A Brief Excursion on Healing

[0:00] Good morning all. I need you to extend some grace toward me this morning because you may recall last week Joe threw me a delightful curveball during this sermon where he said what about that time in James now he said that in response to the fact that I had said God hasn't given us a formula for healing.

[0:28] He didn't give them rituals to perform or forms of words to follow. He just gave them authority and power. And Joe very kindly pointed out that the book of James appears maybe to say otherwise in the book of James in chapter 5.

[0:48] He says you should call the elders of the church. They will pray for the sick, anoint them with oil and the prayer of faith will make them whole. And I answered it very inadequately last week. All I really said last week was that doesn't mean it's a formula. You can't use James chapter 5 to put God's arm up his back to heal people.

[1:13] That said we had testimony from Christine of an occasion when people did anoint someone with oil and they did get well.

[1:25] And so neither can we dismiss it. Now this puts me in a very interesting situation as a teacher because I have this unresolved issue with that scripture.

[1:37] And so what I'm going to look at today, we're diverting away from Matthew. I was going to do this in the first half and then use the second half to carry on with Matthew.

[1:48] But it's actually more involved than that. So we're not going to do any Matthew today. We're going to look at James 5 verse 14 and 15. So most of this I have said, I think, but first of all, some of the things that we are not saying, I am not saying that this does not work for sick people.

[2:13] What I am saying is it's not a universal solution for sick people. And hopefully we'll see why as we go through.

[2:26] So we are not saying it doesn't work. We're not saying the book of James is wrong. However, our experiences do not confirm that this, what seems to be a mandate for all people, sickness. You see, if you follow this scripture, we'll return to this when we get to point nine, which could be next week at the rate I'm going.

[2:52] But what you cannot, you can't look at the church as a place where people have been prayed for by elders and anointed with oil and see masses of healed people.

[3:05] And yet the scripture would lead you to believe, well, if you're sick, go and call the elders, get anointed with oil and you will get well. There is a, it's almost a mandate. This is a formula.

[3:16] And it's almost like the anointing oil is a magic potion. But as soon as you smear it on somebody's head, it has the effect of a magic potion, which, of course, we know from our experience is not true.

[3:30] So why? And I'm hoping we will unpack why. But if you find yourself in vehement disagreement with me, please do not run off. Talk to me.

[3:42] But you'll need to bring your Bible and probably a couple of Greek, Greek lexicons with you when you do it. Because it's an involved discussion.

[3:53] But this is the conclusion I've come to in studying it. It's a scripture that's bothered me for a long, long time. And I've only fairly recently come to the view that I now hold, which was actually when it came up in a previous church where I was preaching.

[4:12] And I got to grips with it then and got to grips with it more now. So thanks, Joe. So the laying on of hands and the prayer of faith.

[4:22] And we'll get to the anointing with oil at the end. And we want to look at James 5. So let's just read James 5.

[4:37] James chapter 5. And we're going to start reading at verse 13. And so it says, Is any among you suffering?

[4:50] Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises. Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.

[5:04] And the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick. And the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. Therefore, confess your sins to one another.

[5:16] And pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. Elijah was a man within nature like ours. And he prayed earnestly that it would not rain.

[5:29] And it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. And then he prayed again. And the sky poured its rain and the earth produced its fruits. Now, I've read the whole passage because we're going to be looking at context.

[5:42] And we have to look at the context of the passage to work out what this is all about. But the first thing I want to draw attention to is the word translated sick. In verse 14.

[5:57] There's a Greek word, astheni. It may not be the right pronunciation. So any Greek scholars listening, I do apologize. And it's a negative of the Greek word for strength.

[6:10] Astheni. So it's no strength. Now, this word literally means weak and feeble.

[6:20] So it can mean physically sick. But it can also mean people who've basically gone off the rails, lost their faith. Now, you must remember that the letter of James was probably the first of all the letters to be written.

[6:35] It was probably written even before the Gospels were written. And that James was the pastor of the Hebrew church. And it was a hugely persecuted church.

[6:48] And if we get around to studying the book of Hebrews, we'll realize that they were failing in their faith because of the amount of persecution they were receiving.

[6:58] So much so, they were considering going back to Judaism. So these people were more likely to be weak and feeble because their faith was suffering because of persecution.

