and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. 14 And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.
60 And the high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus, “Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?”161 But he remained silent and made no answer. Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” 62 And Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.”63 And the high priest tore his garments and said, “What further witnesses do we need? 64 You have heard his blasphemy. What is your decision?” And they all condemned him as deserving death.
Footnotes
[1]14:60Or Have you no answer to what these men testify against you?
6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes,
and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. 14 And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.
60 And the high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus, “Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?”161 But he remained silent and made no answer. Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” 62 And Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.”63 And the high priest tore his garments and said, “What further witnesses do we need? 64 You have heard his blasphemy. What is your decision?” And they all condemned him as deserving death.
Footnotes
[1]14:60Or Have you no answer to what these men testify against you?
6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes,
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Joel Brooks:
If you have a Bible, I invite you to turn to Acts chapter one. We've left our series in Mark, and, and now we will be looking at the Ascension this morning. Acts chapter one, if you also want to turn to Daniel seven and Mark 14, we'll be looking at those as well. All of those texts are there in your worship guide. I grew up in the Southern Baptist Church, and by saying I grew up there, I felt like I spent every moment there.
Joel Brooks:
My mom was a church organist for over forty years. My dad was a deacon. Deeply thankful for that heritage. I was there every Sunday morning, every Sunday night, every Wednesday night for choir and for RAs. Love the church.
Joel Brooks:
We had we had one little oddity about it though. And that's when it came time for us to sing hymns. We would, typically sing the first, second, and fourth verse, and we leave out the third. Any other churches do that? Okay.
Joel Brooks:
So so we're not not alone in that. I have no idea why we would do that. We would we leave out usually the second to last verse. So if it had five verses, we would sing the first, second, third. We drop the fourth, then we sing the fifth.
Joel Brooks:
I think we just wanted to beat the Methodists out to Red Lobster, and so we just we had to drop whatever, seconds we could to get out early. But it's a shame really because the people who wrote those hymns, obviously, they wrote those verses for a reason. There's a certain theological flow in those hymns. And so we are missing out when we drop that second to last verse. I feel that the church, by and large today, has done this with the Ascension.
Joel Brooks:
Really big deal by the other verses of Jesus's life, about his death or his birth, his life, his death, his resurrection, and that someday he shall come with trumpet sound. But what about the ascension? Ascension that reminds us not just what Jesus has done in the past or what Jesus is going to do in the future, but what Jesus is doing right now in the present. And currently, he is on his throne ruling heaven and earth. It's likely for that reason, that the ascension is so neglected today.
Joel Brooks:
Represents. It's it's unlike any of the other Christian holidays that we have that can be secularized by the world, you know, like Christmas with its themes of love and joy and, you know, the world could latch onto that. We could have Santa. We could give gifts. Easter.
Joel Brooks:
Well, you could just make that about new beginnings and new life. And then, of course, you have the Easter bunny. You have little Easter egg hunts. But what do you do about the ascension? There's no way to secularize it.
Joel Brooks:
You either believe that Jesus is the reigning Lord of heaven and earth and you completely surrender your lives to him or you don't. So what I'm hoping that we do, this morning is that we remember the lost verse of the Ascension together. And so if you would, we're gonna read together beginning in Daniel and then in Mark and then Acts and then we'll pray. Daniel seven. I saw in the night visions, and behold with the clouds of heaven, there came one like a son of man.
Joel Brooks:
And he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. Mark 14, beginning in verse 60. And the high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus, have you no answer to make?
Joel Brooks:
Remained silent and made no answer. Again, the high priest asked him, are you the Christ? The son of the Blasp. And Jesus said, I am. And you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven.
Joel Brooks:
And the high priest tore his garments and said, what further witness do we need? You have heard this blasphemy. Then Acts chapter one verse six. So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? He said to them, it is not for you to know times or seasons that the father has fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.
Joel Brooks:
And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold two men stood by them in white robes and said, men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. This is the word of the Lord.
Joel Brooks:
You would pray with me. And, Father, we ask that right now through your spirit, you would give us
Collin Hansen:
eyes to see the ascended and glorified
Joel Brooks:
and that we would we would give us eyes to see the ascended and glorified the ascended and glorified Jesus, and that we would be ever forever changed by what we see. I pray that in this moment, my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.
