James Part 12

James now turns to prayer as the lifeblood of faithful community. Whether in suffering or joy, the response is prayer and praise. This comprehensive vision reflects Jewish prayer life, where every circumstance is brought before God. Give a listen. 

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Welcome to the Messiah in Life podcast. This series on the Epistle of James is taught by Bishop Justin D. Elwell of Restoration Fellowship International, who also serves as the Messianic Rabbi of Messiah Congregation in Washington Mills, New York. From our congregational home, we invite you into a rich and practical study of one of the most direct and challenging writings in the New Testament. Over the coming months, each episode will carefully examine James's call to a living faith, a faith that endures trials, governs the tongue, pursues wisdom, and expresses itself through righteous action. Rooted in the scriptures of Israel and the teachings of Messiah Jesus. This study brings the message of James into clear focus for life today, forming disciples marked by integrity, mercy, and spiritual maturity. Thank you for joining us. Now pour yourself a tea or coffee, and may the word we hear shape the lives we live.

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James chapter 5, beginning in verse 13. Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, accord 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. Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for the pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has power as it is working. That's a little more cumbersome than normal. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain. And for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. This is God's word. So this part of the chapter obviously is bringing everything together. His whole theological argument. I don't know if I pause that or not. Um and it's how he is bringing the community together. How we started out. So James turns to prayer as the lifeblood of the community. That's kind of the first thing that we notice is if anyone is suffering among you, let him pray. If anyone is cheerful, let him sing praise. I love how he has paired these two together. It really uh is kind of beautiful. So prayer is the lifeblood of the community. It should be who we are as a people. We should be obviously inclined to prayer at all times. Paul tells us to pray unceasingly, make our life a life of prayer. David said so beautifully, Anitafila, I am prayer, meaning that his life was one that was um postured in prayer. He he lived prayer, um, as we might understand it, when he understood himself to be forgiven and redeemed by the Lord. So, in a faith community, prayer is um of the utmost importance. The original name of this congregation was Beitafhila Khavura, the house of prayer fellowship. Uh, we had to find something a little less difficult for people to say. Well, I go to that Beit Tafila Khavura, meaning house of prayer, fellowship, or friendship. Beitafila khavura, yes. So house of prayer. My house should be a house of prayer for all people. That was the thought behind it at the time. And it became a point of confusion rather than prayer. Um, but that should be the inclination of we as individuals within the faith community and also all of us together. So, whether suffering or enjoy, we uh our response is prayer, our response is praise. Uh, as we know from Psalm 1 uh 150, uh what is that in verse 6? Uh Kolhan Shamata, Halalia, Hallelujah. Let everything that draws breath praise the Lord. So as long as we're drawing breath, we need to be praising the Lord. So whether that is in suffering or whether that is in pray or in joy, we're praising, we're praying. We don't pray because things are we we don't refrain from praying because things are going well. Oh, I don't have to pray today because you know life's going pretty good. Uh, we pray as a point of communion, fellowship with the Lord, relation with the Lord, intimacy with the Lord, sometimes just sitting. It doesn't have to be a great um Shakespearean, you know, dialogue that you're that you're uh engaging in, but but going before the Lord, whether you're quiet, resting, or you're just laying out where life is right now. So this, you know, this comprehensive vision that James gives us in the beginning really speaks to the heart of uh of the Jewish community, the Jewish world at that time, which was centered on prayer. And prayer takes on quite a different dynamic than how we would understand um prayer within the Christian sphere. Uh, within the synagogue world, prayers often sung. You sing communal prayers. So you have prayers that you say communally, prayers that you sing communally, and prayers that you would pray, obviously, privately. But that is a major component of communal life is engaging in prayer, um, saying certain prayers together, uh, the Shmah, the Amida, um, the silent uh amidah, the spoken amidah, uh, the repetition of the kaddish, and so on. So you would have a number of communal prayers that uh