Two notes on this sermon: The "Tommy" illustration is based on one used by
Norman Nagel when preaching this same text. Second, this happens to be
confirmation Sunday. The two people named are the confirmands.
Rev. Charles Lehmann + Rogate + John 16:23-30
In the Name of + Jesus. Amen.
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed!
Alleluia!
Today our Lord comes to all of us and makes a great and wonderful promise.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, He will
give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will
receive, that your joy may be full.”
We've all heard Jesus make this promise many times. This isn't the only
place He makes promises about prayer. It isn't even the only place that He
talks about asking the Father in His name. But it is easy to hear the Lord's
promise without actually listening to it.
Sometimes we say that Jesus didn't mean it in the first place. We can all
list dozens of times that we've prayed in Jesus' name and have not received
what we asked for. Though we might pray at the bedsides of those we love and
ask the Lord to heal them, sometimes our loved ones die. Though we might pray
to the Lord for employment when we've lost our job, sometimes the job doesn't
come. Very often it seems like God isn't paying attention to our prayers.
Sometimes our prayers seem like they're not being answered and sometimes He
makes us wait so long that we begin to wonder whether He's there at all.
Doubting that Jesus meant it is the first way we ignore His words.
We also ignore Jesus' Words when we say that we really shouldn't obey them.
Sometimes we convince ourselves that it's just not our place to make demands
on God. He is, after all, the almighty and all powerful King of the universe.
He is as far beyond us as anything can be. Just who do we think we are to make
demands upon the Divine Majesty? Though we can make this reason sound pious
and humble, it is actually prideful and arrogant. We are telling God what He
should have said instead of listening to what He did say.
We think we are filling in the gaps in the Lord's promise. We are saying
that though He tries to make it appear otherwise, God doesn't really want to be
bothered by us. His love is a sham. If the Lord really had His way, he'd
never have to bother with our prayers.
This prideful disobedience goes a step beyond not believing the promise
that Jesus makes. Saying that we shouldn't pray and expect the Father to bless
us calls both Jesus and His Father liars. It makes the Father into an
absolutely transcendent God who has absolutely no concern for us. It turns Him
from a God who was pleased to sacrifice His Son to redeem the world into a God
who would rather not be bothered by us at all. It turns Him from a God of love
into an arbitrary and cold god of hate.
The third way we ignore Jesus' words is by saying that we don't know how to
pray to the Father. We say we don't know how to say the words with the right
eloquence. We don't know what our prayers should look like. These thoughts
also can sound pious and humble. But even though it can be wrapped up in lots
of religious sounding language, this approach to prayer is also filled with
danger. It suggests that God will only answer our prayer if we know the right
words to manipulate Him with. It suggests that a beautiful and flowery prayer
avails more for us than a simple cry from the heart. This way of ignoring
Jesus makes prayer into a video game. It says that if you know all the right
moves, you'll be able to beat the game and get the prize of a God who does just
what you tell Him to. But prayer is not about getting God to do what you want.
By now it should be clear that we are good at ignoring, second guessing,
and denying the Lord's promises. Because of this, the Father could with
complete justice bring His wrath upon us and leave us entirely on our own. But
He doesn't. Our Father loves us and desires to hear the prayers even of those
who are fickle and spurn them for reasons of their own imagining. We learn in
Luther's Small Catechism what it means to call God our Father. Luther writes,
“With these words God tenderly invites us to believe that He is our true Father
and that we are His true children, so that with all boldness and confidence we
may ask Him as dear children ask their dear father.”
In the cross, you have a Savior. Jesus Christ forgives your sins and
destroys sin, death, and the devil by suffering and dying your death in your
place. In baptism, you are clothed with Christ and you receive everything that
Christ receives from God the Father. One of the most important gifts that you
receive in your baptism is that today's promise in John 16 applies to you. It
applies to you because like Christ you have a Father in heaven. You, the
baptized, may call the first person of the Trinity your Father. He is not
simply God the Father to you. He is God your heavenly Father.
