Question 11: The Power of Laying On of Hands

Greetings, and welcome to the Faith Chapel podcast. My name is Jason,

and I am the pastor of Faith Chapel.

In the podcast right now, we are going through a sermon series from 2021 entitled, Questions.

The congregation of Faith Chapel was asked to submit any question they had about

Christianity or the Bible, and the answer to those questions was given in the form of sermons.

Today, the question is on the laying on of hands as we pray for people.

Thanks for joining us today.

As we continue our series on questions that you were able to ask and post on

a poster board out there, we have two weeks left worth of,

And both of these, again, by God's grace and not by any great amount of planning on my part,

really, in my opinion, correlate well with the Advent season,

the season as we approach and prepare ourselves for Jesus's coming as fully God and fully human.

And so we, by his grace, have these two weeks to go, and they will both relate

to the Christmas messages.

And so we're going to start with one that is about, that really resonates with

me in terms of Jesus being Emmanuel.

And this comes to us from the Gospel of Matthew.

Jesus is declared by Matthew to be the fulfillment of the prophecy that says

you shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us.

And just processing through that, we get to the point where we go to John chapter 1.

John 1 · chapter mention

And in John chapter 1, it starts off this way.

John 1 · chapter mention

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

He was ultimately God himself. And then when we get down a few verses later,

John writes, and then the word became flesh and he made his dwelling among us.

And so God is with us in a very tangible way.

God is with us, a hundred percent God and a hundred percent flesh and blood like you and me.

And this is the same sort of idea and concept that we have in regards to this week's question.

It's all about the presence of God. It's all about him coming and dwelling with

us and us in turn being his representative on this earth.

And so this week's question is this. The New Testament talks about the laying

on of hands for healing, for filling with the Holy Spirit.

Why do we not hear about or practice this today?

And so this really begs us to look at what the laying on of hands is,

what it means, and is there an appropriate place for it right now?

Or is it something that was done in the past and should stay in the past?

And so this is the way we're going to frame it. The laying on of hands is essentially

just us being with somebody else.

It's about close proximity to that person. It's about a feeling of touch.

And this feeling of touch is super important to human beings.

We are made to be creatures of touch. We are made to be touched.

And there are plenty of studies that are done on what happens if somebody is

not touched enough and some of the issues that arise from that.

It is a really real issue that we are made to be touched.

And it all, in my opinion, falls back upon this idea of being with somebody,

just like Jesus is God with us.

And so we're going to take a look at an example of what the laying on of hands looks like.

We can find it as early as the Old Testament.

The priests, they were to lay their hands upon the sacrificial animal to transfer

the sins of the Israelite nation upon the scapegoat or upon the offering that was being offered.

The people would lay their hands on the offering too if it was a sin offering

that they were offering just for themselves.

And this was like a transference of that sin from one person to another.

It was highly symbolic is what it really was.

Showing that God in his mercy and his grace is taking the sin away from you

and me and placing it on other people.

We also get this concept and idea in the Old Testament that the laying on of

hands or of touch being particularly important when it comes to the idea of

assigning someone a task to go and do.

So for example, Elijah, when he was walking back from seeing from that still

small voice that was God up on the mountain,

when he was walking back from that, he came across Elisha and they had this interaction,

which included a symbolic changing of the guard.

His cloak, Elijah's cloak went off of him and he put it on Elisha.

And this was symbolic of, all right, you're being called to something special.

You're being called to a new and unique task.

You have a God-given job to do.

And so it was symbolic. It was taking, transferring Elisha's to Elijah's to

Elisha's mantle, what he was supposed to do.

And so there are, in ancient Israel, this was a practice that was being done at that time.

And by the time of Jesus, really in the rabbinic tradition, the rabbis,

what they would do is they carried on that peace.

They were still sacrificing animals. They were still laying their hands upon them.

And then they were also, this is how they ordained people to be rabbis.

This is how they made them to assign them a special task that was given to them by God.

