Good morning. I invite you to turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter 3, verse 21. Luke chapter 3, verse 21. If you're using one of our Pew Bibles, you'll find that on page 859. Again, that's Luke chapter 3. verse 21. So we've been working our way through the Gospel of Luke and last week we started chapter 3 and we saw John the Baptist as he was preparing the way for this one who is greater than him. And today in this passage we see that that greater one has arrived. Jesus steps on stage. Jesus makes his appearance and As we look at this Jesus, as we allow our eye to linger on him, we'll notice that from the very inauguration of his ministry, he draws our gaze. He draws our attention. There is something strikingly unique and beautiful and captivating and even life-changing about this Jesus Christ. And what I hope you'll see this morning is that this Jesus demands your faith. Oh, that the Lord would increase our faith as we look at Jesus Christ this morning. Well, let's look at a text, sorry, Genesis. Luke chapter three, verse 21, reading through the end of the chapter. Now when all the people were baptized and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying the heavens were opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove and a voice came from heaven. You are my beloved son. With you I am well pleased. Jesus when he began his ministry was about 30 years of age, being the son, as was supposed, of Joseph, the son of Heli, the son of Maithat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Janai, the son of Joseph, the son of Mattathias, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Esli, the son of Naggai, the son of Maath, the son of Mattathias, the son of Simeon, the son of Josek, the son of Joda, the son of Joannan, the son of Frisa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri, the son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Kosem, the son of Elmadam, the son of Ur, the son of Joshua, the son of Eleazar, the son of Jorim, the son of Mathat, the son of Levi, the son of Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonam, the son of Eliakim, the son of Melia, the son of Mina, the son of Mattathah, the son of Nathan, the son of David, the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Selah, the son of Nashon, the son of Aminadab, the son of Admin, the son of Arni, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah, the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, the son of Sirug, the son of Ru, the son of Peleg, the son of Eber, the son of Shelah, the son of Canaan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaliel, the son of Canaan, the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God. Let's pray. Lord, show us Jesus Christ this morning. Show us more of him. Show us more of his beauty. And Lord, we pray that you would increase our faith as we see just who he is. Would we lean on him? Would we trust in him? Would he be our only confidence? We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Well, starting here in verse 21, the focus is now squarely on Jesus. In fact, you may have noticed that once we get to verse 21, John the Baptist, who was all the rest of this chapter in front of verse 21, John the Baptist here isn't even mentioned. Even though we know, right, from the other gospels that it is John who baptizes Jesus, here, John's name is not even mentioned. It's almost as if Luke is already done with that story. He's told the John the Baptist story, and he has now set it aside. He's even actually finished it off by placing John in prison. Although, of course, technically that's not going to happen until after he baptizes Jesus. If we want to put things in there. chronological order, but it seems that Luke is done with that. He's wrapped it up, he's put a nice bow on the top, and he's set it aside, and now the story has shifted and the focus is now squarely on Jesus. And Jesus now, we've seen him as a young'un, but Jesus now begins his ministry, his adult ministry. We might wonder, what kind of Jesus was he at the beginning of his ministry? When he first steps into the public sphere, what was he like? So my family has just finished reading together the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Some of you are familiar with it. And you'll notice as you read a story like that, that Frodo at the beginning of the story is much different than Frodo at the end of the story. or Sam and Mary and Pippin, even Gandalf. Gandalf, they're much changed at the end of the story versus who they were at the beginning of the story. And that's really true of almost any story that you read. You look at the main character and you see that across the story arc, he changes. He becomes a different person. He learns, he grows. So is that true of Jesus? You'll notice that verse 23 emphasizes that Jesus is beginning his ministry. Go ahead and look at verse 23. It says, Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about 30 years of age. 30 years of age, interestingly, is the very same age at which the Levites would begin their ministry in their tabernacle. It's also the age at which Joseph began his rule in Egypt as second in command. It's also the age at which David began his kingship. And here, Jesus is beginning his ministry. Maybe he's still young. Maybe he's still naive. Is he still someone who's new to the job? Maybe you can think back to the beginning of your career, the days when you first started your line of work and how much you had to grow and learn and develop. Like, right, we understand that the products that are made by