Behold Your King

Amen. Let us go to prayer. Oh, Heavenly Father, how we need you.

Lord, as we look at the world around us, we see our desperate need for you. Our brothers and sisters, our fellow citizens, those all over the world,

Lord, how they need you. How they need the forgiveness of Jesus Christ, the cleansing and washing away of sin.

How our kings need to kiss the sun lest we all perish in the way.

Lord, how grateful that we are that we can come here and worship you. Lord, that we have a living hope and that we can come before our

Heavenly Father, the throne of grace. And Lord, we can praise your name.

We can confess our sins and we can bring our request before you with the assurance,

Lord, that you will do what is right as judge of all the earth. Lord, you will do what is right for your glory, for our good.

And so, God, we come. We come to worship you as we ought. We come to confess our sins,

God, as we consider the judgment begins at the household of God. Lord, how we've grown cold.

Lord, your people are a holy nation, a royal priesthood. We are here to disciple the nations.

God, forgive us for where we have fallen short, where we have been lazy and apathetic.

Lord, have mercy on your church. Revive us according to your ways.

Let us remember the joy of our salvation. Let us remember our King who sits at your right hand, ruling and reigning.

We will claim his kingdom to all those that we come in contact with.

Lord, would you have mercy on our nation, our nation that sacrifices children by the millions, that makes a mockery of your beautiful institution of marriage, that oppresses the poor, the fatherless, the widow, the sojourner.

Lord, how we've lacked love, how our ways are so not your ways as a nation.

As we have, we've tried to push you out of the public square. God, will you forgive? Will you bring about repentance?

Will you bring about revival? Will you bring about reformation? Father, we pray for our nation as you tell us to.

We pray for those kings and presidents, all those who are in high positions of authority, for President Trump and Vice President Pence, for the

Congress, for the Supreme Court, all those who have such great authority and such a great obligation before you.

Father, will you save them? Will you make them to walk in your ways? Lord, will you make it clear to them that this invisible enemy is not a virus, but you, because they have made you the enemy by rebelling against your sovereign reign, your holy law.

Lord, may they repent and turn from their ways and act in a way that would bring righteousness and justice to the land.

Lord, we pray for all those who have responsibility. We think of our own state and we think of the sins that are manifest here, and we pray for those who are in positions of authority.

We think of Senator Chuck Schumer. Lord, that he would turn from his sin and turn to you.

Lord, that you would direct his steps. We also pray especially for our governor at this time.

Lord, as he seeks to lead the state, may he understand he needs to look to Christ first.

Gospel of John chapter 19, starting in verse 12. Here now, the inspired word of God. As a result of this,

Pilate made efforts to release him, but the Jews cried out saying, if you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar.

Everyone who makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar. Therefore, when Pilate heard these words, he brought

Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called the pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha.

Now, it was the day of preparation for the Passover. It was about the sixth hour, and he said to the

Jews, behold your king. So, they cried out, away with him, away with him, crucify him.

Pilate said to them, shall I crucify your king? The chief priest answered, we have no king but Caesar.

So, he then handed him over to them to be crucified. Let's pray.

Father, once again, as we prepare to look into your word, we would simply ask that you'd be pleased to bless the preaching and that,

Father, that you would bless it and just as you promised that it would not return void, but your word as it goes forth will accomplish every purpose for which you send it.

We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated.

Well, today we find ourselves in the midst of a worldwide pandemic, and while these type of situations are often hyped by the media and the politician, it appears that the threat of this virus is a real one.

It's highly contagious and has shown itself to be very deadly, probably more than anything that we have seen in the recent years.

The response to this virus, if it hasn't already, will in the near future affect every one of us in this nation.

And I'm not just speaking about the health issues. There are other issues from all businesses are already starting to feel it, the economy, education, virtually every area of our society is going to be impacted in some way by this virus.

What are we to make of this? There's already been finger pointing as to who's the blame.

Chinese start pointing it was the U .S. soldiers, they did it, they caused it. And of course, our president has made a point of calling this the

Chinese virus. Interestingly enough, the initial response of the politicians is to attempt to show cooperation between the various parties.

No one wants to seem to be obstructing the efforts to fight the virus.

