John 16:23-27 And in that day you shall ask me nothing. Truly, truly, I say to you, Whatever you shall ask the Father in my name… There are here three jewels which Christ sets in a cluster, the juxtaposition making each brighter, and gives to us for a parting keepsake. Our English word "ask" means two things, either to question in order to get information or to beseech, in order to get gifts. In the former sense the word is employed in the first clause with distinct reference to the disciples' desire to ask Him a very foolish question a moment or two before; and in the second it is employed in the central portion of my text. I. NO MORE QUESTIONINGS. 1. Do not you think that the disciples would be tempted to say, "Then what are we to do?" To them the thought was despair rather than advance; but in Christ's eyes it was progress. It is better for a boy to puzzle out the meaning of a Latin book by his own brains and a lexicon than lazily to use an interlinear translation. Many eager Christian souls, hungering after certainty and rest, have east themselves into the arms of an infallible pope. I doubt whether any such questioning mind has found what it sought; and I am sure that it has taken a step downwards. We gain by losing the visible Christ. 2. For what have we instead? (1) A completed revelation. Unspeakably precious as were and are the words of Christ, His deeds are far more. The death of Christ has told us things that Christ before His death could not tell. His resurrection has east light upon all the darkest places of man's destiny which before He could not by any words so illuminate. The ascension of Christ has opened doors for thought, for faith, for hope which were fast closed, until He had burst them asunder and passed to His throne. We have a completed revelation, and therefore we need ask Him nothing. (2) A Divine Spirit to teach us by blessing the exercise of our own faculties, and guiding us, not, indeed, into all the intellectual aspects of Christian truth, but into the loving possession, as a power in our lives, of all the truth that we need to raise us to the likeness of Christ. 3. Only remember that such a method of teaching needs that we use that revelation and submit ourselves to the teaching of that Spirit, and make everything that we know a factor in shaping what we do and are. And if we do this we shall not need to envy those that could go to Him with their questions, for He will come to us with His all-satisfying answers. 4. Ah! but you say, look at a divided Christendom and at my own difficulties. Well, as for a divided Christendom, saintly souls are all of one Church. And however they may formulate the intellectual aspects of their creed, when they come to pray they say the same things, and we all sing their songs. So the divisions are like the surface cracks on a dry field, and a few inches down there is continuity. And as for the difficulty of knowing what I am to believe about controverted questions, no doubt there will remain many gaps in the circle of our knowledge and much left obscure; but if we will keep ourselves near the Master, and use the helps that He gives us we shall not walk in darkness, but shall have light enough to be the Light of Life. II. SATISFIED DESIRES. 1. This second great promise substantially appeared in a former part of these discourses with a very significant difference. "Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name that will I do." "If ye shall ask anything in My name I will do it." There Christ presented Himself as the Answerer, because His purpose was to set forth His going to the Father as His elevation to a yet loftier position. Here He sets forth the Father as the Answerer, because His purpose is to point away from undue dependence on His own corporeal presence. But consider how much is involved in that fact, that, as a matter of course, our Lord alternates the two forms, and sometimes says, "I will do it," and sometimes says, "The Father will do it." Does it not point to that great and blessed truth, "Whatsoever thing the Father doeth that also doeth the Son likewise." 2. But passing from that, note the limitation to the broad universality of the declaration. "If ye shall ask anything in My name." There is the definition of Christian prayer. And what does it mean? (1) Is a prayer which is reeking with self-will hallowed because the man says, as a kind of charm at the end of it, "For Christ's sake. Amen?" Surely not! The name of Christ is His whole revealed character. So these disciples could not pray in His name "hitherto," because His character was not all revealed. Therefore, to pray in His name is to pray recognizing what He is, as revealed in His life and death and resurrection and ascension, and to base all our dependence for acceptance of our prayers upon that revealed character. (2) Are any kind of wishes which are presented in dependence upon Christ certain to be fulfilled? Certainly not! "My name" means exactly what the same phrase means when it is applied to us. If I do something in your name I do it on your behalf, as your representative. And if we pray in Christ's name, that implies the harmony of our wills with His. Heathen prayer is the violent effort to make God will what I wish. Christian prayer is the submissive effort to make my wish what God wills. 3. Notice how certain such prayer is of being answered. If it is in harmony with the will of God, it is sure not to be offered in vain. Our Revised Version reads, "He will give it you in My name." God's gifts come down through the same channel through which our prayer goes up. But, whether that be the true collocation or no, mark the plain principle, that only desires which are in harmony with the Divine will are sure of being satisfied. What is a bad thing for a child cannot be a good thing for a man. If you want to spoil your child you say, "What do you want, my dear? tell me and you shall have it." God knows a great deal better what is good for us; and so He says: "Delight thyself in the Lord, and He will give thee the desires of thine heart." He who prays in Christ's name must pray Christ's prayer, "Not My will but Thine be done." To him who can thus pray, every door in God's treasure-house flies open, and he may take as much of the treasure as he desires. And the Master bends lovingly over such a soul, and says: "What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? Be it unto thee even as thou wilt." III. THE PERFECT JOY WHICH FOLLOWS UPON THESE TWO. Is it possible, then, that amidst all changes and the sorrows we may have a deep and stable joy? "That your joy may be full," says my text, or "fulfilled," like some jewelled, golden cup charged to the very brim with rich and quickening wine, so that there is no room for a drop more. Was anybody ever so blessed that he could not be more so? Jesus Christ says it may be so, and He tells us how. Bring your desires into harmony with God's, and you will have nothing unsatisfied amongst them; and so you will be blessed to the full. And though sorrow comes, still we may be blessed. There are some flowers which only bloom in the night; and white blossoms are visible with startling plainness in the twilight, when all the flaunting purples and reds are hid. Conclusion: There are only two courses before us. Either a life with superficial, transitory, incomplete gladnesses, and an aching centre of vacuity and pain, or one which in its outward aspects has much about it that is sad and trying, but down in the heart of it is calm and joyful. "Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful," &c. But the "ransomed of the Lord shall return," &c. (A. Maclaren, D.D.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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. |
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