Joel Brooks:
Back in the book of Exodus, presence of God. And he was there for a long long time, over a month up there. And the people couldn't see what was going on because a impenetrable cloud had descended upon the mountain. This time of ascension, well, it created, it created a time of testing for God's people. It was a time of perseverance, a time of waiting.
Joel Brooks:
What would they do as they waited for Moses to come back down? Or would Moses come back at all? We know what happened to them. We read this in Exodus 32. When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, up make us gods who shall go before us.
Joel Brooks:
As for this Moses, the the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. Justice, brings us to a similar moment of destiny. And what has happened to him. Where has our savior gone? Will our savior ever return?
Joel Brooks:
Can we believe the words he ever said to us? And if we're not careful, we can fall into the same trap as Israel did and we could commit idolatry. Now we're not likely, we're not gonna melt down, pieces of gold and make for ourselves a golden calf. But the church, especially the American church, I do see that they've already manufactured a much different Jesus than the risen and ascended Jesus, than the glorified Jesus. Alton, the church doesn't see Jesus as all powerful.
Joel Brooks:
They don't see him as ruling over all things. Demand absolute allegiance. He's not supreme. He's not majestic in his glory. In other words, often the church might worship a risen Jesus, but not an ascended one.
Joel Brooks:
Now when you think of the Ascension, do not think so much of Jesus just rising higher and higher up into the clouds to where he finally goes up into the heavens. Instead, think of Jesus ascending to the throne. That picture of Jesus just kind of floating up in the clouds has led to some really awkward paintings or Monty Python films over the years. Maybe you could picture or some cartoons, in which Jesus's feet are just kind of dangling down from the clouds as it ascends. That's not what we see here.
Joel Brooks:
When we speak of someone ascending to the throne, there very well might be actual steps going up to the throne. But somebody could walk up those steps and not actually ascend to the throne. Because when we use that language ascending to the throne, we're not talking about a spatial change that's happening. We're talking about a relational change that's happening in that moment. This person who ascends to the throne, they begin relating to everyone in a different way.
Joel Brooks:
The person is now king. We are now his subjects. The person has a new title. He's been given a new power. He can now give out commands which everyone must obey.
Joel Brooks:
Jesus didn't just rise higher and higher to the heavens. Cloud or the Shekinah glory of God and he ascended to heaven, not the heavens. And heaven is that space or that dimension, if you will, where God's throne is. And Jesus goes here and he sits down and he begins his rule and his reign. The Apostle Paul, he speaks about this ascension all throughout his letters.
Joel Brooks:
I'll read you just a couple of places. Philippians chapter two when he says, 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 is Lord to the glory of God the Father. In Ephesians one, he says, God has seated Christ at his right hand in the heavenly places.
Joel Brooks:
Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named. And he put all things under his feet and gave him his head over all things. Now when the disciples saw Jesus ascend, noticed that they couldn't move. They were just stuck there looking. Angels actually had to come and give them a rebuke.
Joel Brooks:
It was a gentle rebuke, but it was a rebuke, rebuke nevertheless. Say, hey, guys, why are you just standing here looking into heaven? Jesus standing here looking into heaven? Jesus is going to come back the same way. We know from Luke's account in Luke 24 that they then left rejoicing.
Joel Brooks:
But the reason that the disciples stood there, terrible loss. They were losing Jesus. Happens to Christians when they don't understand the Ascension. We're gonna think of it as a loss, and we're just gonna stand around, and we're gonna do nothing. The ascension.
Joel Brooks:
We don't have time to look at all of them, but I do want us to just look at four this morning. And then we're going to look at one more next week when we look at Pentecost. But let's look at four benefits to the ascension, to Jesus going away. The first benefit is this. Through the ascension, we gain access to heaven.
Joel Brooks:
When we speak of Jesus being the way, you know, when he is the way, the truth, and life, the way, what we are referring to is the ascension. In John chapter three, when Jesus is having a conversation with Nicodemus about how we can enter into the kingdom of heaven, he says this, no one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the son of man. And this is true for us today. And this is true for us today. And this is true for us today.
Joel Brooks:
And this is true for us today. And And this is true for us today. If you ever have any hope of getting into heaven, you have to cling to Jesus. You cannot buy your way into heaven. You cannot work your way into heaven.
