The Laying on of Hands

Good afternoon, everyone. Happy Sabbath! I will do my best of hitting one and a half speed on YouTube for my sermon, so we don't go too far over time here today. Welcome to our visitors. I see that the family dispatched Nathan and Julie to make sure that we couldn't talk Alan and Kendall out of their move.

Nathan's the bouncer to make sure that they get out of here. Good to have you here with us. Well, as already mentioned, we have baptism later today, and I thought Mr. Thomas gave a great sermon the last time that we had a baptism, tying it in to pass over and the things going on around it. So I thought it would be a good trigger today to talk about another topic, one that we actually don't talk very much about, that's very much part of our baptism ceremony.

If you want to turn with me to Hebrews 6, Hebrews 6, verses 1 and 2 is a passage that talks about some of the elementary doctrines or teachings of the church. Most of them sound pretty familiar. One of them might even strike you as new or unusual that it's on the list. Hebrews 6, verses 1 and 2, therefore leaving discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection. And then it talks about what those elementary principles are, saying, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, faith towards God, the doctrine of baptisms, laying on of hands of resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment.

Now most of those seem pretty straightforward in terms of repentance, faith, baptism, resurrection, eternal judgment, but why is the laying on of hands in the middle of that? Did it strike you as a little odd? Is it something we've focused on before? I'd like to spend a few minutes today talking about that and considering why is it that that's mentioned as one of the elementary principles, one of the foundational principles of what it is that we believe.

I won't pause for long on this, but if you want to doodle for a little while here while I'm speaking, think about what the examples are of laying on of hands that you can name in the Bible. What are the instances that you can think of in the Scriptures where the laying on of hands takes place?

Feel free to write some notes to yourself or just think about it. It's a good excuse for taking a nap if you want to close your eyes and reflect on it. You'll have a good excuse. I'll just read through these. I'll give you a scriptural reference for the ones that I captured, which I think is pretty much an exhaustive list, but happy to take input if you think I missed one. You can go look at them later on. The first one that I'll list is related to the Day of Atonement in Leviticus 16. You might remember on the Day of Atonement, one of the Old Testament rituals that took place among other things was two goats that were brought out.

One was sacrificed. What happened to the second goat? In verse 21 of that passage, we see that the high priest lays hands on that goat. The sins of the people are symbolically transferred to that goat before it's released out into the wilderness. One example we see of laying on of hands. Another one, interestingly enough, is related to the bringing of an offering. Now, we clearly don't have time to talk about all the different types of offerings that are listed in Leviticus, but what I did find interesting in looking at notes related to the sermon is that this is mentioned, the laying out of hands, related to the burnt offering, sin offering, peace offering, and the offering to cleanse the Levites.

And so what we can take from that is it was a pretty fundamental part of the ritual that took place in giving an offering. And if you wanted to look at one of those examples, you could find it in Leviticus 1, verse 4. And it talks about the fact, in this case, the burnt offering, that the person bringing it is supposed to come to the edge of the area where the sacrifice is brought and lay its hands on that animal. It's supposed to be a perfect animal, but before it's turned over to be sacrificed, the individual actually lays hands on that animal.

And so again, there's something tangible that's taking place there. Another example of what it is that the laying out of hands was used for. Another one that perhaps that you have thought of is setting a person apart for a special purpose.

A couple of examples that we see in the Old Testament, there are others in the New Testament that we'll talk about in a short time. But one is when, in Leviticus 8, Moses laid hands on Aaron to appoint him as the high priest. So the high priesthood, the priesthood of the Old Testament, began with Aaron and his family, carried on them through the Levites.

