John 16:23-30.
Verily, verily, I say to you, if you ask the Father anything in my name, he will give it to you. Until now, you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. These things have I spoken unto you by proverb. But the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you by proverb, but will proclaim to you freely from my Father. In that day you will ask in my name. And I do not tell you that I will ask the Father for you; for he himself, the Father, loves you, because you love me and believe that I came forth from God. I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; again I leave the world, and go to the Father. His disciples said to him, "Behold, now you speak freely and do not say a proverb. Now we know that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee. Therefore we believe that you came from God.
1 Our dear Lord Jesus Christ, as your love hears, exhorts in this Gospel heartily to prayer. For this, after preaching, is the highest service of Christians, that they pray. The Lord gave such an exhortation, even in the evening, when he got up from the table and went into the garden, soon after the sermon your love heard two weeks ago, when he said to his disciples, "You will be sad because of my departure; but it is only for a little, and I will see you again, and then your sadness will become joy. This exhortation to pray follows this consolation. And rhymes very well with each other; for where a Christian is in fear, worry and sorrow, in trouble and misfortune, there is no other consolation nor remedy than that he keep to prayer and cry out to God for help.
2 The Lord here teaches his disciples and us that they should not forget to pray when they are in mourning, and he says with great comfort that they should be bold and undaunted in this work. For, he says, I must not ask the Father for you. Although I have already prayed for you, and still pray, and will pray on the cross and at the right hand of God, since I will represent you without ceasing and for eternity: yet you do not need my prayer for you, because you yourselves
*) Held in the house, 1534.
you can ask the Father. Because you love me and believe in me, the Father loves you and hears you for my sake when you ask. Therefore, come boldly to the Father and ask confidently; do not doubt that your prayer will be answered.
(3) This is a comforting encouragement and enticement to prayer, that our dear Lord Christ says: "Whoever loves me, let him be sure that my Father loves him again, and so much that he hears him when he asks. For this I have purchased by my death, that he may pray as I do.
(4) We should diligently realize that Christ, through his death and departure from this world, has made and earned for us such access to God the Father that we can be wherever we want, in the church, in the house, in the cellar, in the kitchen, in the field, in the workshop, and come with such a heart, saying: Dear God and Father, I know for certain that you love me, for I love your Son and my Redeemer, Jesus Christ; in such trust and confidence I will now and comfortingly ask you to hear me and give me what I ask; Not that I am so holy or pious, but that I know that thou wilt gladly give and bestow all things for the sake of thy Son Christ JEsu; in whose name I now come before thee, and pray, not doubting at all that my prayer (be it for my person, as I will) shall surely be heard.
5 If we pray thus, saith Christ, it is right: for because we believe in Christ, and love him, the Father also loveth us. If therefore the Father loves us, our prayer is amen and yea, and surely answered. Therefore let every Christian beware lest he tarry so long in prayer, until he think that he is altogether pure and skillful. As the devil has very often troubled and hindered me with such thoughts, that I have thought: You are not skilled now, but if you want to do this or that beforehand, you can pray all the more calmly afterwards. Whoever follows such thoughts and allows himself to be hindered and prevented from praying, will certainly be like that farmer's wife who wanted to do something before she wished, and never got around to wishing. She asked our Lord God what she should do in the morning, so that she could do it all day long; but she thought she wanted to start counting money, and count money all day long. When she had received the request from God, it occurred to her in the morning that she wanted to go and cover her feet beforehand, as the Scriptures chastely call it, and so she did not come to the request.
(6) So the devil is a mischievous man, and is always creeping after us, whether he might hinder us now with this or now with another. Therefore we must prepare ourselves against him and not let him hinder us. If he says to you, and speaks through you and in you, "I will do this first," you must say: No, not so; but as soon as the need is before thee, I will pray; for this is the right hour of prayer, that in the need I call upon God: if I am not skillful or worthy, God will make me skillful and worthy. For I know that he loves me, not because of my piety or holiness, but because of Christ, whom I love and believe in.
(7) This is what our dear Lord Christ wants us to do here, that we should pray and not go without praying, like the wicked people who enjoy eating and drinking (as they say), even if they have not prayed an Our Father in eight days. If you are a Christian, or if you want to be one, beware of such a crude life; at least pray in the morning when you get up, over and from the table, and in the evening when you leave the table.
In the evening, when you go to bed, say: 'Our Father, hallowed be your name etc.
