May 28, 2006
“Our God Is Lord”
The Question of Deity
The Da Vinci Code: The Truth Behind the Book
Rev. Brian D. Hawes
Prayer: Randy
(based on the series by Pastor Ken Baugh,
www.coasthillschurch.org)
· Today
we're in part seven of our series The Da Vinci Code: The Truth Behind the
Book. We've been looking at answers
to a number of questions that the book brings up about the Christian faith.
· Last
week we saw that Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth claimed to be God in human flesh, not a mortal prophet as the book
claims, not a created being that is somehow inferior to God the Father, but
actually God in human form. We also saw
that Jesus' disciples, the authors of the New Testament and the early Church
Fathers all believed Jesus to be God as well. Then we asked a very serious question that
we’ll answer today. THE QUESTION: "How did Jesus prove He was God?" We’ll look at how Jesus proved beyond
a shadow of a doubt that He was who He said and this proof was what changed the
lives of the disciples forever.
·
It's no secret that
Jesus and the religious leaders of His day didn't see eye to eye. It seems like every time Jesus turned around
these guys were trying to find some evidence to discredit Him in the eyes of
the people. As we saw last week, Jesus
claimed to be the Messiah and a lot of people in Palestine were beginning to
believe it. Well, if Jesus were the
Messiah, the religious leaders would have to step down from their places of
prominence to a lower level. Needless to say, they didn't want
that, they liked being powerful. As
Lord Byron wrote, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Even though these leaders themselves didn't
believe Jesus to be the Messiah, His influence was gaining strength. So every chance they got, they would debate
Jesus to try and trip Him up in front of the people.
· In
Matthew 12, the Pharisees and Sadducees (these were the two of the three
primary groups of religious leaders of Jesus’ day, the third were the Essenes)
tested Jesus once again. Let's listen
in on the conversation in Matthew
12:38-40. "Then
some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, 'Teacher, we want to
see a miraculous sign from you.' He
answered, 'A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But
none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights
in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three
nights in the heart of the earth.'"
Matthew 12:38-40
· The
request “we want to see a sign from You” amounted to an official demand for
Jesus to prove Himself to be the Messiah. They asked the question courteously
and nicely because of the people, but its purpose was to prove that Jesus was
not the Messiah but a blasphemous impostor. And because the scribes and
Pharisees were the uncontested experts on the law the people would expect them
to know how to properly test the claims of anyone who posed as the
Messiah. The implication of the
question was that, if Jesus truly were the Messiah, He would have no trouble
performing an appropriate sign to validate His identity.
· John
MacArthur writes, The kind of sign they wanted is not specified, but it must
have been an absolutely extraordinary one and of perhaps worldwide magnitude—such as causing the sun
to stand still or a constellation to change its configuration or the moon to
race across the sky. Jesus had already
performed thousands of public miracles of healing, casting out demons, and
raising the dead. The additional sign now demanded was therefore
obviously meant to be on an even grander scale. John MacArthur: MacArthur’s
New Testament Commentary: Matthew 8-15
· Simply
put, Jesus wasn’t going to play their
games. God doesn't bend His knee to the whims of skeptics to prove
Himself; that's not how He operates. Instead, Jesus refers them to what will be
the ultimate proof of His divine claims: that He will raise Himself from the
dead. The ultimate proof
that Jesus gave that He was God in human flesh was that He would rise from the
dead. Therefore, if we can prove
Jesus' resurrection from the dead beyond a reasonable doubt, then we have
substantial evidence to support the truth that He is truly God in human flesh.
·
The Resurrection of Jesus has always been the primary
proof for truthfulness of Christianity…you disprove the resurrection and all
Christianity crumbles to the ground. B.B. Warfield said: "Christ
Himself deliberately staked His whole claim to the credit of men upon His
resurrection. When asked for a sign He
pointed to this sign as His single and sufficient credential." B.B. Warfield as cited in The New
Evidence That Demands A Verdict, Josh McDowell, 208.
· Michael Green wrote, "Without
faith in the resurrection there would be no Christianity at all…. Christianity stands or falls with the truth
of the resurrection. Once disprove it,
and you have disposed of Christianity." Michael Green: Man Alive.
· Famous
British philosopher John Locke
said, "Our Savior's resurrection…is truly of great importance in Christianity;
so great that His being or not being the Messiah stands or falls with it."
