01 Introduction to the Gospel of Mark

SPEAKER_02: I'm going to give you an introduction to the gospel, Mark, and how it's different than the other questions, the other gospels, and kind of what we're going to do this summer. And then your homework is to look at Mark chapter 2, verses 1 through 12, which is the first question, which is what's on that first page of your packet. So what we're going to do this fall is go through the Gospel of Mark and we're going to stop at the places where Jesus asks the question. And I expect many of you have probably studied the parables of Jesus or the healing passages or the miracles of some kind, but there's a whole nother teaching tool Jesus used, and that's asking questions, specifically when he already knows the answers. And for me, I got really interested in this as a study when my kids hit teenage years because suddenly somebody changed all the rules of parenting and I didn't get the new rule book. And nothing worked anymore. And I learned pretty quickly that it was it worked much better to ask a question than to try to give a lecture or an explanation. So that's kind of what got me thinking about well, where else is did we see people asking questions and started looking at the questions Jesus asks. And my assumption going into this is that the divine questions or questions Jesus asked were meant to be answered on a deeper level. That quite often Jesus already knows the answer. He's not looking for information, he's looking to make a point. And that point is to prepare us to hear the rest of what he has to say, the words of comfort or challenge or warning, correction, or whatever. So that's what we're going to be doing. We're not going to go straight through the gospel, we're going to skip to the questions. So today, what I want to do is give you an overview of Mark. So here's the way I like to think about why do we have four Gospels? Why are they different? How is Mark different than the other Gospels? We probably have some English teachers in here. And if you have an English teacher and say you're you're going to teach a classic novel, say Pride and Prejudice, or maybe one of Shakespeare's plays. So if you're a teacher and you have to teach that novel and your audience is a class of high school students, you're probably going to spend a lot of time on the historical context, maybe the social manners of the day, the customs, maybe the rules governing how men and women were supposed to relate to each other, especially in courtship. And that would be that might be how you'd structure your presentation. If you were teaching a bunch of people who were PhDs in English, you would assume they knew all that stuff. And maybe you'd concentrate more on the themes of the book, uh, the social commentary, the points she was trying to make about the society in which she lived, that kind of thing. And then say you're teaching the same book to your neighborhood book club. Well, again, that might be a totally different presentation. You might do a little bit of historical background and then talk about how the book was different than the movie, you know, or the latest version of the movie, however many of them there have been. So, in other words, a good teacher is going to tailor the subject to her audience. And in each case, the story's the same. You're teaching the same story, but the presentation is very different because you think your audience knows different things or has different goals or you might emphasize different themes or conflicts. Well, the same is true of the gospels. Each of the gospel writers had a different audience in mind, and they tailored their presentation of the gospel to that audience. And we make a mistake if we think that the four gospels should be identical. Biographies, they're not really. They're more, I don't know, I guess you'd say character states, but they're intended for a different audience with a different background and different points of view. So together, they give us a real complete picture of Jesus and his work, but they do it from a different aspect. And here's the way I like to remember them. Those of you who know me know I have these little mnemonics and things I do to try to remember. So there are four behold statements in the Old Testament, and those correspond to the Gospels. So the way I remember them is behold the King, and that's the Gospel of Matthew. Behold my servant, which is the Gospel of Mark. Behold the Son of Man, which is Luke, and behold the Son of God, which is John. And I'll say those again. Behold the King, which is Matthew. Matthew is written to really present Christ as the Davidic King. Behold my servant, which is the Gospel of Mark. Mark is primarily trying to emphasize that this was Jesus as the servant of Isaiah, the suffering servant and the servant leader. Behold the Son of Man, which is the Gospel of Luke, which was trying to present Jesus as fully human, as fully the man incarnate there. It's his essential humanity. And then behold the Son of God, which is the Gospel of John, where he was really trying to present Jesus as God, as the divine. So Matthew was written primarily for a Jewish audience, and so it's natural that he would focus on Jesus as the fulfillment of the Davidic kingship. He emphasizes how Jesus fulfilled the sacrificial feast. He has the most quotations of the Old