EASTER - WEEK 5 - SUNDAY

LESSON: JOHN 16:23-30

“Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask anything of the Father, he will give it to you in my name.” John 16:23

The Gospel for Rogate speaks to us about Christian prayer and what makes a prayer truly Christian.

The first thing of importance here is God’s promise. This is the real basis of Christian prayer and the source from which it derives its power. Christ here assures us that what we ask will be given to us, and He does this with a solemn pledge when He declares, “Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask anything of the Father, He will give it to you in my name.”

Christ gives us this assurance to make us quite certain that our prayers will be heard. He chides the disciples for having been sluggish in prayer. “Hitherto you have asked nothing in my name,” He says to them. He wants them to understand that God is always prepared to give to them much earlier than they ask and much more than they ask. He offers His blessings to His disciples; they are available whenever they deign to receive them.

It is truly a great disgrace and a severe punishment upon us Christians that Christ can still reproach us with sluggishness in asking and that such a rich and excellent promise does not incite us to exercise the privilege of prayer.

Here is a great treasure untapped before us, and we make so little effort to exercise the privilege of prayer and to utilize its power in Christian faith and life. God Himself bases prayer on His promise, and on this basis, He also urges us to pray.

SL 11:918 (2-3)

AE 77:252-53

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, You have invited us to bring all our needs before You in prayer in the name of our Savior. Hear our prayer, which we offer in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

EASTER - WEEK 4 - SATURDAY

LESSON: EPHESIANS 1:11-14

It is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has commissioned us; he has put his seal upon us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. 2 Corinthians 1:21-22

If I am to be accounted righteous before God, it is not enough for me to do good works externally; I must do them from the bottom of my heart with delight and in love, so that I stand unafraid before sin, death, and the devil, free and joyful, with a good conscience and all confidence before God, knowing how I stand with Him.

No work and no creature can give me any assurance here. When it comes to righteousness before God, I must look to Christ alone, to Him who has gone to the Father in heaven where I cannot see Him but must believe that He is up above and will help me. This faith makes me acceptable to God, for Christ gives me the Holy Spirit in my heart. It is He who makes me ready and glad to perform all good works. In this way, I am accounted righteous before God and in no other way.

As long as you operate with works, you will become more and more wretched and disconsolate the more that you devote yourself to them. The more you rest your faith on Christ alone as your one and only hope and source of righteousness and salvation, the more you will experience the real joy of salvation in Christ.

Where Christ is really acknowledged for what He is, the Holy Spirit cannot remain absent.

SL 11:871 (17-18)

PRAYER: Thanks be to You, heavenly Father, for the riches of Your grace and mercy in Christ Jesus and also for the seal and guarantee that you have given us in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, that we are your beloved children in and through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil—Gospels, 3:110-124.

LESSON: 1 CORINTHIANS 1:26-31

“[The Holy Spirit] will convince the world … of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no more.” John 16:8-10

Righteousness means piety, a good and honest life before God. Jesus says here that He will convince the world of righteousness, “because I go to the Father.”

We have often stated that Christ’s resurrection did not take place for His benefit but for our sakes; hence, we should make it our very own possession. He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven to establish a spiritual kingdom in which He reigns in us by means of righteousness and truth. He is not just sleeping and resting in heaven or amusing Himself there in idleness, but, as Paul reminds us, He is continually active and busy here on earth in His Church, ruling consciences and souls by the Gospel (cf. Ephesians 1:22).

Wherever Christ is preached and acknowledged, He now rules in us from God’s right hand, and He Himself is present with us here in our hearts. He rules in His kingdom here on earth in such a way that he exercises power, might, and authority over us and all our foes and helps to free us from sin, death, the devil, and hell. His resurrection and ascension are our consolation, life, salvation, and righteousness.

This is what Christ means here when He states that men become righteous before God because He goes to His Father and we see Him no more. This the world cannot understand. The Holy Spirit must come to convince the world of its ignorance in this respect.
SL 11:870 (15-16)

PRAYER: Continue to abide with us, Lord Jesus, as our consolation, life, salvation, and righteousness in Your kingdom of truth and salvation, for Your love’s sake. Amen.

Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil—Gospels, 3:110-124.