Law & Grace - Matthew 1:1-2:23 OK, from the beginning
Matthew 1-2 · Vern Peterman · Apr 10, 2011
Law & Grace, No. 19
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926231365154

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. We are not several months out of phase. Wayne's right. These are Matthew songs. And so it's appropriate that we sing them. One of the things we want to point out It is also, first slide in your handout there, the Gospel of Matthew is very Israelitish. Now you may be wondering, why don't I say Jewish? Well, the words are close in meaning. Israelitish means Jewish in the context of ancient Israel. And so that would be my reason for making a distinction here. The Gospel of Matthew is very much focused on ancient Israel Judaism, particularly of that kind which was in the early first century.

And we'll also see as we go through the Book of Matthew, we're actually, while having two weeks of sort of introduction to it, we're actually moving on now to a look at the text itself. And because of the length of the book of Matthew, we will move rather quickly, but invite you to take a closer look yourself as you see fit. We'll see that Matthew conveys a great concern for the law and all the traditions of Judaism. Matthew makes his point at regular intervals, practically every verse, that this is a very Jewish book. This is a book that shows great concern for the things that concern the Jews.

Even Matthew's introduction, given for us there, the very first verse, 1-1, reads, The genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, son of David, son of Abraham. God had made a covenant with Abraham, and in summary, the three elements of that covenant was about a land, the land of Israel, seed and offspring, and blessing. Who will be blessed and how? Land, seed, and blessing. And of David, David was given a promise through the prophet Nathan about a king, a throne, and a kingdom. And so those summarize those two covenants.

Genealogy records, as we pointed out, were kept at the temple. So while Matthew gives a genealogy here, and we'll talk more in detail about what kind of genealogy he puts in there, This is something that he wrote knowing that anyone could go check them out in the temple, anyone who was Jewish. They said, well, is that really true? Well, they could go and check it out at the temple.

Here is a picture looking obliquely towards the inside of the temple. As we've said before, the front portion there is called the Court of Women. Only Jewish people were allowed in there, certainly Jewish men as well, but the Jewish women were allowed to go in that area. And the area in the back behind the doorway was the area for the sacrifices in the inner temple. And the Levites were allowed in there and the Jewish men.

Right in here, in this area, is where they kept the genealogical records. Someone who said, are you sure Jesus was descended exactly like you say? They could go check it out right there. And it's very likely that that's also where Matthew himself went to check on the records and how he derived this genealogical record. So right in this area. Matthew begins with a genealogy that starts with Abraham, not Adam, but with Abraham and goes at first to David. David's name is then repeated. Very interesting. Then the names go to the Babylonian exile and then to Christ.

So there's kind of those starting and two in-between points. So we have that highlighted in brief there in that slide insert on that first page there. Now, there are three lists of 14 names. These are actually cut down from the whole list. Why would they do that? It's because it's a memory aid. A few things to take note of.

One thing is that the disciples, they would learn about their rabbi, the one who's teaching them, and they would actually drill each other on things that the rabbi said. And in this case, the genealogy would be something they would drill each other on. So having 14 names in each of the three lists would make it an easy way to make sure you've got them all. You count them off as you recite them.

In Hebrew, which is the language of most of the Old Testament, The letters are also the numbering system. And by the way, that's the same in Greek as well. The letters are the numbering system. So here's the numbering system. So each one of the letters had a number that was assigned to it. And they put those together to arrive at how numbers were configured. Well, it turns out like this. The name David in the Hebrew numbering system adds up to 14. So that's why 14 in each one of the columns and the sets of genealogical records there would be a fitting number.

Everything is based on David. The other, as we pointed out, God had made covenants with Abraham and David. That's why you would start with Abraham. The Abrahamic covenant, the covenant with Abraham, would be the way of saying he was most certainly of the line of Abraham, an Israelite and Jewish. He was also of the line of David and therefore qualified as the king to take the throne and to reign in the kingdom.

