Rogate 2016 - The Fifth Sunday after Easter.
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
Prayer Is the Fruit of a Christian's Faith
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.
Prayer Is the Fruit of of a Christian's Faith
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.
The opening of this Gospel lesson is the culmination of Jesus' childbirth analogy, comparing His death and resurrection to the experience of labor and the joy of a new baby born. So this passage on prayer follows the pattern seen throughout the New Testament, where the Gospel promises precede the Lord's encouragement to pray.
Coming out of a monastic experience of laws and commands, Luther like to say that God does not command the believer, He persuades. America still suffers from a confusion about prayer, because of the way it is often presented, not to mention confusion about the Word always conveying Jesus through the power of the Spirit.
Evangelical Conversion by Prayer
The typical presentation today has people believing after they hear the Gospel. "What do I do now?" The answer - "Pray for Jesus to enter your heart." There is even a basic Sinner's Prayer along those lines.
The proclamation of the Gospel itself brings Jesus to the individual, whether that person is a believer or not. It is the Holy Spirit working in the Word that does this. The very act of prayer in the Name of Jesus is an act of faith. As Peter said, "I believe. Help my unbelief."
Grace Separated from the Gospel
This should always concern us, that grace is separated from the Gospel proclamation. This happens several ways among the errorists.
The first is the one I just described. The person believes, but he is commanded to pray for grace. He already received grace through the Word, which caused him to believe for the first time - or the Gospel renewed his faith. The message of Jesus' death and resurrection is grace - they are never separated.
Prayer is taught as THE Means of Grace. Worship in church is expected, but not really important. The prayer group (from Pietism) is where grace is received. This comes from Pietism and from Roman Catholic prayer groups (rosary groups) that inspired Spener. As I have said before, someone can be a paid Bible study leader at a Baptist church and brag about never going to church for decades.
Despising the Means of Grace. The Sacraments are denied the power of the visible Word, so Holy Baptism and Holy Communion are neglected and often belittled as mattering very little. This easily collapses in the clown ministries offered in generic circus locations everywhere in every denomination. Do NOT call it a church. Do NOT give it a name associated with the Christian faith. Do NOT wear anything more formal than hiking clothes. Long ago a Church Growth leader among the Lutherans said, "If Jesus were conducting His ministry today"....(He isn't through the Means of Grace?!) "He would have something like The Tonight Show on TV."That minister became a burn-out and lost his entire church empire.
One error piles on another error and this results in confusion and lack of faith in the Gospel itself.
KJV John 16:23 And in that day ye shall ask me nothing.
This is the kind of statement that wakes us up. It does not sound right. In fact, it is stated in such a way that we have to take notice. At the time, the disciples were dependent upon Jesus for everything, and they were always asking Him to teach them and provide for them in various ways. But now, they would ask the Father directly in His Name because they were His brothers by faith. What would move them to ask and persuade them to ask? The energy of the Gospel at work does that.
Luther's Five Requirements of Prayer
1. The Gospel Promise
The first requirement of prayer is the Gospel Promise, as I mentioned above. But this increases in power with its purity. Many hear a watered down Gospel or they listen to a clever combination of Gospel and Law, such as the demand for works "to adorn faith" as the Church of Rome claims.
What does this means - Behold the Lamb of God, who bears the sins of the world?
That means the Son of God has been born of the Virgin, has performed great and unique miracles to confirm His divine Word, and suffered torture and death to pay for all of our sins, His innocence displayed in His resurrection. When we confuse regret over past sins with a lack of forgiveness, we are saying, "That sin remains on Jesus. He has only destroyed and conquered my minor sins, not my major sins. The major sins are still there." That puts a lie on the Gospel message, that Jesus bears all the sins, that He is our righteousness, our perfection that we receive through faith.
The Christian believer is forgiven all sins each day because the Spirit brings Jesus to Him each day. The individual is still a sinner, but sin no longer controls and enslaves him. It is wonderful to see how the Gospel breaks people out of their slavery to impulse, addiction, cruelty, and blasphemy. John Bunyan was such a horrible person that his conversion itself was seen as a Gospel miracle by all his acquaintances. No one was written off more than he was, and the rest of his life consisted of teaching that Gospel, as in The Pilgrim's Progress.
2. Faith in God's Promise
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.
Note this will be written out later, because our neighbor and his little boy came over to visit.
Note this will be written out later, because our neighbor and his little boy came over to visit.
3. Faith That Our Prayer Will Be Heard
4. A Sense of Our Unworthiness
5. That We Never Limit God in Any Way