Joel Brooks:
Your only hope is to cling to the one who actually came from heaven and return back there. That's what Jesus meant when he said he is the way. Sixteen hundred years ago, Saint Augustine talking about it says it this way, cleave to Christ, who by descending and ascending has made himself the way. Do you wish to ascend? Well then hold fast to him
Collin Hansen:
who ascends. For by
Joel Brooks:
yourself, you cannot rise. For by yourself, you cannot rise. Any of you ever been to, it's it's the hottest new nightclub here in Birmingham. It's called Magic City Nights. Any of you been there?
Joel Brooks:
Good. It doesn't exist. I was just testing you. I would have called you out 100% as lying. Just just imagine that there was this exclusive nightclub, super exclusive nightclub called Magic City Nights, and for some unknown reason, you really wanted to go to it.
Joel Brooks:
But let's be honest, because it's so exclusive, there's no way you're getting in. It's it's not for people like us. The only way you could get in is if you actually happen to know the owner. And then when the owner goes to those doors and the bouncers are they're they're putting you nope. No access.
Joel Brooks:
All the owner has to say is, he's with me. And you just have to say, I'm with him. And the doors are open. And it's the same way with our access to heaven. The only way we have a shot of ever getting to heaven is not through our own merit, but just simply saying, I'm with him.
Joel Brooks:
And you cling to Jesus with everything you have. So first benefit is it opens up heaven to us. Second, in the ascension, we see our future. The ascended Christ shows us what Adam was supposed to do, what he was supposed to be, and also what we will someday become. So the ascension shows us what Adam was supposed to be and what we will someday become.
Joel Brooks:
Remember, Adam was given dominion over this world. He was supposed to rule and to reign it in righteousness, but instead of doing that, he rebelled against God and he blew the whole thing. But now, Jesus is exercising that dominion that mankind was supposed to have at the beginning. And in his reign, we see basically the ruin of Adam is being undone by the reign of the second Adam, Jesus. And someday, it's hard to believe it, but when you read Revelation three, we read that we also will ascend and we will sit with Jesus on his throne just as he ascended and sat with his father on his throne.
Joel Brooks:
So his reign actually shows us our future. Third benefit to the Ascension is that Jesus now intercedes for us as High Priest. The entire book of Hebrews is actually about this so you really could pull from anywhere there. But I'll just read you one verse, Hebrews chapter seven twenty five. Jesus is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them.
Joel Brooks:
He always lives to make intercession for them. While on earth, Jesus paid for our sins on the cross, but he now applies this payment moment by moment in his ascension. It's through that constant intercession that he pays for it. When we think of that phrase, he lives to make intercession, and we think of the word intercession, we naturally think of Jesus. He's praying on
Collin Hansen:
our behalf, which he does. You know, when when I sin, he's
Joel Brooks:
praying on our behalf, which he does. You know, when when I sin, Jesus then, he he he says, father, I know Joel sinned here, but my blood covers that sin. So you are not to judge Joel because I've already been judged for him. He doesn't have to pay a debt because I've already paid that debt for him. And then I sin again, and Jesus, he he reminds again, Father, I paid for that sin too, and I paid for that sin too.
Joel Brooks:
That's what we think of and that's rightly so, that's intercession. But Jesus also intercedes for us in a different way. He lives to make intercession for us. In other words, his very life is an intercession for us. And let me explain.
Joel Brooks:
When Jesus ascended, he did not ascend as a spirit. He didn't change into a spirit. He ascended as a human. He had his resurrected body and he ascended as a human, which means that Jesus will forever be human. I was talking with somebody recently about this and they they said, you know, I'm just so confused because what it sounds to me like you're trying to say, and I know you can't be saying this, is that Jesus will always be human.
Joel Brooks:
I said, well, that's because it's exactly what I'm saying. Jesus will always be human and divine, but he has his resurrected body. That is our hope that he forever remains human. There's no hope for us if he doesn't forever remain human. That's our hope because now he can forever be our human representative.
Joel Brooks:
You know, by faith we are united with Christ. We are the phrase Paul uses over and over. We are in Christ. And what this means is when the father looks at Jesus in his perfect humanity, because Jesus is our representative, he sees us in our perfect humanity just by looking at Jesus. And so all of the love and all of the joy that the father feels towards his perfect son, he now expresses that same love and that joy towards us.
Joel Brooks:
Little bit deeper. If you want to have your mind blown, just think about this. Because of the Ascension of Jesus, which means humanity is always on God's mind. Humanity is always close to his heart. Let me tell you, when you're thinking of the implications of the ascension, if you don't feel like you're right up to the edge of heresy, you haven't gone far enough.
