John 16,23-30. Rogate

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

John 16,23-30              3119

Rogate (5. Sonntag nach Ostern)  040   

Quadratus, Bishop of Athens, disciple of the Apostles, Apologist, ✠ 126 

Coptic Martyrs (28+) in Minya, Egypt ✠ 2017 

26. Mai 2019 

1. O Lord Jesus Christ, our Risen Lord, we ask that Your holy resurrection would be our comfort, so that our firm reliance in faith is acknowledging that in Your grave You did deeply hide our sin and guilt.  Amen. (Löhe 479) 

2. »Jesus said to His disciples: „In that day you will ask nothing of Me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in My Name, He will give it to you. ²⁴Until now you have asked nothing in My Name. Ask, and you will receive, so that your joy may be full. ²⁵I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is arriving when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father. ²⁶In that day you will ask in My Name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; ²⁷for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I arrived from God. ²⁸I arrived from the Father and have gone into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.“ ²⁹His disciples said: „Ah, now You are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech! ³⁰Now we know that You know all things and do not need anyone to question You; this is why we believe that You arrived from God.“« 

  3. Rogate is Latin for ask, and in John 16 Jesus exhorts His disciples to »ask, and you will receive.« Jesus encourages us that the life of a Christian is a life of prayer to God; thus, prayer is a core activity each Sunday as the Church gathers in worship. 

4. Jesus’ exhortation to pray to God the Father in John 16 occurs on Maundy Thursday, and as such is one of the last things He teaches His apostles before He is arrested and crucified. But this is not the first time Jesus taught about prayer, for He had exhorted His apostles several times before about prayer in the Gospels. 

5. Such exhortation is necessary. We tend to live busy and stressful lives, and prayer can be one of the first things to be put aside as we manage our time. Jewish piety in Jesus’ day was to pray in the morning and in the evening. Several psalms encourage morning and evening prayer (Psalm 5,3; 57,7-10; 119,147; Psalm 63,6; 119,55.62). Often times the Jewish people prayed when the morning and evening sacrifices were offered at the temple in Jerusalem so that there would be a connection and a synchronization of prayer with the prayer of the priest, the sacrifice of the animal for forgiveness at that time of day and the praying of the Jewish people wherever they were all aligning at the same time (1. Chronicles 16,40). The apostles and the Church exhort Christians to follow this piety and tradition. By the Medieval Ages the Church had established 7 canonical hours for prayer. Luther gives in his Small Catechism examples of simple morning and evening prayers. In the Lutheran tradition, our hymnals contain at least two prayer services: Matins and Vespers. 

6. Luther’s guide for morning and evening prayer is quite streamlined: Invocation, Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, a morning/evening prayer and a hymn. Luther’s morning prayer is this: „I thank you, my Heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Your dear Son, that You have kept me this night from all harm and danger; and I pray that You would keep me this day also from sin and every evil, so that all my dealings and life may please You. For into Your hands I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let Your holy angel be with me, so that the evil foe may have no power over me. Amen.“ It costs us roughly 5 minutes of our time in the morning and evening to follow Luther’s advice. Luther’s order of prayer is printed in his Small Catechism and in our Lutheran Service Book. 

7. In John 16, Jesus focuses on the object of our prayer, which is God. Jesus says: »Whatever you ask of the Father in My Name, He will give it to you.« Luther explained it this way in his Small Catechism about the Lord’s Prayer: „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.“ And again: „We should be certain that these petitions are pleasing to our Father in heaven, and are heard by Him; for He Himself has commanded us to pray in this way and has promised to hear us.“ 

8. Take your prayers, petitions and concerns to the Lord in prayer, and do so with confidence for our Heavenly Father hears our prayers and answers them. After teaching His disciples the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus said to them: »Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him: „Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him“; and he will answer from within: „Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything“? I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs. And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!« (Luke 11,5-13). 

9. With this parable Jesus teaches us that God the Father loves us, cares for us and provides for us. He wants us to ask things from Him, trust Him and to give thanks for His daily Providence. May the Holy Spirit form in us the habit of daily prayer, for He will listen to the prayer of one who is wronged. The prayer of the humble pierces the clouds, and it will not rest until it reaches its goal; it will not desist until the Most High responds and does justice for the righteous (Ecclesiasticus/Sirach 35, 16b.21-22a).  Amen.  

10. Let us pray. O God the Father, who receives the prayers of His people; receive our songs of praise and the petitions we offer up in prayer, so that in hearing You respond to us and in responding You bless us.  Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 

Soli Deo Gloria

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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. 

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2013 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. 

VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2013 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. 

Löhe, Wilhelm. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Wartburg Publishing House, Chicago circa 1912. Concordia Publishing House; Concordia on Demand.