Laying on of Hands

Alright, so this afternoon I'd like to give a message that I'm going to confess is what you might call the milk of the Word. Growing up, I heard reference to a lot of times people say, there's the meat of the Word and the milk of the Word.

And to help me explain that, you might want to turn to Hebrews 5. Hebrews 5 and verse 12 I'll read. As I said, hearing that in the church, like, I know there's milk and there's meat, but which is which? And how do you know? And we don't always know, although I remember when I was a college student and ambassador, one of my instructors at the beginning of the course said, this is going to be the meat of the Word. And the way he taught it, it was pretty meaty. But in Hebrews 5, let me get my glasses out, starting in verse 12, we'll see Paul uses these terms.

He says, for though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God. You've come to need milk and not solid food. So Paul is making an analogy here. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness. He's a babe. Solid food belongs to those who are of full age and have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

It's a vivid analogy, but as I said, right there it doesn't say, well, what is milk? What is meat? But I think if we continue in the next chapter, Paul does give us a little more insight. So going into verse 6, he says, therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, I think elementary might be the same as what he said earlier, first principles.

So, and seems like that's what he meant by milk of the word. Leaving that, let's go on to perfection. Now, going on to perfection is not a small matter, and I've heard many say that's probably the meat of the word. There's a lot that goes into that. So we'll go on to perfection and not lay again the foundation, foundational elementary principles of repentance from dead works, faith toward God, doctrine of baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, eternal judgment. Wow! If those six things are the elementary principles, they span quite a bit, right from repentance to eternal judgment. So not small matters, which is why I thought it's not inappropriate to talk about the milk of the word.

Paul said, if you only do that, it's not so good. But a lot of this plan of God, what God is doing, we do rehearse on a regular basis, do we not? Of course, the Holy Day schedule rehearses the plan of God, and we go through that every year. So it wouldn't be good to never study these things. And I think we do a lot of times. What we have here, we've got faith, repentance, eternal judgment. These are things we talk about and have sermons.

But there's one of them that I had to confess I'd never heard a sermon on, which is a lot of what inspired me to write this one. Now, I'm going to confess he's not here in the room this morning, but I was talking to Darris McNeely before services, and I mentioned that, and he said, oh, I've spoken on that. Okay. I didn't hear him do it, though.

But afterwards, he said, yeah, I use the same exact scriptures. So what I want to talk about today is this doctrine of laying on of hands. Sorry, I'm burying the lead, as they say in journalism. I want to talk about, he says, the laying on of hands, because we mention it often, usually on the way to something else. You know, it pertains to many things, but I thought it'd be worthwhile focusing in to see what the Bible teaches us. And as I prepared to write this sermon, it focused my thoughts.

I said, oh, I didn't realize all of that. It helped me organize. And one of the things I noticed is there's not one place in the Bible where you get this doctrine. I can't say, let's turn to 2 Thessalonians 16 and verse such and such. And I was waiting for somebody to say, wait a minute, there's no... not that many chapters in 2 Thessalonians.

No, this is one where, if we want to use the old cliché, here a little, there a little, line upon line, you know, we've got to look in various places of the Bible to see different teaching and several examples. And I think it comes together to tell us, what is the laying on of hands?

Well, what is the laying on of hands? I'd like to say it's a symbolic act that I believe represents God's direct involvement with a person. It also helps us to see and understand that God is working in an organized way on earth. He didn't call us to be individual Christians, each doing our own thing. He puts us into a church with the ecclesia, the called out ones. So, he works in an organized way through fallible human beings, and there's a structure.

Paul says in other places, he made some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, pastors, and teachers. I don't want to go into all that today, but it's something that we do. God works in an organized way. And I think that the process of laying on of hands helps to show that we accept that and we understand it.

Because otherwise, we might say, well, there's a purpose for laying on of hands. I don't need a minister. I'll just lay my own hands on. This looks like I'm being arrested if I do it that way, right? None of that. And needing to have someone lay hands on you, I think one thing it does is it tells us...