[7:12] They were suffering hardship. It's far more likely that James was dealing with that than he was with physical hardship. However, it doesn't preclude physical hardship.

[7:23] But what has happened, and it'll become clearer as we go through, what has happened is for some reason, translators have seized upon this word to mean sick.

[7:38] When in fact, more often than not, in the New Testament, when it's used, it's used to talk about spiritual hardship or spiritual weakness.

[7:51] As in, I'm losing my faith because of all this persecution, that kind of weakness. And you can find, I've put some scripture references, but if I stop and read all of them, we will be here all morning.

[8:03] So in Matthew 26, verse 41, this word is used of spiritual weakness. In Romans 5, chapter 6, of moral weakness.

[8:15] In 1 Corinthians 8, verse 7, it's also used of moral weakness. And it even speaks rhetorically of God's weakness in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 25.

[8:30] So it's not saying that God is weak, but it rhetorically refers to God's weakness. So this is not a phrase that you would immediately pick out for sickness.

[8:42] It's to do with general weakness. And specifically for the Hebrew church, weakness in faith because of persecution. There are lots of examples we could have chosen.

[8:57] I haven't put them all in here, but here are some. Romans 4, 19. And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body already dead. So that's Romans speaking of Abraham using this word astheni for, you know, how old was he when he conceived?

[9:15] He was 100 or thereabouts. And he didn't consider his own weakness. But they got on and produced an heir, a baby.

[9:28] This is from Romans 8, 3. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh. Weak through the flesh, Romans 8, 3. The word astheni.

[9:40] So it's commonly used for stuff other than physical weakness or sickness. Receive one who is weak in the faith. Romans 14, verse 1.

[9:53] So I think the point is making itself. But he who is weak eats only vegetables in Romans 14, verse 2. So it's also used not just weak, but immature.

[10:08] It's because lots of translations translate Romans 14, 2 as to the one who is immature. They eat only vegetables. Do you see what I mean? This when you translate this into English, context means a lot.

[10:22] 1 Corinthians 8, 9. But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak. So we're not talking here only about sickness.

[10:38] And in fact, it's the majority of uses of this word that have nothing to do with sickness. Now that becomes important as we go through. But in this instance, the translators have decided on sick rather than weak.

[10:56] And had they chosen weak instead of sick, the overtone of James 5, 13, 14, 15 would have been entirely different. I'm going to go through 10 pieces of contextual evidence to show that I believe this is an incorrect translation.

[11:17] Because we know that we can change the meaning of any word depending on the context. And a simple example is I can say I ran to the pub or I can say I ran the school fake.

[11:32] And the word ran in both those sentences has an entirely different meaning. So the context dictates how we use the word.

[11:44] Now my contention is that the translators, and I'll get on to why they might have done this later. But my contention is that the translators here have a vested interest in using the word sick instead of weak.

[11:59] And that when you look at the context, weak is a far more likely correct translation of asthenite in this context.

[12:17] So the first piece of evidence occurs in the question which James asks in verse 13. Is anyone among you suffering? What kind of suffering does James have in mind here?

[12:28] Now he uses a Greek word, kakopagiai or something. I'm not sure of the exact pronunciation. But this word and its cognate words are only used on three other occasions in the New Testament.

[12:45] And on all occasions they are used with reference to hardship that becomes or that comes as a result of being a Christian. Oppression, persecution, starvation because you can't get a job anymore.

[12:58] Cast out of the synagogue, you know, can't get work. Nobody wants to know you, can't get help when you're in trouble. The Hebrew Christian church at the time suffered that hardship in spades.

[13:11] So almost all of the time that word is used for hardship. And some examples.

[13:22] So 2 Timothy 2 verse 3. You must endure hardship as a good soldier. That's the word. That's the word that I'm not going to pronounce anymore because I mess it up.

[13:36] In 2 Timothy 2 verse 9. For which I suffer trouble. Kakopatha, which is a cognate word of the same root. You've also got take the prophet who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering.

[13:54] Kakopathias. Kakopathias. Which is in James 5.10. So all the time this word is used or where it's used elsewhere, it's used to talk about hardship rather than sickness.

[14:11] And so the combination of these two words means hardship and sickness and more hardship and more sickness. More often than it means sickness.

[14:25] Second bit of evidence. In verse 15, James uses a particular word which has also been translated sick. So let's go to verse 15.

