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Sermon for Rogate Sunday – Easter 5
Jeremiah 29:11-14 + James 1:22-27 + John 16:23-30
This Thursday we will celebrate Jesus’ ascension into heaven, forty days after He rose from the dead. But before Jesus ascended into heaven, He gave gifts to His disciples—lots of them. Paul says to the Ephesians: “When Christ ascended on high, He led captivity captive, And gave gifts to men.”
First and foremost—and really the foundation for all the other gifts—He gave Himself. Paul says in Eph. 5, “Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for her.” He Himself is God the Father’s gift to a world full of sinners that could never deserve for God to give His Son into our humanity and into death for us, who were His enemies. And yet He did it. He gave His life. For us. To pay for our sins and to earn forgiveness and God’s favor for us.
Then, He also gave the gift that actually connects us sinners to Him for the forgiveness of sins, the gift through which He gives us His life: Holy Baptism is Christ’s gift. As Paul goes on in Eph. 5, He gave Himself for her, “that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word.” With the waters of Holy Baptism, Christ gives the gift of His Holy Spirit. As Peter said on Pentecost, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” The Spirit, through Baptism, works forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil and gives eternal life to all who believe this. Gifts!
Faith is a gift! Paul says in Eph. 2: “By grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”
The Word of Christ itself is a gift! A gift that never passes away, though heaven and earth pass away. Faith only comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ. And Christ left that word here on earth for us, so that each one here has every opportunity in the world to read, hear, learn and study God’s Word.
Pastors, ministers of the Gospel, are gifts from Christ to the Church. Paul says in Eph. 4, Christ Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.
And just before the words of our Gospel today, Jesus had given a great gift to His disciples. On the night in which He was betrayed, Jesus gave the gift of the New Testament in His blood, the gift of the Sacrament of the Altar, His body and blood given to us Christians to eat and to drink, to seal to us the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation.
Our Gospel today speaks of yet another gift that Jesus gave to His disciples before He went away to the Father, a different kind of gift. He gave them—He gave us—the right to ask things of God, and more than that, the command to ask things of God, as well as the amazing promise that what we ask will be granted. He gave us the gift of prayer. Whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Let’s take a moment this morning and consider what a great gift that was and is.
Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you…Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.
This is a most important gift, because we are truly needy creatures. First, we have bitter enemies in this world: the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh. And they are all more powerful than we are. They seek to destroy faith in Christ. They seek to separate you from God. They seek to silence the Word of God. Not a day goes by, not a moment goes by when you don’t need the Father’s protection and help against these enemies.
Then, aside from our enemies, there is the simple fact that we are not in control—not in control of our health, our future, the weather, the government, the actions of other people. Our actions may have some influence in those things, but ultimately, God is the One who decides whether the earth keeps spinning or not. And Jesus has given us Christians the gift of being able to approach our Father in heaven—the One who is in control—and ask for things which He has promised to grant.
To ask for things “in My name,” Jesus says. What does that mean?
First, Jesus tells us what it doesn’t mean. It doesn’t mean, He says, “that I shall pray 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 big and mean and scary and would never listen to you directly anyway. 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.
And where He 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, not just because you exist, not just in the same way He loves all people, but in a special way, a fatherly way. You have a direct Father/son, Father/daughter relationship with God the Father through faith in Christ.
See, then, how useless are the, “God, I don’t know if you can hear me” prayers. If a person doesn’t know if God can hear him, if a person doesn’t know if God cares, then he clearly doesn’t believe in Jesus or in His promises and God won’t hear such prayers from unbelievers.
See also how useless are the, “God if You do this, then I’ll do that” prayers. That’s not praying in the name of Jesus. That’s praying in your own name, offering your own deeds to God. God will not hear such prayers.
See how useless it is to pray to the saints, as if you needed them to carry your petitions to the Father. Jesus says that you don’t even need Him to carry your petitions to the Father, but you can go to Him directly, through faith in Jesus.
Now, if God loves you, as Jesus says that He does, if God has invited you to pray in Jesus’ name and has promised to grant your prayers in His name, then see how foolish it is not to pray.
And what do you pray for in Jesus’ name? If you’re praying in Jesus’ name, you’re praying as Jesus prayed, and as Jesus has taught us to pray. Here the Lord’s Prayer serves, not only as a prayer that Christians are to pray, but as a model of prayer, so that you know what things Jesus would have you ask.
First, you pray to your Father, our Father, the Father of our Brother Jesus. And as one who loves Jesus, you also love God’s name, so you pray for God’s name to be hallowed—for His saving name to be holy through pure teaching of His Word, and through pure living on the part of those who bear the name of Christian. As those who love Jesus, you pray for God’s kingdom to come, for God to send out His Word and His Spirit to bring people into the kingdom of the Son He loves and to tear down the kingdom of Satan in the process.
Then, whatever requests you make, whatever godly desire of your heart, you pray as Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, adding, “Thy will be done,” because you know that God’s will is always good and right, even when you don’t understand it, even when your flesh disagrees with it. You know God’s will is best.
You pray for daily bread and ask our Father to provide for the specific needs of your body, your family, and of others. A godly spouse for yourself one day, or for your children. Godly friends, a job through which God will continue, not only to provide daily bread for you, but that He may provide through you to others, to your church and to your church family, to the poor and needy.
You pray for forgiveness as you repent daily of your sins, and you pray for strength to beat down your Old Adam, to bring your flesh into submission.
You pray for God’s help in every temptation and for deliverance from every evil of body and soul, including the final deliverance of a believer’s death and of the blessed resurrection of the body.
Just about everything you could ask for in Jesus’ name falls somewhere among those petitions of the Lord’s Prayer, and Jesus has already promised that such prayers will be granted.
Cherish the gifts that Christ left behind for His Church before He ascended into heaven. But don’t just cherish them theoretically. Use them. His gifts aren’t for being admired up on a shelf. They’re for Christians to use. So use them. Use the Sacraments—those blessed gifts. Use the Word of God and take advantage of the opportunities God gives to read it and to hear it preached. Use the ministry of the pastor God has given you to learn and to grow in God’s grace and knowledge. And use this other gift, too, this gift of prayer that you can use anytime, anywhere. Your Father will hear, and your Father will help, because He loves you and has called you into fellowship with His beloved Son. Amen.