It tells me I'm asking God to do something for me that I cannot do for myself. And I confess I can't do it for myself. I'm going to God and I'm following the procedure that He gives. That thought came up not long after I was first ordained. It's funny, the questions you have, you've been ordained an elder and you never knew, like, what do you do when you get sick?

Can you lay hands on yourself? Well, our practice is, no, you don't. I think I encountered that early on that I was ordained in the spring in that summer I was serving at summer camp. And I was sharing a room with another elder and partway through he started coming down with a cold. So he asked me, hey Frank, can you anoint me? You know, I can't afford to be sick at camp. Certainly I can. But it hadn't crossed my mind before that he didn't anoint himself.

He asked another elder to do it. It can be humbling to go to someone else and ask them to do that. It probably shouldn't be. I guess many of you have done it a number of times and it's not humbling at all. You just realize it's something to be done. I've got one of those personality types where I don't like to ask for help. And I think, again, God is humbling me, helping me to learn.

I do need to ask for help. You know, even when a person's in the role of a pastor, he's used to being the ones people ask him for help. Please help me to solve this problem. But pastors have problems. Pastors sometimes need to ask for help.

So, getting back to laying on of hands. It's an elementary principle. Let me make a statement. Laying on of hands is something that's done by a minister of Jesus Christ to designate a person. In some cases, we'll see in the example, persons for a special blessing or responsibility. Okay? Done by a minister of Jesus Christ to designate a person for a special blessing or responsibility. In my study, I distilled it down and I categorized it in four different occasions. So, another person might have made it five or maybe three. But I saw one as ordination. When someone's ordained into a position in the church, the second one I saw is a blessing, a special blessing. Third one that we're probably very familiar with is anointing and asking God for healing. And then the last one I would see is when we ask God to give the Holy Spirit. You know, we baptize a full immersion in water, come up out of the water, and a minister lays hands on. I want to talk about each one of them one at a time. But before I do that, I found an occasion in the Bible where there's a mention of laying on of hands that doesn't fit this. It's in Nehemiah chapter 13. You can join me there or else just let me read it because I'll confess now I'm doing this for humor purposes, but it is meant to be instructive. You know, God commissioned Nehemiah to go help rebuild Jerusalem. They built up the city walls and then he got people involved in worshiping God properly. And it's here at the end of the book, Nehemiah 13 in chapter 20, which is on the next page, he says, Now merchants and sellers of all kinds of wares lodged outside Jerusalem once or twice. And I warned them. I said, why do you spend the night around the wall? If you do so again, I will lay hands on you. That's not one of my four categories because I'm pretty sure Nehemiah meant something different than the ones I want to discuss. But yeah, we sometimes joke in the church about that. But let's look at the ones that are these special things. One of the most dramatic instances when we lay hands on a person is a ceremony to ask God to put that person into a particular position. In modern times, it's especially to ordain a man as an elder or as a deacon or a woman as a deaconess. Now there are some examples. It goes back to the Old Testament even before those roles. If you'll join me in Numbers chapter 8, I want to look at one of the early instances of this happening. Numbers chapter 8, starting in verse 9.

And I'll say this is the reason when I was defining what it is. I mentioned sometimes a person or persons because God is here giving instructions through Moses to the nation of Israel that the Levites were going to be set aside. Let's start reading in verse 9 of Numbers 8. You shall bring the Levites before the tabernacle of meeting and gather together the whole congregation of the children of Israel. So you shall bring the Levites before the Lord and the children of Israel shall lay their hands on the Levites. Okay, so there's a laying on of hands.

Now I've sometimes wondered, you know, we had like thousands of Levites and millions of Israelites. I'm not sure how they laid hands on, but let's take Moses's word they did. Verse 11, Aaron shall offer the Levites before the Lord as a wave offering that they may perform the work of the Lord. I want to note that. The last thing he says, why was the ordination to be done? So they could perform work. Let's drop down to verse 14 to pick up another particular phrase. It says, thus you shall separate the Levites. You shall separate the Levites from among the children of Israel and the Levites shall be mine.

We say separate. Sometimes in the church we've used the term set apart. As we refer to that as something that's holy, a set apart for God's use. God is making a distinction of a person for a particular reason. In this case, the Levites were to serve the priesthood and serve God at the tabernacle.

