Sermon for Easter 5 – Rogate

James 1:22-27  +  John 16:23-30

We’re focused on prayer today. There are countless examples of prayer in the Bible, and many passages in the Gospels in which Jesus teaches His disciples to pray, and how to pray. We have a wonderful teaching tool concerning prayer in the 3^rd Chief Part of Luther’s Small Catechism, the part on the Lord’s Prayer. But this 5^th Sunday after Easter, Rogate Sunday, is the only Sunday in the historic Church year whose Gospel touches on prayer. So we’ll use this opportunity both to hear again what Jesus teaches us about prayer, and to take to heart His encouragement to pray and to ask.

Let’s start with how we use certain words. The word “pray” in Scripture has a couple of different uses. It can mean simply to “ask.” I pray God for a pleasant outcome. I pray you for a glass of water. There are certain words in Hebrew and Greek that simply mean, “ask.” But that’s not how we normally use the word in English anymore, nor is it the main word for prayer in the Bible. Normally, “to pray” means to speak to God, which is the same as “calling upon” God or upon the name of God, for any and every purpose. And there are three basic purposes for praying to God. To confess one’s sins to God, to praise and thank God, and to ask God for something, either for ourselves or on behalf of others.

Psalm 51 gives us an example of confession within a prayer. David cries out to God, “For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight.”

Jesus shows us how to give thanks in a prayer. He says in Matthew 11, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. Yes, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight.”

Then there are those many, many examples of prayers that ask God for something, making requests of God. “Lord, have mercy!” is the simplest but most all-encompassing request a person can make. All seven petitions of the Lord’s Prayer fall into this category, where we approach our Father in heaven with seven short and simple requests, where we ask Him for things that we need. A single prayer may well include all three things: a confession of our sins, a request for God’s mercy and forgiveness, and a word of praise for God’s abundant mercy, faithfulness, and forgiveness in Christ.

To whom should we pray? When the word means simply to “ask” someone for something, that word is used in the Bible for both God and men. You can ask God for mercy, you can ask the king for mercy. Elijah could ask God to send rain, or Jesus could ask the Samaritan woman for a drink of water. But the regular word used for “prayer” in Scripture, for calling upon the name of someone, for “invocation,” is always and only used for praying to God (or to false gods). In the Old Testament, it was always and only the LORD to whom Israel was supposed to pray. In the New Testament, Jesus teaches us to pray to “our Father in heaven,” and the vast majority of examples of prayer in the New Testament are prayers to God, in general, or to God the Father in particular. But prayers to Jesus are also prayers to God, so occasionally the apostles also speak of “calling on the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord.” Either way, “to pray,” in Scripture, is to call upon the name of God—or someone whom you perceive to be God. And it’s, therefore, by definition, an act of worship.

This is important, so we we’re going to spend some time on it. You know that, some time after the Scriptures were written, some teachers arose within the Christian Church who began to teach Christians to pray not only to God, but also to others, to the souls of certain saints in heaven. Here are the reasons why that’s a problem:

First, the Scriptures, and Jesus Himself, already taught us to whom we should address all our prayers: to the LORD God alone, to our Father in heaven, or to the Lord Jesus, who is also God, and the one Mediator between God and man. All prayers, like all forms of worship, are to be given to God.

Second, we have no command or permission from God to call upon the name of anyone else.

Third, we do have commands from God forbidding any attempted communication with the dead. The Bible refers to that as witchcraft or sorcery or necromancy, and God says that He hates all such practices.

Now, the argument is made that praying to Mary for help, or asking for her intercession, is no different than asking your Christian friend for help, or to pray for you. Paul asks the Ephesian Christians to pray for him, doesn’t he? But Paul doesn’t pray to the Ephesians to ask for their prayers. He writes them a letter, which they can read with their eyes and hear with their ears, where they can read of his request and then pray to God for him. That’s vastly different than trying to communicate with someone who has died. And the argument is made that the souls of the departed are not dead but alive! Well, that was just as true in the Old Testament, as Jesus says about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and yet, through Moses, God still forbade His people from trying to communicate with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Fourth, we have no reason to believe that any departed brother or sister in Christ is able to hear a single prayer or request, much less the prayers of Christians from around the world. Think about that. Why can God hear the prayers and petitions of Christians anywhere in the world? Because of His divine attributes. Because God sees the heart. He is omniscient, omnipresent, and eternal, which means He’s outside of time. As the Psalm says, O LORD, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether. But none of that is true of our departed brothers and sisters, including Mary, including the apostles. To imagine that a departed brother or sister can hear the whispers from a single person’s lips, or can (simultaneously!) hear the prayers of thousands of Christians around the world, is to ascribe divine attributes to that departed brother or sister, and that is nothing short of turning them into gods, which is nothing short of idolatry.

But finally, praying to or invoking anyone besides God is a waste of time, because we have God’s own repeated promises to hear our prayers and to help us in the day of trouble. And that’s the part of today’s Gospel that I would have you focus on. Jesus says to His disciples: 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. Ask the Father, Jesus says. Ask Him! Ask Him directly! Only do it “in My name.”