[14:36] And the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick. And the Lord will raise him up.

[14:47] And if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. So the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick. And the word used here is kamnonta.

[14:58] And kamnonta is treated as a synonym for whatever the other word was. Asthenai. But this only appears one more time in the whole New Testament.

[15:16] And it refers to spiritual weariness, not physical sickness. And the point we're making here is none of this excludes sickness.

[15:27] But the overarching point was we're dealing with people here who are losing their faith because they're suffering hardship and they need support.

[15:39] So in Hebrews 12.3, for consider him who endured such hostility from sinners, lest you become weary, kamnonta, and discouraged in your souls.

[15:53] So this is about discouragement far more than physical sickness. James is obviously referring to the same condition in verses 14 and 15.

[16:09] And he's using kamnonta and asthenai as synonyms. So we can see that James is not referring necessarily to physically ill people.

[16:21] But those who have become morally or spiritually weak because of suffering. We might call them weak and weary. As Christians do become if they're persecuted enough.

[16:35] Third piece of evidence. It comes in this command. And if he has committed sin, he will be forgiven. Confess your sins or trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you might be healed.

[16:51] So this is towards the end of James 15 and the beginning of James 5.16. Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed.

[17:02] We have a few things to say about this. The first is James is speaking about committing sins and confessing them to each other.

[17:13] Which kind of adds to the context of the whole chapter. In fact, as you get through all of the contextual considerations, you realise that physical sickness really does take a back seat in this.

[17:28] What you get is, and we'll come to it a bit more in a minute, but the whole letter is written to a church that's persecuted and is addressed to people who are oppressed.

[17:41] Even in the very first verse of the book, you get that overtone. And so when he says, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you might be healed, he's talking more about getting sins dealt with and mending relationships between people.

[18:05] Physical healing for some reason, and I'll get to that reason towards the end of this talk, which as I said might be next week, but we'll see how we go. Getting to why they have translated it sickness, which actually seems to go against the flow of the book.

[18:22] Against the flow of what James was involved in at the time. I think there are clear reasons why it has happened.

[18:34] However, what James is dealing with, with what he has just said, is a spiritual problem. Nothing to do with people being ill. The word translated healed is actually often used to speak of physical healing, but it's also often used in the context of spiritual healing.

[18:57] So it's not that this word healed, oh well if he's talking about being healed, it must be that they were sick. Well, no. It could mean that they were sick.

[19:08] But there are some examples, for instance Matthew 13, 15, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn so that I should heal them. It wasn't talking about sick people, it was talking about people who needed to spiritually turn to Jesus.

[19:24] He has sent me to heal the broken hearted. From Luke 4, verse 18. Jesus said he sent me to heal the broken hearted. Same word.

[19:35] Same expression. So sometimes it does mean heal. In fact, the majority of times it means heal. But it's not entirely true to say that's the only use that it's used for.

[19:51] Very commonly it's used to mean a spiritual healing, a restoring, if you like. And I think that's the word I'd want to sow into people's minds. We are supposed to restore the people who are oppressed and hurt and struggling.

[20:04] Fourth piece of evidence. In verses 10 and 11, if you go back to James chapter 5.

[20:17] Verses 10 and 11. In fact, we go from verse 9. It kind of helps the context. Do not complain, brethren, against one another, so that you yourselves may not be judged.

[20:30] Behold, the judge is standing right at the door. As an example, brethren, of suffering and patience, take the prophet who spoke in the name of the Lord. We count those blessed who endured.

[20:44] You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord's dealings and that the Lord is full of compassion and merciful. So James, in the context of the chapter and what he's leading people through, he's saying, follow the example of the prophets before you and of Job, who exercised phenomenal patience, though they suffered.

[21:08] And they suffered hugely. He goes on to tell them in verse 12, not to make rash oaths, which they may be tempted to make rash oaths to avoid persecution.

[21:21] And a similar thing comes up in the book of Hebrews. So it's to do with being in spiritual trouble and hardship. It doesn't address physical hardship.

[21:35] A fifth piece of evidence is found in verses 19 and 20. And these are the summary verses to these passages. And it becomes clear.

[21:45] Just run your eye down to verses 19 and 20. My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

[22:01] So there's an aspect of this which is designed to support those who are falling or failing in their faith, of bolstering them, of uplifting them, of restoring them.