And that reason was largely to work. Not a small thing. I want to look at a New Testament example, but while we're in Numbers, if you would join me in chapter 27, I should have warned you ahead of time if you're one of the people that does this. I've got quite a few scriptures in this message. I'm not going to apologize. We're in the Word of God. Numbers 27 beginning in verse 15. Now, we're breaking into part of a story. You might remember that Moses and Aaron had a little incident once when there was no water for the children of Israel.

God told Moses, well, get the rod and go talk to this rock. And, well, Moses got a little angry and he didn't talk to the rock. He yelled at the people and then he hit the rock. God did send water, but then he told Moses, there's going to be a punishment for this. And the punishment would be, you're not going into the Promised Land. Now, I always say, well, at 120 years old, maybe Moses was ready for arrest anyways. But God is reminding him here that, Moses, you're not going into the Promised Land.

So, Moses' response in verse 15 of Numbers 27, Moses spoke to the Lord saying, well, let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation. I'm not going to do it anymore. Let's have a replacement. A man over the congregation who may go out before them and go in before them, may lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the Lord may not be like a shepherd or like sheep having no shepherd. And the Lord said to Moses, Joshua.

And Moses should have said, well, why didn't I think of that? Maybe he was thinking of it. Joshua was very well trained for the position. But God said, take Joshua, the son of none, with you a man in whom is the spirit and lay your hand on him. Send him before Eliezer the priest and all the congregation and inaugurate him. And, of course, we'll see Moses did what God said in verse 22.

Moses did as the Lord commanded him. He took Joshua, sent him before Eliezer the priest, before the congregation. He laid his hands on him and inaugurated him, just as the Lord commanded. Now, we have inaugurations in this country for government positions. Inauguration basically means putting someone into office. Joshua was put into office by Moses following God's commands, and it involved the laying on of hands. I'd say that alone might be enough to convince us that's the way we want to do it. But let's see the New Testament examples. A couple of those. We'll go to Acts chapter 13.

Acts 13, beginning at the beginning of the chapter, beginning of the chapter, verse 1, I'll say I might not need as many of these examples as but again the wording here tells us something important that we saw with the Levites.

Now, this is as the the church is growing. It's expanded beyond Jerusalem, and it's time for God to have some people go spread the gospel and raise the church up among the Gentiles. So it says, now in the church that was in Antioch, there were certain prophets and teachers. There are people already that have a position and a role in the church, and it lists Barnabas Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Minnean, brought up with Herod, Tetrarch, and Saul, or Herod the Tetrarch, as they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, now separate to me Barnabas and Saul for the work for which I've called them. And having fasted and prayed, they laid hands on them and sent them away. Now, some important things that we saw with the Levites, God said, separate Barnabas and Saul. They're set apart. There's a distinction made, and you see in verse 2 near the end, they're separated for the work. They had a job to do. One thing I'd say is, when someone is ordained into a position, it's not to say, this person's really great. Let's honor this person. Let's celebrate. We might celebrate and honor them, but ordination is for work. Any of you who are deacons, you know. And if you're not a deacon yet, you might be, you know, it's for a job to do. You know, an ordained position is a position of responsibility to get some things done. The other thing I'll mention is, we see here that those involved fasted and prayed. It was appealing to God to show who this should be. And I know that's the custom, the practice in the Church of God today. When there's an ordination contemplated, those who are asking God to lead that decision appeal to God through prayer and fasting. None of it's ever taken lightly.

Now, in this example, we say Paul and Barnabas were already serving, it seems, as ministers. In this instance, it we're making a supposition, but it seems they were ordained into the role of what we would call Apostle. Now, I think it's fair to say that. In the Church today, we don't ordain anyone an Apostle. We don't really have that title that we use. What we do have are elders. We've seen examples of that, and we have Deacon and Deaconess. I think we'd be negligent if I didn't turn to chapter 6 of Acts and see the origin of the office of Deacon.

