We're going to begin at verse 16, and out of respect for the reading of the Word of God, if you would stand and let us read the sacred text this morning.
Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry. And he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men.
Then was fulfilled that was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation weeping in great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted because they are no more.
But when Herod was dead, behold an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, Arise, take the young child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the young child's life are dead.
Then he arose, took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel.
But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea instead of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And being warned by God in a dream, he turned aside into the region of Galilee.
And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, he shall be called a Nazarene.
Let's ask the Lord to help us.
Heavenly Father, Lord, we pray today for the glory of your Son.
Lord, we pray for the power and the aid and the accompanying of your Spirit, who will attend to the words of sacred scripture and make them effectual and effective in the lives of your people.
Lord, this morning we come to hear from heaven. Feed us with manna from on high. Show us the glory of Christ and we will be satisfied.
Lord, we need you this morning as we have just sung, All glory be to Christ. And it's in his name we pray. Amen.
You may be seated.
No doubt on social media, many of y'all saw this past week, there's a picture that I'd like to show.
This picture is of Davy and Natalie Lloyd. I don't know them, but again I saw it making the rounds on social media.
They were full-time missionaries in Haiti and on Thursday of this past week they were attacked by gangs and killed.
Her dad said that he had never experienced such pain and that his heart was absolutely shattered.
No doubt it is. And not really any comfort, but he said that they went to heaven together.
Now this is a tragedy and seemingly it shocks us and it saddens us and it should.
And you and I know that life here, life that's lived outside of Eden, is fraught with danger and persecution
because of those who bear the testimony of Jesus Christ our Lord.
So we may be shocked by it and we may be saddened by it, but what we should not be is surprised by it.
Because if we take the scripture seriously, these are things that we know are going to take place.
In the very beginning, Satan tempted Adam and Eve to trust in themselves rather than to trust objectively what God had said.
So this act of defiance, just an act, a little act from our vantage point, plunged the entire human race into death.
And you and I know that even in the curse of death there was a glorious promise of hope.
We see it in Genesis 3.15. It's a verse that's read here frequently.
I always call this the proto-evangelium. It's the first mention of the gospel.
It's the first mention of good news. And here it is.
And I, God speaking, I will put enmity between you, speaking to the serpent, and the woman.
And between your seed and her seed, he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.
Here, the promise is that this death-causing serpent will be crushed. He's going to be defeated.
He will be bruised. But notice the part of the text here that says that's not going to happen without a fight.
There will be animosity, enmity is the word here, between the woman's seed and the serpent's seed.
But the hope is the woman's seed would prevail because Christ would come and give and issue the ultimate death blow to the serpent.
Christ Jesus our Lord would reverse the death work of the serpent.
But until that time when death is fully eradicated, there will be animosity, enmity between two groups of people.
You have the people of God, seed of the woman. And they will be ruthlessly persecuted and attacked by the world, the unbelieving world, the seed of the serpent.
So without history, particularly within redemptive history, there are two groups of people, two classes of people can be identified.
You have the seed of the serpent, you have the seed of the woman.
The seed of the serpent will think and behave just like that first serpent.
They're rebellious. They rebel against the word of God.
They seek to persecute, mistreat, and if even possible, eliminate the men and women who belong to God.
That's what they do. Their attitude toward the seed of the woman is one of hostility.
Even going so far as to persecute and murder the seed of the woman.
And we see this immediately in Genesis, beginning with Cain, seed of the serpent, killing his brother Abel, seed of the woman.
And that pattern continues throughout the entire Old Testament. You see it with Jacob and Esau.
There's animosity, there's enmity between the two brothers.
You see it in 1 Samuel 17, you have David and Goliath. You have Goliath, who's emblematic of the seed of the serpent.
He's fighting against the Lord's anointed. He's fighting against David, seed of the woman.
But you also see it between King Saul and King David.
You have King Saul, who's jealously trying to kill his opponent and rival, David.
David was the one the Lord anointed.
