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| Ascension Service - Holy Communion, 7 PM, May 10th |
The Fifth Sunday after Easter - Rogate 2018
Pastor Gregory L. Jackson
The Hymn # 202 Welcome Happy Morning
The Confession of Sins
The Absolution
The Introit p. 16
The Gloria Patri
The Kyrie p. 17
The Gloria in Excelsis
The Salutation and Collect p. 19
The Epistle and Gradual
The Gospel
Glory be to Thee, O Lord!
Praise be to Thee, O Christ!
The Nicene Creed p. 22
The Sermon Hymn #454 Prayer Is the Soul's Sincere Desire
Limiting God Is the Problem
The Communion Hymn # 207 Like the Golden Sun
The Preface p. 24
The Sanctus p. 26
The Lord's Prayer p. 27
The Words of Institution
The Agnus Dei p. 28
The Nunc Dimittis p. 29
The Benediction p. 31
The Hymn #457 What a Friend We Have in Jesus
KJV James 1:22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. 23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: 24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. 25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. 26 If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. 27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
KJV John 16:23 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. 29 His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. 30 Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God.
Fifth Sunday After Easter
Lord God, heavenly Father, who through Thy Son didst promise us that whatsoever we ask in His name Thou wilt give us: We beseech Thee, keep us in Thy word, and grant us Thy Holy Spirit, that He may govern us according to Thy will; protect us from the power of the devil, from false doctrine and worship; also defend our lives against all danger; grant us Thy blessing and peace, that we may in all things perceive Thy merciful help, and both now and forever praise and glorify Thee as our gracious Father, through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one true God, world without end. Amen.
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| The early Christians considered dying for the faith a great honor. Stephen is memorialized in the New Testament - the crown of life. Europeans said, "No cross, no crown." |
Limiting God Is the Problem
KJV John 16:23 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.
This Sunday precedes Ascension Day and emphasizes prayer, since earlier generations were dependent upon God's Creation and the bounty of the earth. The only thing I remember about it from childhood is wondering about the name each year. But if we recall the word interrogation, we can see the Latin word for "ask" in Rogate Sunday. Praying is asking, so this Sunday emphasizes Jesus teach His disciples about prayer.
The disciples were traveling with Jesus and therefore dependent upon Him in every way. So in this farewell sermon we see Him teaching them how to deal with this apparent void in their lives. The Savior will still be with them, but not visibly. Before, He prayed for them. Next they would pray to the Father in His Name.
One of the terrible characteristics of this age is being afraid to pray in the Name of Jesus Christ. We attended a graduation long ago, where the chaplain went beyond that mockery to say we should pray silently to whatever power we believed. Campus chaplains are always ahead of the game.
The new Pharisees want to silence any prayer in the Name of Christ. Thus they oppose faith where it is most evident.
24 Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.
Prayer is the outward sign of faith or unfaith. Jesus urged His disciples to ask the Father because they would then receive from the Father. The progression is clear - asking in the Name of Jesus is treated the same as Jesus asking. Though we pray, God answers as though the Only-Begotten Son is asking. We do not have the merit to pray, but we wear the robe of righteousness given to us through faith in the Son.
ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.
This is a great Promise, not only that asking will mean receiving but that it will fill believers with with joy. That naturally suggests the prayers fulfilled. So this first admonition gives us faith to pray because otherwise we would not even start.
God gives us the confidence to do what He commands, because His Promises support and enliven our faith in Him.
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.
We do not begin with the capacity to understand everything in the Scriptures. That ability grows with time spent in the Word. That was true of the disciples. Much of what they heard and experienced went past them, because they were beginners dealing with a change in the entire world. Jesus became plainer in His Word as they developed as His disciples. In the same way, we grow slowly through the Word and suddenly it seems one phrase will make so much sense. We knew it, said it, repeated it, but later we came to know what it meant.
But the Scriptures are a vast treasury. Luther compared it to a goldmine where the veins make people dig them out. And yet the more the mine is mined, the larger and longer the tunnels become, the greater the treasure is. That is because the each part is directly linked to the rest. Jonah pre-figures Christ, and so forth.
Jesus spoke in parables so that the casual observers did not grasp them at all, and that is still true today. But when He wanted the Pharisees to understand, they did, and they were ready to kill Him for it.
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.