take on different dynamic or dimension depending on the day, depending on the time of day as well. So it's a really interesting kind of dynamic in how that all works. But in every circumstance, bring that circumstance before the Lord. Take it directly to Him, is what James is telling us. So is anyone sick, let them call the elders of the ecclesia, the the church or the congregation. Call those who are appointed, call those who are caretakers of the community. Uh let them pray over him. Anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And of course, this is a beautiful uh I usually keep anointing oil in my car, anointing oil in my briefcase, which somehow has seeped out, so I can't really use that compartment anymore. That's neither here nor there. Uh, but we keep anointing oil on hand. I mean, it's right here by the door, several bottles of it, and we go through a lot of anointing oil uh every year because we believe in anointing uh people, not just for illness, but um, well, I mean, talk about that in just a second, but let him pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. Verse uh 15, and the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick. That's just that isn't salvation, and it's the same root, it's the same underlying word, so-so, but it's it's it's a deliverance, it's a rescue, it's not eternal salvation. Okay, so we might have saved or save in several different contexts, but in the same uh root word, but meaning different um dimensions of that word. So it's not always speaking of eternal salvation, it might be speaking of a rescue from illness or a rescue from a difficult trial. And the Lord will raise him up, and that's the important part. We go in faith and pray. We're praying in faith, we're trusting the Lord. We're and it's gonna tie into Elijah, the comments on Elijah in just a moment. But we are going before the Lord in faith, relying on the promises of God, the promises of the Father. And we're praying that the person be delivered out of that, be rescued from the circumstance. And that in that, the Lord will be the one that raises them up. The Lord is sovereign over the situation, the Lord will rescue them, the Lord will deliver them to whatever purpose or whatever that might look like. Sometimes our rescue, sometimes our deliverance, doesn't necessarily look like what we would imagine it could or should be. We imagine it in one way, but the Lord, by his sovereign grace and mercy, uses this vessel in the way that is um that that aligns with his will, his perfect will for our lives. That's hard for us to take because we've been told for so many years that healing only looks like one thing. You know, um healing, you know, uh okay. When I one of the things they tell you before you have your knee replacements is that your knees are going to click for the rest of your life. You're gonna have a click, click, click, click, click. Some people that drives people crazy. To me, it's a beautiful musical sound, it's a rhythm. As I'm walking across the parking lot, click, click, click, click, click, click, and I'm I'm dancing in my head. You know what I'm not doing? I'm not agonizing in pain. I'm walking, no cane. So I look at that as you know, the Lord's deliverance in a way that maybe before I had the surgery, I would have said, you know what, I don't want the I don't like the idea of clicking. I think pain for the rest of my life sounds perfect. But it's just it's one of those things that we don't quite, we can't see the the end the way that he does. So even though maybe for some people clicking is an ideal, for me it's ideal. You know, when I did a hike last week, I clicked for five and a half miles. Click, click, click, click. I was like a horse going down the pavement, you know. And you can feel it. Do yours click? You don't have clicking. Wow, I've got the clickers, you've gotten it on mute. That's the problem. Um but you know, as I was going through the you feel it through your body, it kind of resonates up through your body. And it was it was comforting because that tells me my knees are working, and I'm I'm okay with that. But it's not exactly what I've imagined. And it was so strange. They call it a click. I think it's a thud, really. It's a it's a it's a thump, you know. But I told the the surgeon, I said, you know, my knees don't click. So he picked up my leg and he shook it. And he said, Yes, you hear that? That's the click. That's a thud, not a click. Anyway, sidebar on that one. But it's the Lord who raises the person up. It's not it's not our specific prayer, it's not that Gary prayed and not Barb or Barb and not Gary. It's that we leaned into the faith, the promises of the word of God, and we're aligning with the will of God. That may take time to manifest. That may take time to happen. It may, it may never happen the way we imagine, but it will happen exactly as he wills. And that is submission to the will of God, and that's what the heart of it looks like. This may not look, seem, appear any in any way that we feel is wholly right and good. But at the