Prayer - Ask for Anything? (Part Twelve)

Part Twelve - Pray with the Gathered Church

So, where next in our tour? It started with a question from a passage in James, which expanded into studying a number of New Testament passages that make bold statements about prayer and faith. There are three more left to share with you.

This time, God willing, I would like to share my thoughts on Matthew 18:19-20, "Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them."

So, God will grant anything we ask if we come to him with a united request with at least one other person? That would seem to include every public prayer that we say "Amen!" to in a prayer meeting, or in church, or with our kids at bedtime. But is Jesus really making such a general and sweeping watertight promise?

We find in this case that the context is critical in understanding the scope of what Jesus is saying in these verses. We need to look at the whole of chapter 18 of Matthew, and see that Jesus is teaching here about the way that we should treat people within the church, and in particular the way that we should be disciplined and guided to follow Christ.

In verses 1 to 4, Jesus is asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" He replies by calling a little child among them as an illustration of the kind of humility required in the kingdom. "Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." (v3) We are to have a humble, learning, attitude, knowing our weakness and our need of help and instruction. We are not to go around using our standing in the church to lord it over others, thinking that we are better or wiser or more holy than others. A patronising, judgmental spirit has no place in the church, and those who display such attitudes will have no place in the kingdom of heaven.

In verses 5 and 6, Jesus pushes further to tell us what our attitude to the humble and weak should be. He says, "whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me." If we welcome among us those who humbly accept their need to change, their need of forgiveness, their need to know Christ more, then we welcome Christ. And if we are humble ourselves likewise as little children, we will see that we, in Christ, are here to help each other. And Jesus condemns those who through their actions cause any believer to sin, including those arrogant people who call themselves Christians but who place burdens on the weak and cause them to fall away.

This context, in fact, gives more weight to the familiar saying in verses 8 and 9, "If you hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell." The weight comes from the way Jesus introduces this in verse 7: "Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come!" It appears to me that when Jesus speaks of hands, feet and eyes that cause sin, he is first of all talking about people. He has been talking about the acceptance of humble people within the church, and he goes on to talk about our treatment of them in verse 10. Hence, I think primarily Jesus is asking us to be careful who we keep within the church. If people cause ordinary, weak and humble, genuine believers to sin, to give up or to fall away, then they should be cut out of the church. People and attitudes, for instance, that turn people away from Christ because they do not feel good enough to get into heaven, are absolutely not to be tolerated. Of course, the individualistic and personal way in which we normally see these verses is not wrong. Jesus is saying that we ought to take all sin seriously and eliminate from our lives as well as our churches those things that cause people, even ourselves, to sin, even if it causes us temporary disadvantage.

In verses 10 to 14, Jesus switches from negative to positive reinforcement of his point. We should not look down on other believers ("these little ones") because they are personally known and cared for by God the Father. In fact he is happier when one of these is brought back and nurtured than about ninety-nine who do no get lost in the first place. "… your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost." (v14) If He cares for all of His children, even the meekest, weakest and humblest, then so should we. We should go after them, protect them, care for them, ensure that they are well taught and that they grow in their knowledge of Jesus. We are not to play percentages, as if keeping the majority is the best strategy. No, expending disproportionate time and effort to hold on to the weakest and the most problematic is what we are to do.

Verses 15 to 18 give an example of a disciplinary process, which both builds up the weak and weeds out the proud. In the case where one of our brothers or sisters wrongs us we are to show them their fault. This aims at helping them to grow and change in the way that we all have to. "If he listens to you, you have won your brother over." (v15) Winning him is our aim. If he doesn't listen we should get one or two others to back us up, so that he knows that it is not just a matter of opinion. After that we should take it before the church, by which I think Jesus means the elders of the church, rather than the whole congregation. If the person still does not listen then they have proven themselves to be too proud to listen and change, and therefore they are not showing the humility required of a believer, and they should be put out. "Treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector." (v17) In our day, perhaps we'd say, "treat them as you would an atheist or a drug dealer." In other words, they cannot be part of the church until they show repentance.

The point isn't a one-size-fits-all disciplinary policy. The point is that our first priority should be winning our brother, but also that the church should be kept pure.

Verse 18 is what gives the church, in particular the eldership, the responsibility and authority to make these judgments. "I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." When the church makes a judgment in line with God's will, as revealed and correctly understood from His Word, that judgment is binding in heaven as well as on earth. God will back it up.

And that is what gives the immediate context for the verses we are particularly interested in. "Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For when two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." (vv19-20) Why does the church have authority and responsibility with regard to discipline? Because Jesus gives them this authority. Because when we gather together as the church He is with us.