an apprentice are going to be far inferior to the products that are made by the master craftsman. We know that the guy who begins a new job is hired by a new company that he spends lots of time just trying to figure out what he's supposed to do. We even have that expression, rookie mistake. Oh, that's a rookie mistake. He'll eventually learn that's not what you do. But when we look at Jesus, we don't see that, do we? I would hope not. We see a man who clearly knew who he was and what he came to do. In fact, we've already talked about that. And that was 18 years prior to this story. When Jesus was 12 years old in the temple, he knew who he was and what he came to do. You see, we can't think that when Jesus begins his ministry, we can't think that he's still trying to figure things out. We can't think that it's, that he's like other men in history who suddenly had celebrity status thrust upon them and they don't know what to do with it. We can't think that Jesus just kind of stumbled into being a popular teacher and then he just kind of stumbled into the cross. No, if Jesus spent the bulk of his ministry trying to figure out who he is and trying to figure out why he's there, That means that we have very shaky grounds for our Christian faith, right? Why would you put your faith in a man who didn't even know for himself who he was? Why would you trust in a guy who wasn't really sure what he was there to do? It completely erodes the foundations of your faith. Should we actually listen to the things he said? Because maybe he still hadn't figured it out. Do we listen to the teachings of Jesus in the Gospels? Because maybe he didn't yet understand what he was there to do. That's not the Jesus that we see here. He's not an aimless, wandering, soul-searching, trying to find his place in the world kind of preacher. He's a man who purposefully and deliberately undertook to do his mission. He knew exactly what he was doing. This is someone you can ground your faith in. This is a solid place to stand. And so as we look at this passage, I want you to see that Jesus was determined to do his ministry, but I also want you to see that he didn't do this alone. There's a Trinitarian aspect to this passage, and so we'll see then that the Holy Spirit empowered Jesus to do his ministry, and then that God the Father approved of Jesus and his ministry. So that's where we're going. First of all, Jesus determined to do his ministry. Jesus determined to do his ministry. Now, why would I say that this passage, most of which is filled with a seemingly endless genealogy of names that we hope I pronounced correctly, Why would I say the passage like this shows that Jesus was determined to do his ministry? Well, the answer to that question is found in what is in some ways a rather passing comment. It has to do with this comment in verse 21 where it says that Jesus also had been baptized. Just a very almost passing comment. It's even in the in the past passive. So the baptism of Jesus, Matthew's gospel, Mark's gospel, it's treated much more extensively. There's some back and forth conversation between Jesus and John the Baptist. Here, it seems that Luke wants to kind of race ahead to what happens after the baptism. But this baptism, we have to understand, is important because it shows us something about Jesus. And it's all wrapped up in this question that you might even have in your own head, this question of why was Jesus baptized? What's the deal with Jesus being baptized? Why did Jesus have to be baptized? In fact, if you look back at verse three, you'll even see what kind of baptism it was. So go all the way back to verse three. And it says that he, this is Jesus, right? Sorry, this is John, John the Baptist. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a, here's the kind of baptism that Jesus is baptized with, a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. This is a baptism of repentance. Certainly Jesus, as one who never sinned, as one who always did what was right, certainly he has no need for repentance. Okay, so then what is going on here? Why is Jesus baptized? Some have speculated that, well, he's just trying to show his support for the ministry of John. You know, he wants people to know that he too thinks John is doing a noble thing. So he says, well, I guess I'll just be baptized as well. Others have said, well, maybe he's trying to exemplify true humility. He's trying to show us what real humility looks like. It's this willingness to be baptized even when you don't need to be baptized. That's what they've said. But it's actually a much more powerful statement being made here. Jesus in undergoing this baptism is showing us at the beginning of his earthly ministry what he intends to do at the end of his earthly ministry. He's showing us now what's coming at the end, because at the end of his earthly ministry is the cross. And on the cross, think of what will happen there. On the cross, he will vicariously take on the sins of others. He doesn't belong there, right? He is innocent. He doesn't need to be hanging on a cross, but he is carrying the sins of others as he's crucified on the cross, okay? So even here, In his baptism, he's committing to stand in the place of sinners. This is where sinners go, but I'm gonna go there in their place. This baptism of repentance is for sinners, and Jesus says, I'm going to be in their place. I'm gonna go where they go. Actually, in Matthew's gospel, Jesus says it this way. So in Matthew's gospel, there's a little bit of a conversation with John the Baptist and John the Baptist says, me, baptize you. You really