For we Christians owe it to ourselves to pray without ceasing; if not with our mouths (as we cannot always do), yet with our hearts. Our hearts should be in the desire every moment that God's name be sanctified, His kingdom come, His will be done; item, that He may give peace in the land, good weather, a healthy body etc. This is what every Christian desires in his heart every hour and every moment, and even if he does not think about it, there is nothing else in him. This means to pray spiritually and with the heart. And we need such prayer also very much for the sake of the strong driving, that a Christian is not for a moment safe from the devil and his own flesh, that he does not fall into sin and disgrace.
(9) But besides such prayer of the heart, oral prayer should also go. How this prayer should be arranged, the Lord teaches here, saying: "You should ask in my name"; item: "The Father loves you because you love me and believe that I came from God. When a person is thus prepared to believe in Christ, he is then a true priest in his chasuble and priestly adornment, and lacks nothing more than to open his mouth cheerfully, and to take up a certain thing that seems to him to be most important to him and to other Christians, and to say, "Lord, this is what I need, this is what they need, give us for Christ's sake.
(10) First, he says that in prayer one must do something that one asks for. What that something is, the time always brings with it, so that one must not worry about it, nor worry about what one wants to bring forward. As: We are now especially in such a time that we do not lack various needs, which occur daily and become more and more difficult from day to day, if we only prayed a lot. For the devil is a liar and a murderer. So neither the pope nor the Turk, along with other tyrants who are opposed to the Word, celebrate. In addition, we learn that everyone has enough hardship on him,
even if such common needs were not. That is why we have enough causes everywhere that drive us to prayer. But if you cannot think of all such needs, just take the Holy Father's Prayer before you. This has seven parts, in which all needs and all requests are summarized.
In the first petition: Hallowed be thy name, we pray for the dear gospel, for all righteous preachers, against all heretics and unbelievers, against Jews, pagans, Turks and the pope. For all of these blaspheme the name of God and make it unholy; that God may prevent them, give pious preachers, and keep the Word pure and clean against all heresy. This means something done.
In the other petition: Thy kingdom come, we pray that the kingdom of the devil and of death may come to an end. This is also a very broad petition, for it encompasses the entire kingdom of the devil, that God may put an end to it and establish His kingdom in us and in all people through His Word and the Holy Spirit.
In the third petition: Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, we ask that all wills be prevented that strive against God's gracious will. This is a very unpleasant request for the devil and evil people, and prevents a great deal of misfortune, which the devil and evil people would cause daily, if this prayer were not so diligently resisted.
14) In the fourth petition: Give us this day our daily bread, we pray for our authorities, for our parents, for wife and child, for bread, for the fruits of the field, for peace and for everything we need for the maintenance of this temporal life, each in his own state, that God may give him happiness and blessing in this and graciously protect him from all misfortune.
(15) In the fifth petition: Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, we ask that God may have mercy on us, turn away from us the wrath we deserve, not punish us for our sins, and also have mercy on us, so that we may become more godly day by day, and keep ourselves according to His will, and live among one another.
live kindly and forgive one another's iniquities.
16 In the sixth petition: Do not lead us into temptation, we pray that God will especially come to the aid of all afflicted hearts, that He will not keep them in temptation, but will graciously help them out through His Word and His Holy Spirit, and break the devil's power and authority.
In the seventh petition, "Deliver us from this evil," we ask for a good, blessed hour, so that our Lord God may take us from this pit of misery with grace and make us eternally blessed.
18 Thus, everything that may trouble and concern us, or serve us for the best, is very finely put together in the Lord's Prayer. Now this is the first thing, that one should ask for something, that our Lord God will do and give. For the command is already there, that we should pray, and the promise is also there, that it shall be yes and certainly heard; and to make matters worse, our dear Lord Christ Himself has presented to us both word and manner, in which all kinds of need are included, as can be seen in the Lord's Prayer.
19 Secondly, he says that prayer should be done in his name, because we must confess that we are poor sinners, not worthy to come before God and talk to God, and even more unworthy to receive anything from him. So that we may not let our unworthiness prevent us from praying, the Lord commands us here in explicit words: We are to ask in his name; he assures us that whatever we ask in his name will be heard. With these words, the service of prayer and invocation is completely drawn out of the whole world into the one person of Jesus Christ.
020 Therefore all prayer that is not made in the name of Jesus is neither prayer nor worship. As when a monk prays in the name of Francisci or Dominici, and says, O Lord, behold the merit of the dear saints, behold my fasting, my good works; this is not prayed in Christ's name, but in Francisci or Dominici, or in my name, and is quite a Turkish and heathen prayer, since nothing is made of it; for it is not prayed in the name of Christ.