Testament of any of the Gospels. Um, and he emphasizes the aspect of Jesus' ministry where he came to fulfill the promises made to David. So you see in Matthew the most full picture of Jesus' kingship. In Mark, Mark was writing for more for the Roman audience. And so he concentrates on the events and the actions, and he is presenting, you'll see him avoid like the sermon passages, the philosophical passages, and instead he emphasizes what Jesus came and said and did. So those were very characteristics of Rome. The Roman mind wanted just the facts, that kind of thing. Luke was writing primarily for a Greek audience, and the Greeks were more interested in the philosophical aspects. So he's writing Behold the Son of Man, Jesus as fully human, and so you get most of Jesus' table talk or his intimate discussions with his disciples, and more his thoughts and wisdom as a man. Then John was writing for the believer. He was writing primarily for the church, and he emphasizes the deity of Christ. So behold the Son of God. So you get the teaching of the rapture of the church brought up more fully in John. You get the hope of the church, the communion of Jesus and his believers, his disciples, the ministry of the Holy Spirit, all of that is more emphasized in John more than the other Gospels. Once you see those themes, it becomes, it explains why some of the authors include some events and some don't. So for instance, there's no account of the Garden of Gethsemane and Jesus' struggle in the garden in John. Well, you do find it in Matthew and Mark, but John omits it. Why? Because he's writing for Jesus as divine. So this struggle of Jesus as a man is not really relevant to his theme. Instead, you find the fullest account of the garden in Luke, because Luke was trying to emphasize Jesus' humanity. So there you get the fullest picture of his struggle in the garden where he's facing the cross and he has to say, you know, Lord, if possible, let this cup pass from me, and not my will but your will. You see that struggle most fully in Luke. Flipping then, think about the Nativity story. In Matthew, he records that the wise men came to bring gifts. And Luke records that the shepherds came to bring gifts. Well, they both came, but why would Matthew include one and Luke include the other? Because Matthew was writing for about the Davidic king, and wise men come to bring gifts to the kings, and it's fitting that a someone of that nature would come and bring a gift for a child who's destined to be king. And that was Matthew's emphasizing. Luke, on the other hand, is emphasizing that this is a man. So he brings in the fact that these common ordinary shepherds came to bring him gifts because this is one of our own. This is a brother, someone who's equal to us. Similarly, there's no account of the ascension in Matthew. Well, because as a king, he came to rule on earth, and that's Matthew's focus of how the kingdom of heaven plays out on earth. And the ascension is not necessarily in his main emphasis. Neither is the ascension mentioned in John, because John is again writing about his essential divinity, and it's just assumed that he would go from earth to heaven and back again. What else? Mark and John omit the genealogies, but Matthew and Luke include them. Again, Matthew's writing about uh the Davidic king, and we want to know the lineage of the king. We want it's important where the king came from so that you know that he's of the royal line. Um and again in Luke, he he includes the genealogy because he's writing about a man, and we want to know who where a man came from, his ancestry, his genealogy. And I can probably spend the rest of the time on that, but if you can see as you go through the gospels, if you look at them, how they use the things that they include things to further the theme they're most focusing on, and they omit things that don't necessarily fit that theme. It doesn't mean they didn't happen, it's just that they're writing for an audience that they wouldn't that particular event wouldn't be the most important. Now I think all of that shows the supervision of the Holy Spirit. Modern critics like to say, oh, they copied from each other and they just got it wrong, and and they people left it out because they got the facts wrong or the story wrong. I don't think that's what's going on. I think the Holy Spirit supervised this whole process to give us this complete picture of Jesus and what he came to do. And that the four gospels had different themes, different aspects, so we would fully understand that Jesus was God, was man, was the servant who came to give his life for many and was the fulfillment of the Davidic prophecies. Any questions or anything on that? Make sense? Is that new to you? Have you heard that before? We don't teach too many overviews. If you ever took an overview of the New Testament, that kind of thing, you probably would have run into it. So let's look at Mark in particular. Mark was the first gospel written, but it's the second book in the New Testament. It's the shortest of all the Gospels. It's easiest to read in one sitting, and it's the usually it's the most translated book of the New Testament. I'm told that the Wycliffe translators often begin with Mark because they can get the whole story in one book. The author is a young man named John Mark, and if you have a