My Dear Shepherds,

Pastors regularly put on boots and wade into the muddy doubts and uncertainties of our people. Sometimes I wearied of saying, “I don’t know; I don’t know why that happened, why God allowed that tragedy, what will happen now, or what you should do next.” Ministry can be a slog through uncertainties. Faith, our most basic Christian necessity, requires forays against sin-soiled thinking and sinkholes of lies.

Despite all that, God has called us to the certainty business. When Paul was assailed by Corinthian critics who claimed his word couldn’t be trusted because he’d changed his plans (at God’s direction), he wrote,

But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not “Yes” and “No.” For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me and Silas and Timothy—was not “Yes” and “No,” but in him it has always been “Yes.” For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God. (2 Cor. 1:18–20)

All our pastoral work stands on, “as surely as God is faithful.” Our people can’t get enough of that assurance. The Deceiver has a thousand variations on his original doubt-inducing, “Did God really say . . .?” Every hardship people suffer comes with lures to distrust. So week after week, in our intercession, counseling and visits, in the songs, prayers, and sermons of our worship services, we reinvigorate their confidence in God’s faithfulness.

Assurances of God’s faithfulness lead us to his promises: “For no matter how many promises God has made . . ..” The huge, granite foundation stones under our faith are the LORD’s covenants with Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David, all leading to his New Covenant. Atop the covenants are prophecies of the past and future, then the countless kingdom and personal assurances of God’s compassion, grace, love, and care. “The LORD is my shepherd.” “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” “The one who is victorious will . . . be dressed in white.”

The catalyst activating every God-given promise is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. “In him [our message] has always been ‘Yes.’” Jesus not only possesses authority to break the seals on the scroll of the end times, but he has opened seals on God’s promises ever since he ascended to the right hand of God the Father as victor over sin and death.

To a saint assailed or a sinner under conviction, God’s promises can seem too good to be true. So preachers explain just how Jesus “breaks the power of canceled sin,” and why he could say with his last breath, “It is finished!” We learn from Jesus: “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” We school them in the holy legalities of Romans and Hebrews.

Finally, the sequence leads from Christ’s “Yes” to us as gospel Wordworkers. “And so through him the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God.” We leave our muddied boots by the door, don our priestly garments, and preach God’s promises made sure in Christ. We are the church’s Amen-ers. Every sermon is a ‘So Be It!’

Amen-ers do more than merely speak. We punctuate God’s promises. We preach in italics and boldface. We become human exclamation marks after Christ’s “Yes.” Amen-ers startle the sleepers and bolster the hesitant. We wake up the room “to the glory of God.” Amen and amen!

Be ye glad!

Lee Eclov recently retired after 40 years of local pastoral ministry and now focuses on ministry among pastors. He writes a weekly devotional for preachers on Preaching Today.