Mark 14 Jesus prayer in the Garden — Mark 14

0:38 Hello? Are we... Is it our turn now? Well, I guess I'll start with, just saying hello, and Shelly's here just for the beginning. Don't worry.

0:52 I won't let her preach, but, I thought you'd like to see her face and maybe hear her voice. She's very frustrated that the border is not open, and she can't come to see her family and friends, but we're making do.

1:08 I'm so jealous of what you have set up. We're not allowed to do even half of what you're doing there at Westlake. Churches are not open. So much around our communities are still closed. Everybody's so scared.

1:26 So I envy what The States is doing. Canada is still very much in a lockdown mode. You can't even go in between the provinces. The borders of... The individual provinces are closed.

1:40 So

1:43 we're very impressed with, your coronavirus church service. You did a good job. We like we like how you're running things and, very uplifting, and you're making it work. So great example that you've set for us. Anything else, love, before I kick you away?

2:08 No. Alright. So I've been given a passage there that you're doing as a chapel in the book of Mark, and, I thank you for the privilege of speaking and serving with, the word of God. Last night, I listened to, Devin Boss, and he was speaking on, Mark chapter 14. So I enjoyed that, and I sorta got a feel for your series.

2:44 My portion is chapter 14 verses 26 through 50. So I'll start by giving that a read, and I'm reading from the NASB version. After singing a hymn... By the way, I love that hymn we just sang, the power of the cross. That was really good.

3:14 Really good words. After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount Of Olives. And Jesus said to them, you will all fall away because it is written, I will strike down the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered. But after I have been raised, I will go ahead of you to Galilee. But Peter said to him, even though all may fall away, yet I will not.

3:41 And Jesus said to him, truly I say to you that this very night, before a rooster crows twice, you yourself will deny me three times. But Peter kept saying insistently, even if I have to die with you, I will not deny you. And they all were saying the same thing also. They came to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, sit here until I have prayed. And he took with him Peter and James and John and began to be very distressed and troubled.

4:19 And he said to them, my soul is deeply grieved to the point of death. Remain here and keep watch. And he went a little beyond them and fell to the ground and began to pray that if it were possible, the hour might pass him by. And he was saying, Abba, father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me, yet not what I will, but what you will.

4:49 And he came and found them sleeping and said to Peter, Simon, are you asleep? Would you not keep watch for one hour? Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Again, he went away and prayed saying the same words.

5:10 And again, he came and found them sleeping for their eyes were very heavy, and they did not know what to answer him. And he came the third time and said to them, are you still sleeping and resting? It is enough. The hour has come. Behold, the son of man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.

5:51 Them a signal saying, whomever I kiss, he is the one. Seize him and lead him away under guard. After coming, Judas immediately went to him saying, rabbi, and kissed him. They laid hands on him and seized him, but one of those who stood by drew his sword and struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his ear. And Jesus said to them, have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me as you would against a robber?

6:24 Every day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me, But this has taken place to fulfill the scriptures, and they all left him and fled. Well, this passage is a epic passage, an epic moment in the history of redemption. There are several mountains of scripture such as the arrival of the Lord Jesus and the record of his birth. That is an epic moment. Same with the crucifixion of Christ, then the resurrection of Christ.

7:13 And here we have the night before his crucifixion, the night when his suffering began. To use his own words there in, verse 41, he said, the hour has come. It has come all the way from eternity into time. He lived his life for thirty three, thirty four, thirty five years to come to this hour. And here we are reading about his agony as he contemplates what it will cost him to redeem our souls.

8:01 So if you wanted to capture all of this, passage in in one sort of sound bite, you might say stricken shepherd, scattered sheep. And in this passage, we see a contrast. We see the strength and endurance of the shepherd, and we see the weakness and the unfaithfulness of the sheep. So we are to learn a great deal from our savior's example. No doubt.

8:42 That's why we've been given a glimpse of, what he did for us there. We're allowed to be a fly on the wall in the Garden Of Gethsemane watching the Lord Jesus as he falls on the ground and prays. And we are also given a glimpse of the heroes of our faith, the apostles, and their great failure. Peter denied his Lord. The very strongest apostle, if you had to sort of pick one, who was in the forefront, fell flat on his face, and denied his Lord three times.

