Troublesome Questions . . . Timeless Answers

Whatever you ask in my name, that will I do. Great! Period! Exclamation point!

Let's go! Oh, wait, hold on. That the Father may be glorified in the Son. The main purpose of prayer, ladies and gentlemen, is not to get us out of trouble. If that were the case, then God could be treated like I'm afraid many of us treat him, like a genie.

A bottle is labeled prayer and we rub that bottle or that lamp and God the genie appears with the words, And what do you wish, Master? Jesus' disciples were a curious bunch. In the Gospel of John, we have a record of the disciples having some questions for Jesus.

Their curiosity is great news for us. Oftentimes the questions they asked Jesus reflect our own questions. And the answers Jesus gives provides help to our own souls. Today we look at a passage where Philip had a question for the Lord. Stephen's going to ask and answer 12 additional questions. This is Wisdom for the Heart. Stephen Davey is calling this lesson, Troublesome Questions, Timeless Answers.

Let's join him for this message right now. You know by now, if you've been studying with us, that the disciples' hearts are troubled. They're hurting. They're frustrated. Jesus Christ has just informed them that there is a betrayer in the room, that there is a denier in their courageous lion-hearted Peter. He will turn chicken and run. And he himself, the most troubling news of all, will leave them alone.

And they are troubled and worried. And so this Gospel account, as we've been studying it, is nothing more than a rapid-fire, panic-stricken dialogue between frightened disciples and a gentle yet firm master teacher. So far in this study, we have seen Peter, and we have heard him ask the question, Lord, where are you going? And the Lord answered Peter by saying, I'm going to the Father's house, and I'm going to add on a wing for you. Then we heard the next question come from the lips of Thomas, who said, Lord, how do we get to the Father's house?

And he said, well, I won't tell you the way, but I will be for you the way. Now it's Philip's turn to raise his hand, and that's where we'll pick up our study, in John chapter 14, verse 8. Philip raises his hand, as it were, and asks a question.

That's really a request. Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us. Which is a classic statement, because you could summarize this question by a request saying this, Lord, you've just told us that you're going to leave us and go someplace we've never seen or never been. And then we've asked you how to get there, and you respond by telling us, I'm not going to give you directions, I'm not going to give you a detailed map, I will be the map.

But then you said that you will be leaving, so how do we follow you who we can't see go to a place where we can't see as well? Lord, just show us the Father. Give us a visible, tangible something to hang our hats of faith on.

Would you just give us a vision, please? And I'm sure all of the other fellows chipped in, yeah, Lord, would you show us something? Show us the Father. And if you do, wow, that'll satisfy us.

That'll be enough. In a voice that I think was probably firm yet gentle, Jesus responds to Philip and to the others in verse 9, Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How do you say, show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?

By the way, there isn't a stronger passage on the deity of Jesus Christ than this one here. You want to see the Father? You're looking at him. You want to see God?

Look at me, he said. Now notice the latter part of the verse, verse 10. The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own initiative, but the Father abiding in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me otherwise believe on account of the works themselves. You hear me speak?

Jesus said. You're hearing the words of God. You see the works that I do? You're observing the works of God. We are one and the same. Now what I want to do is ask and answer a number of questions, and they were intended by way of answer to reassure the apostles' hearts, and I think they'll reassure ours as well.

The first question is this. What tangible things did Christ remind Philip of that could reassure his heart, and in the process reassure our hearts as well? Get your pencils out or your pens and be ready to underline or circle two words in your Bible, because they were for him and they are for us today. Here are the tangible things.

There are two of them. The first part of verse 10, the words that I say to you, circle the word words. The latter part of verse 11, otherwise, believe on account of the works themselves.

These are the tangible hooks upon which you can hang your shield of faith, the words and works of Christ, because when you see those works, you are seeing the works of God. When you hear those words, you are hearing the words of God, and we have the same assurance ourselves. So Jesus Christ is assuring Philip that he has the same thing that we can assure our hearts that we have today, his words and his works.

Question number two. Will we, as Christ's disciples, be able to do greater miracles than Christ did? Look back at your Bibles, the first part of verse 12. Jesus says, truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, shall he do also. And greater works than these shall he do, because I go to the Father.

Wow! Can I expect to do what Christ did? Can I cause blind people to see, lame people to walk?

Could I expect to go to Lake Jordan and walk on top of the water? Could I take bread and fish and multiply it to feed all of you after the service today? Is that what he's saying? Seems like that's what he's saying. Let me say something, and I want you to listen carefully. While I believe that God is today performing miracles in wonderful ways, I do not believe there are miracle workers working today. And as one country preacher would say, that's a whole other subject, and we'll get into that as we enter the book of Acts together. But let's answer the dilemma here in this passage. Jesus says, look at it, you will be able to do greater things than I have done.

