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The Lord's providence has now brought us to Luke's gospel once again, and we are in Luke chapter three. We're going to look at verses 21 and 22 this morning, under the heading, "Jesus' Baptism, Empowerment and Affirmation." Let me read the text, Luke three beginning in verse 21,

"Now, when all the people were baptized, Jesus was also baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened,

"and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, 'You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.'"

In an economy of words, the Holy Spirit inspired Luke to pen this historical account, a treasure chest of divine revelation that holds some priceless gems of truth with respect to our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And as I was thinking through this passage and so many other passages that are really part of it that we will look at here in a few minutes, my mind went to the staggering ignorance that is out there today, with respect to who Jesus really is. Most people know nothing of who he is and what his incarnation was all about.

I was reading in that regard, a Barna Group Research, I'll share a few thoughts with you. Younger generations, they say, are increasingly less likely to believe Jesus was God. If Jesus isn't God, we're all in trouble, right? It says most adults, not quite six in 10, believe Jesus was God, 56%. While about one quarter say he was only a religious or spiritual leader like Muhammad or the Buddha. The remaining one in six say they aren't sure whether Jesus was divine.

Then they say that millennials, that's ages 30 through 45 roughly, are the only generation among whom fewer than half believe Jesus was God. Only 48% about 1/3 of young adults. 35% say instead that Jesus was merely a religious or spiritual leader, and 17% aren't sure what he was. They also add that millennials are much less likely than any other group to have made a personal commitment to Jesus that is still important in their life today, fewer than half of millennials say they have made such a commitment, only 46%, compared to six in 10 Gen Xers, 59%, and two thirds of boomers, 65%, and seven in 10 elders, or 71%.

The research also indicated that people are conflicted between Jesus and good deeds as the way to heaven. Now, mind you, they are asking professing Christians what they think about these things, all right? They say that among adults who have made a personal commitment to Jesus, most also believe that Jesus is the way to heaven. I have to laugh at that. If you've made a personal commitment to Jesus, what?....well, you get the point. When given several beliefs about the afterlife to choose from nearly two thirds of those who have made a personal commitment to Jesus say they believe that after they die, they will go to heaven because they have confessed their sins and accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior, about 63%. Only 2% of adults who report a personal commitment to Jesus say they will not go to heaven, and about one in seven admit that they don't know what will happen after they die, 15%.

Overall, roughly two out of five Americans have confessed their sinfulness and professed faith in Christ. This is what the Barna Group classifies as "born again Christians." Millennials are less likely to believe that Jesus is the path to heaven than other generations. Among millennials who have made a personal commitment to Jesus, only 56% say they believe they will go to heaven because they have confessed their sins and accepted Jesus as their Savior. This percentage climbs to 2/3 among Gen Xers, six in 10 with boomers and nearly seven in 10 among elders.

Many adults believe, however, that they will go to heaven as a result of their good works. Broadly speaking, the report goes on, this is the most common perception among Americans who have never made a commitment to Jesus, and it is also quite common among self-identified Christians. In this category, people believe they will go to heaven because they have tried to obey the 10 Commandments - 5% believe that. As a result of being basically a good person, 8%, or on the grounds that God just loves all people and will not let any of them perish.

Well, to sum this up, David Kinnaman, who is the president of Barna Group and directed the national study, says, quote, "There isn't much argument about whether Jesus actually was a historical person, but nearly everything else about his life generates enormous and sometimes rancorous debate. These findings, however, demonstrate the strong degree to which Jesus remains embedded in the minds of Americans. It is not surprising that Easter brings a range of Jesus centered entertainment and media programming. Jesus has a built-in audience."

He went on to say, "This study also shows the extent of Christian commitment in the nation. More than 150 million Americans say they have professed faith in Christ. This impressive number begs the question of how well this commitment is expressed as much of our previous research shows. Americans' dedication to Jesus is, in most cases, a mile wide and an inch deep."