end of the day, we're trusting the sovereign will of God. We're the clay, he's the potter. We can't say, hey, I didn't like the way you did that. It's not ideal in our mind, but we trust him and trust his perfect will. So when we think about healing, healing, you know, the prayer for healing is not mechanical. It's it's not here's the here's the prayer for healing, and now be healed. Well, what do you if you didn't if you just believed God, you'd you your your your leg would grow back if you believed God, you wouldn't need any surgery. Right? No. But unfortunately, that that disposition is is quite widespread. Um but it's not mechanic, it's relational. This body is not getting out of here alive. It doesn't matter how you know how it's hilarious, I mean, in a good way, I mean in a in an ironic way, that years ago when I was very, very much overweight, more than I am now, before I got really super healthy. All of the list of things that the doctor told me, here is what you're at risk for. Go down the checklist. I'm gonna have all of this and I'm gonna be taking these 45 medications. You know what happened to me over the next three years? I didn't get any of those, but my thyroid broke and my knees went. So none of this list of things that they told me was gonna happen happened, but this other stuff did. And ironically, when I was at my most healthy. But then you have the you know, the 45-pound marathon runner, who, and I and I'm thinking of a specific person that I know quite well, who had a major heart attack. Well, you know, recovered, praise the Lord, but major heart attack. And he was running marathons. Makes you wonder. Well we we don't necessarily ask why. Not necessarily. We we we try not to ask why. How's that? So we're not looking for a mechanical response. Say this prayer and heaven will answer. That's not the way it is, it's relational. It's grounded in repentance because healing is not just physical, it's emotional, it's spiritual, it's it's it's multifaceted. So it's grounded in repentance, grounded in forgiveness, and trusting in God's mercy. It's all of that repentance. What is blocking you spiritually? Why do you feel disconnected from the Father? Unforgiveness. You need to repent of that. And it could be any number of things. You're you've entered into an area of life that you should not be. That's repentance working. Uh and of course, unforgiveness, we don't talk about how devastating unforgiveness is, not only for a community, but also for the individual. Unforgiveness becomes a personal prison. You have the key in your hand, you're standing in that jail cell. Lord, let me out. And he's going, the key is in your hand. All you have to do is unlock the door. And what is the key and what is the lock? Forgiveness. And then trusting, of course, in his mercy. So when this idea of calling the elders, calling the elders, all the name of the Lord, this is theological. It's a theological action. We're trusting in the Lord, we're trusting in his promises, but it's also missional. It's also missional. Let me explain that. So anointing, it's not the oil that heals. I'm not going to go over and pray over the anointing oil with super holy words. And now it's magical. That's not what it's for. It's the Lord who heals. But what does the anointing oil do? What is it for? It's a sign, it's a sign of consecration, it's a sign of care. And it accompanies the prayer of faith. And it says that this community trusts in the promises of the Lord. That's what it's for. When you're anointed with oil and you leave here, you smell it. It's an aroma that stays with you. Now, there are people who leave here anointed every week. Now, are we going to say, you know, if they really believe God, we don't have to anoint them anymore. And we're going to start charging them. No, we'll just keep anointing and keep anointing until what they're praying for, uh, the Lord answers and reveals his will. So we're a community that trusts in the healing power of God. And I, as I said before, you know, my knee surgeries, if the Lord wanted to heal my knees, uh, and I'm rolling in and anesthesia starting to do their thing, and I woke up with no incision, no, you know, no um, you know, dressing, and they said, you know what? We made a mistake. The x-rays were wrong. Your knees are absolutely perfect. Don't know what happened. It look like they're brand new, brand new, never been walked on. I would have said, Hallelujah, I had a good nap. You know, that propofol is uh pretty good. Um so you bel I, you know, you believe, you just keep believing, you keep trusting. Because even though I might not receive the answer I want, we're gonna receive the answer that is his will. Now, this C.S. Lewis quote that I'm gonna share is I I if you know anything about C.S. Lewis, you know the heart from which he spoke it. It's powerful. Um He said, We're not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us. We're not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us. Now here it is. We're wondering how painful the best will turn out to be. A