want me to baptize you? And Jesus says to John, he says, I must be baptized, he says, in order to fulfill all righteousness. That's the reason he gives. I must be baptized to fulfill all righteousness. Righteousness Of course, God requires that we be righteous, that we always do what is good and right. Be ye perfect, right? Be holy as I am holy. And Jesus says here, I need to fulfill all of that righteousness. I need to make sure that this righteousness happens. Think of the word to fill, to fulfill. To fulfill something is to carry it out. It's to complete. the task. So you fulfill your desire of seeing Italy by going to Italy, completing the task. You fulfill your duties as a plumber by doing plumbing. You fulfill your duties as a teacher by teaching. You fulfill your duties as a mother by mothering, okay? You do the thing that you're supposed to do. And so we look at this. Jesus, wait, hold on, what? Jesus needs to fulfill? He needs to carry out the responsibilities? He needs to do the duties of righteousness? No, how can that be? He's already righteous. There's no obligation on him to do more than he's already done. He's already perfect. Unless, unless he's doing the job for someone else. unless he's fulfilling someone else's righteousness. You know, if the plumber's job is to fix a pipe and then I fix it for him, I'm fulfilling his duty, right? And Jesus came not to fulfill righteousness for himself, but for others, for those who fail to fulfill righteousness. Think specifically of this repentance, this baptism of repentance. You know what? I don't repent perfectly. I don't. I'm awful at repenting. There are things that I've done that need repenting of that I'm not even aware of, right? And when I do repent of something, I probably only repent of the half of it, right? Or the quarter of it. I'm so awful at even repenting of my sins. And so Jesus here fulfills my lack of repentance. He fulfills the righteousness that I don't have. I showed that through his being baptized. Do you see how Jesus therefore is determined to do his ministry? He's not wandering aimlessly, trying to figure out who he is, and what he's supposed to be doing, and what is my place in this world, and I guess I'm supposed to be teaching, and people kind of like it, so I guess I'll keep doing it. No, right from the get-go, he's pointing to his ultimate mission, and that ultimate mission is the one that he will, some have said this is the key verse of Luke, it's in Luke chapter 18. His mission, he says, the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. That's what he's there to do. He's the Son of Man and he's going to seek and save the lost. He is a savior of sinners. By the way, as we move through this passage, we're actually gonna see four titles of Jesus, okay? They all are going to start with the letter S, okay? Think of it kind of like a treasure hunt. So as I move through the three main points, kind of hidden in the three main points, you're gonna find four names of Jesus, hidden throughout, all starting with the letter S. All right, kids, you ready to find them? First one is the title Savior. He's a savior. And we see that Jesus is determined from the very start that he would provide for his people the righteousness that they could never provide. He would be their savior. He's even willing to go through the waters of death, that is the cross itself, and be raised to newness of life in order to be their savior. And aren't you glad that Jesus didn't just kind of stumble onto the cross? that he wasn't just kind of like a helpless lamb led to the slaughter who has no idea what's coming, but that rather he determined to go to the cross. He said his face like flint, eyes on the cross. He knew what he had to do and he was going to do it for you, for me. Well, secondly, the Holy Spirit empowered Jesus to do his ministry. The Holy Spirit empowered Jesus to do his ministry. Verse 21 says that once Jesus had been baptized, it says he was praying. He was praying. Kind of neat to think about. Wouldn't that be great if we had, you know, Abraham after his baptism or Kyle after his baptism come up and pray publicly. But that's what Jesus does. So there he is, he's baptized. He's praying. The prayer life of Jesus is actually a major emphasis in Luke's gospel, and here we actually see it even at the very beginning of Christ's ministry. It's clear that he has a close communion with the Father. Perhaps he's even praying at this moment precisely because He knows the hard mission that lays before him. He knows what the next three years will entail and how they will finish. In fact, he knows that there's going to be the very death that was symbolized by that baptism that he just underwent. And so he's praying. Well, as he was praying, it says, the heavens were opened. The heavens were opened. I'm not sure exactly what this looks like, but it seems that it is something that's visible. You could actually see it. And it's actually something that's happened a number of times in scripture. So for example, in Ezekiel chapter one, verse one, Ezekiel says, there I was by the canal. And he says, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. Stephen in Acts, before he's martyred, he says, behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. John in the book of Revelation says pretty much the same thing, the opening of the heavens. The opening of the heavens is always this prelude to God coming and communicating with man. He's tearing apart the veil of the heavens and he's coming down to be with us and to communicate to us. In Isaiah 64, Isaiah longs for this presence