It's a fun story, too. Acts chapter 6 and verse 1 says, Now, in those days when the number of disciples was multiplying, and it seemed God was adding to the Church rapidly, there arose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists. So that's the people with the Jewish culture by the Greek-speaking Greek-cultured Jews, because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution. So they're sharing food and needs, and some were being neglected. Then the Twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples, the Twelve being the Apostles. Well, it's not desirable that we should leave the Word of God and serve tables. Now, they said it's not desirable, not that it couldn't be done. I'd like to think the Apostles would serve tables, but they had other work that only they could do. So in verse 3, they say, Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. And we'll give ourselves, continue to prayer, the ministry of the Word, saying, Please, the whole multitude, and they chose, you know, the seven fellows listed here. I'm going to drop to verse 6, Whom they set before the Apostles, and when they had prayed, they laid hands on them. We see again, there's prayer, the laying on of hands. And it was the laying on of hands by the Apostles. But it's intriguing that the Apostles didn't just say, well, let's, we'll choose seven men. This is the time where they got the input of the congregation. I think that's a good practice. I've seen that numerous times in the modern church, where before ordaining someone, a pastor might pull the congregation, do a survey of some type, because this is a time when congregational input is worthwhile.

And I know the Apostle Paul also mentioned that, you know, you should test someone in the job, so to speak. That's not the exact words he used, but refers to someone who's already doing that work. And it reminds me of the time when I was ordained a deacon. It's funny, for some reason that stands out in my mind more than when I was ordained an elder. It might be, I've told people, in some ways I was more comfortable being a deacon. You know, I like to do what I do as an elder, but boy, I can move tables and chairs. You know, I'm very comfortable with that. But boy, it was something that I think it partly stands out in my mind, because it was on a holy day. There were three or four congregations there, and all the elders came up and put their hands on me. And, of course, you feel that weight of responsibility.

And soon afterwards, I remember talking to Sue, you know, within a few days. I said, something feels different. Could have been my imagination, but I felt like God's Spirit was moving in me in a different way. I don't want to say more of His Spirit. I don't like to try to quantify it, but I think when someone is ordained, God does use the Spirit in a different way. And, of course, it's an ordination for service. You know, if Paul says, test them ahead of time, I remember one of the men in the congregation who'd been a deacon for many years, you know, I was talking to him about, what do I do now? You know, what do I do different? And he told me, well, the difference I saw is before I was ordained, the pastor would ask me to do things. After I was ordained, he just told me to do things. Which, that's the way it should be. You accept that position, it takes on an obligation.

I wrote myself a little comment in the notes here because, as I was writing this, I realized, you know, especially if I were the pastor here, people might think, is he getting ready to call somebody up on stage? It'd be an appropriate message for that, but no. That's not what I'm not building up to that. But I would say we have many people who serve. I'm thrilled, of course, here in the Cincinnati congregation. We have a number of elders and deacons. And I'll say, I've noticed a lot of people who could be elders and deacons. And perhaps one day we'll be in the future. But not planning on laying hands on anybody here today. You know, Paul said, don't lay hands on anyone suddenly or hastily.

So if you had that fear, you can go, say, the pastor will still ask you rather than tell you. Okay, let's move on to the next subject area. You know, we pray to God for blessings on people pretty often. And I would say, anytime God intervenes and does something for someone in their life, it's a blessing. But sometimes God will have a representative ask a special blessing that involves laying on of hands. Let's look at an Old Testament example of that first. We can see in Genesis 48. Genesis 48 will begin in verse 13.

This is a case, of course, Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, was nearing the end of his life. And he wanted to talk to all of his sons, but he also wanted to confer a special blessing on two of his grandsons. So we're going to pick up in verse 13 of chapter 48, because Joseph, their dad, takes them both. Ephraim with his right hand towards Israel's left, Manasseh with his left hand towards Israel's right hand. Now, the reason that Israel says, stretch out his right hand and laid it on Ephraim and his left on Manasseh, the reason he did that is something that's not my point today, but he says he did it knowingly. But if we go down to verse 20, he says, he blessed them that day. By you, Israel will bless, saying, may God make you as Ephraim and Manasseh. He said Ephraim before Manasseh. As I said, we don't see many situations like this, but he was conveying a special blessing. Earlier, part I didn't read, he said, they're going to be mine. Basically, he said, I'm adopting them as Reuben and Simeon. They're taking the top positions.

