About this sermon
Christmas sentiment can hide how humble and harsh the circumstances of Christ’s birth really were. Christ existed in the form of God and did not grasp at equality with God, and he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant. He never gave up his deity, and he took on a true human nature without sin, so that as God and man he could save us. He humbled himself to death on a cross, God exalted him, and every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Sermon transcript
into our passage under consideration this evening. Please remain standing for the reading of God’s Word this evening. We’re going to consider a passage from Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi, Philippians chapter 2, verses 5 and 11. I’m going to begin reading at verse 1 to fill out the context a bit as Paul is addressing this highly theological section of his letter. in order to exhort the believers to show love for one another, and giving Christ as the example of that humility. So let us hear God’s holy word. I’m gonna begin reading at verse one and read through verse 11, but our focus will be especially on verses five through 11. Philippians chapter two. Dear friends, let us hear the word of God. So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the spirit, any affection and sympathy.
Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
Dear ones, the grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for the Lord to bless the proclamation of His Word. O Lord and Father in heaven, once again, we are humbled as we consider the humiliation and exaltation of Christ our Savior. We pray that by your Spirit, once again, you would open our minds and our hearts to behold wondrous things from your Word. We pray that you would Encourage us, fill us this evening, bless us, and cause your word to find a deep root in our hearts, as seed in the soil of our hearts. May your word be as seed that finds a lodging place and bears much spiritual fruit. Lord, set a guard over my lips, once again, that I might speak only that which is faithful to your word. and honoring to your name and edifying to your people.
We pray these things through Christ our Lord and all of God’s people said, amen. You may be seated. The title of my sermon this evening, brothers and sisters, is He Emptied Himself. And if you’re following along in your sermon outline, there are quite a few key words that you can choose to listen to this evening or choose to keep track of if you find that helpful in following along with the sermon. Well, dear friends, I’m sure it’s been a busy week for for many with the holiday celebrations, the Christmas celebrations. One of the things about the Christmas season that is a real turnoff for many believers is culture through its crass commercialism and its shallow materialism has so secularized and so sentimentalized the story of our Savior’s birth. Seems that for many today, the Christmas season is more about things like Christmas trees and holiday decorations, the giving and receiving of presents, mistletoe, the Santa Claus story, and so forth.
Things that are not necessarily bad in and of themselves, but it seems that that’s where so much of the emphasis is turned, rather than a baby in the manger. And I’m sure that there are many sermons that have been preached recently in many congregations where the congregants have been urged to put Christ back into Christmas, right? And I’m sure you’ve seen the bumper sticker as well. But while it’s easy to denounce the shallowness of our unbelieving post-Christian culture and its approach to the Christmas season, We need to realize that even in the church, there is a danger that we as God’s people can easily fall into an unbiblical and indeed a sentimental view of our Savior’s birth and of the events that surrounded that birth. For example, think about Christmas plays or Christmas pageants. It certainly is cute and heartwarming to watch young children reenact the story of Jesus through Christmas pageants and Christmas plays and so forth.
But in reality, friends, there was really nothing all that cute or heartwarming about the environment of poverty and filth into which our Savior was born. I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen some very beautiful and artistically ornate Christmas crushes and manger scenes. But again, in reality, there was nothing really all that beautiful or ornate about the circumstances surrounding our Savior’s birth. You see, while the biblical accounts of our Savior’s birth are indeed beautiful in terms of the spiritual and the redemptive truths that they teach us, there is a sense in which the Christmas story is also deeply ugly. It’s ugly because it underscores human depravity, human misery, and poverty, and human hardness of heart. For example, Jesus was born in what was probably a filthy, smelly place where animals were kept. He was not born in a king’s palace.