· Wilbur Smith wrote, "The
resurrection of Christ is the very citadel of the Christian faith. This is the doctrine that turned the world
upside down in the first century, that lifted Christianity preeminently above
Judaism and the pagan religions of the Mediterranean world. If this goes, so must also everything else
that is vital and unique in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ." Wilbur Smith: "Scientists and the
Resurrection", Christianity
Today, April 15, 1957.
· In
fact, Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is so crucial to the Christian faith,
that even the Apostle Paul said we are fools without it. "And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is
useless and so is your faith…. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is
futile; you are still in your sins….If only for this life we have hope in
Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men." 1 Corinthians 15:14-19
· The Resurrection is the critical proof of Jesus’ claim
to be God. If he
didn't rise from the dead, then He wasn't God and we should throw our Bibles
and our faith in the trash. But if He
did rise from the dead, then He was God and everything about Christianity is
true. There is a substantial amount of
evidence that proves the resurrection of Jesus Christ beyond any reasonable
doubt. Let’s go through it.
· EXHIBIT A: The Old Testament predicted very specific events that would transpire during the last 24 hours of Jesus' life, including His resurrection. In the message, New Testament Revelations, we saw that one of the irrefutable proofs that the New Testament is reliable is how it fulfilled Old Testament prophecies perfectly and to the letter. We saw that there are over 456 Messianic prophecies alone that were fulfilled by Jesus Christ proving both the reliability of the Bible as well as the fact that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. We looked at 29 OT Prophecies that were fulfilled during the last 24 hours of Jesus' life. If you want to review them, you can access them through my website – the address is in your bulletin. And not only did the Old Testament prophesy all these events about Jesus' death, it also foretold His resurrection.
· Acts 2 records Peter's famous sermon on the Day of Pentecost where he refers to Psalm 16:8-11 as an Old Testament prophecy given by King David that was fulfilled in the resurrection of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:22-32 & 36). “Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. David said about him [Psalm 16:8-11]: ‘I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand , I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will live in hope, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.’ Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne [c/f: Isa. 9:6-7; 2 Sam. 7-12-13 & 16; Ps. 89:3-4; 89:20; Ps. 89:27-29; Ps. 132:11; Jer. 23:5; Jer. 33:14-15]. Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay [Ps. 16:10]. 32God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact…. 36“Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” See also Ps. 22; Ps. 49:15 & Hosea 6:1-2 as other fulfilled prophecies of the death and resurrection of the Messiah. (For more on this see: Dr. Walter C. Kaiser: The Messiah In The Old Testament, Zondervan: 1995.
· There's
no doubt that these Psalms and other prophecies from the Old Testament were
what Paul used to convince the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah. Acts
17:2-3 says: "As his
custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned
with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had to
suffer and rise from the dead." So, fulfilled OT prophecy is Exhibit A.
·
EXHIBIT B: Not only
are fulfilled OT prophecies proof of Jesus resurrection, Jesus Himself many
times predicted His death and resurrection. There
are a number of verses listed in your insert so that you can go and study them
on your own if you're interested.
Matthew 12:38-40; 16:21; 17:9; 17:22-23; 20:18-19; 26:32 & 27:63;
Mark 8:31-9:1; 9:10; 9:31; 10:32-34; 14:28 & 58; Luke 9:22-27; 22:15 &
36-37; John 10:18; 2:18-22; 12:34 and chapters 14-16.
· How do these verses prove that Jesus was God? Well, the OT verifies that the Messiah is
God and Jesus perfectly predicted the future of his own death and resurrection,
and only God can do that. John Locke, considered by many to be
the most renowned philosopher of the 20th Century, notes that the
Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the: …"great and demonstrative proof of
His being the Messiah, it is not at all strange that those believing His
Resurrection should be put forth for believing Him to be the Messiah; since
declaring His Resurrection was declaring Him to be the Messiah." John Locke as quoted in The New Evidence
That Demands A Verdict, Josh McDowell, 218.
· EXHIBIT C:
Jesus actually died on the Cross. It just makes
sense that you can’t rise from the dead unless you’re actually dead. The reason this is important is because
there have been many people over the years who have tried to disprove the
resurrection of Jesus by claiming that He was never really dead in the first place. There
are three primary theories that promote this view:
· In
the Koran, it is stated that Jesus did not die on the cross but instead feigned
death (Surah IV:157). So the Muslims
believe that Jesus pretended to be dead.
