We're in that section of the book of Philippians as we go throughout and look at, as we've gone through our long-term series on the prison epistles, going through Ephesians and Colossians, Philemon, and now finishing up with the letter of the Apostle Paul to the Philippians. We're in the section in chapter two in which actually starts at the very end of chapter one in which the Apostle Paul is instructing the Philippian believers on how to live as citizens of the kingdom of God, to be able to conduct themselves in such a manner. And one of the things that we saw over and over again that the concepts that come out are the concepts of unity, the concepts of considering others to be more important than ourselves, to consider the concept of being of one spirit and one mind, remembering all that God has done for us. Some of us were taken a little bit aback when we looked at that verse that the Apostle Paul wrote and says that our salvation has been, or the ability to believe is something that God has granted to us. And then we were even more amazed when he says, not only that, to be granted to believe, but to suffer for his sake. Now, in the section that the Apostle Paul is on now, he is coming and saying, and here this concept of humility, putting yourself as less important than anyone else around you, has its roots in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is not just one of those things that we say, I've got that, got that. He says, no, I don't think you have really done that, and he spends a section on the person of Jesus Christ and what he has done in order to understand this concept in verse 3 of chapter 2 of doing things not out of rivalry or conceit, but in humility, counting others as more important than yourself. And in verse 4, looking not to your own interest, but to the interests of others. And then he starts this brief section, having this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Jesus Christ. And the thing that we are able to look at is that we are able to see this whole concept of what humility truly is defined by, and this concept of humility in the face of all that God has done for us. All right, we look then at this subsection of Christ as our example in what I would refer to as cosmic selflessness. cosmic selflessness, because that's what we looked at last week. In verses 6 and 7, it says that he did not count being in the form of God, did not count equality with God, a thing that he should grasp or cling on to, but he emptied himself, taking upon himself the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men. Now, the concept of equality with God, one of the things that we're looking at and that we saw last week was that this, while we're understanding that, and many, the New American Standard, the King James Version, NIV, translate that as emptied himself, The real issue of what we talked about and we discussed this last week was not answering the question, what was it that he emptied himself of? In other words, if he emptied himself, I know that if I've got a glass of water and I empty that glass of water, I know something is getting ready to happen to the water. The water is coming out of the glass. Something came out in order for that glass to be empty. And the whole concept then is that people have spent volumes and volumes writing and thinking and arguing about just exactly what it was. That word for empty is a Greek word called kenosis, and you have all throughout any theological library, you go to some seminary, there'll be a whole section on theories about this kenosis, what was emptied. And you've got everything from Jesus Christ emptied himself totally of anything that had to do with God, and he totally made himself a man. Of course, even in the early church, we found that that was absolutely heretical. We saw in the early church councils that they said, no, no, no. When Jesus Christ emptied himself, he did not become anything less less than God. In other words, when Jesus spoke and calmed the seas when they were going into the rough sea, this was not a man who had just simply a little bit of magical ability to get the waves and the wind to stop. This was the God of all creation speaking to his creation. And so he had that level of authority when they went up on top of the mountain and he was transfigured. It wasn't that he went over there, he went up to the top of the mountain and he sat down, he says, okay, God, these guys are just not getting it. I need you to do something to display that I really am Jesus, the Christ, the son of God. please, please, please won't you transform me into some measure of the way that I was. That's not the way it happened at all. Who had the initiative on the top of the Mount of Transfiguration? It was Jesus Christ himself. It was Jesus Christ himself who came and showed himself, if you were, and we use this illustration out of the book of Hebrews that we saw that the flesh is really something that veils God, he just simply lifted the veil and showed who was really there and then he put it back down again. Just as we have other examples of that happen to the prophet Elisha in the Old Testament. All right, the veil was lifted up, His servant was able to see that there were chariots of fire all over, and then he put the veil of reality back down so that his eyes were covered. So when we see there, emptied himself, and I do appreciate that the English Standard Version translates that he made himself nothing. taking on the form of his servant. But see, even that is not the real concept of what's taken its place. What's taken place is that Jesus Christ took upon himself the form of man and was seen as a man. And so we saw that even then we had his power, his glory were still there. Charles Wesley probably did as good a job as doing that. I was doing a little research and I found the Hark the Herald Angels Sing. come to find out that of the three or four verses we sing, there's actually 10 verses, and it's really not about the angels singing at Christmastime. Let me read you this point. It's actually about the universe singing. He uses an old English phrase called the welkin. Greg, you know what a welkin is? Welkin is the English word the firmament, the canopy above which we exist. He said, hark how the welkin rings glory to the king of kings. Now, again, to make it an Easter song, we had to put angels in there and all that other stuff. But for the most part, the rest pretty much stays true. There's one more part. See, that's what that's actually talking about, is that the skies are proclaiming the glory of God. Christ, by highest heaven adored, Christ, the everlasting Lord. Late in time, behold, him come offspring of a virgin's womb. And this is our phrase, veiled in flesh. And that's really, Charles Wesley really got that concept that his incarnate being was just simply veiled in flesh. The Godhead see. In other words, when we look at Christ, we see the Godhead, but it is what? veiled in flesh. Hail the Incarnate Deity, pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel, here. Hail the heavenly Prince of Peace. Hail the Son of Righteousness, Light and Life. To all He brings, risen with healing in His wing. Mild He lays His glory by. There he got it. Little bit wrong, but we'll forgive him that. His glory was still there, it was just veiled. Born that men no more may die, born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth. Come, desire of nations, fix in us thy humble home. Here he gets the concept of what the Apostle Paul is talking about in Philippians here. Charles Wesley says, your home is a humble home. Rise, the woman's conquering seed. Bruise in us the serpent's head. We don't hear that verse very much, do we? Now, display thy saving power. Ruined nature now, restore. Now, in mystic union, join thine to ours and ours to thine. Adam's likeness, Lord, efface. Stamp your image in its place. Second Adam from above, reinstate in us your love. Let us thee, like lost, though lost, regain. And so Charles Wesley is really talking about what in this? He's talking about the new birth. He's talking about Jesus Christ coming to earth and becoming man. But at the same time, All right, the picture that we have. All right, let's go to our text this morning in Philippians chapter two. There's a couple of