Sermon Discussion Questions:

1. Reflect on the opening illustrations from the sermon introduction (man in a burning building, diver holding breath, and a child trying to pay the parents' mortage). Is there any way you relate to these as you think about what is currently stressing you out?
2. The sermon suggests that we struggle to pray because we “overestimate ourselves and underestimate God.” Where do you most see that dynamic at work in your own life?
3. Jesus says, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” How does seeing Jesus as both fully God and fully our mediator (the “Rock” who hides us) change the way you approach God in prayer?
4. Jesus promises, “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do.” What tensions or doubts do you feel when you hear that promise? How does the sermon help clarify what it means to pray “in Jesus’ name”?
5. The sermon contrasts growing cynicism with a kind of “tragic optimism” rooted in God’s goodness. How has disappointment affected your prayer life over time, and what would it look like to recover confidence in prayer without becoming naïve?

There is a man in a burning building, panicking at the growing flames, looking at the black smoke billowing through his living room; every second that goes by, more of his home is destroyed, and his chances of escaping with his life continue to shrink…yet he is reluctant to use the fire extinguisher at his feet. There is a diver growing dizzy from holding his breath, unsure how much longer he can hold out, terrified at drowning…yet he is swimming in only a few feet of water. And there is a Christian, overwhelmed with anxiety, deflated with despair, burning with temptation…yet he refuses to pray.

Why do we—who confess that prayer is an essential element of our faith—so often use it either as an ornament or a last resort. Pray before dinner…or offer a prayer when you have no idea what else to do…but prayer as the meat and marrow of our life? Prayer as oxygen, prayer as solid ground under our feet, prayer as the moment by moment lifeline which sustains us? That is elusive. Non-obvious.

Dr. Peter Kreeft writes: "I strongly suspect that if we saw all the difference even the tiniest of our prayers to God make, and all the people those little prayers were destined to affect, and all the consequences of those effects down through the centuries, we would be so paralyzed with awe at the power of prayer that we would be unable to get up off our knees for the rest of our lives.”

Why do we struggle to value prayer like this?

Because we over-estimate ourselves, and underestimate God.

If a child grabs the mail and opens up the mortgage statement and is alarmed at just how much is owed to the bank—hundreds of thousands of dollars—if he runs upstairs and drains his piggy bank and begins to draw up business plans to babysit and mow lawns to raise money to pay off this enormous debt, what has gone wrong? He has overestimated his ability to deal with this problem, and he has underestimated his parents.

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“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” 8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. 12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. - John 14:1-14

Believe in God

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.” - John 14:1

Jesus realizes that His disciples are troubled. He realizes that we are troubled. All throughout the farewell discourse in John 13-17, Jesus reiterates how life in this world is constantly punctuated by trouble. Anxieties in life abound. But Jesus maintains a simple, childlike remedy is the best: believe in God. Oh that is so unsatisfying to proud hearts like our own! No, Jesus, we want a plan! We want certainties, securities, we want to know not only that everything is going to be okay, but we want to know how it is going to work out. But, like the parents who find that their child is trying to crunch the numbers on their allowance to pay the mortgage bill, God stoops down to us and says: ‘Child, you need not worry about that—trust me, I am going to take care of this.’

And that is why Jesus draws our attention first to His person. ‘Believe in God; believe also in me.’ Why does He say this? Because He is wanting to focus the attention of His disciples, and of our church today, on the reality of who He is. The great hope of Christianity is that we are united to Christ. We are “in Christ” as Paul frequently says, and “in Him” we find life and blessing and everything we need. So, who is He?

Here, Jesus seems to be nudging towards something He has been hinting at constantly throughout the gospel and what the gospel author has told us from the very beginning of the book: Jesus Christ is the Son of God, Jesus Christ is God. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth…No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.” (John 1:1-2, 14, 18).

The Word is Jesus—the Son of God. He was with God. He is God. No one can see the Father, but the Son—***the only God—***has revealed the invisible God. Or, as Colossians puts it, Jesus is the “image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15), or as Hebrews tells us, “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature,” (Heb 1:3).

Here, in John 14:1, Jesus can claim something that would have been blasphemy were He not divine: you can believe in Him in the same way that you believe in God the Father.