Only one who is begotten of water and the Holy Spirit may address God as
their Father. Jesus can do so because He is the eternal Son of the eternal
Father. You may do it because you are baptized into Christ.
In the cross you have a Savior, and because by faith you abide that Savior,
you have His Father as your Father. Praying in Jesus' Name is not a magic
formula that will cause God to do whatever you want Him to do. Praying in
Jesus' Name means praying on the basis of His promise to you. It means
believing that He is faithful and will do exactly what He has said that He will
do. It means trusting that because you are in Christ, the Father will regard
you with the same love He has for His only begotten Son.
In the relationship that God has established with you, there is no need to
hold back. There is no need to doubt that the Father will hear your prayers,
and there is no reason to fear that He will not answer your prayers in exactly
the way that He has promised.
But if all this is true, then you might wonder why it seems like there are
so many prayers that aren't answered in the way we desire. We are baptized.
We pray to the Father in Jesus' Name. All that we ask for we ask for in faith.
Why is the answer so often no? Why does the Father so often seem silent?
These questions that plague us can be used by Satan to drive us away from
the church. Craig and Tori, God will attack you with these doubts. But
remember, God does love you. It will never be because God has abandoned you
that He appears to be silent.
It is always because we are blinded by sin. The answer to a prayer in
Jesus' Name is never no, and the Father never turns a deaf ear to your
supplications. He loves you. The Father loves you so much that He did not
even withhold His Son from you. The Father loves you so much that He does not
give you what you want.
Imagine a small child who asks for a gun. Little Tommy knows that his dad
uses his gun to hunt and provide food for the family. Little Tommy wants to
provide for the family. Little Tommy thinks that if he can shoot a deer, then
he will be important. But, Tommy is only five years old, so his father does
not give him a gun. Instead, he plays catch with him, teaches him to read, and
tells him stories. Tommy' father devotes enormous amounts of time to his son.
Tommy thinks the gun will make him important. His father shows him that he is
important without giving him the gun that he asked for.
We may trust that our Father knows our need better than we do. He will
indeed keep His promise and give us all things that are in Jesus' Name. In
Jesus' Name are all the good gifts of life, salvation, and daily bread that our
Father has for us. We ask for all that we desire or think that we need, and we
ask for it without holding back. We know that God will give all that is best
for us whether it fits our expectations or not.
And rest assured, people loved by God: What God gives will not meet your
expectations. He is not so small and so weak to be bound by what we think
would be best for us. What the Father gives will always be greater and better
than what we know to ask for. What the Father gives will always be far beyond
what we could ever imagine.
If we ask for the Father to save our loved one from death, He may do it
now, or He may take our loved one home. Precious in the sight of the Lord is
the death of His saints. It may be best for us to have our loved one in this
life a little longer. It may be better for them to be with the Lord. What is
best for us and for those we love is what the Father will give. But the Father
has saved our loved one from death. He did this when He sent His Son to the
cross. Because Jesus died and rose, every grave will be empty like His, and
who receive the Lord's forgiveness by faith will live with Him forever.
When we pray in Christ, we pray with His Words. We pray, “Our Father, who
art in heaven.” We pray, “Thy will be done.” We pray as He has taught us and
we pray as one baptized into His death.
The answer to the prayer in Christ's Name is always “Yes.” It is always,
“Yes, my child, I will give you all that is in the Name of Jesus. I will give
you life, salvation, and the forgiveness of sins. I will hold nothing back
from you, my precious child.”
In the Name of Jesus is His blood shed for you on the cross. When you have
the Lord's forgiveness, people loved by God, you have every good thing.
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed!
Alleluia!
In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and
minds in faith in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Rev. Charles R. Lehmann
Pastor, Saint John's Lutheran Church, Accident, MD
http://www.stjohncove.org
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