Today is a big day for Good Shepherd. Today you will be voting on whether or not this church should call a pastor. Right now some of you may be feeling like the Israelites in our OT reading. “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?” Remember that you live in a world that is against God. The world, the devil, and sin all are trying to put out His light wherever it shines. However, this church, this city, this world is not our permanent residence. It is with the Father. Also, know that God is actively working in His church. Again, I don’t mean the physical church, I mean the invisible church, all the believers. His power doesn’t wane, it has not dried up, but is there, it is here, more than ever.
Remember, that in the Lord’s Prayer Thy will be done. You must hold fast to this. This is what James was talking about. Be doers of the word, and not hearers only. This is talking about faith. Do not just hear that God is in control, but believe it. Do not just hear that He cares for you, but believe it. Do not just hear that he died for you, but believe He died for you. Trust in Him, that He continues to care for you physically and spiritually. Believe that Christ has done all for you and your sins are forgiven. Have confidence that He was victorious and has paid for you with His death and resurrection so that you are counted as righteous. Whatever, happens on this earth, here in this church, will be for good. I know all of you want to make a God pleasing decision. Yet, I want you all to understand that in trusting in Him, having faith that God is in control, whatever decision you do make will be God pleasing.
Whatever you do, ask! Jesus says “Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.” Do not just hear that you can ask the Father in Jesus name, but believe He will give it to you. I remember when my sons didn’t know the price of things and they would ask for the most expensive things innocently as if there was a chance to get them and I would have to tell them no it is too expensive. I am on a budget, but your Father is not. Your Father, loves you, He loves you as His children. Why? You have been made His children by being brought into Christ’s death and resurrection in your baptism. You literally, had and still have His name placed upon you. Look at the OT example, God’s people after being rebellious cried out for salvation and were given a pole with the bronze serpent on top to spare them from death. Even more powerful, God sent His son to this rebellious people to hang on a cross so that you would be spared eternal death. The Lord provides for His people.
What does it to ask in the name of Christ? It means you have faith that all things Christ did and said are valid. You confess as the disciples confessed “We believe that you came from God.” You have faith that all of it culminated at the cross in which He paid for the sins of the world, died and was buried. It is knowing that He is the only Way, the only truth, and the only Life. It is knowing that it is only by Christ’s payment that you indeed have a relationship with the Father. Through this relationship you are shown the love the Father shows His Son. You are given what you ask because Christ has robed you with His righteousness.
Listen to these words from Christ “The Father Himself loves you, because you have loved me and believed that I came from God.” The Holy Spirit has given you the faith to believe in Jesus. He has done that through His Word and Sacraments. Your faith in Jesus, your love toward Him is why the Father loves you. God has started this snowball of love. Where it continually gets reciprocated, from Him to you, from you to Him, and so on and so on. The love you give is only from the love you have received. You love because He first loved you. Your ability to love is because you have been grafted into the love that continually is shared back and forth from the Father and the Son. You have been given His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, and now you too partake in this love that is poured out in a superabundance.
Jesus continues with “I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.” Again, this is Christ doing. This is God’s expression of His love that He came down from heaven from the Father, to come into the world so that He could redeem the world. He leaves it so that your new home with Him would be established in heaven. All of this is God showing you His love. He speaks plainly and the disciples now hear Him plainly. Here Christ has summed up who He is and what He is to do so that mankind could be reconciled to God. Upon hearing this truth. The disciples respond with their confession. We know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that you came from God.
Dear Christian, you know this truth too. Do you still question Him? Have you forgotten that He knows all things? Do you hold fast that He is in control? If not repent.
He knows that you will not always hold fast to the truth. Christ even tells the disciples, “Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone.” Here Christ reminds you that you will falter that you will go run off to what makes you feel safe and leave Christ alone. Just as the disciples abandoned Jesus before He went to the cross, so do you also abandon Him. Look to the law and see how you have fared.
In this Christ also shows you that the life of a Christian is not easy. There will be many trials, there will be many tribulations. There will be heartache and hurt. All of this not caused by Him, but because you now are one of His. However, look to the Israelites as a reminder that all of the pain, suffering, and hurt you face in this life is temporary. That even though things may not seem clear and the future looks bleak God delivered the Israelites. Even though they were a stubborn and stiff necked people God was faithful to them. If He was faithful to them. How much more confidence do you have that He will be faithful to you as His son or daughter. God’s faithfulness to you will always remain even in your darkest hour. This guarantee is found in Christ crucified and solidified in Christ resurrected.
So, yes, you as the disciples have left Christ alone, and He knew this. He knew this before He came down in the first place. He knew this before the world was created. He knew your sin and still came anyway. He, Jesus, knew that He would be and still is victorious. That even your sin cannot withstand the love God has for us. He knew the tribulations that would come to mankind, but what does Christ say? I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace.
Whatever comes your way, whatever you face, have peace! Christ gives you peace. He gives you peace because death, sin, and the devil have now sway over you. You are free. Your home is in heaven. The New Jerusalem, the possession of peace. He has made you a citizen by His spilt blood because He faced God’s wrath alone so that you could be more than conquerors. Take heart, Jesus has overcome the world. He gives you the ability to ask and receive so that your joy may be full.
SDG
Pr. Daniel Holm
John 16
23 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. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.
“I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father. In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”
His disciples said, “Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech! Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that you came from God.” Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
Numbers 21
4 From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.
James 1
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.