Now that's troubling, why? Because is he saying that I, the creature, will be stronger and more powerful than he, the Creator? I will do more powerful things?

Yes! That's what he's saying, isn't it? Well the question is, what does Jesus mean by the word greater? You will do greater works. It seems to me that our discussion should hinge upon the word greater. What does he mean? And if it is the same, then we could expect to stay for lunch.

I would hate to disappoint you. The word greater, let me give you a couple of thoughts, does not refer to more powerful miracles where I could expect to heal you or feed you. The word greater refers to greater in, first of all, kind. Greater in kind.

Let me illustrate. Jesus healed a leper, but that leper would, through age, have skin that would again wrinkle and ultimately perish. But if you, like Dr. Philip Yancey, as a disciple of Christ, lead that leper to faith in Jesus Christ, though his skin will again wrinkle, he will awake to a new body. See, that is a greater miracle.

It's greater in kind. Lazarus, whom Jesus called from the tomb, which would be the distinguishing miracle of the Messiah, he was able to have power over the grave. He would bring him to life. Lazarus would have to die again. But if you could take a person and bring them to faith in Jesus Christ, that person will spiritually never die, but live forever in the Father's house. That's greater than what he did with his three and a half years of healing. I think that's part of it.

Now, let me give you a second thought. We will do greater works, not only in kind, but in breadth. If you study the ministry of Jesus Christ, you'll soon discover that his ministry was incredibly small. He traveled about 100 miles north to south, 40 miles east to west. He never preached outside of Palestine. Great nations and countries, China and Europe, never heard him preach, and they never heard his message. And when he left, he had a group of scared disciples when he hung on that cross. And when he ascended, there were about 100 plus. The end of his ministry, you would not consider it all that great. In fact, his ministry was so limited that the famous agnostic, David Hume, would pick up on that, and he would scour the Christian faith by writing things like this.

It is immoral for God to expect the whole world to believe something that was limited to such a small area of the world, given in such a short span of time and only one culture. For us, we know that Jesus Christ's earthly ministry was like dropping a huge rock in a pond. And though limited initially, the ripples from that impact will reach every shore. And what we are doing, as it were, is fulfilling the words of Jesus Christ. We are involved in something greater in breath. So that this very day, a member of our church is ministering in the Ukraine for a week with our missionaries. On this day, we are impacting indirectly by our support of ministry in Japan. We are reaching into the lives of American natives on an Indian reservation in Canada. We're reaching San Salvadorians for the cause of Jesus Christ. We're reaching into the hearts of French servicemen in Toulon. We are involved in something far greater than Palestine.

The ripples are reaching the rest of the world. Jesus has an effect then that you and I as his disciples will be involved in things far greater in kind and in breath. Now don't overlook the last part of that verse, by the way. He said, because I go back to the Father. See, you and I will do great things, not because of our great faith, but because of his great faithfulness and interceding for us as we work for him. Now, that introduces us to this next and troubling, equally troubling verse. Initially, we look at verse 13 and we scratch our heads and ask other questions. Whatever you ask in my name, Jesus said, that will I do that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

It's exciting. Maybe we ought to stop now and just start asking. Will Jesus give us anything we ask in faith, believing? And what if we gather two or more to agree with us?

Will that really get his attention? Will he give it to us then? Hold your finger there and turn over just a page to chapter 16. There is a parallel passage of Scripture that we will deal with only in our study today because it relates to the same discussion. Chapter 16, verse 23.

In that day, you will ask me no questions, like they're doing now. But truly, truly, I say to you, if you shall ask the Father for anything, he will give it to you in my name. Until now, you have asked for nothing in my name, ask, and you will receive that your joy might be full.

Now, before we answer the question that's been raised, let me just have you notice something. You ought to circle in your Bibles what Jesus says here. You shall ask the Father. Circle the Father. Now, go back to chapter 14, verse 14, where Jesus says, if you will ask me. Just another subtle expression that the role of the Father and Son are interchangeable.

They are both part of that three partide or that three trinatied God. Now, back to the question. Will Jesus give us anything we ask for? Well, you have to notice in this passage, as good students, two qualifications.

You ready? Qualification number one, we must pray in Jesus' name. Now, we'll talk about that more in a moment, but for now, Jesus is saying something far deeper and greater than saying, now, look, I want you to tack on to the end of all of your prayers to the Father, the words, in Jesus' name, amen. And by the way, that's a biblical expression, and this is where it comes from.

We pray our prayer, and then we say, in Jesus' name, amen. Is that what he's saying? Some new formula? No. He's suggesting something that will hold us accountable to the fact that we are going to God by the authority of Jesus Christ.

