Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: 1 Corinthians 14:16 | Date: November 23, 2025 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

The Amen in Corporate Worship

All right, 1 Corinthians chapter 14. And I’ll begin with a word of prayer. Our Father, we’re grateful for this wonderful treasure we have in your word. We’re grateful for the instruction that it gives us about everything that we need, its sufficiency in every way. And now as we look at this morning at this rather curious question that we’ll investigate, we pray that you’ll give us an understanding of it. And through it, we pray that you’ll give us a greater appreciation for our gathered meetings together. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

First Corinthians 14. This, as you know, is the big chapter where Paul deals with the miraculous gifts, in particular the gift of tongues. That’s not what I’m going to be addressing this morning, but something else that he brings up here. I’ll begin reading with verse 13:

Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray for the power to interpret. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also. I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also. Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say amen to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying? For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up. I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. Nevertheless, in the church, I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others than 10,000 words in a tongue.

All right, as you see on the handout in front of you, I’m going to address this morning a curious question that you have never asked. It’s a curious little question, and it really is not something that’s on your list of burning questions, I’m sure. But it’s just a curious question that I thought, well, I’ve got a one-off lesson here, let’s address this, and that is the amen in corporate worship. What is that all about? Why do we do that? Or if the question is, why don’t I do that with some of you? I don’t know. But we’re going to look at what that’s all about.

Paul addresses that in verse 16: “Otherwise,” he says, “if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say amen to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying? For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up.”

In 1 Corinthians 14, Paul is, as you’ll remember—it wasn’t that long ago Eric took us through this chapter—Paul here is dealing with the question of regulations for corporate meetings, and in particular he focuses on the exercise of the gift of tongues, which in Corinth was being abused in many ways. He lays down several rules here. The general overtone of chapter 14 is very clear. Once in a while you will hear someone of a Pentecostal or a charismatic persuasion ask the question this way: “How can you ignore the gift of tongues when Paul devotes an entire chapter to it in his letter to Corinth?” And the first response ought to be, “OK, Paul devoted a whole chapter to it, and what did he say?” And the overall thrust of this whole chapter is, “Cool it. You’re making way too much of it.” That’s his emphasis here.

And he gives some regulations for it. One is all things must be done for edification. Everything in the congregation must be for the purpose of edifying the others who are there, building them up, strengthening them in the faith. Another rule he gives is let all things be done decently in order. That’s at the end of the chapter. Everything that’s done ought to be for the purpose of edification. That immediately puts a limitation on the value of tongues as they’re spoken in the church. Back when, in my view, tongues were still a gift that were given to the church, Paul is saying here that this is not a gift that is really to be exercised in the congregation.

Notice verse 19: “Nevertheless, in the church, I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others than 10,000 in a tongue.” Now that means anything. It means Paul didn’t speak in tongues in the congregation. He’d rather not. Five words in English—okay, he didn’t speak English, but put it in our context—five words in English is more valuable than 10,000 in a tongue. Why? Because those five words people can understand. You can say three words, “Jesus is Lord.” People benefit from that. But if you could speak for an hour and a half in an unknown tongue, it won’t do anyone any good at all. And Paul says, “I’d just rather not do it.”

So his point then is all things must be done for edification. That’s verse 26. Let all things be done for building up. Now verse 16 here, our focus this morning, is he speaks of the “outsider.” You might be curious to know that the Greek term here is idiotes. You know what word we get from that? Idiot. Idiotes in Greek does not have the same connotations as “idiot” in English, but that’s where we get the word, so that’s just a throw out for nothing.

The word that’s used here, it’s translated “outsider” here. There’s actually a lot of discussion: What does it connote in this context? The word means something like, it refers to someone who’s uninformed with respect to a given activity or practice or area of knowledge in a particular community; this person is from the outside. Now, this person who’s from the outside is not evidently an unbeliever. He’s speaking of unbelievers coming in in another part of this chapter, but here he’s not speaking of an unbeliever because the assumption is the guy wants to say “amen” and enter into the practice of the congregation. But because he doesn’t understand the tongue that’s being spoken, the language, he can’t say amen because he doesn’t know if it was heresy or truth or what it was. And so he can’t do it. So he’s uninitiated in some way. There’s a lot of discussion exactly what it’s referring to. I suspect it’s something like this guy just doesn’t know that language, but whatever it is, he doesn’t know what’s being said. And so he’s not able to say amen.

