Easter 6 - Rogate - 5-17-09

The Church Season of Easter,
Easter 6, One Year Series
Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (May 17, 2009)

“Ask”

Readings:
Psalm 107, 1-9
Numbers 21:4-9
1 Timothy 2:1-6
John 16:23-33

Sermon Form: Deductive

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Grace, mercy and peace be to you from the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen

The text for today’s message will be from the Gospel lesson as recorded in the 16th chapter of St. John, especially the following verses:

John 16:23-33 (NIV)

23 In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 24 Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete. 25 “Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father. 26 In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. 27 No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. 28 I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.” 29 Then Jesus’ disciples said, “Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech. 30 Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.” 31 “You believe at last!” Jesus answered. 32 “But a time is coming, and has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me. 33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

“In that day you will no longer ask me anything,” says our Lord to His disciples, the first of many sentences that center around either asking Jesus, or asking the Father, or asking for something. Asking is something we’re sometimes good at and other times we’re not so good. Sometimes we ask questions because enquiring minds want to know the answer to things that puzzle them. Children seem to be the champions of asking questions in a never ending “why game” where no matter what the answer is the next question is always, “but why?” And then there are those who ask questions because they really want to know what something means, why something is happening of or how something works. Sometimes we don’t ask questions because we don’t really don’t want to hear the answer. And other times we ask only after we have hit rock bottom and whatever it is that we desire overrides our personal pride and then we ask. The disciples had Jesus there with them and when they doubted or misunderstood they could go to Him and ask. When we have a question about what God says, we still go to Christ and ask, and we can do so in prayer or by simply going to the Bible and searching for the answer. But when we have particular spiritual or physical needs then we pray and request, and Jesus' name, we

“ASK”

During the three years of Jesus' ministry the disciple showed their immaturity again and again. For example, when Jesus fed the 5000, He first asked the disciples how they would solve the challenge at hand. When asked to find a solution to the problem the disciples were at loss as to what to they do, what they had in their hands, five loaves and two fish didn’t give them a good solution. While they may have thought, “It just can’t work, or how can I make it work,” the disciples were looking in the wrong place, they failed to ask, they just said this is all we have. And then Jesus showed them how it worked. Jesus announced to His disciples that He would be betrayed, he would suffer, die, he would be resurrected and ascend in to heaven. Jesus told the disciples all these three times (Mt. 16:21; 17:22; 20:18) but it only grieved them. Oh the disciples did ask questions, like, “36Simon Peter asked him, "Lord, where are you going?"(Jn 13:36) Thomas said, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"(Jn 14:5) And Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us."(Jn 14:8) And when Jesus prophesied about the time, when they would have fuller knowledge of all things, the disciples thought that time had already come. So they didn’t feel the need to ask, they weren’t engaged, they assumed their own answer, and so Jesus told them what they would do, He said, “a time is coming, and has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home. You will leave me all alone.”(v. 32) They didn’t understand that, they didn’t ask, they didn’t want to ask, they didn’t want to hear Christ’s words. Left to their own knowledge and fears, they did just what Christ said they would do, when Christ was betayed, they scattered to try save themselves.

The disciples did just what Jesus said they would do, and it happened exactly as He had predicted. Because of their lack of faith they abandoned Him in the Garden of Gethsemane. They failed to attend His trial. And except for John they did not go to Calvary either and on Saturday and Sunday they locked themselves into their room.

They did not ask Jesus how all this would happen and even if they did the result would be the same. They would indeed scatter, and regardless of their actions Jesus would still help them. Only a few hours later, in the Garden of Gethsemane, the disciples ran from the Jewish authorities and the Roman soldiers. The disciples were in tribulation. But even though they didn’t realize it, the peace of God went with them. And so you may ask, what is this peace? Well actually St. Paul gives the answer in his letter to the Romans, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.”(Rom 5:1-2)

Because we are justified by faith in Jesus, we need not ask if God is angry with us, He is not. This peace of God guarded their minds and hearts in Christ Jesus, it was the peace of God, not of something they found in this world. Even though they would desert Jesus, He still said: "Be of good courage, I have overcome the world." Indeed, in this world, our flesh and the world overcomes us, but Jesus has overcome the world.

We ask if there will ever be a time when we will ask no questions of doctrine, question what scripture tells us, question why our prayers aren’t immediately answered, or even ask, “What does Jesus mean?” All those questions have been answered. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit who gave us the Holy Scriptures. The scriptures lead us in all truth. While we may want to debate or ask many questions which the scriptures do not answer, the scriptures give an answer to all we need to ask. We do not need any further revelations, because the Triune God has given us the whole Truth in the New Testament which is the fulfillment of the Truth of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ said, a time will come when we can bring any spiritual or physical need to Jesus and He assures us that He will answer. That time is now, for He hears your prayers. In fact, Jesus' promise is complete. He is one with the Father, He always has been. And we are the Father's dear children in Christ Jesus. Remember Luther even said that in the Small Catechism, in the introduction to the Lord’s Prayer, in the response to “Our Father who art in Heaven,” the response is, “With these words God tenderly invites us to believe that He is our true Father and that we are His true children, so that with all boldness and confidence, we may ask Him as dear children ask their dear father.”(SC) In fact He gives us much, much more than we could ever ask for, for in Baptism He gives us the promise of eternal life. Christ was bloodied and beaten, and He went to the cross, so that we could ask forgiveness of our sins. Though we have left Him alone there on the cross, He does not turn away from us. So ask away, ask to “Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord to Thee,”(LSB# 784) or “Lord, Open Now My heart to hear, and through Your Word to me draw near.”(LSB# 908) Just ask, “and you will receive, and your joy will be [eternally] complete.” Amen.

The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
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