The Bible Top 40

Assurance of Answered Prayer

John 16:24

This morning I’m going to start out with something a little different. I have a gift for the first person to come up here and ask for it.

[Wait for someone to come up and ask for the gift]

What was necessary for this transaction to take place?

• First, there had to be belief that what I was offering was real, and would be beneficial to the recipient.
• Secondly, there had to be belief that I would do what I said I would do.
• Third, someone had to actually ask, and receive it.

[To recipient] I hope you enjoy your meal at Yesterday’s Grill.

Today we are going to talk about prayer.

Video clip from Deep Impact

[The president of the US tells the world that a meteor is about to strike the earth, and great death will result – he prays for God’s mercy and blessing.]

For many of us, that is the type of prayer we know best – prayers that are offered when our world is coming to an end. But there is much more to prayer than getting things from God, or seeking His intervention when we are in trouble. I believe that prayer is the most important, most misunderstood, most powerful and most ignored part of the Christian life. Today we are going to look at a verse of Scripture that is filled with promise and hope. I believe it is one of the Bible Top 40, a verse that every person ought to know. It also happens to be a verse that has been abused over the past few years. It is found in the book of the John, chapter 16. (pg. 728).

The biography of Jesus that John wrote is unlike any of the other three biographies that are found in the New Testament. Matthew and Luke all wrote complete life stories of Jesus, from birth to death and resurrection. Mark’s biography covers primarily the years of ministry. The Gospel of John was written after those three had already been available for a few years, and so John focused on what he believed was the most critical part of Jesus life, the last week. More than half of the action in this book took place during that last week. The words we are going to be looking at today were written in what has come to be called “the Upper Room,” the place where Jesus and His disciples went to celebrate the Passover – a meal that is known as “The Last Supper.” It was here that Jesus explicitly laid out for these twelve closest followers what was about to unfold over the next few hours and days. He told them that one of them was going to betray Him He was going to leave them. They were not going to see Him for a while. He was about to die.

I imagine the disciples felt like the people in the movie clip we saw. Their world was about to come to an end. They had been faithfully following Jesus for three years. They had left family and riches and security behind to dedicate their lives to this one they believed to be the Messiah, the one who would deliver them from Roman occupation. They had marched into Jerusalem with Him just 5 days earlier and the people had been ready to crown Him king – and now He was going to die?

In the midst of that shock and fear, Jesus shared some of the most comforting words in all of Scripture. He talked about the promise of heaven, which Jeff Schmidt is going to share with us in a couple of weeks. He talked about the coming of the Holy Spirit, and of the amazing gifts and power that He would give to His followers as a result. It was in that context that we read our text for today. Let’s pick up the conversation starting with verse 12 of John chapter 16

[Read John 16:12-24]

And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full.

Up to this point in their walk with Jesus, the disciples had not asked the Father for anything. Jesus was with them, and if they wanted something, they went to Him. This was a normal condition for the Jewish people. They went to God through their rabbi, or priest. They had to have an intermediary, someone with access to God. What Jesus tells them, and us, in these verses is that we can now go directly to the Father. That was, and still is, radical teaching! Do you know that there are still a lot of people who don’t believe that? They feel that they can’t effectively go to God, they have to go through some other means? But Jesus teaches, for the first time in human history, that we can go to God directly. This is further stated by the writer of Hebrews, who says, “Let us therefore come boldly before the throne of grace…” Jesus has made the way to the Father accessible to each of us.

That access was made possible by Jesus death. That is why He says, “Until now…” It was not possible prior to the death and resurrection of Jesus. Hebrews tells us that it is because Jesus was tempted in every way, and was victorious over sin and death, that we have this access directly to the Father. There are those who teach that you need to get to the Father through the Son, and to the Son through some saint – but Jesus says clearly here that we don’t even have to ask HIM – He says, “in that day you will ask Me nothing… {but} whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you.” When we pray, we pray directly to the Father, in the name of Jesus. Jesus is there at the right hand of the Father as a living and ever-present testimony of the access He has granted us.

