The Doxological Amen

Please turn your Bible to Ephesians chapter three. That can be found on page 977, if you're using the

Pew Bible in front of you. Ephesians chapter three, we'll begin reading in verse 14.

Please go ahead and stand for the reading of God's word. For this reason,

I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit and your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever, amen.

You may be seated. Dear heavenly Father, we thank you again for your word.

We ask that it would direct our hearts. We pray that we would understand your truth and we would be united together in unity by it.

In Jesus's name, amen. So just to recap where we've been, this has been a six -part series in this doxology that happens at the end of the prayer of the theological half of Ephesians.

So Ephesians one through three is making a point about the unity of God's people, and it ends with this prayer that ends with its doxology in verses 20 and 21.

First week, we looked at the fact that God is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think.

Second week, we looked at the power at work within us. We talked about the glory in the church.

We talked about glory in Christ Jesus. Then throughout all generations, forever and ever, now we look at the amen.

It is worth observing. This is an incredibly short text that I will be preaching on this morning.

Just the single word, amen. That may be very surprising to you.

I'd like to tell you a short story. In, on November 20th, 1800,

Abraham Booth, if you've never heard that name before, he's a famous Baptist. Abraham Booth was assigned the amen of the

Lord's Prayer at a Baptist monthly meeting in London. So there's various preachers preaching at this meeting, and everyone gets a different part of the

Lord's Prayer, and he is assigned just the amen. He begins his sermon this way. I'm going to quote this at length.

So concise and so singular. Singular back then meant weird, unusual.

So concise and so singular is my text that it is highly probable I should never have appeared with it in any pulpit had it not been chosen for me on the present occasion.

Nay, when I first heard that this detached and single word was allotted for me, I could not forbear to hesitate because I have long detested the thought of selecting any part of sacred scripture to be the subject of a trial of skill in order to excite popular curiosity or to afford amusement.

For such conduct deserves the most marked reprobation as being a disgrace to the pulpit in a profanation of the sacred ministry.

So he's saying what I think is intuitive for a lot of people, that the word of God is not supposed to be something for amusement where you use it as a test of skill and take the most difficult and obscure passage and say, well, what can this guy do with this?

But then he continues on. But when I reflected on the meaning of the word amen, on the solemn connection on which it stands and on it being itself a sentence, so it's not just a word, it's actually a sentence,

I acquiesced in the choice of my brethren that the choice of my brethren had made for me because though the text be extremely concise and very singular, yet the subject is of considerable importance to both ministers of the word and private

Christians. Totally banishing from our minds, therefore, vain curiosity in every trifling thought led us with devout solemnity and as in the presence of God proceed to consider the meaning of the expressive term as used in the edifying truths which are suggested by it.

This is worthy of our thought, even though it is a single word, it is a full thought, it is something that is expressed by us frequently throughout the service and has significant meaning.

It is not nothing. And in particular, in this passage,

I would like to observe some things about it coming at the end of this doxology. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, to him be glory, amen.

Why is it that we see this at the end of this doxology? Why at the end of this glory to God? Just a reminder, doxology means words of God's glory, dox meaning glory, ology meaning words, so words of God's glory.

Why do we see it here? In fact, much more could be said about this word, this sentence, than I will say today, but in this relatively brief evening sermon,

I will make some observations about the nature of this word, especially as it relates to its purpose in this half of Ephesians and the glory of God more generally.

So this word, amen, it is a Hebrew word. It is transliterated into Greek when the

New Testament apostles speak it, and then we transliterate it into English. Transliterate means that it is not translated into a different language, but instead expressed with the kind of syllables that we would express it.

In Greek, they would say amen. We say amen. That feels more natural to us.

You might have wondered why people pronounce amen different ways sometimes. Even the same person, even

I, will say amen and sometimes amen. Well, in different contexts, one flows differently than the other.

Perhaps different traditions, different phrasing is used or different pronunciation is used.

You will find that when we sing, we almost always use amen no matter where because ah is a more open sound that is easier to sing loudly.

So I've had questions about why we pronounce it differently. I don't know all the answers to that, but I do know that in singing, ah is easier to sing loudly, and so that's why we sing amen rather than singing amen.

What does it mean? Literally, it means something like faithful, faithful.

