Would you please turn to Mark's Gospel, Chapter 15. Two chapters to go. We're gonna begin our study of Chapter 15 today. For those of you who've been with us through this year plus study, I hope by now you remember what the theme is of the Gospel of Mark. I've shared it several times, but the theme is Jesus, as the suffering servant, and the call and cost of being his disciple. And as we get into chapter 15, and really last week as well, we're getting to the climax, the heart of the Gospel of Mark, and we're focused very intently now on the suffering servant. We're seeing his suffering in gory detail at times. In our passage last week, we studied Jesus' religious trial and Peter's denial. Today, our focus shifts to the civil trial before Pilate and the torture that was leading up to Jesus' crucifixion. As a review from last time, there are actually six trials that occurred in two phases. We have the religious trial, and we studied that some last week. Annas appears just in the Gospel of John, so we didn't talk very much about that. Caiaphas, and then the entire Sanhedrin. This second phase, the other three trials, are Pilate, and then Herod, and then Pilate again, and Herod is only found in the Gospel of Luke. I don't expect you to remember that necessarily or write it down, just know that there are phases of the trial, and there are multiple trials. And as you study it out, you could probably find illegal features of every one of them. Many of them were a mockery. But we're gonna read our verses for today. I'd like to invite you to stand, hopefully you've found your place. I'd like you to follow along as I read it and then as I teach through these first 20 verses of Mark 15. Immediately in the morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council. And they bound Jesus, led him away, and delivered him to Pilate. Then Pilate asked him, are you the king of the Jews? He answered and said to him, it is as you say. And the chief priests accused him of many things, but he answered nothing. Then Pilate asked him again, saying, do you answer nothing? See how many things they testify against you? But Jesus still answered nothing, so that Pilate marveled. Now at the feast, he was accustomed to releasing one prisoner to them, whomever they requested. And there was one named Barabbas who was changed with his fellow rebels. They had committed murder in the rebellion. Then the multitude, crying aloud, began to ask him to do just as he had always done for them. But Pilate answered them saying, do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews? For he knew the chief priests had handed him over because of envy. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd so that he should rather release Barabbas to them. Pilate answered and said to them again, what then do you want me to do with him whom you call the king of the Jews? So they cried out again, crucify him. Then Pilate said to them, why? What evil has he done? But they cried out all the more, crucify him. So Pilate, wanting to gratify the crowd, released Barabbas to them and he delivered Jesus after he had scourged him to be crucified. Then the soldiers led him away into the hall called Praetorium. And they called together the whole garrison. And they clothed him with purple, and they twisted a crown of thorns, put it on his head, and began to salute him. Hail, King of the Jews! Then they struck him on the head with a reed and spat on him. And bowing the knee, they worshiped him. And when they had mocked him, they took the purple off him, put his own clothes on him, and led him out to crucify him. We'll stop there. Would you pray with me? Our Father, we are again sobered by reading this section of your word. The illegalities, the mistrials, the beatings, the torture, And Lord, we thank you that you did all of that so that we could have eternal life. Lord, even in this more familiar passage, please meet us here and show us what you want us to see today. Lord, it's not enough for us to learn new facts or to gain head knowledge. We need you to change our hearts. Lord it is your will that your children become more like Jesus. And we cannot begin to do that on our own. But I pray that you would show us ways from this passage today that we need to become more like him. Lord I ask for your help. As I seek to teach through these verses this morning, I pray that you would give grace, that you would give power, that you would grant clarity, and that you, Holy Spirit, would teach your word to our hearts this morning, and that we would be ready to hear, ready to change, ready to apply, ready to live out what you show us, ready to repent, ready to continue believing. