A New Relationship With the Father is Yours

Text: John 16:23-31

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  Rogate Sunday Service | May 25 2025|
  

John 16:23-31

Jonah Albrecht

Rogate Sunday May 25^th, 2025

John 16:23-30

A New Relationship is Yours With the Father

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. ²⁴ Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. ²⁵ “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. ²⁶ 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; ²⁷ for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. ²⁸ I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.” ²⁹ His disciples said, “Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech! ³⁰ 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.”

INJ whose blood has set us free to be people of God, DFR:

In 1938, scientist at Harvard University began to track the health of 268 Harvard sophomores. The goal was to discover any correlation to leading healthy and happy lives. For over 80 years Harvard has conducted this study and expanded it to include spouses of the original students as well as their descendants. Of the original 268, only 19 are still alive. Participants followed many different paths in life One finding stood out in particular. Robert Waldinger, the director of the study, said, “The surprising finding is that our relationships and how happy we are in our relationships has a powerful influence on our health. Taking care of your body is important, but tending to your relationships is a form of self-care too. That, I think, is the revelation.”

It’s not money; it’s not fame; it’s not success that creates a happy life. It is cultivating good and personal relationships with other people. As Christians, it is a no-brainer and we don’t have to perform an 80+ year study to come to that conclusion. We can simply look at thousands of years of history and one of the first words God spoke concerning mankind: “Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” Even in a perfect world, mankind was never meant to be alone, but to share life with one another and grow together.

But true happiness and joy, the type that lasts, cannot come just from our relationships with each other. It must start with God. And yet, that’s where we have a problem isn’t it? Who among us has a perfect relationship with God? Aan any one of you walk into heaven right now and talk to the Most High God, the Creator of the Universe, the Judge over all the earth, the one whom man shall not gaze upon and live? Jesus tells us the answer in our text this morning and that answer is a resounding YES! You have, right now, a new relationship with the Triune God through your Savior Jesus, and it is the one relationship that matters the most.

It’s important to remember the context of whatever section of Scripture you are reading. Here in John 16, Jesus is instructing His disciples as they are walking towards the Garden at Gethsemane. It will be the last opportunity He has to instruct them before He is arrested and put to death. After Jesus dies and rises from the dead, everything changes. He says:

²⁸ I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”

Up to this point, the disciples have been able to take every squabble, every question, every request directly to Jesus Himself and ask for His help. Obviously, they would no longer be able to do that once He is arrested and put to death. He is no longer alive. Once Jesus ascended into heaven, He would no longer be physically present for them to go to. Jesus is saying their relationship is about to change, but in a very good way.

Think back to the relationship of people to the Father in Israel’s history. There is only one time the Father spoke directly to the people and that was at Mount Sinai. The people were so terrified that they never wanted God to speak directly to them again – it was because He was holy and they were not.

For their entire history, the common man in the nation of Israel dared not approach God directly, lest they are unworthy and perish. Instead, they would go through an appointed person to intercede on their behalf. Moses, or a high priest – people who were set apart by God to be the go-between. The high priests had to go through very detailed cleansing rituals, offer specific sacrifices, and on top of that, only one person, once a year, could go directly into the Holy of Holies where God’s presence rested. Any failure to keep God’s instructions would result in death because they are a sinful human being in the presence of pure holiness.

Even for the disciples, they had a go-between, Jesus, who was in the state of humiliation. That is, as Paul says in Philippians 2, “though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in human form, he humbled himself… (Phil. 2:6-8 ESV). Jesus whose glory and holiness was “hidden” so to speak, was approachable as one human would be to any other human. But without Jesus, what are they to do?

We face the same problem, don’t we? Are we not also sinful human beings who are not worthy to enter the presence of God? We are like the prophet Isaiah, who, when he saw the throne of God he said, “Woe is me, I am undone! For I am a man of unclean lips.” When you entered this building this morning, did you realize that you were approaching the throne of God, with all your sins and trespasses hanging on your shoulders as if you were dressed in them? What we see around us is a building with seats and an altar and pulpit. But truly this is God’s temple. It is a place dedicated to Him and to the preaching of His Word, a place that we ought to treat with reverence for it is where He has come to dwell with us in His Word.

