Title: “Stephen’s Last Sermon: Explanation” Part 1

Text: Acts 7:1-34

FCF: We often struggle admitting the true depth of our need for God to pursue us.

Prop: Because man is blind to God, God must call His people, so we must respond when we hear Him call.

Scripture Intro:

[Slide 1] Turn in your bible to Acts chapter 7. In a moment I’ll begin reading a rather large portion of scripture beginning in verse 1 and continuing to verse 53. I’ll be reading from the Legacy Standard Bible, but you can follow along in the pew bible starting on page 1236 or in whatever version you prefer.

Last week, we saw a man, filled with grace and power from God, doing many signs and wonders in His name. He preached to those whom he knew well. And they did not receive him. Now, this man, Stephen, stands before the highest court in Jerusalem to answer for the crime of blasphemy against Moses and God.

Today will be part 1 of Stephen’s response to his accusers. He will answer… but it will not be a defense.

Please stand with me out of respect for and to focus on the reading of the Word of God.

Transition:

You may be seated. We have much to get through today. Let us hasten to the text so we can see it all before time slips through our fingers.

I.) God alone secures a people for Himself, so we must respond when we hear Him call. (1-8)

a. [Slide 2] 1 – And the high priest said, “Are these things so?”

i. Beginning with the High Priest’s question is a perfect opportunity for us to review exactly what Stephen was being charged with.

ii. What are the “things” that may or not be true?

iii. Remember that these Hellenistic Jews, desiring to be accepted by the Hebraic Jews, came out against Stephen. However, they were not able to oppose his teachings. So, they resorted to secretly persuading people to accuse Stephen of blaspheming Moses and God.

iv. In the trial false witnesses testified that they had heard Stephen frequently blaspheming the holy place or the temple and the law of Moses.

v. Specifically, they heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth would destroy the temple and alter the customs handed down from Moess.

vi. To us, such statements do not seem blasphemous… but to the Jews during this second temple era, to suggest that someone would destroy the temple and it be a good thing or to alter the customs of Moses and it be a good thing… would have been just that… blasphemous.

vii. They held three primary pillars to their faith. The law, The land or Kingdom, and the Temple. Stephen, then, is accused of speaking against two of the three pillars of 1st century Judaism.

viii. He is called upon to answer whether or not he has spoken in such a way.

ix. Stephen’s response both deals with each charge against him, but also doesn’t at the same time.

x. HIs response addresses the law of Moses, but not in the sense of whether or not he has said that Jesus will alter the customs. Stephen’s response addresses the temple, but not in the sense of whether or not he has said that Jesus will destroy it.

xi. Stephen essentially uses these charges as a springboard to go back through the history of Israel.

xii. In so doing he quotes or alludes to several passages of scripture. Because we do not have the time, nor do we know how much Stephen is quoting, alluding, or paraphrasing, we will pass over these references. You can do the work on your own this week in looking up these passages to which Stephen refers.

xiii. There are also several chronological and topological details that seem to contradict what is recorded in the Old Testament. We will not be able to explore these in any detail at all. But suffice it to say, that the easiest way to understand why these contradictions occur is primarily Stephen’s telescopic view of Israel’s history. He is not going for exact precision. Rather he is picking up key threads along the way.

xiv. What are these threads or layers of teaching.

1. First, he reveals a cycle of the people’s accepting God’s provision while rejecting Him.

a. He shows that by Israel rejecting God’s chosen deliverers, they are actually rejecting God Himself.

b. He shows that these deliverers are prototypes of Jesus of Nazareth whom they are rejecting actively at this very moment.

c. He shows that they have kept holy, things that were given by God, while rejecting God Himself because they have rejected His Son, His Messiah, His Ultimate Deliverer.

2. Second, he reveals God’s promises and covenants forming a redemptive plan of God that is progressing and therefore, by necessity, changing.

3. Third, he reveals God’s presence, provision, glory and worship separate from the law, away from the land of Canaan, and outside the temple.