But it is not just worldly authority. It is only authoritative and binding in a heavenly sense if it is done "in my name" (v20). We've discussed those three important words before in this series (Parts 6, 7 and 8). In that sense, the church is only authorised to teach, discipline and pray within what God has revealed through His Word. We have authority in the church only because Jesus meets with us in the church. He is present with us as we make these judgments and ask for His blessing in doing His work. In other words, the authority of the church is always under the authority of Jesus, in doing the work of Jesus. And we find Jesus' teaching in the Bible.

Nevertheless, whilst the context shows that this is not an open-ended promise to guarantee anything we want, it is a great comfort to us that we when we come together and submit to Christ and His Word He is there with us, hearing us, supporting us.

So what shall we take away from this study to encourage us in prayer?

First, that Jesus is with us in a special way when we meet together in His name. When we meet with childlike humility, seeking to honour Him, seeking to learn from Him how we can best serve Him in pursuing His kingdom, He is present with us to grant our requests according to His will. He will give us the help that we need. What a great assurance that is.

Second, that we should not neglect the assembly of Christian brothers and sisters, signifying our submission to Him. He has given us the gift of the church, brought us into it, for our good, for our growth in knowledge and holiness, for the pursuit of His kingdom. Within the church we are built up and edified. Within the church we are corrected and nurtured. Within the church we meet with Christ.

We can and should pray privately, following the example of the likes of David, Daniel, Moses, Paul and the apostles and prophets. But we should all the more pray with the gathered church as we seek to support each other humbly in doing God's will and preaching the good news of His kingdom.

To finish with a quote from John Calvin (emphasis is mine):

"There is therefore no reason to doubt that those who give themselves up to his direction will derive most desirable advantage from his presence. And since it is an invaluable blessing to have Christ for our director in all our affairs, to bless our deliberations and their results; and since, on the other hand, nothing can be more miserable than to be deprived of his grace, this promise ought to add no small excitement to us to unite with each other in piety and holiness. For whoever either disregards the holy assemblies, or separates himself from brethren, and takes little interest in the cultivation of unity, by this alone makes it evident that he sets no value on the presence of Christ." (Commentary on Matthew, Mark and Luke, Vol. 2.)

Prayer - Ask for Anything? (Part Eleven)

Part Eleven - Not as I will, but as you will...

I guess I ran out of space in Part Ten! We were considering two statements in John's first letter to first century Christians. 

Last time we had a thorough look at one particular statement in 1 John 3:21-22, "if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him." We saw that the wider passage is all about our assurance, which God gives both through His Spirit within us and the obedience He works within us. As we obey His commands more, the more confidently we know that He is in us, and the more confidence we have before Him. And as we grow in that obedience, our priorities are changing to be more in line with His, and therefore we find ourselves asking for more of the things that God knows are best for us and therefore He is willing to give us.

As David Jackman says (The Message of John's Letters, The Bible Speaks Today, IVP, p106), "Understood in this way, [this verse] becomes not so much an impossible challenge as an encouragement. As we seek to live in a way that pleases God, practising truth and love, our desires become moulded to his. We want his will in our lives and the lives of others, rather than pursuing our own selfish desires willy-nilly. The more we enjoy and develop that relationship, as obedient children, the more we shall find ourselves asking and receiving those things that are pleasing to God."

So we saw that when John says, "we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him" (1 John 3:21-22), he does not mean that God sees our obedience and repays us with good things that we ask for. Rather, our confidence before God grows as He shows us that He is working in us through enabling greater obedience to His commands (to believe in Jesus and to love one another), and in that confidence we ask and receive.

And yet we must be honest and say that John's other implication is that if we are not obedient, and do not love one another, then we will lack that confidence and will not receive. David Jackman says, "How can we receive God's good gifts in answer to prayer, if we do not ask in accordance with his will? And how can we ask like that, unless we are obeying God's will already revealed in Scripture?" (The Message of John's Letters, p106). 

And that leads us nicely on to the second statement in 1 John that I looked at in my study - 1 John 5:14-15, "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him."

"According to his will" is a very important limitation on the requests that we can expect to be granted by God. What it means is that God decides what is best for us. If we ask for something that is in keeping with what God has decided is best for us, then He will grant our requests. He loves to act in response to our requests, but what He says is decisive in the end. And that is what we would expect of a loving Father, as I said last time. 

Does "his will" here mean his commands, or his intentions as revealed in Scripture, or does it means His secret will, i.e. the specific purposes for things that happen in our lives that He does not normally reveal to us? Fundamentally, of course, "the will of God" simply means "what God wants to happen". But what that is depends on the context.