Dear friends, I hope you understand that most of these people are not born again, and Satan's world system is designed to obscure the reality of who Jesus is and replace that with an infatuation of ourselves. So we must guard against any encroachment in our life that might distract us from knowing who he is and honoring him and serving him; anything that would diminish our preoccupation with his glory and his greatness. We must have frankly a life-dominating awe of his intrinsic glory. That's why the psalmist said in Psalm 33 eight, "Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him." And beloved, it is our zeal for his glory, based on our understanding of who he is, that unleashes the power of the Holy Spirit within us, causing our lives to redound to his glory and our souls to be flooded with the inexpressible joy of his presence. If you don't know who Jesus is, you can never be saved. If you're not saved, you will never enjoy the glorious benefits of being in Christ, but when you know who he is, your perspective of him changes everything in life, right?  Nothing in life compares to the perfections of Christ, whose glory we will one day share.

My mind also went to a quote from John Owen in one of his works. He was a great Puritan theologian from Oxford, and he would have written this in about the mid 1600s. He said, most of our spiritual decays and barrenness arise from an inordinate admission of other things into our minds. For these are they that weaken grace in all its operations, but when the mind is filled with the thoughts of Christ and His glory, when the soul thereon cleaves unto Him with intense affections, they will cast out or not give admittance to these causes of spiritual weakness and indisposition."

He went on to say, "This, therefore, is the issue of the whole a steady view of the glory of Christ in His person, grace and office through faith, or a constant, lively exercise of faith on Him, according as He has revealed unto us in the Scripture, is the only effectual way to obtain a revival from under our spiritual decays and such supplies of grace as shall make us flourishing and fruitful even in old age." End quote.

I hope you can wade through the Old English to hear the great truths that dear saint proclaim. So today we behold yet another element of the glory of Christ in his baptism. And in these two verses, I would like to examine this under three very simple headings, we're going to see: the Son's humble submission, the Spirit's visible empowerment and the Father's audible affirmation.

Now, from the outset, I want to digress. I must add that this is one of the clearest passages in Scripture of the triunity of the Godhead - that there is a trinity - because here we have the Son who is baptized, the Spirit who descends, and the Father who speaks. And this is yet another refutation of the heresy known as Modalism, also known as Sabellianism, after a Roman guy named Sabellius back in about the third century who concocted this whole position that basically we have one God, and he just appears in different modes. There's not three persons in one; and this heresy denies the Trinity; that God exists eternally in three persons - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit - each equally deserving worship and obedience. They say that that view is polytheistic, and instead, they believe that God is one person, the Father only, but at times, he will manifest Himself as the Son, at times as the Holy Spirit. He does this in different modes. So they would say Jesus Christ is not merely the Son but actually embodies the Father and embodies the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the fullness of the Godhead. And for example, in these circles, baptism must be performed in the name of Jesus Christ alone, not in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. We've witnessed this primarily in the heretical oneness Pentecostal movement, the large group. The largest one is the United Pentecostal Church International. There's the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World and so forth. So just a bit of information here to help you see the heresies that this passage refutes regarding the Trinity.

So let's examine this text. Let me give you the context once again so we can kind of place ourselves there. John the Baptist has been preaching on the edge of the wilderness here in the Jordan wilderness, around the Jordan River. He's been preaching the need for repentance and forgiveness, and in turn, baptism that would symbolize the need for cleansing. It wasn't Christian baptism that symbolized a believer's personal faith in Christ and an identification with His death, burial and resurrection, because none of that had even happened yet. So, many people are traveling now out to the edge of the wilderness. Those of you who have been in Jerusalem, you know how you have to go down the Wadi Qelt, all the way down through the wilderness to get down to the Jordan River.

So, many of them have traveled a great distance to get there, to hear him preach, and, in some cases, to be baptized. In fact, Matthew tells us, in Matthew three, beginning in verse five, "Jerusalem was going out to him and all Judea and all the district around the Jordan, and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan as they confessed their sin." Now I might also add, obviously, not everyone came, and not everyone went out there, and not everyone believed. In fact, in Luke seven and verse 30, we read, "But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected God's purpose for themselves, not having been baptized by John."

So that's the scene. And now something remarkable happens. After 30 years of living in obscurity, Jesus suddenly emerges. And although Jesus and John the Baptist were cousins, they had never met before. Jesus lived in the Galilee, John the Baptist in the Judean wilderness, and John the Baptist admitted that he didn't even recognize Jesus at first (John 1:31). And I might also add that there's no record that they ever had any contact after this encounter, although John the Baptist ministry continued for about six months after that, until that time that Herod had him imprisoned and eventually beheaded.