You go to the book of Esther, and you see the same motif playing out when wicked Haman
comes up with a plan to annihilate the Jewish people found in the kingdom.
And today we see it in our text when we have a maniacal, ruthless, cruel king named Herod, Herod the Great.
And he's trying to kill the Christ child to ensure that no one will rise to remove him from his throne.
Satan, the great serpent, the great dragon, is using this wicked man Herod to seek to destroy Christ at his birth.
Now a few weeks ago, I wasn't here last week, a few weeks ago we looked at verses 13 to 15.
I want to read them again.
Now when they, that is the Magi, the wise men, when they had departed from Herod,
behold an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying,
Arise, take the young child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word.
Why? For Herod is going to seek the young child to destroy him.
So when he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and they departed for Egypt.
And they were there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the Lord the prophet,
saying, Out of Egypt I called my son.
So you have these wise men, these Eastern Magi.
They are warned by God, do not return to Herod.
Don't give him any more information on the child's whereabouts.
Herod may have been king, but God is sovereign, and he's always a step ahead of Herod.
This was nothing was surprising here.
So the Magi, they leave, they had to go home, presumably Persia.
And an angel appeared to Joseph to warn him of the impending danger facing the child.
So what does the angel do? He tells Joseph, you need to take the child, take his mother, and get out of Dodge.
Flee to Egypt for safety.
But Matthew tells us that this was done to fulfill a specific prophecy,
because the Lord had spoken through the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt I called my son.
So presumably the child, the son, has to go to Egypt.
Now this is so very important. I need you all to pay attention here.
Remember that Matthew is writing primarily to a Jewish audience.
And he's showing how the Lord Jesus is the true Israel.
He's the true son of God, because Israel was called a son.
We looked at that two weeks ago.
So the life of Christ is going to recapitulate the life of the nation of Israel.
And again, we looked at that two weeks ago.
Israel left Egypt through the Exodus of the Red Sea.
Christ will have his own Exodus in the waters of baptism at the Jordan River.
Immediately after Israel flees Egypt, they're tested in the desert for 40 years, right after the Exodus.
Right after Christ is baptized, he's led by the Spirit into the desert, where he will be tested 40 days.
But here's what's interesting.
As the book progresses, Matthew is going to show how the birth and life of Christ
is the beginning of a new and better Exodus, led by a new and better Moses.
Now that's a strong statement. I want to seek to prove that in a moment.
Matthew is going to show that Jesus is a new and better Moses, leading to a new and better promised land of rest.
Now why do I say that?
Why do I say a new Moses?
How is Matthew, because he doesn't state that explicitly, how is he going to show that Jesus is the new Moses?
This is where we have to look closely at the text.
Look closely at the parallels you have between Christ and Moses that Matthew is showing even here in chapter 2.
When Moses was born, what was taking place?
Do you remember?
You have an evil king Pharaoh who is seeking to destroy all the male children of the Hebrews, all the male children of Israel.
Why? Pharaoh was a jealous king.
He was jealous of how large the nation had grown, the population, and he felt it was a threat to his own power.
Now what was taking place when Christ was born?
You have an evil jealous king seeking to destroy all the male children of Bethlehem.
But why was Herod wanting to kill the male children of Bethlehem?
He's jealous. Jealous of what?
Remember he said, because the wise men told him, we know the birth of the child, the one who was born is called king of the Jews.
So you have two jealous kings. You have Pharaoh and Herod, both are feeling and fearing a threat to their own power.
As a result, Pharaoh orders the death of all the male babies in Israel.
Herod orders the death of all the male babies in Bethlehem.
The Lord Jesus, just like Moses, escaped a slaughter of the Israelite boys.
So you have a great parallel here.
But even more telling is the language used in verse 20 compared with the language used in Exodus 419.
And in the original, it's very, it's almost identical.
Look at Matthew 2.20.
Arise, take the young child and his mother, go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the young child's life are dead.
That's about Christ. Now about Moses.
And the Lord said to Moses in Midian, go, return to Egypt, for all the men who sought your life are now dead.