things that we need to note. If you've got a King James version, and I'll have to say, Ken, one of the different King James versions that you're going to find that in verse six and seven, Though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality of God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by being obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross." Ending in verse 8. One of the things that I want you to notice is that almost all of your translations are going to have those three things that he had added to himself, if you will, that he had pulled upon himself, those three things, the emptying himself by taking on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of man, and being found in human form. In almost all of your Greek texts, those, at least the guys who put the verse markers in there, put all of those three in verse 7. All right? And then in verse 8, it starts the whole concept of what the Apostle Paul is talking about. He humbled himself. Now, we see that over the years, different English translations have put those into, some of them we're gonna put that little phrase, being found in appearance as a man, some of that goes in verse seven, some of that goes in verse eight. Now, are we dependent on our concept of an infallible Word of God to know which one of those verses it belongs to? Does it belong to 7 or does it belong to 8? No, not at all. In fact, as we have said many times, the Apostle Paul I could imagine that putting his writings in chapters and verses was the farthest thing from his mind as he was writing these things down, as the Holy Spirit was guiding him through putting those things down. But one of the things that we have to do is that we have to simply say, in English, the way we look at words changes the way we understand the words. The emphasis that we put on different words changes that. Now, what I'd like to do is take a look at the way most of our modern translations, ESV, NIV, King James Version, almost all of those begin verse 8 by saying that he was found in human form. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death. One of the things that we need to make sure that we're doing is that we're not isolating because we're great at doing this, aren't we, Ken? Great at grabbing a verse and just simply quoting that verse and not putting the context either before or after that verse when we quote it. The whole concept that the Apostle Paul, for example, we're quote back up earlier, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. That's the poster verse. What is that talking about? Remember what the Apostle Paul is really talking about there? He's talking about his imprisonment. And he said, do not consider the whole concept of my imprisonment important, because it doesn't matter whether I live That's Christ. Whether I die, I gain either way. And the whole concept is, a lot of times we'll take that out of context and put our own meaning into those verses. The same thing can be true. If you can, in your mind, just take the numbers out of the verses and take a look at what the Apostle Paul is saying. Jesus Christ emptied himself by doing three things. What were those three things? One active, which was what? What was the active thing that he did? He took the form of a servant. So there is the one thing that he did. He took the form of the servant. And then there are two participial adjectives. He was being born in the likeness of man and being found in appearance as a man. And so as we're looking at the whole concept of his being a servant, being a slave, being in that form, Are we talking about the particular way that he appears to us? If you were looking here in the Roman marketplace, all right, just depending on the way that they were dressed, could you tell the servants from everyone else? Yeah, just simply because they had different clothing on. However, the whole concept is the ones who were the servants were only the servants. We have seen in many cases, particularly over the last dozen years or so, we have seen that many of those servants were actually very, very intelligent people, very, very bright people. Those who were in their own country, they were very high-ranking people, very wealthy people, but yet in the total change of context, what happened? They became, what? They became slaves. Why? Just simply because the Roman army had gone in there and had taken them captive. That's exactly what we saw in the Old Testament with Daniel, correct? What happened? Well, Nebuchadnezzar had brought all of the people. Well, he didn't bring the riffraff with him. Who did he bring with him? Those who were going to benefit his society, all right? And not only that, he took the best of the best and brought them right into his own household. kind of reminds me of my brother Chuck, when he got drafted, then you'll understand draft, not very many people now remember those days, in which back in the 60s, when that kind of stopped, the government said, you're going into the army like it or not. Well, he was one of the very, very last ones drafted after having Being four years in college, he was one semester short of graduating, and Uncle Sam said, too bad, so sad. We want you to come into the Army. And so they trained him to be some menial truck driver or ammunition stacker or something like that. And then he had a company commander in his first assignment that was wise enough to say, excuse me, you look a little bit different than these folks. Have you had any education? Well, I had four years in college, went there on an athletic scholarship, played, and I was one semester short of graduating. He said, what did they train you to do? Well, they trained me to be a guy who stacks ammo. He says, I've got a job for you. He totally took him out of that, and he put him into a job just simply because of who he was. Now, I say that as an illustration of what we're talking about, because what we're talking about is not the physical appearance, the form of a slave. What could we be talking about there? I want you to think about that just a minute. If he took upon himself the form of a slave, slaves didn't have a third arm growing out of them, I don't think. They were humans just like everyone else. They didn't have a body which had any more or less sin nature in it than anyone else did. So what on earth is it talking about when it says that Jesus Christ took upon himself the form of a bond slave or a bond servant? Well, Jesus and Ben's point is that he is not coming in in the form of a king. God in his in his eternal palace in the sky, if you will, his eternal spiritual being says, well, you know, Jesus is going to be able to reach so many more people if we put him in a high governmental position, that he can have a lot of contact with people, that he can have, no. What is it that he has done? He has taken upon himself the form of one who serves. One who serves regardless of the fact of who you are on the inside. Regardless of what your education is, what your family background is, regardless of that, the slave is one who serves. Now, this actually comes out a little bit more in some of the interesting words, because we see the form of a slave, the likeness of a man, and the appearance of a man. Now, one of the things that we're going to see is that the one that ends up in our ESV in verse 8, being found in human form, New American Standard translates that as the appearance as a man, is not talking about form as in flesh and blood, as in a man with a head and two arms and two legs and a body and a belly button. It is something which is, as we're talking about that, the Greek word there in verse 8 is called schema or a scheme. All right. Now, an architect has a scheme of what he does to put together his houses. What does the scheme involve? Does it just involve the veneer of the bricks? No. What does it involve? just the English use of that word. It involves every single thing with the way that house is going to be constructed, all the way down to where do you put the outlets for the electricity, where do you run the plumbing before you lay the concrete slab. For those of you who might be listening over the internet, we don't have anything in Texas but concrete slabs that we build our houses on. But anyway, the pipes are all inside that