Sermon - Rogate 2019 - John 16:23-33

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Did you know, one of the greatest privileges that the Christian has is prayer with God. Direct vocable access to our creator and redeemer has been given to us. Many consider it a sign of prestige to have a direct line in order to call and speak to the president of the USA or the Queen of England. To be able to simply pick up your phone and dial the president is incredibly powerful! You would have the president’s ear! Dear Christian, you have sometime far better, more powerful, greater honor: you have God’s ear. When you speak in the name of Jesus that’s been placed on you at baptism, God listens. 

What a magnificent comfort, that in this world of suffering and shame and futility, God would listen to your requests and give you exactly what you need. Why is it that prayer is such a great privilege and comfort? Prayer with God gives us unexpected joy and peace.

How tragic it is then that many in these last horrendous days have abandoned prayer as superfluous. They explain that God already knows our wants and needs, so what use is it to pray anyways? It’s silly to bother the almighty, all-knowing God with my mundane requests of which He’s already aware. 

But that’s foolishness! What a silly objection! We don’t pray in order to make God aware of our needs, but because God commands us to pray. Prayer is proof of our submissiveness to His graciousness. Prayer is a confession of our conviction that everything comes from God. This is what Luther explains in the catechism: “God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people, but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.” 

So heed the command of Jesus who plainly instructs you: “ask.” Pray. Why? “Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” Jesus commands us to pray, not because it’s a burden, but because this is how God gives you true peace and joy in a world full of tribulation. 

Moreover, when you pray, Jesus promises that your prayer is heard and answered. “Amen, Amen, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, He will give it to you… Ask, and you will receive.” Yeah, that’s right, prayer works! It actually does something and it’s worth doing! 

Maybe this seems a little silly to say, but God exists; God is real. I say this to you because sometimes, often times, we live and behave as if God does NOT exist, as if God’s not real. But God is real! We learn this from the very first words in the Bible, “In the beginning, God…” God exists! God is real! God did really create everything around us! God knit us together in our mother’s wombs! God knows each of us! God loves us and cares about our lives! He’s like a loving father, and what father “if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? If his son asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?” Every loving father will give his hungry son food when it’s asked of him. Likewise, “how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask of Him!” 

God is real, He loves you, and when you ask of Him, He answers your prayers because He desires your joy and peace.

But what then do we make of it when a Christian prays and does not receive that for which they asked? Musn’t this mean that God doesn’t answer our prayers? It’s a good question, which is why St. Paul answered it, saying, “We do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And He who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit.”

Far too often we don’t know what it is that we pray for. With our mouth we might beg God for something which seems right to us, but isn’t really good for us in the end. We may believe an earthly treasure to be our greatest good, so we pray for it, not knowing that it would be our greatest curse. So the Holy Spirit who dwells in us prays in our stead, He intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. Even when our mouths form the wrong words and pray for that which we do not know, the Holy Spirit prays for us so that we would receive exactly what we need.

Consider the example of Old Testament Rachel, married to Jacob. She greatly desired children, and yet the Lord hadn’t opened her womb that she might bear children. She cried out, “Give me children, or I shall die!” Yet the Lord withheld children from her for a time. She believed that she must have children or she would die, it was the worst thing for her to not have children, she believed. Yet, when Rachel gave birth to her second born son, Benjamin, she died in labor. The Lord knew what giving birth would do to her and that in giving her children she would die. The Lord delayed in giving her children so that she might live a little while longer on earth. She didn’t know what she was praying for, but God did, and so gave her that which she prayed for in due time. God answered her prayers while keeping in mind her and Jacob’s peace and joy. 

Consider another example from our Old Testament lesson. When the Israelites rebelled against God and spoke against Him, the Lord punished the Israelites. “The LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.” When the people repented of their sins and prayed that God would remove this punishment from them, that God would “take away the serpents from” them, He answered their prayer but not in the way they expected. “The LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.”

God forgave them and answered their prayers, but not exactly in the way that they thought would be best. God could have removed the snakes, taken them all away, but then most probably the Israelites would have just returned to their rebelliousness and continued to stray from the faith. They would’ve been right back to where they were before and probably would’ve died unbelieving and gone to hell.

But instead, out of God’s gracious love and forbearance, He  gave them a cure for the snake bites: a bronze serpent set on a pole which if when bitten you looked at it you’d be cured. In this way the Israelites would look to the statue in faith trusting in God’s grace. God answered their prayer but in a way which was better for them, so that even if still bitten by snakes, they at least still had faith and could be saved. God answered their prayers by giving them true peace and joy. 

Likewise, when we Christians today pray in the name of Jesus, God answers our prayers. He may not answer them in exactly the same way we requested, but He answers them in exactly the way which leads to peace and joy.

When Christ prayed to the Father in the garden of Gethsemane that He wouldn’t have to suffer, God answered His prayer, but in the only way which leads to peace and joy for all. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” Christ was lifted up upon the cross in order to crush the serpent’s head. To this cross of Christ we look for eternal life, which is the only thing that gives us peace and joy beyond the tribulations of this world.

Therefore, let every Christian pray, because through prayer God gives to us unexpected joy and peace which is fulfilled in Christ Jesus. Pray that God would give you a believing heart, one that trusts in Him alone for all good things, and one that believes all good things have already come from Him. Pray because God is real and really answers our prayers. Pray simply because He’s our loving Father who loves to hear our voice. 

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!