For example, in 1 John 2:17, John says, "The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives for ever." In other words, the person who does what God wants lives forever. But how does a person know what God wants? The answer is from Scripture, where God tells us what is required of us. (See also John 7:17 and 9:31.)

On the other hand, when Jesus says, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me" (John 4:34); or, "I have come down form heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me" (John 6:38), the context determines that we understand the will of God (since it was God who sent him) slightly differently. Why? Because in John 6:39-40 Jesus goes on to say, "this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day… my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life…." So the will of God in this case was the mission that was given to Jesus - to take for Himself a people, and to die in their place, so that they may be raised from the dead at the last day, and have eternal life.

So what does the context determine in 1 John 5:14?

I don't think that it would make sense for it to simply mean his commands. When we are commanded to "do His will", that means that we are to do things that He commands and in a way that He reveals. In the context of prayer, that would then mean that if we prayed according to the right formula then God would respond. But that conflicts with the teaching about prayer in the rest of the Bible (e.g. "do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him" (Matthew 6:7-8)). It also does not fit with the variety of different types of prayer that are contained in the Bible.

I think it makes more sense to take "his will" as meaning the purposes of God for the world. That fits better with the Bible's teaching, page after page, about the Sovereignty of God. God's purposes always come to pass. No-one can thwart them and no-one can twist His arm to do something He doesn't want to do. Then we would interpret this verse as meaning that if we ask God anything that is in keeping with His purposes for the world, then He will hear and grant our requests.

And how do we know the purposes of God for the world? Well, there are two answers to that. The answer at a high level is that we are given insight into God's purposes in His Word, the Bible. The answer at a more detailed and specific level is that we don't know. Only God knows what His plan is for every little thing that happens in the world. But we can be sure that He has a plan.

So it boils down to two lessons: 

1. Praying according to God's will means knowing the Bible. We can be sure that if we get greater understanding of God's purposes in and for the world, through reading, studying and being given understanding of His Word, then we will know better what we ought to pray for. We will have a better idea what will fit with His plans, and we will pray for that, because we love Him and know that His plans and purposes are good (Romans 8:28). And as we grow in our understanding we will pray more "according to his will" and have more of our requests granted. Of course, we can never know the particular mind of God in a specific sense, so when we pray for specific things we will be led to pray, like Jesus, saying, "if it be possible… nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will." (Matthew 26:39)

2. God grants the requests that He wants to grant. If we ask for something and it fits with what He wants then He will give it to us. It cannot be any other way when we come to the God who created the universe and controls every atom and every transfer of energy, and who has a purpose in everything that happens in the world. He is not sitting back watching what happens. He is pushing it along and keeping it going, displaying His glory, His grace and His wisdom all the time. His will is ultimate, and our wills are subordinate. So there may be some things that appear to us, with our finite and fallen minds, to be in line with God's revealed will. But because He knows everything, He knows whether specific requests are good for us and for His strategy in the world. But also conversely we should be confident that part of God's purpose is to involve us, to grant requests in working our His purposes.

Quoting David Jackman again (The Message of John's Letters, p161): "For prayer is not an attempt to get God to see things my way and to extract from him what I have decided I need or want. Prayer is submitting my will to his… It is opening the door of my need to the Lord Jesus. And this means that prayer is God's means by which my submission to the Christ's lordship can be developed. The less I pray, the more self-willed I become. But the corollary is wonderfully true. 'Not my will, but yours' - that is the essence of assured prayer, the secret of prevailing prayer. What confidence we can have! This should be a great stimulus in our personal lives to find out God's will, to build on the commands and promises of his Word in our prayers, to talk every situation through with him, and to submit all our thinking, planning and deciding to God. Answers to prayer do not depend on a right diagnosis or analysis of the problem by us as we pray, but on a childlike submission to the Father, knowing that he will give us what is best according to his will. If he were to answer on any other basis, which of us would ever dare to pray again? We do not have that sort of wisdom."

Prayer - Ask for Anything? (Part Ten)

Part Ten - Having Confidence Before God

Back in parts six, seven and eight of this series we looked at some passages in John's gospel where Jesus appears to promise that we can ask for literally anything we want and that He will always grant our requests. Now we come to the part in the series where we look at John's letter to Christians in the early church. And it ought to be no surprise when we find that the statements we find in John's letter are very similar to the ones he records Jesus saying in his gospel.

