Easter 6 Rogate

John 16:23-30 – Rogate – May 13, 2012
Hearing, Praying, & Living in Jesus’ Name

Jesus, in Thy cross are centered
All the marvels of Thy grace;
Thou, my Savior, once hast entered
Through Thy blood the Holy Place;
Thy sacrifice holy there wrought my redemption,
From Satan’s dominion I now have exemption;
The way is no free to the Father’s high throne,
Where I may approach Him in Thy name alone.  Amen. 

We approach the Father in the name of Jesus.  We approach him in order to worship him.  Jesus said in John chapter 4, “Believe me…the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.”  The Father seeks true worshipers by sending us Jesus.  Only Jesus teaches us how to worship God because it is only through Jesus that we are able to approach God.  True worship consists of true faith.  We worship the Father in Jesus’ name, because it is Jesus who reconciles us to God—it is for Jesus’ sake that God forgives us our sins and accepts us as his children.  Jesus shows us the Father by dying.  There on the cross Jesus both satisfies the Father’s wrath against sin and reveals the Father’s love toward sinners.  By considering his great pain of body and soul, we learn not only to consider the true weight of our disobedience, but also the great love that God has toward us.  And so it is to this that the Holy Spirit testifies.  We worship the Father in spirit and truth by believing what the Spirit of truth teaches us in Holy Scripture.  The hour has come, and now is, that we Christians worship God in Jesus’ name. 

Worshiping God consists of three things.  First, we listen to God.  We gather together to hear his faith-creating word in Jesus’ name.  Second, we pray to God.  We present all of our petitions to our faithful Father in Jesus’ name.  Third, we live our lives to God.  We not only sing his praises with words, but we live our praises with deeds.  We do this in Jesus’ name. 

1) All true worship begins when we listen to the word of God.  That is why we are gathered here today.  The disciples also assembled where Jesus gathered them.  They heard his words and they knew that they were the words of eternal life.  But they did not always understand what Jesus was saying – at least not before they received the anointing of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost.  By leading them into all truth, the Holy Spirit inspired these men to preach and write the very words to which we continue to listen today. 

The words of Scripture are God’s words.  They cannot deceive us because God cannot deceive us.  What we have here in the Bible are not the mere words of men who are prone to error, confusion, and exaggeration.  No, we have here the words of God who does not and cannot lie.  The purpose of Scripture is to instruct us in righteousness, because that is what God intends to do when he speaks to us.  The Bible was written for the very express purpose of being a light—to call us out of darkness to an understanding and knowledge of God’s gracious will toward us. 

The words of Scripture are clear.   If ever it seems unclear at times, as it did to the disciples when Jesus spoke in figures of speech, this is not the fault of God’s word.  It’s the fault of our own dull minds and our faithless hearts.  And this deficiency in us is simply further proof of how much we need God to speak to us in his word!  That is why we need what the disciples got.  No we don’t need Jesus to speak more plainly than he does.  His words are plenty clear.  What we need is the Holy Spirit.  We need what the Holy Spirit directs us to so that our hearts might be enlightened – so that our joy may be full. 

The disciples kind of jumped the gun, though.  “Ah, now you are speaking plainly,” they said to Jesus.  “Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that you came from God.”  They thought that they now understood what Jesus was saying.  They thought.  But their thoughts proved futile as hours later they scattered the scene of Jesus being arrested and beaten by soldiers.  Their thoughts then sunk deep within their guilt-ridden hearts full of shame and regret – far away from what the Spirit would teach them.  They were scandalized to see him who came from the Father return to the Father by being suspended on the cross for the world to see. 

But then on that day, as Jesus promised, on that day of Pentecost all the words that Jesus ever spoke to them became crystal clear as the Holy Spirit lead them to find in the very crucifixion – from which they hid their faces and fled – the central focus and purpose and power of all that Scripture teaches. 

How do we understand Scripture?  How do we understand what seems hard?  Jesus teaches us how.  Jesus teaches us how to listen to the word of God by teaching us what to always listen for.  We listen for that which Jesus accomplished on the cross for the salvation of the world.  The Holy Spirit gives us a key to understanding Scripture by directing us to Christ’s work of obedience to the Father.  Here the Father’s heart is revealed toward us – here the Father’s ears are open to our plea for mercy – here we find the central focus of all God says in Scripture.   This is what it means to hear the word of God in Jesus’ name.  It is to expect to hear what Jesus did to save you.  We don’t come here to hear generic words about a generic god.  We come here to hear of the works of the triune God – the God who sent his Son to save us from our sin, death, and the devil, and who sent his Spirit to witness in our hearts that he did it for us.  We see the clarity of Jesus’ words only when we see the benefit of his works. 

2) In our Gospel lesson this morning, Jesus offers to his disciples some of the clearest words that he ever spoke.  They are so clear, in fact, that it is hard to believe that he meant what the words say.  “Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.”  How can this be?  Because we pray in Jesus’ name.  That’s how. 