Like this is a faithful saying or this is a faithful thing. It is a statement of affirmation.

Now, that affirmation has two parts, assurance and approbation. Assurance that this thing is true.

When you say that this is surely true, it is right. But then also, approbation.

Approbation is a word that means approval. It means that this is a good thing. You are not just saying that this thing is true.

You are, when you say amen, you are likewise saying that this is good and you are putting your solemn stamp of approval on it.

Consider the words from the Baptist Catechism at the very last question, 114 says, and in testimony of our desire and assurance to be heard, we say amen.

At the end of a prayer, we express not only our assurance that we're heard of God, but our desire, the goodness of this truth that we are heard.

We express both of those when we say amen. Then, an Orthodox Catechism, question number 152.

That's not one that we talk as I often mention as often as the Baptist Catechism. However, we do have a website for that too if you look at unorthodox, and un is

A -N, unorthodoxcatechism .org. You can see the questions there.

And I have this one printed on the back of the bulletin here. What meaneth this particle, amen?

That the thing is sure and out of doubt, for my prayer is much more certainly heard of God than I feel in my heart that I infatigably desire the same.

It's old language. It's kind of hard to understand. But the matter is out of doubt, it is certainly heard of God.

That's the assurance, but then also the desire, unfeinted desire.

I desire for God to hear. I know that he hears, and I desire that. This is true, and this is good.

This is what you are doing when you are saying amen. You are solemnly saying that this is true and that this is good.

Several observations I'd like to give you is that saying the amen is worship. Saying the amen is unifying, and saying the amen is glorifying.

Okay, so first, it is worship. How do we know it's worship? First, I think there's a very natural sense in which you should recognize that saying the amen is proper worship.

There's a natural sense because prayer is an element of natural worship. All other kinds of worship would be idolatrous apart from God's instruction.

When he gave the command not to make any kind of graven image to him, what is implied in that is that we likewise should not worship him in any other way that he has not commanded.

Ask yourself, would it have been okay to have made an idol before God gave that command? If it would not have been okay, and it's not, if it would not have been okay prior to Exodus 20, that means the implication of the command is that there's no way that it is appropriate to worship

God apart from his express command. The one exception being prayer.

If there is a God and he has placed that in our hearts, which he has said in Romans 1, it is only natural that we would call out to the one who has made all things, the one we are dependent on.

And so in calling out to him, it is right to speak that solemnly.

And when we call out to him with others, we would affirm that solemnly.

The amen, even though it's not a word that someone would know without instruction, the idea of solemnly affirming both the truth and the goodness of a call to God, the desire for him to hear, his ability to hear, even if he can't be, even if he does not hear apart from a mediator, apart from Jesus Christ, the truth that he can hear and the goodness of that is something that is only natural.

But then secondly, it is commanded. In 1

Corinthians 14, describing what worship services are to look like, it says, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say amen to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying?

This is talking about them speaking in tongues and someone not being able to say amen. The point is that someone is supposed to be able to in the context of a worship service.

Now there are other, plenty of other passages. You have Old Testament scenes of worship where the people say amen, sometimes they say a double amen to something.

You have this passage, you have 2 Corinthians 1 .20, where Paul talks about our amen as an element of worship, as a feature in worship.

It is something that is part of worship. We are supposed to say the amen, and we are supposed to say it at the appropriate times to each truth in whole that God has given us, to the reading of the word, to the proclamation of the word, at the end of the songs that we sing to each other.

That is why we sing the amen at the end of the songs, because that is something that we ought to do, is to solemnly affirm the truth of what we are singing.

And as much as those songs are to God, they are prayers and ought to be amened.

And as much as they are statements to each other encouraging one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, then they deserve an amen in order that we reinforce solemnly what we are saying to one another.

These are, it is worship. It is worship before God.

He has given us this way of expressing our hearts. Notice that one of the main points of 1

Corinthians 14 is that we should be silent. The primary command is silence in 1

Corinthians 14. Not only silence to women at the end, but then silence to everybody except for the one person who's speaking.

Paul is instructing order in the church in that it wouldn't be all a bunch of people at once, but each person in turn that would speak during a service should in turn speak on their own, not a bunch of people speaking at once.

And so the primary command is silence, but then in the middle of this, he tells us that there's an amen, that this is the way that you are to speak.