As it was initiated, Moses laid his hands on Aaron to set him apart as a visible ceremony, as a way to evidence to all the people that he was being set apart as the high priest. And then similarly, as Moses was getting ready to die and his years were up, what did he do with Joshua? His successor. Moses, again, was commanded by God to lay hands on him. So again, a physical evidence, a tangible proof in front of the people that he was going to be set apart for a job, in this case to be the successor to Moses. Another thing that laying on of hands is used for in the Bible is imparting a blessing. If you want to see one example of that, you can turn to Genesis 48, verses 12 through 19. And there you see, again, a fairly well-known passage where Jacob is blessing Ephraim and Manasseh, the two children of Joseph. And he actually sets his hands on them and asks a blessing on them and confers some very specific blessings that he wants to impart to them as his grandchildren. Shifting over to the New Testament, we see laying on of hands used when anointing the sick. We're asking a blessing or healing on the sick. Jesus did this. Mark 6, Mark 6, verse 5, is one example. Mark 6 is that interesting passage where Jesus says the words, No prophet is without honor except in his own country. He came back to where he grew up in Nazareth, and he was the kid down the street that played soccer in the streets with them, figuratively speaking. Not literally. I don't think they invented the game yet at that time. But he didn't really have honor in that country because he was the kid next door. What could he possibly be? And one of the few miracles that he could work in that community was laying hands on people and healing them. Paul's recorded as laying hands on Publius in Acts 28, verse 8. He was a nobleman. And then, lastly, I think we're aware very much of James 5, 14, which talks about the elders of the church should be called if someone is sick, and they can anoint those who are sick. We often see ordination also in the New Testament. Acts 6, verse 6 is one example of that when the deacons were chosen. If we recall right after the coming of the Holy Spirit, really around this time period, after Pentecost, all of the followers of Jesus Christ were living together, sharing things, and some of the people who came from far away in Alexandria were not being treated as well as people who were from there in Judea. And so, one of the things that the apostles did at that point in time was have them choose people from among them who could serve and take care of some of the basic needs that were done. And so, they were ordained in Acts 6, verse 6. Hands were laid on them to become deacons. Another one that we probably can remember and think of is Matthew 19, verse 13, blessing of the little children. A fantastic ceremony that we do as a tradition within the church. And Jesus, when he did this, and it's also, I think, in Mark and one of the other parallel gospel accounts, it talks about the fact that he not only picked up the children, but he laid his hands on them as he conferred that blessing. And then, lastly, as we'll see later today, those of us who participate is to impart the Holy Spirit after baptism. Acts 6, verse 6 is a place that we would typically turn for that. Acts 6, verse 6 talks about the disciples of John the Baptist, who had been baptized by him, but didn't have the Holy Spirit. And they were later baptized, and when hands were laid on them, the Holy Spirit was conferred to them. So that's a quick trip through instances in the Bible and purposes associated with the laying on of hands.

So what do these episodes teach us about this ceremony, or ritual, if you will, and what its purpose is? What are some of the commonalities that we see across these things? I'd like to look at three elements for a few minutes, and then bring it home to what it means in our age today, the age of the church. Generally speaking, it's a means of publicly signifying and imparting of something that's intangible. A means of publicly signifying and imparting of something that's intangible. Let's take a look at those things just one piece at a time for a few minutes. First of all, the intangible nature. Let's turn to John 3, verse 8, a passage we might recall. In fact, part of this passage was in the first message today, talking about when Jesus Christ met with Nicodemus. He met him by night. They were walking, and they were talking. As we saw earlier, the first message talked about the fact that you have to be born again, or born from above, and having that regeneration, that rebirth, if you will, through the Spirit. In one part of this passage, John 3, 8, we hear Jesus say, The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. And so is everyone who is born of the Spirit. This is an analogy that Jesus Christ was using, saying, look, there's something intangible happening here with the Holy Spirit. You can't touch it. You can't feel it. It's like the wind. How do you know that the wind exists? Have you ever seen the wind? I suppose you could say you felt the wind. Have you heard the wind? You've heard the impact that the wind has on physical things that it touches as it rustles the trees. Maybe we could argue you can hear the wind when it forces its way through a narrow passageway and makes a whistling sound. But typically, we recognize the wind by the effect of it, don't we? It's not something tangible that we generally think of, and Jesus Christ uses that analogy for the Holy Spirit. So in most of these instances that we're talking about with the laying out of hands, what's happening is that something intangible is being imparted. So when we think about it, we think of the sins of the people on the Day of Atonement. There's nothing tangible, really, about the sins of the people and passing those to the goat that was chosen to be brought out into the wilderness. You can think also of the children of Israel as they were bringing offering to the temple, the intangible nature, the designation of someone to leadership.

There's all kinds of traditions that exist with royalty, for example, as you hand over a scepter or an orb. But it's really usual, isn't it? Because leadership is such an intangible thing. In this country, we have a huge inauguration ceremony. Because what's happening is actually a fairly intangible thing, not something you could put your hands on. Likewise with ordination, blessing the children, even the imparting of the Holy Spirit, not something tangible. So the Bible, through this action, ritual, if you will, something we can see, evidence is an intangible event that's taking place. And you don't see this really happening when something more tangible is going on. When Alan and Kendall leave today, we're going to give them a cake. We're going to give them a few things that are tangible as a memory. So there's not something that we have to do in addition to that, that evidence is the things that we're feeling or thinking as we're seeing them off. Likewise, if you're giving a kid a bicycle, what you're giving is embodied in that physical thing. So laying on of hands is there as something to impart or to show people that an intangible thing is taking place.