This is so new. You no longer have to go through priests. You can go directly to God the Father yourself, but you're getting in because of the one who's gone before the Father's Son, the Lord Jesus. Now, to pray in Jesus' name is like this. It's like praying your prayer, and at the end, signing the name of Jesus. Qualification number two, we must pursue God's glory. Now, look back at chapter 14 again, verse 13. Whatever you ask in my name, that will I do. Great, period, exclamation point, let's go.

Oh, wait, hold on. That the Father may be glorified in the Son. The main purpose of prayer, ladies and gentlemen, is not to get us out of trouble, to avoid pain, to make life more comfortable. If that were the case, then God could be treated like I'm afraid many of us treat him, like a genie, and the bottle is labeled prayer, and we rub that bottle or that lamp, and God the genie appears with the words, and what do you wish, Master? We haven't reversed a more practical question than would be this one. How do we know if we're really praying in Jesus' name or not?

How can you really tell? Well, you look back at verse 13, and you have to understand, Jesus is revealing a completely new truth to these disciples. You remember Jesus taught them how to pray in Matthew chapter 6, and he told them to pray to the Father.

Now he's coming along and he's adding to that. He's saying, now when you pray to the Father, you pray in Jesus' name or you pray in my name. So how do you know if you get outside those words in the Lord's Prayer, the disciples' prayer properly put, how do you know if you're really praying in Jesus' name? That's the question.

Let me give you a number of suggestions. First of all, are you even qualified to pray? That's right, are you qualified to go to the Father? According to God's word, someone who has never received Jesus Christ as personal Savior is not qualified to pray. In fact, he says in John 9, turn to John chapter 9 verse 31. This was a traditional rabbinic teaching, and they probably got it from what David wrote in Psalm 34, but look what it says, we know that God does not hear sinners. In God's mind, we are all, as it were, sinners, but there are those of us who have had our sins forgiven. And he says here, he will not hear those whose sins have never been forgiven. But if anyone is God-fearing and does his will, and this is the will of the Father that you be saved, he hears them. David wrote in Psalm chapter 34 verse 15, the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, he hears the cry of the righteous. I've said it before and I believe it's true that until you come to Jesus Christ in faith, receiving, as it were, his name for your life, Christian, while you may believe that God has answered a million of your prayers, he has yet to hear any of them. The first prayer he will hear is, Lord, save me. And then you adopt that name as your own and you become at that point a Christian. And until you claim that name for life, you cannot name the name of Christ in prayer. You say, is that fair?

Well, I have news. Not only is he unavailable for those who do not believe, he is unavailable to those who believe, but cherish sin. Disobedient believers. David wrote, if I regard iniquity in my heart, he will not hear my prayer. Now we all go to God with sin, don't we?

Because we are sinful. So does that mean I have to be perfect before I can ever go to God? No, the key word is regard.

If I regard iniquity in my heart, the word, the Hebrew word regard means to cherish and to defend. Forget prayer. You're praying to the sky. The question could be asked, are you qualified to pray? Secondly, are you praying with pure motives? The test of a prayer is whether or not Jesus would pray the prayer. Praying in Jesus' name means praying the prayer and assigning his name to it as if he would pray it.

That means that we have to pray prayers that would honor God and bring glory to God, not bring glory to ourselves or make our lives any more comfortable than we might think they ought to be. So you and I go to God. And if we had an audience with him right at this moment, would he be to us like Santa Claus?

Or like a genie? Or would our request be, Lord, how can I bring you glory? Question number three, are you demanding God's timetable?

Match your own? Why, we're always in a hurry. Because our answered prayers will make life easier. So the majority of our praying perhaps could be for the comfort of our own lives. Is that what Jesus would pray?

Well, let's go back to Jesus praying. There he is in the garden, struggling, as it were, with the pre-designed plan of the Triune God that he will die a terrible death. And as man, he struggles and he prayed. And as he prayed, tiny corpuscles underneath his skin burst and blood oozed from his pores along with sweat. He is in agony. And he ends it by saying, thy will be done, not mine. Now, was prayer to him a means of circumventing pain?

No. Prayer to him was a means of preparing for pain. It was a way to get through pain. So much so that the writer of Hebrews could say that Jesus Christ, as a man, learned obedience through the things he suffered. Number four, are we more concerned with our requests to God than our relationship with God?

George MacDonald writes this way. Listen, what if God knows prayer to be the thing we need first and most? What if the main object or idea of prayer in the heart of God is a supplying of our great and endless need, the need of himself?

Hunger may drive a runaway child home, and he may or may not be fed at once, but he needs his parents more than he needs his dinner. Communion with God, then, is the one need of the soul beyond every other need. I just want to be with you. I want to commune with you.