Joel Brooks:
I mean seriously, I talking with other pastors and theologians about this and you're like, oh, everybody's like, oh my gosh. Can we actually Yes. It clearly teaches this. But boy, can it really be that great? It seems too good to be true, but it is.
Joel Brooks:
Fourth benefit of the ascension is that Jesus told us that a reason he was going away, he was ascending, was in order to prepare for us a home. We looked at this a few weeks back, but remember, Jesus said in John 14 to his disciples, he said, In my father's house, there are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and I will take you to myself that where I am there you may be also. Jesus told his disciples that, yes, he was going to leave them, but he wasn't just gonna go to heaven and like slouch on the throne and eat nachos and wait for the next harp solo.
Joel Brooks:
I mean, we have this view of like Jesus just doing nothing. No, he he went there to work. He's preparing a place for us. And in Revelation 21 it says that this place, this home he's building, well it's 1,400 miles wide, is 1,400 miles long. It's essentially an enormous city that's about the size of a large country.
Joel Brooks:
It's anybody grew up with audio adrenaline? It's a big house with lots and lots of room. We can play football. That's right. We can I used to just always make fun of that song over and over and over because it's pretty redundant, and it's a complete rip off of the spin doctors?
Joel Brooks:
But, it's actually good theology. He is going and building us a big, big house with lots and lots of rooms. And if you can remember from a few weeks back, we talked about how that's wedding language, that Jesus goes to prepare a place for us. You know, a first century Jew, when they got married or when they got engaged, the groom would go off to the father's house and he would work on building an addition to that house. When that addition was done, he would go back and there would be a wedding ceremony, and then he would take his bride back to his father's house, where there was now the extra room.
Joel Brooks:
It's wedding imagery. And this is what blows my mind. Remember, Jesus will forever have a human body. Someday, we will be resurrected and we will have a resurrected body. And that means that Jesus someday, when he comes again and there's the wedding, he will look at us and he will say, at last.
Joel Brooks:
This is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. And we will be united with Jesus forever. Hold on to, to marriage and the symbolism of marriage so tightly. It's because we see our future. We will be united with Jesus forever.
Joel Brooks:
Spend the rest of our time doing is, us just looking at how much Jesus himself longed for his longed for his ascension. And we saw all throughout Mark, of course, Jesus was talking about his resurrection, but it was the ascension that was most dear to his heart. It was the thing that he absolutely longed for more than anything else. What he prayed for when he was in the upper room. And he prayed, father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
Joel Brooks:
That's what he was longing for. You could tell that it was always on his mind simply by the way he would refer to himself as the son of man. Title, he would quickly turn it back around and he would refer to himself as the son of man, the Son of Man. And this is the title that comes from Daniel chapter seven, in which we see a Son of Man ascend in the clouds to heaven and sits down at the right hand of power. Let's read Daniel seven verse 13 again.
Joel Brooks:
I saw in the night visions, and behold, there came one like a son of man. And he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away in a kingdom, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. Now without a doubt, Jesus saw himself as this son of man who ascended.
Joel Brooks:
That's why he almost exclusively used this title when referring to himself. The title meant so much to him that even when he was on trial and he was silent the entire time on trial, when finally the high priest asked him if he indeed was the son of the blessed one, he said, I am, and you will see the son of man coming on the clouds with power. In other words, he says, I am. I am. I'm the one with the ultimate power.
Joel Brooks:
You you think you have power over me? You don't have power over me. I'm the son of man. And you will kill me and I will rise. And after I rise, I will ascend and all the nations will be mine.
Joel Brooks:
The cross is just the beginning of the ceremony of my enthronement. And church, can you imagine his enthronement? I mean, try to imagine it. Think of it this way. If if thousands of angels response?
Joel Brooks:
Could you imagine the response? Can you imagine the procession as Jesus goes back home a victorious warrior? As Jesus approaches the heavenly gates and all the angels and the creatures of heaven go out there to greet him? Picture all of the angels who were mysteriously held back at his crucifixion, who wanted to stop every whiplash, who wanted to stop every blow of the reeds, who wanted to, to stop every hammer that fell and drove the nails into his hands and feet. But for reasons unknown to them, they could not intervene.