4. In short, the scope of Stephen’s response has nothing to do with his own defense, since he seems to have no intention of ever making it out of this trial alive. Instead, his entire purpose of this sermon is as a prosecutor dismantling the present form of Judaism to reveal a form of godliness that has denied its power. A Judaism that needs reformation. A Judaism that needs a Deliverer – The Son of Man who stands at the right hand of God, Jesus of Nazareth. Stephen is on the attack, not on the defense.

xv. I will not endeavor this morning, or in the weeks to follow, to unpack every minute detail in this sermon. To do so, I fear we would be here for many, many weeks.

xvi. My aim is to give you the main points of his sermon so the sharpness at the end hits as cleanly as it did the day in which Stephen spoke it.

xvii. That said, I still anticipate it taking us a few weeks to get through.

xviii. So, without further ado, Stephen’s last sermon.

b. [Slide 3] 2-3 – And he said, “Hear me, brothers and fathers! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, 3 and said to him, ‘LEAVE YOUR COUNTRY AND YOUR RELATIVES, AND COME INTO THE LAND THAT I WILL SHOW YOU.’

i. Stephen begins at the beginning. He begins with a man called out from the land of Ur.

ii. Yes, before Abraham lived in Haran, which is at the Northernmost boundary of the promised land, Abraham lived in Ur. The land that would later be called Babylon. Abraham was from that most depraved land. A land symbolic of the seat of the forces of darkness.

iii. Why would Stephen include this detail?

iv. Because, even the nation of Israel was not a nation once. Even the nation of Israel would need to be called out of the nations to be made a nation. As a Hellenistic Jewish Christian, such a truth would be quite comforting and equally uncomfortable for the Hebraic Jews.

v. Stephen calls God the God of glory. This title is significant in that it is uncommon. Why would he use such a title?

1. First, Stephen is being accused of blasphemy. Such an accusation is immediately answered with a declaration of God being the God of glory.

2. Second, he shows that divorced from the land of Canaan and from the temple, and without a law, God is still the God of glory appearing to Abraham. His glory cannot be contained by national boundaries, God given laws, or walls made with hands. This creates an excellent bookend to his explanation section. We’ll get there next week.

3. Where God is – is where we worship Him. God decides where and how He reveals Himself.

vi. God called him out of this land, to depart from his family, to go a land that He would show him.

c. [Slide 4] 4-5 – Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. From there, after his father died, God had him move to this country in which you are now living. 5 But He gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground, and He promised that HE WOULD GIVE IT TO HIM AS A POSSESSION, AND TO HIS SEED AFTER HIM, even when he had no child.

i. The story of Abraham is recorded in the book of Genisis over only a few chapters.

ii. Stephen only hints at a remarkable truth that we often miss. It was over 40 years after God made these promises to Abraham, that Abraham actually had an heir.

iii. In that process, although Abraham nomadically lived in the land that God had promised him, he did not actually own any property.

iv. Stephen attempts throughout the sermon to establish ethos with his listeners. He began by calling them brothers and fathers. He uses almost exclusively the first-person plural pronouns to discuss the history of Israel. In this he establishes comradery with his audience. He is one of them. Therefore, it is probably significant any time Stephen deviates from this practice. And before he enters his final appeal to them in verse 51 he only deviates from the 1st person plural pronouns twice.

v. We’ll see one today and one next week.

vi. The first one happens here in verse 4. Stephen said that God had Abraham move to this country in which YOU are now living.

1. It is possible that Stephen does not identify himself as a dweller or inhibiter of this land since he is a Hellenized Jew.

2. Perhaps this is even for his audience’s benefit. Perhaps they would take issue with him claiming to be an inhibiter of this land while not being able to speak Aramaic or Hebrew.

3. But more likely, Stephen by excluding himself is actually excluding them. By saying that they inhabit or dwell in the land, he suggests that they do so without legal right. Since the land is one of the pillars of their faith, it would be a subtle way to hint at what his entire sermon shows. That though they have the land, they are interlopers and have no right to it. Why? Because they have rejected this land’s King. What do you call someone who possesses the King’s land but does not bow to the King? Invaders, pretenders, traitors, insurrectionists, or… in the case of faith… blasphemers.