· "The Swoon Theory": This theory was proposed in 1828 by a
naturalist named H.E.G. Paulus in his work: The Life of Jesus. Basically The Swoon Theory states that Jesus didn't actually die on the
Cross, but fainted and later revived in the coolness of the tomb. Anyone
having even a little understanding of flogging
and crucifixion would know
that this is ridiculous. But even if
it's true, how does Jesus in His unbelievably weakened and dehydrated condition
silently move the huge stone by himself and sneak passed the posted Roman
guards who are literally guarding the tomb with their lives? And then appear the disciples and convince
them that he had defeated death? That might make for good fiction, but it
doesn't stand up to the facts. The
facts we’ll look at prove conclusively that Jesus was dead, totally dead, or as
the Animaniacs say, “Living-impaired!”
· The
other theory that is similar to the "Swoon
Theory" is called the "Drug Theory." It states that Jesus didn't die on the Cross; instead He was given some kind
of drug that made him appear dead. Give me a break. Yeah, the disciples snuck up to Jesus while being guarded
by the Romans and slipped Him a mickey…"here Jesus take this…it will make
you feel better…" It takes more
faith to believe these nonsensical theories than to believe that Jesus
died. The fact is that the Bible
tells us that Jesus didn't even take
the customary drug that was offered to those being crucified. "…they
offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it." Mark 15:23
· The
facts are that Jesus died on the Cross.
This can be proven by a number of different means:
· Secular Historians affirm Jesus' death: There are many documents outside of the Bible, written by secular historians who say that Jesus was dead; I'll give you a few.
· Cornelius Tacitus was a Roman historian and governor of Asia (today's Turkey) in 112 A.D. In his Annals of Imperial Rome, he writes, "To suppress therefore the common rumor [that common rumor was that Nero had started the fires to burn Rome] Nero procured others to be accused, and inflicted exquisite punishments upon those people, who were in abhorrence for their crimes, and were commonly known as Christians. They had their denomination from Christus, who in the reign of Tiberius was put to death as a criminal by the procurator Pontius Pilate." As quoted in Grant R. Jeffrey: Jesus: The Great Debate, 162.
· Lucian lived in Syria during the reign of Emperor Adrian in the century following Christ. He wrote a book called: The Passing Pe-reg-rinus which documented the travels of a well-known Greek man named Proteus. Proteus was forced to leave his country due to several crimes he committed and traveled under the alias of Pe-reg-rinus. Lucian documents that on one his travels, Pe-reg-rinus met some followers of Jesus. Lucian writes, "At which time he learned the wonderful doctrine of the Christians, by conversing with their priests and scribes near Palestine…they spoke of him as a god, and took him for a lawgiver, and honored him with the title of master….They still worship that great man who was crucified in Palestine…" As quoted in Grant R. Jeffrey: Jesus: The Great Debate, 164
· In a letter written by man named Mara Bar-Sera-pion to his son Sera-pion, both of whom were pagans who worshiped many gods, Mara Bar-Ser-apion writes to his son that, "Jesus was executed illegally by the Jews…". You can find this letter in the British Museum.
· Josephus, the Jewish Historian who worked for the Romans and was not a Christian, writes of Jesus' death and resurrection in his work called Antiquities, 18.3.3. Now, there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works – a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was Christ; and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him; and the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.
· Biblical scholar Wilbur Smith notes, "Let it simply be said that we know more about the details of the hours immediately before and the actual death of Jesus, in and near Jerusalem, than we know about the death of any other one man in all the ancient world." Wilbur Smith: Therefore Stand: Christian Apologetics, 360. So secular historians and writers affirm Jesus’ death.
·
The Roman Soldiers
confirmed Jesus’ death. "Now it was the day of
Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jews did
not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath they asked Pilate to
have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. The soldiers therefore came and
broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then
those of the other." John 19:31-32
·
According to Jewish law, the body of
an executed criminal could not remain up all night or it would defile the land that God had given the Jews (Deut.
12:23). Needless to say, the Jewish
leaders were anxious to get the bodies down.
However, it was the Roman custom to leave the bodies on the crosses for
days to let the elements and the
animals take their turn as
well as to serve as a reminder to all of the executive power of Rome and the
punishment for dissenters. The Jewish
leaders had to ask permission to speed up these criminals’ deaths, and once
they had this, the Roman soldiers went and broke the legs of two thieves
crucified with Jesus so the criminals could no longer push up to breathe. But…"…when they came to Jesus and found that
he was already dead, they did not break his legs." John
19:33
· Mark
records that Pilate was surprised that Jesus was already dead. "Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the
Council, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate
and asked for Jesus’ body. Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already
dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died. When he
learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to
Joseph." Mark 15:43-45
· These Roman soldiers knew death…they were
professional executioners.
