Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Download Sermon Mp3 – The Promises of God Are Yes And Amen
Download Sermon PDF Manuscript – The Promises of God Are Yes And Amen
The Promises Of God Are Yes And Amen can be difficult for myself to fully grasp at times.
2 Corinthians 2:18-22
As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes. 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. And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
I was having a conversation with a great friend this past week about ‘why do we pray’. That question is both easy to answer and yet mystery at the same. The question came at a prayer meeting appropriately. It had to do with a mutual friend who serves as a missionary overseas who was hit by a car and for a few days things looked like they could go either way. The root of the question was should we pray for healing and recovery or are we ‘praying him out of heaven’ so to speak. Should we just pray that he goes home being that close to Jesus. This missionary has a wife and children. What do you pray as a believer?
I confess this has been on my heart and not a sermon just some thoughts about this passage.
Let me make this general statement with a few notes:
The promises of God are yes and Amen! The promises of God are not just Yes but also Amen. God’s promises are always Yes but they are also True, true to His purpose, holiness, and glory.
The promises of God are established through the preaching of Jesus Christ.
Read vs. 18 “whom we proclaimed among you”. There is something to be said in the context that leads me to the conclusion that the promises of God belong and are founded upon the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is obvious, faith comes only by Hearing!
The promises of God are only found in Jesus Christ.
There is a reason why I only pray in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the only means by which God says ‘Yes’ to anything. It is only through Jesus we pray and only through Jesus God answers Yes and only through Jesus that all glory is given back to God.
Jesus is the fulfillment of all of God’s promises.
If all of God’s promises are Yes in Jesus I need to do some thinking about what that says about the person and nature of Jesus Christ. I think a more humble way to interpret this passage has to do with this mindset. The mindset that the reason why God says Yes to Jesus is because Jesus is Yes to EVERYTHING God has ever promised. End of discussion!
This is the question…Is Jesus enough? Do I really need Jesus plus something. This is the danger when we make Jesus a piggy bank for healing and prosperity rather than being an instrument for Christ to offer ourselves as living sacrifices for God’s purposes. It is a different mindset, vastly different.
While the promises of God are established through preaching they are received through prayer.
This entire passage is all ‘prayer talk’. If we are not praying with a ‘holy dissatisfaction’ with the way things are then God has nothing to say Yes to in our lives. Usually the problem with my own prayer life is that God has already said Yes but two problems: either I am not asking or I am not saying Yes to the things God has already said Yes to in Jesus Christ. Remember the promises of God are both Yes and True.
Often I pray things and say ‘in Jesus Name’ at the end but it is a prayer outside of Christ. Lord make me rich so I can give more to your Church. God will not fall for that prayer. That is why the Amen part of this verse is so key: Prayer allows us to see the truth of Jesus Christ and say Yes to His divine purpose. Again, this goes back to preaching, the preaching Paul is talking about. The more preaching we hear that is the true gospel of Jesus Christ, the more our prayers will be prayers that echo the heart of God.
Two More Points:
What Are the Promises of God? Let’s do something crazy and look at the context!!
Let’s look at the last verse
And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
The promises of God in this amazing context are these:
1. Establishes Us with You in Christ
2. Anointed Us
3. Put His Seal on His – His Holy Spirit In Our Hearts as a Guarantee
If those three promises do not sum up all of the promises of God I do not know what does! These are the ultimate promises of God that Paul reminds the Corinthians church. I would add there is one more promise listed that started both this conversation that Paul is having and also somewhat of the purpose of this epistle:
vs. 3-11
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.
What started this whole discussion: They were praying for comfort in the midst of suffering. Not healing and riches but simply to be comforted. Look at the heart of these believers including Paul in the early church. They were praying for mercy and comfort.
They were being persecuted, I’m sure they wanted deliverance but they were praying for mercy and comfort. Actually if you dig deeper you notice that while these believers were being persecuted, they were actually praying not for their own comfort and mercy but for Paul and his traveling companions.
This comes from a group of believers with amazing unselfishness, great contentment, and knew full well what it means to ‘only have Jesus’.
The Promises of God are Yes and Amen…the question that remains for myself is this:
Is my answer Yes to God’s answer Yes.
So with my friend who was severely injured in a car wreck what do I pray? Of course I pray for healing in Jesus name but with great assurance in Christ Jesus I know the answer to my prayer will be “Yes” by either what I prayed or “Yes” in a much better way.
That is what Paul means in verse 20:
“That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.”
For His Glory – Amen!
-Wade
Last 5 posts by Wade Lowrey
- Soldiers Surprsing Their Loved Ones - June 11th, 2010
- Happy Hour Vs. Oh Happy Day - June 8th, 2010
- Nick Vujicic Christian A Powerful Testimony - June 7th, 2010
- Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices - June 5th, 2010
- Contending With An Almighty God - May 13th, 2010