Now, yes, we also sing together. That is a way that you are able to express yourself too, but in as much as that truth is given to you while you are to be silent listening to it, you are to respond with an amen affirming it.

It is your, it is your, the mechanism that God has given in order that you may worship him.

Now, what kinds of things do we see in scripture that people say amen to? Well, one of the primary things that you know of is prayer, an amen at the end of prayer.

There are prayers that are blessings. Galatians 6 .18 says, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit brothers, amen.

There are thanksgivings to God as you see in 1 Corinthians 14 where he had said, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say amen to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying?

There's concern over thanksgiving. Another question I've gotten is, do you have to say amen at the end of a prayer?

Like, will God hear your prayer if you don't say amen? Yes, he would hear your prayer, but as a way of expressing with solemnity your earnest desire to have it heard.

Luther, in writing likely to lengthen, who was basically his successor,

Luther wrote the following. I do pray for you. I have prayed for you and I will pray for you.

Doubt not, but I shall be heard for I feel the amen in my heart. The amen is not something that is primarily just the words.

It is the true feeling that I am assured of this and this is good.

This is true and this is good. You see, the amen expressed to many other things, to duties, to curses, frequently to curses.

Why is it that you would see so many statements of amen to curses? The reason is because the point of the amen is to express an affirmation of something that is difficult to affirm.

This is not something that the world can affirm. This is something that only a believer filled with the Spirit can affirm.

Why is it that you should, why is it that the people of Israel, when curses were pronounced against them, if they should turn away from the

Lord, why do they say amen to that? Because they recognize that this is true and that this is good. This is good that we should be treated this way, should we ever turn from our merciful

God. It is true, it is good. Now, the amen is also unifying.

It is unifying. There is one of the points that 1

Corinthians is making when it gets to 1 Corinthians 14 and speaks of the need for silence so that there's not disorder.

It's people wanting to impress each other with their gifts, their gifts essentially being dividing. Paul starts off his whole discourse on the gifts of the

Spirit by showing that the gifts of the Spirit should be unifying. In fact, there's one gift that everyone has been given that is the unifying gift.

Not everybody is able to speak in tongues, he says at the end of the chapter. Not everybody is able to prophesy, et cetera.

But at the very beginning of his discourse in 1 Corinthians 12, one through three, he says, "'Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, "'I do not want you to be uninformed.

"'You know that when you were pagans, "'you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led.

"'Therefore, I want you to understand "'that no one speaking in the Spirit of God "'ever says, Jesus is accursed, "'and no one can say,

Jesus is Lord, "'except in the Holy Spirit. "'Now there are varieties of gifts, "'but the same Spirit,' et cetera."

And then he talks about variety. So he starts off by talking about the unity of the Spirit and that we can all confess that Jesus is

Lord by the Spirit. That is the thing that no one can do in a true way. They might do it in a ostensibly true, but a false way, claim that Jesus is

Lord. But no one can truly claim that Jesus is Lord, mean it in their hearts, apart from the work of the

Spirit. And this is the one gift. It's not tongues. It's not every believer's been given tongues as some teach.

Rather, it is confessing that Jesus is Lord. And that is what we express unifying us when we say amen together, is we are confessing the truth of the goodness of the gospel.

It makes our unity visible. What is it that lets anyone know, including ourselves, that we are not all here as critical listeners to one man, judging everything that is said and not agreeing with it?

It is the fact that we are able to say amen to the gospel message at the end of the sermon.

Otherwise, we are all just disunified critical listeners.

But with the amen, everything that has been spoken to you is expressed back, that this is true, this is good.

When we pray, as Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, and he said, our

Father, our Father implies that we are supposed to pray with and for others.

Prayer is supposed to be something that unifies believers. And how can it unify believers apart from an expression of unity?

That is what the amen accomplishes as well. And it expresses our unity not only with those who we are with physically, but even with those that we are united to in Christ, him being the one vine, we being the branches across space and across time.

Justin Martyr, one of the early writers in the church, wrote that this was a practice in his own time to say the amen.

It unites us, it unites us even with them. And considered the nature of our unity, what is it that unites us?

As I mentioned just a moment ago, we are all branches in the one vine of Jesus Christ being united to him by the

Spirit. Revelation 3 .14 says, and to the angel of the church in Laodicea write, the words of the amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation.