of God and he says, oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down and make your name known. And of course, that's the very thing that happens right here. Both the Holy Spirit and even God the Father make themselves known. Could you imagine being there and seeing this? They make themselves known and each of them, by so doing, confirm the ministry of Jesus Christ. We're looking right now at the Holy Spirit. Verse 22 says that the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. Now, We're not sure why the Holy Spirit is said to look like a dove. Nowhere else in Scripture is the Spirit, aside from the baptism stories, nowhere else in Scripture is the Spirit depicted as a dove. And so we're left wondering, okay, is there symbolism here? Is there something about a dove? And there's been all sorts of theories that have been proposed. One commentator lists 16 possible meanings for a dove, maybe it has to do with a new creation because of course the spirit was the one that brooded over the waters in Genesis 1, right? Like a bird and then remember Noah sent that dove before the world was recreated so maybe it's something to do with that. Or maybe it's because doves were thought to be gentle and gracious and pure which would be good adjectives in describing the work of the Holy Spirit. Some have said, well, maybe it's because Israel at one point is described as a dove, and so maybe Jesus is being depicted as the new Israel or something like that. So all sorts of ideas, but really, we don't know. It is possible that this simply just means that the Holy Spirit came down like a bird. That could be all that's going on. But of course since then, since then we've learned to identify the Holy Spirit with a dove or a dove with the Holy Spirit. You might even know of denominations who value the work of the Holy Spirit and the dove is part of their emblem. It's part of their logo. So we associate now at this point a dove with the Holy Spirit. I can remember last year my family was at the Smithsonian National Gallery of Art. It was kind of like a field trip homeschool sort of thing and so there we are we're walking around the art gallery and we decided to do one of those guided tours you know meet at this location and the lady will take you around and she'll talk about various pieces of art so we were doing that we found ourselves at one point with a crowd of people with this tour guide looking at Van Eyck's the Annunciation okay and so this is a painting of the appearance of Gabriel to announce to Mary that she's going to have a child the the Annunciation of course you look at this painting there's There's Gabriel. There's Mary. But then up at the top of this painting, there's a dove, a little dove kind of flying off. And you see some rays of light shooting down toward Mary. And we're looking at this painting and someone in the crowd asked the tour guide, they said, what's that, what's that dove? What's that dove doing there? And the tour guide said, well, you know, doves represent peace. That's what she said. Doves represent peace. And this is, meant to be a picture that peace is coming on Mary. And I, being who I am, said, well, actually, I probably didn't say it like that, but, well, actually, traditionally, the Holy Spirit is associated with the dove. And so this is a picture of the Holy Spirit as a dove descending on Mary. That's how she conceives. And I like to think that I've done my part for the National Gallery, that now folk that go there are getting the true story. Well, that was Mary's conception, right? The Holy Spirit coming on Mary. But here, once again, we see the Spirit and now it's resting on Christ. This picture of Christ being empowered for his mission, anointed for his ministry. He's being commissioned by the Holy Spirit. In fact, we only have to look a little bit further into chapter four to see one of those areas that Jesus was empowered for. Jesus was empowered by the Holy Spirit for his temptation by the devil. It's clear as we look at this that chapter four was meant to be read with what came prior. So for now, just jump ahead a little bit to chapter four and look at verse one. And notice what it says, it says, and Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, that one that just descended on him, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, where he was baptized and this Holy Spirit descended on him, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness for 40 days, being tempted by the devil. Of course, part of Jesus' ministry and mission involves his perfect obedience, doesn't it? Jesus must perfectly obey. He could not go to the cross. He could not seek and save the lost if he himself was a man who needed saving from his own sins. He must perfectly obey. And so in the face of heated temptation, and of course, we'll look at this passage, Lord willing, next week, in the face of heated temptation, he had to be able to perfectly obey God's law. And the Holy Spirit helps him to do that. And it's here, by the way, that this genealogy Kind of makes sense. So you may have been wondering why is this genealogy here? Right? Matthew, he has a genealogy and he places it at the very front end of his gospel. It's the first thing that you come to. Why does Luke kind of wait until this point to insert a genealogy that even seems like it's interrupting the story? What's going on? Well, there's a number of reasons we might give. There is the fact that To the Israelites, lineage was important. Your ancestry was important. In fact, you might remember how in Nehemiah chapter seven, we learned that priests were not