We don't have many situations like that that we would do in the church, but we do have one occasion where we ask a special blessing on people. And I'll be shocked if most of you aren't already thinking ahead of me. So you can turn with me to Mark chapter 10, because the one I'm thinking of is following Jesus Christ's example, and it's something we've adopted, not because we're instructed to do this. I can't turn to Exodus, and God says, thou shalt take up little children.

But Jesus Christ set an example that we follow.

Mark 10, verse 13, says, then they brought little children to Him. Capital H, it's Jesus Christ. They brought the little children that He might touch them.

But the disciples rebuked those who brought them. Get these kids out of the way. Our rabbi's busy. He can't be bothered.

I'm imagining they might have said something like that. But when Jesus saw it, He was greatly displeased. He said, let the little children come to Me. Don't forbid them.

Such is the kingdom of God.

Assuredly I say whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it. And after correcting His disciples, it says, He took them up in His arms and laid His hands on them and blessed them. Of course, you know, we conduct a ceremony that we call the blessing of little children. Traditionally now, the second Sabbath after the feast, I understand years ago it was done during the feast.

Which sometimes I wonder, the Church isn't as big as it was. I wouldn't mind seeing that again, but it's not my call. So I'm not proposing any change.

We do allow families to do it on their own, you know, if their schedule works a certain way. I get embarrassed by my son. We brought him down when we lived in Columbus to this building because we wanted... boy, we had a special opportunity. There was an elder here in the Cincinnati congregation who asked the blessing of little children on my wife when she was a little girl.

And he was here, so we asked him to do the blessing on Connor.

And it was very interesting. I mean, it was a wonderful thing to do.

And so we follow that example.

Now, one thing we don't ask is the little child, how do you feel about this?

I think sometimes they're only a few months old and they're taken up on and suddenly this strange guy is putting his hands.

You've seen it. I've seen sometimes they're kind of trying to...

But it's appropriate to do. And it is a clear example that Jesus Christ set where we lay hands on to ask a special blessing.

I have no doubt in my mind that God heeds that request.

I've heard so many examples from children, people who were blessed as a child and enjoying that.

Now, there's another time that we lay hands on and ask a special blessing.

And it's also, though, putting someone into a special position. So to be honest, I debated, should I cover this in the number one or number two, or should I have five categories? The one I'm speaking of is when two people are married.

During our wedding ceremony, after we have the bride and the groom each say what we say the vows they're going to do that they promise and covenant with God, there is a point where we say because all ordination in the church is done by laying on of hands, we ask the couple, please join your right hands. And the minister says, by the laying on of my hands, I'll ask God to unite you as husband and wife. And that's when we pray and we ask God to actually make them one, one couple.

Why do we do that?

The reason I ask that is I was intrigued the first time I decided I was going to teach on why we do weddings the way we do. And I wanted to go to the Bible where it says, this is how you do a wedding ceremony.

And it's not there.

Surprisingly, the Bible doesn't describe it for us.

Human cultures have come up with a variety of ways to perform weddings.

I'm not casting doubt on that. I think God participates and does join husband and wife. He doesn't tell us exactly how to do it.

There's some cultures in Jewish weddings, don't they wrap up a glass and groom smashes it?

I have no idea why they do that.

I like the old African-American tradition of jumping over the broomstick. If I ever move into Mr. Eliot's office, maybe I'll see if I can suggest that.

I think the Council of Elders would say, no, Frank, we're not.

But we have a ceremony, and I think it goes back to Mr. Armstrong, devising the ceremony. And we do a laying on of hands, asking a special blessing.

You know, the husband and wife, they join in a covenant. And I believe covenanting with God as well. And it's very appropriate that we lay hands on to bring this about.

Next category.

Okay. One reason... And this is the one that's probably the most common. Many of us experience it many times in our life, and that's when we are anointed to ask God for healing.

The reason we do this in laying on of hands is because we see...

Not countless, you can count them up. But there are many examples in the New Testament. If you will, turn to Luke 13.

