Christians gather to pray

Sermon for Rogate

James 1:22-27  +  John 16:23-30

There is no longer any law, divine or human, that prohibits us from gathering for worship. For that we give thanks to God. No one on earth has the authority to keep Christians from gathering together around the ministry of Word and Sacrament. It’s not just about hearing. It’s not just about receiving the Lord’s body and blood. It’s not just about the essential encouragement we offer one another by confessing the name of Christ together. As you know, one of the main purposes for our Divine Service is to approach God’s throne together, as children of God, as brothers and sisters in Christ, as members of the one body of Christ, to pray. Why? Because the Lord Jesus taught us to pray. Yes, you can pray on your own, in a closet, by yourself, just as you can eat alone, sitting at a table by yourself. But it’s good, if possible, to eat as a family, and it’s also good, if possible, to pray as a family of believers, which we are. You know the familiar words from Matthew 18, Where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them. The words right before that also apply here: Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.

And so we’ve gathered again today to approach our God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to ask for His help, based on today’s Gospel from John 16.

As we look at the Gospel, the first verse seems strange to our ears. Jesus says, In that day, you will not ask me anything. Well, we use the word “ask” in English in two different ways. We use it to ask a question, in order to let someone else know that we don’t know or understand something so that, hopefully, they can give us the answer we seek. Or, we use the word “ask” to “ask for” something. It’s the first kind of asking Jesus is talking about. He’s telling His disciples, in that day, that is, after His resurrection from the dead and even after His ascension into heaven, they won’t ask Him any more questions. Why? Because we’ll understand everything? Hardly! First, we won’t ask Him questions, because He won’t be here with us as He was with His disciples prior to His ascension. Instead, we have the Holy Spirit dwelling with us, to guide us into all truth. Second, we won’t have to ask Jesus questions, because, as His disciples finally figured out by the end of today’s Gospel, Jesus already knows all things; He doesn’t need anyone to ask Him, because He knows our questions before we ask.

So as we focus today on prayer, it’s clear right from the beginning that we don’t ask God for things because He doesn’t know what we need or what we want. He already knows. He wants us to ask anyway.

Truly, truly I tell you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give you. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

We’ll talk about “asking in Jesus’ name” in a moment. First we ask the question, why pray for things? Why ask? We ask for three reasons: because of God’s command, because of our great need, and because of God’s promise to give us what we ask.

The command is clear: Ask! It’s the proper use of the Second Commandment. Instead of taking God’s name in vain or misusing it, we are to call upon God’s name in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks. Now, it’s a friendly command, from Father to children. Ask Me for My help, God says. Ask Me to guide you and strengthen you and forgive you and provide for you. Ask Me to help you fight against your sinful flesh, and to resist the devil and the world, and to avoid temptation. Ask Me to help you bear up under affliction and oppression and unjust laws. Ask Me for My name to be hallowed in your midst, and for My kingdom to come.

The command to pray is there because God already knows our great need (the second reason to pray). He wants us to recognize just how needy we are and to look to Him to help us in our need. Food and clothing, house and shelter, family and friends, fellow Christians and fellow citizens, good health, safety, peace of mind—these are all important things, things we need, and things we don’t really provide for ourselves. They come from God. To some extent, He uses our choices and the things we do to accomplish His purposes. But ultimately, it’s God who provides health or allows sickness. It’s God who allows a virus to spread or stops it in its tracks, for His own reasons, to fulfill His own purposes, which are always just and always good, whether we understand them or not. That’s a matter of faith, of course, and the world doesn’t have faith, so they either blame God as unjust or try to erase Him from the picture entirely. But we who know the love of Christ, we have faith in Him. And so, because of our great need, we ask for His help.

Finally, we pray because of God’s promise to hear and help. Call upon Me in the day of trouble, He says. I will deliver you, and you will glorify Me. Or as Jesus says, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give you. Again, this is the very reason why we have continued to gather together to pray, even as the world gnashes its teeth at us for doing it, because God has promised that when we ask Him for His mercy on our society, when we ask Him for wisdom and health and courage to be given to our secular authorities, He will give it. People may refuse His gracious help; they may not take it from Him. But He gives it, nonetheless, because His beloved people have asked Him for it in Jesus’ name.

Let’s talk about that for a moment. What does it mean to pray “in Jesus’ name”?

First, Jesus tells us what it doesn’t mean. It doesn’t mean, He says, “that I will ask the Father for you.” Now, you can pray to Jesus. But you shouldn’t pray to Jesus as if you couldn’t pray to the Father, as if you want Jesus to take your requests to the Father for you, because the Father is too busy to listen or to care about a nobody like you. No, Jesus says, the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came forth from God.

So, to pray in Jesus’ name means to ask the Father directly, as one who loves and believes in Jesus. That is the basis of a Christian prayer, a prayer in Jesus’ name. That you bring your requests before God the Father, not relying on anything you’ve done, but instead, with the name of Jesus on your lips, as one who has been baptized into the name of Christ. “Hear me, Father, for the sake of Jesus, Your dear Son, and for His sake alone.” Whether you say those words, or whether you simply believe those words, God knows.

I recently saw a quote being passed around from an Evangelical pastor named Rick Warren, a rather famous Evangelical preacher. It said, “I don’t believe Jesus came for Christians. I believe He came for everybody. That’s the message the world needs to hear.” Do you see the problem? Here, let me say it correctly: “Jesus came for everybody, so that all people might become Christians.” It’s true, Jesus gave His life on the cross, not so that He could save these people over here but damn those people over there. No, He gave His life so that all people might believe in Him, might believe that He literally came forth from God—in eternity, according to His divine nature, and in the womb of the Virgin Mary, according to His human nature—and might believe that He is our only Savior and our only Refuge from eternal condemnation. Those who don’t believe, those who won’t believe, don’t have God for a Father, and so any prayers they offer to their god are worthless.

But where God the Father sees faith in Jesus, Jesus tells you, the Father loves you. He loves you because you have loved Jesus and believed in Him, that He came from God, that He has made satisfaction for your sins, that He is your Savior.  He loves you in a special way, a fatherly way. You have a direct Father/son, Father/daughter relationship with God the Father through faith in Christ. And so, with all boldness and confidence, let’s ask Him, as dear children ask their dear father, knowing that He loves to hear our prayers, because He loves us, because we love Jesus, because He has drawn us to love and trust in Jesus by His Spirit, through His word.

Jesus gave these final instructions about prayer to His disciples as they were walking to the Garden of Gethsemane on Maundy Thursday night, just before Jesus Himself would go off by Himself to pray to His Father: O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will. The Father loved Jesus and granted His request: His request that the cup of suffering be taken from Jesus “if it is possible, according to Your will.” It wasn’t possible according to the Father’s will, because your salvation couldn’t be accomplished in any other way. Remember that when you pray. If you always bring your petitions before God with the understanding that you’re leaving it in His hands to do what’s best, then you can be absolutely sure that you will receive exactly what you ask for.

And now, there is Jesus, sitting at the right hand of the Father, your Savior and Redeemer. We’ll celebrate His Ascension and sitting at the right hand of God this Thursday evening, 40 days after Easter. For now, remember that you have both a Father in heaven who loves you and a Brother at His right hand, who intercedes for you and rules over the world for your benefit. What more incentive could you possibly need to gather together, in the name of Jesus, to bring your prayers and requests before God? Amen.