Direct access to the Father in Jesus’ name

Sermon for Rogate – Easter 5

James 1:22-27  +  John 16:23-30

For the third week in a row, our Gospel for the day has taken us back to the night before Jesus died, and with good reason, because it was on that night that Jesus spent a good deal of time preparing His disciples, not only for His suffering, death, and resurrection, but for life on earth after His Ascension, after He would go to the Father. That’s the same era in which you and I live—have always lived. So His words also serve to prepare us for our lives as Christians living in what we might call foreign territory, because the devil is still the prince of this world, and we’re still in danger from him at all times. But we have access to the One who is already victorious over the world, and it’s that access that Jesus teaches us about in today’s Gospel, direct access to God the Father in the name of Jesus.

First Jesus says to His disciples, in that day, you will not ask me anything. “In that day” refers to the time after Jesus’ Ascension. They had been asking Him many questions on that evening, and wanting to ask Him many more, and He had been answering some of them. But soon Jesus would ascend to the Father, and they wouldn’t be asking Him questions anymore. Not like they had been. But it would be okay, because they would soon have unprecedented access to God the Father.

He tells them, 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.

Now, Jesus’ disciples had been praying to God the Father their whole lives, but never before in the name of Jesus. Let’s talk about what that means.

It means, first, to approach God the Father through faith in Jesus as the Son of God, as the One who gives us access to the Father through His death on the cross. It means to approach God the Father holding up Jesus as the access Key, as the “password,” if you will, that gets us in the door to heaven’s throne room. What gives you, a poor sinner, the right to approach the holy God in prayer? “Jesus.” And He lets you in.

But to ask God the Father for His help in the name of Jesus also means to pray in the same way Jesus prayed. Humbly. Sincerely. Trustingly. With confidence that our Father will hear us, because we’re praying in the name of His beloved Son Jesus, to whom the Father would never deny any good thing. And since the name of Jesus has been placed on us in Holy Baptism, we should be confident that our Father in heaven thinks of each of us in exactly the same way.

And praying in Jesus’ name also means praying for the things Jesus has taught us to pray for. Those things are summarized nicely for us in the seven petitions of the Lord’s Prayer. We are to pray for the hallowing or sanctifying of our Father’s name, for the coming of His kingdom, for His will to be done, for our daily bread, for the forgiveness of sins, for help against temptation, for deliverance from evil. Those seven petitions are general enough to leave everything up to God as to how He will grant them, and that’s intentional, because we don’t know the best way for God’s kingdom to come, so we simply pray, Thy kingdom come, and we know that He will grant us His Holy Spirit who brings the kingdom of God to us and to the world. We don’t know all the things that we truly need each day, and so we simply pray, Give us this day our daily bread, and so on. When we ask our Father for those things, leaving it up to Him to grant them in the time and the way He sees fit, we can be absolutely sure that He will grant them.

Now, you can ask God the Father for other things, too, for things He hasn’t promised to give. It should always be a serious request. Don’t use your access to God to pray for frivolous things, for a certain team to win a game, or things like that. But you might well ask for healing from a specific illness, or for a certain job to come along, or a certain opportunity. You may well ask for relief from tyranny and oppression. That’s good and well, as long as, whenever you pray for something God hasn’t promised to give, you add the same phrase Jesus added, Not my will, but Your will be done.

Now, what confidence do we have that our Father will hear us and help us when we ask Him for things? First, we have Jesus’ command and promise in today’s Gospel. Ask. There’s the command. And you will receive. There’s the promise. And nothing is more certain in heaven or earth than the word of Jesus.

But we have even more than the promise of Jesus! We have the assurance of the Father’s love for us. In that day you will ask in my name. I am not telling you that I will ask the Father for you. For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came forth from God. You know there are different words for “love” in the Greek language. God so “loved the world” that He gave His only-begotten Son. That’s the love of commitment and devotion and genuine concern for the well-being and happiness of another. But the word Jesus uses here is the “love” of genuinely “liking someone,” the love of friendship, the love of having common likes and common interests. God the Father has called you believers in Jesus His friends. He likes you. Why? Because you’re so likable? No, but because you have loved me and have believed that I came forth from God.

Now, how is it that you came to love Jesus, that you came to view Him as your friend, that you came to believe in Him? Well, that’s the Father’s doing, too. Jesus says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.” Or He said to Peter after he confessed Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father in heaven. So it’s the Father’s doing that we believe in Jesus and love Jesus. And yet the Father still credits that to us, in His grace. He still treats us as His friends, as His allies. We’re on the same side, because we’re on the side of Jesus. And so the Father is committed to hearing our prayers and helping us in every need, because we’re no longer strangers and aliens and enemies of God. No, we’ve been reconciled to God through faith in His Son, and He loves us. He thinks highly of us, all because of Jesus.

This is the access we now have, direct access to God the Father in the name of Jesus. As James said in today’s Epistle, though, don’t just be hearers of the Word, but doers of the Word. Don’t just hear that you have access to God. Use it! Use it in prayer, and not just here in church on Sunday mornings. Use your access to the Father’s throne, the access that you have only in Jesus’ name. Things are not safe in this world. We do truly live in enemy territory, the devil’s territory, and there are troubles and temptations on every side. There are so many things we don’t know, so many things we have no control over. But there is a God in heaven who knows exactly what to do and exactly how to help. Only trust in Him, and use the access you have to Him in Jesus’ name. Amen.