Significant women, interestingly enough, are also included in this. The first of which is Tamar. Tamar is also listed in the Old Testament genealogies in the book of Genesis. So that is one, Rahab. We looked at Rahab just a few weeks ago. And Rahab is also included, one of the Canaanite women from the very first city that the Israelites invaded, and she was preserved since she helped the spies. Ruth, who was actually a Moabite woman, and was in the line of Christ, and then Bathsheba, and then finally Mary, the mother of our Lord. So those five women are given special mention. The usual practice in the Hebrew genealogies was to list the men and then to add the names of women who were in some way pivotal in the history of the genealogy. So we have Tamar and Rahab and Ruth and Bathsheba and Mary, mother of our Lord. So those five women are included in the list. So at the very end of the genealogy of Matthew, we see that Jesus is one who is called the Messiah. And as we look at that, we shouldn't be thinking, well, he was just called that. Ever heard that sort of use? Well, let's just call it that, as if it's sort of, let's pretend. And that's not what's intended here.

And the reason I can say that is who is called or shall be called was not some sort of a euphemism for, let's pretend, let's just say it is, even if it isn't so, but it's rather a statement that if he is called that, he is genuinely that. It's used of God Himself, actually twice in Isaiah. Here's 54.5, and it says, And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, who is called the God of all the earth. It's not just, hey, let's pretend that He is, but He in fact genuinely is. So who is called is a statement of genuineness, not pretend. OK? All right.

Now, one of the things that you may have noticed, Christ has two genealogies in the Gospels. Some people have, well, not some people, a lot of people for a long time have argued back and forth about what's what. There are skeptical folks who said, see that they're not consistent and therefore there's a conflict and that's why you can't trust the Bible. Well, I would say, humbug, right? That's based on a misunderstanding.

Matthew was written to the Jews. The entire book was, and certainly the genealogy. It focuses on Christ as within the two critical covenants. He had to have been Jewish. He had to have gone through the line of Judah. He is, after all, the Lion of Judah. And he had to be of the lineage of David. Those things must be there and must be demonstrated. He had to be the one who is following from and derived from those two covenants.

Luke, however, which contains the other genealogy, is written to a Greek mindset. It has specific grammar to say that this was Christ's line from Adam. Notice, not from Abraham, but from Adam through Mary, his mother. Now, we bring up a chart that we included just a couple of weeks back, and on purpose, The reason is this. Here is Matthew written to the Jews. Because it's written to the Jews, it would be important to include in that the covenant with Abraham and the covenant with David. That is exactly what the book of Matthew records, because that's what would be important to the Jews. Luke, on the other hand, written to the Greeks, and the Greeks would be very significantly focused on man.

So where would you start? You'd start at Adam. the one who is the origin of all mankind. So how they are written is perfectly in line with the target audience for each of the two books. And the grammar fits exactly as it ought to be. What it says is whether through Joseph or through Mary, either way, Christ is descended from David, right? He has the right lineage.

Now, by double reference here to King David, in other words, the first 14 names ends with David, and then the next 14 starts with David again. By double reference to David in this genealogy, and by calling Christ the Messiah, Matthew points to a specific fulfillment of all the Old Testament prophecies in Jesus, who is the Christ. You see, we tend to think of Christ as sort of like Jesus' last name, but that's not the pattern, that's not the intent. It is, in fact, pointing to Him as being the Messiah, and the Jews would recognize it as such. The Messiah, who is the Christ, the Anointed One, is often hidden in many places in the New Testament.

We say in English, the Messiah, the Jews would have said Hamashiach, And the Christ is from the Greek Christos. Both of those, whether Hamashia or Christos, means the Anointed One. As Nancy has pointed out to me recently, she talked to a lady who said, we've got to keep the Christ in Christmas and the Ch in Hanukkah. So that's why it's Hamashia, right?

OK. I'm not clearing my throat, promise. OK. Here it's very interesting, Ephesians has 23 times in the book, starting with Ephesians 1.10, 23 times it is actually THE Christ, THE Messiah in the original language.

What's interesting is I'm not aware of any major translation that brings that out anywhere. But Paul is specifically writing to an area at Ephesus where there was a significant minority of Jews and Jews of influence and a majority of Greek-speaking people.

But the Jews would well have understood that when Paul wrote the Christ, he meant the Messiah, their Messiah. That would grab them at heart. It would grab their attention. So it's very, very interesting. Paul was even emphatic about Jesus being the Messiah when he wrote to the largely Gentile church there at Ephesus. It's one I noticed will also show up in the First John elective down the road here.