Not only do we have access to God, but we have a promise from Jesus, that whatever we ask for in His name, by His authority, we will receive. This is precisely where the abuse of this verse has occurred over the years.

There are those who believe, and teach, that God wants you to be a millionaire. They teach that when you speak something, it will become real. The leaders of this movement go so far as to say that what you say, determines everything that happens to you. Your "confessions," that is, the things you say -- especially the favors you demand of God -- must all be stated positively and without wavering. Then God is required to answer. Word-Faith believers view their positive confessions as an incantation by which they can conjure up anything they desire: "Believe it in your heart; say it with your mouth. That is the principle of faith. You can have what you say" (Charismatic Chaos, pp. 281, 285).

Folks, this teaching is not Biblical. It is not in keeping with the letter or the spirit of the Word of God. All through Scripture there are examples of people praying for specific things which they do not get. Moses wanted God to find someone else to do His work. Later he prayed for a Nation of people who would be faithful to God. Later he asked to be allowed to enter the promised land, but was refused because of his earlier disobedience. David fasted and prayed that his child would not die. Paul prayed for deliverance from a physical condition, and was refused. Jesus asked the Father to find some other way than the cross, but was obedient to that death. Why is it that we see these who did not get everything they wanted, but somehow we want to believe that WE somehow can tell God what to do, and demand anything we desire?

If that is not a correct interpretation of this verse, then what is?

The clear teaching of Jesus is that if we ask in His name, then we will receive. Andrew Murray, in his classic book With Christ in the School of Prayer, says,

Ask and you will receive; everyone who asks receives. This is the eternal law of the Kingdom. If you ask and receive not, it must be because there is something wrong or missing in the prayer. Let the Word and Spirit teach you to pray properly. But do not lose the confidence He wants to give you, that everyone who asks, receives.

You see, the fatal flaw of the heresy we described earlier is the concept that somehow we know what is best – that God will bend His sovereign rule over the universe to our whim of desire. Thankfully that is not true. God answers us, and He gives us everything we ask, when it is done in Jesus’ name, that is, in His authority, in keeping with His purposes, and according to His will. And sometimes we ask for things that are not in keeping with that will of God, and in those cases, what we receive from our prayer is a “No.” In each case that we discussed earlier, from Moses to Jesus, they knew by God’s answer that they were not asking according to His will. James said, “You ask and receive not because you ask amiss…” Jesus’ payer in the Garden is the clearest example. While asking for what He wanted, He also yielded to God’s sovereignty, “Not My will buy Yours be done…”

Jesus words in John 15:7 bear this out, Jesus said “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you shall ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.” The key to that verse is not in the asking, but in the abiding. We receive whatever we ask when we are abiding in the word and will of God.

Jesus closes this thought with the promise that when we ask these things in His name, and we receive them as a result of asking, that “our joy will be full.” We can have the complete assurance that when we ask, and when we receive the answer, be it a “Yes,” or a “No,” that our joy will be complete.

The most complete joy we can have is knowing that we are keeping step with the will and direction of God. When I asked for someone to come up and take an envelope this morning, they came up in faith that I was only going to give them something that would bring joy to them. I could have given them an envelope laced with anthrax. But they had faith that I would give them something good.

Jesus said, “If you, then, being 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?” (Matt 7:11) As we ask Him for that which we FEEL we need, we trust that He will give us what He KNOWS we need.

This week in my study I found a poem that was carried by a Confederate Soldier during the Civil War. It read:

I asked God for strength, that I might achieve;

I was made weak, that I may learn humbly to obey.

I asked God for health, that I may do greater things:

I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.

I asked for riches that I may be happy;

I was given poverty, that I might be wise.

I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men;

I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life;

I was given life, that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing I asked for, but everything I hoped for.

I am, among all men, most richly blessed.

The words of one whose joy is full.

There is not greater joy, no richer life, than the life that is submitted to God. It is the life that can take hold of these words, and have this assurance of answered prayer. “Until now you have asked nothing in my name, ask and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”