9:28 On the very night, he was needed most as a friend. Well, what I wanna start with is what the Lord Jesus started with. I don't think we can cover every verse in this portion, due to time, but we'll we'll try to cover the big things, the the the relevant points. And, as it says in Psalms, we will magnify the Lord together. So I wanna start with verse 27.

10:01 The Lord Jesus explains what's going to happen that night and the following day through a prophecy in, Zechariah chapter 13. So turn to Zechariah chapter 13, and, we will read that prophecy there. The reason I'm having you turn to Zechariah 13 is because in the scripture, apparently, when you quoted one verse from a passage, it sort of meant that the whole passage had relevance to what you were saying. You didn't have to quote the whole passage. The idea was if you quoted one verse, it sort of brought in the context of the surrounding verses.

10:54 So I think that's true in this case. When we go back to Zechariah 13, I I hope you found it there, you'll realize that verse one of chapter 13 is not what's quoted. It's actually verse seven that is quoted. But in verse one, it says, in that day will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem... Sorry.

11:23 In that day, a fountain... That's the most important word. I actually missed it. In that day, a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for impurity. Now reading that verse in the Old Testament might not have made much sense.

11:45 I mean, what's this fountain? What body of water would it be? The Pool Of Siloam, the the River Jordan from the ground? But in light of the New Testament, we understand that the fountain was to be the savior's own blood, the savior's own body, which was crucified for us. And that's why William, Caliper or William Cooper penned that great hymn that said, there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains lose all their guilty stains.

12:33 And that's... He based that on this verse here, Zechariah 13 verse one. So if you read that passage, it's it's talking about the future of Israel. So what we're looking at in the New Testament is, of course, a partial fulfillment when the shepherd was stricken and the following aftermath, such as verse eight and nine of chapter 13, will come later. But in a microcosm, you see it happening there in the Garden Of Gethsemanes.

13:10 The shepherd was struck, and the sheep were scattered. Now let's focus our attention on verse seven. It says, awake, o sword, against thy shepherd and against the man, my associate, where the King James says, the man who is my fellow. Strike, declares the Lord of hosts. Strike...

13:39 And this is what Jesus quotes right here. Strike the shepherd that the sheep may be scattered, and then he does not quote, and I will turn my hand against the little ones. So he quotes a portion of this verse, but there's lots around it. So let's unpack this. This is amazing.

14:00 Here we have Jehovah giving the nod or giving the okay for the sword to drop on his shepherd, on the man that is his fellow. We know the Lord Jesus was fond of the expression shepherd. He said, I am the good shepherd. I give my life for the sheep. And here, this is described as God's shepherd.

14:36 He is the one God has chosen to be the shepherd of the sheep. He would lay down his life and give it as a ransom for many. I really like this phrase against the man that is my fellow. Focus on that. Awake all sword against the man, my associate.

15:02 Here we have in the Old Testament a clear verse that God would become incarnate. He will become a man. Awake, oh, sword against the man. We also have a clear reference that this man is God's fellow or his associate. This is a very intimate word.

15:29 This talks about the equality of Messiah with Jehovah God because they are the same. It is God the father, God the son. They are equal. They are the same. This speaks of the Trinitarian nature of God.

15:49 In order to accomplish our redemption, God the son stepped out of heaven into human clothing, if you will, took on flesh, not sinful flesh, but took on a nature like ours in order to pay the price of the death that was ours. Now the last part of the verse says, I will... When I strike the shepherd, I will turn my hands against the little ones. Unfortunately, that's a little bit difficult to interpret. You can take it negatively, like, in the sense where I struck the shepherd, I will also strike the sheep.

16:40 I will turn my hands against the little ones. Or you can take it positively. Because I struck the shepherd, now I will turn my hand graciously to the little ones. I personally favor the positive interpretation. Because of the phrase little ones.

17:02 That's a very tender expression. The little ones. And God here is protecting the little ones. We see we see in the scriptures that in John's gospel chapter 18, Jesus steps forward and says, take me and let these ones go. So I think the idea is when the shepherd is stricken with the hand of wrath, God can turn his hand of grace on us, his little ones.