So at the height now of John the Baptist ministry, Jesus appears ready to launch his ministry. And we read here in verse 21, "Now when all the people were baptized, Jesus was also baptized." And here we have the first heading: the Son's humble submission. So again, Luke is introducing a new dispensation here, the ministry of Jesus. Now, Jesus probably came at the end of all of the other baptisms. We just don't know for sure. He was probably at the end of the line, so to speak as we read this text. He undoubtedly sees how many multitudes are coming out to ultimately receive him, so he appears. I'm reminded of Philippians 2:7 in the King James, it says that "He made himself of no reputation," and here he is continuing to do that. Nobody really knew who he was, not even John the Baptist. So he publicly identifies with the very least of them, the very sinners that he came to save.

Now, the text doesn't tell us, but obviously he comes up to John the Baptist, who didn't recognize him at first, and then obviously they had some kind of conversation is like, oh my and, and we don't know what all they talked about, but they undoubtedly had some fellowship together. But certainly, John the Baptist would have been absolutely stunned to realize, "There you are."

And he was reluctant to baptize Jesus. Matthew tells us in Matthew three, beginning in verse 14,

 "But John tried to prevent Him, saying, 'I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?'

"But Jesus answering, said to him, 'Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.' Then he permitted Him."

And beloved, this is why Jesus submitted to baptism. He wanted to fulfill all righteousness. Baptism was required of God, and because Jesus had to live a perfectly righteous life to be our Savior, he submitted to baptism, he had to be the one who knew no sin, so that he could become sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:21), so he had to fully obey the Father. And it's amazing when you think about it, that ultimately God treated Jesus as if he had lived our sinful life, and treats us as if we lived his perfectly righteous life.

Now bear in mind, Jesus obeyed the Father in other areas where he really didn't need to like participating in the Passover celebration. Remember that symbolized God's deliverance from sin for all who trust in the innocent blood of the Lamb and my goodness, he was the lamb himself, but he participated in that. His commitment to fulfill all righteousness was why he paid the temple tax. Remember in Matthew 17, interesting scenario, beginning in verse 24,

"When they came to Capernaum, those who collected the two-drachma tax came to Peter and said, 'Does your teacher not pay the two-drachma tax?'

"He said, 'Yes.' And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, 'What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth collect customs or poll-tax from their sons or from strangers?'

"When Peter said, 'From strangers,' Jesus said to him, 'Then the sons are exempt.'

"However, so that we do not offend them, go to the sea and throw in a hook and take the first fish that comes up;  and when you open its mouth, you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for you and Me.'"

My mind immediately goes to the restaurants around the Sea of Galilee, where they serve what they call "Saint Peter's fish." You get the fish and I mean, it's the whole fish. I mean, it's the head, it's the eyeballs, it's the whole thing. I think it's a mango tilapia fish, delicious, actually.

So Jesus humbly submitted to baptism to fulfill all righteousness and thus be able to impute his righteousness to us, according to Philippians 3:9, that we, "...may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of our own, delivered from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith."

Now I want you to notice what he was doing here at his baptism; we read that he was praying. The text says, "and while He was praying, Heaven was opened." Now let's think about this for a moment. I think often of Jesus' prayer life. As you read the gospels, you will quickly see that he was in constant communion with his Father. There's numerous examples of this. The only time that communion was broken was when he was on the cross, when he bore the wrath of God on our behalf, and he said, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" The fellowship with God in prayer is an example that we would all do well to follow. I won't give you a lot of passages, but if you look, you will see that that he prayed, certainly at his high priestly prayer in John 17 before he went to the cross, Jesus triumphed over temptation through prayer. He gained wisdom through prayer. You'll see that before he performed miracles, he was praying before raising Lazarus from the dead. We read how he prayed at his Transfiguration, he prayed at the Last Supper, at the garden, he prayed on the cross. He prayed at his ascension. And as our Great High Priest, according to Hebrews 7:25 he always lives to make intercession for us.