Who is the amen? Well, listen to the previous passage. The words of the holy one, the true one who has the key of David.

And then the previous one. The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.

One before that. The words of the son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze and whose name is

Jesus. The answer to all of these is Jesus. Jesus is the one writing to these churches.

Jesus is the one who is the amen. He is the faithful one.

He is the one who grants us the capacity to say with full assurance that his promises are true and good.

If it came from someone else who is not true, we would not have a full assurance.

No one else is reliable as he is reliable. He is the nature of our unity because in him, all the promises find their amen.

That's what 2 Corinthians 1 .20 says. He is perfectly true.

We find our unity in him that is expressed through the amen, him himself being called the amen. If you were to go do a word search through your

Bible for amen, you would find that, I don't know if it's the majority, but I think it is.

The majority of times the word amen is used is actually

Jesus just saying it about his own statements. A lot of times in translations, this is said truly, truly.

He's saying amen, amen, I say to you. He is the truth who unites his people together.

And when we express the amen, we are expressing what

Jesus himself is telling us, that his words are faithful and true.

The promises that he has given us, we are assured of them and we approve of them.

They are true and they are good. And the amen is glorifying to God.

It glorifies him. Many people will point out that the amen happens frequently in these statements about, excuse me, in these prayers, these prayers about the glory of God.

Excuse me, these prayers just in general. But you will note that they tend to happen not just for any prayer, occasionally, occasionally.

Galatians 6 .18, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit brothers, amen. But almost every other prayer you see amen tagged onto, it is particularly a statement for the glory of God to which it is tagged onto.

That is just like this passage here. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever, amen.

I would not deny that the amen applies to the rest of the prayer that came before that, verses 14 through 19.

But in my study of scripture, seeing how the amen is applied particularly to doxologies, particularly to statements about the glory of God, this is the unifying principle that draws us together.

And even in the context of Ephesians one through three, having been about the mystery of Christ, the revelation that the whole church would be united,

Jews and Gentiles, through the work of Christ, how is that happening? God bringing himself glory in that unifying?

And then Paul ends it all with a statement about the amen to that glory of God.

Second Corinthians 1 .20 makes this a little more, a little more explicit even.

It says, and it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us.

Excuse me, started at the wrong verse. Verse 20, for all the promises of God find their yes in him.

That is why it is through him that we utter our amen to God for his glory.

It's not just that our uttering the amen to God brings him glory.

We are uttering the amen particularly for his glory. What is it that we are most assured of?

And that we approve of? What is it that we recognize as both true and good?

Yes, it's any promise that he gives us, including those statements of curses against the wicked.

Yes, it is that we are heard and that we want to be heard, but the uniting principle of all things in scripture, all purposes, is the glory of God.

All things work together for good because they are all working together for the glory of God. This is the uniting principle.

So when we say amen, the reason that we are able to say amen is not merely because God is faithful to do all things, but we know that there is one uniting thing that we are most assured of, that we most approve of, and that is the ultimate thing of the glory of God.

We utter our amen, as 2 Corinthians 1 .20 says, for his glory.

The amen is glorifying to God because it is a statement that the glory of God, whether it be our prayers being heard to the glory of God, whether it be the wicked being cursed to the glory of God, whether it be the righteous being blessed to the glory of God, whether it being our duties being right to the glory of God, whatever it be, it is all to the glory of God.

This is what your heart is most deeply supposed to be affirming as true and good, the glory of God.

In summary, there are several things. Prepare your hearts, ways that you should prepare for the amen.

First is, if you are one speaking, now, you may not be in a position like me where I'm a preacher speaking, but you may be praying with others and you may be the one praying.

How are you to prepare for the amen? You want to be able to say something that the other can amen, as it says in 1

Corinthians 14. How is that person going to say the amen unless what you're saying is true, unless what you're saying is clear and distinct in a language that they can understand?

That doesn't just address speaking in tongues. It also addresses things like the

Latin mass. It also addresses you being too quiet so that you can't be understood. You must speak in a way where you can be understood and you must speak things that are true.

You must pray to the glory of God. You must pray according to his will, and what's the unifying principle of his will?

His own glory. You must pray in a way that is oriented around the glory of God so that others would be able to affirm that.