Bible, we're gonna flip through the places we see Mark in Acts so you can learn about him. So you don't have to, I'll read the verses, but if you've got it and want to follow along, we're gonna start in Acts 12, which is the first place we run into to Mark. So in Acts chapter 12, uh in Peter has been in prison under King Herod, and he is rescued miraculously by an angel of the Lord. And when he leaves this prison, the first place he goes is to uh John Mark's house. So we read in Acts chapter 12, verse 11 and 12. When Peter came to himself, he said, Now I'm sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all the Jewish people were expecting. When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. So this is the first place we run into Mark. His mother is a wealthy widow in Jerusalem, and his her home is like a staging place for the early uh disciples of Jesus. Most people think that it was in her home that the upper room discourse took place, and that Jesus frequently, when he's in Jerusalem, would stay at her home. The next place we find John Mark, we see him as an associate of Barnabas and Paul. If you skip down that same chapter down to verse 25, Barnabas and Paul at this point are in Antioch ministering, and there's a famine in Jerusalem, and so the church in Antioch decides to send a contribution to the church in Jerusalem, and they send it with Barnabas and Paul. So in Acts 12, 25, Barnabas and Paul returned from Jerusalem when they had completed their service, bringing with them John, whose other name was Mark. So this is how Mark becomes associated with them. They come to Jerusalem to deliver an offering, and when they go back to Antioch, they bring Mark with them. So the next place we run into them is Acts 13, and this is Paul and Barnabas are about to leave on what will become known as Paul's first missionary journey. And they take John with them to, kind of like their baggage handler. He's the assistant. So in Acts 13, 1. Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Menae, and a member of the court of Herod the Tetrarch, and Paul. And while they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for me, Barnabas and Paul, for the work to which I have called them. Then after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off. And then it tells where they went, and down in verse 5 it says, And they had John to assist them. That's our author. Now, what we learn in this journey is that John, uh John Mark can't take it for some reason. We're not told why. He leaves halfway through the journey and goes back home. So if you look at Acts 13, 13, now Paul and his companions set sail from Papos and came to Perga in Pamphelia, and John left them and returned to Jerusalem. And they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. So we're not sure why. We don't know what the reason was. Maybe he couldn't take the pressure or whatever reason. Mark lacked the faithfulness or the perseverance to continue the journey, and he leaves them. And what happens is this causes a rift between Barnabas and Paul. Flip over to Acts 15. This is Paul is is decided to go on another journey, which will become known as his second missionary journey. And he wants to take, and Barnabas says, Great, let's go. Barnabas says, let's take John with us, and Paul says, No, he we aren't taking him because he uh was unfaithful last time. So look at Acts 15, verse 35 to 41. But Paul and Barnabas stayed in Antioch, teaching and preaching with many others also the word of the Lord. And after some days, Paul said to Barnabas, Let us return and visit the brethren in every city in which we proclaim the word of the Lord and see how they are. And Barnabas was desirous of taking John, called Mark, along with them. But Paul kept insisting that they should not take him along, who had deserted them in Pamphilia and gone back with them, and not gone with them to the work. And there arose such a sharp disagreement that they separated from one another, and Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus. But Paul chose Silas and departed, being committed by the brethren to the grace of the Lord. So again, we don't know why Mark deserted them. Apparently Barnabas thought it was legitimate and is willing to give him a second chance and bring him along the second time. Should we pull that? I want to pull that close, so thank you. And Paul says, no, whatever the excuse was, he finds it hard to forgive, and so he does not want to give Mark another chance. And the only way they can resolve it is to separate. Barnabas takes Mark with him, and Paul takes Silas with him on his journey. Now, interestingly enough, Paul later changes his mind about Mark. In 2 Timothy chapter 4, which was one of the last letters that Paul wrote, in chip 2 Timothy 4, 11, he writes, Only Luke is with me. Pick up Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for ministry. So at the end of his life, whatever the disagreement was, Paul has forgiven Mark for it and conceded that he is useful. Some say useful for the service, others say useful for the ministry. So John later comes to Rome as Paul's associate with him at the end of his life. And after Paul's martyrdom, he becomes Peter's companion. And the Gospel of Mark is primarily written from Peter's viewpoint, most people think. So the Gospel of Matthew was Matthew directly