and the scheme is all laid out prior to that. Well, the word as it talks about in humans, all right, is that anything and everything that we can comprehend or that strikes our senses, all right. The bearing of a person is his schema, his appearance, the way I carry myself, the way that I talk, the discourse that I have, all right, the way that I act, my manner of life. You might even say my body language is all wrapped up in that word as a schema. the appearance as a man. Now, what does that tell us and how do we understand that when we look at Philippians 2 talking about he was found in appearance as a man? Well, as we take a look at that, the thing that we are able to say, Philip, what do you think? What do you think that that's talking about? Well, I want you to think about this. Phillip's comment was that he's trying to make a point, and that's exactly right, of this is how we are to live. What was in the person of Jesus Christ that, as we've talked about earlier, was veiled in flesh? God himself, King of kings and Lord of lords. But yet, what the Apostle Paul is trying to get across is that when Jesus Christ took upon himself the form of a bond slave, it was the totality of everything that was human. And that is where in the Council of Chalcedon, those who were studying the scriptures in the early church, and they looked at that and he says, he is completely God, but he is not completely God that just has this veneer of man around him. He doesn't just have this costume that he wears. He is, if you go underneath the costume, you're still gonna find man. If you go down underneath the two or three levels of cells, if you will, in the skin, you're gonna find man. All the way from beginning to end, every single part of the Lord Jesus Christ is man. Now, there are several different things that we're going to look at in that in that context, all right? But I want you to look at a very interesting where this is a very not used very much word. Go over to 1 Corinthians chapter 7. 1 Corinthians chapter 7, I want you to see another usage of this word. 1 Corinthians chapter 7 and verse 31. All right. Now, this is, for those of you familiar with 1 Corinthians 7, he's talking about marriage. He's talking about marriage and he's talking about whether or not you should marry. In verse 28 he says, if you do marry, you've not sinned. A betrothed woman, if she marries, she hasn't sinned. Marriage is not sin. And then he continues on, etc. And then in verse 29 he says... And then in verse 32 he says... And here's our word, this present form of the world is passing away. Now what does that word mean there? The form of the world. Everything we know about the world, correct? That includes the relationships. This is in the context of husbands and wives. That is going to be going away. The things that we have, the things that we buy that are ours, going away. Even our emotions, look in verse 30, it says, those who mourn as those who are not mourning. Those who rejoice as they are not rejoicing. The whole concept of everything in this world is going to change as the form, the scheme of the world changes. Now, how is the world scheme going to change? What is the scheme of the world he's talking about that is going to change? Well, he's talking about a world that is going to be recreated. Now, it didn't take place, I think, as soon as the Apostle Paul implied here. It's not going to happen within the next couple of minutes or days or weeks, but there is going to be a time in which this world is going to be totally, totally different, but yet it's still going to be the world. And that's what, in fact, we call that the new heavens and the new earth. All right? The new heavens and the new earth. All right. So here are some of the key thoughts, and here's what the emphasis, I believe, is. These three things are all one thing. These three things, verses 6 and 7, beginning of 8, taking on the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men, being found in form as a man, all of these are one thing which are talking about his emptying himself, And then the next thing that it says that he does in verse 8, which is what? He humbled himself. He emptied himself and he humbled himself. What do you notice that the same concept is there in both of those? Emptying himself, humbling himself. Himself. This is something that I think that the Apostle Paul is making very, very clear to these Philippian believers, and hence to us, that this is something that comes from the Lord Jesus Christ and has to do with not something that is going to be done to him, but something that he is doing internally to this concept of the God-man. And that's one of the things that we're able to see that we have here, all right? This whole concept. Now, as we look at that then and we see that the emphasis is, verse 5, have this mind among yourselves which was in Christ Jesus, emptied himself, humbled himself. So the very first thing of this mindset is what? Me going around saying, OK, I'm going to be checking on you guys. No. What is the whole point? The whole point is that the Lord Jesus Christ, now, was he getting ready to take upon himself to send the world? Absolutely. Was he getting ready to do something for others? Well, the answer to that is that's what this is all about, is His doing something for others, not, okay, I'm going to be setting myself up to be the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. I know that's what I've got to do. So in order to do this, I've got to do one or two things. No, not at all. This is something that Jesus Christ, or that the Apostle Paul says, God is letting us know that this whole concept of the Christian life says that we are to focus on one thing, and that is what? Focus on me, but not in such a way that it's all about me. It's the whole concept of, as you're focusing on yourself, it is not to lift yourself up, but to put yourself at others' disposal. That's the whole concept that he's talking about here. Now, one of the things that that we do need to note that the emphasis is not then on the fact of his emptying. In fact, the emphasis of this text is not even on his dual nature, although that's theological accuracy and so on. Yes, Philip? The concept, and this is what Philip is bringing out, the whole concept is that in humility, did Jesus Christ come because we are his debtors and he owes us big time so he better come in and do something? No. The whole point, and this is what the Apostle Paul says, who is the Lord Jesus Christ doing these things for? who owe him, but yet he is the one who is coming in and placing himself down at the bottom rung. That's what humility is. Someone who has deserved high exaltation to putting themselves down at the very, very end, at the very lowest spot. Now, I also want to take a note that this is something that is As Jesus Christ takes on the form of man, one of the things that we need to understand is that the form of man He took on is not an inheritance of the sin nature of man. That's one of the things that the scripture makes abundantly clear, is that when we're talking about Jesus Christ, it is a Jesus Christ without sin. So, just as if you were to look at Adam before he ate the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden and looking at him after, the only difference is that you're going to see one is covered and one is not covered. The only thing that looks like, it's the same form, all right, except one has the sin nature. Jesus Christ, and this is not saying that he took upon himself the sin nature of man. And I know that there are lots of, that was one of the favorite things for some of my seminary friends to argue about. Greg, I don't know if you ever experienced this, arguing about, well, if Jesus Christ could not have sinned, Or he could have sinned and didn't. And that's one of those situations. Jesus Christ was the same as Adam was in his human state, with one big exception. Adam was not God. Adam was a created being, not Jesus Christ. He took upon himself the form of a bond slave. Go ahead. Well, in some cases the icon or image is exactly the same word that's used. Well, and see, that's one of the things that is very difficult because we're not talking about just the appearance. Because we know that God himself took on different appearances