Now, we have to ask the question just out of curiosity, and this is one of these questions that the text doesn't answer, but I wonder what he was praying about at his baptism. Well, he probably prayed for the manifestation of the Father's blessing upon him, and remember, he's also in his humanity, in his incarnate state. So he's probably praying for empowerment from the Holy Spirit to help him accomplish the Father's will. And this is a power that is promised to him, but obtained by prayer, as it is for all of us. But we can't miss the lesson here. We don't know what he prayed for. It would certainly be in those categories. But the fact is, he was constantly in communion with the Father in prayer. Beloved unbroken communion with God must be the very air that we breathe as believers. Jonathan Edwards says this quote, “It is God's will, through His wonderful grace, that the prayers of His saints should be one of the great principal means of carrying on the designs of Christ's kingdom in the world. When God has something very great to accomplish for His church, it is His will that there should precede it the extraordinary prayers of His people, as is manifested by Ezekiel in Ezekiel 36:37. And it is revealed that when God is about to accomplish great things for His church, He will begin by remarkably pouring out the spirit of grace and supplication (Zechariah 12:10)."

Beloved, you will never accomplish much for Christ, nor will you ever experience the fullness of joy that can be yours in Christ, nor will you ever have power in your life as a Christian apart from unbroken communion with the one who has saved you. Prayer should be the natural expression of your faith. And if this is foreign to you, I would humbly ask you to examine your life you know are you truly in Christ. I mean, if you have no desire to hear from God through his word, and you have no desire to commune with him as the lover of your soul really, you have no basis for genuine saving faith. I mean, what newborn babe wants no contact with its parent? What newborn babe wants nothing to eat? I mean, those are evidences of death, not life. So I hope this is the passion of your heart as well, and certainly Christ is our supreme example.

So we see the Son's humble submission, notice, secondly, the Spirit's visible empowerment. This is really fascinating. "Now when all the people were baptized, Jesus was also baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened." Now let's pause here for a moment. This is a common motif that we see in Scripture to express the giving of revelation or the manifestation of God in some way or both. Imagine the scene now, here we have Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, communing with God in prayer as he is being baptized and as he emerges from the water, suddenly, heaven is open. Now your imagination can run wild with that right, and we have no idea what he saw and what John the Baptist saw. I mean, somehow in my mind, I can imagine just a supernatural lightning bolt that continues, and somehow there's this massive corridor, and you can see forever it seems like, and at the end is a bright light. I don't know it was something. You know, this must have been something like what Ezekiel saw in Ezekiel 1:1, it says "the heavens were opened and he saw visions of God." Stephen saw something like this in Acts 7:55, it says "He gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." And the apostle John, saw the heavens open up while he was on the Isle of Patmos in Revelation 19, verse 11, he says, "And I saw heaven opened and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness, He judges and wages war."

Well, I don't know what they saw, but we're all going to see it one day, and when it's open, we're going to go through it as well. What an amazing thought that is. We see that John the Baptist and Jesus saw this, Matthew tells us in Matthew three, beginning in verse 16, "After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold..." in other words, look at this, "...the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him."

In Mark one, beginning in verse 10, "Immediately coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opening, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him." And John tells us as well in John 1:31 and following, "'I did not recognize Him, but so that He might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water.' John testified saying, 'I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him. I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, "He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit."'" And then he says, "'I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.'"

And of course, all of this is to affirm, once again, the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. So Luke says that, after Jesus was baptized, heaven was opened. And then he says, "and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form, like a dove." Notice, "in bodily form," not "in the form" of a dove. It's not like some dove floated down and landed on him, like you see in some of the pictures. But there was obviously some kind of a supernatural, visible bodily shape resembling the graceful descent of a dove that came upon Jesus. You will recall that God spoke through the prophet, Isaiah, with respect to the Spirit one day coming upon the Messiah to empower him. Isaiah 11, for example, beginning in verse one,

"Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.

"The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD."

Likewise, he said in Isaiah 42 and verse one,

 "'Behold, My servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him;  He will bring forth justice to the nations.'"

And then finally, in Isaiah 61 beginning in verse one,

"The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; he has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners; 

"To proclaim the favorable year of the LORD and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn." 

Now it's important for you to understand that the Holy Spirit was eternally united to Christ. At no time were the members of the triune godhead somehow separated from each other. The Spirit's descent here is merely a symbolic act demonstrating his divine empowerment and an inauguration of Jesus to embark upon his messianic role as Prophet, Priest and King. Remember now in his humanity here, the Spirit was the one that conceived him, the Spirit's been with him all along, but now you have a visible manifestation of this.