as a disciple. Luke's Gospel really came from the Apostle Paul. John was a disciple, and then Peter's gospel essentially came to us through Mark. Now, according to tradition, then John Mark became the founder and bishop of the church in Alexandria in North Africa. But what I find very interesting is if you think about it, Peter is famous for denying Christ, being an unfaithful servant. Mark, we see, is an unfaithful servant. He bags out on the set on the first missionary journey. And yet, who does God pick to write the gospel that talks about how faithful his servant is? But these two men who struggled in that area. I just find that comforting that God uses us even at the point of weakness. So you have Peter and Mark both unfaithful servants, yet their gospel records the faithfulness of Jesus as God's servant. There's one other place where Mark is mentioned in Scripture, and that's in his own gospel in chapter 14. You may have heard this, it's kind of a cute little account. This is during the Passion of the Lord as he's moving toward the cross. He's just been captured in the Garden of Gethsemane, and then in that account in Mark 1451, it reads, And a young man followed him with nothing but a linen cloth about his body, and they seized him, but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked. So they're arresting people. There's this man, young man with a linen cloth. They grab the cloth and woof off he goes. No other gospel records that event, and most people believe that that's because that Mark has it because it's him. And he was he would have known about it because he was involved. As I said, he was the son of a rich woman in Jerusalem, so it's very and it's very likely that it was his mother's house in which the disciples met in the upper room. He was present at a lot of the events uh that are told in the gospel and probably included this because it was him. Okay, so that's what we know about Mark. He was a young man who traveled first with Paul and Barnabas, then with Barnabas, then back with Paul, and then finally with Peter, and wrote his gospel based on Peter's recollections. Now I want to look at the book. And there are many ways to outline the book, more complicated outlines that have to do with where uh Jesus was at various times in his ministry or the themes. There's a real simple way that I like to remember it, and that's there's kind of a major division in chapter 8. And there's a there's one verse that clues me into the divisions, and that's Mark 1045. For the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. That sums up Mark to me, because Mark was writing about the servant, the servant leader who came to serve, and the reason he came to serve, what he came to do was to give his life as a ransom for many. So that was Mark 10.45. And in that short verse you get the divisions of Mark. In chapter 1 to, like the first 13 verses, there's an introductory credential who the servant is and in his ministry. And then from 114 to 830, it describes the ministry of Jesus. And it primarily points to him as the servant of Isaiah, the suffering servant. Then in 831, it says, and he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And that's the turning point. So up to this point, he's been uh revealing who he is, that he has authority over all of heaven and earth, and he is the servant foretold in the Old Testament. And then in 831, he begins to teach them that what he came to do is give his life as a ransom for many. So you have uh basically from the beginning of the book to 830 is the ministry of the servant, and the 831 to the end, the ransoming work. And that's why Mark 1045 reminds me, for even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. So this fall we're going to look primarily at the first section of the book, the first uh eight chapters, is where we're gonna spend most of our time. And the main theme that he stresses in those eight chapters is the authority of Jesus, the authority of the sermon. That um he came and he speaks, and people are healed. He uh speaks, and uh the blind see, the lame walk, he speaks, the winds and the waves obey him. Um, he quotes scripture and he quotes it with authority. He doesn't quote other scribes or rabbis or people to try to say, see, they agree with me. He just says this is what it means and it applies to me. So that's the theme Mark's going to be building is the authority of the servant. And that's where what we're gonna see as we go through these questions. Then in um in chapter eight, we're gonna spend a lot of time, we're actually gonna do this question later on, but I want to bring it in just so you see how the themes turn. Um, there's a significant healing. It's in Mark eight and verses twenty two. They came to Betsa and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, Do you see anything? And he looked up and he said, I see people. They look like trees walking around. Once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. And Jesus sent him home saying, Don't go into the village. This is one of the last events in the first half of the book, and it's one of the most curious because it looks like it doesn't work. It's one of the few healings where it comes in stages. Now, I believe Jesus did everything for a reason, and this was not a surprise to him that he was teaching something by healing this man