grief observed, right? This is from his collected writings, but you know, we're we're wondering how painful the best will turn out to be. We never know what the cross that he's called us to carry will look like. The cross that he's called us to bear, we never know what that looks like, but you do it with integrity, you do it with faith. So why? People see that and they praise the Lord. That even though the packaging might look damaged, right? The spirit is still joyful, the spirit is still uh glorifying and praising, even when you got the grumpy bumpies. Trying to tell Lily, I don't have the grumpy bumpies. I never get the grumpies. It's called exhaustion. Anyway, anyway. Yeah, pretty much, yeah. Amen. So confession. As I said on Shabbat, um the elders are building a confessional box somewhere here in the building for me, so I can hear confessions as we come into Shabbat. You know, there's I think the the posture is the posture, the two coming together is biblical. Then there's tradition that's all surrounding it. But confession of sin to one another, what does it do? It restores community in one regard, and it removes barriers to the spiritual healing, to the psychological healing, emotional healing. And imagine, you know, you've held on to something or you're holding on to something that is a weight that you're not called to bear. It could be unforgiveness, it could be regret, it could be shame, whatever it is, because you've never been able to articulate those words to say what it is that you're holding on to. So, of course, this recon uh this uh connects to the teaching of a messiah on reconciliation that we read of in 5 and 23 and 24. And it lifts the burdens again, it lifts The burdens off of us when we know that within a community of faith we are free to confess that which we've held on to, that we we feel disqualifies us from life, from community. And that lifting, the burden being lifted, now frees us to really walk as he's called us to walk. You know, I've had that experience myself, bearing guilt and shame from 30 years ago. That, you know, I said, I remember praying to the Lord. It was about, you know, the abortion. And praying to the Lord, I've confessed this to you, I've confessed this to you, I've confessed this to you for 30 years or 27 years or whatever it was at the time. But I had never confessed it to anyone else. And the power of that confession to two other men who had been there and experienced that and gone through it was incredibly healing. Just to let that out to someone else and have them not reject me, but rather walk through healing with me was incredibly profound. And that's really at the heart of what James is saying is that when we have that liberty too, and and I will be the first to tell you if somebody uses something that you confess within this congregation against you, I'm not talking about something illegal, please. That's not what I'm talking about. But your history, your pastor, whatever it is, if somebody uses that against you, they're going to find that I'm not always laid back and kind. That would be very serious. That's a very serious sin, in my opinion. So, but knowing that you have a community where you can walk, demonstrating the power of his forgiveness and his healing, knowing where you came from, that does nothing but glorify him. And it also keeps us consistent with scripture that we're going to be um a place that has that type of, and that's why the elders have to be involved. Leadership has to be involved. You can't have a zoo. I know we we love this uh utopian kumbaya thing where everybody's in charge. No, that's just chaos. There has to be people appointed by God. That's that's scriptural, that's absolutely biblical. Appointed by God not to rule over, not to lord it over. Ha ha, I'm an elder. Well, whoopdy do. Now you got responsibility, kid. Now you got a lot of accountability, now you got a lot of extra things in life that you know what, nobody, nobody really in their right mind would want to deal with. But it begins, it creates an atmosphere of safety. It creates an atmosphere where people know that they'll be cared for, they'll be protected. And that's important. You can't just have everybody running amok. And that's why it's, you know, you know, a lot of first-timers, they like to come in, oh, the Lord gave me a prophetic word, I got to share it right now. That's not how we roll here. The elders don't know what to do with it, they send it to me. And I'm gonna say, not today. Because I have a responsibility that I don't know you, I have no relationship with you. I need to know you, and I need to hear the word, and I need to analyze it, I need to test it. Because I'm not going to teach for the next year to correct something that you spoke into this congregation that's been entrusted to me. So, and that's not popular. I'll be the first to tell you. That's he's not spiritual. You know, that's it's not popular, but it is faithful. And it is responsible, absolutely responsible. So we have this Elijah cat. Why does he draw up Elijah? Poor