So there is at least the appearance of cooperation.

But you can rest assured that this being an election year, there will be plenty of finger pointing once the campaigns move into full swing.

But what are we to think about this pandemic? For this situation definitely impacts the church, as we can see here, even how our numbers are depleted.

Many churches have closed their doors during this pandemic. The leadership of this church, we met and we discussed several things, the issues involved, and we put many hours of prayer and deliberation into how we're going to respond to this.

Because we do have the mandate for the Christian from Scripture that we are to submit to our governing authorities whenever possible, that is whenever being asked not to violate

God's word. Would there come a time when it would be wise or prudent to close the doors

Sunday morning? I don't know. But we do know that we are here this morning and so you can surmise that we will strive to keep the church doors open as long as we can possibly do so and as long as it's healthy for everybody here.

Because we believe that we must honor God first by meeting as his church on the

Sabbath day. And we can still submit to the governing authorities by keeping our distance and of using, putting all those health guidelines into practice.

So we would ask you, you know, to refrain from all the hugs and whatnot.

I mean, that's easy for me. I know we have Italians here. I know that goes against the grain. But I am, you know,

Norwegian, one of the frozen chosen, so it's not as difficult for me to refrain from hugging.

But there's more to it than merely meeting and then submitting to the guidelines.

This is a time when the church should rise up and impact our community for Jesus Christ.

The scriptures tell us that we are not to be given over to fear. This is a time that we should be ministering to those who are in need, those who have physical needs and those who have spiritual needs.

It's not a time to be reckless, but to be compassionate and to manifest wisdom in how we do that.

And one of the ways in which we can do that is first and foremost by recognizing the sovereignty of God over this pandemic.

This did not happen by accident. It did not take God by surprise.

But our response must begin with the important doctrine of God's sovereignty.

And coincidentally, we love that term, right? Providentially, nowhere is the sovereignty of God more apparent than in the text that we've been looking at in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

I want to review a little bit. I know we've gone through this a number of times. What is the sovereignty of God?

But there are times that we need reminding. So I want to just read a brief quotation from Arthur Pink on from his great book,

The Sovereignty of God. And this is what he says. The sovereignty of God.

What do we mean by this expression? We mean the supremacy of God, the kingship of God, the

Godhood of God. To say that God is sovereign is to clear that he, that God is

God. To say that God is sovereign is to clear that he is the most high, doing according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth, so that none can say his hand, can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou?

Daniel 4, 35. To say that God is sovereign is to declare that he is almighty, the possessor of all power in heaven and earth, so that none can defeat his counsel toward his purpose or resist his will.

Psalm 115, 3. To say that God is sovereign is to declare that he is governor among the nations.

Psalm 22, setting up kingdoms, overthrowing empires and determining the course of dynasties as he pleases him best.

To say that God is sovereign is to clear that he is the only potentate, the king of kings, the

Lord of lords, such is the God of the Bible. So, what does that mean to us?

It means that nothing happens in this world, nothing goes on without his expressed knowledge.

We see that Jesus teaches that in Matthew chapter 10. He says, are not two sparrows sold for a cent, yet now one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father, but the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

Nothing goes on without his expressed permission. Nothing happens that he could not prevent.

That means that no evil act in this world could happen if he chose to stop it.

No natural disaster happens that he couldn't prevent. When a volcano erupts, he could put his little finger in the top and stop it right there if he so chose.

God could have stopped this virus at the Chinese border if he had chosen to do so. See, all the counsels of men and even the the strategies of Satan himself are no match for the power of Almighty God.

When anyone tries to fight God, it's like that old little snippet.

Do you remember that Godzilla meets Bambi? Splat. So what happens when you try to fight against God?

God is all -wise, all -powerful, and all -knowing, and he does what it so ever he pleases.

But of course, the doctrine of God also clearly shows that whatever he does is right. God cannot, is not capable of committing sinful acts or evil acts.

His very nature will not allow it, but God and his sovereignty allows evil things to happen in his universe.

Now, why does God allow evil things and pandemics and the such to happen?

Well, in the wake of what is happening in our nation this this week, many are asking that question.

Why, God? Why did you allow this to happen? If you are a loving God, then why would you allow this to happen to, quote, innocent people, unquote?