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you, you may be seated. The key phrase I'd like you to notice when we come upon it today is King of the Jews. And even right at this moment, I don't know exactly whether we're gonna get all the way through verse 20, but I'm dividing this section into two parts, up through verse 40 something, 42 I think. And today we're gonna look at the King of the Jews part one, and next time we're gonna look at the King of the Jews part two. because that is the phrase that comes up multiple times through this section. Here's the question I'd like you to be asking and looking for the answer to, listening for the answer to. Who were the guilty and innocent parties in this account? I'm about to give some of the answer away because my first main point is that Jesus was innocent. Jesus was innocent. Barabbas was guilty. But guess what? We're all guilty, but Jesus took our punishment. Let's go back to verse one and work our way through the passage. Immediately, one of Mark's favorite words, straightway, immediately in the morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council, and they bound Jesus, led him away, and delivered him to Pilate. When Mark says immediately in the morning, people think this probably was between five and six in the morning. It's early. You may remember from last week that the Romans, the officials held court early in the morning. So their goal was to get the pilot first thing while he was open to hearing their case. And it says that the chief priests held a consultation. So another bit of review from last week. The members of the Sanhedrin weren't supposed to meet at night, but they did. They weren't supposed to meet anywhere except in their chamber in the temple, but they did. They weren't supposed to demand that the accused answer a question that would incriminate himself, but they did. They weren't supposed to announce the sentence at the same time as the verdict in a death penalty case, but they did. And after breaking so many of their own laws, they still moved forward to have Jesus, an innocent man, executed. Now here's the transition that we see between that religious trial and the civil trial, the political trial. The charge that we saw last week was blasphemy, and now it's got to change to something else. It's going to change to treason, because they had a problem. Rome didn't care about the charge of blasphemy that they had worked so hard to convict him of. Pilate didn't care. The Sanhedrin had to accuse Jesus of a crime against Rome. So this new charge was treason. And to that end, the entire council met early in the morning, possibly this time in their designated chamber, and they convicted Jesus of three things. causing riots, forbidding to pay taxes to Rome, and making himself a king, the king of the Jews. I'd like to show that to you from a passage in Luke. This is Luke 23, verses one and two. Then the whole multitude of them arose and led him to Pilate, and they began to accuse him, saying, we found this fellow perverting the nation and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar, saying that he himself is Christ, that's the Messiah, a king. So they had these three charges. And it seems like the only one that stuck, or at least the only one that Pilate was interested in is that third one, that he was the king of the Jews. That's our phrase for today. He was the king of the Jews. And Pilate repeated that and asked Jesus about it. It's recorded in all four Gospels. This says that the Sanhedrin, they, the chief priests, elders, scribes, the 70, the Supreme Court of Israel, bound Jesus, led him away, and delivered him to Pilate. This is the second time that Jesus has been bound. Back in the garden, John 18, 12 tells us that they had bound him to lead him away to Annas and then to Caiaphas. So they're forcefully leading him away like a criminal, and they led him to Pilate. Who is that? Pontius Pilate. The different titles that you'll see for him in scripture are prefect, or procurator, or the one I'm gonna use the most, because it's most familiar to us, is governor. And he served in that role from AD 26 to AD 36. He was appointed by Rome. I learned that it seems he married the boss's granddaughter, so to speak, to get into his role. And he wasn't popular. He was a mean man. And he had had some issues already with the Jews. Turns out that he had already caused two riots. And he wasn't very popular with Rome. He hadn't gotten good job reviews for his role there in Judea. His palace was in Caesarea. He had a nice beach home. He was out on the coast normally, but he would come into Jerusalem for major events such as Passover. Now, why did the religious leaders deliver Jesus to Pilate? We talked about this briefly last week as well. Because they wanted Jesus executed. They wanted to kill him. They wanted to destroy him. And only a Roman official could carry out the death sentence. Yes, there were exceptions. Some of you are thinking maybe of Stephen in Acts chapter 7. There were times that the Jews still stoned people. But they didn't dare to try that on this occasion because Jesus was so well known and because there were so many people in Jerusalem they couldn't get away with such a thing. So they were bringing Jesus to Pilate in the hopes that he would carry out their verdict. As you read the parallel account in John, it looks like they really were expecting or hoping that Pilate would just hear what they were asking for and rubber stamp it, and we're good to go. But instead, Pilate chose to hear more. He wanted to hear the case. That was totally within his jurisdiction. He was allowed to do so, and that's what he decided to do. He wanted to question Jesus himself, and that brings us to verse two. Then Pilate asked him, that is Jesus, are you the king of the Jews? Jesus answered and said to him, it is as you say. Thanks Mark, short conversation, huh? Pilate asks, are you king of the Jews? That's the first time the phrase king of the Jews has appeared in Mark's gospel, but it appears six times in this chapter if you count verse 32 where it's king of Israel. And Jesus responds, matter of factly it seems, it is as you say. And the way we could paraphrase that is