Hope that's not my phone. So if you're anything like me, you've been greatly blessed by the past few weeks where we've been looking at prayer in the Sunday evenings. Tonight, I want to look at probably the four most common words at the end of every prayer that you've ever heard. Anybody want to take a stab at it? In Jesus' name. Amen. So why do we do that? What does that mean? What is it supposed to mean? Do I mean what it's supposed to mean? Do we mean what it's supposed to mean when we say it? So, of course, the amen is easy enough, right? It is true, truly. Jesus usually used the word, amen, amen, or truly, truly, or in the King James, most assuredly, whenever he was going to mark his point. John frequently depicts Jesus as saying it twice whenever he did that, like in John 3, 3, where Jesus told Nicodemus, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. But Paul, the writer to the Hebrews, Peter, Jude, John, they all use amen to just put the exclamation point on the doxology. Galatians 1.3, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. So all this to say, as you already know. Amen does not simply mean I am done with my prayer. But the other three are a little bit more worthy of our consideration at length, right? Again, what do we mean? What should we mean? So tonight we're going to look at three texts and we're going to look at the two ways that we mean or we should mean in Jesus' name. And the goal is to have confidence in knowing what we ought to mean and also having the confidence to say it well, to pray it well, to mean exactly what it is supposed to mean. So the two kinds. I'll say it as plainly as I can because I'm going to say it over and over and I don't want you all to get lost, especially at my expense. I'm with him. in Jesus' name. I'm with him. The positional in Jesus' name means I am here in his name because of him, I'm here. The other meaning or sense is more of an authoritative like an ambassador, right? When our country sends ambassadors to all different sorts of places, They don't just say, I'm here and I'm an American. They say, I'm here with the authority of the president. I'm here with, Siri recognizes me. I'm here with the authority of the people of the United States. Right? So, there's a way we say, in Jesus' name, meaning I'm here with Him. And there's a way where we say, in Jesus' name, meaning I speak with His authority. What I am saying is what Jesus would be saying if He were here as well. So here are the two kinds. Now, the first text we're going to take a look at is really, we're going to run through quickly, 1 John. If you're using one of the Bibles there in your seats, Let me give you the page number here. Page number 844. Now, again, we're going to skim through a lot of this, but 1 John, one of the major themes is confidence, knowing that we have eternal life. One of the major back and forths that we see as we go through the book of 1 John is If you have Jesus, if you have the Son, you have eternal life. If you do not have the Son, you do not have eternal life. And then, the ultimate summary statement, which we will get to a little bit more in detail here, is 1 John 5, verse 13. In summary, John says, These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know That's certainty, that's confidence that you may know you have eternal life and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. So all throughout John's letter he is going to be pointing us to this confidence that we are to have in Christ. The first example we see, 1 John 2, verse 3, and you can follow along or just listen, but these are just some examples of what I mean here. Followers of Christ are confident to say, in Jesus' name, because we love His instruction. 1 John 2, verse 3, now by this we know that we know Him. if we keep his commandments. Similarly, 1 John 2, verse 28, And now, little children, abide in him, that when he appears we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you know everyone who practices righteousness is born of him. Followers of Christ are confident to say, In Jesus' name, because we love others who proclaim the same. 1 John 3, verse 14, We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. Also, followers of Christ are confident to say, in Jesus' name, because he remains in us by the Holy Spirit. Chapter 3, verse 24. Now he who keeps his commandments abides in him, and he in him. And by this we know that he abides in us by the Spirit whom he has given us. Followers of Christ are also confident to say in Jesus name because of our belief and our love for him and his other followers. 1st John chapter 5 verse 1. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God and everyone who loves him who begot also loves him who is begotten of him. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments. And finally, our perpetual belief and trust in Jesus Christ gives us confidence to say that we have an inheritance of eternal life. And this is the verse I just read, but it's worth reading again. 1 John 5, verse 13. