Why the Christian Prays and Why God Answers
John 16:23-28
Fifth Sunday after Easter
Pastor David Thompson
John 16: In that day you will ask nothing of me. 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.
“I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father. In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”
This is about prayer. Prayer cannot be underestimated. Prayer is what the Christian does. If you do not pray, you are not a Christian. If you do not pray because you are not a Christian, you can become a Christian and learn how to pray. If you are a Christian you will pray, and what Jesus says here in this text is very helpful in understanding some foundational aspects of this wonderful privilege of prayer. The Bible gives us three reasons to pray.
First, there is the command of God. You know about God’s commands: “You shall have no other gods”, “Honor your father and mother”, “You shall not commit adultery”, and so on. What these mean is that you are not go to the local Muslim mosque to worship, you are not to hate parents, you do not be unfaithful to your husband or wife, and so forth and so forth. And if you have done or are doing any of these things you need to repent. Which of course includes us all, for in some way or another we daily sin. And you know the second commandment that deals with prayer: “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain”, which means, according to the Small Catechism, “We should fear and love God so that we do not curse, swear, practice witchcraft, lie or deceive by His name, but call upon him in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks.” “Call upon him in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks.” And just not on Sundays, not just at meals, not just once per day. But “without ceasing” the Bible says, and what that means is we are to be ready on a moment’s notice to pray, “Lord thank you”, “Lord help me”, “Lord help them”, “Lord forgive me.”
How do you do? How do I do? There are times when a prayer to God is last thing I think about: I am writing a sermon, studying God’s word, struggling with a text. And all of a sudden it hits me: “I have not been praying as I should have!” Now some of you may be thinking, “Is that what happened with last Sunday’s sermon, Pastor?” Maybe. Or maybe there has been some great difficulty, even a tragedy, an injustice, an argument; and when those occur what is often the first, and sometimes the only reaction? We whine, or complain, or say “Woe is me”, we criticize, rather than instantly and first and foremost obey the command of God. So, we are to pray, Christians, because God has commanded us to do so.
This brings us to the second and rather obvious reason we are to pray. Because of our need, many needs, great needs. “Call upon me in the day of trouble,” God says in Psalms 50(:15). The book of Psalms is prayer book in which we see the psalmists sometimes saying, “Life is good, God, I praise you.” But a lot of times the psalmists are saying, “Life is rough,” and they pour out their hearts to him, they let him know, they ask him to deliver them. Or they confess their lives are full of sin and ask for forgiveness. Every day is a day of need. Did you sin today? Do you have troubles? Are you depressed? Do you have conflicts in marriage, with your children, at work, with friends, at school? Are you anxious or worried about what might happen because of these strange times, whether you or your loved ones will contract the virus; the isolation you have been forced into, your frustration with our governor and the unfair limitations put upon you and your congregation, your financial status, your future, your economic well-being and that of our state and country? “Call upon me in the day of trouble”, in the day of trouble. We have needs so we pray.
That brings us to the third reason we are to pray: the promise. “Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you.” “Ask and it will be given to you,” said Jesus (Matt. 7:7). And our text: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.” This is the promise of God, and of his Son Jesus. God is not lying.
Let’s spend some time on the word “whatever.” “Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.” Whatever here does not mean “whatever”, without limitations. It’s a qualified “whatever.” Jesus is directing this promise to the new man within us; not the sinful nature, but the new man, the new man made in the image of Christ that has a Christian mind, a Christian mindset. And the new man with a Christian mind does not say, “Give me this or that to satisfy my sinful greed, selfishness, or self-indulgence.” The Christian mindset does not say “Give me this or that even though it means another person will be deprived.” The Christian mind of the new man does not say, “Give me this or that even if down the road it will be bad for me and would lead me away from Christ.” It does not say, “Give me this or that even if in your great wisdom you know something else would be better for me.”
In other words, unless we are praying for something other than what God in his word has clearly told us he definitely will give us (namely, forgiveness, life, and salvation), the Christian mind always qualifies such prayers by saying, “I ask this of you, Lord, but what I want above all else is that your will would be done, not mine.” For example, “Lord, I have this disease, this affliction, I am down-right depressed, there are real problems with my wife, my child, my father; please deliver me, please take it away, IF it be your will, for I know and believe that in your great wisdom and mercy you not only hear my prayer, but will answer it in a way that I may not understand right now, but ultimately is for my good.” So, when we call upon him in times of trouble, he will answer us and deliver us. And the answer may be obvious; we may be given the precise answer we hoped for. But it will not always be that answer we prayed for, for God always has the bigger picture in mind, he is always working on our eternal well-being, his eternal deliverance for you and me. Remember St. Paul who asked for deliverance from his thorn in the flesh, and God said to him, “I want you to learn that this thorn in the flesh, this affliction, is designed to teach you that my grace is sufficient for you.” God always hears, he always answers, and he answers in the best way possible, even if it does not make sense to us at the time to our very limited human way of thinking. This is especially true in our present times when life could easily become much worse, either because COVID-19 somehow becomes more deadly or because we have to struggle with and even resist unjust and unfair government restrictions that forbid Christians to gather together, as God commands, even though we would so and have done so safely. But in the midst of all the trials and afflictions and hardships of life, we have the promise of God that he hears and he answers, and he does so in a way that “in all things he works for the good of those who love him” (Rom.8:28).