yes, but not the way you think. I'm not the kind of king you would think of. That term, king of the Jews, is not what you think it is. So what's going on in this conversation? Pilate was asking Jesus to defend himself against the political charges the Sanhedrin had brought against him. And John's gospel gives us more details. So I'm gonna show you some verses from John chapter 18. Then Pilate entered the praetorium again, called Jesus and said to him, are you the king of the Jews? Jesus answered him, are you speaking for yourself about this or did others tell you this concerning me? Pilate answered, am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you to me. What have you done? Notice Jesus' answer, verse 36. My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight so that I should not be delivered to the Jews. But now my kingdom is not from here. Pilate therefore said to him, are you a king then? Jesus answered, you say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice." Pilate said to him, what is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and said to them, I find no fault in him at all. As expected, Pilate cared only about the political accusation. Is he a king? Is he a threat? Beyond that, he didn't care about the truth, and yet the truth was standing in front of him. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and he's saying, what is truth? Very flippantly, very sarcastically. Coming back to the Gospel of Mark, verse three, and the chief priest accused him of many things, but he answered nothing. This is the way it was supposed to work. Pilate was hearing the case. He had to hear what was being accused. What is he accused of? And they bring all kinds of things. And Jesus answered nothing. Why didn't he answer? Well, I can think of two reasons. One, because of prophecy. And number two, because he was innocent. They weren't interested in the truth, we just said that really Pilate wasn't interested in the truth, that he's an innocent man. Look at this verse last week too, Isaiah 53 7. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. That's the prophecy, that he is not going to speak up, he is not going to defend himself. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. Back to Mark. Then Pilate asked him again saying, do you answer nothing? See how many things they testify against you. But Jesus still answered nothing, so much so that Pilate marveled. I don't know what it took to make a Roman governor marvel. One of his jobs was as a judge, so he heard all kinds of things and talked to all kinds of people. Some of you have been in law enforcement. Some of you have been in the military. He was dealing with all kinds of things all the time, and yet he marveled at Jesus. Why? Because Jesus would not defend himself. Why? Because of prophecy. Because he was innocent. I could probably add a third one, and that's that he was gonna be crucified. That's where he intended to go. That's what he knew what was going to happen. He wasn't going to interfere with that. So our first point this morning, Jesus was innocent. Compared with Luke chapter 23, at this point Pilate sent Jesus to Herod Antipas. Why? Because he had learned in the process of hearing arguments against him that Jesus was from Galilee, and Herod ruled over that area. Jesus did not answer the charges against him to Herod either, and Herod sent him back to Pilate. Verse six, now at the feast, he was accustomed to releasing one prisoner to them, talking about Pilate, whomever they requested. The feast, of course, is the Passover. Roman governors maintained a tradition of releasing prisoners during special occasions. So that was normal. They would ask, and you can see that in the phrase, whomever they requested, they would ask, we want this guy to be released. and the governor would do it each year at the Passover and perhaps other special festivals like that. Verse seven, and there was one named Barabbas, we're introduced now to Barabbas, who was chained with his fellow rebels. They had committed murder in the rebellion. So Mark described Barabbas as a convicted rebel and murderer. At least he's in with murderers. It seems to me that he's a murderer. John chapter 18 adds that he's a robber. Now here's what's interesting. He had done everything they were charging Jesus with, everything they were accusing Jesus of and more. What's my point? Barabbas was guilty. Jesus was innocent, Barabbas was guilty. So, verse seven, actually going back to verse six, setting up, Mark's giving us narrative. Pilate was accustomed to releasing one prisoner to them. There was this guy named Barabbas, he was in prison. He was a rebel, he was a murderer, verse eight. Then the multitude, crying aloud, began to ask Pilate to do just as he had always done for them. Now who's in the multitude? We don't know. It doesn't say. The wording means that it's not talking about the Sanhedrin. It's not the religious leaders. It's a different group. Some believe that this was a group of supporters of Barabbas who had come specifically for the purpose of asking to have him released. We don't know. Verse nine, Pilate answered them saying, do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews? That's what he expected, that's what he thought they would want. For he knew that the chief priests had handed him over because of envy. The Amplified Version adds resentment, envy and resentment. Another version says self-interest. He