17:39 So now let's turn back to, Mark chapter 14 and read the passage in light of the sword, the sword of judgment that is now falling on the Lord Jesus, where it's going to fall the next day. And he anticipates what that means when that sword of judgment will separate him from the father. And when that sword of judgment will bring upon him the role of the sin bearer of mankind. Mark chapter 28. Before we talk about the Lord Jesus under the burden of our sin and what Calvary meant to him, let's just focus a little bit on the disciples now because, we're shown their weakness in order to understand our own weakness.

19:21 Peter was serious. He loved the Lord Jesus. He wanted to follow him all the way to prison and to death if that's what it took. His spirit was willing. But you know what Peter didn't know?

19:38 He didn't know how weak he really was. He didn't know how weak his flesh was, how deceitful our flesh is, how our feet are made of clay, and we crumble in the face of persecution, opposition, or hardship. The first lesson or the first obstacle to get over in order to walk faithfully with Christ is to see and understand our own weaknesses, the weakness of our flesh. So Peter was sifted. You remember, Satan desired to sift him like wheat.

20:24 And Peter, the flesh of Peter was exposed. Because of that, Peter was strengthened. Jesus says, when you are restored, go and strengthen your brethren. So here we have Peter boasting that he would never deny the Lord, that he would always be faithful. And Jesus turns and looks to him and says, before the rooster crows twice tonight, you will deny me three times.

20:56 You and I must learn to distrust our own capabilities and to be suspect of our own resolutions, our own declarations of faithfulness, and we need to be able to see ourselves clearly so that we honestly say, without the grace of God, without the help of God, I'm not going to be able to do this. I'm not going to be able to stand faithfully against unrighteousness. I'm not going to be able to proclaim the gospel in the face of fear and difficulty. I'm not going to be able to endure suffering, without the grace of God. This is what the disciples learned that night.

22:00 The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. More about that in the next section. Let's now go back to looking at our shepherd, the lord Jesus Christ. I love that song in the black book. I think it's number 77.

22:22 We'll sing of the shepherd that died that died for the sake of the flock. His love to the utmost was tried but firmly endured as a rock. And here, we have the Lord Jesus being tried to the utmost. This was agony for him, it says in Luke's gospel. He, being in agony, prayed three times.

22:58 His love to the utmost was tried, but it endured. He endured. Our savior, our champion, our lord went through Gethsemane for us. He did not back away. He did not shrink back.

23:19 He faced Calvary. He endured the darkness on the cross because of his love for us, because of his little ones in order to redeem them. So it says here in verse 33, his troubles began. He said to him... He said to them, he began to be very distressed and troubled.

24:15 The tip of the iceberg. There's so much more here. It's, of course, a pleasure to speak about these things. It is our privilege to think about these things and to try to understand them, but we do a poor job. There is so much to learn, and I can't capture what these words mean.

24:40 He was very troubled, deeply distressed, grieved to the point of death, grieved to the point of death. Words fail. You know, when I watch these movies made of Jesus' life, they try to depict his anguish and his grief, but acting fails to communicate all that was there. But given that, we press on. So everything in scripture usually communicates to us the meaning of what is happening.

25:19 So Jesus went to a specific place to pray to his father about the work he was about to accomplish, and the name of that place was Gethsemane. Okay? Golgotha, where he was crucified, that means place of the skull. And that makes sense because there, Jesus died our death on the place of the skull. But here in Gethsemane, Gethsemane means olive press.

25:54 There must have been an olive press there, and the olives will be put into the press, and then they would be crushed by a massive stone in order to bring out the oil that would be useful for eating, cooking, and whatever else they use the oil for. So we have the Lord Jesus being crushed and pressed by the weight of the hour that had come upon him, and the oil would be coming for us for the benefit of mankind. He was crushed for our transgressions. He was punished for our iniquities, as it says in Isaiah 53 verse six... Verse four to six.

26:46 Well, I want you to think of what it may mean for the Lord Jesus to be in deep grief. You know, I've only seen deep grief a few times in my lifetime, and I use that to try to understand the Lord Jesus' grief. My cousin, she lost her little boy to cancer. He was a two year old boy. And at that funeral, I remember my cousin obviously weeping, weeping, weeping, weeping, but she couldn't even stand.