Elijah, can't we just leave him alone? I mean, we make him, you know, we show up at Passover and circumcisions and all this stuff. Well, pass, I mean, Passover, excuse me. Well, Elijah is this uh parab uh what's the word I'm here? Paradigmatic I can't say it, I speak it today. He is he is you know kind of an archetypal paradigm figure, you know, of I didn't even say anything. Um eschatological figure as well. And but but James is leaning into one specific action that he is known for. But again, Elijah is an important figure within a Jewish community. He shows up at the circumcisions, he should he's you know, we look for him at the Passover, which the tradition for that is not as early as the first century, but he there was overtones of Eliahu Hanavi, Elijah the prophet. But here is where you can see that there must have been something different about him. Watch what he's saying, watch what James says. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. So what does that teach against? It teaches against the idea that Elijah was an angel made flesh. You know, it teaches against this Elijah was a superhuman figure, right? He was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed weakly. Uh he prayed without heart, he prayed uh ineffectually, right? No, he prayed fervently that it might not rain. And for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. And he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. Now I want you to realize something. Of course, just in the beginning of this, just in the beginning of this, uh, excuse me, in verse 16, he says, the prayer of a righteous person um has great power as it's working, and then he transitions into Elijah to show that, to demonstrate that. But was Elijah when he went up and prayed that the heavens would not give its rain? Was he kind of pulling that idea out of his own mind? No, he was doing exactly what I've been saying. He was relying on the promises of God. In Deuteronomy 11, 16 and 17, we read this, and you'll see why he's referencing this now. Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them. When your community is walking, as we're going to see in just a few moments, wandering from the way, worshiping inappropriately. Um the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and you will perish quickly off the land that the Lord is giving you. He was aligning himself with what the Lord had said, had what the Lord had warned. Why? Well, because Israel had gone astray. They were worshiping Baal, they were worshiping false gods. So Elijah, looking at this promise, went up, postured himself in prayer, went before the Lord with his promise, fully expecting that the Lord would answer. And the Lord did. Why? Because they had gone astray. They were worshiping other gods, they were walking contrary to him, and he fulfilled his word. It wasn't that Elijah was twisting the father's arm. You know, the father was sitting on the throne going, Yeah, I'm kind of bored today. Oh, Elijah, where'd you come from? That's not, it was that Elijah was aligned with the will of God, and he was responding to the prompting of the Holy Spirit so that he would pray. And in that, who would get the glory? The Lord would get the glory. So he was aligned with the will of God. And this is, of course, Elijah is so rooted in Israel's history that you know he is the one who would come before Messiah. We have the overtones that seem to suggest that he's going to return uh as one of the two witnesses, Moses and Elijah. Um, he appears on the Mount of Transfiguration. I mean, Elijah is deeply embedded with uh the Jewish community. So his prayers uh were not because of his extraordinary status. I mean, when we look at him, he's not somebody we'd want to hang out with. I mean, honestly, he he wasn't the most um pleasant personality. Love that he throws his mantle on Elisha and walks away. Let me just uh well, what's it to me? He's just done take off. What's it to me? I don't care. Um but when it came to the things of the Lord, of course, he was very, very serious about that because he was a prophet. He was called by the Lord to uh to lead the people of Israel. But he had a nature like ours. You know, he had a nature like ours, and that's what I think at times we have a tendency to idolize heroes in the faith, whether of antiquity or of more recent memory. We if only we could pray like this person or that person, or come learn how to pray like this, come learn how to do this, and we'll, you know, we have a tendency to want to idolize or place on a pedestal and say, you know what, if only I was like that person, then heaven would heaven would, you know, manifest at my word. And James is debunking that myth. He's telling us that's not the case, has nothing to do with any uh any any quality of us, nothing, but it is a fellowship with the Lord, a relation with the Lord. Well, I was talking about this with John a little bit ago. You know, why are some casting out demons and healing the sick and doing these things? But he says, Depart from me. For you never knew me. So that