Now the assumption there, and this is what I want to focus on, the assumption then in verse 16 is that this was a regular practice. It’s the assumed practice of the congregation to say amen, to give verbal assent to what was being said in the service. Paul assumes it. Tacitly he encourages that, and in fact here he uses it as a lever to show the inferiority of speaking in tongues in the congregation. Because we want to say amen, tongues are useless because then we can’t say amen. The assumed practice of verbal consent, verbal amen in public worship, is really the ground of his critique at this point.

What Does It Mean When We Say Amen?

So let’s start first. What does it mean when we say amen? What does that mean? The Greek word here is actually the same as the Hebrew word, just transliterated. You can learn a Greek and a Hebrew word here all at once. The Greek word for amen is amein, Hebrew word amen. Now you know one word in three different languages, it’s all the same. The word is related in Hebrew to the idea of that which is firm or dependable, and so then it takes on the connotations of that which is trustworthy, that which is true. This actually is the word that Jesus used in the Gospels when he would say, “Verily, verily, I say to you,” or “Truly, truly, I say”—it’s “Amen, amen, I say to you.” That’s the word he’s using here.

Now when it’s in public use in the congregation here, then it becomes a verbal affirmation. It’s saying, “Yes, I assent to that. So it is.” It’s not just a formulaic word that’s used with empty meaning in a kind of a liturgical kind of way, a ceremonial use or something like that. It’s an expression of affirmation, an expression of approval, an expression of consent. “Yes,” or “It is so,” or even “May it be so,” depending on the context. It’s not simply acknowledging something as true, but it’s expressing agreement with it, approval of it. It’s not just the period at the end of the sentence in the prayer. It has meaning, actually, and it’s affirming consent with it.

Now what I want to do here, and we’ll spend a lot of time looking at passages of Scripture. It would have taken too long to look all these up, so I have given a list of these verses to you on your handout. I’ve listed them in canonical order. But somehow my eye skipped when I did it, and you’ll notice Psalm 41, Psalm 106, and then Psalm 72. That shows that I am not infallible. But other than that, I think all of these are listed in canonical order.

And I want to give some examples, and let me just choose some of these right now. I’ll come back to most all of these, but now I’ll read just selectively. I’ll start with 1 Chronicles 16:36. The context here is where David brought the Ark to Jerusalem. It was an occasion of celebration that God’s presence is coming to Mount Zion and the tabernacle is being installed there, the Ark of the Covenant. And if you remember there were psalms singing at the occasion and musical instruments playing and choirs singing and they were singing psalms. And here they’re singing a psalm which actually became Psalm 106 at the end of Psalm 106. But he says, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting.” And then all the people said, “Amen,” and praised the Lord. And that we find again in Psalm 106, where he picks up the same Psalm that they sang then.

Psalm 106:47: “Save us, O Lord, our God, and gather us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. And let all the people say, Amen. Praise the Lord.”

Nehemiah chapter 8 is another interesting example. It’s a famous passage when Ezra gathered all the people of Israel together in this large congregation, people gathering together, and Ezra opened up the Law of Moses and read it at length, and then preached, expounded on it at length. And then we find, verse 6: “Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, Amen, Amen, lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.” So here we have the prophet preaching to the congregation, expounding the law of Moses to them, and they hear the Word of God and they respond with assent and consent and approval. “Amen. Amen. God has spoken.”

Jump down to Revelation chapter 5. Here the occasion is the ascension of Christ. He has—you remember the context—he has ascended, heaven is looking for someone who is worthy to take the scroll from God’s hand and carry out his purpose of salvation and judgment in the earth, and the lamb steps forward, the lion steps forward who is the lamb. And the people begin to cheer.

And it says, “I looked and I heard among, around the throne, the living creatures and the elders, the voice.” By the way, the elders in the book of Revelation are not the pastors of the churches. Elders is a high order of angels. They interpret visions and things like that in the book of Revelation.

“The living creatures and the elders, the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with loud voice, ‘Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.’ And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, ‘To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing, and honor, and glory, and might forever and ever.’ And the four living creatures said, ‘Amen.’ And the elders fell down and worshipped.”

Revelation chapter 7. We have this picture of the final state of believers. They’ve been rescued from the tribulation, and now they’re safe in the presence of God. It says, “After this, I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne, before the Lamb, clothed in white robes and palm branches in their hands, crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.’ And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, ‘Amen. Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever.'”

