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INJ
St John 16:5-15
'Our Father'
Morning Service
Rogate, The 5th Sunday after Easter | 13 May 2007
Dear Saints,
This Sunday is the Sunday of Prayer, when we hear the promise of Jesus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”
That's all there is to it: Ask, and you shall receive, and your joy will be full, but there is one condition to this promise, one condition to God hearing and answering our prayers, “whatever you ask the Father,” says Jesus, “in My name, He will give to you.” Prayer, then, is in Jesus' name. What does this mean? What does it mean to pray in Jesus' name?
There is this condition, this limitation to prayer: it must be in Jesus' name. Prayer, like everything that belongs to God, is not a inalienable right or something that we deserve to do. God does not hear and answer just any prayer. In the Proverbs we hear, “One who turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be an abomination.” [Proverbs 28:9] St Paul asks, “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed,” [Romans 10:14]
Prayer is a privilege that God gives, as a gift, and He gives it only to a select few. You see, there are only a select few people who God will listen to, only a few people whom He will hear and answer, on a few people to whom He gives the privilege of praying. And we want to be those people, but how?
But if God hears or does not hear our prayer is not determined by what we say or how we say it, rather it completely determined by the question: is it a prayer in Jesus' name?
When people ask me about prayer, when some of you have asked me about prayer, the question is often something like this, “Pastor, when we pray, what do we say? What should we ask for? How do we pray?” We want the words to say, and we are glad that the Lord has given them to us in the Lord's Prayer and the Psalms, but praying in Jesus' name is not about the words that we are saying, about what we are asking God, it's not about how or what at all, it's about who. Who is praying? That's the difference.
Are you God's child, His son or daughter, are you baptized, adopted, brought into God's family, forgiven of all of your sins? Do you trust in the Lord Jesus, that He has died for your sins, that His death was in your place, and that He has declared you to be holy and perfect and righteous and without spot or blemish.
In baptism the Holy Trinity has made you a part of the family; baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. We who were born the children of the devil, “Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us, that we should be called the children of God.” [1 John 3:1]
“When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.” [Galatians 4:4,5] Our adoption, says Paul, comes through our redemption. For if being born a sinner makes us a child of the devil, then having the forgiveness of our sins through Jesus' death on the cross means that we are the children of God.
Jesus, who is the very Son of God, makes of Himself a child of Adam, a child of the flesh, a child of sin, a child of wrath, taking our place on the cross. He becomes sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. [2 Corinthians 5:21] By Him God's wrath is appeased; by Him we have a merciful Father in heaven. “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” [Galatians 3:26]
And what is the result of being God's son, of having His name? St Paul says, “And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, 'Abba, Father!' Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.” [Galatians 4:4-7]
You, dear Christians, are no longer slaves, no longer the servants of sin or death or the devil, you are God's children, part of the family, and to all the family is given the wonderful and marvelous privilege of asking the Father for all that we need.
It reminds me of the parable of the Prodigal Son. Remember how the son insulted his father and asked for his inheritance and traveled to a far off country and squandered all his money on wild living. But then the money's gone and a drought comes and he is reduced to the lowest possible rung on the ladder: feeding the pigs. How humiliating this would have been for a Jewish boy, feeding this unclean and forbidden animal, is difficult for us to comprehend, and yet he is so destitute and hungry that he wants to eat the pig feed. But in the depth of his woe he remembers his father, and how even his fathers servants have enough food to eat, and so he determines to go to his father, repent, and ask if he could be his servant.
And here's what this teaches us about prayer, for on the way, as he is walking home, the son is rehearsing, working out the words to say. We read in Luke 15, “I will arise and go to my father, and say to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.'” [Luke 15:18-19] The son is concerned about what to say.
But the father doesn't care. For as he gets closer to home, “when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.” And then the son begins his prayer, his well rehearsed words, “And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.'” But the father cuts him off, right in the middle of his speech, “No more of this servant talk, your my son.” Look, he says to the servants, “Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet and bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry.”
It doesn't matter what the son says, it matters who he is, that he is the son, and all that is the father's is his. To him the father gives and gives and gives, more than he could ever ask for or imagine. So our heavenly Father delights in us, and desires to give us all of the riches of His kingdom.
And this is what it is to pray in Jesus' name, it is to pray as God's child. It's not a matter of what you say, but who you are. You, dear saints, are baptized, you are God's children, adopted into His family you are His, and He delights in you; by Jesus' blood you are the apple of His eye, His joy and His pleasure. The heavenly Father rejoices over you as a father over his child, and He wants to give you every good gift.
So pray. In freedom and with joy and the full assurance that you are God's child, pray, ask Him for all that you need as a dear child asks their dear Father. “Whatever you ask the Father,” says Jesus, “in My name, He will give to you.” Amen.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller
Hope Lutheran Church | Aurora, CO