It's like an evidence of something that you can't just cast your eyes on and see to understand. Second element here is that it's imparting something to the transferee. Something is shifting to the person who's having hands laid on them. Turn with me, if you will, to Genesis 48. And here we have the example that we talked about a few minutes ago, where Jacob was blessing his grandchildren. We'll read verses 13 through 15 to see what's happening here.

Certainly a very powerful blessing that was brought across. But the way the impact of that happened was by him calling them to him and laying his hands on them. Certainly there's more there with the crossing of the hands and those types of things, which we're not going to talk about today. But when you think about it, Jacob could have walked out of his tent one day and said, Hey, Ephraim Manasseh asked a blessing for you. It's going to be great for you. He could have done that.

He could have prayed to God in private and asked a blessing on them, and God could have honored it. But the reason he did this was to make something more tangible so they understood the gravity of the moment. They understood that there was something more deeper and underlying that was happening at that point. The touch of laying on of hands also implies a connectedness.

We'll talk more about that in a minute. But we talk sometimes today about having a personal touch. We think about all the different things we're doing, and people will say, Well, how do we put a personal touch on this? Why is it that we say that? Because there is something actually personal and connecting with the touch. That physical touch. Turn with me, if you will, to Leviticus 1, verses 2 through 4. This is just one example, again going back to the offering, where it was meant to become more personal.

It wasn't just, grab an animal from your herd and shoo it in the door and somebody's going to offer it. There was a connectedness that was meant to be here because, as we understand, these sacrifices were meant to bring home a lesson to the children of Israel. The fact that holiness, approaching God, there was a cost and there was a requirement. There was a preciousness that came along with it.

Verse 2, here of Leviticus 1, Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, When any of you brings an offering to the Lord, bring an offering of the livestock, the herd, and the flock. And if it's a burnt sacrifice, offer a male without blemish. Offer it of your own free will at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. And he shall put his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him.

So there's a transference, in essence, that's happening here through the touch. It's an atonement being made in the place of the person that's offering it up. And the touch builds a connectedness. It's another way of bringing home the personal nature of this. The fact that there is another living thing that you're connecting with by touch that's going to give its life as an atonement for you.

And it's meant to connect that more closely. Let's read the other event that we talked about. Jesus blessing the little children, Mark 10. Mark 10, verse 13 through 16. And we see the same thing happening here. Mark 10, verse 13. They brought little children to him as disciples that he might touch them. But the disciples rebuked those who brought them. So the crowd, I apologize, was bringing them. The disciples rebuked them. And when Jesus saw it, he was displeased and said, Let the children come to me and don't forbid them.

For of such is the kingdom of God. And I say, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it. And then he took them in his arms, he laid his hands on them, and he blessed them. Now again, Jesus didn't have to do it. He had the power to bless these children without ever touching them, without picking them up, without laying hands on them. But there was a connectedness that he was trying to show and he was trying to demonstrate. There was a care that's shown in the way that he was treating them, taking that additional time, acknowledging them individually, placing his hands on them as he asked that blessing on them.

We don't have time to talk through all of the different ceremonies, but, you know, if you want to understand what's in my strange mind sometimes, we think, why touch? You know, when our kids were growing up, Star Wars was a pretty frequent movie that we watched in our household. Do you remember Emperor Palpatine? How Emperor Palpatine, he would kind of go like this, and lightning would shoot out of his hands and he could zap people using the force, right? Well, you know, God could have used something like that. Imagine it's time to ordain someone. Mr. Thomas comes up on stage and says, we're going to ordain someone today. I don't know who it is, but I'm going to go like this and God's going to shoot lightning out of my hands and somebody out there is going to be ordained.

Now, of course, that sounds ridiculous, and it is, because it's not the way it happens.

God works through his church. God works through human beings. God asks us to make decisions based on his Holy Spirit and the lead of that Holy Spirit, and there's a maturing that happens within us as we make those types of decisions. So he doesn't do it that way, but that closeness, that connectedness, is something that's very much a part of it. So second common element here in all of these is the imparting of something, something that's intangible, and a connectedness that happens in doing that. And the last element I'd like to talk about in this section is the public nature, or a declaration, if you will. Because with the laying on of hands, there is something being declared for public consumption, for people to see, for others to understand. It's something more than what happens between an individual and God that's going on.