[22:16] And that's something that Paul speaks of in many other places, which we don't have time to chase down this morning. But it's a common theme of Paul's ministry to say you need to restore those who are struggling.

[22:32] Number six, the sixth piece of evidence relates to the whole epistle. If you turn to the very first words of the book.

[22:46] You've got verse one, which is an introduction. James, a bond servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes who are dispersed abroad. Greetings. Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials.

[23:02] So the addressing of the book is to people who are encountering trials. Knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect results so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

[23:20] The point is that Paul has written this letter primarily to encourage people who are discouraged. And to bring them up and to bolster them and to encourage them and to restore them to where they need to be.

[23:37] Again, it's a mission echoed by the writer to the Hebrews who has a similar message almost throughout the entirety of that book.

[23:48] So the extended context, if you like, supports what I've been saying. If you then go back to chapter 5 and go all the way down to verse 17.

[24:11] And James refers to Elijah's persecution and subsequent spiritual discouragement. Elijah, like Job and his prophets, he was a man who was severely persecuted for his faith.

[24:29] And so he says this, just before verse 17, the effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours.

[24:41] And he prayed earnestly that it would not rain. And it did not rain on earth for three years and six months. And then he prayed again and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit.

[24:52] What James is saying here is Elijah, a man like us, was suffering hardship because of his faith. If he had been really wanting to emphasize physical healing, he'd have probably chosen that passage where Elijah healed the Shunammite woman's son.

[25:08] But he didn't. He chose something that referred to the suffering and the persecution that he received as a result of his faith. And yet he prayed and his prayer was effective.

[25:22] And so this is an exhortation to those who are oppressed, suffering persecution or whatever, to lend themselves to effective prayer.

[25:39] Now, if you think of the structure of most churches, and there's a point that comes up again in a moment, but in the time that the book of James was written, the formal role of eldership had probably not yet been established.

[25:55] So when it says call the elders of the church to pray, it's probably referring to the mature Christians in the group rather than figureheads.

[26:06] And the exhortation was, you know, get those around you who know how to pray, who have developed their faith and pray together to get yourself out of this mess or to sustain you through the mess, or even if you become martyred to face that martyrdom in an appropriate way.

[26:32] Number eight. Elijah's fervent prayer mentioned in verses 17 to 18. Israel's three and a half year drought.

[26:44] Many commentators would say it's a graphic picture of a despondent believer in need of spiritual refreshment. This drought that comes upon the earth where nobody can get anything from God.

[26:57] And then the prayer that brings the rain brings an answer to that. So James seems to be saying if we pray fervently like Elijah prayed for rain, God will restore the believer who is suffering, the one that's in the doldrums, etc.

[27:13] Now, there's a bit of conjecture in that. That's an interpretation that not everybody would agree with, but many do. Number nine on my list is evidence concerning the promise given in verse 15.

[27:31] So the promise given in verse 15 is, and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick. This verse gives an unconditional promise.

[27:44] Right? It's not, it kind of, if we think this is to do with physical healing, and when we do it, physical healing rarely, if ever happens, something is wrong.

[27:59] Is God lying? It undermines the truth of God's word, if we take that interpretation.

[28:10] But in my experience anyway, everyone who is spiritually suffering, who is down in the mouth about their faith, struggling to make contact with God, struggling to make progress forward, give them fellowship and prayer, and it lifts them.

[28:25] Now, I would go as far as to say that you can rely on. And therefore, to take that interpretation of God's word shows effective solutions, whereas to think that every single person that elders ever pray for and anoint with oil is going to get well, doesn't always work.

[28:47] It's not a reliable thing. I'm not saying by that, don't do it, by the way. I'm just saying it would explain why you're not getting reliable results with it, whereas in terms of encouraging those who are down in their hearts, there is a lot of encouragement to be had.

[29:06] And the last piece of evidence concerns the instructions for the weak person to call for the elders of the church. There are those who argue, this is for those who are so sick they can't get out of bed and they can't get to church and so they have to call the elders to them.

[29:23] I think that's an argument from silence. I think that adds to God's word. I don't think you can... The word doesn't actually say that, so you can infer it.

[29:34] But it's more, in my view, and I'm happy to be corrected if anybody can show me, it's more that the one who is...