isn't the evidence. The things that are happening are manifest as not the evidence of relationship with the Messiah. We have to know him. The externals follow, but what first matters is the relationship with him. You have to know him. To know him, and that's that's why that I think it confounds us because, well, wait a minute, we're doing all of this in your name. We're doing it for your glory. But I don't know you. Who who are you? So we have to bear that in mind. So Elijah wasn't superhuman, he wasn't uh some type of incarnate angel or you know, all these other ridiculous theories that float around. James says he was a man with a nature like ours. So prayer um aligns, prayer aligns human weakness. Now, we all go to the Lord, whether in our whether in our quote strength or in our quote weakness, wherever we are, it aligns us with the divine will, it aligns us with the Father. You don't have to be today. I feel strong enough to pray. No. Even when you don't feel strong enough, I I'm I'm so downcast. Well, then let the whole Holy Spirit pray for you. Just moan. Just lay there and moan. You know, uh if you've had knee surgery, you know it can be painful, especially at night when you want to be in any other position than the one you're in. And you're just laying there, and it's a it's it's it's a pain that I really, of course, it's probably the worst pain I've ever experienced. Probably not much on the you know, scale of childbirths, probably not even a bubble on that. But I remember just laying there, so it was like somebody was boring into my bones, and it just ached throughout my whole body, and I couldn't say anything other than, oh Lord. That was it. That was all I had. And then I, you know, I don't remember if it was here somewhere else, or I was talking about Peter's prayer, you know. Peter didn't, you know, give us this great prayer, oh, magnificent majesty on high, save me from I'm falling into the water. He said, Lord, help, save me, help. That was it. So it takes us and it aligns our weakness, our fragility, whatever you want, however you want to look at it with his uh will. Let's read the last two verses. My brothers, again, he is speaking to them as brothers, and that's that's we would say Christian brothers and sisters, it's speaking to men and women. 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. So this goes to the missional. Actually, I didn't I didn't um amplify the missional aspect of anointing with oil, so I'll kind of do it with this. But this is part of the missional work that we do. At the beginning of this, we're under trial, we're suffering great trials, but by the end, our overall posture has changed where we're even in a midst of trial or or or difficulty, we are on mission. So one of the things that anointing with oil does is remember in the scriptures you had principally three anointed offices prophet, priest, and king. They were anointed for the office, they were anointed for the mission that they were on. All of us, of course, are um the priesthood of the believer. We're the priesthood uh in Melchizedek under the high priest and Messiah. And in that, we are leaders, we are ministers, and uh there's also the prophetic aspect of it. So being anointed in a time of sickness reminds us that even our sickness is missional. Our sickness, the infirmity, the issue that we're facing right now is still part of the mission of God. Otherwise, it wouldn't be happening. So we're reminded of the mission that we're called to, the mission that we're on, the mission we're about to undertake from that anointing with oil. And we're consecrating that and we're we're focusing and saying, you know what? This also serves a purpose in the hand of the Lord. So it's not just come here and I'm gonna anoint you and smear you a little bit. It is reminding you that your whole life is a mission. We're always on his mission. Sometimes that mission field is in our head, sometimes that mission field is out the doors. But we're always, and even when we're sick, you know, think of all the opportunities of all of the doctor's appointments and all the places you have to go, the mission field that's there, the joy you can bring, the faith you can bring, and that you've been anointed for that. This illness, this thing that's afflicting you right now has divine purpose. Don't forget that. Don't give glory to the devil and say the devil is causing this affliction. The Lord is going to use this. Now, I'm not going to tell you that at the hospital, um, but I will anoint you at the hospital, and Lord willing, you'll be reminded that you are on a mission. But it's missional. There's a missional purpose to that. Just as there's a missional purpose to finding those who have wandered off a little bit. Now, wander, this is talking about doctrinally, you know, they've wandered off into a different field, or they're allowing their emotions to separate them. Sheep, um sheep are not always very good uh evaluators of where they are. They don't always pay attention. They're, you know, they're down there munching on