I wish I had the time to delve into this in depth, but so much of this interaction is echoing one of the most important encounters between a man and God in the whole of the Old Testament: Moses’ conversation with God in Exodus 33-34. John’s gospel opened by contrasting Jesus and Moses: “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” - John 1:17

Moses gave you the law, Jesus give you grace and truth. This can almost sound like the way that a comparative religions class talks about different founders of world religion: Moses, Jesus, Zoroaster, Buddha, Mohammed—different men who offered different paths. But that isn’t what John is telling us. “Grace and truth” are the Greek translations of two Hebrew words: “steadfast love and faithfulness”; the two characteristics that are most frequently used to define what God is like in the Old Testament and—critically—what Moses is told that God abounds in, in Exodus 34.

In Exodus 33, Moses requests to see God. He asks first for God to show him “his ways” (Ex 33:13) and then asks God to show him “his glory” (Ex 33:18). And God replies that He will…but, only dimly.

But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” 21 And the LORD said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, 22 and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.” - Ex 33:20-23

Moses must be hidden in a rock, God’s hand must cover him, because the glory of God is simply too overwhelming. It will kill him. God is too holy and Moses is too sinful to endure it. So he is hidden in a makeshift bombshelter and personally shielded by God, from God. And then God, like an all-consuming fire, passes before Moses and Moses sees God, not with his eyes, but with His ears:

The LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. 6 The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, - Ex 34:5-6

Abounding in steadfast love (grace) and faithfulness (truth). Jesus is full of grace and truth (John 1:17). Moses desired to see God’s glory; Jesus possess glory (John 1:14). Moses asked God to show him His ways; Jesus tells us “I am the way” (John 14:6). Jesus is not just a new Moses, He is the God that Moses was speaking to, the God who passed before Him. But of course, He is different. Moses could not see the face of God and live. Here, Jesus emphasizes that the disciples can see the Father:

7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” 8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? - John 14:7-9

When Philip asks Jesus to show them the Father, he sounds like Moses requesting to see God’s glory—but Jesus replies: You are looking at Him. How can they do this and not die? Because Jesus is not only the all-consuming glory that no human can see without perishing…He is also the Rock in which we are hidden. As God’s hand hid Moses from the holiness that was so beautiful that Moses longed to see, but was so powerful Moses could not, it pointed to a time where God would do something to make it possible for sinners like Moses, like Philip, like us, commune with a holy God. By taking on flesh, the Son of God emptied Himself of the overpowering majesty of His radiant glory, and became a servant. Not only that, He became a servant to the point of death—Jesus is there so that He can take the sins of men like Moses, like Philip, like us! The reason that Moses would die in the presence of God is because God is holy! We are not! Our sins cling to our skin like gasoline and entering the presence of the holy God is like walking into a shower of sparks. We would perish were we to enter His presence! But Jesus came to cleanse us, to siphon the sins from our souls…into Himself, and then bear their punishment, die, and then three days later overcome sin and death and resurrect!

Jesus is the Rock, His nail-scarred hand covers over us, so that we can be thrust into the presence of God, the source of all goodness and beauty, our deepest longing.

Rock of Ages, cleft for me Let me hide myself in thee.

Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. - John 14:10-11

Obviously, this passage contradicts so many popular heresies about the identity of Jesus. Mormonism, Islam, Jehovah’s Witnesses—all of them deny what this verse plainly teaches: Jesus shares an identity with God the Father. Jesus is not an angel, He is not the first being that the Father created, He is not a prophet—He is God. But clarity and care is needed here to not misunderstand Jesus. There was another ancient heresy the church faced called “modalism” that taught that there was only one God, but this God sometimes revealed Himself as a Father, and at other times revealed Himself as a Son, and other times as the Spirit. Like one person wearing different masks. These words shouldn’t be seen to be insinuating that. When Jesus claims that the Father is in Him, and He is in the Father, that isn’t to dissolve their unique personhood together. The doctrine of the Trinity teaches that God is one in being, yet three in persons. “The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Spirit, and the Spirit is not the Father, yet all three distinct persons are one in being, without any confusion or mixture of their persons.” (QBC Statement of Faith, Article II).