27:33 They had to prop her up, especially when things were said about her son and she felt another wave of grief. Then her knees buckled again. Or when she saw a picture on the screen of her son, another pang of grief, and she went down again. She was propped up by her husband and and brothers and whoever else was propping her up. No wonder the Lord Jesus fell to the ground.

28:10 He was in deep grief. What was he in grief over? I suggest two things. One would be the idea or the coming prospect of becoming the sin of the world. It says in second Corinthians chapter five verses 19 through 21, he became sin that we might become the righteousness of God.

28:44 So God looks at us now as righteous. I can only conclude or extrapolate that God looked at him as the sin offering, and the idea of God being regarded as sin was a recoiling concept to him. It made his body tremor, tremble with the thought that he would be treated or regarded as sin. He who is holy, the holy one who knew no sin was made sin for us. Here's a illustration that might help us a little bit.

29:35 When they want... I read this many, many years ago in, our daily bread. When they want to catch an ermine or an ermine, whatever way you pronounce it, to make those beautiful white collars that you see on, royalty. When they wanna catch an ermine, this is how they do it apparently. The beautiful white coat of the ermine is his prized possession, and that creature does not want to soil itself in any way.

30:12 And so what they do is they muck up its hole with dirt and filth and grease and grime, and then they set the dogs loose. And that ermine, rather than going back to its hole and sullying itself, would rather die than enter into that filth. And that's how they catch it. Isn't that true with the Lord Jesus? He did not want to be regarded as sin.

30:45 He did not... He was not willing to be embracing that just for the sake of embracing that. That was the last thing he would ever want upon himself. God hates sin. And now he was going to be regarded as a sin offering?

31:07 No. What he was willing to do was save us, but it was abhorrent for him to drink the cup that he had to drink. His prayer was, remove this cup. I don't want it. But if this is the only way, father, I will drink it.

31:28 Not my will, but yours be done. You know, you sort of get this in a a microcosm at the end of this passage in verse forty eight and fifty, he says to those who came to arrest him, have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me as you would against a robber? You see? He was not a robber. They were treating him as a robber.

32:03 They were regarding him as a villain, as a criminal. You're the most innocent person being thought about and treated as a malefactor. The same is true when God the father said, awake, oh, sword, against the man, my associate, against my shepherd. God regarded him as a sin offering at that moment. That is the...

32:36 One of the reasons for his grief. The second reason, I think his soul was deeply sorrowful, as it says in the King James, I don't think that's strong enough a word, to the point of death. I think the other thing that was making the Lord... Giving the Lord Jesus such psychological pain and such emotional turmoil was the thought of being separated from the father. Notice the contrast between his words.

33:10 We have on the cross, at the moment Jesus was paying for our sin, he said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And and we know why, but he said it to show that this was the moment of his deepest anguish, of the penalty of sin being paid, of an eternity of hell, judgment, wrath upon him at that moment. And we we can't even fathom what he may have felt for those three conscious hours. But contrast those words, my god, my god, with verse 30 of Mark chapter 14. Abba, father.

34:14 We got Abba, father. We got my God, my god. You see the separation that happened there. I love that hymn, how deep the father's love. The father turns his face away In order for Christ to redeem us from our sins, he had to become our sin.

34:40 And to become our sin meant that he had to be separated from the father for the first time ever in the history of God. This hour had come upon him, and it was breaking his heart just thinking about it. It was putting him in agony. And so that's what he's praying about in the garden. He's saying, if it is possible, remove this cup from me.

35:14 He's not afraid to die. He's not afraid of suffering, and some may interpret those words. He's not reluctant to do the will of God. We read in Psalm 40, behold, in the volume of the book, it is written of me, I come to do your will, oh God. In fact, Psalm 40 says, I delight to do your will, oh God.

35:44 So here, he delights to do this, but he does not delight in being regarded as sin, being given the punishment, the iniquity that is ours. Those things he had to swallow down, but they were not enjoyable in any way, shape, or form. Now we didn't talk about his, his agony so much as, it caused his sweat to be mingled with blood. Of course, it's not in this passage. That's why I didn't deal with it.