[29:50] If you take the view that I've been taking, which is this is to do with being downfrogged and persecuted, struggling in your faith, it's an exhortation for those people to call the elders to themselves to get them out of the problem they're in.

[30:07] And that involves humility of heart on the part of those doing the calling. Now, mostly in churches, we don't apply this anyway. We all troop round to their house with a bottle of oil and we pray for them and we dribble some oil on them.

[30:22] It doesn't often come from the person who's in trouble. It does sometimes, but it doesn't often come from the person who's in trouble, reaching out of this, it has to be said, sinful situation because we're falling away from God and reaching out to the elders and saying, come and help me.

[30:41] So James is putting the onus on the person who's struggling to reach out to the elders. The fact that the weak and weary person was to summon the elders doesn't show they were unable to travel.

[31:02] But it is a clue to the fact that their problem was related to their spiritual condition rather than their physical one. In other places, Paul tells the Ephesian elders that they must support the weak.

[31:17] Acts 20 verse 35. He exhorts the believers in Thessalonica to comfort the faint-hearted and uphold the weak. 1 Thessalonians 5.14.

[31:28] The passage in James strongly suggests that the problem is connected with some sin. And we've read that this, as we read through James, we have...

[31:40] We have... If we start from verse 7, therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord.

[31:53] The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it until it gets the early and late rains. You too be patient. Strengthen your hearts for the coming of the Lord is near.

[32:04] Do not complain, sin. Do not complain against one another so that you yourselves may not be judged. Behold, the judge is standing at the door. As an example, brethren, of suffering and patience, take the prophets.

[32:19] And then they're encouraged to consider the prophets who, despite suffering, prayed. Verse 12. But above all, my brethren, do not swear either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath.

[32:32] So don't take rash oaths because you're being persecuted. Another exhortation to the Hebrews in the book of Hebrews who were thinking of taking oaths to get the persecution off them.

[32:47] All right? Which, of course, would be a sin. Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises.

[32:58] The cheerful are supposed to raise up the miserable. And 16. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed of your spiritual...

[33:11] My interpretation, I admit. You may be healed of your spiritual difficulties. The prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.

[33:22] So... The elders, being the more mature Christians in the congregation, would have a key role in bringing this solution, in restoring those who had fallen back, fallen away, struggling, difficult, can't make headway in their faith for whatever reason.

[33:45] So... Question. Why was this translation so often used? This, of course, you must understand this is a minority view.

[33:59] And what I'm... What I'm aligning myself with is a minority view. The majority would say, no, it means sickness and you should pray for the sick. Well, yes, I agree we should pray for the sick.

[34:10] But why are we not getting any results? I contend that we're not getting the results we should be getting because we've misunderstood this translation. Or rather, it's been given to us in a way where we were bound to make a wrong understanding of it.

[34:26] And the question is why. Why would that happen? Well, one... One leading reason that those who comment on this, one of which is, I think, F.B. Myers, is that in the early days of the Roman Catholic Church, they established the practice of extreme unction.

[34:49] And extreme unction is where you anoint with oil the ones that are dying. They also have called it giving the last rites. They've called it anointing the sick. It's ironic, really, because they anoint them when they're about to die.

[35:07] And I did trawl through a lot of references as much as I could get through in an hour or so. I haven't found a single recorded occasion when, as a result of extreme unction, the person leapt out of bed and was healed.

[35:26] so they're actually administering something that the book of James says to raise up the sick and they're doing it to see them off into death rather than to see them back into life.

[35:42] That aside, that practice of extreme unction by a priest, and if you read their instructions to priests, it's fascinating because no one else is allowed to do it, only the priest, because they're the ones who represent Jesus.

[35:59] And it had no biblical warrant. Though if you take the other interpretation that I'm suggesting we do, you don't have a biblical warrant for anointing with oil to make people sick, to make people well.

[36:18] Sorry, that was my Roman Catholic faux pas coming in. But you don't have a warrant to just put oil on people to make them well.

[36:30] Whereas the Roman Catholic Church introduced extreme unction a long, long time ago, way back in the Middle Ages and could be back as far as the days of Constantine or just after.

[36:42] And it's interesting that the translations that are heaviest on this are post King James. So, interesting thing. We've talked about who are the elders, but this word anointing is an interesting one too, to anoint someone with oil.