That term, the Christ. So let's not let loose of it. We're going to see it again and again in the Gospel of Matthew. Now, according to Jewish tradition, because remember, Matthew is emphatic. He is wanting to show that everything that happened to Jesus, how he was born, all his genealogy, everything had to do with Jewish law and traditions. Down the line, point by point. The betrothal and coming together only after marriage of Joseph and Mary was all according to the Jewish law and traditions. And Joseph made sure that that was so. And Matthew notes that Joseph made sure that that was so.

So similar to what is happening with Hassan in Uganda, They would have an engagement period in which you are officially engaged. Our engagement in our culture is one where it's rather informal. We'll say that we're engaged but it has no real legal import. That's not true in the Jewish system and it's actually not true in Uganda.

This next Saturday, Hassan is going to become engaged. This next Saturday. He's going to become engaged. And the reason that that's going to be very clearly made known is he's going to present to Juliet's father three cows and four goats, and I forget the number of chickens. And so they will then be engaged.

They will be entitled to be called husband and wife, just like the Jewish tradition, although that does not entitle them to physical intimacy at that point in time. So in the same way that they have these customs with fine detail over in Uganda, they had customs under the Jewish law and traditions. We could say Jewish, maybe Israelitish.

For Joseph to be righteous meant that he was observant of all the law of Moses and of the traditions of Judaism. The law, all 613 laws, and the traditions. So if he's righteous, it meant he observed them, he cared about them, he was careful to follow them. For Joseph, as the passage says, to send her away because she was pregnant, and he at that point in time had not known that this was a pregnancy by the Holy Spirit, for him to send her away quietly meant that since she was pregnant before marriage and he didn't want to disgrace her, imagine being in this little tiny village where everybody knows your every move.

Now, I've done some growing up in a small town. And believe me, everybody knows everything about what's going on. Even if it isn't happening, they know about what's going on. I did my growing up years, I lived seven miles away from this little town called Philo, P-H-I-L-O, in Northern California.

This place was really backwards. This was during the 1960s, and to give you an idea how backwards it was, it had only been about a decade since they took down the horse tie-ups in front of all the buildings in town. And I am not kidding you. Okay. Here is this little town of Philo.

I am driving a young lady. Now, I'm in a pickup truck. I'm driving. She's on the other end of the bench seat in the pickup truck. By the way, she lives over in Parker now. I'm driving through town, and we just drove through town where she's on the other end of the bench seat. We went through town the other way a few hours later because we were done with our business going through town.

The next day, this gal that I had driven through town is in the post office, and the postmistress says, For what? On your engagement to Vern, right? So this little tiny town, this little tiny town here, that's the way it is. Everybody knows everything that's going on. So how do you keep this thing from being this outrageous, well-known fiasco?

So what he would do, he would go to the court of Hillel. Rabbi Hillel, they didn't ask why you wanted a divorce. Because if you were engaged in Judaism, just like it is in Uganda, you have to get a divorce to break the engagement. You can't just call it off and say, I want my ring back. You have to actually get a divorce. We'll be talking about this more.

There was the court of Hillel and the court of Shammai, and you could pick one or the other. If you pick the court of Hillel, they didn't ask and they didn't tell. Whoever heard that before? So from the century before the time of Christ's ministry, Jews seeking a divorce could choose between the don't ask, don't tell court of Hillel or the Y court of Shammai.

They could pick one. How about that? How would you like to have two different court systems and you could pick one? Well, they could. And so that's what Joseph was looking at. He could pick the court of Hillel and they wouldn't ask anything about why you want to break this engagement. And nobody would say anything. He wouldn't have to say, well, she did this or she's that. Just I want a divorce.

That's all you need. So we'll be talking more about these two courts of the rabbis, Hillel and Shammai when we get to Matthew 5 and again in chapter 19 because it remains relevant. Nonetheless, so here, here's Joseph, he's planning a terrible disgrace. This gal in this little tiny town is pregnant and everybody knows everything. How am I going to keep this from being this huge fiasco? Well, so the angel appears to him.

And it goes like this, somewhat like what happened to Jacob in Genesis 31.11. Here's the angel of the Lord appearing to Jacob in the dream. And the angel of the Lord then delivers a message.

What's interesting here is in Matthew 1.20 and Matthew 2.13 and 19, there's twice in the next chapter, the angel is going to appear to Joseph those three times in this account.