even after the resurrection. All right? It was not the same appearance that he was walking along the Emmaus Road. Of course, at the same time, we don't know whether it was just simply their eyes were blinded. But by the way, what was it when he sat down and they said, walked along the way and he was teaching them about in Luke 22, Luke 24, which was talking about all of the things and Jesus was talking to them about all the Old Testament scriptures, what was it that they were able to recognize him by doing? What was it that happened? that all of a sudden he did and they said, whoa, this is Jesus. It was not the way he looked. It was not the physical appearance. It was not even the teaching because they were listening to us. Now their hearts were burning within them as you recall that section. But they did not recognize him until they looked at his schema, mannerisms, the way that he broke the bread, or the fact that he broke the bread. Now, at the same time, yeah, because we're getting into some mighty deep cotton here. Deep or tall? It's tall cotton. OK. All right. The concept is we can't imagine how you can be completely God and completely man. We can't imagine that. But what are we required to do by the scriptures? Cling on to that, absolutely. Because the very essence of what Jesus Christ does for me on a day-to-day basis depends on His being man. The death of Jesus Christ on the cross depends on Him being alive, depends on Him having blood, and so on. And that's one of the things that the Apostle Paul is going to bring out. Now, the point, interestingly enough, the theological concept that we are entering into, and this is talking about, is a theological person, work of Jesus Christ that is called the humiliation and exaltation of Christ. And the humiliation side has got about five different parts. Now, where would the humiliation begin? Was it at the upper room? Was it when he got arrested? Where did the humiliation of Christ begin? It began at birth, when he took upon himself, if you will, the form of a zygote, a one-celled beginning of a human being that was not even yet implanted into the uterine wall of his mother Mary. He was fully God and fully man. And all of his life, all of his life, he tells us the Son of Man has no home as he's going around. And then certainly his death and burial, his crucifixion, But one of the things that one of the commentators that I read, he says, of all of those things, it was not his death, his dying on the cross, that was probably the most significant thing in his humiliation. It wasn't even his being abandoned by the father. It was what happened to him after he died. After he died. Did he just pop back up to life and says, hallelujah, my humiliation is over with? All right, now we can get on with this glorification stuff. No, no, he descended into, as the Apostle's Creed says, he descended into hell. Now what that means is he entered into death. You know, he didn't go and have to then pay the penalty and Satan had to extract his pound of flesh. No, none of that. That's not what that's talking about. All right? He entered into it. And what about his human body? thrown around like a rag doll. Fortunately, God sent some very well-meaning Jews who were believers and they placed him into a tomb, placed his body into the tomb, and so on. All of that encompasses what it's talking about by the Apostle Paul, the humility or the process of or humiliation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, one of the things that I want to make sure that we're pointing out is that this is a self-action. Humility is something that comes from yourself. It's not something that is done to you. Actually, it is sometimes. There's some verses that talks about God humbling or humbling the earth and the creation. The Apostle Paul in one of his letters says, I have got to do this so that God will not humble me. but every other place. Look at 1 Peter, you would turn to there if you'd like. 1 Peter chapter 5, the exhortation from the Apostle Peter to his hearers. Humble yourselves. Again, what's the object? Humble yourselves. Interestingly enough, that is almost always the object. It is almost always yourself that you're humbling, or he humbled himself. And interestingly enough, as the Apostle Peter says, Exactly what we're going to see here in the place of what's happening to Jesus Christ as we start in next week, Lord willing, to the fact that Jesus Christ humbled himself. Another one of the things that I want you to notice in that very issue, remember that Isaiah 53 is a great forbearance of looking forward to what's happening. I want you to think about what Isaiah 53 is talking about. He was despised. He was despised. crushed, bruised for our iniquities. The Lord caused the iniquity to fall upon him. What's the action there? It's all action being done to the suffering servant, correct? All right. But yet what does the Apostle Paul say? He says, Jesus Christ humbled himself. He humbled himself. Now, he didn't crucify himself. He didn't beat himself with the cat of nine tails. He didn't place the crown of thorns on himself. He had many things done to them, but in doing that, he humbled himself. Now, very quickly, because there's two very important parts of what it talks about in verse 8. How did he humble himself? What is the next phrase in your text? By becoming what? Obedient. By becoming obedient. Now, I expected the humbled himself and to the death and even death on the cross. But what does the Apostle Paul say is the essence of what the Lord Jesus Christ in his humility did. He became obedient. In fact, about the only other place, there's two other places that this is used as an adjective. You know, the verb to become obedient is very important, but as an adjective, all right, it talks about where the fathers in the desert When Moses brought them out, the fathers did not become obedient. They repudiated him. And in their hearts, they turned back to Egypt. Now, how many times did the apostle Paul, or excuse me, did the apostle John record what Jesus says, this is why I'm coming to earth. I'm coming to earth to do what? to do the will of my Father. That is his purpose. He says that over and over. There's a couple of references, John 4, 34, 530, 635, if you're taking notes. In fact, even as we have listened in our current series that Greg is preaching, in Luke 22, in the Garden of Gethsemane, he said, what? Not my will, but yours be done, becoming obedient. This I do want you to turn to, turn over to Hebrews. This is going to be one of those, I've read this a thousand times and I've never seen it, verses, or at least it was to me. In verse 5, he talks from Psalm 40, in verse 5 of Hebrews 10, he says, in whole burnt offerings and in sacrifices for us, you have taken no pleasure. And then I said, behold, I have come to do that which is in the role of the book, which is written for me to do what? Verse seven says, I have come to do thy will, O God, to become obedient. So in a very large sense, obedience to God, doing the will of God, is the whole purpose of Jesus becoming flesh. Then in verse 8 he says, saying above sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings for sin, you have not desired but thou has taken pleasure in them which are offered by the Lord. And then he said, verse 9, behold, I have come to do thy will. This little phrase right after that. Are you in Hebrews chapter 10 in verse 9? What happens when Jesus Christ says, I am here to do your will, oh Father? What happens? He takes away the first covenant and he establishes the second. The entire covenantal structure that we are under is based on what? Doing the will of the Father. all as we see it right there. When he says, I am here to do your will, O Father, David wrote that a thousand years earlier in the Psalms. But Jesus Christ in the fulfillment says, this is the beginning. When he holds up the cup and says, this cup is the new covenant, what's he really saying? I am here to do your will, O Father. I am here, back to Philippians 2, I am here to humble myself by becoming obedient. Obedient to as far as my human body can possibly take me. And this last point is very brief because we're out of time this morning. He says it twice. He says to death, but not just any death. Not just any death. Not