If it is heard, it will only be to your detriment.
21 Let it be well known that one should ask in Christ's name. For Christ makes the prayer that is made in his name so certain that he says: "I do not tell you that I will ask the Father for you, but the Father himself will hear you freely and gladly, if you only believe in me and have a desire for me and ask in my name. As if he wanted to say: If you come before God by command of my mouth and according to the teaching of the Father of ours in my name, and say: Our Father, who art in heaven, hear, dear Father, for the sake of your Son JEsu Christ; then it is rightly asked and your prayer is heard. So prayer must be through and in Christ, that is, it must be rightly asked, and it must follow that what we ask we shall obtain, namely, that we may be eternally blessed and joyful. Thus our dear Lord Jesus Christ most kindly entices us with this admonition, that we should be cheerful and willing to pray. For what we shall ask the Father in His name, that shall penetrate and not rest until it comes before God's throne, and there is already spoken yes and amen about it.
22) On this promise the Lord says to his disciples: "Until now you have asked nothing in my name. For they relied upon him, as the peasants rely upon their parish lord, that he should pray for them, and think they may not pray. But this shall henceforth be done of you, saith he, no more. "Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full." There he tells the disciples to pray themselves, and admonishes us with the words that no one should rely on another, nor remember: I must not pray; it is enough that this one and that one pray for me; but let every Christian pray, both for himself and for others, but especially for the need of common Christendom. For the two things must sustain Christianity on earth: The Word of God and the prayer of Christians. Just as the Christian Church is sustained by the Word of God and the ministry of preaching, so it is also sustained by every Christian's prayer.
The pope and his crowd cannot pray, for he prays either in his own name or in the name of the saints. But we, praise God, can pray, for we pray in Christ's name, and when we pray in this way, we know that our prayer will surely be heard. And if our prayer were answered, it would be impossible that the pope and other tyrants would not have destroyed and exterminated us long ago. But because prayer is always and without ceasing, we see that the more he and other tyrants rage against the church, the more they fall. Therefore, let us continue to persevere diligently in prayer. We, who are commanded by the word, and who are in the ministry of preaching, are to help preserve the Christian church by pure, righteous doctrine; but every Christian is to help preserve it by prayer.
(24) Therefore, whoever loves the Christian church and the gospel, and would like to see it prosper, should think that he must also help to preserve it. But this is done by prayer alone, when you pray that the name of your God in heaven may be hallowed, that his kingdom may come, and that his will may be done; and again, that the devil's name may be profaned, his kingdom destroyed, and all his will and schemes hindered. If you do this, you and every Christian will stand as a warrior with his armor in the field and in the forefront, helping to protect and shield the Christian church against the devil and the world. For every Christian is a warrior and is at war with the devil. As firmly as we contend with preaching and teaching, so firmly shall you contend with us in praying. All these things are fought and contended for; for we Christians are mighty warriors, first we with preaching, and afterward ye with us with praying. These two things cause the devil heartache, if one preaches diligently and prays earnestly. And if he is to be beaten and broken, it must be done with the two weapons. For he who is in heaven does not lie.
(25) I have no doubt that through our prayer many evil practices of our adversaries have receded and been hindered. And if anything good is to happen this very day, and evil be hindered, it must be through prayer. Therefore
Do not throw your prayers to the winds, even if you think you are unskilled and unworthy to do so, for otherwise no one would pray; but let every Christian man speak to himself thus: Because prayer is so pleasing to God, and so highly necessary and useful to me and to the church and worldly government, I will also go to the church and help to pray as much as I can; for I know that it shall not be, nor can it be, in vain.
(26) On the other hand, it is not good, even yearly, to think: let others pray, your prayer is nothing special. Beware of this, and so think: I have ever praised God! I love Christ and his gospel, and would rather leave everything than deny my Lord Christ; so it must follow that the Father also loves me and that my prayer will be heard, as Christ promises me here. Therefore
I will not let anything hinder me from praying or hold me back. So that one may say to the devil, who wants to make us sluggish and lazy in prayer, "Get thee out, devil! I will not be hindered; Christ my Lord has taught me otherwise, namely, that I should pray confidently in his name, and believe that my prayer is heard, according to his promise: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. If I do this, there shall be no need.
This is the exhortation to prayer. God, our dear Father, grant His Holy Spirit into our hearts, so that in all hardships and temptations we may pray and render this service to God, and be delivered from all misery for time and eternity, amen.