Joel Brooks:
Imagine those same angels in the Garden Of Gethsemane who wanted to whisper words of encouragement to Jesus, but were told to hold their tongue. And now these angels, as they're conquering hero, comes back home into their city, are told by the father, be silent no more. Can you imagine? Flags unfurled, the trumpets are blaring as Jesus marches in to the heavenly city back home. That's what Psalm 24 is about.
Joel Brooks:
So we opened up our service with lift up your heads, O Gates. Be lifted up, oh, ancient doors. That the king of glory might come in. Battle. He's mighty and battle because he just took on sin and death and won.
Joel Brooks:
Lift up lift up your heads, O gates, and lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory. This Psalm, it's actually a call and a response. The procession is calling out to those who are guarding the gates, who are keeping the gates, and then the people at the gates are responding back.
Joel Brooks:
And so it's, lift up your heads, o gates. Be lifted up, o ancient doors, that the king of glory may come in. Who is this king of glory? He's the Lord. Strong and mighty.
Joel Brooks:
The Lord. Mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, oh gates. Be lifted up, oh ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory?
Joel Brooks:
The Lord of hosts. He is the King of glory. And then the gates are lifted, the doors are open, and Jesus goes in, and he is greeted by his father, and he sits on his throne. And in that moment, do you know what Jesus does? Father could ever deny such a request by such a son?
Joel Brooks:
And in that moment, the Holy Spirit is given, and we have Pentecost, which we'll look at next week. But Pentecost Pentecost is the evidence and the result of the ascension of the enthronement of Jesus. It's Jesus being given to nations of every tongue, tribe, and nation. Now this ascended and glorified Jesus. This is the Jesus that Paul saw on the road to Damascus.
Joel Brooks:
Paul did not just see the risen Lord, Paul saw the risen and ascended Lord, the glorified Lord. And this wasn't a Jesus that said, hey, look at my hands and feet. This wasn't a Jesus that sat down and ate fish with him. This was a Jesus who was so glorified, he was shining brighter than the sun, and Paul went blind when he saw him. John, on the island of Patmos, he saw the ascended Jesus and said that he fell down as if he was dead.
Joel Brooks:
Daniel said he saw the picture of the ascended Jesus, and he said all the color left his face and he collapsed. Stephen in Acts seven, he got to see the ascended Jesus, and people began stoning him, and he didn't even notice. I mean, seriously, look, Acts chapter seven verse 55. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, behold, I see the heavens opened and the son of man standing at the right hand of God.
Joel Brooks:
And standing at the right hand of God. But they cried out with a loud voice and they stopped their ears and they rushed at him together, cast them out of the city and they stoned him. But Stephen actually got to see the ascended Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Standing, not sitting. He was standing.
Joel Brooks:
The only reason I could think he was standing is is there to welcome Stephen. And do you think when Stephen saw that vision, he even noticed the rocks hitting him? Could you imagine how such a vision would change the way that we worship change the way that we live out our lives? Number of years ago. But if you actually read through the epistles, the New Testament letters, you are gonna notice a marked difference between the letters of James, Jude and Peter with the letters of John and Paul.
Joel Brooks:
Just start noticing. You're gonna notice a difference in how they talk about Jesus. Make no mistake, James, Jude, and Peter, they have a very high view, an exalted view of Jesus. But John and Paul, man, they cannot stop just gushing over the exaltation of Jesus. They're you get the sense they're just struggling with words to communicate what they've seen.
Joel Brooks:
Paul, even at times, he's like, he doesn't pray that we would know Jesus. He says, Lord, would you give us strength to know? Because we actually we'll fall apart if we actually get to see this. You gotta hold us together. That Paul and John speak so differently is because they alone got to see the resurrected and ascended Jesus.
Joel Brooks:
Paul, seeing the resurrected and ascended Jesus on the road to Damascus. John, when he had his vision for that we know is a book of Revelation, when he was on the island of Patmos. But that vision, not just of a resurrected Jesus, but of a resurrected and ascended Jesus, it forever changed them. And here's the unbelievable news for us church. We are promised that someday we will see him as well.
Joel Brooks:
And when we see him, we will become like him. Pray with me. Jesus, I pray now that through your spirit, you would give us eyes to see just a little glimpse of you and your glory. There's no words that I could ever say that could do justice, justice to who you are reigning on your throne. So would you be so kind as to your spirit to give us just a taste, just a glimpse.
Joel Brooks:
We pray this in the name of our present and our future king. Amen.