| March 24, 2002 | Whatever You Ask | John 14, 15, 16 |
On the night that Jesus was arrested, the night before His crucifixion,
He gave His disciples a new privilege in prayer that was very
remarkable, and He also tied it in with a requirement for how
they were to behave.
I want us to see from the Word of God something wonderful that
God gives to us, and also something wonderful that He expects
from us.
If you have your Bibles with you today, and I hope you do, turn
to the Gospel of John, chapter 14 and verse 12.
" Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me,
the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works
than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.
:13 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I
do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
:14 If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments."
And now turn over one page to John chapter 15, and verse 7.
"If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall
ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
:8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so
shall ye be my disciples.
:9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue
ye in my love.
:10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even
as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.
:11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain
in you, and that your joy might be full.
:12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have
loved you.
:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his
life for his friends.
:14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
:15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth
not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all
things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.
:16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained
you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that
your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the
Father in my name, he may give it you.
:17 These things I command you, that ye love one another."
And finally, to John 16 and verse 22.
"And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again,
and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from
you.
:23 And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name,
he will give it you.
:24 Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye
shall receive, that your joy may be full.
:25 These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time
cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I
shall shew you plainly of the Father.
:26 At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you,
that I will pray the Father for you:
:27 For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me,
and have believed that I came out from God.
:28 I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world:
again, I leave the world, and go to the Father."
Three times, in three different places here in the
gospel of John, we find repeated the promise of Jesus that God
has given us a wonderful new privilege in prayer. It is not a
vague promise, it is not a maybe, it is as plain as can be. It
is a promise that God will hear and answer our prayers, give us
our requests, and Jesus gives it to us on the night of His crucifixion.
Along with our salvation, this is obviously the most wonderful
thing that God could possibly give us, so why is this is
not something that the church emphasizes? Why do we not commonly
see it taking place? If the world knew that Jesus' people
could pray for something and it would invariably come to pass,
that would change the way the world works, and the way that the
church impacts the world, but it's obviously not happening. Or
at least not very often. Why not?
Stop and think about that night: in just a few hours, Jesus was
going to be crucified, so whatever it was that He was going to
tell His disciples that night would be extremely important, it
was not a time for minor details. And He tells them - and by extension,
He is also telling us- that we have an incredible ability to pray
and get what we ask for. So where is it? Why do we not see
it on a regular basis?
Since we are not seeing it on a regular basis, there must be something
that we are missing, and there is. The God of Abraham, Isaac,
& Jacob is a covenant making God, some of His covenants are
unconditional, and others are conditional: "If you will do
so and so, I will do such and such." Let's read the verses
again, because there are four conditions that go along with this
promise of answered prayer. They are:
1) Is the Father glorified in the Son?
2) Are we keeping His commandments?
3) Are we loving one another?
4) Are we in His will?
Lets go back and look at the verses we just read a little closer.
Chapter 14 verse 12: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He
that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and
greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto
my Father.
:13 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that
the Father may be glorified in the Son.
:14 If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments."
Two things pop out at us here: First, verse 12: Jesus is going
to His Father, and now the believer in Jesus is to be doing the
works that Jesus was doing while He was here on earth. Why? Because
of verse 13: in order that the Father may be glorified in the
Son, as we ask in Jesus' name. God blesses the things that we
do to glorify Jesus Christ. God desires to be glorified in the
person of His Son.
During the course of our day, all of us will do both ordinary
and "religious" things, in lots of different ways. What
would Jesus do? How would He do it? Even if you think
you already know, ask the Holy Spirit to show you before you get
started. Don't just do it on your own, include Him. God desires
to be glorified in His Son, and the Holy Spirit desires to show
you how to do it. You need to get in the habit of asking.
Along with that, verse 15 gives us a very simple instruction:
"If you love me, keep my commandments." Jesus is going
to expand on that instruction throughout the next three chapters,
but for right now, just take it at face value. Put your
rebellious, self centered attitude on the altar of His cross.
Start doing what the Bible teaches you to do.
Which is more important in your life: what you want or what He
wants? It's a pretty simple choice: how are you going to respond
to it? Let's continue this thought in chapter 15 and verse 7:
"If ye abide in me, and my words
abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done
unto you."
Once again, we see God very plainly telling us: "If
you will do this, I will do that."
There is a condition to us getting results, getting what we ask
for. What is it? What is the condition that we have to fulfill
in order to receive what we ask for? Abiding in Him. Having His
words abide in us. Abiding in Him is a simple concept, and we
need to keep it simple. Keep it as simple as possible: Make
it your goal to do what He wants, turn away from sin, and
when sin happens, confess it and get restored. An easy
concept. And it's something that all of us can get good at. There
is no excuse not to get good at it. No excuse. It is impossible
to get it perfect; keep trying anyway, it's worth the effort.