What does that mean? It doesn’t mean just adding a perfunctory, “In Jesus’ name” to the beginning or end of a prayer. It means praying to God the Father as one who believes in the name of Jesus, who trusts in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, sent by God the Father to be the Savior of the world and the one Mediator between God and man. It means holding up to God the Father not a single work of our own, not a bit of worthiness on our part, but only the merit of Jesus as the basis for His mercy and help. It means approaching God the Father as Jesus Himself approached His Father, with heartfelt thankfulness, with perfect trust in His will, asking for the things that Jesus taught us to ask for, as in the Lord’s Prayer, and also asking for things that we want, but only if it’s what He wants for us, as our wise and gracious Father. All of that is included in praying in Jesus’ name.

And why will the Almighty God and Father hear us and grant our requests? (This may be the most amazing part.) Because the Father himself loves you. The word for love here is special. It’s not that usual Greek word for love, agape, the word for God’s heartfelt care and concern for people, as in, God so loved the world. No, here it’s the Greek word philos, the love of friendship, the love of finding something attractive in another person, not in a romantic way, but in a friendly way, where people share common interests, where you like to be around certain people because of their character, or their good reputation, or their personality. What is it that makes God the Father like to be around us? Jesus told His disciples. The Father loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came forth from God. God the Father gave His most precious gift to the world, His beloved, only-begotten Son, to be our Savior, to teach us who God is and, most of all, to reveal His mercy and love toward sinners, and His fervent desire that all men should be saved, saved through faith in Christ Jesus. The Father is the One who drew us to Jesus in the first place, through His Word, by His Spirit, and who persuaded us to believe in Him, and to love Him. And then, amazingly, because the Father has first drawn us to Jesus, the Father is now drawn to us in love as those who love Jesus, because everything centers around Him.

Now, because the Father loves you, who love Jesus, that’s why you should ask Him. That’s why you should pray to Him. Because He’s not some distant, hard-to-please, needs-to-be-convinced-to-care kind of God. He loves you! He’s eager to hear from you! He’s just waiting to answer your prayer, to give you what you ask for in Jesus’ name. What’s more, He deserves an apology from you when you sin against Him, doesn’t He? Have you ever thought about it that way, about what God deserves? He also deserves your praise and thanksgiving. He deserves your worship. He deserves your prayers.

And so, because of our great need, because of the great needs of those for whom we pray, because of the powerful enemies we have in this world, because of God’s command and promise, because of God’s love for you who believe in His Son, and because God deserves our worship, our prayers, and our praise, pray, dear Christians! Pray to the Father who loves you! Ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full! Amen.

Source: Sermons

Sermon for Rogate – Easter 5

James 1:22-27  +  John 16:23-30

The National Day of Prayer came and went again this week in our country. You probably didn’t even notice, and that’s okay. The president is required each year to sign a proclamation, calling upon the citizens of the United States to pray for our country. But, who can pray? Whose prayers are acceptable to God, and whose prayers are an abomination to Him? Jesus answers those questions in today’s Gospel, for this Sunday that is historically called “Rogate Sunday” which means “Pray!” or “Ask!” Because the Church didn’t need any human Congress (or king or president) to pass a law telling us to pray. We have the only encouragement we need, coming directly from the Lord Jesus. Let’s reflect on His words in today’s Gospel.

First He mentions a different kind of asking: In that day, you will not ask me anything. “That day,” if you look back a few verses, is referring to the joyful day that begins with His resurrection from the dead and continues until the end of the world. During this time, Jesus says to His disciples, “You won’t ask Me anything.” What does He mean?

First, remember that Jesus’ disciples had been asking Him many things already on this Maundy Thursday evening, starting with Peter’s objection, “Lord, are You washing my feet?” Then, “Lord, who is it who will betray You? Where are You going? Why can I not follow You now? How can we know the way to where You’re going? How is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?” And then there was the question they wanted to ask, but they were too ashamed to keep asking questions. “What is this He says, ‘A little while’? We don’t know what He’s saying.” Question after question. Because they understood so little of what He was saying to them.

Many things Jesus said to His disciples on that night were rather cryptic. As He says here in our text, I have spoken these things to you figuratively. He was intentionally not saying things plainly, because things still had to play out in a certain way over the next few days. But after His resurrection from the dead, and especially after the Holy Spirit came on the Day of Pentecost, they wouldn’t be so confused anymore. They wouldn’t have to keep asking Jesus about the things He had said. The Spirit would teach them, and then they, through their preaching and writing, would teach us! It’s through the Holy Spirit that Jesus kept His promise to His disciples, The time is coming, however, when I will no longer speak to you figuratively, but I will tell you plainly about the Father. They wouldn’t be asking Him questions anymore. First, because, after His ascension, Jesus wouldn’t be there with them in the room anymore, as He had been until this time. But that’s okay. He would tell them about the Father, even after His ascension, through the teaching that the Holy Spirit would do.

But there’s another kind of asking that Jesus wants them—and us!—to do. 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.

Ask!, Jesus says. Pray! Ask the Father for things. And do it “in My name,” Jesus says. And He will give it to you. That’s a promise. But everything hinges on what it means to ask “in Jesus’ name.”

