Bible Text: St John 16:23–33 | Preacher: Rev. Dr. Christian Preus
Jesus says, “In that day you will ask nothing of Me.” That’s a beautiful promise, it’s a promise of clarity – you will know God. Jesus has been speaking in riddles to them, “I go to the Father, you will see me no more, a little while and you will see me,” and they are full of questions, “What does this mean?” “What’s he talking about?” They don’t know. But when Jesus suffers and dies and rises again and gives them His Spirit, then they will know clearly. Then they won’t have to ask. The Holy Spirit will lead them into all truth.
When you have the truth that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of His Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the virgin Mary, is your Lord, who has redeemed you a lost and condemned creature, purchased and won you from all sin, from death, and from the power of the devil, not with gold or silver, but with his holy precious blood and his innocent suffering and death, then you don’t have to ask all sorts of troubling theological and anthropological questions, you don’t need to ask, What is man? Who am I? It’s answered on the cross, – man is, you are, as a human being, on the one hand, so precious to God, that He Himself became a man, joined your ranks, forever brought humanity into His own Person, a status no angel will ever have, you are so valued by your Creator that He suffered for you, bore your sin, died for you, sent His Spirit to you, named you His child. And on the other hand, man is, you are, a hopelessly corrupt sinner, so thoroughly ruined by sin, that it took God’s suffering, God’s death, to close the chasm that separated you from your Creator. The cross teaches you that clearly – you did that, as you’ll hear St. Peter preach on Pentecost, You killed the Lord of Glory.
And you don’t need to ask who God is, the cross answers it – not only that He is the Father who sent His Son who sends you His Spirit, the holy Trinity, but that He is Love. Jesus says, “For the Father Himself loves you,” and you see that love on the cross, where His own Son, whom He has loved from eternity, cries out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me,” and the Father silently answers, “For their sake, dear Son, because I love them, and for your sake, dear Son, because you love them and want them with us together with the Holy Spirit forever, cleansed from all sin, and released from every evil.”
Every question we have about God that matters on this earth, Jesus answers on the cross and by His resurrection. That’s why Jesus says, “In that day you will ask me nothing.” You have it all in His Word. There is nothing missing from it. We often call the Bible inerrant – that means it has no errors in it, God can’t make mistakes, and it’s God’s Word. But Jesus here talks about the Bible as sufficient. It tells you everything you need to know about yourself and your God and life and eternity. So that when you have Jesus’ Word, the Bible, you don’t need to inquire, to ask for anything more.
But you do ask from God. That’s what prayer is. Jesus says, “Amen, Amen, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name, He will give it.” Your Father will give it, and you know it, because you know the cross of Jesus. St. Paul is commenting on these words of Jesus in Romans 8, when he says those awesome words: “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not along with Him freely give us all things?”
Only Christians can pray to God. Prayer is confidence that God will answer, and how do you know God will answer? Because you know He gave you His Son. You know it. And if you know He gave you His Son, how could He refuse you any good thing?
Everyone has a natural knowledge of God. Things exist. We exist. Beauty, design exist. It all came from God and everyone knows that. And good exists, objectively, some things are good and some things are evil, and the objective standard of good is God; there can’t be another. So everyone has a natural knowledge of God. But if you don’t know Jesus, then you can’t pray in confidence, because you don’t know if this God loves you, you don’t know if He wants to answer you. When the unbeliever prays, “God, if you’re out there, then give me what I ask,” it’s not that God doesn’t hear. He hears everything. It’s that the unbeliever can’t be sure that God will answer, that God cares, especially when he looks at his own sin and sees that he’s not a very loveable person, or looks at his suffering and feels it as God’s anger. How can you be sure that this Creator loves you and wants to answer your prayers? Jesus. He’s what the unbeliever needs, what everyone needs, to know that God will answer your prayer. Because none of us is worthy, none of us deserves anything from God. We’re sinners. But you look at Him and you know it. You look at your Baptism and know the Father claimed you as His own child there, put His name on you. You look at the Supper and see the Son, who became your brother, and He gives you His own body and blood and forgives you all your sins. And then you know that God loves you, and you ask everything from Him in that confidence.