He was born in an environment among the animals where he was wrapped in swaddling cloths and he was laid in a feeding trough as a makeshift crib. Jesus also was born into what was likely an ordinary working class family. He was not born into royalty. He who was the King of Kings and Lord of Lords humbled himself to be born in circumstances, as our confessional standards put it, he was born in circumstances of more than ordinary abasement. Well, dear ones, our passage for this Lord’s Day evening teaches us that the Savior of mankind came to us not in pomp, nor in splendor, nor in richness, nor in outward majesty, but he came to us in deep humility, deep abasement, and profound ordinariness. What’s one of the amazing things about our God? He is an extraordinary God who works in very ordinary circumstances and through ordinary means.
Now, Jesus was certainly no ordinary child, but the circumstances surrounding his birth have an air of ordinariness, in a sense, about them. This passage, my friends, reminds us of our Lord’s humiliation, his self-emptying. It also reminds us at the same time that the very one who was once the baby lying in the manger is now exalted, indeed super exalted, if you will, to the right hand of God the Father as King of kings and Lord of lords. This passage also teaches us that one day at the glorious name of Jesus, every knee shall bow in submission and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. But let’s dive in and see what we can learn from this portion of God’s Word this evening. Now just to set the stage, Paul wrote this epistle, this letter to the Philippian church while he was in prison.
This is one of his prison epistles, and yet in spite of Paul’s circumstances of being humbled and being imprisoned, this is a letter, an epistle that pulsates with the joy of the Lord. And towards the end of this epistle in chapter four, Paul exhorts his readers, rejoice in the Lord always. Not just in good times, not just in pleasant times. Rejoice in the Lord always again, I say rejoice. But here is a portion of this letter where Paul exhorts the brothers and sisters in the Philippian church and he exhorts them to humility and mutual love for one another. And so in the first four verses of chapter two, we read of Paul exhorting these believers to unity, to lowliness of spirit, and to humility in their relationships with one another. And just as an aside, one of the things that should strike you as you read passages like this, this is addressed not to individual, isolated Christians, The Bible is not written for lone ranger Christians.
The Bible is not written to Christians who take a view that, well, all I need is just me and my Bible and the Holy Spirit in my prayer closet, and that’s all I need. No. You need the body of Christ. When the Father brings you in sovereign grace to faith in Christ and unites you to Christ, he also unites you to the body of Christ. And most of the New Testament was written not to but to local congregations, local churches, local gatherings of God’s people who were gathered around the Word and the sacraments to worship our exalted Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And here, Paul exhorts these brothers and sisters. He says, so if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, these are virtues that can be practiced only in community, only in Christian community in the body of Christ.
Paul says, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love. And we Christians, we can be of the same mind and have the same love because we have a common Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. That doesn’t mean we will agree on everything or see everything eye to eye, but it does mean that we have a common goal because we have a common Savior. And we share and confess together the one gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul says, complete my joy. It brings joy to Paul’s heart as they are of the same mind, have the same love, and being in full accord and of one mind. And then he goes on to say, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.” Boy, that runs contrary to the modern ideology of put yourself first, right?
Number one is Jesus. Number two is others. You’re number three. And he goes on to say, Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. Beginning in verse five and going through verse eight, Paul sets forth Christ as the greatest example of humility and selfless love. Here in these verses, Paul deals with what we, in the Reformed tradition, call Christ’s estate of humiliation. Voluntary humiliation for the sake of our salvation. And then in verses 9 through 11, Paul reminds us of Christ’s exaltation, and he does so as an encouragement to believers, since our humiliation in union with Christ as Christ’s disciples will also one day give way to exaltation. As Christ died and then was raised, and exalted to the Father’s right hand so that we are raised in union with Him and we will be glorified with Him in that final day.