God expects nothing less than a serious effort.
How about having His words abide in us, like verse 7 says? Does
that mean that we need to memorize the whole Bible? Do we need
to become Bible scholars so that His words can abide in us? No.
It's not how much you know; it's how faithful you are to how much
you do know. My problem is not the parts of the Bible that I don't
understand, my problem is the parts of the Bible that I
understand just fine, and fail to put into practice. Maybe
you have that problem too? Letting His Word abide in us. Letting
His Word determine what we do, how we act.
There is a purpose in all this, verse 8: "Herein is my Father
glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples."
God is doing all this so that we can become more like Jesus. Bringing
forth from within us spiritual fruit. Glorifying Jesus in our
lives.
Like it says over in Galatians: ( 5:22) "... the fruit of
the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith, meekness, temperance." God wants the same sort of
character qualities in us that are in Jesus, qualities that glorify
God, that is what makes us into disciples.
Verse 9: "As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you:
continue ye in my love.
:10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even
as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.
:11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain
in you, and that your joy might be full.
:12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as
I have loved you.
:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his
life for his friends.
:14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you."
Skip down to verse 17: "These things I command you, that
ye love one another."
There is a legend in Greek mythology about a beautiful young man
named Narcissus. He was so handsome that many women courted him,
they all desired him for a lover. But he was so vain and so in
love with himself that he angered the gods. As punishment, the
gods condemned Narcissus to constantly contemplate his beauty
reflected in a pond. Day after day he lay beside the pond, gazing
lovingly at his reflection until he wasted away and died. When
searchers went out to look for him, they found only a flower,
now called the narcissus.
That sort of love has nothing in common with the love of Christ.
The love of God is something that acts towards others, it is both
an emotion and an action that unselfishly chooses the highest
good of another person. Likewise, our Christian love is an emotion
and an action that chooses the highest good of another person,
and then it acts upon that choice.
When I was a little kid, we always lived out in the country, because
my dad didn't make a whole lot of money, and he had learned that
it was cheaper to rent houses out in the country than it was to
rent houses in town. So I spent a lot of time by myself, and that
was fine with me. I was always happy to be by myself, - until
I got old enough to be interested in girls, and then everything
changed.
But once I got married, I would have been happy once again to
be off by myself, just me and my wife. Leading basically a self
centered life, doing what I wanted, doing whatever pleased me.
Then I got saved.
Let me ask you a question: how does a hermit manifest the love
of God to others? How does a hermit glorify Jesus Christ in manifesting
the fruit of the spirit? Is it even possible to live the Christian
life in isolation, just me, myself, and I, minimal interaction
with the rest of society, or especially minimal interaction with
the church; can we do that and still be anywhere close to what
Jesus is talking about in these verses? Is that even possible?
Verse 12 says: "This is my commandment, That ye love one
another, as I have loved you.
:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his
life for his friends.
:14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you."
Where do we see any self love, any self centered lifestyle anywhere
in here? Jesus presents to us a lifestyle that interacts in love
with other people, we interact in love with the other people in
our church, other Christians, the rest of His body, the body of
Christ. That is the normal Christian life. If we are not heading
in this direction, we are probably going the wrong way. Christian
love is not solitary. It is family oriented relative to the local
church family, the local assembly of Christians.
There is also another consideration; What is God's will? We need
to know what God is doing or intending to do if we expect to be
able to do or be what we are supposed to be. Read verse 15 with
me: "Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant
knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends;
for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known
unto you.
:16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained
you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that
your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the
Father in my name, he may give it you."
As we read this verse, it appears to me that we have dual roles
to fill: we are both servants and friends.
Jesus Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and we are not.
We are servants. However we are servants that have been elevated
into a very honored position, we are also friends. But it still
remains that we need to know what God's agenda is and work
for it, He does not ask what our agenda is and then work for us.
We need to know what our Lord is doing and head in that direction.
If we know what God is doing, if we know what God wants, then
we can pray for His will to be done, and we can expect to see
results.
There is a good example in the Bible of how God responds when
we haven't got a clue what He wants, and we ask for stupid
stuff that is not in His will. Turn over to Mark 10:32. This is
just before the Lord was crucified, and it is a good example of
why some prayers don't get answered.
"And they were in the way going up to Jerusalem; and Jesus
went before them: and they were amazed; and as they followed,
they were afraid. And he took again the twelve, and began to tell
them what things should happen unto him,
:33 Saying, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son
of man shall be delivered unto the chief priests, and unto the
scribes; and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver
him to the Gentiles:
:34 And they shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall
spit upon him, and shall kill him: and the third day he shall
rise again.
:35 And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, come unto him, saying,
Master, we would that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall
desire.
:36 And he said unto them, What would ye that I should do for
you?
:37 They said unto him, Grant unto us that we may sit, one on
thy right hand, and the other on thy left hand, in thy glory.