4. The tables are officially turned.

vii. But let’s proceed. He has much more to say.

d. [Slide 5] 6-7 – But God spoke in this way, that his ‘SEED WOULD BE SOJOURNERS IN A FOREIGN LAND, AND THAT THEY WOULD BE ENSLAVED AND MISTREATED FOR FOUR HUNDRED YEARS. 7 AND I MYSELF WILL JUDGE THE NATION TO WHICH THEY WILL BE ENSLAVED’ said God, ‘AND AFTER THAT THEY WILL COME OUT AND SERVE ME IN THIS PLACE.’

i. As a part of God’s plan to bring Abraham’s seed to this land and give it to them, they would first be enslaved in a foreign nation.

ii. This slavery would take 400 years to complete.

iii. God promises to judge the nation who does this to them and to bring them out to serve Him in the land that He will give to Abraham.

iv. Again, God promises this is all before Abraham has an heir and before he owns any land in Canaan.

e. [Slide 6] 8 – And He gave him the covenant of circumcision; and so, Abraham was the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac was the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.

i. So even though Abraham did not have any land that God had promised him, even though his descendants would be enslaved to a foreign nation for 400 years, even though there was no temple and no law, God still gave to him a covenant.

ii. A covenant that was concerning far more than land, law, temples and nations. A covenant of abiding favor and relationship. A covenant remembered through a sign. A covenant that in Abraham all the nations of the earth will be blessed.

iii. Does God need a temple, land or a law to establish a relationship with His people? The answer, of course, is no.

iv. Nevertheless, the law and the temple came about. What does that mean?

v. It means that God’s redemptive plan progressed and therefore, by necessity, changed. Not in substance but in form. God’s relationship with His people still depended on a one-sided covenant. But the form of that relationship would not always be the same.

vi. For Abraham, it was the sign of circumcision and the hope of a nation brought through slavery to a land promised to him many years before. It required nothing from Abraham. He simply trusted that the Lord would do all of this in His timing and by His power.

f. [Slide 7] Summary of the Point: God is the one pursuing His people my friends. He comes for them. There is no land, no nation, no religious temple tying Him down. He will come and take for Himself a nation from the nations. He will call unto Himself a people. He will not forget them! He will not abandon them! Nor will He fail to keep His promises to them. Their relationship may not always take the same form – but it will always have the same substance. And what is that substance? That God alone will do everything necessary to secure a bride for His Son. He will do all that is required to preserve a remnant. He will call and save and purify and keep and glorify His people. And He doesn’t need anybody or anything to help Him. He has done this through His own will, power, mercy, and grace. And He has done this through His Son, the Righteous One.

Transition:

[Slide 8(blank)] With such assurances that God will do as He has promised to do and secure for Himself a people, we might expect the people of Israel to have always believed and trusted God to do as He said He would. Of course, you and I both know that this wasn’t the case. Stephen goes here next.

II.) Men are unable to discern God’s provision, so we must respond when we hear Him call. (9-36)

a. [Slide 9] 9-10 – And the patriarchs, becoming jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt. Yet God was with him, 10 and rescued him from all his afflictions, and granted him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he appointed him governor over Egypt and all his household.

i. But in the process of God’s promises coming to fruition, we see even the patriarchs act in opposition to it.

ii. They reject and sell into slavery one of the Lord’s promised descendants of Abraham. How appalling. How counter to God’s promise and plan! How demonic!

iii. And why do they do this? It was out of jealousy. How interesting that Luke just recently commented on the motivations of the Sanhedrin council to act against the apostles. Do you remember what their motivation was? Was it not jealousy? And what was the endgame of the jealousy of the patriarchs? Was it not to return to a time before Joseph’s existence? Was it not to be rid of him and go back to when there were only the brothers of Leah and none of Rachel? Was not the jealousy of the Sanhedrin to preserve the former form of Judaism, prior to the advent of their Messiah?

iv. An interesting correlation is being made here. Although Abraham left all he knew to follow the Lord and do as He commanded – his descendants consistently resisted God’s leading and desired to go back to what they had always known.

v. So, they sell him and send him to Egypt. He is, in their minds, dead.

vi. Yet, God was with him.

vii. These five words overcome the world my friends.

viii. No matter what opposes the Lord’s anointed – these five words will undo it all.

ix. God being with Joseph, though he was separated from the rest of the covenant people, though he was sent to a foreign land, though he was surrounded by pagans – God was with HIM.