allowed to serve if they could not prove their lineage. Even though they themselves knew they had right lineage, they had to be able to prove their lineage. And we see here that Jesus, when he begins to serve, has a strong and robust lineage. It's a lineage that goes even back to David. It goes back to Abraham. It goes back all the way to Adam. In fact, while Matthew's genealogy starts in the past and moves forward to the present, you'll notice that Luke's genealogy starts with Jesus in the present and then moves to the past, almost as if to emphasize this is his lineage. Let's follow it all the way back. By the way, a lot of ink has been spilled on the differences between the genealogy of Luke and the genealogy of Matthew. And there are parts that are identical. So if you compare them from Abraham down to David, they are identical. The names match up. But when you look from David down to Jesus, they're vastly different. almost zero of the names line up. In fact, if you look Matthew's, Matthew's gospel, he follows the line through, so you have David and then you have his son Solomon. Okay. If you look at ours, you have David and you have his son Nathan. So one follows through Solomon, one follows through Nathan. And there's various theories that have been offered as to what's going on here. One theory is that Matthew is tracing the royal line of succession. So that's why he starts with Solomon, right? He was the next king. So Matthew traces the royal line of succession. Luke is tracing the actual physical descent and that those two different lines end up converging in Joseph by some marriage somewhere along the ways. Others think that Luke is not tracing the line of Joseph, that Luke is actually tracing the line of Mary. Then there's other theories about second marriages, about children who are biological children versus adopted children. So in that case, you could call either one the dad. There's the biological father, but there's also the adopted father. Okay, so all sorts of different theories. But the short answer is we just don't know. We really cannot speak definitively about why there are differences. All right, but back to the question of why does Luke put this genealogy here? And another one of those reasons is probably this, is that it's because it sits so nicely against chapter four. It fits so nicely against chapter four. Look at where the genealogy ends. It ends with Adam, the son of God. Adam. Adam, of course, was a son of God who failed to resist temptation in the Garden of Eden. And of course, then what's the very next story? It's about Jesus, the son of God, who does resist temptations that are thrown at him in the wilderness. He is, and here's our second title for Jesus, he is the second Adam. It's emphasizing that Jesus is the second Adam. He's the new and better Adam. He does what Adam failed to do. We'll talk about that more next week, but for now, understand that he does this under the power of the Holy Spirit. Well, finally, not only do we see that Jesus is determined to do his ministry, and that the Holy Spirit empowered Jesus to do his ministry, we also see that God the Father approved of Jesus and his ministry. God the Father approved of Jesus and his ministry. Let's go back to verse 22. So verse 22, the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came from heaven. You are my beloved son, with you I am well pleased. Now think of what's just happened. Jesus has begun his ministry. He's beginning his path to the cross. It will prove to be a three-year path to the cross. He's even openly displayed his determination to die as he's undergone this baptism. He's made it be known that I'm willing to go all the way to the cross. And the father, looking on these things, expresses his great love and delight and pleasure in his son. He's not giving only his approval of this mission, but also his joy and his pleasure in what Jesus is doing. And if the father has that much delight in what the son is doing, that's an indication that Jesus is not just a newbie, right? Jesus is not someone who's a rookie and he's trying to figure out what he's doing. The father is pleased and he approves of what Jesus is doing. Now tucked away in this short half a verse are two more titles for Jesus. One of them you can see, you can probably pick it out before I say it. The other is clearly alluded to, so extra credit to you if you figure out what I'm gonna say. All right, the first is that Jesus is the Son of God. He's the son of God. That's actually a theme in this section, isn't it? Jesus is the son of God. Then we've got this genealogy with all these sons, the last of which, Adam, is even also called a son of God. And then even look ahead to how Satan will actually tempt Jesus in the next section. Verse three, he says, if you are the son of God. Verse nine, if you are the son of God. The sonship of Jesus is strongly emphasized here, and God proudly claims the title of Jesus' father. He proudly says, yep, that's my son. I'm happy to be his dad. I'm happy to be his father. That's why verse 23 points out that it's not actually Joseph who's the father of Jesus. It says Jesus being the son as was supposed, right? Just remember it's just as was supposed. Joseph is not a biological father of Jesus. Joseph was just an adopted father. God was Christ's true father. This verse actually rings with Psalm 2. You ought to hear Psalm 2 in the back of your head as you're reading the words of God here. Psalm 2, when the Lord says to Jesus, you are my son, today I have begotten you. Oh, and how he loves his son. how he loves his son. You can see it