So with this passage in its, hopefully, having said it in its context, let’s first of all, let’s consider verses five through eight. And brothers and sisters, I would have you here take to heart the self-emptying and humility of the Lord Jesus as shown in His incarnation. Take to heart the self-emptying and humility of the Lord Jesus as shown in his incarnation, in his enfleshment, in that which we have celebrated recently with the Christmas holiday. Again, remember the context. In the context here, Paul is not seeking to give a theological discourse. He’s not seeking to write a systematic theology. He is addressing pastoral issues, but he addresses pastoral issues. in a deeply theological way, by pointing to Christ. I am of the opinion that can be made that the most profound, in a sense, the most important subject of the theological sciences is the subject of Christology, namely the doctrine of the person of Christ.
I’m not saying that other branches of theology are unimportant or less important, but there is a sense in which we can say that what you believe about Jesus, everything flows from that. Jesus is at the center. And Jesus is obviously at the center here of Paul’s exhortation. And he says this in verse five, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. You already have the mind of Christ because of your saving union with Christ, dear believer. You also already have this mind. So Paul is exhorting us and calling us to live out the implications of the mind that we have already been given in union with Christ. our Savior. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.” And what mind is that? Look at verse 6. Speaking of Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God, but emptied himself. by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
Now let’s focus on verse six. These are profound words, beloved. In speaking of the Lord Jesus, what does Paul say about Jesus? He says that Jesus was in the form of God. He was, he being in the form of God. The Greek word for was or being is huparkon, It’s a present participle which underscores Christ’s continuing condition. He was and indeed he is and ever shall be in the form of God. Dr. Homer, in his commentary on Philippians, says that, quote, to say that he, that Jesus was existing in the essential metaphysical form of God is tantamount to saying that he possessed the nature of God. It’s not that Jesus was in the form of God, but not really God. No, he was in the nature of God. He was in the form of God in the sense of being in the nature of God.
The Greek word for form is the word morphe. And according to Hendrickson, this word, quote, refers to the inner essential and abiding nature of a person or thing. I think the New International correctly gives the sense of this phrase when it translates it, who being in very nature God. My friends, the point I’m trying to make here is one of the clearest affirmations of Christ’s full deity to be found in all of Holy Scripture. If anyone ever says to you, well, the Bible says a lot of exalted things about Jesus, but the Bible never says Jesus is God. in a number of places, and this is one of the places where it’s saying that. It’s maybe not saying it in the exact form of the words, Jesus is God, but it is saying he who was in the form of God, he who was in very nature God, emptied himself of that.
So we see here an affirmation of the deity of Christ. We also see here Paul asserting of Christ his self-emptying in the incarnation. It goes on to say at the end of verse six that Christ did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. These are profound words, profound words which could really, if you misinterpret them or misunderstand them, could really take you down a bad way, theologically speaking. Hendrickson translates it this way, that Jesus did not consider his existence in a manner equal to God something to cling to. Kent says the pre-incarnate Christ already possessed equality with the Father and resolved not to cling to it. He resolved not to cling to it. Now what does that mean? Does this mean that when Christ came to this earth in the person of Jesus of Nazareth that he stopped being God?
Did he empty himself of his deity, his Godhood, when he became a man? Is that what Paul is asserting here? Did he empty himself of his Godhood God forbid, no, he certainly did not. That is not what Paul is asserting here. And we misunderstand and misread the passage if we read it in that way. Now, first of all, think about the kinds of problems that that would present you with. If Paul is in fact saying that in our Lord’s incarnation that he ceased for a time during his earthly ministry, during his time amongst us in the days of his flesh that he stopped being God temporarily during that time, think about what that’s saying. What that is saying is that God was able to kind of go in and out of existence. But God by definition cannot not exist. is eternally self-existent.
What is the name that he reveals himself, one of the chief names by which he reveals himself in the Old Testament? Moses says, who are you, Lord? Who should I say that you are? And what does the Lord say? I am that I am. God is the great I am, the eternal I am, the self-existent one. So if Jesus is in the form of God, if he is in the nature of God, whatever else Paul is meaning his terminology, he certainly does not mean that the Son of God ceased to exist in his divinity during the days of his flesh. By definition, God cannot stop being God, for he is eternally self-existent. Another major problem with the idea that God emptied himself of his divinity is that would mean that Jesus was a purely human savior during the days of his flesh.