The biblical answer to that question is simply this. God allows evil in his world because it is necessary to accomplish his good plan.

That means that God uses evil actions of sinful men, and it will be proven at the end of the age that it was both good and necessary for evil to come into this world.

Now, that is a difficult concept to understand, isn't it? But it is a clear teaching of Holy Scripture.

And the man of God never recoils when asked about these difficult questions. We need to be able to give an answer when people ask us because God never makes excuses for how he runs his world.

And even in a tough question of salvation, God said, I will have compassion on whom

I have compassion. And when men have become arrogant enough to ask, how can this be?

This doesn't seem fair. He silences them. Remember what the apostle

Paul said in Romans chapter 9, verse 18 and following. He said, so then he has mercy on whom he desires.

He hardens whom he desires. You will say to me, then, why does God still find fault? For who resists his will?

And then Paul gives the answer. On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, why did you make me like this, will it?

Or does not the potter have the right over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common?

You see, you're on very dangerous ground when you begin to presume upon the grace of Almighty God and ask him why he does a particular thing as though he had to answer you.

Who are you, says Paul, who answers back to God? Now, the thrust of what we have seen is that we can never presume upon God and look into the secret counsel of his will and question his judgment.

We were told all the way back in Deuteronomy 29, the secret things belong to the

Lord, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.

And one of those revealed things that we are meant to understand is that actions have consequences.

It is the principle of sowing and reaping. Jesus tells us, whatever you sow, that shall you reap.

So there are times when we don't have to ask, why did God do something? Because he's already given us the answer in his word.

Nations will rise and fall based upon how they respond to God. Now, this is not a very popular subject to preach on in our society, so it's usually avoided.

But can anyone say that the nations who have been affected by this virus, well, they're all

God -fearing nations. And while we should and must work to fight the spread of this disease, we must not overlook the obligation of the church to be the instrument of light and reason.

What we are experiencing in our nation is not just a viral pandemic, but a pandemic of sin.

We are still slaughtering babies in unprecedented numbers. We are still trampling on the institution of marriage.

God is being blasphemed in the public square with regularity. And if we fight this pandemic with medicine only, we will never be reaching the root cause.

And what will make matters worse is that many preachers will come out, just as they've done in the past, and say,

God has nothing to do with this. I will outline a little bit later some of the responses

I think we should make, but we must fight on two fronts. The spiritual battle is primary, and then we must love our neighbor by helping during this hour of need and meeting their physical needs as well.

But let's get back to our text and look at the sovereignty of God in the crucifixion. How do we see his sovereignty in the crucifixion?

Well, it was decreed by God from all eternity that the second person of the Trinity would come to earth and take upon himself human flesh, that he would be truly man in every sense of the word except for sin, that he would live a sinless life and thereby be qualified to be the sin bearer of the human race.

And everything that Christ did and everything that happened to him during his life was aimed at bringing him to that cross, the very text we're looking at in our study.

There was nothing on earth that could stop him from going to the cross and accomplishing his mission because it was decreed by God.

But how did he get there? See, the answer to that question has its roots in chapter three of the

London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689. The title of the chapter is

Of God's Decree. And the opening clause of that chapter is extremely important.

It says it opens this way, God has decreed in himself from all eternity by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will freely and unchangeably all things whatsoever comes to pass.

In other words, everything that happens in this world is part of God's plan, even the bad stuff.

But God is not the author of sin because he doesn't make people sin, they sin of their own volition.

Confession states it this way in the same chapter, same section, nor is violence offered to the will of the creature, nor yet is the liberty of contingency of second causes taken away but rather established.

So in the case of Jesus Christ, his death on the cross was decreed by God, but how he got there was through the sinful and wicked acts of men.

And these men of their own free will with knowledge sent an innocent man to his death.

And they unwittingly accomplished the very purpose of God through all of their sinful actions.

Peter sums it up this way very succinctly in his sermon on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter two.

Remember what he said, men of Israel, listen to these words, Jesus, the

Nazarene, the man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs, which God performed through him in your midst, just as you yourselves know, this man delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God.

Peter makes it very clear that Jesus went to that cross by the predetermined plan of God Almighty.

But then he continues, you nailed to the cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death.

