Sermon Audio

These last three weeks we have been jumping around through the 16th chapter of St. John’s Gospel. It’s the day of Jesus’ betrayal into the hands of the elders, chief priests, and scribes; the day He will celebrate His last supper with His disciples. Jesus is preparing His disciples for the time that He will no longer be with them and His church as He had in the three or so years since His baptism. While He will soon be taken from them to be crucified and die for their sins and the sins of the world and on the third day rise again—events which on a few occasions He had told them would happen—Jesus’ tenor would indicate that what He is referring to this time is something different.

“A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me, because I go to the Father.” (John 16:16) “It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.” (John 16:7) “He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.” (John 16:14) “Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you. And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” (John 16:22ff)

Looking back at what Jesus had done, the something different He is referring to is His ascension: Jesus, in a little while, will go to the Father, not to be seen again until He comes to judge the quick and the dead. Until that time, He will have sent—He does send and continues to send—the Helper, the Holy Spirit, to take from what is of Jesus—what is Jesus—and give it—give Him—to His people, His church. So, the Church has lived these last two millennia on Jesus Christ as the Holy Spirit has revealed and given Him to Her in the Word and Sacraments.

And in these latter days, these last two millennia, the Church has asked of Her Head in prayer that which He has commanded Her to do—in His name—a fact that we celebrate on this day, Rogate, the Sunday before the three Minor Days of Rogation, the three days before the celebration of His Ascension to the right hand of the throne of God. Every Sunday that has a special name, as today, usually gets that name from the first line of the Introit or Psalm for the day, except for Rogate. Today is slightly different as the name is taken from the Latin word for “to ask” or “to call upon,” due to what Jesus tells His church in today’s Gospel: “Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” Today, we celebrate the gift of prayer.

Now, what are we told about prayer in the Scriptures? A favorite verse regarding prayer is usually taken from the letter of St. James: “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” (James 5:16) One thing we should learn from this verse in light of what Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel is that prayer is closely connected to Baptism. The righteous man, the man made righteous by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, prays in the name of Jesus, and His prayer is heard—it avails much. The prayer of an unrighteous man—he that rejects God and His grace—does not avail; it is not heard.

Dear hearers, by that, it should be evident that this is so much more than merely sticking “...in Jesus’ name” on the end of our prayers, or as we normally hear at the end of the collects, “...through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost....” This isn’t some magic phrase that turns God on to our prayers in order to make them effective and fervent. On the contrary, praying in Jesus’ name is an acknowledgment that you have no merit or worthiness on your part to approach God. It is to acknowledge that you are worthy to approach God in prayer only for the sake of Jesus and His merits. Why? Because in the waters of Holy Baptism, you have put on Christ and His merits are yours!

Rev. Burnell Eckardt put it this way:

...[T]o call upon God’s name is to claim the privileges which Baptism in God’s name has granted. When you pray, therefore, pray in Jesus’ name, that is, with the claim of being His own possession, having been baptized in that name, that excellent name whose full express is Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. And know that this triune God must hear you, for His name’s sake. (Every Day Will I Bless Thee, p. 223)

You pray in Jesus’ name because you belong to Him. You were bought with a price—not gold or silver, but Jesus’ holy, precious blood, and His innocent suffering and death. His death for sin is your death to sin by way of baptism into His death, and His resurrection to life is your resurrection to life everlasting by way of baptism into His resurrection. “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” (Galatians 3:26-27) Therefore, when you pray in Jesus’ name, you are praying to God as your true Father, with all confidence asking Him anything as dear children ask their dear fathers. Rev. Dr. Carl Fickenscher once said, “...the Sacraments give us what the cross earned;” one of those things is the right as sons to ask the Father, and He will answer: “In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God.”

However, it follows that praying in Jesus’ name is not a device to ask for anything you want and expect that you will get it. Yes, ask your Father in heaven as dear children for your hearts’ desires—this is good and salutary and commended by the Scriptures (cf. Psalm 10:17; Psalm 37:4-5)—but be prepared to receive a “No” or “Not yet” reply from Him. The difficult part to understand in this is that we are to rejoice in the answer we receive from the Father, whether that is “Yes,” “No,” or “Not now.” “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.” You will receive, Jesus said, but what you receive will not necessarily be exactly that which you asked for; however, rejoice, because God the Father has answered your prayer for your good and you have received from Him exactly what you need!

If, in His will, you need what you desire, God will grant it, for Jesus’ sake. If it serves you better not to have what you desire, or to have it another time, then God will withhold your request, for Jesus’ sake. Again, this goes back to Holy Baptism, wherein you were given forgiveness, life, and salvation and faith to receive these blessings. That which you ask for in Jesus’ name that serve these ends will always receive a “Yes” from your Father in heaven, for Jesus’ sake, because praying in Jesus’ name, as mentioned before (and bears repeating) is an acknowledgment that we have no merit in and of ourselves to approach God the Father in prayer.

Prayer in Jesus’ name requires faith and trust in Jesus and His death for our forgiveness, life, and salvation. Faith and trust ask of the Father in Jesus’ name what He has already promised us. Forgiveness, life, and salvation are what the heart saved by the Lord earnestly desires—what it asks for in Jesus’ name. Again, Rev. Eckardt writes, “Ask, [Jesus] says, and you will receive, because faith not only knows what to ask, but how, since faith itself comes from the triune God and his name which is given in Baptism.”

Now, Jesus gives us the gift of prayer because He has returned to the Father. He said, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” The world hated and still hates Jesus, a fact which is seemingly more overt now than it has been since He walked the earth and a few centuries after. Consequently, the world will hate and does hate those who are His. The world hates you. At times you will feel overwhelmed and outnumbered—you will feel lonely—because the world hates you.

It is quite tempting in those times to neglect prayer and the Word and the Sacraments and the fellowship of the saints. As Jesus said of the disciples before His seizure and crucifixion, “Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone.” When it feels like the world is closing in all around us, we so easily forget of Jesus and His promises—and we feel more and more alone. Like the disciples, we scatter; our scattering in an attempt to find a fleeting moment of peace and solace. And we wonder, “Did God abandon me? Did God forsake me?” No, dear hearers, He forsook His Son, Jesus Christ, for you, and for His sake, gave you the benefits of His life, death, and resurrection.

So, you are not alone, for God in Christ is with you, even in those lonely-feeling times, and especially when you gather with others whom He has claimed: “Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:19-20) You, two or three or many more, gather in His name because He has placed His name upon you in Holy Baptism, and Jesus is there, especially in Word and Sacrament. What a great gift that when you gather, you, together, have the privilege to ask. And this is of great comfort, because, even though the world hated and hates Him, He has overcome the world, and He has overcome the world for you!

Finally, like Holy Baptism, prayer finds its consummation when Jesus returns. All of those things which the faithful and trusting heart desires—that which is the content of the effective, fervent prayer of the righteous man—which are summed up in forgiveness, life, and salvation—are fulfilled when Jesus returns and grants the finality of those things to those who have been baptized and believed (cf. Mark 16:16) In that day, Jesus says, we will ask Him nothing, for, as was mentioned two weeks ago everything will be clear and plain and obvious to us.

For now, however, “Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” By grace through faith, you ask in Jesus’ name. And your joy in Christ is full to receive these words: You are baptized; you have put on Christ; you are His; you are forgiven for all of your sins.