Let's go to Leviticus 8, and this is where Aaron was consecrated as the high priest.

And let's notice there in verse 1 of Leviticus 8, the Lord spoke to Moses, and he said, Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments, the anointing oil, a bull as the sin offering, two rams, and a basket of unleavened bread. And what does he say next? Gather the congregation together at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. So he's creating a group situation here.

This was going to be a declaration for all of Israel to see that Aaron was being set aside and his sons to serve in the priesthood. It wasn't call Aaron into your tent where nobody else can see, and quietly and privately lay hands on him. This was meant to be a declaration, something that all of Israel would see, so all of the people would understand that Aaron and his family were someone that God was going to work through in a different way than he was working through the rest of Israel.

We can see the same thing in Numbers 27 verses 18 and 19. We won't read that, but it lays out very much the same thing when Joshua, again, was being anointed by Moses to be a successor. And again, he said, bring him in front of the entire congregation and do this in their sight.

And it was so that it was a declaration to the entire congregation of Israel at that point in time that Joshua was to be the successor, ordained by God, to lead the nation of Israel. So the combination of this tangible act and the public nature in these episodes gives more weight to the event.

Like I said before, Jacob could have just stuck his head out of the tent and said, hey, I bless thee from a NASA they're going to have a great life. But there was something more there. There was a declaration that was taking place, also to have an impact on the two of them. As young people understand, there was a weighty blessing that was being passed on to them.

The priest could have informed the people on the day of atonement, hey, you know, we were kind of busy today. There were a couple of goats. We chose one. We sacrificed it. This one's the other one. Go take it out in the wilderness. Not the way it was done. There was a declarative nature to everything that was going to happen. There were things that had to be learned from that and understood from it. So this third element in terms of the things common in all of these different events of laying on of hands is the public nature, going on record or making a public decree of sorts of what it is that's taking place. So concluding this section again, the things that are inherent in all these examples of laying on of hands is passing on something intangible in a tangible way and having it be public or declarative in nature. So getting to the last section then of this message, what does laying on of hands signify then in the practices of the church with this as a background? There are three instances that are used in the New Testament, ordination, anointing, and laying on of hands for the imparting of the Holy Spirit, and a fourth that I'll say is a tradition that we have as a church, which is using the example of Jesus Christ of blessing the little children. This ties together the elements that were previously mentioned. If we think of any of these actions going on, it's a tangible exercise, something we can see to evidence something intangible that's taking place. It's a transfer. Something is received, and there's a connectedness, a personal touch that happens in doing that, and there's a public acknowledgement that takes place as well. Now this is probably a good place to pause and to make sure I think we all understand that like any physical symbol that we take part in as part of our worship, we understand that it's meant to teach us something. It's not something inherently magical in the laying on of hands. God works through his power, through the Spirit, with individuals that he calls. He also works through people who are ministering and serving on his behalf, but there's nothing magical in this any more than there's something magical in unleavened bread during the days of unleavened bread or the symbol of wine that we consume at the Passover. It's not that something magically changes its form because of the way that we're using it. At the same time, we recognize that it is a powerful symbol with very strong meaning, and God puts it in place for a reason in the things that we do within the church. Let's look at one example that really drives this home. We'll go to Acts 13. Read the first few verses of Acts 13, and then we'll jump into Acts 14. I find this a really compelling example of the connectedness aspect and what it means in the church of God. Now, this is an example of Paul, and you might remember, talked before about the fact that the time from Paul being struck down on the road of Damascus until the time they took off on what's called his first missionary journey, in most Christian literature, his first journey, was probably a dozen years or so, a long period of time.

And so there was a fair amount of time when he was toiling in obscurity and kind of biding his time. God was working with him and preparing him and decided that that maturation process, that quiet, that timeout was going to be useful to him. What is it that happened, though, right before he went off on that first journey? Acts 13, verse 1, in the church that was at Antioch, there were certain prophets and teachers. Barnabas, Simon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manan who had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. And they ministered to the Lord and fasted, and the Holy Spirit said, Now separate to me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. Then, having fasted and prayed, they laid hands on them, and then they sent them away. So what I find really compelling here is this connectedness to the body of the church. You know, if there was anyone in history who could have just come up and said, You know, God struck me down. He spoke to me personally. He taught me in the wilderness for three years. I'm off, and I'm going to do what he told me to do. Is that what Paul did?

