3/19/2023 - Amen

(Opening Prayer)

Matthew 6:9b–13 (ESV)

9b ...“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

11 Give us this day our daily bread,

12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

(Sermon Introduction)

Today we continue our “Teach Us To Pray” Series, focusing on the Lord’s Prayer as recorded in Matthew 6.

We want to take an expository look at the most famous prayer ever recorded.

(Lord’s Prayer Context)

Matthew records what is commonly referred to as “The Lord’s Prayer,” here in Matthew 6.

Truthfully, this prayer should be called, “The Disciple’s Prayer” as it really flows from the disciples lips to the Lord.

We call it “The Lord’s Prayer” because the Lord Jesus gave it to them.

It is also important to note that this style of prayer was actually quite common in Jewish circles of the day.

What is unique however is the interpretation and teaching that Jesus shares with it.

Matthew 6 is not the only place we see this prayer recorded.

It is also recorded in Luke 11.

We understand that these times were most likely not the only times that Jesus taught these things to the people and to His disciples.

(Gospel of Matthew Context)

We know that the focus of Matthew’s gospel is the teachings of Jesus.

His focus was not on the chronological nature of Jesus’ ministry.

But having started with what we refer to as “The Beatitudes,” in Matthew 5, Jesus takes the people on a journey of discovering what a true disciple looks like.

At one point, Jesus’ Disciples asked Jesus, “Teach Us To Pray,” to which Jesus responds with a phrase: “Pray like this.”

Jesus then begins to recite what has become the most famous prayer ever spoken.

We have already preached concerning:

“...When You Pray…Pray like this:” (Mt. 6:5-8)

“...Our Father in heaven...” (Mt. 6:9b)

“...Hallowed Be Your Name...” (Mt. 6:9c)

“Your Kingdom come...” (Mt. 6:10a)

“Your Will Be Done” (Mt. 6:10b)

“On Earth As It Is In Heaven” (Mt. 6:10c)

“Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread” (Mt. 6:11)

“and forgive us our debts,” (Mt. 6:12a)

“as we also have forgiven our debtors.” (Mt. 6:12b)

“And lead us not into temptation” (Mt. 6:13a)

“But deliver us from evil” (Mt. 6:13b)

(Doxology Tension)

Today we are focusing on the last portion of the prayer that you haven’t heard us mention:

“For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.”

Anyone bothered by the omitting of this portion?

I have heard people “finishing” the prayer over the last several weeks when we have prayed it together.

This doxology that most of us grew up reciting at the conclusion of the Lord’s Prayer is not in the oldest manuscripts.

Believe it or not, when the King James Version was presented in 1611 the oldest manuscripts had not yet been discovered.

The manuscripts used in translation with the NSRV, NASB, ESV that came about in the early 1900’s are most accurate to the original manuscripts.

The statement, “For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever” is not included in those translations.

Now the question naturally arises, why is this portion not included?

The reason is that when the King James Version was translated, the translation was made from the manuscripts available at the time.

Since then, better manuscripts have been discovered, and we find this petition omitted from these better manuscripts.

Now immediately someone is going to ask, “But how does this fit into the doctrine of Biblical Inspiration?”

And by Biblical inspiration we mean that the words of the Bible are inspired.

As I see it, that is the logical explanation of inspiration.

Either this is the Word of God or it is not the Word of God.

Either it is reliable or it is not reliable.

It is the words that are inspired and breathed on by the Holy Spirit.

We believe in verbal inspiration, but we also believe it applies to the original documents.

But we also believe that the manuscripts we have today are reliable and can be trusted.

Many of the manuscripts found have been brought together and all tell the same story.

REVELATION means that God has communicated with man. INSPIRATION guarantees the accuracy of that revelation. PRESERVATION infers that God maintains that revelation in the world. ILLUMINATION insists that only the Holy Spirit has the interpretation for man. TRANSLATION means the transference of the text of Scripture from one language into another.

Now that we have examined the solidarity of the setting in which the Disciple’s Prayer rests, let us look again at the phrase that has been omitted in these later translations.

“For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, and ever, Amen.”

Although it is true that the oldest most accurate manuscripts that we have access to do not include this doxology at the closing, it is of most interest to me that we feel the need to respond with it anyway.

Why?

We have allowed for this tension throughout this study on the Lord’s Prayer for the purpose of understanding the point of this prayer.

Here is my point that I want to connect to each of us today: Everything within us wants to respond to the prayer we have been praying!

We want to respond with praise!

That is the right response!

Although this doxology refrain cannot be said that it was given by Jesus to His disciples during this portion of teaching, it is undeniably in alignment with the teaching of the Scriptures as well as the teachings of Christ!

It is a most scriptural statement, and for that reason I should like to submit to you that it is the expression of our Amen!

Listen to these words of David after the people brought their wonderful offerings for the construction of the temple, David lifted his heart to God in prayer:

1 Chronicles 29:11 (ESV)

11 Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all.

Doxologies (that is, acts of praise to God for his glory) pop up all throughout the Bible, and we saw before how in personal devotion praise and prayer grow out of, lead into, and stir up each other.