But when we get to the New Testament, and in particular Jesus's life,

we see something different emerge from the laying on of hands.

And it becomes highly important in Jesus's ministry, especially if you look through the

gospels of Mark and Luke, they put a high emphasis on Jesus laying on of hands

and what he did with that.

There's one story in Luke chapter four, where Jesus has a whole host of people

that are coming to him to be healed.

And they're lining up and he's working long into the night.

And scripture says that he would lay his hands upon them and he would heal them.

Now this has a very personal touch because God being all powerful,

Jesus being fully God and having all that power, he could have looked at the crowd.

He could have looked at all of the people around him and he could have said,

all right, all of you are healed. You may go home.

But he took time to spend with each and every one of them.

He worked late into the night. He laid his hands upon each and every one of them. He healed them.

And again, this is this idea that he was being with us.

I'm in this with you. And I care deeply about you personally and individually.

And I want to bring you healing. And I want to bring you restoration.

But I also want to know you.

And then when we get to the book of Acts, we have what this question refers

to also, filling for the Holy Spirit.

And this is obvious in Acts chapter 8, when the disciples are scattered because

Acts 8 · chapter mention

of the persecution of Stephen.

They go up into Samaria and they tell people about Jesus.

And they say, they accept, the Samaritans accept Jesus and his gift of salvation.

But it's not until Peter and John get up there and they lay their hands on them,

that the Spirit comes upon them, that they are baptized with the Spirit.

And so these two examples for healing, for filling with the Holy Spirit are evident in Scripture.

You can't deny it. They are there.

And so we're going to look at the next chapter, chapter 9, starting in verse 10 of Acts.

And we're going to look at another specific example to really help us to understand

really what's going on here. But before I get there, let me pray.

Lord, please take this and make this what you want it to be.

Speak and give us ears to hear. God, we thank you that you are Emmanuel.

You are God with us and that you will never leave us.

You will never forsake us, that you are for us and not against us,

and we praise you that you work everything out for the good of those who surrender

to you, who follow after you.

We praise you and we thank you for who you are and what you've done in our lives.

And we ask for your blessing to be upon the reading of your word right now. Amen.

Acts chapter nine, starting in verse 10.

This is immediately after the verses where Paul sees that brilliant light on the road to Damascus.

This is during his, after that time, he spent three days fasting from food and beverage, it says.

So he wasn't consuming anything. He was spending almost all of his time,

whether when he was not sleeping in prayer and in pondering what in the world

just happened to me in this brilliant vision that he saw.

And in verse 10, we're introduced to another character in this story.

And there was a believer in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord spoke to him in

a vision calling Ananias.

Yes, Lord, he replied.

The Lord said, go over to Straight Street, to the house of Judas.

When you get there, ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul.

He is praying to me right now. I have shown him a vision of a man named Ananias

coming in and laying hands on him so he can see again.

And so God commissions Ananias. This is what you're going to do.

You're going to go and you're going to seek out Saul.

I'll tell you exactly where he is. This is his address.

Go to him. Lay your hands on him for the purpose of healing.

Him, for the purpose of giving him his vision back.

And so we see here God, who is all-powerful, who can do anything that he wants.

He chooses to work through humans like you and I, this time by a man named Ananias.

And he says, I want you to go and heal him by laying your hands on him and praying for him.

Please note that this does not mean that Ananias is a miracle worker.

God is the one in the miracle business.

But he's doing this for a very specific reason. And we're going to get to that here in a second.

We're going to pick it up again in verse 13.

But Lord, exclaimed Ananias, I have heard many people talk about the terrible

things this man has done to the believers in Jerusalem.

And he is authorized by the leading priests to arrest everyone who calls upon your name.

But the Lord said, go. For Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to

the Gentiles and to kings, as well as to the people of Israel.

And I will show him how much he must suffer for my name's sake.