Another scene is Revelation chapter 19. Here the people of God stand at the destruction of Babylon. They’ve been rescued from the great prostitute who has persecuted the saints for too long, and now God has finally come in judgment. Babylon collapses, and at this point, Revelation 19, it’s in smoldering ashes. It has been totally destroyed by God and we read, “After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven crying out, ‘Hallelujah, salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for his judgments are true and just. For he has judged the great prostitute who has corrupted the earth with her immorality and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.’ Once more they cried out, ‘Hallelujah.’ Let’s praise the Lord. ‘The smoke from her goes up forever and ever.’ And the 24 elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who was seated on the throne saying, ‘Amen, hallelujah.'”

And then finally, for now, Revelation 22, verses 17 and following, we have a picture of the eternal state: “The Spirit and the Church, the Bride, say, ‘Come.’ Let the one who hears say, ‘Come.’ Let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who desires to take the water of life without price. I warn everyone who hears the words of this prophecy of this book, if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share of the tree of life and the holy city, which are described in this book. He who testifies these things says, ‘Surely I’m coming soon.’ Amen. Come Lord Jesus.”

Now these passages that I’ve selected here have a couple of things in common. Number one, each of them has the word amen spoken. But then number two, and this is more to our point, each of them has the word amen spoken by the congregation. It’s a corporate use of the word spoken by the congregation. You find the same thing in the Psalms repeatedly. The Psalms, you remember, have this temple atmosphere where the people of God gathered around their king at the temple and they would sing praises for the various occasions. An example here: Psalm 41:13, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and amen.” You find it again in Psalm 72:18–19. Psalm 89, “Blessed be the Lord forever. Amen and amen.” And so we have the congregation involved in this.

Now, one very, very interesting, I think, interesting example of this is in Deuteronomy, the top of your sheet. Deuteronomy, as you remember, is Moses’ giving of the law. This is just before Moses’ death. This is his, often referred to as the second giving of the law, where he’s rehearsing for the people their responsibilities as they go into the promised land. And their responsibilities before God, and as they obey God, God will bless them and keep his promises to the covenant. But if they disobey, it will bring judgment, and it’s often referred to as the covenant curses. And here we have a list of those, and it’s fascinating how it reads.

Verse 14: “The Levites shall declare to all the men of Israel with a loud voice.” So here we have the priests reading out the curses that God has pronounced on those who disobey his law. “So the Levites shall declare to all the men of Israel in a loud voice, ‘Cursed be the man who makes a carved or cast metal image, an abomination to the Lord, a thing made by the hands of a craftsman and sets it up in secret.’ And all the people shall answer and say, ‘Amen.'” So they read God’s word, cursed is the man who makes a carved image, and all the people are responsible to say, “Amen, let it be so. If they blaspheme God in this way, let them be accursed.”

Verse 16: “Cursed is anyone who dishonors his father and his mother, and all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be anyone who moves his neighbor’s landmark, and all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be anyone who misleads a blind man on the road, and all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be anyone who perverts justice due to the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, and all the people shall say, Amen.” And on it goes, reading these curses that will come upon people, on the nation or on the individuals for their disobedience to God’s law. And as these judgments and these threats of judgments are read, the congregation is responsible to say, “Amen,” and give their verbal assent to it.

God’s people then were responsible to respond to God’s word with a word of verbally expressed affirmation and approval and consent and agreement to what God has said. The most common uses of this is in corporate use while time is getting away already—doxologies. There’ll be a praise to God that is given and it’s responded to by the congregation with an amen. So Psalm 41:13, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and amen.” Psalm 72, “Blessed be his glorious name forever. May the whole earth be full of his glory.” There’s the doxology. And then the response: “Amen and amen.” And you see the same in Psalm 89:52. Romans 11:36: “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” And there’s the statement of affirmation to it. You’ll see it again in Ephesians 3 and other places as well.

Jude verses 24 and 25 is a well-known one where there’s a doxology given and it’s followed by the affirmation: “Amen.” We also find it in, not just in doxologies, but in benedictions and prayers. Romans 15: “May the God of peace be with you all. Amen.” Galatians 6:18: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.” A verbal expression of approval and assent. Sometimes the amen is given as an affirmation of faith. Revelation 1:7: “Behold, he’s coming with clouds and everyone will see him. Even those who pierced him and all the tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so, amen.” Let it be so. He’s coming.

There’s an interesting use of this in 2 Corinthians 1:20 where Jesus is referred to as “Amen.” So 2 Corinthians 1:20: “All the promises of God find their yes in Him. This is why it is through Him, in Jesus, that we utter our amen to God for His glory.” So God gave these long succession of promises over the centuries—promised and promised and promised and promised, all kinds of promises God made—and finally Jesus comes and we say, “Amen. God has fulfilled His promise. Here it is, all of them fulfilled in Jesus.” Interesting use of it.