There's a parallel that's picked up. You can see it more clearly in the original.
You have the angels' words in Matthew 2 are indicative that a new Moses has arrived.
And that shouldn't surprise us.
I mean, Moses himself predicted one like himself would arise and come.
In Deuteronomy 18.15, he's telling the people, he said, listen, the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren.
Him you shall hear.
There's going to come a new leader, Israel, is what he's saying.
He's going to be a leader like me, and you need to listen to him.
And Matthew is suddenly giving this impression, the one like Moses is here.
He has extraordinary similarities between the two.
But the author of Hebrews takes it one step further.
He actually compares Moses with Jesus.
Both of them are deliverers, but look at the text.
Hebrews 3.
Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our confession, Christ Jesus.
Consider him, folks, who is faithful to him who has appointed him as Moses also is faithful in all his house.
For this one has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses.
Now stop right there.
In Israel, in Judaism, the great leader, the one worthy of glory is Moses.
And the writer of Hebrews said, there's one who's now come, and he's worthy of more glory than Moses.
Inasmuch as he who built the house has more honor than the house.
For every house is built by someone. Yeah, that makes sense.
But he who built all things is God.
Do you start to see what he's saying here?
Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things which will be spoken afterward.
But Christ, Christ as a son over his own house, whose house we are if we hold the fast, the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.
Look at the similarities.
Moses, faithfulness task.
Christ, faithfulness task that the father had given to him.
Moses is being compared to the house. He was the one built.
Christ is the builder of the house.
Moses, the great deliverer of Israel, was a servant of God.
But Christ, the true and greater deliverer, is the son of God.
And Matthew's readers back in chapter two, no doubt they're going to pick up on this imagery being used.
They're steeped in it.
And they know what Matthew is hinting at is that a greater deliverer than Moses had arrived.
Now go back to the text in Matthew two and you're going to see it even more clearly.
Verse 16. When Herod saw that he was deceived by the wise men, he was exceedingly angry.
And he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men.
Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet saying, a voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for children, refusing comfort because they are no more.
Now let's look at this carefully. Herod knew that he had been outwitted by the Magi.
He knew he'd been duped and he was enraged. The Bible says exceedingly angry.
Remember we talked two weeks ago about Herod the Great's temperament. He was known as a ruthless king.
He killed people indiscriminately. He had three of his own sons executed when he felt they were threat to his power.
He had his favorite wife Miriam executed. He had his brother-in-law and mother-in-law executed.
He had the whole Hasmonean family executed.
This guy's ruthless. He's maniacal.
So you have a lunatic king. A lunatic king is ruling and now he's on a homicidal mission.
So he quickly decrees. He says you're not going to outwit me. So he orders the slaughter of all the boys in Bethlehem
and its surrounding districts from two years old and under.
Now keep in mind this would not be very hard to carry out of all because Bethlehem is only five miles from Jerusalem.
But why two and under? Now this does not necessarily imply that the Lord Jesus is approaching two years old.
We don't know. But everything that I've read, everything I've studied, said between six and twenty months would have been Jesus' age.
So what this wicked man does, he wants to ensure that he has a large enough margin of error to ensure that the threat would be eliminated.
He didn't care about families. He didn't care about children.
Kill them all if they're two years or under. And they're males? They die.
Now Bethlehem was a small village, probably about a thousand people, and the estimates are twelve to twenty boys would have been murdered in this event.
Twelve to twenty kids. But just as we saw at the beginning when I showed you that picture with the missionary couple,
God's people of church have always endured violence from the hands of evil men and evil kings.
We should not be surprised by that. But Matthew says this event, this massacre of Bethlehem, fulfilled a prophecy of Jeremiah.
He talks about a voice heard in Ramah, lamentation. And what he's doing here, he's quoting Jeremiah 31.15.
That's very important. And I know that sometimes we get a little academic here, but this is so important here.