stuff, they're down there munching on stuff. And all of a sudden they look up and all their friends are gone. Right? And that sometimes happens when we focus on one hurt or one experience, and we allow that hurt and that experience to focus us here while the flock has moved over there, and that's why we have to go off in order to find them, right? To bring them back. Exactly. It's a shepherding, it's a stewardship. So you have a shepherd of a flock, thinking in the spiritual sense here, you have the shepherd of a flock, but you also have stewards in the body, and that's a care, it's a caretaking. All of us are caretakers of each other. That's what we're called to. So if someone brings him back, let him know, let that person know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death. And what is that? That is reminding them of the gospel, and this is in the eternal sense. You've given them the gospel once again, the good news. And from that, from the delivery of the gospel, they are now reoriented through repentance toward the Lord, toward his grace, toward his mercy, toward his forgiveness. They're now going to forgive others and so on. Now they are back in the direction of the flock of God, which is going following the voice of the Good Shepherd. And that will cover a multitude of sins. Where do we remember that from? From Peter, right? Love covers a multitude of sins. And that action of looking for the wanderer, that action of good, that's an action of love. It's an action of love. And it's speaking of, you know, this word cover, it's not incidental. It's, I mean, it's one of the very last uh words, and he's speaking of it in sin. The Kaporah, you know, the covering. So the covering over, the grace of God covers over, the mercy of God covers over, and the blood of Messiah completely washes it away, completely cleanses it. Do you notice it didn't say one sin? It's only effective for one sin. Yeah, you only get a one-shot deal here. That's it. After that, you're on your own, kid. It covers a multitude. What were the multitudes earlier? Many fold trials, right? A multitude of trials. So he he brings it to a close by bringing us back to the beginning. Yeah, there's going to be many trials, but don't let the trials lead you into sin. Don't use the trial as the excuse to sin. Don't say, the Lord has clearly abandoned me. Because the shepherd won't. Just because the sheep can't lift its head and look and see where the shepherd is, doesn't mean he's not there. But it will cover that, you know, it don't let it lead you into that multitude of sins. But let the Lord, through his grace, through his mercy, through fellowship, companionship, congregation. You cannot do this on your own. I've I've been saying this to a few people uh recently. You cannot live the life of faith on your own. You will not grow and mature in the way that you should. Yeah, you guys annoy me. Right? Y'all annoy me. And what is that? That's the sandpaper. That's the that's the smoothing out the not the rough spots on you, but the rough spots on me. We we don't get that in isolation. So yeah, all of us can have that potential to sin or to potential to wander off. But Lord willing, we're in community to allow him to bring us back into it. So he closes, he doesn't close with doctrine. 19 and 20 is not doctrine, it's responsibility. It's responsibility. So restoration is a communal calling. Restoring somebody to community, it's a calling. And of course Jewish tradition, if you if you study the particularly the the teachings of the sages regarding Forgiveness and uh restoration, that sort of thing. You find that it's a responsibility for the righteous to correct gently correct and restore the other. Sometimes people can't see what they're doing. They don't recognize it, they don't know. So he's envisioning a community, and this is the heart of it. He's envisioning a community where faith expresses itself through care, through responsibility, through accountability, through mercy. And that is fostered. That is modeled, that is experienced. It's not just pontificated, it is realized in the lives of those around us. Not perfectly. Yeah, those things. Why? Because we're human. But love covers a multitude of sins. So the final exhortation that he gives us, of course, we think of the parable the lost sheep. The wanderer, the one who's wandered away. And how the Lord goes to find the lost sheep. And of course, the call to seek restoration rather than condemnation. He's already addressed that earlier. But I think it is an important thing for us to visit that bringing him back, giving him the gospel, giving them the message and acceptance of Messiah saves his soul from death. You know, praise the Lord that we, you know, will not be subject to the second death. Right? Death has no hold on us, as I've quoted so many times from um Moody, that death may be the king of terrors, but Jesus is the king of kings. So we hold on to that. And you know what? Ultimately, the covering isn't even our willingness to forgive or however you want to imagine that. But