Sixth Sunday of Easter May 1, 2016
Easter 6 (Rogate)
John 16:23-33
May 1, 2016
“Family Talks”
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
When the disciples ask Jesus to teach them how to pray, He gives them the very words and tells them to start with this, “Our Father.” Then in the Gospel reading today Jesus says, “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.” Jesus is trying to get an important thing across to them—that God is their Father.
We’ve said the Lord’s Prayer so many times that it’s easy to take that for granted. But we shouldn’t. Names are very important. To call God our Dad is a big deal. It means that we’re not just Master and servant or boss and employee. You don’t call God “master” or “boss”. Yes, God is your boss. But it’s like having your dad for your boss. Jesus is explaining that we’re family. God is your Father and He loves you.
So what does family do? They talk. Family talks. At least they better. If they don’t, they won’t be much of a family for very long. Jesus is telling His disciples and telling you one simple thing today—“talk to your Dad.” Talk to your Father. Ask whatever you need to ask in Jesus’ name and He will give it to you. Your Father wants to hear your voice.
I’ve heard my dad say on the phone many, many times, “It’s so good to hear your voice.” All of you parents today in here know exactly what that’s about. To hear your children’s voice is a wonderful thing. A joyful thing. That’s, of course, another great miracle of God—the human voice. We can distinguish one person’s voice from another. God can do that too. He knows your voice. He knows you. And He wants to hear from you.
Because God is your Father, you can have an audience with Him any time you want. You have access to Him anytime you want. That’s what Jesus has done for you. He has brought you into this family. So you have that high privilege of calling God your Father and it gets His attention.
Compare it to President Obama. If I was ever to get access or audience with President Obama, it would take a lot of work. There’s a good chance I couldn’t get it at all. But who can get access to him whenever they need? His daughters. When they need dad, he will be there to help them. But not me. If someone is standing there saying, “Um, Mr. President” and his daughters are saying, “Um, dad,” which one is he going to respond to?
You are God’s child. You say, “Um, Father?” He says, “Yes, son. Yes, daughter.” He knows your voice. He knows your name. And you know His name. You are family all because Jesus is your brother who has paid for your sins and opened heaven to you. You’re family. He will always answer your call.
Just think of how you answer the phone at home some times. If I pick up the phone and hear this, “Hi, is Mr. Bone there?” then I know I probably don’t want to talk to this person. Probably a telemarketer. If someone doesn’t know your name, that makes a big difference. It’s always odd if someone calls me “Jonathan” ‘cause I don’t go by “Jonathan” but “Jon”. Many of you are the same way. Some of you I probably still don’t call you by the right name. It’s always hard for pastors when they get to a church and they study all these names in the picture directory—and then a lot of people don’t even go by those names. Everybody’s got nicknames they go by. So we all do our best. But you know God’s name. He has given you His name to call on whenever you need and He knows your voice and He will answer. All you say is, “Father?”
Now are you not talking to Him? Are you not praying? Then that’s a family problem, you see. Families need to talk. Dads and daughters and Dads and sons need to talk. You’re Father wants you to talk to Him. So if you haven’t, then it’s simple. What do you do when you haven’t talked to somebody in a while? You talk to them.
Jesus promises that your Father will listen when you call. Now you might say, “Well, how do I know?” What if I haven’t called in a while? What if I haven’t been a good son or daughter? How do I know He will listen? Well, here’s a very important part of Jesus words today. Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, He will give it to you.” There are some key words in there…”in my name,” Jesus says.
How do you know your Father is listening? Because you pray, “In Jesus’ name.” Now what does that mean? Does that mean you use the right formula and the right words when you pray? No. Praying in Jesus’ name means you are baptized into His name and you believe in His name. So it’s not so much about what you say or how you say it—but who you are. Praying in Jesus’ name is praying as a son or daughter of God.
Think about when kids ask Mom or Dad for something. Mom and Dad don’t listen just because their child used the right words. No, they listen because of who their child is. That’s their son or their daughter. So it is with God. He listens and answers because you are His child, baptized into Jesus’ name and forgiven in Jesus’ name. You live in the name of Jesus. So God is your Father and He hears your prayers and answers them.