could see through their plot. He's a Roman governor. He is not accustomed to having Jewish leaders come voice their concerns to him about someone who's rebellious to Rome. It just didn't work that way. So he saw through what was going on and he knew that they were jealous of Jesus because he knew they were more concerned about their own power, their own authority than they were about Pilate or Caesar or Rome in general. Verse 11, but the chief priests stirred up the crowd so that he should rather release Barabbas to them. Pilate answered and said to them again, what then do you want me to do with him whom you call the king of the Jews? This, I think, really surprised Pilate. I think he believed, I'm gonna offer to do what I've always said I would do for you each year. We give you one of the people who are imprisoned. Aren't you gonna want the king of the Jews? Don't you want him? No, we want Barabbas. Well, then what do you want me to do with Jesus? And he uses their phrase, the one you call the king of the Jews. Verse 13, so they cried out again, crucify him. That may have shocked Pilate. Then Pilate said to them, why, what evil has he done? He's still trying to get to the bottom of this. Why should I crucify him? Why should he be executed? But they cried out all the more, crucify him. One person called this mob rule with a vengeance. They are angry, they are agitated, they are, frankly at this point, demon influenced. They are angry. Pilate's question, why, what evil has he done? Well twice over in Luke's gospel and three times in John's gospel, Pilate protested that he found no fault in Jesus. Matthew records that Pilate called him a just or righteous man. In other words, Jesus was innocent. You realize that's different from just being found not guilty, right? Any one of us could be found not guilty of a crime. Maybe we did it, maybe we didn't, but Jesus had never done anything wrong. He was innocent. Isaiah 53 9 says he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Jesus was innocent, but they cried out all the more, crucify him. They offered no response to Pilate's question. Why? What evil has he done? Crucify him. Let's not worry about the charges. Let's not worry about what he did or didn't do. Just kill him. Get rid of him. Destroy him. We want him out of here. They had no answer to his question because the answer was nothing. Jesus had never done anything wrong ever. John, again, gives us some extra details of the back and forth between Pilate and the religious leaders. This is from John 19. From then on, Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out saying, if you let this man go, you are not Caesar's friend. Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar. When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus out and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. That's where he would have to come sit to give his verdict. Now it was the preparation day of the Passover and was about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, behold, your king. But they cried out, away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate said to them, shall I crucify your king? And then they did it. The chief priests said, we have no king but Caesar. Back in Mark, verse 15, so Pilate, wanting to gratify the crowd, released Barabbas to them. And he delivered Jesus after he had scourged him to be crucified. Now, if you have a different, newer translation than the New King James I'm reading from, you probably have the word satisfy in that verse. Pilate wanting to satisfy the crowd. Why did he want to satisfy the crowd? Because they're mad. That's a good answer. I didn't hear what you said, Jeffrey. He's a man pleaser. Yes. Because he didn't want to lose his job. I mentioned a few minutes ago, in the years he had been governor up to this point, there had been two major riots, probably a third strike and he was out. He couldn't afford to allow a mob or to incite one. If they rioted, and remember, the city is overflowing with people who have come for the feast, he is in trouble. So to save his own hide, he's going to satisfy them. And just putting that in our modern life, have you ever been asked to do something or asked not to do something for your job? And you know it's wrong. And you have to decide, is this worth losing my job over? If it's right, it's worth losing your job over. Pilate released Barabbas to them. And he delivered Jesus to be crucified. These were the two demands of the crowd. They wanted Barabbas and they wanted Jesus crucified. And he caved on both. The fear of man brings a snare. He caved in, he gave up, he satisfied the crowd. Now, before you ever walked in here today, you knew Jesus was innocent. And if you've studied the story at all, you know Barabbas was guilty. But we also want to get this down to where we live as well. So that third point is we too are guilty. But I would say that like Barabbas, Jesus took our punishment. He took our place. And as you read all the gospels, it's called understatement. It doesn't go into pages of gory detail like a novelist. It's very understated, and Mark, in particular, we know he likes action, he moves quickly, usually. But in just a couple phrases, he talks about scourging and crucifixion. After Pilate had scourged Jesus, or your translation may say flogged him, the Romans used this form of punishment, scourging, for murderers and traitors, only murderers and traitors. It was a separate punishment for crucifixion, but it usually went along with crucifixion. Someone who was condemned to be crucified would normally be scourged beforehand. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, Pilate may have thought that having Jesus scourged would make the crowd sympathetic and he could release Jesus. Some people died from scourging. The purpose of scourging was to rip the skin off a person. Normally there was a low post and clothes would be removed and he would be stretched over and there would be two men holding whips. They were short whips with leather thongs and inside the thongs were pieces of lead or glass or bone. And as that came down, it would dig into and rip open the person's back. History records that some victims were whipped so severely that their internal organs or even their bones and cartilage were exposed. Let's go back to Isaiah 53, four and five. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was wounded, why? For our transgressions. He was bruised, why? For our iniquities. The chastisement or punishment for our peace, our well-being was upon him. And if you see it up here, read the last words with me. And by his stripes we are healed. If you've ever heard that Jesus received 39 lashes, that's not right. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 11, 24 that more than once he had received 40 stripes minus one, the 39 lashes. But that was a Jewish law. That wasn't Roman law. There was no limit on how many times that they could strike a prisoner. So we will probably never know, this side of heaven, how many times he was beaten, how many times he was lashed for your sin and my sin. Well, that did not satisfy the crowd, so they delivered Jesus to be crucified. And we'll talk more about this next time. But most of you are aware, crucifixion was horrible. It was torturous. This form of execution was used only for slaves and foreigners. It was considered too inhumane for a Roman citizen. The victim died from a combination of suffocation, dehydration, exhaustion, and exposure. Cicero described crucifixion as the cruelest and most hideous punishment possible. We're gonna get to the crucifixion next time, but we have five more verses here that tell us about Pilate's soldiers mocking Jesus. There were actually three different groups that mocked Jesus. We saw last time that the religious leaders spat on him, slapped him, beat him. Luke records that Herod's soldiers also mocked and mistreated Jesus. They dressed him up in a gorgeous robe and made him look like a king. That's in Luke 23. But here's Mark's account in verse 16. Then the soldiers led him away into the hall called Praetorium. And they called together the whole garrison. The soldiers led him away. He was now turned over to the soldiers. And from what I read, they could do anything to him they wanted to at this point, short of killing him. Hall means courtyard, that's how it's translated back in chapter 14. Praetorium, that's a fancy word, you might have palace, it was the governor's official residence. Where it says the whole garrison. I saw different numbers, it could be up to 600 soldiers. probably at least 100, 200, at least those who were off-duty, but a whole garrison would be 600 soldiers. That many of them took Jesus to the courtyard, and verse 17 tells us, they clothed him with purple, and they twisted a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and began to salute him, hail, king of the Jews. Purple, of course, is the color of royalty, so they probably found some centurion's old cloak and put that on him, The crown was a symbol of royalty, but if you stop to think of where thorns came from, you can go all the way back to Genesis to find out where thorns came from. Chapter three is part of the curse. Adam and Eve sinned, and God cursed the ground for their sake. Work was gonna become hard, but part of that was thorns. So next week with the crucifixion, God the Father not being able to look on his Son, being separated Father from Son for the first and only time. That's the curse of sin, but this as well, this crown of thorns represents the curse of sin. And what were they saying? Hail King of the Jews! Why would they say that? Because that's how they recognized Caesar, it's the same phrase they used. Hail Caesar! And they had additional words that were in Latin in them. imperial majesty or something like that. So they're mocking him. Why? Because the title that he's received, what he's been convicted of is that he is the king of the Jews. Do you think any of those soldiers cared for the Jews? Likely not. They probably hated them. That's where they were assigned, to keep the peace in and around Jerusalem. Some of them may have actually been loyal to Caesar, in which case they didn't want someone claiming to be a king apart from Caesar. Verse 19 says, they struck him on the head with a reed and spat on him, and bowing the knee, they worshiped him. And when they had mocked him, they took the purple robe off him and his own clothes on him and led him out to crucify him. They struck him on the head with a reed. John 19 tells us they also struck him with their hands It says, they spat on him and bowing the knee, they worshiped him. And each of those verb tenses are repeated. So the New American Standard, for example, says, they kept hitting him, they kept beating him, they kept kneeling and bowing. Or another one says, the NIV says, again and again, they were