x. And because God was with HIM, out of the land of Cannan, under foreign power, he still prospered. He was saved from his afflictions, granted favor in the sight of Pharoah and given a position of prominence and leadership.

b. [Slide 10] 11-16 – Now a famine came over all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction with it, and our fathers could find no food. 12 But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers there the first time. 13 And on the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family was disclosed to Pharaoh. 14 Then Joseph sent word and invited Jacob his father and all his relatives to come to him, seventy-five persons in all. 15 And Jacob went down to Egypt and there he and our fathers died. 16 And from there they were removed to Shechem and placed in the tomb which Abraham had purchased for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

i. And so, the promise of God takes another step toward fulfillment.

ii. The people of God go to a foreign land to sojourn there in the midst of great need.

iii. God uses the sinful jealousy of the patriarchs to ensure the success and stability of His people.

iv. Notice the details that Stephen includes. He has in this section mushed together the stories of Jacob and his son’s burial plots, which are not the same place. Almost breezing over this detail.

v. But in the same space, he has made sure to include the detail that at the first visit to Joseph, his brothers did not recognize him. On the second visit he was made known to them, raised from the dead as it were. And he invited his family to join them.

vi. Jesus was not recognized at first, He was revealed to His disciples through his resurrection from the dead, and now has sent for His people to come to Him.

vii. And notice that though all the patriarchs died in the land of Egypt, their remains, their bones, were brought back to the only place Abraham owned in the land of Canaan.

viii. Even death cannot separate the promises of God from those to whom He has promised them.

ix. They died without a temple. They died without a law. They died outside of the land of Canaan. Yet God’s faithfulness remained.

c. [Slide 11] 17-18 – But as the time of the promise was drawing near which God had assured to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt, 18 until ANOTHER KING AROSE OVER EGYPT WHO DID NOT KNOW ABOUT JOSEPH.

i. Notice that God while suffering His people to be enslaved in a foreign land for a period of 400 years, he also grew them, multiplying them upon themselves.

ii. They lived in Egypt until a time when another King, another Pharoah did not know… or appreciate Joseph or his people.

d. [Slide 12] 19-22 – It was he who deceitfully took advantage of our family and mistreated our fathers to set their infants outside so that they would not survive. 20 It was at this time that Moses was born, and he was lovely in the sight of God, and he was nurtured three months in his father’s home. 21 And after he had been set outside, Pharoah’s daughter took him away and nurtured him as her own son. 22 And Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was powerful in words and deeds.

i. This King acting maliciously, though not outside the promise of God, did attempt to subdue the superior numbers of the Hebrews.

ii. So, he ordered the exposure unto death of all sons born to Hebrew women.

iii. During this dark time, Moses was born.

iv. And he was lovely in the sight of God.

v. The word used here is beauty in breeding. We have an expression “He is from good stock” meaning his heritage or lineage was good.

vi. And so for him to be of good stock in the eyes of God, is to see that he is chosen of God. He is graced or favored of God.

vii. Again, we must pause to marvel at the favor of God. “Yet God was with him” were the words about Joseph. Similar words are spoken here of Moses. “he was lovely in the sight of God”

viii. Because of the favor given to him by God, he was nurtured three months and left exposed, only to be drawn out of the water by the Pharoah’s daughter and raised as an Egyptian prince.

ix. Another rags to riches story, where God brought something that was nothing to be a deliverer of His people.

x. He was educated in the wisdom of his day and powerful in word and deed. Much like another young man raised in a place that was not his home, by a family comprised of his enemies.

e. [Slide 13] 23-25 – But when he was approaching the age of forty, it entered into his heart to visit his brothers, the sons of Israel. 24 And when he saw one of them being treated unjustly, he defended him and took justice for the oppressed by striking down the Egyptian. 25 And he supposed that his brothers understood that God was granting them salvation through him, but they did not understand.

i. At the age of 40, it entered into his heart – a humble way of saying that the Lord led him– that he go and visit his people.

ii. How did Egypt treat his countrymen? How did they fare?

iii. Not well. They were indeed oppressed. They were indeed unjustly treated.