All of these are corporate uses of the verbal amen. 1 Chronicles 16, the bringing of the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. Nehemiah 8, Ezra reads the law and expounds it. All the amens in the Psalms are the same. This is the believing response to God’s Word as it’s spoken. And it’s not just in the Old Testament, it’s in the New Testament as well. First Corinthians 14, where we started, we find this was the normal part of the corporate meetings. The assumption was that the people of God would respond with a verbal affirmation when God’s Word is spoken. And we find the same in the book of Revelation as well.

Why Is This Practice Given Such A Prominent Place In The Scriptures?

So, that was a quick run-through from these verses. The amen, then, has some shades of connotations that vary. It’s always an affirmation. It’s always an expression of consent and affirmation to it. We hear God’s word spoken. We give our assent to it. And verbally, we say amen. It is true. Sometimes, along with that, the amen becomes sort of an exclamation of praise. We’re still affirming. We’re still giving our assent and agreement. But it’s more of a—and you have to do it with a gesture. It’s not just “yes,” it’s, “Yes!” You know, it’s a word of praise. So it’s, “Amen!” It has those kind of connotations as well. Like in Revelation 5 that we read, when the lamb takes the scroll from God’s hand and he’s the one who’s worthy and we all say, “Amen!” Yes, it’s more than just agreement, it’s an expression of praise. And the same as in 1 Chronicles 16 and so on.

All right, what’s the point of all of this? This curious question that no one was asking. What’s the point of all of this in our study this morning? Why is this practice given such a prominent place in the Scriptures? We don’t normally talk about it a lot, but why is it there? And the answer begins with—and I’ll expound on this more in the morning message—begins with this: Christianity is grounded in a message. At the bottom of Christianity is this claim: God has spoken. And we hear his word, and on our way in, we give our consent. We say, “I believe. Amen. Jesus is the one. Amen. What God says is true.” We do that on the way in, and then for the rest of our life, both individually and corporately, we feed on God’s Word, and we hear it, and we hear it, and we hear it, and we read it, and we read it, and we read it. And the expected response to God when He speaks is, “Amen, it is true.” Or, “Amen, it is true!”

When God makes a promise, we say, “Amen, I believe that promise.” When He gives us an expression of hope, we say, “Amen, and I trust in that promise, and I encourage myself in it.” When God gives a directive, we say, “Amen, I’m responsible to obey that.” We give our expression of consent.

The outstanding purpose—and we’ll deal with this more in the morning message—but the outstanding purpose of the corporate meetings of God’s people is to hear the Word of God. We sing our praise, we give our offerings, we do lots of things, but the outstanding purpose of the gathered meeting of God’s people is to hear the Word of God. And the assumption in all of these passages that we’ve read—sometimes it’s explicit instruction, “let all the people say”—but the assumption, at least in all of these, is when God’s word is spoken, there’s a corporate involvement. It’s not just a leader. There is a leader, and there’s a teacher, and all that is necessary. But the people of God are thoughtfully engaged. They’re not just listening passively. They don’t just sit back and say, “Okay, God said that.” They’re responsible to listen, to hear it, and from their hearts give verbal consent, “Amen. God has said it is true.”

We don’t sit back and listen uninvolved, much less do we sit back with disinterest or with unmoved hearts, but we listen to God as he speaks and we respond. And we respond with assent, agreement—”God has spoken, amen, it is true.” And so a submissive listening to God is the very height of our corporate meetings together. We read God’s word, we preach God’s word. What ought to be the response of God’s people when God speaks? Exactly. God speaks and we say, “Yes, amen.” And we respond with our affirmation and our consent and with our praise. And we say amen.

We come together in our meetings. We do so not just as so many individuals, but we come together as a corporate body, and corporately and individually, we affirm and respond to God’s Word with affirmation. And the assumption is, throughout all of this, we are to do it not just silently in our hearts, but verbally as well. So the leader is directing the thoughts, the teacher is expounding the Word and directing our thinking in that way. We sing God’s Word, and in all of it—the teaching, the preaching—the congregation is not just spectator, but there’s an engagement, and their verbal response of affirmation is given.

How Does This Work Out In Our Own Congregation?