Notice that God is sovereign over his creation, yet man is responsible for his actions.

The words of Peter that Peter uses are important. The predetermined plan of God, that's

God's decree. The hands of godless men, the

Greek word that Peter uses there is animos, and it literally means lawless, wicked, or even that goes so far as against God.

See, God uses even his enemies to accomplish his perfect plan.

And as I mentioned earlier, nowhere is this, is there a better example of the cross of Jesus Christ as we see him, how

Jesus got to the cross. Look at how many wicked hands were necessary to bring him to the cross.

Judas, the chief priests, the scribes, the elders, the

Pharisees, Pilate, Herod, they all get their hands dirty. And what did they do?

They accomplished the plan of God. Let's look at the last moments, continuing on in our text, before Jesus is turned over for crucifixion.

Look at verse 12. As a result of this, Pilate made efforts to release him, but the

Jews cried out saying, if you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar. Everyone who makes himself out to be a king opposes

Caesar. You know, Pilate is put in a very awkward position by the crowd, is he not?

They back him into a corner. They actually commit a logical fallacy here because they give him only two choices.

That's the fallacy of the excluded middle, for those of you logicians. They say, if you release this man, you're no friend of Caesar.

The implication is that if you crucify him, you are a friend of Caesar. So what does

Pilate do? Look at verse 13. Therefore, when Pilate heard these words, he brought

Jesus out and sat down at the bema seat at a place called the pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha.

Now, this is very interesting. Traditionally, the judgment seat is the place where deliberations are carried on.

But Pilate has already pronounced the verdict. He's already pronounced him, rendered him not guilty.

So why does he sit on the judgment seat? He's still trying to release

Jesus. But there's a very interesting point of typology here. In Greek, the judgment seat here is called the bema seat.

This is the same designation that is used for the final judgment. Remember, Paul says in 2

Corinthians 5 .10, for we must all appear before the judgment seat, that's the bema seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

Theologians refer to that as the bema seat. In our text, we have the opposite taking place.

Christ is standing before Pilate, who is sitting on the bema seat, but Christ has already been judged innocent.

Pilate is about to hand him over for the death sentence. This is where it gets interesting.

Pilate, who is sitting on the bema seat, is getting ready to hand over an innocent man.

It's upside down or backwards, because Pilate is being charged and accused, judged by Christ, the one who he believes he is judging.

It's exactly backwards, because if you remember, Jesus has just said, you're guilty, but the ones who turned me over to you had the greater guilt.

So here, Pilate, believing that he's in charge, he's sitting on the judgment seat. Christ stands before him and puts the charge back to him.

Do you see how the sovereign God of the universe works all things together? Oh, and by the way, this type of typology is manifold throughout this, and hopefully we'll get into some more of this typology as we progress.

But we need to come to the next point, where John mentions the Passover. Look at verse 14.

Now, it was the day of preparation for the Passover. It was about the sixth hour, and he said to the Jews, behold your king.

Now, when this took place is very debatable and disputed by many theologians.

Tradition says that this took place on Thursday, with Jesus being crucified on Fridays, hence the celebration of Good Friday and the resurrection on Sunday, and they account that it's a departed day of Friday, all day

Saturday, and partial Sunday accounts for the three days. But there's another explanation, and I believe it's better, and I'm not going to go to the mat with this, but I throw it out.

In the year AD 30, Passover fell on a Thursday, which would mean that the crucifixion took place on a

Wednesday, the day of preparation, because John says it was the day before the Passover.

You see, and the scribes and the chief priests, they wanted the crucified before sundown, so that they could celebrate the

Passover. Now, if this is correct, then Jesus spends three full days and nights in the tomb before being raised on Sunday.

I just throw that out to you. Again, I don't want to go to the mat. Don't put your boxing gloves on, because I have dared to speak against the tradition of Good Friday.

Just food for thought. But the Passover is important, because it's one of those feasts that so directly prefigures

Jesus Christ, and the symbolism is all through his life, but especially at this time.

Remember what John the Baptist says when he sees Jesus coming all the way back in the first chapter?

He says, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus is identified as the

Passover Lamb, and if you follow the chronology of Jesus entering into Jerusalem, he enters on the 10th day of the month of Nisan on the

Jewish calendar, and that corresponds to when the Passover Lamb was to be identified and set apart.