Jeremiah 31 is not an immediate reference to the Messiah. But Matthew, being led by the Holy Spirit, is under covering a deeper theme.
In Jeremiah, Jeremiah 31, the nation Israel, remember a son, is being judged by God, sent into exile because of their disobedience.
So the nation is proving to be an unfaithful son. That's why they're going into exile.
Jeremiah writes that Rachel is weeping. You remember who Rachel was? That's Jacob's wife.
So Jacob's wife Rachel, long since dead, she was one of the matriarchs of the nation.
And Jeremiah is writing that she is weeping, metaphorically, because her children, that is Israel, are no more.
How are they no more? They're gone into exile. They're leaving to Babylon. But here's what's so great.
He's quoting chapter 31. That same chapter is a chapter of glorious hope about the ending of an exile through a new and better covenant.
So we see at the time of Jesus, now go to the time of Jesus now, we're not in Jeremiah.
Israel is back in the land, right? Yeah, they're back in the land of Palestine or that area of Palestine.
But they're still in exile. They're not a free people. They are still under Roman rule, foreign oppression.
You have a Gentile nation ruling over them. So the exile continues.
So this weeping that Matthew is writing about, the weeping of the massacre of Bethlehem, is a perfect example of how the pain of exile will continue until a new Moses would come and deliver them through a new and better covenant.
So the Bethlehem massacre is the climax of Rachel's weeping for the exile, and it's going to end. Now, let me say this, because this was so fascinating to me.
He's quoting Jeremiah 31.15 about Rachel weeping. You can turn in scriptures if you want to go, but I have it on the wall behind me.
Jeremiah 31, the immediate verse following, Rachel's told, stop weeping. Why? Let's look at it. Thus says the Lord.
So just so Rachel's weeping. Now stop weeping. Thus says the Lord. Refrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for your work shall be rewarded, says the Lord, and they shall come back from the land of the enemy.
You're not going to be in exile forever. There is hope in your future, says the Lord. Your children shall come back to their own border. That's right. They're going to. They're not always going to stay.
That's wonderful. Go down 14 verses, verse 31. Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord. This is the hope.
When I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, not under Moses.
This is not the Moses covenant. My covenant would say broke, thou was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this, this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, after the exile, says the Lord.
I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, know the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord.
How? For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more. A new covenant is coming, which is what gives them hope about the end of exile.
The night on which our Lord was betrayed, he took juice, he took bread, he took wine, and he broke the bread, but he also took one of the cups, and after he had taken a drink, and he looked at his disciples, and what did he say? This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
What Matthew is saying is this exile that has lasted from the time of Jeremiah, you come to the New Testament, they're still in exile, they're still under foreign occupation, Rachel is still weeping, children are still being massacred, no more, but there's a new Moses had come.
I'm going to make a new covenant, not like the one with Moses, there's a better Moses come, and this new covenant, it means I will absolutely forgive their iniquity and their sin, and I will remember no more. It is a permanent, it is a lasting covenant, and it is one that will be brought by the bloody death of Christ.
Matthew is proving that the fulfillment of Rachel's hope, as prophesied by Jeremiah, is that although Jesus would be temporarily exiled, he's forced to flee to Egypt, right?
He returns to the people with a new and lasting covenant brought about by his death and resurrection.
Don Carson says the heir to David's throne has come. Remember how Matthew opened the gospel? This is the gospel of Jesus, son of Abraham, son of David, or son of David, son of Abraham.
The heir to David's throne has come. What's he saying? The exile was over. The true son of God is right, not the nation Israel, the true son, the true Israel is here, and he will introduce this new covenant, ratified in his blood, promised by Jeremiah.
Now look at verses 19 through 21. But when Herod was dead, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in Egypt. Arise, go back to Israel. Those who are seeking the child's life are dead.
Joseph arose, and it came back to Israel. Now this is the third time that an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, and the angel is informing him while in Egypt that Herod has died.
Now why does the angel have to inform him? How else are they going to know? There's not mass communication. It would have been forever before that news would have reached.
