That evening, we here in this church had the opportunity to hear from Pastor Godfrey who works with refugees in Uganda, 90% of whom are Banyamulenge from eastern Congo. What came to my mind mind on Tuesday night as some of us discussed the atrocities in Israel was that those atrocities are the same atrocities that have been perpetrated against the Banyamulenge and other people of eastern Congo: killing, maiming, rape, kidnapping. Maybe some who are outraged over Israel can understand the feelings of our brothers and sisters who have been trying to get someone to listen to their plight that hasn’t made the news.

The next stop on the train of thought is this one: Is it possible that God is using these increasingly troubling events to wake us up? As Brother Andrew said about Europe in the 1950, he could hear God speaking

Revelation 3:2 (ESV)

Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.

Waking Up to Work

Is it time for us to wake up? Not just the American church, but us, here and now. He is disturbing our comfort. Are we awake? And if He is trying to wake us up, what’s the message for us? Our next stop is another passage about prayer and seeking God.

James 5:13 (ESV)

Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.

God uses highs and lows to get our attention. Riding a train, coasting along on level surface, we can be lulled to sleep. But if that train hits a high or a low point in the track, our peace is disturbed and that’s when we wake up.

The highs are fun. I met with a Christian brother this week who was singing God’s praises for all the good things He’s doing in his life right now. He said, “Every morning I wake up and feel like I’m flying.”

But it’s especially the lows that wake us up. There is no getting around the fact that we are most ready to seek God in prayer, and truly listen and receive, when we are at our lowest points, mentally, emotionally, relationally, financially, physically.

Matthew Henry says, “The spirit is then most humble, the heart is broken and tender; and prayer is most acceptable to God when it comes from a contrite humble spirit. Afflictions naturally draw out complaints; and to whom should we complain but to God in prayer? It is necessary to exercise faith and hope under afflictions; and prayer is the appointed means both for obtaining and increasing these graces in us. Is any afflicted? Let him pray.”

James 5:14–15 (ESV)

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.

And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

In James’ day, oil was used as medicine, but also as an anointing to represent the presence of the Spirit of God. Either way, he says the healing of the sick is not because they were anointed with oil, or who did the anointing. They are healed and saved because of the prayer of faith. It isn’t wrong to seek medical help, but even if the medicine is effective, God does the healing. Prayer in faith seeks healing from God.

Then, in James’ train of thought, he links healing from sickness and confession of sins.

James 5:16 (ESV)

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

There is a connection between physical affliction and affliction of the soul. This makes sense. It is our sin that brings evil atrocities into the world. People suffer because of the evil of sin. Now, let’s remember Jesus taught us clearly that one person’s sickness is not the result of their own sin. We don’t blame the person who is suffering, whether they have a chronic illness or whether Hamas has taken over their town. But God can use any affliction to awaken us to pray in faith.

And when we pray, we should ask for healing both for our broken bodies and our broken spirits. He wants to heal our bodies and forgive our sins. And when we confess openly to the praying community, we find that confession and prayer heals us.

We should confess to a trusted, righteous, faithful person, who will not broadcast our confession but bring us to our High Priest Jesus in prayer. And there is healing in Him. The prayer of a righteous person has great power and effectiveness. James uses the prophet Elijah as an example. He says, Elijah was only human and if Elijah could ask God to stop the rain for three and a half years, what could God do through our prayers that seek God in faith?

Which brings our train back to the starting place. How do we respond, even overcome evil? James says it’s,

Praying, Praising, Confessing

At the end of time, just like in the days of Elijah, there will be a three and a half year period of intense persecution of the people of God. Who, like Elijah, will be praying for God’s justice and mercy to overcome evil during that time? Are we awake and strong enough to work through that time of testing?

Those verses I left out of the passage where God responds to Solomon’s prayer are a promise from God to Israel:

2 Chronicles 7:14 (ESV)

if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

If Israel prays and seeks His face and repent of their sins, this is what He will do. He will hear, forgive, and heal. This is God’s plan for Israel.

What about us? Here’s where our train of thought has brought me today. Could we use God’s plan for Israel as a template for us? If God is waking us up to strengthen what remains before the last day comes, in what ways should we humble ourselves? Maybe get over thinking that the American church will be the one church in history that can have its cake and eat it to, and never experience affliction. If God is making us increasingly uncomfortable, it is an invitation to humble ourselves before Him and yield to His plan to conform us to the image of Christ through suffering.

Which leads us to pray and seek God’s face. I’d like to make one observation. I see is that the consistent theme in these passages, Psalm 122, 2 Chronicles 7, and James 5 is that prayer that brings peace, healing, and forgiveness is done as a community. Who are you praying with? Do you seek God alone, as a private matter? Or are we praying as a community for justice and peace in places of injustice? When we are afflicted in body or soul, are we calling others to our side to pray for us?

And finally, in what ways should we repent? On Tuesday night, as all the righteous anger for all the evil in the world made us more and more uncomfortable we recognized we have made an idol of comfort. We have made an idol of the blessings of God to the American church, our prosperity and comfort and freedom. If He is taking those away, are we going to try to protect them at all costs, or will we pray and seek God’s healing and forgiveness and strength to complete the works He’s given us to do?

James 5:19–20 (ESV)

My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.