I want to dwell on this for a moment, and I made myself a note - "This is deep, yet precise theology. They need clearer understanding so that they can worship more deeply." I'm just reading you my notes, so that's what I want to do, just for a second. You know, most of what passes for Christian worship today is as shallow as frost on a pumpkin. It's because they don't understand who Jesus really is.

One other note that I read, Ligonier Ministries and LifeWay Research partnered to find out what Americans in 2025 believe about God, the Bible and salvation. Just a couple of more stats here, 64% of professing evangelicals believe that quote, "Everyone is born innocent in the eyes of God." I don't know what Bible they're reading, but not the Bible you and I have. 53% affirmed that, quote, "Everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature." More than half agreed with the statement, quote, "The Holy Spirit is a force, but not a personal being." Almost half of evangelicals, 47% affirm that, quote, "God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism and Islam." And then they said, perhaps most surprising is the response of Evangelicals to the statement, quote, "God loves all people the same way," with 94% in agreement. "More evangelicals answered this question incorrectly than the general US adult population, in which 83% agreed with that statement."

Beloved, this is Matthew seven, "Not everybody who calls me Lord will enter the kingdom." Most people who claim to be Christians are not. They are self-deceived. They're Christian in name only. What a tragedy.

Now back to what's going on here with the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus. Remember, once again, according to Philippians two and verse seven, and following, Jesus voluntarily emptied himself of his divine prerogatives and powers that were eternally his. By virtue of his divine attributes, he took upon himself the form of a human slave, and he was obedient unto death on a cross as a substitute for sinners and so forth. And this, of course, is the concept in the Greek the "kénōsis." It comes from "kenoō”; it means to empty oneself. And that's what happened here. And this speaks of Christ's voluntary surrender of the independent use of his divine attributes. So Jesus, according to Philippians 2:7 "emptied himself taking the form of a bondservant." Now this does not mean that he divested himself from or out of himself, that something came from him or out of him, thereby somehow becoming lesser than God, all right, but rather it means that he emptied himself. He poured out Himself. You see, grammatically, Christ himself is the object of this emptying. He made himself void. He nullified himself. The King James said, "He made Himself of no reputation." Now, how did he do this? By taking on human nature, by adding to himself full and true humanity. Actually, you want to think of it this way: this is addition, not subtraction. And in so doing, he emptied himself by refusing to access his divine rights and privileges; he made himself void of certain aspects of his divine prerogative, so the full manifestation of his deity was restricted. It was limited, because of his human nature.

Bear in mind that his divine glory was veiled in his humanity. That's why, in Second Corinthians 8:9 we read, "Though He was rich, yet for your sake, He became poor." So this visible manifestation of the Spirit coming upon him is symbolic of the Spirit's work in him, and actually, the Holy Spirit is essentially mediating between his divine and human natures. This is a mystery. Perhaps you've heard of it before, it's described as the hypostatic union. "Hypostasis" refers to that which lies beneath, and it's talking about just the basis of foundation, the substance of a person. And so this means that Jesus simultaneously possessed two distinct natures. That's the hypostasis - he was fully divine and fully human. So again, the Spirit's descent was merely a symbolic act demonstrating his divine empowerment, and it was also a public way of inaugurating Jesus to embark upon his messianic role now as Prophet, Priest and King.

But there's something else that is exceedingly glorious here. You didn't know you were going to get launched into a lesson on Christology here this morning; these are such great truths, aren't they? To know who Jesus is, oh, my goodness. In the humility and in the humanity of Christ, the eternal Son incarnate, accepted the role of living a life of total dependence upon the Holy Spirit, that which the Spirit would provide. So Jesus was perfectly obedient to his Father's will in every way, not because he availed himself of the resources that he had that were intrinsic to his divine nature, but rather because he availed himself of the resources that he had in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit contributed nothing to his deity but contributed everything to his humanity.

And what is important to understand is that we have those same supernatural resources; the same divine enablement is available to us so that we can live a life that is pleasing to God.