And if Jesus was not God during the days of His flesh, during the days of His time on earth, then He would not be qualified to be our Savior. My friends, the only Jesus who can save is the Jesus who is the God-man, the Word made flesh. Only God has the power and the ability to save sinners. but he only can do so as a man. If Jesus had emptied himself of his divinity when he took upon himself our humanity, And this, by the way, this is one of the reasons why if you read the early church fathers and the debates that went on in the early church over the doctrine of Christ and how to understand his divinity and its relationship to his humanity, to us, we read those church fathers and they seem to be so persnickety, they seem to be so particular in their arguments and they got really philosophical and so forth. these brothers, these church fathers understood that our salvation hinges upon who Jesus is.
The only Jesus who is capable of saving a sinner like me and like you is a Savior who is fully God and fully man, united in one person, and that is who Jesus Christ is. But then again, getting back to our text, what does it mean when he says that Christ did not cling to his being as God. It says in verse six, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. What does that mean? What is Paul saying? What does it mean? What it does mean is that Christ did not cling to the divine glory he had with his father before the incarnation. During the time, his time on earth, his divinity was veiled behind his humanity. Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see, hail the incarnate deity, as we sing in that wonderful Christmas hymn.
Jesus was willing to give up his existence as equal to God the Father, in the words of William Hendrickson, his divine glory, in order to take upon himself a human nature which would veil that glory during his earthly life. I think this is where our Shorter Catechism is so helpful. If you turn to these familiar, what should be to many of you, these familiar words in Shorter Catechism question and answer 22, that’s on page 969 in the back of your Psalter hymnal, 969. Question 22 of our Shorter Catechism asks, how did Christ, being the Son of God, become man? The Bible-based answer is this, Christ, the Son of God, became man, not by emptying himself of his divinity, but notice what it says, the Son of God became man by taking to himself a true body and a reasonable soul, being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin Mary and born of her, yet without sin.
Amen. Self-emptying of himself means taking upon himself the form of a servant, and this is asserted in verse seven. Paul writes that he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant. You see the parallel there. There’s the form of God and the form of a servant. In other words, though he was and is and ever shall be truly and fully God, He was willing to come down to our level and take upon himself a fully human nature. And he did so, brothers and sisters, for us and for our salvation. We sang about this in that wonderful hymn. Amazing love, how can it be that thou, my God, at least in a manner of speaking, thou, my God, shouldst die for me? And it goes on to say in verse 7, being born in the likeness of men.
Now the Greek word here for likeness is homoemati. Some heretics in the early church taught that this term likeness means that Jesus only seemed like a human being, that he wasn’t a real full human being, he only seemed like a human being. But again, that too would be a twisting of Paul’s words. That’s not why Paul is using this terminology. That’s not what Paul is saying. Paul has already asserted that Jesus took the form of a servant, which means that he took upon himself the very nature of a human being. Jesus was a real man with a real human body and a real human soul. He was not merely a God-indwelt man, or I remember once a long time ago, I think I was listening to a Christian radio station and I, I believe I seem to recall hearing some preacher describe Jesus, I think it was a Christmas sermon of some kind, and this particular preacher was describing Jesus as God in a body.
God in a body? Understand, beloved, Jesus is not merely God in a body. Jesus is the God-man. He’s not merely a God-indwelt man. If you’re a believer in Christ, you are indwelt by God the Holy Spirit. As believers in Christ, we are all God-indwelt people, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, but we are not incarnations of God. Jesus, on the other hand, is not merely a God-indwelt man or God in a body. He is the God-man, fully God, fully man, united in one divine person. He had the likeness, however, of sinful man, though he was different from sinful man in two very important ways. First of all, he himself had no sin. This is perhaps one of the reasons why Paul uses this terminology of likeness. Jesus is fully human, but he’s human as the first Adam was before the fall.
