Okay, let's turn in our Bibles to John chapter 14, John 14. Looking at the teachings of the Lord Jesus about prayer. And so we are now in the upper room discourse, in John chapter 14, and let's look at verses 13 and 14. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word, we thank you for this instruction from the Lord Jesus to his disciples, and we just pray that you would guide our thoughts as we meditate upon it. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. This is a part of the Upper Room Discourse, which was A group of teachings that the Lord gave to his disciples in light of his soon departure. He was preparing his disciples for life on earth in his absence, when he's gone. And In verse 12, just before this, we see a little bit of the context. He says, "...verily I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do, because I go to my Father." So here Jesus was leaving his disciples behind. He's let them know multiple times throughout this section that he was going to be with his father and they would be left on earth to continue his ministry on earth in his absence. And this was puzzling to the disciples how that could ever take place. And the fact that Jesus was leaving his disciples They'd be alone, he would not be with them physically, but he wanted them to know that he wasn't really leaving them alone. That the life and spiritual power of his earthly ministry wasn't going to evaporate when he ascended into heaven. And so here, Jesus is promising a continuation of his power and his works through his people down here below. And this is sort of in preparation for John 15, where he speaks of himself as the vine, and the branches are in the vine, and the life of the vine flows through the branches. And so, Jesus let them know in verse 12 that They would do greater works than he did because he was leaving them. And that sounds a little awkward. You would think it would be the opposite. He said, if I was with you, then you'd be doing greater works. But he says in verse 12, and greater works than these shall ye do because I go to my father. When he went to his father, things were going to change after that. The church age would begin. He would send them beyond the boundary lines of Israel, and they would be sent to the uttermost parts of the earth. And everywhere they went, Jesus is going to let them know that Christ would be with them and in them. And Christ being in them, they would have power. They would have the power of the Lord to conduct the work of the Lord and continue the ministry of Christ on earth, even during the period of his absence. So when he was gone, their works would be greater. There'd be more of them. in a greater geographical extent, and for a much longer period of time than just the three years of earthly ministry that Jesus was engaged in, the works of the church would continue long beyond that. And so here, Jesus states that through the believers' prayers, his ministry on earth would continue. And the believer's prayers would be empowered during this time of his absence, and it wouldn't be less power at all, so the disciples didn't have to think of that. His physical departure did not mean that he would have no more contact with them, or there'd be no more communication with them, He'd be absent physically, but not spiritually. And so here the Lord is teaching his disciples in a particular context that there would be power from above. that would direct the believer's life and ministry on earth. And in this context, in John chapter 14, all of this would be the result of the believer's union with Christ. And this union is really key in this chapter, and especially with respect to what he says about prayer. So right after the Lord's teachings on prayer in verses 13 and 14, he teaches more about this union. Skip down to verse 20. At that day, I'm going to leave, I'm going to be with my Father. And at that day, ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. And so Jesus just told him that he was going to leave. And so in one sense, he would be gone. He'd be gone bodily. But in another sense, he'd be closer than ever. Through his indwelling presence, he would be in them. And in chapter 15, the Lord explains this, the closeness of this relationship with the illustration of the vine and the branch. But unity in each of these chapters is really the essence of what makes their works great and what makes their prayers powerful and effective. It's because of their union with Him. So he introduces this in verse 12 by saying that your works would be greater because I'm going to be with my father, because I'll be gone. I'll be gone physically, but I'll dwell in you. And later on in the epistles, we have revealed to us the reason why our works on earth can be transformed from filthy rags to what Jesus called greater works than he did. That's quite a dramatic change. And it's because he went to be with his father, and as a result of that, because Christ would dwell in them. So Jesus is speaking here to his disciples who were fearful to hear that he was leaving them, that he was going to be with the Father, and they felt kind of helpless without him. In fact, they felt that without him they could do nothing. And of course, in one sense, that's true, and he'll describe that in chapter 15. But here, it wasn't true that they would be without him. He would be gone physically, but he would really be with them. And he's letting them know these truths little by little. And here the Lord wants them to know that this bond of unity that they would have with him after his death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, is what would make their prayers effective. And so when we read in these verses, verses 13 and 14, we tend to look at this as a sort of a thesis on prayer. And he is speaking about prayer, but often we look at these passages apart from the context. And all by itself, it seems to be saying, God will give me whatever I want in prayer. It sure sounds like that. Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do. Sounds like a free ticket for anything we ask for. But that's a self-centered kind of interpretation. And it ignores the context. It focuses on what we can get out of prayer. But I think what we should see in this passage is the need to understand and experience and trust in our union with Christ as we pray. And he speaks of two distinct kinds of union here. He speaks about the union of the believer with the Son in verse 20. ye in me and I in you. So there's a great union that exists between, or will exist soon for the disciples, between Christ and the believer. And because of that, our works will be greater than his works. And we will have a closer relationship to Christ, or we can have, we have the ability to have a closer relationship to Christ than the disciples had when he was on earth with them physically. And Christ would soon become the head of the body. And the disciples would be some of the first members of that body. And soon Christ would dwell in every single one of them. They never had that on earth. There were times when they were counting on his physical presence, and there were times when they were separated from the Lord. But that will never happen with this new union. But there's also another union that we see in this context. Look in verse 10 of chapter 14. Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? If you've seen me, you've seen the Father. I'm in the Father, and the Father is in me. So, among the persons of the Godhead, there is a similar kind of unity that we can experience with Christ. There is the union of the Father and the Son. The Father's in the Son, and the Son's in the Father. And when we put all this together, what the Lord is telling his disciples is that we are in Christ, and Christ is in us, and Christ is in the Father, and the Father is in Christ. It sounds a little confusing, but there is a perfect unity and union among the members of the Godhead and the members of the body of Christ. And this union that we share with the Father and the Son is connected to our prayer life. And if you look in verses 13 and 14, he says, whatsoever you shall ask in my name, that will I do. And then in verse 14, if you ask anything in my name, So we're in Him, and He's in us, and He's in His Father, and we're told to pray in His name. And that implies a couple of things. It implies a very close personal connection that we have to Christ. For example, if you went to the CEO of your company, and you had an important request to ask him, you could ask it, He might not respond too well, but what a difference it would make if you said, your son sent me here to ask you this. I think that would make, have an impact on that man. And so when we come to the Father to pray, it's a prayer in the name of Christ. We are in him, we represent him, We are surrounded by Him, and it also implies not just a connection to His name, which speaks of His person and His character, but it also implies a connection with Christ and a union with Christ in the cause of Christ, and in the interests of Christ, and in the goal of Christ, which is for the glory of the Father. So we're to pray to the Father. for His glory. And we're to pray to the Father for His glory in the name of His Son. And as believers who are in union with the Father and the Son, this implies that our minds and our hearts and our purposes are to be one with God. One with the Father, one with the Son. And later, John speaks in his first epistle, in 1 John chapter 5, he speaks about the importance of the will of God in our prayers. And he says something similar here to what he said in John 14. He says, and this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us. And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. So here he's saying the same thing that he said in John 14, only he says instead of saying that we're asking in Jesus' name, here he says we're asking according to his will. Praying according to the Lord's will, is equal to, in some sense, praying for His glory because that is God's will. It's God's will that He be glorified in everything, in every aspect of our life, in every experience of our life. The most important thing to God is His glory. Not that we get whatever we want, when we want it, and how we want it. But we're to be praying for His glory. We're to be praying according to His will. We are to be praying with the same mind and heart of Christ. Because we are in union with Him, and Christ is in union with the mind and heart of the Father. And God answers according to His will. In other words, God answers our prayers according to that which will bring the most glory to him and to his holy name. And so as we pray in Jesus' name, it's not just a cliche that we add to the end of our prayers, it's an expression of the fact that our desires and our wishes and our wants are all subservient to the glory of God. As difficult and as painful as that is at times. And this kind of prayer, it's hard to imagine anything more antithetical to praying the way Jesus describes in this chapter than praying selfishly so we can get what we want. John 14, 13, when Jesus said, You shall ask whatsoever ye ask in my name, I will do it. We shouldn't think of this selfishly, self-centered, that we get whatever we ask for. It's rather, when our mind and heart is in union with the mind and heart of Christ, which is in union with the mind and heart of the Father, when we're in sync with God, our prayer requests will be in perfect sync with God's will. And so our position is that we're in Christ, we're in union with Him, and our responsibility is to keep the condition of our life in sync with our position. And so when we pray, just as the Lord Jesus did, not my will but thine be done. that Christ might be glorified, the Father might be magnified. And so when we come to the throne of grace, we need to leave self at the door or on the cross. And when that's the case, when self-will is set apart, and we are in Christ, conscious of it, that we have the mind of Christ, the heart of Christ, and our goal and our desire is for God to do that which best suits Him and brings glory to Him, When that's the case, Jesus meant every word of what he said in this passage. Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father might be glorified in the Son. So our prayers are always to be subservient to that wish. That should be our purpose, our goal, our aim in every one of our prayers, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. And when we're in perfect union with the Father and the Son, and when we are praying in Jesus' name as a representative of His, as if Jesus were praying this prayer Himself, when Jesus is one with His Father, we're praying in sync with the Lord who said, I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me. And that should be our mindset, our attitude. That we should be conscious of our union with Christ as we pray. That we're in Him, we're praying as if Christ were asking His Father. We want to make sure that whatever we pray is according to God's will and subservient to it. And Jesus prayed that the will and the words and his works, he says, they are not my own, but the Father who was in me. And as deity, Jesus was united in every single way to the will of his father. There was never, in his humanity, he prayed that this cup might pass from me. But in his deity, his will was always perfectly in sync with the father. And so when he prayed, may this cup pass from me, he said, not my will, but thine. And that's a perfect way for us to pray. in agreement with God. And so this union is a oneness. It's a oneness among those that are in the union. And we should see ourselves as one in God, in Christ, in the Son, and in the Father, and they dwell in us. And we should seek the mind of Christ, the heart of Christ, and make that our goal. And when we pray in perfect union with Christ, then we can know that we have the request that we presented before the Lord. And so the main point the Lord wanted his disciples to glean from this section of the discourse is that although he was going to leave them behind, he wouldn't be with them physically, but he would be with them spiritually. And as a result of that, the work of the Lord would continue on earth through them. The nature of the relationship would change. It was not going to be master-disciple anymore, teacher-student relationship. He was going to leave them, but the union, the spiritual union that would follow would be even closer than that. And in his absence, that did not mean a lack of power. It did not mean a lack of his presence. Because of their union with him, They would experience the power of God in their prayers, and the power of God in their works. And all of that is because of this new relationship that would be theirs, and it's something that we experience every single day. Our union with Christ is to be central in our thinking as we pray. And the Lord wanted his disciples to get that, and I'm still learning that. I'm hoping that will sink in, in its fullness, if not in this life, in the life to come. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the union that we have with you. We thank you for your indwelling presence, the presence of Christ, and the presence of your Holy Spirit. And Lord, help us to be conscious of your presence as we pray. Help us to be conscious of your mind, and heart, and things that are important to you, and according to your will, Lord. And Father, help us to pray with that mindset. And Lord, help us to always be willing to amend our prayers with not my will, but thine, be done. And we'll thank and praise you for this, in Jesus' name, amen.