So back to verse 22, "the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, 'You are My beloved Son, in You I am well pleased.'" So we've seen the Son's humble submission, the Spirit's visible empowerment, and finally, now the Father's audible affirmation, "'You are My beloved Son, in You I am well pleased.'" This is reminiscent of the Mount of Transfiguration, is it not? Remember with Peter, James and John there with Jesus, when he peeled back somehow, in some way that we can't fathom some of his human flesh, and the effulgence of his Shekinah blazed forth, and the glory of his presence. In Luke nine, he records this in verse 34,

"...a cloud formed and began to overshadow them; and they were afraid as they entered the cloud.

"Then a voice came out of the cloud, saying, 'This is My Son, My Chosen One; listen to Him!'"

Now, grammatically, God's audible statement here in Luke three, "You are My Beloved Son, in You, I am well-pleased," is the main clause of the whole passage. The Father's testimony of the Son, therefore, is, shall we say, the dominating theme. It is foundational to everything else that is being said. All of the other statements are subordinate to that audible statement from the Father. So the Father's audible affirmation of his love for the Son, combined with the Spirit's visible anointing of Jesus are public confirmation of the Son's messianic role. And this is really a fulfillment of Psalm two and verse seven. Remember, there God speaks to his son, the Messiah, and says, "'You are My Son, today, I have begotten You.'"

Oh dear Christian, think of the implications of this amazing scenario, because here you have the affirmation of the Son of God to accomplish our redemption. God appointed his Son to be the long-awaited Messiah of Israel, our Savior and King.

William Hendrickson, said something that I read that really touched my heart. I wanted to share it with you. I believe you may even have it in your bulletin. He said,

"How filled with comfort this paragraph, comfort not only for the Son and for John, but for every child of God, for it indicates that not only the Son loves his followers enough to suffer the pangs of hell in their stead, but that also the Spirit fully co-operates by strengthening him for this very task, and that the Father, instead of frowning upon the One who undertakes it, is so very pleased with him that he must needs rend asunder the very heavens, that his voice of delightful approval may be heard on earth! All three are equally interested in our salvation, and the three are One."

Beloved, may I challenge you this week to reflect upon these great truths? Sometime during the week, usually, I think it's about Tuesday or so, the transcription of what was said from this pulpit will be there so you can read them. And there's other things that I've preached on regarding the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ that you can listen to and read and certainly many others. But contemplate these things, dear friends, don't just hear it today and say, "Oh, that was interesting" and then forget it, but reflect upon them, meditate upon them. In fact, do this, summarize some of the things that you've heard today in your own words and post it on social media. Boy, that ought to get a rise. I forget how all that works. They got friends and unfriends and all that. I've got so many unfriends. I'm not even on it anymore, but my, what a great way to spread the gospel.

Folks, let me tell you what I've been reflecting on here today, and to summarize some of this, share it with your family. Share it with your friends and fathers hear me: teach these things to your children. Don't expect them to just hear it from me or from their Sunday school teachers. Fathers, this is your responsibility, and mothers and grandparents and aunts and uncles and on and on it goes. And then give thanks to God, knowing that, as I read earlier in Christ, "all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form" (Colossians 2:9), and it goes on to say, "and in Him, you have been made complete." 

Folks apart from him, we would never be complete. Originally, we were alienated from God. We were enemies of God. We were incomplete in our thinking, incomplete physically incomplete spiritually in every way. Certainly, we had no salvation in ourselves, but in Christ, all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form and in him, you and I have been made complete. Let us celebrate that this week and share these great truths with those that God places in our sphere of influence, okay?  Let's pray,

Father, thank you for the eternal truths of your word. As always, I pray that by the power of your Spirit, you would help us to grasp them, not just intellectually, but in such a way as to cause them to literally animate our wills to live consistently with them, all the hope, the joy, the salvation that we have in Christ. We thank you for what you have done for us and Lord, if there be one here today, or anyone within the sound of my voice that has never trusted in Christ as their Savior, won't you break their heart? Won't you show them the wretchedness of their sin? Help them to be able to see the sword of divine justice looming over their head, and the only hope that they have is to cry out for undeserved mercy that you are so readily willing to give. Bring conviction, bring salvation, that today will be the day that they will experience the miracle of the new birth. Lord, I ask all of this in the precious name of Jesus and for his sake, Amen.