And Herod was not that important in Egypt, so they would have never maybe have known. So he lets them know Herod's dead, now it's safe to go back to Israel. And as always, Joseph immediately obeyed.
See, if this Herod, remember Herod the Great died. This is really interesting. When he died, his territory or his rule was divided amongst his three sons.
Arceleus, Herod Antipas, and Philip. Now you're saying, those don't ring the bell to me at all. They will. Arceleus is ruling over Judea. That's the Ansemaria.
That's where Jerusalem is. That's the southern part of Israel. That's where the capital is. Herod Antipas is ruling over Galilee and Peria.
Now you're going to read about him in Matthew 14, or Mark Matthew 14. And then you have another son, Philip, you'll read about in Matthew 14. Why?
Do you remember when John the Baptist, he was beheaded. Why was John the Baptist killed? Because he was bold enough. He told Herod Antipas that it was unlawful, before God, for him to take his brother Philip's wife as his own wife.
And Herod Antipas didn't like that and says, really? You're dying. So you have what's happening here. Joseph, Mary, and the child Jesus return to Israel.
Now where are they going to return to? Presumably to Bethlehem, because that's the place where they left. But as they enter into Israel, Joseph learns that Arceleus, Herod the great's son, is ruling down in Judea.
So Bethlehem would be a very unsafe place for this child. Why? Because Arceleus was a maniac like his father. He too was a cruel and ruthless man, but he didn't have the political savvy that his father had.
In fact, his reign only lasted a few years, and then Rome decided to replace him by a Roman prefect known as Pontius Pilate.
So this is how the history is coming together. Herod the great dies, you have Arceleus, you have Herod Antipas, you have Philip over here. Arceleus is a maniac. They depose him and they put him Pontius Pilate.
So you have Herod Antipas, Pontius Pilate, at the end of Jesus' life, those are the two men that you come to see him play. It's just fascinating to see it come together.
Now look at the last two verses here, 22 and 23.
But when he heard that Arceleus was reigning, instead of his father Herod, he was afraid. Worn by God and dream, he goes into Galilee, northern Israel, Herod Antipas' reign.
And he came, Joseph, dwelt in a city called Nazareth. Why? Why Nazareth? That might be spoken by the prophets, he shall be called a Nazarene.
So once more, God is warning Joseph, in a dream, leave the area. Joseph then heads north and goes into Galilee. And there, and we're not told why, Luke tells us that they were there earlier.
They chose to live in Nazareth. Now what's so special about Nazareth? Nothing. It is a tiny, nondescript, unimportant village in Galilee.
No one would have ever expected the Messiah to hail from Nazareth. I mean, it would have been the least likely places.
In fact, in John chapter 1, do you remember when Philip finds Nathaniel, he says, hey, we found the Messiah, we found him, of whom all the prophets are, Jesus of Nazareth.
What did Nathaniel say? Nathaniel said, can anything good come out of Nazareth? Now here's what's important.
Nathaniel is from Cana of Galilee. This is just a few miles from Nazareth. So if you have a man who has this reaction, here's a man who lives in Cana and he's looking down on Nazareth and like, really?
Nazareth, can anything good there? Can you imagine the reaction of those in Jerusalem? Many had never even heard of Nazareth. That's how small it was.
Nazareth, to be a Nazarene was to be despised. You're looked down as backwards, podunk. No worth. Much like Appalachia is today in our own country.
It would be incredible, absolutely incredible that anyone from Nazareth could possibly be the Messiah. Nazarenes were rejected. They were despised.
And friends, that's Matthew's point. Matthew is not referring to specific prophecy. It's not there. And he doesn't say this. He says, talking to the prophets.
But the prophets in general, when they tell us the Messiah, what do they tell us about the Messiah? He'll be despised. He'll be rejected.
So everyone would have assumed, oh yeah, he would grow up in Bethlehem. That's the royal city. That's the city of David.
And if not Bethlehem, you'd have him hailing from Jerusalem, the capital city. Instead, as God would have it, his son identifies with the rejected, the despised, the unsophisticated people of the world.