Now, think about that. From the triumphal entry when Jesus enters, what takes place between that and his crucifixion?

He meets with his disciples, and then he is examined. Who is he examined by?

The Sanhedrin, Pilate's court, Herod, and what do all of them say?

He is without blemish. He qualifies to be the Passover Lamb.

In Zechariah, we read this, just to show you how this God's plan is all laid out.

In Zechariah 9, verse 9, we read, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph,

O daughter of Jerusalem! And notice the words, Behold, your King is coming to you.

Does that sound familiar? Isn't that just what Pilate said? Behold, your

King is coming to you. He is just and endowed with salvation, humble and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey, and that was fulfilled.

We read that back in John chapter 12, verse 12. On the next day, the large crowd who had come to the feast when they heard

Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet him and began to shout,

Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.

Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Zion! Behold, your

King is coming, seated on a donkey's colt. Now, the disciples recognized this, not immediately, because the following verse,

John tells us this, These things his disciples did not understand at first, but when

Jesus was glorified, they remembered that these things were written of him and that they had done these things to him.

So, the Passover lamb had to be without blemish. Jesus was examined by several courts, including the

Roman court, and everybody he came in contact with said, Behold, this man is innocent. And then

Pilate presents him, and it's interesting how Pilate presents him, Behold, your

King. Notice how all of these events and the actions of the people involved bring

Jesus exactly to the cross, right on time. The Passover lamb, the

Paschal, and the true Paschal lamb is delivered for sacrifice on exactly the right moment, and Pilate says,

Behold, your King. And that leads to my final point of the morning, and it just very well made the most important point for us in the midst of this pandemic today, because we, well, look at verse 15.

After Pilate says, Behold, your King, they say, verse 15,

Away with him, away with him, crucify him. That's their response to,

Here's your King. But not just, they don't merely say, just get rid of him, just get him out of here.

It's kill him. Kill him. Crucify him.

We mentioned this before, but this too is the fulfillment of prophecy. Remember from Isaiah chapter 53 in verse 2,

For he grew up before him like a tender shoot and like a root out of parched ground.

He has no stately former majesty that we should look upon him, nor parents that we should be attracted to him.

He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

And like one whom men hide their face, he was despised and we did not esteem him as they shout and crucify him.

Imagine what Jesus looked like. Remember he had been beaten, scorched. He was beaten, bloodied.

He had that crown of thorns on his head that was, blood was running down. They put that mock royal robe on him.

Was he not a man of sorrows? Was he not acquainted with grief?

Was he not someone that if you looked upon him, you would want to turn your face away from him, from this hideous sight?

Just as John said in his prologue, he came unto his own and his own received him not.

But the rejection runs deep. They don't just reject him as the

Messiah. They holler for his death and crucify him. It's not even enough that he was beaten severely and cruelly, but kill him.

Kill him. But it gets even worse than that because Pilate's still trying to avoid what now appears inevitable.

Ask one more question. Shall I crucify your king? I would say

I'm almost tempted at this point to say poor Pilate, but he did have options. We've mentioned this before, but he succumbed to the will of the crowd.

But these words from the chief priests, as they say, we have no king but Caesar.

You may ask, well, why are you making such a big deal about this response? Isn't calling for his crucifixion worse than saying we have no king but Caesar?

In one sense, yes, of course. But it is this answer that explains how they got there.

Here's what I mean. What we have here is the evidence of what

I've called the secularization of the nation of Israel. They reject the savior and replace him with Caesar as their savior.

They might just as well have said Caesar is Lord, because that's the essence of what they're saying.

And in first century Israel, we see the real danger of secularizing a nation.

Look at Israel. They had all the trappings of religion. They were entrusted with the law of God.

They had the writings of the prophets. They had the history of how God brought them out of bondage and into their own land.

In fact, Paul says in his epistle to the Romans, he says, is there advantage to the

Jew? And he says, great in every respect. But the problem was the religion of those people was only a facade.

Their faith was not in the promises of God. Their faith was in themselves, and they had transferred that over to Rome to protect them.

