Jesus: The Amen
Notes
Transcript
A major part of Sunday afternoon worship is seeking God in a prolonged season of prayer.
God knows and so should we, how much our world needs prayer.
We cannot pray too much!
20 minutes of intense prayer is not too long to pray for all the needs.
And as we go to the Lord in a season of prayer, we need to know to Whom we are praying.
Thoroughly knowing who Jesus is should energize our prayer.
As Jesus said, we are to pray in His Name.
“You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.
Why do we pray in His Name?
So that we , as the Holy Spirit says through the Apostle James in … James 4:3-4?
You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
God forbid!
We pray the Name of Jesus so that we can bear fruit.
The fruit of righteousness
The Fruit of souls saved
The fruit of believers discipled in the things of God — especially the Commands of Christ.
The fruit of Spirit-anointed worship
The fruit of ministers sent out into the fields that are white unto harvest.
The fruit of generosity that enables the Kingdom to advance
When we pray the mighty Name of Jesus, to Whom are we praying?
So far this year we have seen Jesus as:
Our Advocate
As I reminded us: Jesus is our Advocate with the Father and the Holy Spirit is Jesus’ Advocate with us.
The Almighty
1. Jesus has ALL power at ALL times — in EVERY situation we face.
The Alpha and Omega
Jesus is the One who STARTED and authored our life in God, He will bring it to a successful conclusion.
Our text tells us that Jesus is, among other things mentioned in this verse, like being the Faithful and True Witness and “the Source of Creation”; Jesus is THE Amen.
Jesus wants this church, the Lukewarm Laodicean church, to remember who He is.
Maybe they have become lukewarm because they have forgotten that He is the Amen to every prayer they pray.
The Amen of every promise upon which they stand.
The Amen who knows their deeds.
The Amen who stands at the door knocking: asking if they will let Him in so He can share His food with them.
You remember what Jesus said His food is right?
Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.
Emphasis
Emphasis
Amen was used by the people of the ancient world to make a word more emphatic by being added to the end of a statement:
Remember the Wednesday night we talked about Mt. Gerizim (the mount of blessing) and Mt. Ebal (the mount of cuses)?
Interestingly, we read that Moses said in ...
“For the curse, these shall stand on Mount Ebal: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.
“The Levites shall then answer and say to all the men of Israel with a loud voice,
‘Cursed is the man who makes an idol or a molten image, an abomination to the Lord, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’ And all the people shall answer and say, ‘Amen.’
‘Cursed is he who dishonors his father or mother.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
‘Cursed is he who moves his neighbor’s boundary mark.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
Yet, when he told them to declare the blessings of God in Deu 28:1-14, Moses didn’t say that the people should say, “Amen.”
Maybe it’s because Jesus is the “amen” of the blessings — they are not dependent on human fulfilment — they come about as a result of DIVINE fulfilment.
Jesus used “amen” in a different way: to BEGIN a teaching to which people should pay closer attention.
Back on November 11, 2020, while I was teaching on Jesus’ command to be “Born again” in John 3:1-21 I pointed out that Jesus began His command with “Amen, amen” which many translations render as “Truly, truly or “verily, verily.”
Only in the Gospel according to John do we have the double “Amen.”
But tonight let’s remember that JESUS is the Amen.
We emphasize Him as the Word of God become flesh at the beginning
We emphasize Him as the Word of God who died for our sins at the end.
He is the “Amen” who defeated death.
In Hebrew culture “Amen” is the response to God’s truth. In fact, Isaiah 49:7 tells us the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel is “the Lord who is faithful.” The Hebrew word for faithful being “aman.” So some interpreters see this as a declaration that God is the “Amen.”
So, tonight, our faithful and true witness is the “Amen” who brings all things to pass.
Can we pray to the Amen?
That He will enable us, empower us, open doors for us to see the lost become found?
That we would be better at discipling believers in the things of Christ?
That we would worship in Spirit and in truth.
We need a deeper anointing on our times of worship.
We need a greater freedom in the Holy Spirit.
We need more believers either to be BAPTIZED in the Holy Spirit or if they are Baptized in the Spirit to manifest the Gifts of the Spirit.
Something the Lord spoke to my spirit forcefully in Tuesday prayer this past week or week before.
That we would see sent in, so we can send out, laborers into the harvest field?
That God would continue to empower a spirit of Generosity in this church to do even more to spread the Gospel of Jesus?