1. When you pray, what is normally the last word you say?
I usually end with, “In Jesus name, amen.” I guess I am so trained that if I do not say “amen” at the end of a prayer, it is like forgetting to send a text. I wrote it, and it sounded good, but I forgot to hit send! Of course, that is a bit silly. God is not waiting for the word amen at the end of your prayer or mine to confirm receipt.
However, the word amen gets thrown around a lot. Sometimes, people yell it out during a sermon: “Amen, preacher!” If you are not familiar with the word or that type of verbal response in a gathering, you might think someone is having an outburst or was just startled awake. If you grew up more liturgical (Lutheran, Catholic, Episcopal), you might have sung the word, “Aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh-mmmmmmmmeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.”
2. Did you grow up using the word amen? If so, how?
Amen is a religious word, but what does amen even mean? “Amen is a transliterated form of a Hebrew word that means ‘to confirm’ or ‘to establish.’ Jews regularly declared ‘amen’ in response to prayers or statements with which they agreed.” Amen means surely, or so be it. It is “a response indicating agreement and commitment.”
3. How is amen used in these verses?
Amen is a word used to express agreement with a statement and promise to obey or uphold an agreement.
Read Isaiah 65:16. Twice, the phrase “God of truth” is used. It is literally translated as “God of Amen.”
4. What does “God of Amen” mean? (See Numbers 23:19; Titus 1:2; 2 Corinthians 1:18)
Can I get an amen?
In 2 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul writes, “It is through him that we utter our Amen to God.” However, in Corinth, there was not much agreement or amen-ing going on. Paul’s relationship with the Christians in Corinth was strained. Because Paul had to change his travel plans, his critics in Corinth used this as an opportunity to question whether Paul’s word could be trusted. If Paul’s word was not trustworthy, what about his teaching? Then they started to ask: Could God be depended on? Was God faithful to His Word? Does God make good on His promises? These suspicions about Paul were casting doubts on God’s promises.
5. Has a spiritual leader or influence in your life broken their promises and made you question God’s dependability? If so, how did that affect you and your faith?
It is within this situation that Paul makes a wonderful statement about the reliability of his words grounded on the dependability of God’s promises. He writes, “For all the promises of God find their Yes in him” (2 Corinthians 1:20). The “Him” of verse 20 is “the Son of God, Jesus Christ” from verse 19.
I love how the King James Version translates this passage, “For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.” Eugene Peterson does a nice paraphrase in The Message, “Whatever God has promised gets stamped with the Yes of Jesus. In him, this is what we preach and pray, the great Amen, God’s Yes and our Yes together, gloriously evident.”
The Corinthians were wondering if Paul and the God he preached about was dependable. Paul essentially says, “Just look at Jesus!” The proof that the God that is the “God of Amen” is Jesus. He is the stamp, the yes, the affirmation, the establishment, the agreement, the so be it, and the Amen of God. John in Revelation 3:14 records Jesus words as, “The words of the Amen.”
In our terms, we might wonder if God had ever had His fingers crossed behind His back when He made a promise. Has God made a promise that He could not fulfill? God has made some huge promises that seem beyond fulfilling. We may doubt God’s ability to follow through on those promises. Jesus is the “Yes” of every one of those promises. Christ on the cross is proof that God’s promises, every single one of them, are reliable.
6. List the promise:
• Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:15)
• Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3; Galatians 3:7-9)
• David (2 Samuel 7:16)
• Simeon (Luke 2:25-32)
Sometimes promises are agreements that we call covenants.
Just think about the time between promise made and promise kept. In some cases, it is more than a millennium! God’s promises did not fail. Jesus is the “Yes” (the fulfillment) of every single one of those promises, “meaning they all come true, in Christ. They are all made possible by His person and work.” Jesus is God’s Amen.
And all God’s people said…amen?
Like Moses (in Deuteronomy) or Nehemiah, Paul is challenging the people to state their agreement and commitment to Jesus. He wants them to echo God’s amen with an amen of their own. He is asking them, “Do you say amen to Jesus?” Ultimately their issue was not with Paul and his travel plans, but with Christ.
Once the church at Corinth gave their yes and amen to Jesus, God would be glorified (verse 20), and unity would be restored to the church. The faith of the Corinthian church in the reliability of God’s promises would be strengthened.
Throughout this series, we will look at a bunch of God’s promises. Jesus is the key, the Amen, to those promises. In the Old Testament, when the people were commanded to obey the Lord, they responded with amen as a way of affirming their commitment to obedience and, on a basic level, an affirmation that they heard the command. Jesus is God’s Amen to us. We must say amen to Him.
Some of the promises in this book are only for those who have uttered their amen to Jesus. Other promises are for everyone.
7. Have you said yes and amen to the truth of Jesus?
8. If so, when was that amen moment?