here. He's looking at his son and he loves his son. In fact, this right here is the pinnacle of love. This is actually the source and foundation of all true love. It all starts right here. No higher love is even possible than the father's love for the son. It's a love that is thorough. It's a love that is complete. It's a love that has been eternal. That's the love that God has for his son and so wonder of wonders to think that He then extends that love to us. We are just like Adam. We fail to be obedient sons. In fact, all of history has had disobedient sons. In fact, of the 77 names that are listed in this genealogy, 76 of them were disobedient. Jesus accepted All of history has had failure after failure after failure, disobedient son after disobedient son. Israel, which is featured so prominently in this genealogy, was often referred to as a son of God, but then again and again, they were disobedient. They rebelled against God, and yet God loved them. And he loves us, despite our disobedience. God loves us. He chooses to set his love on filthy, rotten sinners. And he loves us with an everlasting love. How can that be? How can that be? Well, that takes us to the last six words of verse 22. God says, with you, referring to Jesus, With you, I am well-pleased." Well-pleased, it's the language of inexhaustible delight. He finds great joy and satisfaction in who Jesus is and in what Jesus determined to do. And here, it's a clear allusion to Isaiah 42. Any Israelite, any Jew hearing this quotation would have gone, ah, God is quoting Isaiah 42. Isaiah 42, verse one, God says, behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights, I have put my spirit upon him. I put my spirit upon this one in whom my soul delights. This is Isaiah 42. And of course, Isaiah 42, every Israelite would have understood, is the first of a number of passages in Isaiah that are referred to as the servant songs. You've got different passages talking about this servant of the Lord. And they all talk about this one to come as a suffering servant. There's your fourth title for Jesus. He is a suffering servant. And it seems quite likely that God here, in referencing Isaiah 42, is pointing toward the ultimate work of this servant. He knows what's true of this servant, in whom his soul delights. He knows what's going to happen to this servant. He knows that this servant will suffer. We can remember the words of that servant Psalm in Isaiah 53, that he will bear our griefs, that he will carry our sorrows. He will be stricken by God. and afflicted, he will be pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities. That's what that servant will ultimately do. And as the father looked at Christ coming out of the waters, symbolizing that very death, and as Christ prayed to his heavenly father and asked that his father might be pleased with his coming mission, and as the father saw the Holy Spirit empowering Christ for this hard but oh so important ministry, he, the father, looked on his beloved son and shouted with a loud voice, and he said, with you I am well pleased! This is awesome! With you, I am well pleased. And listen, if that's what this Jesus does to the heart of God, don't you want him? Don't you want that kind of Jesus? If this Jesus is so firmly and doggedly and determinedly set on fulfilling his mission to save sinners, don't you want him? Don't you want Him every day? Don't you want Him every hour? Don't you want Him for every moment, for every breath of your life? I need Thee, precious Jesus. Oh, how I need Thee. And He's yours by faith. Have you responded to Him in faith? For some of you, that question is, have you responded to Him in faith ever? for the first time? Have you responded to him in faith? For some of you, that's, do you need to ask him to increase your faith? I believe, help my unbelief. Lord, I need to trust you more, moment by moment, day by day. You know, it's fascinating that this genealogy sits right here Because another thing about this genealogy is it's a reminder that God has been faithful to his promises. You'll notice that unlike Matthew's genealogy, which goes back to only Abraham, Luke's genealogy goes all the way back to Adam. It's almost as if he wants to show that Jesus is not just for Israel. It's not just for Abraham on down. He wants to show that Jesus is for everyone, for all people. He's for the entire race of Adam. And so listen, that's why you and me can be built into this genealogy. This is not a genealogy for just Jews. You and I can be built into this genealogy. This genealogy continues because we, if we trust in Christ for salvation, we are sons of God. We are adopted into his family. God's purpose has always been to make for himself a people, sons and daughters. And listen, because Jesus stayed true to his mission through him, we are now children of God. I love that verse in 1 John chapter 3 verse 1 that says, how great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called, what? Children of God. What magnificent love that we should be called children of God. And then it goes on and it says, and that is what we are. Well, with truths like this resonating in our hearts and in our minds, we'll turn just in a moment to celebrate the Lord's Supper, but first let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for the determination of Jesus Christ. How we thank you that he determined to seek and to save the lost. Lord, to think that we have been such wonderful beneficiaries of that. And so Lord, help us to rejoice in that as we go now to the Lord's table. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.