So pray. But what do you pray for? Jesus says anything. Anything. He says that to you. And you’re a Christian. And you know not to ask for evil things or selfish things. “What man of you, Jesus says, “if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone instead? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him?” What if it’s reversed, what if the child asks for a serpent or a stone or a scorpion? Does a father give bad things to his children, things he knows will hurt them? Of course not. You can’t ask for bad things from God, because God isn’t bad, He doesn’t give bad things. Let the wickans ask their devil for bad things. You ask for good things from God, and you know what those are when you listen to His Word. The more you read and hear His word, the more you will know what to ask for. And then ask for anything. You’re asking the Creator of the Universe who loves you as His own child. There’s nothing good He won’t give you. And He knows your needs.
Christians pray for spiritual things first and then for the body. If God grants heaven, He will also grant earth. “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these other things will be added to you.” We are body and soul. God created the body, the Son assumed a human body into His Person, God cares about your body, He will raise it incorruptible on the Last Day – it is a precious and everlasting possession.
So Jesus tells you to pray for your daily bread. Do it. You have all sorts of tribulations, fears, pains, cares, you are a sinner in a sinful world, and the devil is roaming around like a roaring lion, seeking to devour you. So pour your needs before God. Do it daily, make a habit, a practice of it. Be as specific as you want – take away the cancer, calm my stress, remove this thorn from my flesh, grant me a wife, grant me a husband, give me a better job, protect my reputation.
Your Father will answer, but He will always answer for your greatest good. And your greatest good is not in the end that everything go perfectly with the body. A life without cross, without trial, is the life that begins to fall in love with the sinful world and forgets to look for truly good things, for faith, and courage to do what is right, for love of others, for forgiveness, for the Holy Spirit, for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. If God doesn’t grant you some earthly thing you ask for, if he gives you suffering instead, look at Jesus Christ given for you know that God says No only to say Yes to something greater.
Because the final need even of your body is a spiritual need. The way God is going to give you your daily bread in the end, take care of your body, is by raising it from the dead, incorruptible. The final need even of your body is the forgiveness of sins and to be free forever from death. The body and the spirit are not so easily separated. What is good for the spirit is good for the body.
And here you see how faithful your Father is to you. Whatever you ask the Father in my name, He will give it to you. What’s the greatest thing you could ask for? How about the Holy Spirit, God Himself, dwelling in you? Ask your Father. He will give Him every time through His Word. How about what no money could possibly buy, a totally clean conscience, forgiven of everything bad you have ever done and ever were? Ask for it, and He will speak it through your pastor in His church because His Son won it for you. Ask even for the body and blood of Jesus Christ Himself, and He will show you that it has been pierced for you and it has been shed for you on the cross of Calvary, and He will place it in your mouth and in your heart. Ask Him for everlasting life. And He will give it. Ask Him for the protection of His angels, and He will send a whole army of them to guard you in all your ways. Ask Him for strength to fight the temptations of the devil, and He will show you the way of escape. Ask Him for courage to face death without fear, and He will set Christ before your eyes and reveal the sweetness of His heaven. Ask Him for perfect health and He will raise your body incorruptible. He will give you things far greater than manna from heaven. He will give you the Bread of Life, which if a man eat, He will never die. Ask and you will receive, that your joy may be full.
What the disciples of Jesus wanted more than anything else was to be with Jesus. They didn’t know much, but they knew He was Lord and the source of all good, and to have Him was to have everything. He was about to be ripped away from them. To die. So He tells them you will sorrow, but then you will see Me again and you will rejoice. It’s here that He says, “Ask and you will receive.” What did they ask for? What did they want above everything? They wanted Jesus. To have Him with them. To always hear Him. To have life in Him, to know God the Father through Him. And the Father gave it. Gave them Jesus, alive from the dead, with sins paid for, life eternal secured, an inheritance with God as the Father who adores us. Ask and you will receive, that your joy may be full.