Do you ever have this thought? “Oh, God doesn’t want to hear from me.” We don’t feel worthy because we haven’t prayed for a long time or because we’ve been very sinful or because we think that what we’re praying for is dumb. Well, that’s all true. You’re not worthy. You are a sinner. And probably what you’re asking for is quite silly. Yet—God stills wants to hear. You know why? Because you pray in the name of Jesus. Because you believe in His Son Jesus who was given for you to die for your sins on the cross and to open the kingdom of heaven to you by His resurrection. So yeah, your Father does want to hear. But not because you’re so wonderfully wonderful. No, because He loves His children. He loves you. You’re baptized. You believe. And the Father loves you.
Keep in mind what a privilege this is to pray in Jesus’ name. Unbelievers don’t have that privilege. All those prayers being offered to Allah or to Buddha—those aren’t being heard. All those prayers that people utter to a God that they don’t even know or believe in—those aren’t being heard. God hears the prayers of His children—those who believe in Jesus and in His death and resurrection. That’s why it’s such a big deal that we can’t go around praying with folks of other religions. God doesn’t hear those prayers.
But He hears yours. And that’s why Jesus can make such an incredible promise like this, “Whatever you ask in my name, He will give it to you.” In another place Jesus explains this more. He says, “Which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” If we parents, who aren’t that great, know how to answer our children’s requests—how much more does your Father in heaven know how to answer your prayers? Ask Him anything.
This is your Dad. He loves you. Jesus says, “for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.” Your Father loves you. And prayer is simply talking to Him in words or in thoughts. I mean, the word “prayer”, literally just means “asking Him”. Just asking. You can do that, right? You can ask your Father for what you need?
Well, then why do so many of us not do it? What keeps us from praying? Think about your average day and what you do in it. On a day when we don’t pray as we should, why don’t we? What keeps us from it? Now most of the time we’ll just say little things like, “Well, I didn’t have time. Too busy. Didn’t know what to say, etc.” But understand, those aren’t really the real reasons. They’re just reasons that sound good.
No, the real reason we don’t pray as we should is because the devil keeps us from it. And also we don’t believe it’s important enough to make time. And also we don’t believe that we need it. We actually think we can handle things on our own. And also we don’t really believe that God wants to hear us. So—we really need to hear Jesus’ word today, right? Don’t you? Don’t I? We need to hear again that we are family. And our Father wants us to pray and we need to pray. We need to hear again about how important it is that family talks. We need to talk to Him.
So when will you do it? When is your best time to pray? Paul says to pray without ceasing. True. Our entire lives should be one of prayer and worship to God. But we also set aside specific times to voice our prayers to Him. Morning, evening, and meal times are for sure. If you don’t already pray at those times, then that is where to begin. Luther recommends praying the Lord’s Prayer at all those times. You can see why these times would be so important. In the morning you’re beginning your day. What better time to talk to your Dad and ask for His help? Right at the start, right? And going to bed. What better time to ask your Dad for forgiveness than when the day is through? So morning and evening are perfect times. Meals are great, too, because it’s the perfect time to reflect on how good our Father is. He gives us food to eat. He cares about us. So we thank Him for it and pray that He would be with us. Start with those times and you will be blessed. From there, you can pray any other time of day when you need to.
Finally, what keeps many people from praying is simply this—they don’t know what to say. For this—we must always be reminded that our Father simply wants to hear our voice. He’s not worried about how well we say it. He just wants us to ask. That being said, however, it is wonderful to have resources to help us pray. Best of all, we have the Lord’s Prayer. We use that as often as we can because it’s the best pray we can pray. After that, you can use Portals of Prayer which has prayers for every day in the back of it. You can use the hymnal which is full of prayers. You can write out a prayer list or a prayer journal so that you can just go down the list and ask God for x, y, and z. There are many helps out there.
The important point is that we’re talking to our Father. Family talks. God is your Father and Jesus your brother. Ask and you will receive. In Jesus’ name. Amen.