just as Abraham laid Isaac and was getting ready to cut his throat. Not the Old Covenant. How did they make their sacrifices in the Old Covenant? Slit their throat and they died immediately. No pain. No. What was the death that Jesus Christ was being obedient to? The death of the cross. Those Romans, and by the way, the Romans themselves thought that that was barbaric. There are Romans who are standing up in the Senate of Rome saying this crucifixion stuff is way, way too much. It is over the top, this whole concept. Because what was the concept of the crucifixion? I want you to die, but I don't want to put you in front of a firing squad. one bullet and it's gone, I want you to suffer and suffer in some cases for days. This is not something that can happen just simply. Jesus Christ became obedient to that, to that death, to the death of the cross. And that's one of the amazing things that we're seeing. And Jesus Christ did that. And to make Himself the sacrifice for sin cannot. I mean, if that is humility, brothers and sisters, if that is humility, the humility of the death, even the death on the cross, then it is absolutely, then for me to humble myself, become the servant of my brothers and sisters, consider others to be more important than themselves, than myself, then that is absolutely of no consequence compared to what Jesus Christ did. But what does God, what does the Apostle Paul say? Have this mind in you that was in the mind of Christ. The suffering was something that was taken upon himself because of others. And that was the thing that is Jesus. Why should we obey God? Not because it's written. Not because we have to. Not because there's some law that says do this or else. We obey God and we become humble because of Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Our Father and our God, we come into your presence blown away, absolutely unable to understand the whole concept of the death of Jesus Christ. Father, I pray that you would forgive us where we take that so lightly, that we take for granted that, oh, Jesus died for my sins and then I go on sinning. Father, help us to have this as the forefront of our mind, that this is what it means to be your citizen in your kingdom, to be a member of the kingdom of God, to have you as our father, to have Jesus Christ as our advocate. Help us, dear Lord God, to understand all that Jesus Christ is and has done. Pray that you would be with us in the coming hour. Help us to glorify you and to honor you, to lift up your name and give you worship in his name because of him, because of the great sacrifice that he gave. For we pray in his name, amen. We've been making our way through Luke's gospel and through chapter 22 of Luke's gospel for a number of weeks now, and you'll remember we looked at this large section that we've been in all at once and looked Especially in the beginning at the prophecy the prediction of Jesus of Jesus being denied by the Apostle Peter Then we looked at that denial itself and then we went back and made our way through Middle sections of that and now we come to the to the last section of chapter 22 this morning the mistreatment of Jesus in beginning in verse 63 and going to the end of the chapter Now the men who were holding Jesus in custody were mocking him as they beat him. They also blindfolded him and kept asking him, prophesy, who is it that struck you? And they said many other things against him, blaspheming him. When day came, the assembly of the elders of the people gathered together, both chief priests and scribes, and they led him away to their council. And they said, if you are the Christ, tell us. But he said to them, if I tell you, you will not believe. And if I ask you, you will not answer. But from now on, the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God. So they all said, are you the Son of God then? And he said to them, you say that I am. Then they said, what further testimony do we need? We have heard it ourselves from his own lips. There's been a lot of talk and controversy recently concerning the new box office blockbuster Hollywood movie starring Russell Crowe titled Noah. And I haven't seen the movie yet myself, but from what I've heard from others, It makes a mockery of the true biblical account of what God reveals in the book of Genesis. I saw in the news media that the director himself, he bragged that this was the least biblical, biblical movie ever made. And you've really got to wonder, in the current climate of our culture, with a popular movie that's set to make hundreds of millions of dollars, you have got to wonder whether the fact that this movie grieves Bible-believing Christians and mocks God's word isn't just considered icing on the cake by the atheist film director and the producers who made the film. And of course, this mocking and scoffing is nothing new. But it's especially staggering when you consider the freedom with which so many people in the world feel that they can defame and mock and publicly shame the name and the person of Jesus Christ. It's done through words and deeds. It seems you can hardly turn around without seeing another book on the New York Times bestseller list that confidently proclaims the more real and the more authentic and the less biblical and the less glorious Jesus. It comes in the form of novels like Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. It comes in the form of scholarship like the works of the New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman. And in virtually every case, the author of these works self-assuredly contradicts the Bible and the direct claims of Jesus about himself that are recorded for us in the scriptures, denying his resurrection, denying his deity, and on and on and on. My own father-in-law, a retired diplomat and university professor, continues to claim the very old school assertion that Jesus never actually even existed as a real person, which is an increasingly smaller number of scholars who are trying to assert that today. And as these works come out, the pundits flock to be able to go and publicly proclaim the boldness and the courage and the honesty of these works that seem to come out in droves. is also publicly mocked by the lives of those who live in total disregard for his authority and for his position as Lord over all the earth, having no regard for the sanctity of human life, which Jesus created, having no regard for the dignity and permanence of marriage, which was designed to reflect Jesus's gospel, having no concern for integrity and honesty and purity in politics or in business or in personal relationships. Most significantly, of course, Jesus is cast aside by those who offer him no personal worship or trust or acknowledgement as Lord and as Savior, which is, of course, at the very root of all of the rest of these things. If you find such mistreatment of Jesus astonishing, although unfortunately it's become less and less surprising because it's so common, but if you do rightly feel the astonishment of such mistreatment of Jesus, even more astonishing is the patience and the forbearance and the restraint that Jesus exercises in the face of such mistreatment. This patience toward those who dishonor and disregard him began in the life of Jesus and his ministry upon the earth 2,000 years ago. You see displays of this throughout his ministry, but most dramatically you see it here in his arrest and at his condemnation and his crucifixion. Here is a stunning display of love and of mercy and of forbearance toward his enemies. It's a forbearance that continues even to this day. But it is a forbearance that will not last forever. Ironically for many, this patience, this meekness that Jesus displays is part of what makes many people doubt that Jesus really is who he claims to be. But clearly the biblical portrait of Jesus in this regard, with regard to his meekness and his patience, it is intended to not make you doubt the reality of who Jesus claims to be, but rather to confirm and to testify to the truth of who Jesus claims to be as your God and as the one and only Savior. This theme comes through powerfully in our passage this morning. And so I wanna look at the mistreatment of Jesus here in three parts. First, the abuse of Jesus. Secondly, the demand of Jesus. And then finally, the