He didn't. He came back to the assembly. He came to the church with this body of people, and they commissioned him with Barnabas by laying on hands to go out, and they were sent out to do something. Paul recognized, despite all the things that had happened to him, that there was a power of connectedness of God working through his church through a body of believers that he should be connected to. He wasn't called to be a soul trader. He wasn't struck down and taught to do things on his own. He was part of the body. And look what happened when they were done in chapter 14, verses 26 and 27. It talks about the conclusion of this journey when they sailed to Antioch, which is where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work which they had completed, again referring to laying out of hands that took place before they left. And when they had come and gathered the church together, they reported all that God had done with them, and that he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. So together with the church, the assembly, they were sent off, and they returned again to the body to report back to talk about what had been done, to share with them what it was that God was doing. So we talked about connectedness that comes through the laying out of hands. Where's the connectedness here? It's the connectedness to the body of Christ, to fellow believers. Let's look at this theme and how it plays itself out in Anointing for the Sick in James 5, verse 14.

Here we read, Is anyone sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.

So among other things, there's clearly, of course, the recognition of God as the healer and the power that God has. But there's something additional that's being laid out here beyond just pray for help, pray for healing, ask your brethren to pray for your healing, but actually ask the elders of the church to come and lay hands on you. And that's also recognition. Again, that God is working through that church. It's a connectedness through to that body. In this case, personified by the elders. People have been called to serve and to minister in specific ways within the body of Jesus Christ. And while it's not typically as public as other New Testament instances of laying out of hands, there is a declaration of types that's happening here, isn't there? Because when you call an elder of the church in order to be anointed, you are in essence making a declaration that you recognize that individual, and again, not a magical power in that individual, but the power and authority of Jesus Christ working down through the body of believers, through the people who have been called out to minister in certain ways within that body in order to ask for anointing. So there is a declaration, there's an understanding of being a part of the body that comes along with that. Let's turn for a last scripture then to 1 Corinthians 12, or read verses 12 through 14. Now this applies directly to baptism and again brings home the very same point in terms of connectedness, and that we're called, yes, into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and we must work out our own salvation with fear and trembling as we read in the Bible, but we are also very much called to the body, not called to be soul members hanging out there by ourselves. 1 Corinthians 12 verse 12, For as the body is one, has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and we've all been made to drink into one Spirit. 2 For the body is not one member, but many.

So again here we see a very, very powerful element of connectedness, talking about the Holy Spirit, a single Spirit. We know that Spirit is imparted by the laying on of hands.

There's a declaration there, a declaration of repentance, a declaration of being part of the body, of being baptized, hands laid on so the Holy Spirit can bring a person into the body of Jesus Christ. Yes, into a relationship with God, yes, into the acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior to forgive sins, but yes, also to be a part of the body of believers and to fulfill the purpose as a member of that body, actively carrying out the things that God gives through His Spirit so that that body can function properly as a whole. So as we look at these three New Testament cases, we see connectedness through to the church as a key element of the laying on of hands. Paul was struck down and taught as an individual, but he had hands laid on him in order to go out and carry out his duties as part of the body. While not as overt, the act of being anointed by going to the elders of the church is again a declaration of being a part of that body and reaching out to that body and those chosen to minister within it in order to be anointed. And very clearly, our receipt of the Holy Spirit makes us a part of the very body of Jesus Christ, which by definition has many members, not only one. So that connectedness is such an important part of it. So in conclusion, we might not think of it this way on a day-to-day basis, but the laying on of hands is fundamental to our beliefs. It's laid out for us in Hebrews 6 and the passages that we read to begin. Through the Bible, we see it signifying a tangible sign when something intangible is taking place. And that involves the imparting of that intangible thing with a personal touch, a connection between those individuals. And it's a public nature, a declaration, if you will, of what it is that's happening, whether that's a request for healing, whether it's ordination into an office within the church, a position of service, or whether it's a baptism. And through its practices in the church, as demonstrated in the New Testament, we see that laying on of hands is a powerful symbol, a symbol of our connectedness to the church, and a constant reminder of the importance of the church as the very body of Christ.

So this afternoon, for those of us who will be there, the final act of our baptism ceremony will be the laying on of hands. I hope this brief review of what it means and why it's put in place will be a useful reflection for all of us as we think about the power of God and how He continues to work through His body, the church.