If you find yourself in the position of a teacher like me and you are speaking, you must speak true things in order that, and you must speak them clearly, in order that not only insiders, but also outsiders, as it says in 1

Corinthians 14, 16, might be able to understand if their heart's changed and say amen, say a true amen, not just an ostensible amen, but a true amen that is coming from the heart.

Then, as you are preparing as a hearer to say the amen, it is important that you be filled with real understanding of what is being said so that you can affirm it as true and good.

How often do you listen to prayer, listen to a sermon, and then you kind of hear things wrapping up, and that's when you tune in, and you go ahead and say an amen as though you were listening the whole time?

What does that amen mean? If you were to be handed a really serious contract and you write your name on it like it's nothing, no one does that.

You only do that for the terms of services on websites where they're too long that you just can't read them all, but you don't do that for real serious things.

That's what you're doing. When you just tune in at the last minute of prayer, just tune in at the last minute of a sermon, and you say amen, you're not saying amen as you ought.

If the amen is for the glory of God, if it is to God for the glory of God, what are you doing when you utter it falsely or insincerely or without a full understanding of what you're amening?

It is not a right kind of amen. The right kind of amen needs to understand.

It needs to not only understand, it needs to be affected. Affected means your affections are like your emotions.

You need to be emotionally zealous for this truth. You need to affirm it as good. Good does not mean that you believe it is propositionally good.

The demons know that God is good, but they cannot say a true amen because the qualification to say a true amen is not just knowing that God is good, it is approving of that goodness, being affected by his goodness.

Having your heart stirred, your goal is not just to understand the truth, but to be moved by the truth.

That is part of your goal as you hear the truth. As you hear prayer, your heart is supposed to be moved to desire that prayer, to desire to be heard by God and have that prayer answered, not merely to toss it up as a bare duty.

There's a saying among, in the Jewish oral tradition, the notion of an orphan amen.

That is when it is pronounced at random, impertinently and unseasonably without understanding prayer or praise foregoing.

And so there is no father to beget devotion in them. And so it is an orphan amen. And his children shall be fatherless that pronounces such a lifeless word and a fatherless amen.

Now that's quite a statement, but you can see that there's a seriousness about this word.

You don't want to utter an orphan amen, an amen that's not being fathered by anything. There's no truth that's fathering it.

There's no goodness that's fathering it. There's no understanding or approbation. There's no assurance or approbation that's fathering.

It needs to come from a heart that understands and loves the truth. So far,

I've covered preparing for the amen both as a speaker and as a hearer. Then of course, there is saying the amen.

Saying the amen should be loud. Now, Jerome, if you don't know who

Jerome is, he's the guy who translated the Bible into Latin. Jerome said that in his time, when people said amen at the end of service, it was so loud, it was like thunder.

That would be pretty exciting. I'd love to hear that. You should say the amen loudly and you should say it with zeal.

Parents teach their children to say amen with as much understanding as they can muster. The amen is something that not only the learned, but even the unlearned should be able to say as they understand as much as they are able to understand.

Say the amen with zeal, with true assurance, with true approbation, exclaiming its truth and its goodness.

Abraham Booth, the Baptist that I mentioned at the beginning, in that sermon, I gave you some of his opening words.

I'd like to give you some of his closing words too because he talked about the importance of being able to say the amen with a heart that truly was aligned with Christ, that truly believed the right things.

And as I've explained today, this is a different point than he was making, that is all centered on what

Paul is talking about here around the glory of God and a real love for the glory of God. This is what you want your amen to be centered on, an assurance and a love of the glory of God.

But he says this, may the spirit of grace effectually excite you to seek the

Lord while he may be found, to call upon him while he is near and to flee from the wrath to come.

For should you persevere in a thoughtless, impious and prayerless condition, your final sentence from Jesus, the supreme judge will certainly be, depart ye cursed into everlasting father and all holy creatures, perfectly approving the irreversible sentence will unanimously say, amen.

With that, I would like us to close with the word, amen. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the wonderful glory of God.

We ask that you would tune our hearts to sing your praises, that we would be a people who are assured of your truth, most especially your glory and that we are people who love your truth, most especially that truth of your glory.

We are most assured that you will be glorified. You will make your glory known and we ask for your name to be hallowed, that all things would be arranged to your glory.