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that's the position in Jesus' name, in the name of the Son of God, that you may know you have eternal life and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. Now, this confidence that John is trying to build throughout his letter assumes that we know why Christ is worthy of our confidence. He assumes that we know the gospel. Of course, he hits on it over and over again, but even in that first sentence, and I'll take a moment to get there if you want to flip back to 1 John 1, verse 1, He encapsulates all of Christ's life, all of Christ's ministry, the entirety of the gospel right there in that first sentence. He says, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled concerning the word of life, the life was manifested and we have seen and bear witness and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us. That which we have seen and heard we declare to you that you may also have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with the Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full." I didn't take a close look. I don't see a whole lot of new faces. No, I think I recognize everybody. We know the gospel here. We hear it every time we gather. We celebrate it every time we gather. We know we are not clean before a holy God who is a consuming fire. And through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, he is the cleansing sacrifice. And so being, God is faithful and just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We know we are guilty before the just judge of the universe, and through repentance and faith that judge counts Jesus' perfect life to our credit, and he credits our wretched life to his account. We know that Christ's work means justice is satisfied, and so mercy and grace are free. We know that because we are, positionally, in Jesus' name, We can draw near to the consuming fire and not be burned. And we can draw near and remain perpetually forever near the consuming fire. We know that we can have fellowship with the just judge as a father to a son. And we know that we can rest, that we no longer have to keep trying to find another source of truth another source of righteousness, another source of meaning, another source of purpose. We can rest. We know. In Christ we boldly go before the throne of grace. This is the work of Christ. This is what I mean when I say in Jesus name is I'm with him. This is the in Jesus name that's the glorious good news of the gospel so John's letter is about the confidence to say in Jesus name meaning I'm with him but there's that other sense of Jesus in Jesus name and in the same letter look back there at first John chapter 5 verse 14 after he says we know that we can have eternal life he says now this is the confidence that we have in Him. 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 the petitions that we asked of Him. Now again, since I know you, let me just say it this way. If you are not confident that you stand with Christ, that you can stand with Christ in the presence of God the Father, the Creator and Just Judge of all the universe. If you are not confident, then this is where you stop. According to God's will that none should perish. If you ask, if you repent, and ask for the mercy of the Father through the work of the Son. You know that you have that petition. And if you are not confident that you stand in Christ right now, that is your petition. And I would recommend you petition right now. For those of us who do have confidence that we stand positionally in Jesus' name. If you're anything like me, that one's a little bit easier. I know, and I just proclaim that I think you know, the gospel. I know that Christ's work is sufficient to stand before God the Father. If you're anything like me, the second one's actually harder because To say, I'm praying in Jesus' name, meaning I'm praying as if Jesus would pray if he were here, to me that's a little bit shakier, and I'll assume for the next few minutes anyway that you're at least somewhat like me. So the whole of John's letter is meant to give his readers confidence that they have eternal life, and the way John says here in verse 14, the way that that manifests, that confidence manifests the other kind of confidence. that when we pray we expect Him to answer and we expect Him to give us the petitions that we ask for. That's what it says right there in verse 14. The confidence to say in Jesus name in the sense that I'm with Him is the confidence that we have in Him that if we ask according to His name He hears us and if we know He hears us that whatever we ask we know that He will give us the petitions that we have asked for Him. So I'll just ask you plainly. Does your confidence in Christ's work to allow you to stand before the judge of the universe? Is that the same kind of confidence that you have when you pray and you expect God to answer? Is that what you mean when you say, in Jesus' name, amen, at the end of your prayers? Again, if you're anything like me, the qualification here throws me for a loop. And I hope I can take that loop out before the end of our time this evening. Look there. If we ask, again in verse 14, that if we ask anything, that's pretty broad, right? Here's the qualification. According to His will. So, If you haven't already been convinced, give me a few more minutes and I think you will be. According to His will and that other sense of in Jesus' name is the same thing. In the other two texts that we'll look at, that will become even more clear. Of course, that raises a question, right? How do we know? How do we know if what we want is the same as what Jesus would ask for? Where do we gain that kind of confidence? Now, there is hope. I hope you don't think I'll leave you out there on that plank. Because, think about this. John's whole letter there in 1 John, we just did a flyby of it. was one of the themes there was to build your confidence. His intention was to build the reader's confidence so that they would know that if they have the sun, they have eternal life. And so it really wouldn't make a whole lot of sense for John to add this according to your will in order to destroy our confidence that he had just spent four chapters building up. In other words, do you think John intended to diminish our confidence to pray according to his will or to pray in Jesus' name right after he said that our confidence in eternal life should be manifest in our confidence in