He is like us in all things except for sin. And this is confirmed, for example, in passages like Hebrews chapter four, verse 15. If you’d like to turn over there very briefly, Hebrews chapter four, verse 15. We read these words. The author of Hebrews, speaking of Jesus as our great high priest, he says in verse 15, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are. Three important words in that verse. Yet without sin, Jesus Christ was and is worthy. the sinless one, and that is why he could serve as the Lamb of God who takes away our sin. And secondly, in his incarnation, his divine nature was inseparably united to his human nature. And again, it is because of important differences like these that Paul speaks here of Christ being born in the likeness of men.
He’s not just saying that Jesus was like a man, but not really a man, no. He is truly man, but he is like us minus sin. And he is like us, except for the fact that he is also united, his human nature is inseparably united to his divine nature. But the point that Paul really underscores here in this passage is the humble obedience of Christ. Why did Jesus leave the glories of heaven and take upon himself our humanity? Well, it says in verse eight, and being found in human form, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Paul’s readers in Philippi would have been familiar with death by crucifixion. Many of them may have perhaps witnessed crucifixion victims dying by the side of the road. It was often a practice of the Roman Empire.
If you were a traitor to Rome, they would publicly crucify you. As an example, to suffer this kind of, then go ahead. And crucifixion was not only an agonizing way to die, it was a deeply shameful way to die. You were crucified naked. I know that in popular Christian art over the centuries, Jesus is often depicted as having a loincloth on or something like that nature. No, he was ripped to shreds. that he had received, and he was buck naked, hanging on a cross in deep shame and humiliation. And brothers and sisters, he did that for you and for me. So deep was his love for us. He humbled himself in human form. Now, when other people looked at Jesus, they saw nothing in him that would make them think that he was If you were able to step into a time machine and go back to first century Palestine and walk the road with the Lord Jesus amongst the crowds, he would look like an ordinary guy.
I’ve heard one preacher once describe Jesus, well, Jesus might have been, for all we know, an ugly Jew. In other words, he had no form or comeliness that we should be attracted to him. He was an ordinary looking guy. And he wasn’t someone who floated on air. He didn’t have a halo over his head. He didn’t have sunbeams coming out of his face as he was, again, as Jesus is often depicted in Christian iconography and artwork. No, he was an ordinary looking man. He was found in human form. Like everyone else, he was born, though he was virgin born, that makes him He was born. He grew. He ate. He got hungry. He needed to sleep. He got tired. There were times when he probably had bad breath and body odor, especially in his line of work.
He had a trade. And eventually, he died. But behind the veil of his ordinariness, behind the veil of his humanity, was the eternal Son and living Word of God. And that divine glory shone through on the Mount of Transfiguration briefly. But now Christ is glorified at the Father’s right hand. It says he humbled himself. Believer, think of the humiliation that Christ went through for you and for me and for our salvation. And how did he humble himself? Paul is very specific. By becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Our Savior’s whole life, of course, was one of obedience. Jesus, unlike the first Adam, Jesus perfectly obeyed God, perfectly kept the covenant of works on our behalf. He perfectly obeyed in his life and in his death. And therefore, the Father has highly exalted him.
But his obedience was radical. that he was willing to obey even to the point of enduring the painful and shameful death on the cross of Calvary, a death that we deserve to die for our sins. Jesus did so in our place, in our stead. And the Father, out of love, sent his son Jesus to die for us, that we might be redeemed and experience his love. God demonstrates his own love for us in this, as Romans 5.8 says, God demonstrates his love for us in this, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Beloved, think of what Christ was willing to undergo in order to save sinners like me and like you. Believer, Let the thought of Christ’s humiliation in His birth and life and death humble your heart before the Lord and fill your soul with gratitude and praise and love for the Savior who died for you.