This time I want to have a look at the following verses:

"Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him." (1 John 3:21-22)

"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him." (1 John 5:14-15)

I think I said earlier that I have found John's writings very difficult to understand. You really have to wrestle with them. John does not write in a standard way. He says nothing without a lot of theological packaging. Whereas Luke, Matthew and Mark wrote gospels that are mainly historical narrative, John wrote a gospel that is a theological treatise. Whereas Paul may have written letters containing fairly linear arguments (where each point is based on the truth established immediately before), John seems to have written in circles and patterns - almost poetry. His arguments tend to be couched in symbolic language about light and darkness, anointing, purification, truth and lies, seeing and blindness, and so on. And I don't think this style is necessarily just a literary device being deliberately used. In my opinion (for what it's worth) I think John's mind worked like that. God gave him a gift of seeing things differently and presenting truth in rich, vivid, complex language, in ways that would engage our minds to meditate on God's Word. Remember he also gave us the book of Revelation! Often we find, however, that John makes some very simple points, but illustrates them in many and various intertwining ways.

So where shall I start with these two verses?!

Ok let's back up a bit and take 1 John 3, starting from verse 11 and going through to v24. I'll reproduce it all here, just in case you don't have a Bible to hand:

"For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. 

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. 

"This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us."

I'm now going to reduce it down a little so you can see the thought process, which in spite of what I said earlier is reasonably straightforward. The words "this is" shows where the argument moves on. I've put in bold the key words in each segment of the argument:

"For this is the message… We should love one another…"

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us… let us… [love] with actions and in truth…"

"This is how we know that we belong to the truth… God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything… we have confidence in God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him…"

"And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another… The one who keeps God's commands lives in him, and he in them…"

"And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us."

So we should love one another. How do we know what authentic love is? Jesus showed us in dying for us, so we should love in the same sacrificial way, not just in words but authentically. And how can we know that our love is authentic and truthful? Because God knows everything, including our hearts. The fact that we keep his commands, even imperfectly, gives us some assurance that He is at work within us. He knows that we trust Him and want to do what He commands. And what is His command? It is to believe in Jesus and love one another. If we believe in Jesus and love one another then this shows that we are living in God and He is living in us. But how can we know that He is living in us? Because His Spirit works in us and assures us.

The interesting thing about this is that believing in Jesus and loving one another, with sacrificial love, just as Christ loved us and died for us, is not the reason that God lives in us. It is the fruit of God's work in our lives. It is God's evidence to us that He is working in us. 

But as we know, this does not happen in the blink of an eye. It is a lifelong struggle to bring ourselves into line with what God has called us to be. As we obey his commands more and more, we show more and more evidence that God is at work in us. 

John has said this earlier, in 1 John 2:1-6: "My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. 

"We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, 'I know him,' but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did."

Living a life consistent with the way Jesus lived is not what makes God love us. But living a life consistent with the way Jesus lived is evidence of God's love at work within us. If someone claims that they are a Christian, and to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and yet they do not pay attention to the need for faith working out in holiness, then they are liar. God is not at work within them, no matter what they claim. But for someone who has faith in Christ, if we sin, He is the atoning sacrifice (literally, the propitiation, the one who turns God's wrath away from us).

Returning to 1 John 3, we see that this is all about assurance. And indeed, a bit more investigation shows that this is what John's whole letter is about. How can we know that God is working in us? How can we know that we have eternal life? 1 John 2:5 says, "this is how we know we are in him…". 1 John 5:13 says, "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life." And in our passage, we see, "This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us." (1 John 3:19-20)

The evidence we need is in our obedience, as the Spirit testifies within our hearts. And as our obedience increases, we have increasing confidence that God is in fact working in us. "If our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence in before God" (v21). Our hearts condemn us less and less as our obedience grows, through the work of the Spirit cleansing us from within. And we grow in confidence in God.

And as "we obey his commands and do what pleases him" we have more and more confidence to "receive from him anything we ask" (v22). At last we come to the point. We had to go through all of the above to understand that in context this verse is not all about getting whatever we want from God. It is all about the fruit of God's work in our lives giving us confidence in our eternal status in Christ. But can we receive from him anything we ask?

Well, let's just think. If our priorities are those John commends in his letter - to have more faith in Jesus and to love others more and love them more authentically, to live as Jesus did - what will we pray for? We will pray for that assurance! We will pray that God will work more obedience in our lives. We will pray that we may love others as Jesus loved the world. And yes, when we pray for that, we will receive it.

If I were a perfect father (which is far from the case) I would not give my children whatever they asked for unless it was in their best interests and those of the whole family. The more their priorities became aligned with what I knew to be their best interests and the good of the family, the more naturally they would ask me for things in keeping with those priorities. And therefore the more I would feel able to say yes and grant their requests.

So John is not saying that we should be obedient in order to buy God's favour, and be able to get good things from Him. He is challenging us and encouraging us that God is at work in us, and that as our desires fall more into line with His we shall see our requests granted.

So we should pray for whatever we want, and pray that we would be given grace to want the same things as God does.

We'll look at 1 John 5:14 next time.