36:24 But it would also it would also show us the depth of the stress he was under. Apparently, one medical abstract says about this condition that it's intense mental stress, intense ongoing mental stress that breaks... Dilutes the capillaries. They break, and then they mingle with the pores and into the sweat and come out of the body. We know that intense stress over a period of ten years can cause heart attacks.

37:06 We know that intense stress in a matter of hours can cause a stroke. My one friend's dad had a stroke because he heard that his daughter was in a car accident, and it caused him to have a stroke because he was so stressed about it. So here, the Lord Jesus, extremely stressed, so much so that he was bleeding, in his sweat. Can you imagine how much it cost the Lord Jesus to pay for our sins? We will never know, but we will forever praise him for giving his life for the sheep.

38:24 He's crying as it says in Hebrews chapter five verse seven. Strong tears. And yet in his anguish, he ministers and teaches his disciples. He asked them to watch and pray. They fell asleep three times.

38:46 Okay? Three failures contrasted with this great strength that the Lord Jesus is showing. The contrast is amazing. And to overcome their weakness and to not fall again into the temptation to give in to sleep in this scenario, he tells us a principle. The spirit is willing.

39:17 The flesh is weak. Therefore, we must watch and pray. I prefer the translation in NASB. That's why I read it. Verse 38, keep watching.

39:33 It's a continuous. Keep praying. Not a one time thing. Never. Because the flesh always asserts itself.

39:43 The flesh is always coming back and trying to preserve itself, serve itself. We must watch ourselves. We have to be very vigilant against ourselves because the flesh will always try to come back even if we've overcome it. It will always try to come back. And the flesh usually is the strongest when we are weakest, when we when we are in need.

40:14 So we're lacking sleep as in this scenario. We're lacking food. Who doesn't get grouchy when they're hungry? Who doesn't get a little more irritable when they're tired? This is the flesh.

40:28 When we're cold, okay, we lack warmth. Now we can't do anything but think about getting warm again. I mean, we can't concentrate on a sermon because it's too hot. We can't concentrate on a sermon because it's too cold. You name it.

40:51 Praying. We can't pray because we're too tired. We need to watch ourselves in order to guard against ourselves. So watching is our defense. I think of, people on a city wall.

41:09 They watch back in the old days, ancient times, for the enemy approaching. And then praying, that's our offense. That's how we overcome the flesh's weakness. Think of prayer in this passage not as asking for things. You're not sort of asking, for so and so to be healed of their ailment.

41:36 Praying in this scenario, I believe, is aligning ourselves with the will of God. It is, again, reconnecting with the things that matter. It is plugging ourselves in, connecting with God, getting our focus, determination, and motivation back where it needs to be, understanding the priorities of things. Yes. We may be tired, but we need to pray.

42:10 Yes. We may be busy, but we need to make time to read the word of God. Yes. We may be fearful, but we need to speak, the gospel to this lost sinner. That's how it works.

42:29 And the way to get there is to take the the time to pray and to reconnect ourselves with God. It's it's a way of focusing. Right? That's how the Lord Jesus taught us to pray. Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

42:47 Let's get there there again. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done. Those are the ways that prayer focuses us back on the will of God, and it helps us to put down the temptation of the flesh that says, you know, take care of your comfort first, take care of God's kingdom, and prayer later. Now the Lord Jesus gave us that principle.

43:19 It is a timeless one. You can use it time and time again so that you will be able to say with him and just like him, not my will, but yours be done. Well, the last thing I want to end with is that, the Lord Jesus knew. He knew the whole time what was going to transpire that night. The way this passage started, he said, this very night, you're all going to fall away.

44:07 He knew Judas was coming. Even though he phrases it with a question, he says, Judas, are you going to be training with a kiss? He knew the kiss was coming. He said it, I imagine, to try one more time to reach Judas' heart. Our savior knew what he had to do, and he still did it.

44:35 He knew the tremendous cost. See, we don't know the cost, you and I. We're kind of ignorant in that domain. When we choose to be his disciple, we don't know what it means. We don't know what the future holds.