declaration of Jesus. So the abuse, the demand, and the declaration of Jesus. First, we see the abuse of Jesus, verses 63 to 65. Now the men who were holding Jesus in custody were mocking him as they beat him. They also blindfolded him and kept asking, prophesy, who is it that struck you? And they said many other things against him, blaspheming him. Matthew and Mark both add that they spit on him as well. So often you can gloss over these types of statements partly due to their familiarity to us and partly due to just the brevity with which the gospel authors describe them. I believe it's worth slowing down and just considering how awful this was for Jesus. It's the middle of the night. Jesus has not slept. Okay, if you've ever stayed up all night, you know what that feels like. It just feels terrible. You feel physically weak and tired. He is bound. He is blindfolded. He is at the mercy of armed guards who now mercilessly view him as sport. He is their entertainment for the night. That is how they view him. The very fact that these are armed guards suggests that they would have some physical strength and some skill in combat. Jesus is surrounded by them and he's blindfolded so that he cannot see from which direction the next blow is going to come. Jesus is helpless. He does not defend himself, but they will come and they will come again and again. We don't know exactly how long it went on, but we do know they had the whole night with Jesus. And as he experiences this brutal physical punishment, his tormentors, they're laughing. They're joking. They are delighting in his suffering. They're despising his weakness. This man, this man who had been loved and adored by the crowds, who had been hailed as a prophet and as the Messiah, prophesy then. Which one of us beat you this time? The freedom and the arrogance with which they abuse and mock our Lord Jesus is astonishing. It should feel astonishing to you. They blaspheme Jesus. They defame him. They revile him. They shame him. They strip him of his honor. One of the greatest ironies here is that their mocking of Jesus as a prophet actually serves to demonstrate the truth of his claim to be a prophet. Because if you remember, he had said early on, earlier in his ministry, that he would be, in fact, must be delivered over to be mocked, to be shamefully treated, and to be spit upon. Luke 18, verse 32. He knew the plan that must be fulfilled, and he willingly gave himself over to it. In this, you also see demonstrated the depth of Jesus's mercy and love and patience towards sinners. Although in his human experience of this, he was truly helpless physically to defend himself. Yet we know that as the divine Son of God, he could have called on the Father at any moment. Matthew's Gospel tells you that as Jesus was being arrested just previous to this in the garden, he says this to his disciples. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father? And He will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels. But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled that it must be so? So the will of the Father and the will of the Son are one. even at this moment as Jesus willingly bears the cup of God's wrath. These moments in the passion accounts the accounts of Jesus's suffering and his death, they bring together at one and the same time in Jesus's life the lowest level of humiliation with the highest expression of his divine mercy and love and strength as he willingly bears our sin. Many suppose that the greatest sermon ever preached by Jonathan Edwards was his sermon titled, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. But that is not his greatest. I'm here to proclaim that that is his second greatest sermon. His greatest sermon is a sermon that he preached that was titled, The Excellency of Christ. You can find it for free online. I would encourage you to go find it this afternoon and to linger over it. It's an extraordinary sermon from Revelation chapter 5 verses 5 and 6. You'll never read that passage the same again after meditating on Edwards's sermon. It's that passage in the Apocalypse, in Revelation, where the angel tells John to look and behold, to see the lion of the tribe of Judah. And so John, he looks for the lion. But he doesn't see a lion, he sees the lamb as if slain. And so Edwards takes that passage and preaches on the diverse excellencies of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in that sermon, he has these words to say. in His last sufferings, then was Christ in the greatest degree of His humiliation. And yet by that, above all other things, His divine glory appears. Christ's humiliation was great. in being born in such a low condition of a poor virgin and in a stable. His humiliation was great in being subject to Joseph the carpenter and Mary, his mother, and afterwards living in poverty so as not to have where to lay his head. And in suffering such manifold and bitter reproaches as he suffered while he went about preaching and working miracles. But his humiliation was never so great as it was in his last sufferings, beginning with his agony in the garden till he expired on the cross. Never was he subject to such ignominy. As then, never did he suffer so much pain in his body or so much sorrow in his soul. Never was he in so great an exercise of his condescension, humility, meekness, and patience as he was in these last sufferings. Never was his divine glory and majesty covered with so thick and dark a veil. Never did he so empty himself and make himself of no reputation as at this time. And yet, never was his divine glory so manifested by any act of his as it was in yielding himself up to these sufferings. when the fruit of it came to appear and the mystery and ends of it to be unfolded, then did the glory of it appear. Then did it appear as the most glorious act of Christ that ever he exercised toward the creature. The world despises the meekness of Jesus in his sufferings and in his death because the world does not have eyes to see in these things the most glorious manifestation of his divine love and mercy and strength toward sinners as he was punished for our iniquities and sacrificed for our sins. Isaiah 53, 7 and 8, He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and like a sheep that before it shears is silenced. So He opened not His mouth, meek as a lamb, By oppression and judgment, he was taken away. And as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? If you find yourself turned off by the meekness and by the suffering of Jesus, if the cross is foolishness to you, if that brings an aversion to you in your view of Christ, I just pray that God would give you eyes to see the glory of His sufferings and His dishonor, that in no way rightly belongs to Him, and yet which He willingly bore to save His people from their sins. One last word here before we move on. Most of us have experienced abuse, mistreatment, dishonor in some form and at some level. I know some of you to a depth almost unimaginable by many of those around you. Brothers and sisters, we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize. Jesus personally experienced a depth of shame and dishonor and abuse that was unmatched in the light of the glory of his person. He is not distant from your experience. He's not aloof from your experience. He does not lack understanding of your experience. And he freely entered into such physical abuse and suffering. in order to remove and redeem your shame of every form. Shame that is caused by yourself and shame that is forced upon you by others. He is able to renew and to restore. He is able to give grace to forgive you and he's able to give grace to you to forgive others in his name. That is why he suffered through this. You do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with you, nor do you have a high priest who turns a blind eye to such offenses. Don't forget 1 Peter 2, 23, which we read earlier. When He was reviled, He did not revile in return. When He suffered, He did not threaten, but continued entrusting Himself to Him who judges justly. In His meekness, Jesus does not cast aside justice. He upholds justice. For those who fail to repent of their sins and continue to dishonor the Son, they will one day undergo a righteous judgment for their actions. For