AM 06-21 The Prayer of Faith Saves the Sick

Text: James 5:13–18
Series: Living the Word: Faith in Action (James)
Date: June 21, 2026
Speaker: Ed Rangel
Location: Waupaca Church of Christ
Bible Version: NASB 1995
Sermon Type: Expository

Learning Objectives

By the end of this sermon, the hearer should be able to:

1. State the four responses James prescribes for varying conditions: pray, sing praises, call the elders, and confess sins.
2. Explain why the prayer of faith is central to the healing James describes, while still recognizing that the Lord remains the healer.
3. Distinguish the elders’ role in praying over the sick from the congregation’s role in mutual confession and intercession.
4. Examine personal prayer for faith, righteousness, and appropriate confession.
5. Commit to praying for a sick or struggling brother or sister this week.

Thesis

Prayer is one of faith’s clearest acts of trust, and James calls the church to seek God’s help for the suffering, the sick, and the sinful through faithful prayer, humble confession, and righteous intercession.

Every person in this room has faced a moment when the situation was beyond his ability to fix. A diagnosis. A relationship in ruins. A soul slipping away. The hand reaches for the phone, the doctor, the advice of a friend. James says the first reach should be toward heaven — not eventually, but first. And he does not leave the shape of that prayer to guesswork. He tells us who should pray, how they should pray, and what righteousness has to do with whether the prayer accomplishes what God says it can.

Introduction

1. James closes his letter with a concentrated burst of practical instruction on the unavoidable realities of Christian life: suffering, joy, sickness, and sin.
2. The prescribed response to nearly every condition involves prayer.
3. James is not teaching that every faithful prayer will force immediate physical healing on our timetable.
4. He is teaching that the sick should seek God through the elders, that the elders should pray in faith, and that the Lord is the One who restores, raises up, and forgives according to His will.
5. The text raises an uncomfortable question: if prayer is this powerful, why are our prayers often so thin, so brief, and so quickly abandoned when the answer does not come at once?
6. Too often we pray thin prayers — prayers weakened by doubt, hurried by habit, or hindered by sin James says we need to confess.
7. James corrects both failures.

I. Every Condition Must Be Brought Before God (James 5:13–14)

A. Whatever your condition, prayer is the prescribed response.

1. “Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray” (James 5:13).

   a. Not endure silently.

   b. Not complain.

   c. Pray.

   d. The text will not allow passive resignation dressed as spirituality.

   e. Suffering is an occasion for prayer, not withdrawal.

2. “Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises” (James 5:13).

   a. Joy is expressed to God, not merely enjoyed for the self.

   b. The Christian who thanks God in good times is being trained to seek God in hard ones.

   c. Both suffering and joy direct the Christian toward God.

   d. That is the point.

B. When sickness comes, the elders are called to pray.

1. “Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church” (James 5:14).

   a. The sick member does not suffer in isolation.

   b. He calls the elders.

   c. This act is itself an act of humility.

   d. It acknowledges that God’s people are not meant to carry their burdens alone.

   e. The sick member has a responsibility to call, and the elders have a responsibility to come.

2. “They are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord” (James 5:14).

   a. The anointing is done in the Lord’s name — by His authority and for His purpose.

   b. The elder-led prayer for the sick is not a formality.

   c. It is the shepherds of the church bringing a suffering sheep before the Lord in faith.

   d. The word for “anointing” here, ἀλείψαντες, is the ordinary word for applying oil, not a technical ceremonial term.

   e. The power is not in the oil.

   f. The power is in the Lord to whom the prayer is offered.

II. The Sick Must Be Brought Before the Lord in Faith (James 5:15–16)

A. The prayer of faith rests on a real promise, but the Lord remains the healer.

1. “The prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up” (James 5:15).

   a. The promise is real.

   b. The Lord restores.

   c. The Lord raises him up.

   d. The condition is also clear: the prayer must be offered in faith, not in doubt (James 1:6–7).

   e. The verb σώσει can mean “save,” “deliver,” or “make well.”

   f. In this context, James is speaking about the restoration of the sick person, while the next phrase shows that spiritual restoration and forgiveness are also in view.

   g. James does not say the elders possess healing power.

   h. He says the Lord raises him up.

   i. The prayer is faithful, but the power belongs to God.

2. “If he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him” (James 5:15).

   a. James does not make all sickness the result of personal sin.

   b. But James does leave room for the possibility that, in some cases, sin and sickness are connected.

   c. The prayer addresses the whole person — body and soul together.