iv. He, as a righteous judge, as a ruler, he bears the sword in justice to punish the guilty and exonerate the innocent.

v. Perhaps his people would see this and know that he was God’s means to deliver them.

vi. This little comment about Moses’ suppositions is not found anywhere in the Old Testament. What is clear is that this is Stephen’s editorial comment. He is drawing a parallel.

vii. Moses thought that his brothers would see his justice as proof that he was God’s chosen man to deliver them from their oppression. He assumed they would understand

viii. But no… they did not understand. Just as Joseph’s brothers did not recognize him, so the people did not follow Moses.

ix. The comparison to Christ and the resistance of the Jewish leaders to follow Him… is quite obvious.

f. [Slide 14] 26-29 – On the following day he appeared to them as they were fighting together, and he tried to reconcile them in peace, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers, why are you treating one another unjustly?’ 27 But the one who was treating his neighbor unjustly pushed him away, saying, ‘WHO MADE YOU A RULER AND JUDGE OVER US? 28 DO YOU INTEND TO KILL ME AS YOU KILLED THE EGYPTIAN YESTERDAY?’ 29 At this remark, MOSES FLED AND BECAME A SOJOURNER IN THE LAND OF MIDIAN, where he was the father of two sons.

i. They were unconcerned about justice.

ii. They had not clung to the promise of God.

iii. They squabbled among each other. They did unjustly to one another.

iv. And when God’s anointed came to encourage them to live uprightly, they scoff at his seemingly self-appointed title of ruler and judge.

v. They question his justice and wonder if the power had gone to his head. Will he dole out justice on them also?

vi. And like Joseph, Moses too is cast aside. He is rejected.

vii. This theme of Hebrews fighting one another to the extent that they do not recognize their ruler and deliverer… again the comparison is too obvious to miss. They have done it all again and to a much larger degree with Jesus of Nazareth. Their own Messiah.

g. [Slide 15] 30-34 – And after forty years had passed, AN ANGEL APPEARED TO HIM IN THE WILDERNESS OF MOUNT SINAI, IN THE FLAME OF A BURNING BUSH. 31 When Moses saw it, he was marveling at the sight; and as he approached to look more closely, there came the voice of the Lord: 32 ‘I AM THE GOD OF YOUR FATHERS, THE GOD OF ABRAHAM AND ISAAC AND JACOB.’ Moses trembled with fear and would not dare to look. 33 BUT THE LORD SAID TO HIM, ‘REMOVE THE SANDALS FROM YOUR FEET, FOR THE PLACE ON WHICH YOU ARE STANDING IS HOLY GROUND. 34 I HAVE SURELY SEEN THE OPPRESSION OF MY PEOPLE IN EGYPT AND HAVE HEARD THEIR GROANS, AND I HAVE COME DOWN TO DELIVER THEM; COME NOW, AND I WILL SEND YOU TO EGYPT.

i. The number 40 returns.

ii. 40 years Abraham waited from promise to Isaac’s birth. 40 years he waited for the smallest provision of a promise God made and even still no land was his.

iii. Now with Moses, 40 years had passed between when he was in his youth, in his prime, a man of powerful word and deed, able to save his people, a man whom God considered lovely in His sight…

iv. 40 years he waited in exile… before the Lord spoke to him… for the first time.

v. He is approached by an angel. An angel who is God. God who speaks from a bush that although burning is never consumed.

vi. He tells Moses to take off his shoes for he is on holy ground.

vii. Notice that Holy ground is where God is, not where God must dwell. Wherever God is, is Holy Ground. It is not holy therefore He appears there, but it is holy by nature of Him being there.

viii. God tells Moses that it is time for him to go to Egypt and deliver His people.

ix. Moses, who is no longer powerful in word and deed – Moses, who is just as much Midian as he is Egyptian, Moses, who was rejected by his own people as a ruler and judge - God has chosen to go and deliver them from the oppression of the Egyptians.