44:48 We don't know if we will suffer in martyrdom or suffer in persecution or suffer some crippling ailment, but we're still... We're ready to follow. The Lord Jesus saw it all, knew it all, and still embraced it all. Why? It says in Hebrews 12 that for the joy of the cross, for the joy set before him, I should say, he endured the shame of the cross.

45:23 We might even say the agony of it all for the joy set before him. So he's doing this here. He's drinking this cup for the joy of saving sinners. God always had a plan to rescue us from our sins, to bring us back from our, separation from him, to save us from his own judgment. And in order to do that, he knew the only way was to do it himself.

45:59 You know what I I I do not like, and it frustrates me? When atheists, they try to, cause doubt and discredit the cross of Christ by saying that this was some type of cosmic child abuse. They say when God the father sent God the son to die for our sins, that was unfair. Then they turn it around and say, which of you fathers will punish your kid in order to save another kid? That's not fair, they say.

46:41 Or let alone, you would punish your kid to save some stranger? That's not fair, they say. But you know what? That's that's not how it works. That's not at all how it works.

46:55 God the father, God the son, God the spirit are one. It was God who chose to step off his throne and to hang on a cross. It was God who chose to take my punishment. He didn't send anyone. He came himself.

47:18 It's because of his trinitarian nature that God the father sent the son, but he did it himself, and that is noble. We have people laying down their life for other people on d day, which we just remembered yesterday. We have people laying down their life for other people when they run into burning buildings and save them from a fire or go onto ice and save someone who's fallen in. We know that is the most noble thing you can do as a human being. And the Lord himself, God himself, ran into the burning earth and pulled us from it, from our own judgment, and he paid the price himself.

48:03 So that argument bothers me very much. It discredits God, and it's a misunderstanding. God himself paid the penalty, and he deserves praise and worship for what he has done. I'm gonna end with an illustration. I'm sorry if, some of you can't connect with it given your age, but, I just think it's very powerful.

48:29 And this illustration comes from the latest epic Marvel movies, which, I've seen with my sons because they really love those movies. So Marvel, Avengers, Infinity War, and Endgame, They're fighting this, massive opponent named Thanos. And, the reason I think of this illustration is because Thanos, of course, means death in the Greek language. So this is on my mind as this guy appears. His name is Thanos.

49:05 He's got these five power stones on a gauntlet glove. And if he snaps his fingers, half of mankind dies, so they have to stop him. Now the Lord Jesus in the Garden Of Gethsemane, he said, if it is possible, remove this cup from me. But the Lord Jesus knew it wasn't possible. This was the only way, the only way.

49:38 He prayed that prayer so we would understand what it cost him. He also prayed that prayer so we would have an example of how to suffer, to say, not my will, but yours be done. And in that Avengers movie, this, character named doctor Strange, he has the time stone, and he's able to see through time. So they have him calculating all the scenarios of how to beat this Thanos, And he runs through 14,000,000 scenarios using the time stone. He looks at 14,000,000 scenarios of how they could possibly defeat Thanos, and there's only one outcome, only one way that works out of 14,000,000 possibilities.

50:28 And that way was revealed at the very end of the two part movie. That way was for Iron Man to sacrifice his life to save the entire universe or half the universe. And what did that cost Iron Man? He knew that if he destroyed the gauntlet, he would destroy himself, leaving his wife behind, leaving his daughter behind, but he gave himself to save humanity. The Lord Jesus did the same.

51:06 He knew it would cost him his life. He knew it would cost him separation from the father. He knew it would cost him the horror of drinking the cup of sin, becoming a sin offering. He knew it would cost him suffering the wrath of God, and he counted it all joy. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross.

52:06 Your spirit is willing. He's shown you the way to overcome the flesh. Watch and pray. And in this way, we can serve our Lord Jesus and bring him glory and bring him praise and bring him honor and blessing and power because he was worthy, because he is worthy. The lamb who was slain is worthy of all praise, worship, and adoration.

53:28 It's extinguished. And you turn your hand towards the little ones, and you welcome us home. God, it's it's too amazing to even talk about... To fully fathom and understand. We praise you and thank you for the work you've accomplished.

53:46 Help us to live for you, God, because you are worthy of our worship, honor, and adoration. We praise you in the name of our savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.