I want to be like you. And I want to bring glory to you. That's praying in Jesus' name. Along with all of those needs and pains and hurts and dreams that we bring to him, that is our motive and our design.

We want to be like him. Number five, are you requesting that God respond in the way you are expecting? In other words, do you believe that God needs to answer in one way and you've already figured out what that one way would be?

Then we are not praying in Jesus' name because we are, in a sense, already telling him, here it is, now you respond like this. Question number six, are you more interested in what God will give you than in what God will do in you? A century ago, a man preached to his congregation by the name of Phillips Brooks.

I've enjoyed reading him. Let me give you his words to his congregation. He said this, Don't pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger people. Don't pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for power equal to your tasks. Then the doing of your work will be no miracle.

You will be the miracle. It's interesting that Jesus Christ prepared his disciples not by teaching them how to hold campaigns. He never taught his disciples homiletics 101, how to preach. But he did teach his disciples how to pray. So then prayers and aligning then of my will to God's will. I'm more interested in what God is going to do inside of me than what he will do for me.

And that's how it should be for all of us. I'm often asked about prayer and I think of myself and I'll give you this illustration of being in a rowboat and I'm without any oars and there's no way that I can guide this vessel and I'm drifting. But I do have in that little rowboat with me a long rope tied to the side. And on the end of that rope is an anchor. And I muster up all of the strength that I have and I take that anchor and I wind it up and then I heave it toward shore 15 or 20 feet away. And it hits, it sinks, it catches. And then I begin to pull myself with this rope until I'm safe to shore. Now let me ask you, did I pull the shore toward me or did I pull myself to shore? You see, prayer is taking your will, your little rowboat, your life, and pulling yourself to the shore of God's design.

Number seven. Are you really expecting God to be listening? Now ask yourself that. Are you really expecting God to be listening? Or is this just part of that devotional discipline that all good Christians clock in for 15 minutes or so and do? Do you really expect him to be listening? Do you really expect Christ to be interceding? Do you really expect an answer to be forthcoming? I think the faith of a child can teach us a lot.

I've seen it in my kids and it's so easy to become theological and deep. But I leave with an understanding that when they pray and your children and you hear them in Sunday school or whatever, they expect God to be listening. Question number eight.

This is the last one that I'll give you. Are you willing to become the answer to your own prayer? Lord, provide for the needy. Maybe he wants you to buy a bag of groceries. Lord, encourage the saints in the ministry. Maybe he wants you to write a letter. Lord, all those missionaries we support, would you bless them? Maybe he wants you to become one and go. The greatest thrill in praying is not necessarily receiving an answer, but becoming the answer.

And maybe you've seen it happen. And it is a joy. Well, the disciples are troubled and Jesus intends to bring healing to their hearts so he tells them about their future home in heaven. This is the Father's house. He tells them that he is the way so that they have that future home.

Then he says you have an ongoing present privilege. And that is you can pray to the Father directly, but go in my name and ask for God's glory to be revealed. And he said in chapter 16, if you will do that as my disciples, your joy will be full. Now when you go to God, you have trouble and pain and sorrow and hopes and dreams and all of those. And you will have trouble come into your life. You will get sick perhaps. Loved ones will pass away.

Dreams may not be fulfilled. The same thing that happened in the disciples' lives centuries ago. How will you and I respond? By complaining against God with our perspective or going to God in Jesus' name and asking for his glory to be revealed in and through us. That's how you have joy. And when you go in Jesus' name and you ask that magnificent God, he hears and he will never leave you empty-handed.

And more importantly, he will never leave you unchanged. And that will bring healing to troubled hearts like yours and mine. I hope that this look at these troublesome questions has helped you today. Did you know that we have a section on our website where Stephen answers listener questions?

Well, we do. And if you navigate to our website, which is wisdomonline.org, you'll find our section of Bible questions in our message library. I think you might enjoy browsing through there. There's dozens of questions that other listeners have asked and the answers that Stephen has provided from God's Word. If you have a question, you can send it to us. Our email address is info at wisdomonline.org. Once again, that's info at wisdomonline.org.

Stephen would be delighted to help you with any Bible question that you have. In addition to equipping you with these daily Bible messages, we also have a magazine that we publish monthly. We send Heart to Heart magazine to all of our wisdom partners.

But we'd be happy to send you the next three issues if you'd like to see it for yourself. You can sign up for it on our website or you can call us today. Our number is 866-48-BIBLE. That's 866-482-4253. Call today. Thanks so much for joining us today. We're going to wrap up this current series on our next broadcast. So join us for that here on Wisdom for the Heart. ...