Only Christians have the Father’s ear

Sermon for Easter 5 – Rogate

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. Jesus assures us in today’s Gospel that, even though we’re surrounded by enemies, we have the ear of God the Father, and more than just the promise that He hears us. We even have the promise that He will grant our requests, when we ask in Jesus’ name. As Jesus explains to His disciples, Christians—and only Christians!—have the Father’s ear.

If you recall from two weeks ago, Jesus had told His disciples some things that they didn’t understand, about how they wouldn’t see Him “for a little while.” And they wanted to ask Him about it, but they were embarrassed or afraid. So He told them that He already knew what they wanted to ask, and then He went on to answer the question they never needed to ask. Our Gospel picks up from there. Jesus says to His disciples, in that day—in that time following My resurrection from the dead and after I have ascended into heaven—you will not ask me any questions. Not only because Jesus would no longer be living among them as He was then, but even more, because they would finally understand that, whether He was in the room with them or not, He already knew all things, including the questions and uncertainties that were in their hearts. They wouldn’t need to ask, we don’t need to ask, because Jesus knows the questions of our hearts and gives us the answers we need, through His Word and by His Spirit, even without hearing our questions. As the disciples said at the end of our Gospel, See, now you are speaking plainly; you are not speaking in riddles. Now we know that you know all things and that you do not need anyone to question you. By this we believe that you came forth from God.

And yet, even though He, as God, doesn’t need to hear our questions, He explains to His disciples that God the Father wants to hear our requests. 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 of all, to approach God the Father in prayer through faith in Jesus as the beloved Son of God, as the promised Messiah, as the One who gives us access to the Father through His death on the cross. It means to enter the heavenly throne room by walking through the door that is Jesus. If you try to enter by any other door, access will be denied. But if you approach God the Father through the Door He has provided, He will let you in and He will hear you and grant your requests. That’s why only Christians have the Father’s ear.

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. 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 Christian in exactly the same way as He thinks of His only-begotten Son.

Third, 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 specifically 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 are praying in the name of Jesus, and 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 specifically promised to give, as long as you’re not asking for anything that goes against God’s will. 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.

Not only that, but we Christians 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” in such a way 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 Christ His beloved 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. If you gave away the most precious thing you had to someone as a gift, because you knew they desperately needed that gift, and the other person looked at that gift and said, “Bah! What kind of gift is this? This thing’s worthless!” You wouldn’t like that person very much. On the other hand, if the person looked at that gift and said, “This is the most wonderful thing anyone has ever given me!” You would appreciate that, wouldn’t you? Because the thing that was so precious to you is now also just as precious to the person you gave it to. So it is with God the Father’s most precious gift of His Son. Your treasuring of Him actually causes God the Father to treasure you.

Now, how is it that you came to treasure 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. And so it is that Christians, and only Christians, have the Father’s ear.

You have the ear of God the Father, and a command and invitation to fill His ear with your praise and thanksgiving, with your prayers and requests. Now, as James said in today’s Epistle, don’t just be hearers of the Word, but doers of the Word. Don’t just hear that you have God’s ear. Use it! Bring your requests before Him, and not just here in church on Sunday mornings. Think throughout the day about what you need, and what others need, and about all the petitions that Jesus has taught you to make, and make those petitions throughout the day, 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 we have been given a powerful tool and a mighty weapon, to ask our God in Jesus’ name, to come to our aid and to deliver us from every evil. No one else in all the world, save for Christians, has been given such a gift. So let’s use it, continually! In Jesus’ name. Amen.