We'll begin in verse 10.

Luke 13 verse 10.

Now he, Jesus Christ, was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. Behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity. Eighteen years, she was bent over, could no way raise herself up.

When Jesus saw her, he called her to him.

And he said to her, Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.

But he didn't stop there. In verse 13 it says, He laid hands on her, and immediately she was made straight and glorified God.

I pause there because it seems that God didn't heal her just when He spoke the words.

He laid hands on her, and then she was healed.

It seems that not only that was Christ's practice, it seems that it was something people expected.

Matter of fact, if you flip back to Mark chapter 5, just a few pages away, hiding in my Bible it seems, but Mark chapter 5 beginning in verse 22, I want to note that Jesus did it, and people expected Him to do it. They would ask Him to do it.

Mark 5 verse 22, Behold, one of the rulers of the synagogue came, Jairus by name. When he saw him, he fell at his feet, begged him earnestly, saying, My little daughter lies at the point of death.

Come and lay your hands on her, that she may be healed, and she will live.

So He asked Jesus, lay your hands on her, so she'll live.

Obviously, that was the practice.

Now, we could ask, was that the only way that someone could be healed? If Jesus couldn't get His hands on them, it wouldn't happen.

And the answer is no.

There's a vivid example, which I won't turn to, but it's in Matthew chapter 8, where a Roman soldier, a centurion, came to Jesus. And he said, I've got a servant that's lying sick.

Please heal him.

And Jesus was ready to pick up His cloak and say, let's go, I'll come.

Centurion, well, no, you don't have to come.

I'm a man under authority. I know I can tell my servant, do this, or a soldier, come here, and he does it. Just give the word, and my servant will be well.

And Jesus said, wow.

I'm not sure He said, wow, He's probably speaking Hebrew or Greek. But He said something, and He said, I've not seen that kind of faith in all of Israel. So go your way.

And the servant was healed.

Jesus, God the Father, are not limited by laying on of hands, you know.

But it's something they ask us to do, I believe, partly as a sign of faith. Because how many times did Jesus, when He healed someone, say, According to your faith, be it unto you?

That Centurion had a lot of faith.

Matter of fact, while we're here in Mark, just over a page in chapter 6, chapter 6, verse 5, I said a page. Maybe I went two pages.

Now, He could do no mighty work there. This is in His own hometown, where people said, I've known Jesus since He was a baby. He can't do this. He could do no mighty work there, except He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them.

Again, the limiting power is not...

The limitation isn't on God's power. It was on the people's faith.

We need to believe that God is able to do what we ask Him to do, that He's willing to do it.

And you couldn't note that we need to have enough faith to do it the way He says to do it.

Again, He says...

We're going to turn to James chapter 5 soon, but not just yet. But He says, if any of you are sick, go to the elders.

As I said, sometimes it's not easy to say, oh, I'm sick. Can you come and heal me? Or come and anoint me? God does the healing.

Matter of fact, I don't know how many people have contacted me and said, well, I know you're busy. I hate to ask you to...

No! I'm not too busy for this.

This is what I'm supposed to do.

I've had people call me to ask for an anointed cloth. Another thing we'll address in a moment. I say, well, let me come right now.

I don't mind coming and doing it in person.

But the point is to ask is an act of faith.

Now, was Jesus the only one who did this? We've seen two examples of Him laying hands on.

Let's go to the end of the book of Mark.

Mark 16, beginning in verse 17.

Now, this is part of Mark's version of the Great Commission, where Jesus sent His disciples out. Actually, in verse 50, He said, Go into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature.

He who believes and is baptized will be saved. He who doesn't believe will be condemned. So faith is important. And these signs will follow those who believe in My name. They'll cast out demons. They'll speak with new tongues. Take up serpents. If they drink anything deadly, it won't hurt them. And they'll lay hands on the sick and they'll recover.

It's not just Jesus doing it.

The people He sent out, He said, they'll lay hands on the sick.

There's an example of that near the end of the book of Acts.

I told you I'm working out your fingers. Acts 28, verse 8.