B. Mutual confession prepares the ground for effective prayer.

1. “Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed” (James 5:16).

   a. Confession here is not private guilt management.

   b. But neither is it reckless public exposure of every failure.

   c. Sin should be confessed appropriately — to God, to the one sinned against, and when needed, to trusted brethren who can pray and help restore.

   d. The command is mutual: confess to one another and pray for one another.

2. “The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much” (James 5:16).

   a. Unconfessed sin puts resistance in the line of prayer.

   b. It does not mean God is weak.

   c. It means the heart is not clear before Him.

   d. The word ἐνεργουμένη means working, active, operative — describing prayer that is alive and at work before God.

   e. Righteousness here is not sinless perfection.

   f. It is a cleared conscience and a life governed by faith.

III. The Righteous Must Pray Like God Hears Them (James 5:17–18)

A. Elijah was a man like us.

1. “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours” (James 5:17).

   a. James will not allow the reader to dismiss Elijah as superhuman.

   b. He had the same fears, the same limitations, and the same spiritual vulnerabilities we carry.

   c. The proof that prayer accomplishes much is anchored in an ordinary man, not a category of person we can never reach.

2. Yet he prayed, and heaven responded.

   a. He prayed that it would not rain, and it did not rain for three years and six months.

   b. He prayed again, and the heavens gave rain.

   c. The earth produced its fruit (James 5:18).

   d. The result was specific because the prayer was specific.

B. The proof stands: righteous prayer matters before God.

1. The outcome was not about Elijah’s power.

   a. It was about God’s faithfulness to the prayers of the righteous.

   b. Elijah asked.

   c. God answered.

   d. That pattern runs through the whole of Scripture.

   e. God is not indifferent to the prayers of those who live before Him in obedient faith.

2. The question the text leaves standing is this: are we praying with Elijah’s seriousness, or are we hoping without asking?

   a. The church has been given this privilege — direct access to God through righteous, faithful prayer.

   b. When we refuse to pray because we do not believe it matters, that is not humility.

   c. It is unbelief.

Application

For the individual: Do you actually pray — not a brief nod before a meal or a hurried bedtime habit, but the kind of prayer that believes God hears and acts? James says the effective prayer of the righteous accomplishes much. That assurance belongs to the Christian who is living in obedient faith before God. Examine your prayer life not only for frequency, but for faith. Is there unconfessed sin in the line? Confess it. Is there doubt where there should be trust? Submit to the word and pray.

For the church: The elder-led prayer for the sick is a live instruction in this text. Are there members of this congregation who are sick and have not been prayed over by the elders? Are there others spiritually struggling who need the prayers of faithful brethren? The sick member has a responsibility to call. The elders have a responsibility to come. This congregation is responsible for carrying one another before God. That begins with someone calling, someone going, someone praying.

For parents and the next generation: What are you teaching your children about prayer? Not about the ritual of it, but about its reality? If prayer is a rote habit in your home — said quickly, halfheartedly, with no expectation — your children will carry rote faith into their adult years. Teach them that God hears. Teach them to confess honestly. Let them hear prayers that name real burdens, confess real sins, and ask God for real help. Teach them to pray in faith, not in formula. The generation that learns to pray with the seriousness James describes will carry into the world something no church program can manufacture.

Conclusion

1. The passage is direct: every condition of life has a prescribed response, and prayer sits at the center of every one.
2. The prayer James describes is offered in faith and from a life of appropriate confession — not because we earn God’s ear, but because a cleared conscience prays without hindrance.
3. Elijah proves that ordinary servants of God can be heard in heaven.
4. The question is whether we believe it enough to pray that way.
5. Go into this week praying — specifically, faithfully, with a clear conscience before God.
6. Call the elders when you are sick.
7. Confess your sins appropriately.
8. Pray for one another.
9. Let the church function the way the text says it should.

Invitation

If you are outside of Christ, you do not stand before God as one cleansed by the blood of Christ and walking in covenant fellowship with Him. The first prayer you need is not a prayer that avoids obedience, but a heart ready to obey the gospel. Hear the word. Believe that Jesus is the Son of God. Repent of your sins. Confess His name before men. Be baptized for the remission of those sins. Then live in the faithful obedience of one who walks before God with a clear conscience.

If you are a Christian who has let sin pile up without dealing with it — if the line between you and God has resistance you have been unwilling to address — today is the time to clear it. Do not leave this assembly carrying what confession can remove.

If you need prayer from these elders, come forward now.

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