So Matthew 1.20, Matthew 2.13 and 19, those three times the angel appears to Joseph in a dream. And so here's Joseph, he goes into a dream. I don't know how he fell asleep considering the difficult decision he had in front of him.

So here in these passages we find here's the first one in Matthew 1.20. The message from the angels, or the angel, has this pattern in the three instances. The first one, which he gets right here in this instance, is go ahead, it's okay.

Go ahead and take Mary as your wife. The next one is, go away fast. This is when they have to leave Bethlehem so that Herod's soldiers don't take out him and Mary and the baby and everybody. So, go away fast. And then finally, when he's in Egypt and Herod dies, which took place in March of 4 BC, he says, go back, it's okay now. So those three instances were the messages of the angel. In this instance, the angel told Joseph not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife. Don't worry, it's okay. Can you imagine that in a culture where, you know, it's okay? What? This is not okay. This is terribly embarrassing. This is disgraceful.

But the Lord said, nope, it's okay. You do it. Imagine, this takes a man who is really responding to the Lord's direction. This takes a man who says, I don't care what everybody says, I'm going to do what God says. That's pretty amazing, isn't it? So verses 18 and 20 both say, both places, that this is of the Holy Spirit. It's only in verse 20 where Joseph knows of it. Matthew 121 through 25 is included on the slide in your handout, and we'll kind of step our way through it like this.

The angel, after making initial announcements, says, she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, which means Savior. Jesus is how we carry it over into English. The original language, let's say if it were in Hebrew, would be Yeshua, which we have carried over as Joshua, but means Savior.

For he will save his people from their sins. That's what he's coming to do. Now, all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet. Which prophet? Well, in fact, it's a quote from two different passages in the book of Isaiah. We studied Isaiah, oh, five years ago or something like that. And these passages were included. So verse 23 reads like this, Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel.

Now Isaiah 7.14 is the first part of that, and chapter 9.6 and 7 is where the second part comes from. This Immanuel translates, it means God with us. And I'll mention later, there's a some message references if you're interested in digging it up where we studied in more detail. So what did Joseph do? He woke up. That would wake me up. He woke up from his sleep. He did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took Mary as his wife.

I don't care what everybody else thinks. I don't care what the rumor mill is going to produce. I don't care how much pressure or how uncomfortable this is. I'm going to do what the Lord said to do. and then but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son the Jewish law said that the man was not to have relations with his wife until they were married but the Jewish tradition said that the man is not to have relations with her as long as she is pregnant so it meant No relations during that entire time. He kept her virgin until she gave birth to a son.

That would be exactly according to the Jewish tradition, which Matthew is careful to record. And he called his name Jesus just like he was told. He called him Jesus, Savior. Notice the similarity to some very Jewish patterns out of the book of Genesis. Here on Page 2 of your handout is this slide. Speech Patterns from the First Book of Moses, Genesis. God is speaking to Hagar in Genesis 16.

Genesis 16.11 reads like this, The angel of the Lord said to her further, Behold, you are with child, and you will bear a son, and you shall call his name Immanuel. And then after that, it goes on to spell out and hear the things that will happen to this guy, excuse me, Ishmael. The next one, God and Abraham in Genesis 17. 18 and 19, the very next chapter. And Abraham said to God, O that Ishmael might live before you.

And God said, No. But Sarah your wife will bear a son and you shall call his name Isaac. And then it goes on just like the prior chapter and just like the Lord did with Joseph and spells out and this is what he will do and this is what's going to be the future outcome.

Now if anybody wants to dig up some more detail, we have several different studies. You can either download these off of the church website, or we also have them as paper copies in the office. And you can see Sue Anderson or my wife Nancy, or you can see Sue Ellen Mills. So any of those can get you copies of these.

And we have two studies from Isaiah. This is where the reference to Isaiah is drawn from. We also have one covering the same passage, Chapter 2, just from last Christmas. And then finally, we studied Christmas several years ago in 2007, a series called A Scepter, A Star, and a Savior. We'll have a very brief summary of that, but if you want the details, that's where to go. Now, so what happens, we step into Chapter 2.