Of course, if we're right at the end of the book of Acts, we probably, you might remember Paul as shipwrecked. He's on the island of Malta, and they get there and, you know, they're building a fire and they're trying to recover. He gets bit by a snake.

Doesn't harm him. People think he's something special.

But it turns out that the ruler of the people has been taking care of them, Publius. But in verse 8, it says, The father of Publius lay sick of a fever and dysentery.

Paul went to him and prayed, and he laid hands on him and healed him.

Okay.

Jesus said his disciples would do it. Here's an example of Paul doing it. Laid hands on him.

And it does say he prayed.

We understand that it's not the hands that are special.

My hands are nothing special at all, except they've got too many scars on them.

It's the power of God in doing what God says. As I said, I'd be negligent if I didn't turn to James 5.

James 5, beginning in verse 14, we have specific instructions.

Is anyone among you sick?

Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him. So we've got prayer. Anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith will save the sick. The Lord will raise him up. If he's committed sins, he'll be forgiven.

Now, depending on how you read it, you might say, well, wait a minute, duncle. It doesn't say anything about laying on hands here.

Well, it comes down to how you do anointing.

And I bring this up because it's a story I've shared, especially if someone who's young asked me to anoint them, and I think maybe they haven't been anointed before.

Do you know how it works?

And I'm going to share this because I remember well the first time I was anointed, and I was relatively old. I was 15 years old.

I was at Sabah services, and I wasn't sick, but I'd been telling some people about how my leg was really hurting because I'd injured it running track. And I said, well, just go ask the pastor to anoint you.

Okay, I can do that.

Now, I'd never been anointed before, but I'd read the Old Testament.

And you know how the anoint in the Old Testament?

Something like Aaron comes up and thumps a bottle of oil on you.

I seriously thought that's what was going to happen. I'm waiting to go back to see my pastor, and I'm getting a little nervous because I'm wearing my Sabbath clothes. And he's got a poor oil.

And it talks to Aaron running down his beard. I was so relieved when instead of this, he pulled out one of these, you know, and he put a little dab of oil on his finger. He touched it to my head and laid hands on. So the anointing is accompanied with putting on of hands.

Now, I'll say, after the morning service, I had some interesting conversations. Someone was telling me they knew a pastor who got the oil all over his hands.

That's not the practice I've mostly seen, because the oil we believe is a symbol of God's Holy Spirit.

We ask God through the power of His Spirit to heal. And the laying on of hands is, again, it's an act of faith and submission.

It's acknowledging that, God, I'm asking you to do something for me that I cannot do for myself.

I can't lay hands on myself, but I can ask you to heal me.

Okay? And that's what does it.

Would we have to do it that way?

Well, God could have come up with something different, but He asked us to do it this way.

Matter of fact, there is one slight difference. I want to note in Acts chapter 19, Acts 19, we'll see a different way of anointing and laying on of hands, but I think still applies. In Acts 19 verse 11, Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from His body to the sick, and the diseases left them, and the evil spirits went out.

This is the example from which we get the practice of sending anointed claws. I mentioned that earlier. Now, I could send out a whole apron or a handkerchief, but typically, I think I stuck one in my pocket. Yeah. Get a little nice little square of cloth, and when someone asks me to anoint them, I get the oil, and I anoint the cloth and lay my hands on it, and I pray.

And I do, I pray the prayer that I would have done if I were laying hands on the person themselves.

And I always pray to God saying, I'm not putting hands on them, but this cloth is going to go to them, and I pray for God's healing.

So, it does still involve laying on of hands. It involves the oil.

Now, I often ask God what I'm doing is saying, you know this oil symbolizes your spirit, and your spirit's worth this person right now.

Father, if it's your will, heal them right now.

Let them be well before the cloth arrives, because as you know, sometimes claws take a little while.

And I wonder how many of you have had stories of someone being healed, maybe from the moment they ask for the anointing, or... You know, I've heard a lot of those stories. I think it's really exciting that way, and I purposely ask for it.

And of course, we have a form letter that we can send that says, okay, when you get this cloth, touch it to your forehead, and in a private place, ask God to pray.

So, we do it following the examples we have from Scripture.