We have no king but Caesar. They had the savior right in their midst, and they called for his death, and they invoked their trust in Caesar to accomplish it.

Our nation has a tremendous Christian heritage. The scriptures played an important role among many of our founding fathers.

And yet look at us today. We have been secularized to the core.

And one of the proofs of that is the response to this virus. With all the public discussion, there's no discussion of sin and repentance.

Yes, we did have a National Day of Prayer, and kudos to President Trump for calling for a National Day of Prayer. It's something he should have done.

But where's the rest of it? Where is understanding that this is from the hand of God?

We have become a secular nation. It is our job as the church to call the nation to repentance.

I want to close with a couple of thoughts as to how we should be responding to this pandemic.

And this is all in light of what we have looked at today in the sovereignty of God, the decrees of God, and how the nation had rejected

Christ. This is all very germane to what we're doing. First response, first and foremost, we as Christians should not be given to fear nor panic.

We should be wise and prudent and submit to health mandates as closely as we can, because this is a serious issue.

But second, don't miss the spiritual aspects of this whole thing.

We must understand that that plagues, pestilences, natural disasters are used by God as judgment.

And the purpose is to bring people to repentance. No, I do not think this is the end of the world.

And if people are going around doing that, they're doing more harm than good. We should not be running around like crazy people.

We need to call the nation to repentance by preaching the word of God accurately, consistency with love and compassion for those who have even contracted the virus.

When God led the Israelites out of Egypt and into the promised land, he gave them some instructions.

And he said that if you obey the terms of the covenant, he would bring upon them none of the diseases that were upon the

Egyptians. That's instructive for us. There's a direct correlation between disease and obedience to God.

And if we miss that, there's only going to be something else coming beyond the other side of this pandemic.

When this pandemic is over, and it will be over, unless we repent and change our ways, something else will come right behind it until we repent.

Third, we should be showing the love of God by ministering to those who are in need during this time.

That means providing food, clothing, other necessities. As many people have been laid off from work and are struggling, we've already had at least one call to our church and we've been able to meet some needs.

I would encourage you, if you know people who are hurting, this is an opportunity for us.

We should not be shying away, but we should be making sure that we're meeting the needs of these people and meeting their spiritual needs as well.

We should do that as a church, but also as individuals. Next, we should admit to the governing authorities whenever possible, but they are not the ones we should be looking to to save us.

Yes, they should do their part, but the state is not our savior, Jesus Christ is our savior.

And we should be seeking to honor him and plead with him to stop the pandemic and have mercy upon us.

But we can only do that if we are also preaching the gospel and calling men to repentance. And then to the non -Christian, if anyone is here or listening to my voice and you're not a

Christian, now is the time to turn to Jesus Christ. You've heard the gospel message,

Jesus Christ came to earth to die for the sins of his people, but he rose from the grave conquering

Satan, sin, and death. Now is the day.

Repent of your sin and be saved. Let's pray.

You know what, before we pray, we sent out in a letter and we quoted

Martin Luther. I just want to read that letter in case you didn't get it, not the letter, just the quote from Martin Luther.

Because remember, Martin Luther was working when the Black Plague was in existence.

This is how Martin Luther responded, I shall ask God mercifully to protect us.

Then I shall fumigate, help purify the air, administer medicine and take it. I shall avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance inflict and pollute others and so cause their death as a result of my negligence.

If God should wish to take me, he will surely find me. And I have done what he has expected of me, so I am not responsible for either my own death or the death of others.

If my neighbor needs me, however, I shall not avoid place or person, but will go freely as stated above.

See this as such a God -fearing faith because it is neither brash nor foolhardy and does not tempt

God. Let's pray. Father, we bow before you.

And even as we've looked at the events leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, Father, we see your hand.

We see your sovereignty, your decrees, your providence, all working things together to accomplish your plan and purpose and for the good of your church.

And so, Father, even as we bring our thoughts to the modern day and what's taking place in our nation,

Father, we recognize that even this pandemic, as horrible as it may seem, will work out for the good of your church and to your glory.

We pray, Father, that we would be faithful to your word, that we would be faithful ministers of the gospel and servants of yours as we minister to those who need us in this time.

But, Father, may we always bring the message of hope, that there is hope in Jesus Christ.