Now, what’s the point of all of this, and why do I bring it up? How does this work out in our own congregation? To be sure, each of us is shaped differently by our personalities, our backgrounds, our traditions, our customs, things like that. Reformed worship in particular is generally marked by sobriety, even formality. It’s more reserved. I’ve often wondered about that. The reformed tradition that we have inherited comes to us not directly from the continental reformers, Luther and Calvin and so on; it comes to us more directly from England. And in particular, it was shaped by that—the Puritan England, Victorian England—all of that shapes it. And it has become then through that tradition, rather marked by sobriety, formality. Drums have a pretty hard time making it into reformed corporate worship.

I’ve often wondered, because historically our tradition comes from that, where it was more formal and sober and all of that, I wonder if in God’s providence the Reformation had come instead from Africa or the Caribbean. What would reformed worship look like today? Interesting thought. If you’re wondering, I’m all for the drums.

When I first came here 18 years ago, Kamen was on the drums, and he was a little bit reserved because it was rather new at that point to a Reformed Baptist church, and I would always encourage him, “Let it go. Go for it. Do it.” We all have our traditions and our customs, our own personalities that play into it as well. Some of us are more reserved than others and all of that.

But our customs and our traditions and our own practices do need to be shaped by the scriptures as well. One thing that the Protestant Reformation certainly got right was what’s called the regulative principle of worship. And that is, very simply, the New Testament prescribes for us how the people of God, when they meet together, are to express their worship of God. It’s not up to you to determine how to worship God. It’s up to God to determine how to worship God. That, in simplified language, is the regulative principle of worship that the Reformed tradition has always insisted on. And that is certainly right.

The devil’s always in the details; how do you apply that? So we find in the New Testament there’s to be singing in the congregation. So that’s a given, that’s part of the worship that we give to God. Can we have choirs? That’s not mentioned in the New Testament. And some will say no, because that’s not mentioned in the New Testament. And others will say singing is mentioned in the New Testament, so we can have choirs, and we can have solos and group singing and all of that. Others will say, “Can you have musical instruments?” There are no musical instruments in the New Testament. Yeah, but it does have it in the Old Testament, and the New Testament does tell us: “Sing psalms,” which by definition is singing a song to the accompaniment of musical instruments, and so on and on goes the debate.

The details can be worked out however we have to, but the point is certainly right. Given this rule that we do find in the New Testament of the amen in public worship, what point ought it to have? And it’s worth asking ourselves the question, “How should we respond to that?” After prayer, the leader says amen. The singing of a song. Sometimes in our hymns, the amen is written in there for us to say it and to give our affirmation of it. Appropriate times during the sermon, during the lesson.

I’ve often wondered, should we say amen at the end of the offering? I doubt that will catch on. And of course, having said that, you’ve got to also acknowledge that this practice of saying amen is open to all kinds of abuse. You don’t want to distract. You don’t want to be a one-man show. So in that case, the context and the tradition and the customs that we have do play into it. And there’s the overriding principles that Paul gives in this chapter. Number one, let all things be done decently and in order. And number two, let all things be done to edification. If we’re carrying on in some way that’s distracting, that’s not edifying. So we don’t, and neither do we want this to degenerate into some kind of mere routine where it’s just sort of vain repetition. We don’t want that either.

So bottom line: Should we say it? How long should we say amen? How loudly should we speak it? How often should we speak it? Is it okay to say it sort of muttering it under your breath? Or do you have to say “Amen”? I don’t know the answer to those questions. What we do see, and we leave that to the individual to determine, but what we do see is that the congregation is expected, it’s assumed that the congregation is involved, engaged with their minds and their hearts when the Word of God is spoken.

And in one way or another, the congregation doesn’t just sit there back passively listening. God has spoken, amen. I believe this. I rejoice in this. I trust this. I’ll obey this. Or God has said this, I’m guilty. I must repent. In either case, we’re saying amen when God speaks.

All right, so much for the curious question that no one was asking until this morning. But I hope this answers the question you weren’t asking. Any questions, comments? Yeah? Is it appropriate to say amen to someone’s prayer? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that’s what we find in the Psalms. Yeah. Yeah, I think we can see that in the Psalms where the congregation or choir or whoever is singing or saying the Psalm. And then let all the people say, amen.

All right, let’s be dismissed in prayer. Amen. Father, we are a privileged people that you have spoken to us. May we never take that for granted. And every time your word is opened, every time we sing praises to you and sing your word back, every time we hear your word taught and expounded, we pray that you’ll engage our hearts, that we may listen submissively and reverently. Stir our hearts to give this affirmation in whatever volume, however frequency; help us to see the importance of hearing God’s Word and to give our assent to it. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.