His son was a Nazarene. Now that may not seem very offensive to us, but you can sense the derision. We read about it in Acts 24 verse 5 when they're making fun of Paul.
The religious leaders are coming and they're coming to accuse Paul. And here's what they said in verse 5.
For we have found this man, Paul, a plague, a creator of dissension among all the Jews throughout the world, and by the way, a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes.
I mean, to be called a Nazarene was no compliment to be looked down upon. We think about, like, let's put it in our own context.
If the Messiah had been born in America, we would expect to find him amongst the power brokers or the movers and shakers of this world.
You might look for the Messiah in the erudite, sophisticated, leading cities. D.C. The power of our country. New York, the largest city.
Maybe Los Angeles, but it's a trash dump right now. But that's not how God sent his son.
It is though, now think with me, it's though, it would be as though the Messiah were to be born and raised in Brewston Mills, West Virginia.
Anyone ever heard of Brewston Mills, West Virginia? No one. Population in backwards Appalachia, 64 people.
The son, that's how, this is what Nazareth would be like. And you're like Brewston Mills. The son of God, he came to identify with outcasts, with the broken, with the poor, the despised, and the rejected of this world.
Prover, Psalm 22, 6, speaking of himself, but I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men despised by the people. Friends, that's the son of God speaking prophetically there.
Isaiah 53, 3, he is despised, despised, and rejected by men. Again, I quote Don Carson, Jesus the Messiah, Matthew is telling us, did not introduce his kingdom with outward show, or present himself with a pomp of an earthly monarch, in accord with prophecy, he came as the despised servant of the Lord.
The despised servant, who would ironically give people eternal life by suffering a brutal death. Friends, are you starting to see what Matthew is saying here? Are the dots being connected?
God sent his son, the Messiah, to be born to a poor family, in which he would be reared on the wrong side of the tracks. This Messiah, he's not going to conform to the cultural expectations that people would have, and instead of finding acceptance, his son would be rejected, despised by his own people.
And this, this is the point, we're closing.
This is the way the kingdom of God began.
To enter into this kingdom,
because it's radically different from any kingdom you know,
to enter into this kingdom, you must humble yourself.
You've got to see yourself as one of the rejected,
the despised, the outcast.
We confess our own unworthiness, we confess our own sinfulness.
And then we receive this gift of salvation that is offered by the despised servant of the Lord.
This is how one enters into his kingdom.
You don't enter into any other way.
You will come humbly, or you don't come at all.
God came to save those outcasts, those sinners, those rejected, those despised, because that's what we were before God because of our sin.
Christ Jesus suffered our exile.
You're either going to continue in exile in your sin,
or you will fall on your face, recognize your own sinfulness, and come into Christ in confession of faith.
And when you do, he offers you pardon through that bloody death and that new covenant that began on that day.
Let's pray.
Father, I thank you Lord for your word.
It's absolutely rich, it's glorious.
God, would you help even take these feeble words this morning?
Lord, would you use them?
Lord, maybe prick someone's conscience or something they've heard and they would further study.
Lord, may your people not be content just what they hear today, but to study and Lord, see the glory of Christ, a better deliverer, a better Moses.
God, help us Lord.
Give us grace for these things.
And then Lord, I pray today for those who are listening who may be outside the kingdom of God.
Lord, would you help them today?
God, if your grace isn't active in there, they will never see it, but Lord, would you show them their need of Christ and Lord, humble them before you, Lord.
God, give them the gift of faith that they might enter into this kingdom where salvation is found.
Lord, I pray for the grace of humility in all of our lives.
Father, would you forgive us of our pride and our hubris?
Forgive us of the ways that Lord, we elevate ourselves Lord, for in your kingdom the way up is down.
To be exalted, one must go low.
Oh, God, help us to see these things.
God, would you do a glorious work in your church this morning?
I pray in Christ's name. Amen.
We're going to celebrate this new covenant today through the means of God.