Need felt and need met are their respective mainsprings, and praise for what God is, and does, is the strong support of hope in what He can, and will, do.

So the more you praise, the more vigor you will have for prayer; and the more you pray, the more matter you will have for praise.

J. I. Packer (Praying the Lord’s Prayer, #11.)

Prayer and praise are like a bird’s two wings: with both working, you soar; with one out of action, you are earthbound.

But birds should not be earthbound, nor Christians praise-less.

The clauses “who art in heaven” at the start and “as it is in heaven” in the middle are pauses for praise in the Lord’s Prayer’s flow, and if this closing doxology is not from Jesus’ lips it certainly reflects his mind.

Today I have entitled the sermon, “Amen,” with the idea that we are going to address what Scripture speaks of as the essence of “Amen.”

In Revelation, the Apostle John the Revelator, records the message of Christ to the church of Laodicea.

It is interesting the way in which Christ describes Himself.

Revelation 3:14 (ESV)

14 “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.

Here in Revelation the risen Christ refers to Himself as “the Amen.”

What does He mean when He says, “Amen?”

Hebrew — אָמֵן /amēn / am-ane´

firm, trustworthy; surely (often as interj. so be it)— amen, verily.

The New Strong’s Dictionary of Hebrew and Greek Words

Alexander Maclaren

“Amen is an adjective which means literally firm, true, reliable, or the like.

And, as we know, its liturgical use is that in the old times and to some extent in the present time, it was the habit of the listening people to utter it at the close of prayer or praise”

Ian MacPherson, Usable Outlines and Illustrations

Amen is a Hebrew word used in Old Testament and synagogue worship, hence it passed into Christian speech.

This Hebrew word has been adopted by all the languages of the world!

Amen is a word of agreement.

When we say “Amen,” we are saying, “I agree with what you have just said!”

This is why people respond to the preached word by saying, “Amen!”

Its root meaning is “true, firm, solid, certain,” and what it expresses is an emphatic yes to what has been said: “definitely yes” as some might say “that’s the truth.”.

“So may it be,” the usual paraphrase of “amen,” is too weak: “amen” expresses not just a wish, but a committed confidence—“so shall it be.”

In Scripture it not only ends prayer, showing an earnest wish to be heard, but also voices acceptance of such things as King David’s orders (1 Kings 1:36) and God’s threats (Numbers 5:22; Deuteronomy 27:17–26).

“Amen” may either follow an utterance or precede it (“verily” in Jesus’ formula, recurring more than fifty times; “verily I say …” is “amen” in the original).

Either way, however, it underlines the utterance as an important one with which the speaker fully identifies.

The effect of saying “amen,” assuming it is said with heart no less than voice, is to associate oneself with both promises and prayers in a way that makes them one’s own.

Amen is an expression full of both prayer and praise.

Amen, is a prayer in itself.

Amen is praise.

Amen is Jesus Christ Himself (according to His own words)!

It is worth noting that four distinct “Amens” reverberate throughout the Scriptures and that Christ is at the heart of each of them.

1. By Christ We Utter Amen: “So Be It!”

Praise is linked to prayer here “for Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory …”

The connection of thought is that we ask our heavenly Father for provision, pardon, and protection with great confidence, since we know that for him to give this to his children on the one hand is within his capacity, and on the other is in line with the character he shows when he deals with men—that is, his glory.

This, therefore, is an actual instance of praise for God’s power and glory coming in to undergird prayer for the fruits of both.

2. Through Christ We Utter Amen: “It Will Be!”

For Yours is the Power

Kingdom and power, as ascribed to God in this doxology, are two words expressing a single composite thought.

The thought is of omnipotent control.

Kingdom is used as in Psalm 103:19, “His kingdom rules over all.”

It denotes God’s all-embracing mastery of the order of creation that is presupposed by the petition that God’s kingdom in the other sense, the order of redemption touching everything, may “come.”

Power is the actual mastery that God’s rule shows: not, then, naked arbitrary power, like that of a tornado, or a rogue elephant, or a dictator, but unconquerable grace, triumphantly fulfilling purposes of mercy and loving-kindness “to us and to all men.”

It is the power by which God is good to all, and rescued Israel from Egypt, and raised Jesus Christ from the dead (Ephesians 1:19).

Sir Arthur Sullivan “The Lost Chord”

Sullivan writes the music to “The Lost Chord” while sitting at the deathbed of a beloved brother:

Seated one day at the organ

I was weary and ill at ease,

And my fingers wandered idly

Over the noisy keys.

I know not what I was playing,

Or what I was dreaming then,

But I struck one chord of music

Like the sound of a great Amen.

I have sought, but I seek it vainly,

That one Lost Chord divine,

Which came from the soul of the organ

And entered into mine.

It may be that Death’s bright angel

Will speak that chord again;

It may be that only in heaven

I shall hear that grand Amen.

3. For Christ We Utter Amen: “Let It Be!”

For Yours is the Glory

2 Corinthians 1:20 (ESV)

20 For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen (let it be) to God for his glory.

In 2 Corinthians 1:20, Paul speaks of Christians saying “amen” to God’s promises, so glorifying him as true and trustworthy in what he says, “the God whose name is Amen” and whose “words are true” (Isaiah 65:16, 2 Samuel 7:28).