those who do repent, Jesus is now able to freely, because justice has been satisfied by His own suffering in His meekness, He is able to now freely forgive you. yet he upholds the justice of God. And therefore, like him, you can continue to entrust yourself to the one who judges justly. So you see the abuse of Jesus. Now, secondly, you see the demand of Jesus, verses 66 and 67. When day came, the assembly of the elders of the people gathered together, both chief priests and scribes, and they led him away to their council. And they said, if you are the Christ, tell us. So after being beaten and mocked all night long, Mourning finally comes and Jesus is brought for an official trial before the highest ruling body of the Jewish people. The Jews, although they were under the authority and the jurisdiction of the Roman Empire, they were given a certain amount of latitude to rule themselves. This was the policy of Rome towards all the peoples that they had conquered. And this was especially true on internal matters, matters that related to their religious law that Rome would have regarded as not essential to their own interests. And so this was their supreme court among the Jewish people. And you know, based upon all that has transpired so far, that the verdict, it has already been determined. These men, they have bribed one of Jesus' disciples to betray him under the cover of darkness. They've got no interest in justice, in arriving at the truth of the matter. They simply want to kill Jesus. Other gospel accounts explicitly say that the council sought out false testimony against Jesus so that they could put him to death. This was their end goal. But those false witnesses, their testimony contradicted each other, so that didn't work out so well. So Luke then just focuses in his account on the main issue and the final demand of the council. They make this demand of Jesus. They demand a confession from Him directly by which they can then condemn Him based upon His own words. And what is the main issue? The main issue is who is Jesus? This is always the main issue. This is still the main issue today. And this is the issue in this corrupt council. Who is Jesus? They demand to know whether or not Jesus, according to His own words, according to His own understanding, if He is the Christ, the Messiah, the one promised by God to deliver God's people from their sins and from their enemies. Now, according to Jewish law claiming to be the Messiah, it would not necessarily indicate blasphemy or any offense worthy of death. The Jewish people, according to their own scriptures, they were looking for the Messiah. Obviously, these leaders, they didn't believe that Jesus was the Messiah, and there is a desire to catch him in falsehood in some way. But more to the point, if he does make this claim, they then have a political charge that they could bring to the Roman authorities. since the claim to be Messiah would be a claim to be the Davidic king and would inherently imply a challenge then to Roman authority over the Jewish people. The Romans had already put to death many would-be messiahs. So as long as it serves their interests, these leaders, they're glad to appeal to Roman interests. So they start here by demanding to know from Jesus directly, if you are the King, the Christ, the Messiah, then tell us. And Jesus knows that they have no interest in the truth. This has been demonstrated time and time again in his interactions with them in his public teaching. They were motivated by selfish gain. They were motivated by the desire for power and for authority. They were motivated by the love of public recognition, but not by the desire to discern the truth. So he says to them in verse 67, If I tell you, you will not believe. And if I ask you, you will not answer. Jesus has been through this before. You go back to Luke and read chapter 20. There was no sincerity in this investigation. The Jewish council was not asking Jesus for an answer. Their demand for a confession was actually their judgment. This court has set themselves over and against Jesus from the beginning, rather than submitting themselves to Jesus and to his rightful authority. And the reality of this historical situation, in many ways, it pictures the situation every person finds themselves in, in relationship to Jesus. There are two choices. You either set yourself over Jesus, and therefore against Jesus, or you set yourself under Jesus and receive his testimony about himself. Jesus doesn't leave you any other options. And no personal conviction, no human court decision, no success on the bestseller list, no declaration from a religious leader or scholar can ever change your position in relationship to Jesus and to his authority. These were the highest level of religious and political authorities in Israel. But yet the fact is still this. You either stand over Jesus and you reject him or you receive Jesus and you submit to him as your Lord. This means also that you are not free to follow a Jesus of your own making or of anyone else's making. but only the true Jesus made known to you by the word of God. You know, the Supreme Court of the United States can decide whatever they want about the definition of marriage. They can decide whatever they want about the rights and the freedom to kill children, to kill the elderly, or whatever other issue that comes into their corrupt courtroom. But it does not change in the least bit the reality of the rule and the authority and the jurisdiction of Jesus Christ over all people everywhere. It doesn't change it in the least bit. It is the testimony and the judgment of Jesus to which people everywhere will give an account. The Jewish leaders sought to stand in judgment over Jesus. demanding a confession only so that they could condemn him based on their own thoughts and their own opinions. In reality, they were the ones being judged. The story is told about a man who went to the Louvre, that magnificent art museum in Paris, and he particularly wanted to go there to see the Mona Lisa. And for those of you who have been there and who have seen the Mona Lisa, you know that the Mona Lisa is under constant guard because of the significance of this painting. So this man, he makes the trip. He goes and he approaches the Mona Lisa. And he begins to play the part of the art critic. He slowly takes his time looking at it. He's getting different perspectives on it, considering what he thinks about it. And after taking quite a while, he proclaims, I don't see the big deal. Personally, I'm not impressed. I don't think it's all that good. To which the security guard replied, sir, the works here are no longer being judged. Their viewers are. And so it is with Jesus. His status and His identity, they are not up for grabs. The highest authority, the eternal authority of God has been pronounced and bestowed over Jesus when He raised Him from the dead as Lord of all the earth. And now the question is simply, how will you be judged in relationship to Jesus and your response to him? So you have the abuse of Jesus and the demand of Jesus. and now consider the declaration of Jesus. Jesus, though he is so meek and so patient, even with his enemies, he doesn't shy away from declaring the truth. You know, it struck me, both as I was dwelling on these verses and yesterday as I was listening to these fathers at the men's prayer breakfast yesterday, sharing about how their older children have been able to speak the truth about Jesus, even in the face of hostile teachers, authority figures in both high school and in college. It struck me. I want to be a truth teller like that. Meek, patient, yet never shying away from speaking the truth. That's what Jesus does. Look back at verse 67 again. But he said to them, If I tell you, you will not believe. And if I ask you, you will not answer. But from now on, the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God." So they all said, are you the Son of God then? And He said to them, you say that I am. Then they said, what further testimony do we need? We've heard it ourselves from His own lips. So despite the fact that he knows that they will not receive his testimony regarding himself, nevertheless, he does make a declaration in answer to their demand. And in doing so, he gives them more than they