Now, I think, though, the last area of, you know, the reason we do a laying on of hands is one that involves, I think, the greatest miracle that God does, and that is dwelling in us by the Holy Spirit.

You know, God makes us a new creation when He enters us.

And the Bible shows that it's done through the laying on of hands.

Almost every Christian church has some version of baptism. You know, they might pour, sprinkle, immersion.

I don't know how many do a laying on of hands afterwards. I'm sure there are some because it's in the Bible.

Baptism pictures, you know, death and burial, you know, dying to sin and participating in Christ's death, and of course, coming out of the water. I always say, you don't want to just put someone underwater, and they want to come back out, which reminds us of the resurrection and the new life.

If you will, turn to Acts 8.

We'll see that we don't only baptize, we do something usually immediately afterwards.

Acts 8, Acts 8, verse 5, Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them.

Philip was one of those first seven deacons that we mentioned earlier.

So he's a deacon, but he's not an elder, but he's preaching Christ.

If you go to verse 12, it says, When they believed Philip, as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized.

That's great. Verse 13 mentions Simon, the sorcerer gets baptized also, but verse 14, it says, When the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, hey, did you hear what's going on up in Samaria?

And they sent Peter and John to them, who, when they came down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit.

This is a very clear exposition. For as yet it had fallen on none of them, they'd only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when they, Peter and John, laid hands on them, they received the Holy Spirit.

If that wasn't clear enough, we know, as I said, Simon, we call Simon the sorcerer, was there.

And it says, He saw that through the laying on of the apostles' hands, the Holy Spirit was given.

He offered him money. He wanted to be able to do that, which Peter said, let your money perish with you.

But this account makes it very clear that, following baptism, an elder lays hands on a person and prays that God will give the Holy Spirit.

As I said, I think that's the greatest reason for laying on of hands. There's no greater gift than God dwelling in us, transforming us, making us into His children.

And again, I think it helps understand the laying on of hands reminds us of God directly interacting with a person.

It involves another man whose hands aren't special, but it's asking God to do it, and God showing His structure.

We see that somewhat in some scriptures in the Old Testament. The Old Testament doesn't describe baptism and receiving the Holy Spirit, per se, but we see them in some examples of God's direct involvement.

We see some of that. If you go to Ezra, chapter 7, yeah, all this flipping, Ezra can be a little tough to find. It's right after Chronicles, and right before Nehemiah, which we did visit earlier.

Ezra, chapter 7, he said, I said, Nehemiah, and I turned to Nehemiah.

Ezra, 7, verse 6, he said, This Ezra came up from Babylon. He was a skilled scribe in the law of Moses, which the Lord God of Israel had given.

The king granted him all his requests according to the hand of the Lord God upon him.

I like that phrase. God's hand was on him.

Ezra liked it, too. He says it again in verse 9.

He says, Yeah, according to the good hand of God upon him. He says it again in verse 28.

Sorry, I chose this chapter because it appears several times.

Has extended mercy to me before the king and his counselor, before the king's princess, so I was encouraged as the hand of the Lord my God was upon me.

Peter used a similar phrase.

Last scripture I'm going to ask you to turn to. We've gone to a lot. 1 Peter 5 and 6.

1 Peter 5 and 6.

Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in good time.

Now, I wonder if God ever lays hands on us spiritually, but this seems to indicate God's involvement with us.

That's something we want.

As I said, starting off, laying the laying on of hands is one of these foundations. It's a basic doctrine, but the symbolism is something of great importance.

We employ the laying on of hands for a few particular occasions.

We do it for ordination, for conferring special blessings as part of anointing for healing, and ask God to impart his Holy Spirit.

One thing we can say by turning to all these examples and instructions, none of these were decided arbitrarily or capriciously. We're looking to see what the Word of God tells us, and we're following that instruction.

Laying on of hands by a minister of Jesus Christ helps demonstrate that God is working through human beings. He's working through the structure of his church.

I believe it represents God's direct involvement.

Us appealing to God for something we cannot do for ourselves.

So, in Scripture, talking about the hand of God upon him, I would pray, may the hand of God be on each one of us.