it's reminding people, reminding those who are being restored of the covering that's always been there. You were never rejected. You stepped out of the covering. You allowed the echo of sin and hurt and pain to become a closer reality to you than the voice of God. That's powerful. The human experience and all of the echoes of life is powerful. That's why we need to be tuned in, we might say, to the voice of the Lord. Um, so he doesn't end with a doctrine, he ends with the responsibility. That we would be a part of a community that took care, was accountable, was merciful. And again, that doesn't mean we do it perfectly every time. You know, there are times when people make decisions that they are, you know, flying the coop to use another, you know, farming metaphor. Um and you bring them back and they fly again, and you bring them back and you fly again. It doesn't mean you close the door to them. And it doesn't mean that you know you you hold that against people. It means that you do the best you can, as they're doing the best they can. And so we bear that in mind. We bear that in mind. So James 5 brings all of this full circle from the manifold trials that we are under in the beginning of the text. And did you notice that throughout this, he doesn't say, All right, count it all joy, brothers, because when you're in trial, you don't have to do this face thing, faith thing. You don't have to believe, you don't have to pray, you don't have to worship, you don't have to come to a congregation. One excuse I will never use is I've had a bad day or I had this happen, this happened, I was so this, so I decided to stay home. It's the opposite of the response of what we should be doing, because otherwise I would never be at Shabbat. The joy of this last week was I shut my phone off on the car and put it in the glove box, and I didn't turn it on until four in the afternoon because that thing was and my wife asked me, Who is after you on the phone? I was like, I'm done with this. Put it and I told her, put it in the glove box because it was gonna go out the window, and I'm not entirely sure it's paid off yet. But anyway, no, I think it is. But you know, that turned into a much more pleasant day. I was still a little grumpy bumpy when I came in, but you weren't here yet to call me on it. No, this was Shabbat. If you come in early enough, I'm not always in the best mood. I'm I'll I'll edit this in post. But you've never noticed that? Yeah. When I just storm in the building, yeah, no, that never happens. Uh always happy, always beaming. Radiating, just radiating joy. Yeah. So I I've changed my uh operating procedure for Shabbat morning, Shabbat evening, too, for that matter. Um, I should exercise self-control and put it in my glove box and be done with it. Uh-huh. I need to deal with self-control now. I did have self-control this morning from those donuts that came in here. Praise the Lord. Well, I might not resist them on the way out the door, but that's a different trial. So now I think there's some still some there, right, John? As far as oh, they are going. Amen. So, excuse me, people online have no idea what's going on. So he ends. So faith begins under trial and it ends in endurance, justice, prayer, and hope. Where, you know, we he doesn't give us an excuse. That's that's the hard part. Nothing in this gives us an excuse. Um, and he calls us to resist uh unrighteousness, but without becoming unjust in itself. Don't try to correct one by becoming the extreme. He calls us to endure suffering without losing hope and to live in integrity as we await the coming of the Lord. So, just a couple thoughts and we'll open it for questions. So, James is definitely rooted in wisdom, Jewish wisdom, biblical wisdom, the teaching of Messiah's is as front and center. Excuse me, I'm sorry, but I shouldn't have ate right before I started. Um definitely front and center. That's gonna go global. Hallelujah. He presents a vision of covenant faithfulness that is practical, it's demanding. Ivina, did you notice that? It's demanding faithful that works as dead, but it is also deeply hopeful. And it's a society or a communal society, and marked by um, or I should say it this way. In the communal, remember, we talked about that in the first uh actually the introduction, that they were living in the midst of a dominated society. They were they were uh under the Roman Empire, so there was a great deal of inequality, there was economic disparity, conflict, uncertainty. But he calls us to live as people shaped by patience, prayer, and trust in the righteous judge, even in the midst of all of that. So this is you know, it's a short epistle, but it is so deep, and we really only scratched the surface, I would say. But I think we uh we did try to uh to try to uh to to really dig in. So that is uh the gospel or excuse me, the epistle of James, and um yeah, so we'll open that to any questions.

SPEAKER_00 52:53

Amen. Thank you for joining us, and until our next episode, may the Lord bless and keep you in the name of Messiah Jesus, amen.