And Matthew now is different from Luke. Luke records the incident with the shepherds. Luke records the innkeeper and how Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem and what was happening. Matthew does not cover that, but he covers something that Luke doesn't. and that is Magi and the Herod and how the soldiers came to slaughter the babies. So Matthew chapter 2 tells us uniquely about the coming of these Magi, these wise men.

Now the song says and all the Christmas cards will show you three of them. In fact we don't know that there were three. We know that there are plural so there may have been a small number or even much larger number The three is typically drawn from the three different kinds of gifts, but that doesn't necessarily tell us the number anyway. As we pointed out, there's a clear series of Old Testament passages that directed the Magi.

Well, what do we mean by that? You have this slide here, and it starts like this. In Genesis 49, 8 through 10, it talks about that the Messiah will come from the tribe of Judah. And it talks about a scepter. In Numbers 24, which is where it talks about Balaam, remember we studied Balaam some weeks back, there is mention there of the star and the scepter. Psalm 45, 6, and 7 of the time of David continues that theme. And then how did the Magi get this? Daniel, chapter 5, 11 and 12, verses 11 and 12, says that Daniel was put as the head of the Magi. And so Daniel, as the head of the Magi, would pass along what the Jews had in their books, right?

Now, you would wonder, did that really happen? What's interesting is even today, Daniel's tomb is a favorite resort in that part of the world. You can go there and stay at Daniel's tomb and go to the place that they have commemorating Daniel. He was indeed a very influential person in those days and he would have passed on this piece of information.

That would explain why some centuries later the Magi out of the same group that Daniel was head over, when they saw evidence of now finally we have the King of the Jews here, why they would come from such a distance and be called Magi just like the ones Daniel was put over. So the birth of Christ as King of the Jews has been prophesied by a string of scripture passages for 18 centuries up to this point that we're reading about here. And then Joseph was directed to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt to flee Herod. Herod, once he realized that the Magi were not going to come back and tell him where the Messiah was, says, OK, it's down at Bethlehem.

I know there. Go there, soldiers. And it's not going to take long, because it's only about six miles from Jerusalem. Go there, soldiers, and I want you to just kill all the babies. By some sort of population estimates, it may have been as high as 300 babies killed that night. So a horrible tragedy, but Jesus was not one of them. Herod died about mid-March of 4 BC, and that would have ended this time of hazard and risk, where they would have been looking, where was this Jesus? that we're looking for. Where is this king of the Jews?

Well, the angel had already warned Joseph to head off to Egypt and with the death of Herod, the angel the third time appeared in a dream to Joseph and told him, it's okay, you can go back now. He came first into the area of southern part of Israel And one of Herod's descendants, Archelaus, was reigning, and he was a lunatic.

And so Joseph said, I'm going to stay in here, and he headed back up to Nazareth. Just to revisit a question, the Magi came asking about the birth of the King of the Jews, which they would have known from all the prophecies received through Daniel and the Jews. But this angered Herod because he said, I'm the King of the Jews. At least that's what the Romans allowed him to call himself. And so he was furious at this.

What's very interesting here, In Jesus' first coming, He was born the King of the Jews, and came only to the Jews, and was in fact the Savior. Jesus, the way we order is usually Jesus Christ, Jesus means Savior. In His first coming, what did He do? He came to save. He came to die on the cross for our sins. In His first coming, that name Jesus is very fitting and appropriate.

Jesus means Savior. In Christ's second coming, yet to take place, He will come as King of the Jews and the King of Kings over the Gentiles. The King of the Jews or the King of Israel would be His title as He reigns over Israel, and as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, that would have Him reigning over the Gentiles during that time. Christ means Messiah, means the Anointed One. That would be his title that would fit his second coming. Now, we're going to turn a page here. We're going to turn to Galatians 4, 4, and 5. You also have this same slide on page 2 of your handout there. And we have 4, 4, and 5 in poetic form here. It reads like this.

But when the fullness of the time came, God the Father sent forth his Son. Here's what's interesting. How did God know that was the fullness of the time? The Lord knows these things. He knows how to pick the right time. It wasn't that it would be very safe and easy for Jesus to come. No, that wasn't the point. But it was the right time. It was a time chosen by Him. God the Father sent forth His Son, born of a woman.

That's exactly what Genesis 3.15 first prophesied Christ would be. He would be of the seed of the woman.