God gives us the confidence to pray in the Name of Jesus and urges us to pray, repeatedly. It is all through the New Testament. Notice the repetition here, which shows the teaching style of Jesus. He just said this - why the repetition - but then He adds a little more - one of the great Gospel statements of the Bible.
27 For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.
The Father loves those who love Jesus and believe He is the Only-Begotten Son of the Father. Once again, those who deny the Virgin Birth in John's work (and in Paul's) fail to see parallel constructions which say as much as the Virgin Birth or more. Although the Virgin Birth is a great miracle, that also includes the Incarnation. John 1 reveals this is cosmic - through the Logos, the Son, all things were created. Nothing apart from Him was created. As I have said many times before, the Fourth Gospel builds on the first three, so the Virgin Birth is not debated - it is given. What does it mean here? Jesus came from out of the Father, as we say in the Creed - Very God of Very God, begotten not made.
The guilty and fearful do not ask, they are more likely to run away. But Jesus' words replace that response with God's gracious love, revealed in Christ, then magnified by the fact of the Father loving us for the work done through Christ.
28 I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father. 29 His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. 30 Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God.
This is another great statement from Christ and a proclamation of His future Ascension, returning to the Father. The disciples confessed their faith in Him and their reception of His message to them.
The Issue - Faith
We are living in the era of the neos. By that I mean so many religious types who use the words of faith but have little faith in the basics of Scriptures and the Holy Trinity. The slow erosion has a tremendous effect on everyone. That is why we hear of so many clever human gimmicks for fixing everything, but the new fads are nothing more than man's imagination, often a fad dug up from the past.
As I told one member last night, it would be a big search to find any theologians today who is not a slave to rationalism, as my ND friend said - "Faith without belief." Or in another quip - "A liberal with a sentimental attachment to the Bible." That was his description of Blessed Rage for Order, a book I never suffered from reading. But I often heard liberals gasp as they mentioned the book, really the best of everything - radical agenda, words of faith, but no belief.
Prayer is impossible without faith, and this faith comes from the Means of Grace. We do not pray Jesus into our hearts. How can we pray for that without faith? Faith starts with preaching the Gospel, either to adults with the spoken Word or through baptism with infants, through the water and the Word, the Holy Spirit active in the Gospel in both circumstances.
The problem with starting with prayer is that every pagan prays, so that vague, appealing to apostates, and not in harmony with the Word.
The Word brings Jesus to us and us to Jesus. In prayer we have the chance to trust God with everything and to gain from that meeting.
Limiting God Is the Problem
Doubting is always going to accompany faith. A major part of doubting is first of all - failing to ask; then coming short in confidence. But the biggest short-circuit currently is limiting God.
- The prayer has to be answered this minute.
- The prayer has to be answered the way I wish.
- The circumstances must fit what I ask.
- The manner of fulfilling the request must suit my standards.
But - the thorn in the flesh may remain, as Paul came to understand, to show that His power is perfected in weakness, to show His grace is sufficient.
Doubtless every congregation and minister has wanted a glorious church that will wow the unbelievers. But in the light of spiritual fruits, where is that on the list? I have a collection of photos - former largest church buildings. They turn into gigantic white elephants in time and cannot be sold for their cost.
If we give up on the limitations we would give God in prayer, we are more aware of the blessings He delivers in addition to and apart from our actual requests.
One chaplain wrote about his work with someone who had a horrible childhood, a real nightmare. He asked her what her biggest burden was. She said "Shame." That was not her fault, but that weighed on her terribly. He said, "Let Jesus take it away." And she did that in prayer and became better. I had an experience like that and when the individual returned, I did not recognize her. She came by to say thank you and everything was better.
The biggest request in prayer can be something no one sees but the believer feels so much it is agony and a terrible weight to bear.
The Holy Spirit was kind in not identifying Paul's thorn in the flesh. Otherwise if it had been a specific malady, people would say, "Well, I do not have that."
But he prayed earnestly three times for God to take it away, and given perfectionism of Paul, that must have been impressive. But his answer was that he would live with it, suffer from it, and see how God worked in him anyway - so it was God's work and not his. Such epiphanies can be quite liberating because the thorn is no longer a thorn but a well-disguised blessing. It may be a blessing for others but a burden for the individual, but finally seen as a blessing after all.
So Luther says, God does not take the affliction from our hearts, but our hearts from the affliction. The affliction remains but we see that we are living in a garden of roses.