[36:59] And with that, I don't know what picture you get in your head, but whenever I've seen it done, somebody puts a bit of oil, sometimes three in one oil, which I think is interesting. But they put a bit of oil on their fingers and they just put a little cross on somebody's forehead and that's anointing them with oil.

[37:16] Well, if Paul had meant that, there's a word creo, which is the use of oil for religious occasions, for sprinkling or for anointing in that way, just a little drop or a cross or a smudge or whatever, as part of a religious ritual.

[37:39] Tony's just gone like that and I presume he's referring to the oil that was poured over Aaron's head and ran down his beard and dribbled all over there. But it's, the thing is the word he uses, which is alexantes, actually means to rub with oil and it was used as a therapy.

[38:04] It was, you would use oil to rub into somebody to help them get well. And olive oil was always considered medicinal. And so part of your visiting of the people who needed encouragement would be to pray with them and to anoint them with oil and to rub it in as a sort of a sign of your love for them.

[38:25] Now, if we did it in our culture, people would go, but it was a sign of your love for them that you would take oil and you would rub it in to give them a feeling of refreshment, which was what olive oil was used for in that hot climate and in those days.

[38:42] And it was part of the overall ministry of restoring somebody. And it didn't necessarily make them well in the sense of instant miraculous healing, but it certainly made them feel better and more able to cope with what they were going through.

[38:59] That's all I prepared for this morning. I didn't think I'd get through it all. But what I will say is I am sure, or fairly sure, that there must be some questions. And if I can't answer the questions, I'll do what I did this time and go away and study it.

[39:12] But has that ruffled any feathers? Good. I have to say I was a bit nervous about delivering it because the last time I took on a contentious issue like this, half the church left.

[39:34] Because it was pretty immediate. But people wed themselves to these ideas because of tradition.

[39:46] A question I didn't answer while the slides were up and was this, why has it prevailed? prevailed? If it was a wrong translation, why has it prevailed? And the only answer I can come up with for that is tradition.

[40:00] Because once people get a tradition, it's very hard to shake it off. Because their fathers and their forefathers before them have told them when you get sick people, particularly pastors, you know, when the son becomes a pastor, he carries on the doctrine that his father taught him, and he often doesn't question it deeply.

[40:23] Now I want us to be a church that questions things deeply. And even if it puts me in a corner where I can't answer the questions, I welcome that. Because when we get things, I mean I was very dissatisfied at the end of last week that we hadn't answered that question thoroughly.

[40:39] Yes, true, they did, but that was for a different reason, that was to install them as king.

[40:52] Right, so that was a bugging, a tradition, that's what they did. Yeah. And I can't remember why they poured oil over Aaron and it ran off his beard.

[41:05] It must have been a really icky occasion. But I can't remember why they did it. But it wasn't in the same context as this where you're going visiting people who are suffering.

[41:16] Now, this gives us two applications. The first application is, if you're suffering, call for the elders of the church.

[41:27] That doesn't mean always phone me. You are free to phone me. You are free to phone me. But those who you know are mature Christians, because that was the context in James, not just the man in charge, because James didn't consider himself as the man in charge.

[41:47] He considered himself as first among equals. So people who are mature in the faith, who you trust, ask them to come and pray with you.

[41:58] And the prayer of the righteous will achieve much. It certainly doesn't preclude the possibility of physical healing. And quite often people get healed despite the misunderstanding of scripture.

[42:12] Because when you go to God and ask him for bread, he will not give you a stone. So if you go to him and ask him for physical healing, if it's right and if it's his will to do so, he'll give you physical healing.

[42:27] The question I suppose we should finish with is what about the elder that does all the things and then he doesn't get the person healed? The common recourse is to say, well, I came to you, I prayed for you in faith, you didn't get healed, so you must be lacking in faith.

[42:42] That's a common thing that happens and it shouldn't happen. I believe it's anathema to God. And also, somebody did that to me when I was in 12 and I was going to pray to you and I was going to annoy you and you were, I made you feel so stressed because I thought, well, it'll get better now.

[43:02] So I hope that's kind of unpacked a difficult scripture and enabled us to make more sense of it.

[43:16] Please do come to me and ask questions or correct me if you can open your Bible and say, this is why you're wrong, Ray, because I welcome that too. And if you do that, next week I will stand up and tell everybody how I've been corrected.

[43:32] Lyndon knows that, I do it all the time. LAUGHTER