It doesn’t mean tacking on the words “in Jesus’ name” to the end of our prayers. “Father, I ask You for $1 million, in Jesus’ name.” Don’t expect to receive $1 million. In fact, don’t pray that way at all, because it’s a lie. You can’t ask for money in Jesus’ name. Why not? Because it’s not something Jesus taught you to pray for, nor is it something for which Jesus Himself ever prayed. To ask in Jesus’ name means to ask as if Jesus were the one asking the Father for it. You’ve heard the acronym, WWJD? “What would Jesus do?” Here it’s WWJAF. What would Jesus ask for?

You don’t have to guess. You just have to know Jesus from the Gospels. And from all of Scripture, for that matter, especially the Psalms. You have to know how He prayed, what His will is, how He has taught God’s people to pray all along. And how did Jesus pray? With perfect, childlike trust in His heavenly Father, trusting in His goodness, trusting Him to hear, trusting Him to care, and trusting in His wisdom to do what was best.

Knowing the Lord’s Prayer helps you to pray in Jesus’ name, because He’s the one who taught us how to pray. When Christians pray the Lord’s Prayer, we’re always praying in Jesus’ name, which means we have Jesus’ promise that the Father will grant our petitions.

When we pray for any of the things God has promised in His Word, for the things He’s told us He wants us to have, we’re praying in Jesus’ name. And when we pray for things that God hasn’t told us He wants us to have, for example, when Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane that the Father would take that cup of suffering away from Him, we add, together with Jesus, “yet not my will, but Your will be done.” And so we are praying then, too, in Jesus’ name.

But a very important part of praying in Jesus’ name is knowing and trusting in Jesus as the One who came forth from the Father to be our Savior, as the one who is true God, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit. An atheist can’t ask for anything in Jesus’ name, just as no non-Christians can pray for anything in Jesus’ name. Their prayers are unacceptable to God the Father, who is well-pleased in His beloved Son and who is filled with righteous anger toward those who reject His beloved Son.

What’s even worse than trying to approach the Father apart from Jesus is when a person who has no faith in Jesus attempts to pray to God, using the name of Jesus as a disguise for his own wickedness. So, for example, when the current president of the United States, who, by his own words and actions, has proven himself to be an unbeliever, claims to know the Lord, He is taking the Lord’s name in vain. When he quotes from Holy Scripture, as he did this week again in proclaiming the National Day of Prayer, when he speaks of his Christian faith, he is breaking the Second Commandment and committing the sin of blasphemy and the sin of deception. Yes, those are strong words, strong accusations. But the current president (and, to be frank, the vast majority of those in his political party, along with a sizable number of people in the other political parties as well), openly opposes the Lord Jesus Christ and His teachings, even as he tries to deceive people into viewing him as a Christian. But the Father sees the truth. He sees their impenitence, their unbelief, and their hardened hearts. And He shuts His ears to anything they ask of Him.

On the other hand, to those who believe in Jesus, this is what He says: 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. See what Jesus is saying here! You shouldn’t think of God the Father as a distant being out there in the universe. Nor should you think of Him as an angry Judge, or as someone who’s so busy He doesn’t have time for you. He is an angry Judge toward sinners who remain in their sin and impenitence. But to you who have loved and believed in Jesus, whom the Father sent to save you from your sins, the Father is not angry, or distant, or unapproachable. On the contrary, Jesus reveals this amazing reality: the Father loves you.

Now, this isn’t the same word used in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world.” That’s a different kind of love, a love that seeks to help people not because of who they are but in spite of who they are, a love that drives God to do good even to the wicked, to sacrifice His Son even for His enemies, in order that they might become His children. No, here in this text the word for “love” is the love of befriending, the love of friendship, of common interests, of “liking” and appreciating someone. And Jesus says to His disciples that God the Father has that kind of love for them, for you, because you have loved me, Jesus says, and have believed that I came forth from God. “You have loved Me.” Same word. The Father not only accepts us through faith in Jesus. He has befriended us because we have befriended Jesus. We consider Him our friend. We appreciate who He is and why He came, and so His Father smiles on us and appreciates who we are, too.

Of course, who we are is who He is making us to be, by His Spirit. It’s the Father who draws people to Jesus, as He said earlier in the Gospel of John: No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him. So if you love and believe in Jesus as the Son of God who was sent from the Father to be your Savior, then it’s because the Father drew you to Him by His Spirit in the first place. And now that He has drawn you, and called you by His Gospel, and brought you into the Church of His beloved Son, He wants you to know that He loves you, and that you always have His ear. You should never think that you can’t approach God the Father with a request, whether big or small. You should never think that He’s too busy, or that He doesn’t care, or that you aren’t as important to Him as other people are, as if you needed to pray to them, to the “important people,” so that they could go to the Father on your behalf. No, if you love and believe in Jesus, then the Father loves you and tells you to ask, in Jesus’ name, so that you may receive, and so that your joy may be full, because the God of heaven has given you free access to Him. Now just remember to use it! Amen.

Source: Sermons