And this brings me to my next and final point for this evening. Beloved, let the good news of Christ’s exaltation encourage you as you walk in the footsteps of the humble Christ. Let the good news of Christ’s exaltation encourage you as you walk in the footsteps of the humble Christ. As Paul goes on to write in v. 9, having spoken of the humiliation and death of Christ, His obedience unto death, Paul goes on to say in v. 9, therefore, God, meaning God the Father, has highly exalted Him. And how has God the Father highly exalted Christ? By raising Him from the dead and coronating Him at His right hand in His ascension. God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, Jesus, the Word made flesh, the God-man, Emmanuel, God with us, at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
This is not a pipe dream. One day, on that day when Jesus returns in glory, every knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess that He is Lord. Though our Lord Jesus Christ was born in such humble circumstances and laid in a feeding trough for animals, Let us remember that he’s no longer that precious baby born in Bethlehem and laid in a manger. Instead, he is now exalted to the right hand of God the Father Almighty, where he reigns as King and Lord over all. The humble and gentle Christ child is now the exalted lion of the tribe of Judah. Now in verse 9 it’s interesting, just to wrap this up tonight, when Paul writes, therefore God has highly exalted him, the Greek word for exalted here could be translated as super exalted. God has super exalted his son.
The glory which Christ had with the Father before the foundation of the world has been restored to him. And as the God-man, not only is his divine nature once again exalted, but also his human nature, which is in eternal union with the divine nature, is exalted. Christ is exalted as the God-man at the Father’s right hand. And again, as I said, On Judgment Day, every knee will bow before King Jesus. In heaven, that would include the angels and the archangels and the departed souls of men. On earth, that would include those who remain alive at the coming of Christ, and those under the earth even, which could be a reference to the demons and the souls in hell. Even they too will confess the Lordship of Christ on that final day. And verse 11 wraps up this amazing section by saying, every tongue will confess that every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
Our chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. And on that final day, everyone will glorify Him by confessing Him. Believers will do so joyfully. Unbelievers will do so with remorse, but all will one day confess Him as Lord. Dear listener, have you confessed the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? Have you received the one who was the humble Christ child as your sovereign and Lord and King? Trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior from sin. And the Bible says you will be saved. And this day of judgment that is coming will be a day of joy for you. But refuse the Savior, and it will be a day of horror and shame. turn from your sin, turn to Christ, believe and repent. May God be with you and may God bless each and every one of us with a wonderful and blessed 2024.
Let’s pray. Father, we do thank you and praise you for our Savior. We thank you that to be our Savior, and we thank you, Lord Jesus, that you were willing to leave the glories of heaven and to clothe yourself in our human nature in order to represent us, in order to die for us, and to rise for us, and to intercede for us at the Father’s right hand. We pray that you would grant us the grace, therefore, to follow in your footsteps in our relations with one another, to humble ourselves and to seek the interests of others above our own interests. that we might indeed bear witness to your humiliation and your exaltation. We pray these things in your name and all of God’s people said, amen. Let’s close our time of worship by rising and we’ll sing together 270 at the name of Jesus, 270.
At the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow. Every tongue confess Him, King of glory now. Tis the Father’s pleasure, we should call Him King. from the beginning was the mighty word. At his voice creation sprang at once to sight. All the angel faces, all the hosts Thrones and dominations stood upon their way. All the heavenly orders in their great array. Humbled for a season to receive a name. From the lips of sinners unto whom he came. Faithfully he bore it, spotless through the last. victorious when from death he passed. In your hearts enthrone him, let him there subdue. All that is not holy, all that is not true, Crown Him as your captain in temptation’s hour. Let His will enfold you in its light and power. Brothers, this Lord Jesus shall return again. with his father’s glory, with his angel train.
For all ways of empire meet upon his brow, and our hearts confess him King of Glory now. Amen. People of God, look up and receive the declaration of God’s blessing, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen. And may you have a happy New Year.
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