If this is where the holy presence of God dwells, then why didn’t you fall over dead as soon as you walked in those doors. Why didn’t I keel over as we opened our service with prayer to our Heavenly Father? By our own admission in the confession of sins, we should have! We are guilty! We are unworthy! We are feeble! … We are children? We are forgiven? We are redeemed, restored, covered, holy? YES, and so much more!

You see, you did not enter those doors alone. You brought your sin and your guilt of course, but you also came wearing a white robe of pure holiness that belongs to your Savior Jesus. You entered this building in the name of the one and only Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus. You came with Jesus who changed your relationship status with God forever – from sinner to holy child of God. Those sins and trespasses you brough with you are taken away. He went to the cross in order to pay for your sins and deliver you from its guilt. He rose from the dead to bring you life everlasting, a life that includes a personal, direct relationship with your Father in heaven.

You live out this relationship with God much more often than you think. It isn’t just every time you come to church, but as Jesus says, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, HE will give it to you. Anytime you approach in the name of Jesus, you are making use of this new relationship.

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. ²⁶ 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; ²⁷ for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.

According to the Pew Research Center, about 60% of American Christians pray daily. 23% pray weekly, presumably at church, and 13% almost never pray. Which category do you fit in? How -often do you engage in a heart-to-heart talk with God? I’m confident I can say not nearly enough. Because they Bible tells us, pray without ceasing (1 Thess. 5:17 ESV). Pray without stopping, ever. And you have the best reason to pray always.

What does prayer mean to you? The catechetical definition is: a heart-to-heart talk with God. It means that you have immediate and complete access to the God who created you without fear that you will be turned away and with the certainty that He will hear and answer your prayer. The possibilities for your prayer are endless. There isn’t a prayer request too simple or foolish; no prayer that is too high stakes or too much of an ask. Remember, Jesus said, “Whatever you as the Father in My name, He will give it to you.”

When, in a few moments, you say the words, “Our Father, who art in Heaven.” Martin Luther said, “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.” We can have all boldness and confidence because we do not approach God on the merits of our own person, but on the merits of our Savior, and on the promises He has made in His Word to hear and answer us. It isn’t Jesus who asks the Father for you, but you yourself who asks the Father, for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. There is but one requirement to be able to go to the Father in prayer and that is faith. A simple, child-like faith that takes God at His Word and rejoices in the blessings that are yours through Jesus.

Did you notice the one condition as to the content of our prayers? Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Scoffers will say, “Jesus says you can pray for whatever you want, and God will give it to you, but that doesn’t happen!” And they are right. It would be foolish for us to think that we can pray for a new car and expect a car to be waiting for you in the parking lot after church. That is missing an important part of how Jesus tells us to pray: in my name.

When we pray in Jesus’ name, it means to pray according to His will and not our own. It is to pray for what He knows is best for us and not what we think is best. And, of course, we should want to pray according to His name. When it comes time to decide what to eat for supper, who knows better: The child who always wants cotton candy and ice cream? Or the parent who knows their child needs protein and fruits and veggies? The answer cannot be more obvious. How much more so is it with our heavenly Father!?

Should we trust our will – a will that is tainted by sin and is more selfish than anything else? Or should we trust the will of Him who redeemed us from our sin – the One from whom every good and perfect gift comes and with whom there is no variation or change? How much better it is to trust the one who can turn our sorrows into unending joy; the one who is our Good Shepherd who calms our fears and gently guides us!

Finally, when we pray in Jesus’ name, we remind ourselves of the relationship that we have with God in Him. That God, in Christ, has reconciled us to Himself that we should be His ambassadors for the Gospel so that more may enter this relationship with God and come into His presence in Jesus’ name. Amen.