h. [Slide 16] Summary of the Point: As an unfortunate corollary to the previous point, although God acts alone, without law, land, or temple, to secure, save, keep, and glorify His people – men are blind and ignorant to His power and provision to save them. Joseph’s brothers not only despised and rejected him, but they did not know him until he revealed himself to them. Moses was rejected by his people though chosen of God to deliver them from their oppression. Without land, without law, and without temple, His people were completely separated from Him and unable to clearly see His chosen savior. The rich man begged Abraham to send Lazarus to his five brothers to warn them about the torment of hades. But Abraham said that even if someone would rise from the dead to tell them, they would not believe. My friends, God has given men the greatest provision of all. His Son, crushed for the sins of His people and raised the third day. Nevertheless, unless He reveals Himself, none will believe. God alone will pursue His people, and it must be this way, for man’s heart is incurably wicked. No man seeks after God. And would a risen Christ stand before them, would eye-witnesses of the risen Christ stand before them – they will not believe. Woe to men who cannot see what is so plain before them. They do not need a law, a land, or a temple… They need the Lord of glory to open their eyes.

Conclusion:

Even though this is only half of Stephen’s sermon, what doctrinal takeaway can we draw from what he’s said so far? What have we learned and how then shall we live?

Doctrinal Takeaway:

[Slide 17] With or without temple, law or land, mankind is desperately blinded to God and His purposes. As God intervenes, as He intercedes, as He sends deliverer after deliverer, and even the ultimate deliverer, His Son, man still is blind, ignorant, deaf and dumb. We are described as dead in sins. We are described as untilled soil. We are described as children of wrath and of our Father the devil. Stephen’s audience needed to understand exactly this about themselves. That though they had the law, the temple, and the land – they were nothing more than interlopers. They were pretenders. They were blind men claiming they had sight. Dead men dressed in glorious robes perfumed with delightful scents. They were lost pretending as though they knew the way home. It was not their law, or their land, or their temple that was special. No. It was their God. The Glorious One. Who from ages to ages is the same. He is the great pursuer of His people. He promises and keeps His promises. He pursues each of His dear children. And His Son, the righteous One, Jesus of Nazareth is the final step in His pursuit of His people. His Son said “I will lose not one of the sheep that my Father has given me and my sheep hear my voice.” As deflating as it is to hear that men are so far from God – how delightful it is to know that God pursues us. So, if God has revealed Himself to you today – you must place your trust in Him. For He pursues His own my friends and His own hear His voice.

Since Stephen’s sermon is not complete as of yet, let us refrain from attempting to improve upon this point until next week. Let us just carry with us this week this truth: that in spite of our blindness to the truth, God pursues and reveals Himself to His people. He shows light to those who live in darkness. And while we were sinners He died for us. If you hear His voice, you are His sheep. Follow your shepherd.

[Slide 18 (end)] Let me close with a prayer from the church father Methodius of Olympia

Through him who sits on your throne, and who cannot be separated from your divine nature, you have given us the gift of reconciliation. You have granted us access to you, with confidence.

True and all-powerful God, you recognize no other authority. And you have given these justifying gifts of grace as certain and unquestionable rights to those who have received mercy.

This is what Isaiah meant when he said that "the Angel of his Presence saved them. In his love and compassion he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old" (Isaiah 63:9).

But all this was not due to any righteous works on our part, or because we loved you. Our forefather Adam turned away from your commands, was judged unworthy of that life-giving place, and from then on the offspring of sin has been so weak.

But you, Lord, by yourself and because of the indescribable love you had toward your creation, you have confirmed your mercy to us. You felt sorry for this separation from you. You were moved by the sight of our degradation, and you took us into compassion.

Now a joyous festival is established for us, Adam's race, because the first creator of Adam has freely become the second Adam. And the brightness of our Lord God has come down to live with us, and we are saved.

We have seen your salvation, Lord. Let us be delivered from the bent yoke of the law. We have seen the eternal King, who has no successors. Let us be free from this burdensome chain of slavery. We have seen him who is by nature our Lord and deliverer, so let us receive his deliverance decree.

Set us free from the yoke of condemnation, and place us under the yoke of justification. Deliver us from the yoke of the curse, from the law that kills, and enroll us in the blessed company of those who, by the grace of your dear Son, who is of equal glory and power with you, have been received into adoption as your children.

In Jesus name we pray… Amen!

[Benediction]

Jude 24-25

“Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and authority, before all time and now and forevermore. Amen.” Until we meet again; go in peace.