So we pray because he commands us to, we pray because we have needs – great needs, temporal and spiritual – and we pray because of his promise that he will hear and answer.
And that brings to mind another question, that answer to which is very comforting. Why does the almighty and all-knowing God answer us at all, especially in view of our miserable failures? Why? Our text says, “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“. He hears and answers because we ask in the name of Jesus. Because we pray in his name. I don’t ask in my own name, I do not ask God in the name of Mary his mother or in the name of some saint. I do not ask because of who I am or what I have done, or who they are and what they have done. The same with you: you are not come in your own name because, just like me, you are a sinner.
If you would try to come in your own name, God would say, “Who are you, what have you done? What makes your name so great; what can you show me that will impress me, make me have a high regard towards you and want to listen to you and say yes to your requests?”
No, we pray in the name of Jesus, because to pray in the name of Jesus means to acknowledge that he is the true Son of God in human flesh. To come in his name means to acknowledge his redemptive and forgiving work in my behalf.
So, if God were to ask you, “In whose name do you dare to stand before me and make your requests? Your own name?” You would say, “No, Lord. I come to you in the name of Jesus Christ.”
And he would say, “Ah, yes, you come to me in the name of my Son. Now there is a name that catches my attention. There is a man who impresses me. There’s a man I cannot refuse or ignore. There’s a man I must listen to and honor. For he did all things perfectly. A perfect life for you, dear sinner; a perfect death for you, dear sinner. And that explains why you don’t look like a sinner at all to me. That explains why you are wearing a perfect, white, stainless robe. For it is not your robe you are wearing, but his. This is absolutely wonderful. For when you come in his name, you come with faith in him, and that’s really good. For it tells me you are cleansed, you are forgiven of all your sins because of him. In fact, because you come in his name, I remember your sins no more. (Heb. 8:12). So ask away. Ask anything you want. “And I will hear and answer.“
You could say God has a totally different view of us than we have of ourselves. Because of Jesus, the sins we cannot forget, God does not remember. You and I have a better memory than God does when it comes to our sins. All because of Jesus, and we approach God in that name.
God uses prayer. It is his tool given to us to bring about his good and gracious will. And you might say, “But what if I forget to pray?” Take comfort in the fact that the blood of Jesus covers those sins just as well as all others. And if you are not sure what to pray, pray the Lord’s Prayer, the prayer that Jesus himself gave us. It covers all the bases. Pray it every day. And there’s ton of other prayers out there that meet our needs as well, like the Psalms, along with the prayers of our heart. And, very importantly and of great comfort, know this: even when we forget to pray, or if we pray poorly, there are two who never stop praying for us, and their prayers are perfect and always answered by God the Father. St. Paul wrote in Romans 8(:26, 27, 34), “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express… the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will…” And then a few verses later: “Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” Whoa! The Holy Spirit and the Son are praying for us. You and I cannot fathom this unbelievable reality. Wow!
So, brothers and sisters in Christ, there’s the command to pray, that’s why we do it; there’s the need to pray, that’s why we do it; there’s the promise that he answers when we pray, that’s why we do it; and he hears and answers when we pray because we approach him in the name of Jesus, who, because of who he is and what he has done, and because we have taken hold of him by faith, we have become God’s dear sons and daughters.
I wish I had time to tell you all the prayers of mine that have been answered over the years, usually in ways I did not expect or even want. My prayer list is long, and it includes all of you, and many of your loved ones as well. It includes my mother and sisters, my wife, children and grandchildren, it includes the needs of our congregation and my past congregations. It includes many friends and many who I have evangelized in the past. I pray for our synod, our college and seminary, the church at large, our state, our country, and our governing authorities. And many times I see God answering those prayers. And I am anxious to see how he will answer the others over time. I do so because of his command, because of the real needs I have and all those others have, and I so do because of the promise that I will be answered. And I can perform this great privilege to pray, only and always because I come to God the Father in the name of Jesus. And so can you.
Amen.
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