And if that seems terribly complicated to wrap your head around…that probably means you are understanding it correctly. Heresy almost always is birthed out of a desire to simplify God’s truth into man-centered ruts of thinking. Our job is not to explain the mind of God in such a way that we comprehend the whole of His ways, but to faithfully receive what He has revealed about who He is. If I could have a conversation with a two-dimensional cartoon character in a comic book, they would struggle to understand how I could flip to the beginning or end of the book—to exist outside of their conception linear time. How I could be everywhere in the book, so to speak. Or how I exist in three-dimensional space, not bound by the flat plane on which they reside. They would struggle to comprehend that because they have known no reality that transcends the two-dimensional format of a comic book. And how much vaster is the distance between ourselves and the infinite, transcendent God?

Pray to God

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. - John 14:12

What happens when you believe in Jesus? You will do the works that He did—and even greater. Seriously? Have any of you fed five thousand with a few loaves of bread? Walked on water? Raised the dead? What could Jesus mean by that?

Notice, that it is connected with where Jesus is going. He says that if you believe in Him, you will do greater works than He does “because I am going to the Father.” After Jesus dies and resurrects, He ascends to the Father, and then after that He pours out the Holy Spirit (which Jesus will begin teaching about shortly). When this takes place in the book of Acts, it is then that the we see the church performing miracles just like Jesus did—healing the sick, casting out demons, raising the dead. Because Jesus has gone back to the Father, anyone who believes in Him will do the works that Jesus did.

But in what sense are these “greater” than what Jesus did? They could be “greater” in the sense of quantity, not quality. Jesus’ earthly ministry was limited to one individual who ministered miraculously for about three years. The church extends over the whole globe for many millennia. But I think it is more likely that Jesus isn’t only referring to the working of signs and wonders (afterall, the working of miracles in 1 Corinthians 12 is a spiritual gift that only some have; Jesus here says that “whoever believes in me will do the works I am doing—and greater”). All throughout Jesus’ ministry the working of signs functioned as a sign. And signs point beyond themselves. What were the signs pointing to? Who Jesus is. His identity. And, as we have repeatedly seen, the overwhelming majority of onlookers are actually blinded by the signs, do not see the ultimate reality that Jesus is trying to point. That blindness of heart is going to be removed through the ministry of the Holy Spirit working in regenerating hearts, opening eyes. I think the greater works that Jesus is referring to here is the communication of the kingdom of God through both the preaching/teaching and the working of miracles.

Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. - John 14:13-14

Jesus is God. And here, He is commanding you to come to Him and ask whatever you want, and He will do it. And so we return to how our sermon began—our life is full of burdens and troubles, we are anxious about much. And here God Himself is offering you His own resources to help. So why do we pray so little?

Because we don’t think God answers prayers. Jesus makes a promise that seems demonstrably false—something that can be immediately disproven as soon as one prayer is not answered.

But since your patient has contracted the terrible habit of obedience, he will probably continue such “crude” prayers whatever you do. But you can worry him with the haunting suspicion that the practice is absurd and can have no objective result. Don’t forget to use the “heads I win, tails you lose” argument. If the thing he prays for doesn’t happen, then that is one more proof that petitionary prayers don’t work; if it does happen, he will, of course, be able to see some of the physical causes which led up to it, and “therefore it would have happened anyway”, and thus a granted prayer becomes just as good a proof as a denied one that prayers are ineffective. - Screwtape Letters

God’s will will be done—and it is good. If we pray, and what we pray for does not occur, that is qualified by what the verse told us our prayers were aimed at: the glory of God. But that can feel deflating. "If God will only do what glorifies His name, and it doesn't look like what I want...what is the point of prayer?" We need to be reminded that God's glory is not opposed to our joy--it is the highest expression of it. If we pray for something and it does not come about as we thought, that only means that something better will happen.

There are generally two kinds of people in the world. People who are optimists and pessimists. Typically, optimists are young, pessimists are older. As you age, you tend to find life to be more disappointing, so it is common for older people to become more pessimistic. And so, in time, we can come to believe that the most cynical person in the room is the most mature. And there is a way that Christians can adopt this posture in our prayer life. We may at first blush think that prayer is full of unqualified power, but in time, become more doubtful.

We should embody what Viktor Frankl calls a “tragic optimism.”

“Christianity simultaneously transcends optimism and pessimism and (paradoxically) deepens them, allowing us to approach the evils of the world with a practical seriousness that pessimism cannot muster, and to have a confidence about its fundamental goodness that optimism can merely mimic.” - Matthew Lee Anderson, Confidence in Life