So Ananias doesn't want to do it, and he doesn't want to do it for a very good

reason, because Paul has in his possession paperwork from the leading priests

in Jerusalem that say any Jewish person that they have jurisdiction over,

any Jewish person that he can put

in chains and drag back to Jerusalem for correcting, for indoctrination.

And so Ananias doesn't want to go over there. He doesn't want to get into his

inner circle because Paul can grab him if he regains his sight,

because Ananias is a follower of Jesus.

He believes that he's going to heal him. And if he puts his hand on him,

he's in a position where Paul can easily just grab his hand and say,

all right, you're in chains now. You're going back to Jerusalem.

Let's get ready for some correction activities for you.

And so this shows us that the laying on of hands really gets us intimately close with other people.

It helps us to understand that this is a process where we are not only just

in the same room, but we are in the same sphere as the person we're touching.

It gets us really close. It gets us really intimate to that person.

And this can throw a lot of us off.

This can make a lot of us feel uncomfortable.

We continue on with the story. So Ananias went and found Saul.

He laid his hands on him and said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared

to you on the road has sent me so that you might regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Instantly he regained his sight. Then he got up and was baptized.

Afterward, he ate some food and regained his strength.

And so again, the vision we have is Ananias creeping towards Saul,

sticking his hand out, being an arm's length away, touching Saul and praying for him.

And then the miraculous healing happens.

The miraculous healing happens. Something like scales fall from his eyes and

he has regained his sight.

And this is not a magic trick. This is not anything that we can say well about

Ananias, except that he was obedient to God. He followed what God was saying.

But this was God working and moving through this act.

And I think the most important part of this is that Ananias associated with Saul.

Saul was someone going through a dramatic change.

He was somebody who just days earlier was very convicted that he has to arrest

those who call on Jesus's name, take them back to Jerusalem to try them.

He was convinced that eradicating Jesus's name from this earth was his number

one priority, his God-given task.

And in almost an instant, he changed and transformed into somebody who not only

believed in Jesus, but became one of the greatest missionaries ever to live.

And he needed somebody to be on his team because he knew what the Pharisees

were going to say if he started following after Jesus.

And he knew what the Christians already thought about him, how skeptical they were of him.

And you can hear that in Ananias' words to God here.

And so what Ananias needed was not a miracle working man.

He needed a friend. He needed somebody to get on his level.

If Paul was kneeling, Ananias had to kneel to reach down and touch him.

If Saul was sitting, Ananias would have had to be sitting.

They got down on the same level, put his hand on him and said,

I am with you. He called him brother.

Just saying, I'm on your level. We're equal to each other. We're in this together for Jesus's name.

And I think this is the powerful, this is the power of laying on of hands.

It's associating with somebody who needs it. It's saying, you're not alone in this.

I am here and I am with you. And so as we have that background with us,

we haven't really touched the question as to why we don't practice this today.

And there are a myriad across the Christian spectrum, there are a myriad of

responses to the laying on of hands.

There are some more charismatic churches who call people up every week and who

have people up here laying their hands on people, putting it on their shoulder,

praying over these people every single week.

And you can go to the opposite end of the spectrum where there are churches,

Christian churches, who only lay hands on when they're ordaining somebody.

When they're sending a mission team off to do mission work, they'll lay their hands upon them.

Or when they bring up their new pastor, they're going to put their hands on

him and pray over that person.

And that's the only time you will see them ever lay hands on people.

Those are the two extremes. And then you get people all in the middle.

But the reasons why I think we don't see this more today is first and foremost,

it's really, really awkward.

You have to get close to people. You have to be in their space.

And that makes them uncomfortable. And that makes you uncomfortable.

And then there's the whole issue going on about, is this a healthy touch or

is this a not healthy touch?

What's appropriate, what's inappropriate?

And so people really need to guard themselves and protect themselves and the

people that they're touching from any unwanted touch.

And then I think the third reason we don't see this today is technology.