And specifically by name, Mary. Last mentioned by name, by the way, in Acts chapter 1. But born under the law, under the law of Moses. Born under all 613 of those laws in the land of Israel. Two people who are Israelites. Now here's the interesting part. That part so far is Israelitish. It all refers to the law. It all refers to the birth of Jesus, who certainly, the genealogy makes clear, Jewish. Certainly of the line of David. But then the next part, it's interesting, verse 5 actually points to things that are more Greek and Roman in character.

So that he might redeem, that is, buy out as a slave from the marketplace. Now I have a distinction to make. He didn't just buy a slave, he bought out the slave from the marketplace. Do you see the difference there? What happened? When Christ died on the cross, he didn't say, hey, I think I'll pay the purchase price for these people who would believe so that they'll be my slave. But he bought us completely out of the marketplace, never to be a slave again. Never to be put back in the marketplace. God's not selling us, okay? God's not selling us to buy us out of the marketplace. He might redeem to buy as a slave out from the marketplace, completely out of the market, never to be a slave again.

They were under the law of Moses, enslaved to it, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Now, in our culture, we tend to think of adoption as something that happens with a small child, most commonly. Some exceptions, but generally that's our impression. Adoption is something that happens to a small child. But in New Testament times, and especially with Matthew, who used to collect taxes for the Romans, this adoption as sons is a particular term.

Caesar Augustus, the one who was the Caesar when Christ was born, had been an emperor who received this adoption as sons process. And very interestingly, Tiberius Caesar, the next Caesar, had been one who had been brought into being an emperor by that same adoption of sons process. Both of them were brought into that role as Caesar using that process. That was to be assured of an heir, a qualified heir to the throne.

And you adopted an adult, not a little infant. In the classic movie Ben-Hur, based on the novel by Lew Wallace, Judah Ben-Hur, the Jewish slave, rescues Roman General Quintus Arius. And as you see in the famous chariot race that takes place later, the grateful Roman General Quintus Arius later adopted Judah Ben-Hur as his son, using the Roman adoption process.

In order to adopt someone according to this adoption of sons process, it required testimony. It had to be carried out in front of seven witnesses. It had to be approved at the highest level, in this case the Roman Senate. The entire Senate had to approve the adoption.

Judah Bent Hur went from being a slave locked in chains and darkness to having unrivaled wealth and power and influence. at the highest levels of Rome, from the bottom of a ship, where they just don't care about you as long as you row, to being at the highest level of Roman power and influence.

Here we have this word, adoption of sons. The Greek word means son position. So when we talk about having a position in Christ, we're not just making up words. This means son position. If there ever was a statement of our position in Christ, this is it. Ephesians and Romans also contain this claim that we have the adoption of sons. By Roman law, the adopted son had a position far better than any natural-born son. He was a full heir irreversibly.

The adopted son was legally severed from any prior sonship. Under Roman law, someone who was born a son, a natural born son, could be killed by the father at any age and time. Completely legal. You could not do that to an adopted son. The adoption put the adopted son at a greatly higher level of right and authority and preservation. The consequences under Roman law, the adopted son lost all his rights under the old family and gained more rights as a fully legitimate son in this new family.

He became an heir to his new father's estate, even if natural born sons were born afterwards. The old life of the adopted son was completely wiped out. That meant any debts were completely forgiven, no matter what the number and quantity, and the criminal record if there was one, was completely wiped out, no matter how severe. This means a lot, doesn't it? The adopted son was literally and absolutely the son of his new father.

So when Paul says adoption of sons, they're reading this and going, wow! This is great stuff! This is unbelievable how wonderful this is! All my sins are completely forgiven, all my debts are completely wiped out, and I have irreversible, unbelievable power and privilege. What an amazing thing God has done. Born of a woman, born under the law, so that we might have this. Bought out from the marketplace, never to be put back again. put irreversibly under this place of astounding privilege.

Let's thank him for that. Lord, we do thank you for what you have done. We do thank you for the amazing thing you've accomplished. And it all started in this little tiny town in the backwater of this place called Israel. What an astounding thing you accomplished.

But we thank you, Lord. We thank you for buying us completely out of the marketplace. and completely unworthy of it, we've been placed into a position of great power. We can go to the Lord of the universe and say, Papa, come into your presence. Thank you. In Jesus' name, amen.