prayer? If according to his will makes us less confident that we will receive what we ask for, we're probably missing something. So how do we gain this confidence? How do we gain the confidence to say, I pray in Jesus' name because I know that this is according to His will? Now, it probably in this room goes without saying, but I'll say it just in case. In Jesus' name, amen is not a, slap it onto the end, that's the ticket to get the thing that you asked for. It's not a magical post script that has some sort of power with the the words to to make something appear. It's not knowing God's will in the sense of knowing what's out in the future. He's drawn clear lines about what he expects us to know about the future. So in order to gain confidence about in Jesus name or according to his will, We need to draw some boundaries. We need to know whether what we are asking for, what our will desires, is what the Lord's will desires, so that we can pray confidently, so that we can pray expectantly in Jesus' name. Now, we have some general what is the Lord's will kinds of statements in Scripture. I'm not going to go through all of them, but a couple that you will recognize for sure. Romans 8.29, the purpose of the golden chain of redemption. is our conformity to the image of Christ. In other words, it is God's will that we become more like Jesus. That's a big, broad one. That'll help. 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 3, this is the will of God, your sanctification. That's very similar, right? But we know it's God's will. If we were to pray that, we could have confidence very certainly, right? We would know that we are praying exactly according to God's will. So the other two passages we're going to look through, and I may skip ahead a little bit for the sake of time, but we're going to draw or try to define some of these boundaries in the few minutes we have left. Let's turn to John chapter 14. This is our second text tonight. So if you remember John chapter 14, this is during the Last Supper. This is the last time Jesus spoke to the disciples as a group before the crucifixion, before the resurrection. This conversation that we're going to look at in John chapter 14, this is after Jesus washes their feet. This is after Jesus announces that Judas is the betrayer. This is after Jesus tells Peter of his own denial. So look there in John chapter 14, if you'd like to follow along. Again, I'm going to read it for you, but it looks like page 754 if you want to read along there. John chapter 14, verse 1. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again to receive you to myself. That where I am, there you may be also. And where I go, you know, and the way you know. Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going, and how can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to me, no one comes to the Father except through me. Now look here how Jesus describes his relationship with the Father. If you had known me, you would have known my father also. And from now on, you know him and have seen him. Philip said to him, Lord, show us the father, and it is sufficient for us. Jesus said, have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the father. So how can you say, show us the father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does the works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me, or else believe me for the sake of the works themselves. that father-son relationship, Jesus is about to bring the disciples into that relationship, that fellowship. Verse 12, most assuredly, that's truly, truly, most assuredly I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also. And greater works than these he will do because I'm going to the Father, or because I go to my Father. In other words, while Jesus is gone, the disciples have a mission. Verse 13, and whatever you ask in my name that I will do, Here's the, this is what Jesus wants kind of in Jesus name. Whatever you ask in my name, this is what I will do. And look how Jesus sees his response to whatever they ask. That they may be glorified in the sun. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it. Now Jesus goes back to the I'm with Him kind of in Jesus name here in verse 15. If you love me keep my commandments. The obedience is the boundary around what Jesus wants. Now we see the Spirit is part of this fellowship also. So we have the Father and the Son in fellowship. We have the Father and the Son and the disciples in fellowship. And now we have the Spirit here as well in verse 16. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever, the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him. For he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you a little while longer, and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you will live also. At that day, you will know that I am in my father, and you in me, and I in you. He who has my commandments and keeps them is he who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him." So you see clearly here the disciples being in Jesus name is their invitation into the inter-trinitarian fellowship. They have confidence that they are in Jesus name positionally like he is in the Trinity positionally. I'll look down a little bit further to verse 27. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives, do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. You have heard me say to you, I am going away and coming back to you. If you loved me, you would rejoice, because I said I'm going to the Father, for my Father is greater than I. And now I've told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in me. But that the world may know that I love the Father, as the Father gave me commandment, so I do. Arise, let us go from here. Now, Jesus coming in the Father's name is a relationship of love and obedience. In chapter 15, Jesus goes on to picture in his name and the picture of the vine and the vine dresser. So, the disciples are getting the sense, right? They are in Jesus' name. They are fellowshipping with the Triune God. like Jesus' fellowships with the Father. Now, down in chapter 15, verse 7, we see the sense of, this is what Jesus wants when he uses, in my name. Verse 7, if you abide in me, my words abide in you, and you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit, and so you be my disciples. As the Father loved me, I've also 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." So we see both the positional and the authoritative, or the ambassador-like relationship that Jesus intends the disciples to have with the Triune God all the way through His leaving to the Father and then culminating in His return. So it's the mission, right? And this is what John's doing. This is the first time in John's Gospel that we start to get a clear picture about what are they supposed to do now that Jesus is going, right? It's the mission. It doesn't surprise you then, probably, that John's first letter, 1 John, lines up with what Jesus is saying about being in His name. There's fellowship with the Trinity and with one another. The fellowship is one of love, one of obedience, receiving whatever they request in Jesus' name. In John's Gospel, Jesus explains these things in the context of their mission. This is what you do while I'm gone and until I return. So as we start to try to gain some certainty there, put some sure footing on how we can pray in Jesus' name. We got some big ones, right? Conformity to Christ, sanctification, of course, the Lord wills obedience. And now, in the context of what we are to do until Christ returns, we are to go to the nations and make disciples, teaching them to obey all the Lord has commanded. Of course, if we ask for whatever we need in order to meet our mission, then we can be confident, we can have sure footing, that in Jesus' name is an authoritative statement about what Jesus would want as well. Now that did take a little bit longer than I expected, so we're going to turn to the third text here real quickly. James chapter 4. If you want to follow along here, James chapter 4 is on page 839. James chapter 4. Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and you do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war, yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask amiss. that you may spend it on your pleasures." So, since we're diving or jumping in here without a whole lot of context, James is describing how selfishness destroys fellowship. He frames such selfishness as friendship with the world here, we'll see in just a moment, as opposed to the sweet fellowship like what we just saw in John's Gospel between the Father and the Son and the Spirit and the believers. James wants his audience to value that fellowship above the selfish desires with which the world and the devil try to cause division and quarreling. And why? Look here in verse 4. Adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity or enemies of God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy. In other words, you have to pick one. You can't love both. It is unfaithfulness to be friends with the world and friends with the Lord. God is jealous. Look here in verse 5. God is jealous for communion with the Spirit with which He has brought you to life. Verse 5, Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, the Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously? And then, of course, Verse six, but he gives more grace, therefore, he says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Moving on, nearness to God comes from submission, verse 7, resisting the devil, clean hands, pure hearts, and single-mindedness in verse 8, and humility in verse 10. So we see James wants his audience to get rid of their pride and to fit into God's will. And that pride, as we follow along here, if we were to follow along here in verse 11 in chapter 5, He puts it in the sense of stewardship. When we are in God's will, what we want lines up with God's will. When we are friends with the world, we logically and rightfully move to get while the getting's good, hoard while I can, right? Give us this day our daily bread does not make sense when we are friends of the world, when we are after what this world can provide, when we are after what the new heavens and the new earth will ultimately provide, when we are after what eternal life is, then we can get by without all without hoarding up and stealing and fighting and warring with one another. This is what James is after. All who want friendship with God, who have enlightened spirits, who do not want God's opposition, who want nearness with God, should denounce worldly desires and pride and fit into God's will. This is a stewardship thing. So, you ask and you do not receive, right, is the exact opposite of ask anything according to my will. and expect that you will receive it. So of course, what's the difference? And James says pretty clearly here, because you ask amiss, that you spend it on your own pleasures. All right, so where are we at here? We're coming to a close. According to His will, in Jesus' name, with the authority of Christ, as an ambassador of Christ, I ask, I pray according to His will, and I expect an answer. How can I find some sure footing there? Conformity to Christ and sanctification, obedience, whatever. This is John 14, 13, 14, 15. Whatever furthers the work of the kingdom until Christ returns. And now, we don't ask for a negative. We don't ask for things that we intend to spend on ourselves. And I just cited the Lord's Prayer a little bit, but think about it. This is how the Lord's Prayer goes, right? Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us what we need for daily sustenance. Forgive us our sins. The Lord's Prayer is right along this line of thinking. So if you're still a little bit nervous about praying with the kind of expectation that John mentions in his first letter, perhaps there's one more thing we can clear up in this back in 1 John chapter 5, and with this we'll close. And with fear and intrepidation, I'm going to try to do this in just a few minutes. But it's a complex thing. Of course, 1 John 5, verse 16 is one of these verses that you can chew on for a long time. And maybe you can answer all your questions. But I think if we remember where we've been, uh... with the context of first john and where we've been uh... with the context of in jesus name will be able to look at this and it'll be a help to our confidence rather than a stumbling block first john chapter five verse sixteen if anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death he will ask and he will give him life for those who commit the sin not leading to death there is sin leading to death i do not say that he should pray for that or about that Verse 17, all unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death. So the sin leading to death. Again, quickly, there are two options. First, John could be referring to God's discipline of a believer by physical death, like Ananias and Sapphira in Acts chapter 5, when they lied to the Holy Spirit. and they died immediately, or barely immediately. Or 1 Corinthians 11, when you join the Lord's table in an unworthy manner, some of you are even sick, some of you even have fallen asleep. That's one option. The other option is apostasy or departing from the faith. And this is kind of the kind of thing that John has expressed earlier in 1 John. They went out from us because they never were of us. And if they would have been of us, they would not have gone out from us. And that's 1 John 2, 18 and 19. Those are really the only two legitimate options. Now here's the thing, either way, either way it'll be difficult, it's very difficult to determine that death or apostasy is God's will, right? Somebody dies, it's really hard to say that that person died because it was judgment from the Lord or that person died because it was discipline from the Lord or somebody departs from us and we say that person is lost forever. In fact, our whole church discipline process assumes that we never assume that person is gone forever, right? It's very difficult or it would be very difficult to make a declaration, a final declaration about that death, whether it be physical death or that apostasy leading to eternal death, is certain. it would be very hard to say this is the Lord's will. We don't know when it's safe to assume that God's will is the judgment of a person. The Lord knows from before time, but we never know. So, this example is not meant to shake our confidence in praying in Jesus' name. It is meant to encourage confidence. The main part is the first part. A brother who is sinning When we pray, we can expect that the Lord will bring him to life. A brother who is sinning, we can count on it. Now, the elephant in the room, it's funny because I didn't come up with this elephant in the room just for this week's message. When we talk about prayer, right before we pray, we have all probably had this this thought, right? Like, oh no, now I gotta make sure I include all those thoughts when I pray what I'm about to pray in just a few minutes. So, not to worry, I'm not bringing the elephant in the room and I'm not gonna let him sit here. 1 John's intent is to bring confidence, right? So, when we, in just a few moments, all conclude our prayers with, in Jesus' name, amen. We should have confidence with the things that we pray for. And of course, yes, if you are not confident that it is the Lord's will to ask, well then, you know, don't say, in Jesus' name, amen. But you can have the confidence that you are with Him, in Jesus' name, positionally, and that on his authority according to his will as an ambassador as if he were here praying it himself that if we ask for whatever we ask for in Jesus name we can be sure that the Lord hears us and we can be certain that the Lord will answer us. So the glorious and gracious work of Christ has brought us into fellowship with the triune God That's position. But we are not meant to sit there and bask in the glory of that new position. While we wait for Christ to come again, we have a mission to make disciples. Our new position in Jesus' name comes with the authority to ask for the tools to go forth and execute that mission. What we ought to mean when we say, in Jesus' name, amen, is this, Lord, We are here only because of Christ. And we ask for these things because we are convinced, truly, amen, truly, that we can use and we will use them for your purposes, for your kingdom, and for your glory. And so let's go to him and ask him for those very things. Let's pray. Lord, it's a heavy thought or group of thoughts. It's a heavy A reality that we are positionally in Christ in a way similar to the way that he enjoys fellowship with the Father and the Son. And Lord, it is a heavy, a heavy reality to know that when we pray in your will, when we pray according to Christ's will, that we ought to expect you to answer us. And so we ask for whatever it is that we ask for. While we also ask that you purify our hearts, you cleanse our hands, you give us the confidence that we know our own intentions, that we intend to take the requests that you grant and use them for your mission and your glory and your purpose. In Jesus name, Amen.