James 5:14-18 - Homiletics

The power and value of intercessory prayer

I. THE POWER AND VALUE OF INTERCESSORY PRAYER , enforced by the instance of the effect of Elijah's prayers—the petitions of a man who was of like passions with us , and therefore one from whose ease it is fair to argue to our own. Intercessory prayer may be viewed as a privilege and work in which all can have their share. While Joshua is down in the valley fighting with Amalek, Moses in the mount must lift up holy hands to God in prayer; and when Moses lifted up his hands, Joshua and Israel prevailed. So with the Church's warfare against her spiritual foes. Those who shall intercede and cry unto God day and night are needed equally with those who will bear the burden and heat of the day in the forefront of the battle. "They also serve who only stand and wait."

II. THE NEED OF CONFESSION AND ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF SIN . This most necessary part of repentance is taught throughout the Bible. It is seen under the Law in the ordinances of the day of atonement (Le 16:21), and in the directions with regard to the sin offering (Le Joshua 5:1-5 ; cf. Numbers 5:6 , Numbers 5:7 ). It is found in the ministry of the Baptist, and continued under the Christian dispensation ( Acts 19:18 ). How much of modern repentance is shallow and superficial, because men shrink from this! They excuse their sins, and content themselves with the general acknowledgment that they are sinners, instead of acknowledging the particular sins of which they are guilty, even to God in secret. In cases, too, where the fault has been against man, these confessions (sometimes the only reparation left) should be made to him who has been wronged; and in various sins we may say that "it is good to open the soul's grief to a wise and kind friend. The act humbles, it tests the penitence; a fairer judgment than one's own is gained, with the help of advice and prayers. If the need be felt great, or the soul's questions be hard, the burdened one will naturally go to some discreet and learned minister of God's Word," as the Prayer-book directs him (see the first exhortation in the Communion Service).

III. ELIJAH A MAN OF LUKE PASSIONS WITH US ; and yet he was one of the greatest saints under the old covenant, and honored in an especial way by exemption from the common lot of mortals, being taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire. Hence in our own case , too, holiness, even saintliness, is by God's grace attainable (cf. Goulburn's 'Pursuit of Holiness' c. 1).