in stages. And I think part of what we're supposed to learn is who Jesus is and what he came to do. And just as the blind man saw a little bit, but didn't yet fully understand at this point in the gospel, so the disciples are beginning to see who Jesus is, but they don't yet clearly understand what he came to do. Their understanding is still weak and confused. So through this healing, he's saying, Look, I'm the one who gives sight, I'm the one who gives understanding. I won't leave you stuck in your blindness or your confusion, but I will help you to see just as this blind man can see, and just as uh he saw a little bit, and then his understanding became clear. So the disciples are now going to learn who it is Jesus came to do, who he is and what he came to do. So you see the very next verse is 831, and he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed. And after three days, right again. That's what they don't yet see. They don't yet understand that this is the servant who came to die on their behalf, that this is a servant who's going to give his life as a ransom for many. They have come to see him as this great wonder worker and healer and person with authority, and now he has to teach them the plan involves suffering and death. And from here on in the gospel, he sets his face toward Jerusalem and the cross and starts really pointing out to them that he is going to offer himself as the sacrifice, the one who gives himself as a ransom for others. And we remember Peter's reaction. Jesus says this and he says, Wait, don't do it, spare yourself, you know. This isn't the way you should do it. That's too hard. So in 832, and he said this plainly, in other words, Jesus plainly told them he was going to die, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, Get behind me, Satan, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. And calling the crowd to to him with his disciples, he said to him, If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me, for whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it. So you see, this this is the turning point. He's beginning to tell them what he came to do, and at first they're like, Whoa, no, this can't be the plan. You must have it wrong. God wouldn't require this. We're going to overthrow Rome. We're going to bring back the Davidic kingship. And Jesus says, You don't understand yet. The plan that will happen, but not the way you're envisioning it. It's going to involve his death and crucifixion and, of course, his resurrection. Okay, in chapter 11, then you have a beginning of the Passion Week, and this is the Lord's last week as he moves toward the cross. And there's one act that one thing that Mark records that no other gospel gives us, and I want to pull that out. This is in Mark 11, 15. They came to Jerusalem, and he entered the temple and began to drive out those who had sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons, and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. Now, this is not the same act that is recorded in John chapter 2, when he overturns the tables in the temple. That act occurred at the beginning of his public ministry. This is at the end. This is the last week before the Passion. The one we have in John is at the very beginning of his public life. So this is the second time where he went in and cleansed the temples. And then what Mark says, he adds this one little phrase, and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. Well, what does that mean? The only people that carried things through the temple were the priests. Because according to Mosaic law, it was their duty to catch the blood of the animals. So the animals were sacrificed in the outer court and what what was called the brazen altar, and they would catch the blood from those sacrifices in these basins, these bowls, and then they would take them into the holy place and sprinkle the blood on the altar. And then once a year they would go beyond the veil into the Holy of Holies and sprinkle the blood on the golden altar of the mercy seat. So it was this very significant ritual of catching the blood of the sacrifices and bearing it into the holy place, and then once a year to the Holy of Holies. And when Jesus won't allow anyone to carry anything, that would include the priests. So he's stopping them. He is stopping the sacrifices at that point. He is, in other words, he's saying, um, the Lamb of God is here now to give his life for many, and these sacrifices were a shadow of what's to come. Now the reality is here, and the sacrifices can end. Now, true, the Jews kept offering sacrifices until the temple was destroyed in 70 AD, but I think the part of the significance of this act is that Jesus is stopping them. That he is saying, Look, here I am now, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. There's no need for these sacrifices anymore because I'm here to give my life as a ransom for many. So from here he moves to uh the Mount of Olives, the upper room, and then the garden and the cross. And there's a couple things that Mark gives us in his account of the of the cross that I also want to pull out, because it's he he emphasizes them, I think, to further the scene theme of the suffering servant, of the one who came to lay down his life. In uh chapter 15, you get his account of the cross, and he describes it with