In 1 Corinthians 14:16 Paul envisions Christians saying “amen” to prayers of thanks uttered in public worship.

In the New Testament, the word glory carries two interlocked layers of meaning, each of which entails the other.

Layer one is the manifested praiseworthiness of the Creator; layer two is the praise that this draws from his creatures.

Which layer is “on top” depends on whether the reference is to the glory that God has and shows and gives or to that which He is given.

For we in gratitude bless the God who in grace has blessed us, and this is to glorify the One who is even now glorifying us by remaking us in Christ’s image (2 Corinthians 3:18; Ephesians 1:3; Romans 1:21; 8:17, 30).

But that for which men give God glory is always something glorious, while the glories that God shows man are always intended to call forth praise.

Henry Martin

When Henry Martin was tempted by thoughts of his sweetheart, Lydia Grenfell, to forego his missionary vocation, he wrote in his journal:

“Memory has been at work to unnerve my soul, but reason and honour and love to Christ and souls shall prevail.

Amen!

God help me!”

Ian MacPherson, Usable Outlines and Illustrations

The essential and abiding revelation of God’s glory, however, was given by his great acts of merited judgment and unmerited love, and in his “name”—which was no mere label, as our names are, but a disclosure of God’s nature and character.

YHWH / Jehovah (Yahweh, as modern scholars render it) means “I am (and will be) what I am (and will be)” (Exodus 3:13–15), and the full statement of God’s “name” declares precisely what he is and will be.

This statement was made to Moses; when Moses asked God, “show me Your glory,” God responded not only by a visual manifestation, but also by declaring, “… my name is ‘the LORD’ (Yahweh) … a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty …” (Exodus 33:18–34:7).

This moral character is the essential glory of God.

When in the traditional Lord’s Prayer doxology we ascribe the glory, along with the royal rule, to God forever, we are, first, telling God (and thus reminding ourselves) that He, our Maker and Redeemer, is, and always will be, glorious in all He does, especially in His acts of grace (“we give thanks to thee for thy great glory”); and, second, we are committing ourselves, now and always, to worship and adore Him for it all (“glory be to God on high”).

The doxology thus makes the Lord’s Prayer end in praise, just as the Christian life itself will do: for while petition will cease with this life, the happy task of giving God glory will last for all eternity.

4. To Christ We Utter Amen: “So It Is!”

Forever and Ever, Amen

When man speaks of spiritual things he puts his Amen at the close of his utterance as a prayer: “So be it.”

When God speaks He puts His Amen at the beginning of His utterance as a proclamation: “So it is!”

The place we come to in the Lord’s Prayer is one of “Amen!”

This prayer teaches us that it is fitting for us to come to a point of great prayer and praise!

This is right.

“Amen” (best said loudly and with emphasis) is our final profession of having meant what we have said and identifying completely with the attitudes, hopes, and goals that the prayer expresses.

(Response)

(Invite the Worship Team and the Prayer Team)

(Closing Tension)

So a fitting way to end our time in the prayer that takes a lifetime (and more) to master is with some questions:

Do you identify with the trust in Jesus Christ as your own Savior, and the faith in God as your own God through him, and the recognition of every Christian as your own brother in God’s family, that is expressed by “Our Father”?

Is the hallowing of God’s name in and through you, whatever that may cost, your own controlling purpose in life?

Do you want to see God triumph in his kingdom, and to see everything that does not match his perfection come to an end?

Will you labor and suffer for the kingdom, if need be, so as to become its agent, the means of bringing it into lives and situations where the gates have been locked against God?

Do you happily take God’s will of command for your rule, and God’s will of events for your destiny, knowing (by faith) that both are supremely good?

Is there any matter in which you are flying in the face of God’s will of command, excusing yourself on the grounds of there being other commands that you faithfully keep?

If so, what will you now do about it?

Do you see and know that unless God acts to provide for today’s needs, and to pardon today’s sins, and to protect you in today’s temptations, you are lost?

Do you make it an issue of conscience never to bear a grudge or cherish bitterness against anyone, but to show forgiving mercy always, because of the forgiving mercy that God always shows you?

Is there any person to whom you have refused to forgive for what he or she did to you?

Will you ask the Lord this moment to help you change your attitude, and get right with that person?

Do you make it your habit to watch and pray against temptation?

Will you make it your habit from now on?

Is the Disciple’s Prayer really in your heart?

Are you being honest when you say “amen” to it?

Amen:

By Christ We Speak Amen: “So Be It!”

Through Christ We Speak Amen: “It Will Be!”

For Christ We Speak Amen: “Let It Be!”

To Christ We Speak Amen: “So It Is!”

Amen!…“For Yours is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory forever and ever!

(Response Card)

1. What did you hear? (Blank Lines)

2. How will you live it out? (Blank Lines)

3. Who will you share it with? (Blank Lines)

4. Who are you discipling? (Blank Lines)

5. What are you praying for? (Blank Lines)

6. How has God answers your prayers? (Blank Lines)

(Closing)