ever bargained for. Because not only does he claim to be the Messiah, the one God had promised, he goes beyond the categories of what any Jew would have expected or was expecting at that time regarding the Messiah. the Davidic king, as he proclaims that he will bear even the power and the authority of God himself. I think the Jewish leaders probably knew this was where things would go because Jesus had made these extraordinarily exalted claims about himself before. This is part of why they wanted to kill him. John chapter 5, Jesus heals a man on the Sabbath. And he justifies it by saying that he is free to work on the Sabbath just as his father, God, works on the Sabbath. In other words, God is not subject to the Sabbath because God, who rested from his labors after his great work of creation, he went back to work after the fall in his great work of redemption. And so, by the way, says Jesus to the religious leaders, that's also why I work on the Sabbath. And so John 5.18 says, This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God, his own father, making himself equal with God. Just a couple of chapters ago in Luke chapter 20, Jesus appeals to Psalm 110, the most often quoted Psalm in the New Testament. Luke 20 verse 41, he says to the religious leaders, how can they say that Christ is David's son? For David himself says in the book of Psalms, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand. until I make your enemies your footstool. David thus calls him Lord. So how is he his son? As the Davidic Messiah, the descendant of David who would inherit the throne of David, Jesus was yet exalting himself over David. He was David's Lord who would sit at the very right hand of God and all his enemies would be subject to him. You see the same language from Psalm 110 taken up in his statement here to the Jewish council. You also see the language of the exalted divine figure, that Danielic son of man from Daniel chapter seven, verses 13 and 14, where Daniel sees a vision of one like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. So he comes from the heavenly realms, and yet he has the form of a man. Daniel 7, verse 13. We read, And the Son of Man came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him, and to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples and nations and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away. and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed." These are passages that the Jewish leaders would have been familiar with. They knew what the Old Testament said. Many of these people were experts in the scriptures, and they knew what Jesus was declaring. That's why they respond. Oh, are you the Son of God then? In other words, your claims, they're going beyond the claims just to be the human king that we're all looking for. You're claiming to be from heaven itself. You're claiming to have the very power and authority of God, having the eternal right to rule, not just over Israel, but over every nation of the world. King of kings and Lord of lords. Are you the son of God then? Jesus says to them, you say that I am. That is to say, I think what he's saying here is that these are your words, the title that you have chosen to apply to me, and I don't deny that it fits. You said it. And it's clear that the religious leaders, they receive this as an affirmation of their question. Because they say, well, what further testimony do we need? We've heard it from his own lips. He has made this claim. And if ever there was a basis to charge a man with blasphemy worthy of death under the Jewish law, certainly it would have been this claim that he is making to be equal with God, which by the way would be absolutely right unless his claim is true. So make no mistake, although there are some New Testament scholars who try to argue that Jesus, he never claimed to be God, Make no mistake, he claimed to be God. The Lord of all, fully man and fully God, the second person of the triune God. And from now on, Jesus says, the divine son of man who is the human son of God shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God. This is your hour, he had said to his enemies, to his condemners, to his mockers and abusers. This is your hour and the power of darkness. The time of my weakness and condemnation and crucifixion at the hands of wicked men who are serving the spiritual powers of darkness. But from this time on, after the Son of Man bears upon Himself the sins of His people and rises from the dead, He will be seated at the right hand of God with all power and authority. And that is where Jesus is today, brothers and sisters. He reigns, he rules at the right hand of God and will do so until all his enemies are put under his feet. He has been given a kingdom that will not pass away and that will not be destroyed. Listen to the testimony of God concerning the fulfillment of this declaration by Jesus in Luke's second volume, Acts chapter 2, verses 32 and 33. Peter says, this Jesus God raised up. And of that, we are all witnesses. There are eyewitnesses to this fact of the resurrection of Jesus, and we will especially focus in on that in two weeks' time together. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. Acts chapter 5, 30 to 32. The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging Him on a tree. God exalted Him at His right hand as leader and Savior to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him. You know what struck me as I read those passages regarding the current exaltation of Jesus to the right hand is the patience and the meekness and the grace with which he now rules at the right hand of the Father. What does he do from the right hand of the Father? He gives the Holy Spirit. He gives repentance. He gives the forgiveness of sins. Jesus is exalted and he is reigning at the right hand of God. And he still relates to the world in patience and grace and mercy. Don't despise that. that displays the glory of who he is as our God and Savior. And this is the time of salvation. And if you despise and spit upon and mock that, there is coming a day when his patience will give way and he will be meek no more. Condemned by unrighteous men, but exalted by God the Father. Condemned for our sins, but exalted for His righteousness. And now freely giving salvation to anyone who will take refuge in Him and under His authority. If you have not done that, I urge you, come under the Lord Christ. Look to this merciful, meek, glorious Savior and come under His protection by faith alone. The main question of Jesus' trial before the Jewish leadership is the main question for every single one of you today. Who is Jesus? And where do you stand in relationship to Him? Are you standing over Him as judge, making Him out to be the person that you want Him to be? Or are you coming under Him in faith and in submission as the exalted Lord, seated at the right hand of the Father? Is Jesus's confession about himself your confession? Are you enduring in this confession regardless of what the world may do or may say to defame and to dishonor and to discredit the name of Jesus and therefore to mock and dishonor and discredit you as a follower of Jesus? Are you enduring in that confession? Or are you joining in with the clever and the witty and the sarcastic scoffers and the mockers who are all around us? As Hebrews 12 says, and I'll end with this, Hebrews 12, starting in verse 1, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and sin which so easily entangles us. And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, who, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him. who endured from sinners such abuse against himself, so that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted. Continue, brothers and sisters, in the faith, the Lord who suffered for you. He reigns. The Lord reigns. Let us pray together. Lord Jesus, how our hearts are filled with gratitude for what You endured on our behalf. The abuse, the shame, the condemnation that was in no way Yours by right, but which You willingly took upon Yourself out of Your great love for sinners. May we see the glory of your meekness and your forbearance. And may we be confident in your glorious gospel. And may we proclaim it patiently to your enemies. In your precious name we pray. Amen.