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Reading John 4:13-14 where Jesus says, "Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do," which is not a magic formula but a desire for God. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
In John 14 Jesus said, if you ask anything in my name, I will do it. Now this is not a magic spell, ask for anything, put Jesus name on it and it will be given to you, but that you would do his will when we understand the text.
You are listening to When We Understand The Text, an online Bible ministry so that we may know all the riches freely given to us by God. For questions and comments send us an email to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.
Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky. We continue our study of the Gospel of John chapter 14 and I'm going to grab a couple of verses that we finished up with yesterday, starting in verse 13 and read through verse 17. Jesus said to his disciples, whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. If you love me, you will keep my commandments, and I will ask the Father and he will give you another helper to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him.
You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. So where Jesus says in verses 13 and 14, whatever you ask in my name, this I will do. And if you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. This does not mean that we can ask Jesus for anything we want, and as long as we tack his name on it, in Jesus' name, then he's therefore going to give it to us, as though we're casting some sort of magic spell.
All you have to do is say the right words, recite the right incantation, and poof, it's going to be given to you. But this is exactly the way that the word faith people use this particular passage. We talked about this a little bit yesterday.
I spent more time focusing on verse 12. We finished with verses 13 and 14, but didn't study those two verses as much. So let's come back to this again, and we'll also explore some other areas in Scripture where Jesus says something very similar.
So again, saying, whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. Over the course of the Gospel of John, we've seen various occasions where Jesus will say something, and then the people will respond with something, and then Jesus will say it again, but he says it more emphatically, or maybe says it a different way, or qualifies it a different way, because the people didn't understand.
So here in this particular place, Jesus is saying, ask me anything, and I will give it to you, if you ask in my name, that the Father would be glorified in the Son. And he says something similar not too long after this.
Going to chapter 15 in verse 7, Jesus says the following, if you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples.
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
So notice in the context of this statement that Jesus has made with his disciples, they are praying and asking of the Father according to the word of Christ. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
So it's all according to the word of Christ. It's not whatever you want. So anything I want to have, I can just say it, and then God will give it to me. But no, we're not casting spells here. The Bible is not a spell book.
It's giving us the right number of syllables and emphasis that we need to make, and boom, by the power of our words, something just automatically comes to be. In fact, James explains this even further in James 4, where he says, you do not have because you do not ask.
Well, that makes sense. I just need to ask, and I'm going to have it. But then he goes on in verse 3 to say, you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions, a person asking of God not according to his word, but according to their own passions and desires.
Jesus is saying, if you abide in my word and my words are in you, then whatever you wish is going to be according to that word, and it will be done for you because you desire to do the will of my father in heaven and the father will be glorified in the son.
And so whatever you ask in my name, according to my word, which abides in your heart, your mind has been transformed to have the thinking of God. You have the mind of Christ. So whatever you ask will be according to the will of God and it will be given to you.
You will you will get to share in the glory that the son experiences with the father when you do the will of the father, the will of the son and the helper who will be with you to help you do what it is that is according to the will of the father.
This all goes in context with what Jesus is saying here in John 14 verses 13 and 14, because the next part that he gets to is I'm going to send you another the helper capital H. It's probably the way that you have it translated in your Bible.
This is the Holy Spirit who is going to be with you forever. Even the spirit of truth, he will dwell in you and you will discern spiritual things because you will have the spirit of God. And being able to discern spiritual things, you will desire what the father desires.
You will desire to do the father's will. You want to do what is pleasing unto your maker. And so what you ask in Jesus name doesn't mean whatever request you make with Jesus name tacked onto it, and then you will therefore receive it.
Asking something in Jesus name means that you desire to do what Jesus would do. You're doing it according to his name because you wear his name. You as a follower of Jesus have the name of Jesus on your jersey.
And so you are going to do the things that you know would be pleasing to your savior. And he did what was pleasing to his father. So therefore our desire is to do the will of the father. It's not to ask for new houses or new cars or an advancement in your job.
Sometimes some of those things are good to ask for. Maybe your job is hard. It would be easier for you to move to another position. Maybe you don't make enough money and you would like to be able to climb the corporate ladder.
It's certainly not wrong to do those things. There's nothing wrong with being rich. There's nothing wrong with pursuing riches. As a matter of fact, the Bible tells us to handle money responsibly so that we might in fact increase the amount of money that God has given to us so that we can have more and be able to do more with it, to bless more people with it.
That's indeed something that God would bless us to do if we would handle our money according to the will of the father. So it's certainly okay to ask God for those things, but doing that not to chase after or satisfy the passions of your flesh, you're asking God for advancement in your job or in your career so that he might be glorified.
Not that you would be glorified in these things. And God is going to do according to his will and whatever you receive according to that request, you will delight in it because you know that whatever it is that happens, it's the will of the father.
And so you rejoice in that will and you receive a great treasure that's far beyond anything that's going to be added numbers on your paycheck. What do you receive is the peace of Christ guarding your heart and mind.
The peace that surpasses all understanding in Christ Jesus. It is a peace that we have with God for we know that we've been forgiven our sins and we have fellowship with God, our father. Anything we ask of God, we ask of God, we know that he hears us because we have an advocate before the father and that is Jesus Christ, the righteous.
Let's continue to look at a few other passages here where Jesus has made a statement of ask you ask, you will receive Matthew chapter 21 verse 18. Jesus curses the fig tree in the morning as he was returning to the city to Jerusalem, he became hungry and seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves.
And he said to it, may no fruit ever come from you again. And the fig tree withered at once. When the disciples saw it, they marveled saying, how did the fig tree wither at once? And Jesus answered them, truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, be taken up and thrown into the sea, it will happen.