It's easier and easier to become less connected with people one-on-one personally.

And it's so much easier to just say, hey, I'm praying for you over social media

or over a text or through an email.

Even FaceTime, you can pray with people. And it's really easy to just neglect the laying on of hands.

And so I really had to process through this.

It's one of the best things about this series. I've had a lot of processing to do with it.

And it's because we have such a different perspective, even in the Christian

church, about what this should look like.

Even though there are texts just like this, even though Jesus laid his hands

on people, even though the apostles could pray for people with their hands on

them and the Holy Spirit came upon them.

Even though we have the evidence of the Bible, we still have different practices today.

And so I just want you to know where I fall on this spectrum.

It is a place that I think there is a lot of power in, especially in the connection piece.

In identifying with somebody in their ailment, you are going through a tough time.

And so I'm gonna lay my hands on your shoulder and I'm gonna pray for you.

Because, first of all, human beings need touch, and second of all,

because I'm associating with that person, and I'm saying, you're important enough to do this.

We have to be careful and we have to ask the question, is it all right if I

put my hand on your forehead or put my hand on your shoulder and pray over you?

We do practice it in this church. When we had the Bibles that by the book was

handing out to third and fourth graders this year, we had the kids up here and

they were laying their hands upon the Bible.

When we had the shoeboxes up here on that table.

Just a couple of weeks ago, we had the children put their hands on them because

we believe that there is power in that.

It's not that we are powerful, but it's that God can use our obedience to do

really remarkable things,

like Ananias going to Saul and taking, praying for him,

and God letting something like scales fall from his eyes and restoring his vision.

And it's like Jesus in Philippians 2 humbling himself.

He emptied himself of being divine,

of his heavenly right of sitting at God's right hand, and he came down and was

born as a baby, a very helpless infant, even though he was fully God and fully man.

He humbled himself to the point of obedience, not even to just be born as a

human being and to walk among us and to have the afflictions that we have,

to see how harsh the Romans were to the Jewish nations, to have allergies and

to have sicknesses and that come upon him,

to see what it's like to lose a parent in death.

He experienced all of these things, but he came down to also die on a cross,

to endure unimaginable pain and suffering.

And he did it all because he's for us.

It all because he's for us. And this, I think, is the power of the laying on of hands.

We're associating with people who need healing, who need a touch.

We're saying, I'm not better than you, raising them up to our level and saying,

you're important enough.

And so there's a myriad of reasons to answer this question as to why.

But I think the better question is, should we?

And it falls on you individually.

If you are comfortable, I would encourage you to do that.

But I would also encourage you to ask first because it can take people off guard.

It's an important, no matter what we do, we need to help that person know that we are for them.

And you can do this by taking them a meal, sending them a card or being in person with them.

But you can also do it by the laying on of hands. It's not a magic act.

It's not something that will automatically transfer God's grace and his goodness and his healing power.

But it is something that God can use.

And if God can use it and he wants us to be instruments with him, then I think we should.

Because ultimately, Jesus is God with us and we are his representatives here

on this planet. and if he is with us, then when we are with other people,

he is there too because he resides in us.

And that's a power that we can't deny and a power that we shouldn't squelch.

Let's pray. Lord, we come before you today and we thank you for who you are.

We thank you for your grace, for your mercy and your love, and we thank you.

Your presence with us. Father, we pray that you will equip us and motivate us to be your,

representative here on this planet, to show your goodness and your grace and

your mercy to as many people as possible,

and really challenge us and transform us into being the people that you want

us to be, so that we are with others.

Jesus, we pray this in your name. Amen. Thank you again for joining us in our

discussion of the placing of our hands on people as we pray for them.

This series was designed to promote questions in and amongst followers of Jesus.

Remember, it is good to ask questions. Questions show you want to learn.

Be curious and always ask questions.

In our final episode of this series,

we will pivot a little and look at the role questions play in our doubts and

what our response to doubts in us and in others should be. Have a great week.