There is no way they would have let Jesus off the Cross thinking He was
still alive. Their own lives were at
stake. For a soldier to make a mistake
like that would be his own death sentence.
But just to make sure, John tells us that one of the soldiers plunged a
spear in Jesus’ side, which takes us to the next proof that Jesus was dead.
· Jesus' wounds affirmed His death. In The Journal of the American Medical Association, Dr. William
Edwards notes, "Clearly, the weight of historical and medical evidence
indicates that Jesus was dead before the wound to His side was inflicted and
supports the traditional view that the spear, thrust between His right ribs,
probably perforated not only the right lung but also the pericardium and heart
and thereby ensured His death. Accordingly,
interpretations based on the assumption that Jesus did not die on the cross
appear to be at odds with modern medical knowledge." William Edwards, M.D. "On The
Physical Death of Jesus Christ," Journal of the American Medical
Association 255:11. March 21, 1986.
· Did Jesus die on the Cross? Was He actually dead? Answer: Yes. Secular history affirms this, the Bible affirms
this, the soldiers confirmed it, and the extent of Jesus wounds prove it
without a doubt.
So, you may be thinking: "Okay, I'll buy that Jesus was dead, but that doesn't prove that He rose from the dead". Ok, let's tackle this next question.
· EXHIBIT D: JESUS' TOMB WAS EMPTY
· In
the next few minutes we’re going to look at evidence that shows that Jesus’
tomb was empty and as such proves beyond any reasonable doubt that He rose from
the dead.
· Jesus'
enemies, the religious leaders of His day, knew that He predicted he would rise
from the dead. "The next day, the one after Preparation
Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. 'Sir,' they said, 'we
remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, After three days I
will rise again. So give the order for
the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may
come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the
dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.’ 'Take a guard,' Pilate answered. 'Go, make
the tomb as secure as you know how.' So
they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting
the guard." Matthew 27:62-66
· And
as amazing as it might seem to us, the question as to whether or not Jesus'
tomb was empty was never a matter of much dispute. Frank Morrison, who was a renowned skeptic and
journalist, set out to disprove the Resurrection of Christ. However, a thorough and intellectually honest examination of the evidence
convinced him of its
authenticity. He wrote about his
questions and discoveries a very famous book entitled: Who Moved The Stone. In
the book, Morrison says of the empty tomb, "In all the fragments
and echoes of the far-off controversy which have come down to us we are nowhere
told that any responsible person asserted that the body of Jesus was still in
the tomb. We are only given reasons why
it was not there. Running all through
these ancient documents is the persistent assumption that the tomb of Christ
was vacant." Frank Morison: Who
Moved The Stone, 116
·
In fact, even Jesus’ enemies knew the tomb was empty. Of course they didn't believe He rose from the dead, instead they
cooked up a story to explain it. "While the
women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to
the chief priests everything that had happened. When the chief priests had met
with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of
money, telling them, 'You are to say, His disciples came during the night and
stole him away while we were asleep. If
this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of
trouble.' So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And
this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very
day." Matthew 28:11-15
· The
Dictionary of the Apostolic Church says, "…the admission by the
enemies of Christianity that the grave was empty—an admission which is enough to
show that the evidence for the empty grave was too notorious to be denied." James Hastings: Dictionary of the
Apostolic Church. Vol II. 340.
· So,
what happened? Well there are a number
of theories:
1. The women went to the wrong tomb. (See Matt. 27:57-61; 28:1-8; Mark 16:1-8 & 9-11; Luke 23:55-56 & 24:1-12; John 20:1-2) Some believe that the women went to the wrong tomb and then ran to the disciples and told them of Jesus’ resurrection. This doesn’t make any sense. If they did go to the wrong tomb, why didn't the religious leaders just go to the right tomb and produce the body. Not to mention the fact that Mark 15:46-47 tells us that Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where Jesus was buried. "So Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid." Mark 15:46-47
2. Joseph of Arimathea stole the body of Jesus. We saw earlier that Pilate gave Joseph Jesus' body (Mark 15) so maybe he never took the body to the tomb…maybe he went someplace else with it and then claimed that Jesus had rose from the dead. There are two things wrong with this theory.