:38 But Jesus said unto them, Ye know not what ye ask: can ye
drink of the cup that I drink of? and be baptized with the baptism
that I am baptized with?
:39 And they said unto him, We can. And Jesus said unto them,
Ye shall indeed drink of the cup that I drink of; and with the
baptism that I am baptized withal shall ye be baptized:
:40 But to sit on my right hand and on my left hand is not
mine to give; but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared."
What James and John wanted was not in God's game plan. It was contrary to His will. Does God ever act contrary to His own will? Does God ever do something to frustrate Himself? There is no scriptural reason to think so. Therefore, we can also ask the question, Does God ever give us something that is contrary to His will, or that would frustrate His will? Once again, there is no reason from the Bible to think that He does, or that He would. So then, if we ask something that is contrary to the will of God, something that is out of His will, is it likely that He would give it to us? No.
God does have His permissive will, and He tolerates us going off headstrong on our own, but where does that leave us? Out of His will and messed up. I think He does that for our instruction and discipline, which is not the same thing as Him giving us things contrary to His will through answered prayers.
Therefore it is necessary for us to know what His will is, before
we go asking for things in prayer. If we go asking for things
in prayer that are contrary to His will, it is impossible for
God to give those things to us. James tells us: "(4:1) From
whence come wars and fightings among you? come they
not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
:2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot
obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
:3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye
may consume it upon your lusts."
What are you asking God for in your prayers, and why are you asking?
Are you asking because you have spent time with Him, in His presence,
in His Word, and you know what He wants to do, and
you are eager to do it? Do you want to see Jesus Christ glorified
in His church, do you want to see the other members of your church
body built up, is that what motivates you? Then you need to be
praying. Those kinds of prayers get answered. Big time.
There is an account given in the third chapter of the book of
Acts where Peter and John heal a crippled man in the name of Jesus.
They are taken before the council, questioned and released. When
they get back to the other Christians, they relate what happened,
and we can read it in Acts 4:24 "And when they heard that,
they lifted up their voice to God with one accord,"
Notice that phrase, it is important.
Now skip down to verse 29: "And now, Lord, behold their threatenings:
and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak
thy word,
:30 By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and
wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus."
Look at what they are asking for: that Jesus would be glorified.
That is important. That was their goal.
Verse 31: "And when they had prayed, the place was shaken
where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with
the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.
:32 And the multitude of them that believed were of one
heart and of one soul:" -That is important
- "neither said any of them that ought of the things
which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.
:33 And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.
:34 Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many
as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the
prices of the things that were sold,
:35 And laid them down at the apostles' feet: and distribution
was made unto every man according as he had need."
Those Christians were all like minded that God would be glorified
in Jesus Christ. They were all willing that their love for each
other would take priority over their personal interests. Those
Christians made themselves an object lesson to be what Jesus had
taught them about on the night that He was crucified.
Those Christians are our role model for today. Question: Do we
need to go and do exactly as they did in every respect in order
to see the power of God on our prayers? I don't think so. Every
situation is different, and every group of Christians will be
different. But their behavior and attitude was certainly
our role model. They got it right. They conformed themselves
to be what Jesus had told them to be, and God wonderfully answered
their prayers.
Did God always answer all their prayers exactly the way they wanted?
No, because later on, that church was greatly persecuted, and
even James was killed. Did that church pray that the persecution
would stop? I expect they did. Did they pray for James? Probably.
Did the persecution stop? No. God used that persecution to scatter
that church, those believers all over the world and spread the
gospel. That would not have happened if there had been no persecution.
Sometimes, with the best of intentions, and the most sincere Bible
study, we just don't know what God is doing. And our prayers get
answered different than what we want. But that's OK. God is God,
and He is allowed to do that. If that's why are prayers don't
get answered, or answered the way we think, it's OK.
We don't always have the big picture, and if God doesn't tell
us His plans, then He doesn't mind if we don't know. That's OK.
What is not OK, is for us to be out of God's will,
going rebelliously on our own, not keeping His Word, and asking
selfish things of Him for the wrong reasons. That's not
OK.
On the night that Jesus was crucified, He gave us a wonderful
privilege. The privilege of asking things of Him in prayer, and
getting what we ask for. That privilege comes with a responsibility.
To ask in such a way that the Father is glorified in His Son.
To keep His commandments. To do what the Bible tells us to do.
To love one another. And to stay in His will.
We ought to be doing all those things anyway, just because they're
right. Just because that is the least that anyone who bears the
name of Christian ought to do. But if we do them,
if that's the way we live, He gives us something
extra besides; to ask great things of Him, and see Him do great
things with His church, before a watching world. He died on the
cross to make it happen. We ought to live our lives on this earth
seeing it happen. Why don't we quit fooling around and just do
it? Why don't we? What are we waiting for? Let's pray.