The Prayer After the Sermon

How to Use This Time For the Blessing of God's People

Good Morning,

Today by God’s grace marks the first Thursday devotion of the new year of 2025. We began these in the early days of Covid nearly five years ago and have now reached the four-hundred and second edition. I want to thank you for bearing with me through these. As we’ve worked through the Westminster Standards, first the Confession of Faith (at a 10,000 foot vantage, maybe a closer look in the future is warranted), then the Shorter Catechism, and last August we concluded two-years in the Larger Catechism. Right now we’ve been walking through the Directory of Public Worship. Our goal will be to then move into the Directory of Church Government, and then close with some of the attached documents like the Solemn League and Covenant, the Sum of Saving Knowledge, and the Directory of Family Worship.

These next two installments will cover a section of the DPW that may seem a bit strange to spend a lot of time on, and that is the prayer after the sermon. Some of what is covered here we do at Bethany in other prayers during morning and evening worship, but now is as good a time as any to cover them. My own personal use of this time is a little different than what is covered, and maybe it would be good for me to use some of what we learn here. Let’s go ahead and look at the meat:

THE sermon being ended, the minister is to, “give thanks for the great love of God, in sending his Son Jesus Christ unto us; for the communication of his Holy Spirit; for the light and liberty of the glorious gospel, and the rich and heavenly blessings revealed therein; as, namely, election, vocation, adoption, justification, sanctification, and hope of glory; for the admirable goodness of God in freeing the land from antichristian darkness and tyranny, and for all other national deliverances; for the reformation of religion; for the covenant; and for many temporal blessings.

To pray for the continuance of the gospel, and all ordinances thereof, in their purity, power, and liberty: to turn the chief and most useful heads of the sermon into some few petitions; and to pray that it may abide in the heart, and bring forth fruit.

To pray for preparation for death and judgment, and a watching for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: to entreat of God the forgiveness of the iniquities of our holy things, and the acceptation of our spiritual sacrifice, through the merit and mediation of our great High Priest and Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ.”

There are a lot of echoes in this passage to be found in Westminster Larger Catechism 191, which covers the second petition of the Lord’s Prayer. We are told to be praying for things like, “. . . acknowledging ourselves and all mankind to be by nature under the dominion of sin and Satan, we pray, that the kingdom of sin and Satan may be destroyed, the gospel propagated throughout the world . . .”. While this duty is given to all Christians there is an important way that the prayer after the sermon has the minister applying all that he just finished speaking about to the heart and soul of those gathered on the Sabbath in order to praise the God of Heaven.

The first thing to note is that the pastor is to be found calling on all to, “Give thanks for the great love of God, in sending His Son Jesus Christ unto us. . .”. That is to be seeking the Holy Spirit’s help in reminding all of us that the foundation of our faith, our ability to gain anything from the day of rest is due to who God is alone. Since He is the author of life and is the one who has designed and ordered our election unto salvation it makes perfect sense that the pastor should first give thanks unto Him, from whom all things flow. It stands to reason this is why he is also called to praise God for the light and liberty of the glorious gospel in order that those before him might believe and come unto the knowledge of the truth. A godly preacher should be engaged in lifting all those who might hear his words that they might come unto, and maintain, a knowledge of the truth by the gracious act of the Lord in redemption.

After the prayer begins in this way then we see the DPW say that this prayer of application should not only apply to those physically gathered, but that as the members of the congregation leave the physical location of the church that the minister should entreat the Lord that they take the good news of Christ with them and then effect the world around them, including their local community. There is also an interest that the preaching of the word of God might reach others and lead to corporate repentance in nation and state. Leading then to national deliverance, covenant keeping, and temporal blessings. Each of those probably deserve their own paragraph, but we obviously do not have space for that. Suffice to say that all of us should approach what happens on Sunday with a much bigger hope than we probably do. It would be good for us to think bigger about what is possible when we gather together for worship. There should be an excitement at what is possible, and it would do wonders at our interest and attention to preaching itself.

In closing, other parts mentioned in the section under purview today we see the pastor being asked to seek the help of the Holy Spirit in seeing the truths of the gospel have a lasting blessing on the people. It is certainly the hope of every minister that what they have to say in morning and evening service would be remembered, not so much for funny quips or silly stories, but in time of need when the devil attacks, the old man weakens, and providence comes down hard on the soul of the hearer. If all we want out of the sermon is for it to be over then we are not taking advantage of what is at offer by Christ through His ambassadors. There also is an encouragement here to the preacher to not neglect his duty to keep the sheep in the Lord’s mind throughout the week. This last idea is one that far too many ministers neglect in their service to the sheep.

Last word:

https://www.challies.com/articles/a-pastoral-prayer-10/

Blessings in Christ,

Rev. Benjamin Glaser

Pastor, Bethany ARP Church