1. The
Roman guards would never have sealed an empty tomb. Their lives were at stake here.
They would have made sure when they got to the tomb that the body was
there before posting guard.
2.
If Jesus was never placed in the tomb,
how do you explain the grave clothes that were there?
The grave clothes
in Jesus’ tomb are very interesting. John
makes particular note of this in John
20, since he was an eyewitness.
Mary Magdalene as you remember, comes running to Peter and John and
tells them that Jesus' body is gone.
And then in 20:3 it says, So Peter and the other disciple started for
the tomb. Both were running, but the
other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of
linen lying there but did not go in.
then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the
tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying
there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate
from the linen. Finally the other
disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. John 20:3-8 Now it's interesting to note that no grave robber is going to take the time to unwrap the body and fold
the grave clothes up neatly and lay them on the slab where the body
was. Maybe if you were an obsessive compulsive type "A"
grave robber, but even then, it seems very unlikely. The other thing is how could a grave robber get by the Roman guard? There were at least four soldiers guarding
the tomb with their own lives. If they
fell asleep or let anyone break in and steal the body, they would be
executed. Then, you have the stone
that covered the entrance to deal with - how are you going to move that out of
the way without making any noise that would alert the guards? It
just seems too incredible to believe that Joseph or anybody else stole the
body.
One more thing, in regards to the disciples stealing the body…if they had done that, why were they willing to die a martyr’s death for a lie? I mean, if they stole the body, they knew that Jesus didn't rise from the dead, they knew Jesus wasn't the Messiah…why would they go through a painful death for a lie? And besides that, these guys were a bunch of cowards. When Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, they all ran away.
· J.N.D. Anderson was professor of Oriental Laws and
director of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies at the University of London
and knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1974.
He says of the Disciples making up the resurrection story: "Think
of the psychological absurdity of picturing a little band of defeated cowards
cowering in an upper room one day and a few days later transformed into a
company that no persecution could silence—and then attempting to attribute this
dramatic change to nothing more convincing than a miserable fabrication they
were trying to foist upon the world.
That simply wouldn't make sense." J.N.D. Anderson. "The
Resurrection of Jesus Christ." Christianity
Today, March 29, 1968
· Something
happened to these followers of Christ.
They were absolutely convinced that Jesus had risen from the dead and it
totally changed their lives. Church
history tells us that all of these men were killed except for John:
Matthew was martyred in Ethiopia by a sword.
Mark died in Egypt after being drug by horses
through the city streets of Alexandria until dead.
Luke was hanged in Greece for preaching.
John was boiled in a huge basin of oil during a wave
of persecution in Rome. But he survived
and was exiled to the Island of Patmos where he wrote the book of
Revelation. John was later freed,
became the Bishop of Edessa and died as an old man.
Peter was crucified upside down.
James, Jesus’ half brother, was thrown off the
southeast pinnacle of the temple, falling over 100 feet. Somehow he survived, and was then beaten to
death with a club.
James the son of Zebedee was beheaded in
Jerusalem.
Bartholomew also known as Nathanael as a missionary to Asia (now Turkey) was flayed to death
by a whip for preaching.
Andrew was crucified, and after being whipped by seven
soldiers he hung on to life for two days until he died.
Thomas was stabbed to death with a spear while
preaching in India.
Jude, the brother of Jesus, was killed with arrows
when he would not deny his faith.
Matthias, you know, the one chosen in Acts 1:26, was
stoned and then beheaded.
Barnabas was stoned to death.
Paul was tortured and then beheaded by Emperor Nero.
· Why
would these guys die like this? I'll
tell you why, it's just as the Bible says:
"After his suffering, he
showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was
alive. He appeared to them over a
period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God." Acts 1:3-4
· Ralph
Muncaster, a skeptic who became a Christian, says: "…if
there had been no crucifixion and resurrection verifying the prophecies that
Jesus was God, there would be no reason for martyrdom. There would be no Christianity in the form
we know today. Who would ever die for a
fake Messiah who just 'claimed' to be God, whose prophecy of his own
resurrection was false?" Ralph
Muncaster: A Skeptic's Search For God, 205.
· Jesus
was God in human flesh and proved it by rising from the dead.
·
Coming next
week: Who was Mary Magdalene and what is her gospel all about?
·
Let’s pray.