doing these things. So it wasn't just, oh, that first guy did it and that was funny and everybody enjoyed that. No, everybody was taking a turn mocking him, beating him, And if we combine this with Matthew, they first gave him the reed as a scepter, but then they took it out of his hands and beat him. And what's on his head? A crown of thorns. So they're beating that into his head. Isaiah 50, verse six, I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who plucked out the beard. I did not hide my face from shame and spitting. So this is the second time in this ordeal that Jesus has been spat upon by many, many people. When they had finished, Jesus was barely recognizable as human. Isaiah 53, two says, he has no form or comeliness, and when we see him, there's no beauty that we should desire him. When they had mocked him, that means after they had finished mocking him. They mocked him and pretended to honor him because they wouldn't acknowledge any king but Caesar. They would have gotten in trouble if they had. But we understand he is the king of kings. He was the king of Caesar. And whether they liked it, whether the religious officials liked it or not, he was and is the king of the Jews. But they mocked him. They spat on him. They beat him. And then they took the purple robe off him, put his own clothes on him, and led him out to crucify him. And even that part would have been painful because he had been scourged. And then they put that on him. And when they took those clothes back off him, all those scabs that were forming were ripped away and he began to bleed again. Who are the guilty and innocent parties in this account? Obviously, Jesus is innocent. Obviously, Barabbas is guilty. But we could add to that. We have the religious officials, they're guilty. We have Pilate, he's guilty. We have Barabbas, he's guilty. We have the soldiers who are abusing Jesus and they are guilty. We too are guilty. But here's the beauty of this situation. This is a tradition that they had given one prisoner, released one prisoner, Barabbas, guilty, murderer, and what happened to him? Free, you're free to go. Imagine the guards came to his cell and said, get out of here, you're free. Why, what happened? Somebody else is taking your place. Spiritually, that's what's going on here. Jesus is taking our place. We'll talk about it next week as well. As He went up on the cross to die in our place, He is representing us. He had lived a perfect, sinless life, which we cannot do. He represented us. He died a death He did not deserve. He represented us. We were guilty. He was innocent. He took our punishment entirely upon Himself. Now, it's good for us to consider these things. It's good for us to study and to understand what Jesus went through. And if you're like me, I would think that any human with feelings would feel sympathy for Jesus as we read these things. Hopefully you feel sadness as well. But as some people have pointed out, Jesus doesn't need our sympathy, folks. What's he asking for? What does he need from us? Our faith. It's not enough to know Jesus lived. It's not even enough to know Jesus was treated barbarically and Jesus died. That's not enough. We must believe he is the one true Savior. He is the way we have eternal life, like we read in our scripture reading. He is the way we can keep from being condemned, that we will not perish, but have everlasting life. We must believe on him. We must believe he is the Savior. We must accept what he has offered us. So my first question is, will you put your faith in that Savior? There may be somebody here in the room, there may be somebody joining us online, you've never done that. That's what he's asking of you today, to believe on him. And then believers, have you thanked him for this sacrifice? How can we go on sinning against Him when He has done so much to rescue us from our sin? Some of us may need to repent of some sin, to confess it to Him, to agree with Him about it, to move on from it, because He died for each and every one of our sins. Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? Is there anyone here this morning, child or adult, who would say, I don't know about this. I don't know whether I have eternal life. I would like to. If the Holy Spirit is working in your heart and that describes you, would you simply put your hand up and put it back down to let me know and I'll pray for you. I'm not going to embarrass you or call you out. You're saying, I don't know whether I'm saved. I don't know whether I've believed the gospel. All right, I'll ask one more question of believers in the room. Someone who would say, God's dealing with me on something specific. I'm deciding in my heart, I'm doing business with God. Would you remember me in prayer this morning? Same thing, just slip your hand up, slip it back down. I'll pray for you without calling you out or naming your name. Our Father, we are so grateful for your sacrifice for us. Lord, we were dead in trespasses and sins. We could do nothing to help ourselves, to save ourselves, to make ourselves acceptable to you. And yet, when we were far off, when we were your enemies, you died for the ungodly. The only way we can have peace with God is through you, through your finished work, your sacrifice, your death, burial, and your resurrection. Lord, remind us of these things. May we understand them, may we believe them, and may we be willing to tell others about them. In Jesus' name, amen.