The key to understanding Scripture is the same key to offering true prayer.  It is Jesus.  All true prayer begins when we pray in Jesus’ name – that is when we pray believing that in Jesus the Father’s loving heart is opened up and revealed.  Only in Jesus is our righteous God shown to be favorably disposed toward us.  Favorably.  This means that he doesn’t demand something of you before he hears you.  Favorably.  Because he tells you to ask anything and he will give it.  Jesus has already earned it for you.  What do you want God to give you?  Ask in Jesus’ name and it is yours. 

This is a promise.  That means that it can be believed.  You can rely upon it.  You can make use of it.  But, of course, prayer is not a means of grace.  That is, it is not our act of praying that earns what we are invited to ask for.  It is Jesus.  To pray in Jesus’ name is to want what Jesus has earned for you.  It is to want more than what your sinful flesh desires.  It is to want what flesh and blood cannot inherit.  When we pray in Jesus’ name, we always seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness – even if we do not explicitly ask for it.  Because it is the righteousness that covers the one who petitions God that makes him worthy to access the Father in the first place. 

And so it is that when we pray for one thing, we truly want another.  Have you noticed this in your prayers?  You begin to pray for some material blessing; and you end up praying for spiritual strength.  You begin a prayer for a more reliable car, for a raise in pay, for nicer things; and you end up praying for humility to be grateful for what you have.  You pray for health, for alleviation from pain, for a way out of whatever burdens you; and you end up praying for perseverance to bear your cross.  You pray for the conversion of a friend, for the repentance of a wayward loved-one; and you end up praying that God give power to his word and boldness to your confession.  This is praying in Jesus’ name.  It is praying for what God will most certainly give. 

When Jesus tells us that whatever we ask the Father in his name he will surely give us, he is giving to us the very confidence toward the Father that he has.  Think of that!  The eternal Son of God, united to- and begotten of the eternal Father by an inexpressible and everlasting love – this God expresses it.  Not just by showing an example of what remarkable love does, but by loving you with a love that embraces even your sinful heart, even your dirty life, even your embarrassing failures, and he claims it for his own.  It is a love that receives with utter delight even the imperfect prayers that are laced with the very sin you need to be saved from.  It is a love that makes your sin his—it is a love that makes his eternal “yes” the answer to your every prayer. 

The Apostle assures us: “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:26).  You are led by the Spirit of God to be certain of this (Rom 8:14).  What can the Father deny you whom he calls adopted sons, when he has handed everything over to his eternal Son?  How can he ignore your prayer when he cares so deeply about what you need?  And if you ever doubt about whether God cares about your need—your sorrow, your trouble, your pain, and every little request you make, just look at where he cared about the sorrow, trouble, and pain of Jesus.  Look at where he opened his heart to our Brother’s request in Gethsemane as he prayed that the cup might pass if it be his will.  But here was found, and is still found today, the Father’s love for his Son:  it was found in the love that they both shared for us – that Jesus drink to the bitter dregs the wrath against us so that we might have peace. 

In the death of Jesus we find revealed toward us the love of God by which the unsearchable unity of persons is held together: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  When we see what this love has done to earn our salvation, we find ourselves loving what God loves.  We find ourselves not only loving and wanting what the Father is pleased to give us, we find ourselves asking for it – and everything else our hearts desire.  We do so in Jesus’ name. 

3)  We don’t pray in order to become righteous before God.  We pray because we are righteous before God.  The Son of God who stands before his throne in heaven assures us that this is the constant basis of our confidence.  We live in faith.  We live in certainty.  We live in Jesus’ name.  The Father wants you to ask.  He wants you to ask for whatever you want in life.  He wants you to ask, because he wants to give you life.  And so the life we live, we live in Jesus’ name. 

This is not to say that we move on from hearing the word to being doers of the word.  No, we don’t move on.  We stand firm.  That’s the point.  We cannot be doers of the word unless we continually remain hearers.   Only when we see Jesus obey the perfect law of God in our place do we even know what the perfect law of God requires.  Only once the Spirit teaches us what has already been done can we ask the Father that we might be given the grace to do it too.  It is as St, Paul teaches us to say: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). 

We commend to God our coming in and our going out in order that we may live praiseworthy and pleasing lives that glorify him here in time and hereafter in eternity.  This is true worship.  And when you hear, and when you pray, and you see your doings speckled by your failures and disappointments, then dear Christian, hear, pray.  See in Christ’s doing the life God gives you, and continue to pray in Jesus’ name that he may continue to give it to you. 

Let us pray: 

To me the preaching of the cross
Is wisdom everlasting;
Thy death alone redeems my loss;
On Thee my burden casting,
I, in Thy name, a refuge claim
From sin and death and from all shame –
Blest be Thy name, O Jesus!

In Jesus’ name, Amen.