And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive if you have faith. Now this statement about telling a mountain to be cast into the sea is not literally telling a mountain to be cast in the sea and literally Pikes Peak jumps up from its spot and travels across a couple of states to the Pacific Ocean and throws itself in.
That's not what that means. You just have enough faith. It's not pulling a Yoda. Like he lifted the X wing out of the swamp there on Dagobah, you know, that's there's our pop culture reference for you there.
That's not that's not what we're talking about. Right? Yeah. Again, it's not magic spells. It's not using the force. The mountain here is metaphorical. It's whatever problem or obstacle would be in your way.
If you say to it, be removed from me, it will happen for you if you have faith. Now this is this is about how we use those things that are in our path, the trials and the tribulations and the various struggles that we may go through in our lives.
How do we face those things to God's glory? How do we overcome that to the glory of God? Like that's what Jesus is meaning here when he says, if you say to this mountain, be thrown into the sea, it will be done for you.
You will not see that thing as an obstacle before you that hinders you or prevents you from getting to God, but rather another way in which you can learn through sanctification and through obedience to give glory to God in the midst of this circumstance.
Consider these words from Paul in Romans 8, starting in verse 31. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all.
How will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn Christ? Jesus is the one who died more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who is indeed interceding for us, who shall separate us from the love of Christ.
Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword as it is written for your sake, we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.
No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. More than conquerors. Let me stop there for a moment before I read these last couple of verses in Romans 8. But being more than conquerors means that those things that we face don't conquer us.
Instead, we conquer them and we give glory to God in the midst of them. And what that earns for us is sanctification. We have grown in holiness because we face this thing and we were not conquered by it.
But in fact, we conquered it. And even more than that, we were able to take that trial or that tribulation and turn it into something, a way in which we grow in holiness. We gave God glory. We gave Christ the credit.
We grew all the more in the image of our creator through this circumstance that we endured and were able to rejoice in God because of it. James saying at the start of James and James chapter one, count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
Peter in first Peter 4, 12, beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you. And here's what Peter says. But rejoice in so far as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.
If you are being tempted today, this is another opportunity that you have to resist that temptation and give glory to God, draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. James chapter four, again, resist the devil and he will flee from you.
Now let me read those last couple of verses of Romans eight, for I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
All of these things we are able to use to give glory unto God and do not think it's strange when you face this fiery trial, but use it, conquer it, and become even more than conquerors in this way, in that you are able to use the thing that would otherwise stand against you as something through which you can give God more glory.
And we grow in the image of our creator in the midst of this. So that was Matthew 21. Let's go on to another passage here. Mark chapter 10, in verse 35, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus and said to him, teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.
And Jesus said to them, what do you want me to do for you? And they said to him, grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left in your glory. And Jesus said to them, you do not know what you are asking.
Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized? And they said to him, we are able. And Jesus said to them, the cup that I drink, you will drink.
And with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized. But to sit at my right hand or to sit at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared. So Jesus is saying it is not for him to grant that which is not according to the will of the father.
And it's not for the will of the father for James and John to sit at the right hand of Jesus and at the left hand of Jesus. That wasn't the will of the father. So again, you see here, Jesus saying, whatever you ask, you'll receive it.
Well, James and John say, give us whatever we ask. But what they ask for is not according to the will of the father. So therefore, it's not going to be granted to them. So here you're seeing the theme or the understanding of ask according to God's will, ask according to the word of Christ, and it will indeed be given to you.
Nothing will be kept from you. We will receive every promise that Christ guarantees. So let our minds be conformed to his will and not our own. That what we accomplish would be the will of God, not our own desires, but everything in obedience to the father.
Let's consider another passage. First John chapter three, John writing again, but this time one of his epistles. I'll start in verse 16. By this we know love that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth.
By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him. For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God and whatever we ask, we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.
I repeat that again. Whatever we ask, we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. If we're doing what is pleasing to the Lord, God is going to give to us whatever we ask because what we are asking for is according to his will and not our own.
This goes right with what we're reading here in John 14. Jesus saying, if you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. If you love me, you will keep my commandments and I will ask the father and he will give you another helper to be with you forever.
Even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him for he dwells with you and will be in you. And it's the Holy Spirit of God that helps us to know what is the will of the father and do the will of the father.
And ask for those things that are according to the will of the father. Even when it comes to resisting temptation, you are tempted with sin today. You have the power of the Holy Spirit within you to resist that sin and even to glorify God that you might desire holiness and righteousness in his name rather than the passions of your flesh.
So going on here with John and 1 John 3 verse 23, and this is his commandment that we believe in the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he has commanded us. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God and God in him.
And by this, we know that he abides in us by the spirit whom he has given us all just like what John is writing here in John 14. Let's go to 1 John 5, starting in verse 13, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.
And this is the confidence that we have toward him. If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the request that we have asked of him.
How do we know that? Because we're asking according to his will. Jesus again saying, John 14, 13, whatever you ask in my name, this I will do that the father may be glorified in the son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it because we are asking according to the will of the father.
Jesus taught us to pray in Matthew chapter six, our father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. What we are asking for in that prayer is as God's will is perfectly realized in heaven.
So we so may we know his will even here on earth that we may do it and please our God. Let us pray. Our God and savior, we thank you for your goodness that you show to us day by day. And we ask of you this day that you give us a heart that desires to please you, that we would be able to resist sin and temptation, help us to turn from it, flee from it, go as far away from it as possible, clinging to you because we know that in you there is no imperfection, no sin, no evil, no wickedness, so that we may do the righteous thing and stay far away from the wicked thing.
Give us these desires in our hearts. Help us to be so full of joy in the gospel that has been given to us, the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ, that we would share that with somebody else so that they may also rejoice and live, turning from sin, believing in Christ and being forgiven, adopted into the family of God.
May this be our desire. Our heart's desire would be to do your will in Jesus' name. Amen.
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