really the incredible brutality that was done in the name of justice. And you have this contrast in Mark between the Jesus of the first eight chapters, who's like the wonder worker of Galilee, um, the one who performed all these miracles, the one who speaks and the wind and waves obey him, the one who speaks and raises a little girl from the dead, with this picture of this man on the cross who is beaten and broken and spat upon and seemingly lost, um, seemingly a failure by what they um, if you were just looking from a worldly perspective. So when the priests see him hanging on the cross in Mark 1531, they say he saved others, he cannot save himself, which is a strange statement to make. And yet it's one of those remarkable ways, I think, where God makes even his enemies praise him, although they got it right, but they got it wrong. I think they were wrong in what they meant, but they were right in a certain level, and that he saved others, but he would not save himself. He could have saved himself, but he would not, because that's what he came to do, to offer himself freely. And in Mark, he gives us three things that Jesus didn't do that I think further this theme. First, in Mark 15, 4, Jesus refuses to speak. Um, and Pilate again asked him, Have you no answer to make? See how many charges they bring against you. But Jesus made no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed. So he's standing before the court and he makes no defense. And then in Mark 15, 23, they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. So he doesn't speak and now he doesn't drink. Well, the wine in the myrrh was a would have dulled his senses somewhat, would have been some kind of a painkiller to relieve a little bit of the agony of what he was experiencing, and yet he refuses. And the question is, why would Mark tell us that? Because he could have saved himself. Because if you once you've gone through the first eight chapters, you see him speak and Lazarus raised from the dead, you see him speak, and Jarius's daughter is raised from the dead, you see him speak, and demons are cast out, you see him speak, and the blind are healed, uh and the lame are healed, you see him speak, and the wind and water obeys him. He could have spoken to Pilate and saved himself. Mark has built up that this is a servant who has the authority over all of heaven and earth, and he could have, had he chosen, saven saved himself, but he refused. He refused to speak and save himself. Again, had he taken the wine with the myrrh, perhaps it would have dulled some of the pain, some of the agony of what he was experiencing, but he chose not to, because he came to offer himself in our place. That was a voluntary laying down his life. He came to give his life as a ransom for many. Then the last thing Mark tells us is an interesting phrase here. He says, In Mark 15, 37, and Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. Um, they couldn't even make him die, essentially. That breathed his last is sometimes translated, dismissed his spirit or gave up his spirit. It's literally unspirited in himself. The idea is they didn't take his spirit, he let it go. So they didn't kill him, he gave it for them. So he could have saved himself, and yet he laid down his life voluntarily. He could there's a sense in which being fully divine, he could have refused to die. I mean, theoretically, he could have hung on the cross and taunted them with their inability to put him to death, because we know he's master over death. Why did he not do that? Because he came to give his life as a ransom for many. So when you come to the last chapter, you see this is what the servant came to do. Yes, he has authority, but he laid it down to save us. And of course, we know he's part of that laying down was for the the second coming, when he will come with power and resurrection, and that every knee will will bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord. So he won't drink to dull his senses because he's laying the basis for um our inheritance in the kingdom of God. He won't save himself before Pilate because he came to be the Lamb of God, to be the sacrifice that will buy back our freedom, free us from our sin, and reconcile us to our to God. So he voluntarily lays down his life to overcome our greatest enemy, which is death, and deliver us from the power of sin and death forever. So the priests were right, he saved others, but he would not save himself. He could have, but he did not. And that's really what Mark's gospel is all about, the servant who came to serve, even though he had this authority and to give his life as a ransom for us. So let me just pray to close us, and then if there's any questions or comments, we'll I'll give you a chance to ask those. Father, we just thank you that um you are you did give us your son, that you sent him to take our place, and that he came not to be ministered to as we frequently want to be ministered to, but he came to lay down his life for us. And I just pray that as we go through this study that you would be um working the full impact of that sacrifice into our lives, into our hearts, into our minds, so that we never forget that you were the one who saved us and that you bought us at a great price. And that we would understand not just as a theological debate issue, but that we would understand as a