The New Beginning News, Part 2

Transcript

Welcome to this week’s sermon from Trinity Church in Portland, Oregon. Today, Pastor Thomas Terry continues going through the book of Mark in the series Follow the Son and delivers part two of his message, The New Beginning News. The sermon text for this message comes from Mark chapter 1, starting in verse 9, a passage commonly known as the baptism of Jesus. Thanks for joining us. Here’s Thomas. Good morning. Well, this morning we pick up where we left off last week. But before we dive into our text this morning, would we first start by asking for God’s help? Pray with me, please. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for what it does to us. We thank you for how it informs us, how it corrects us, instructs us, confronts us, and shapes us more into the image of Jesus. But Father, we recognize, as we will see in our text this morning, that if we intend to

The Preparation Begins

have any spiritual significance, any fruit from your word, we must be wholly dependent on the Holy Spirit. So Father, we ask that you would give us that help this morning through the Holy Spirit. We pray these things in Christ’s name, amen. Well, if you remember last week, we saw in verses 1 through 8 the beginning of this New Beginning News and how it began with John the Baptist. We looked at the first two of five scenes. These first two scenes served as somewhat of an introduction to the story. We started first with the prelude, which pulled us all the way back to the beginning of creation to see that God created in the beginning and that what he created was not only miraculous but glorious, that God’s design for his creation and for his creatures was good. But because of sin and because of our desire to live autonomously, we ruined God’s good

creation and that the seed of sin that began in the garden began to spread throughout all of humanity, breaking every aspect of God’s good world, everything that he made that was good. But the good news of this prelude is that God did not leave us, his creation, or his creatures broken forever. In fact, he promised to renovate, to restore, and to renew everything broken about this world, including his people, which brought us to scene two, the publicist, where we saw that the promise would be publicized by John the Baptist, who was spoken about by these Old Testament prophets. His job was to point people’s attention and to prepare the way for this promised Messiah, who would begin the work of recreating everything broken in this world. And like some kind of crazy roadmap, Mark directs us to Isaiah, who directs us to Malachi, who then directs us forward to John the Baptist, who would ultimately direct us to this promised

Messiah. And it’s here where we pick up this morning in the middle of our story of the new beginning news where we are finally introduced to this Messiah, Jesus Christ, the principal character in the story. This is the one we’ve been waiting for. And it’s here where we pick up the storyline from last week. The beginning has finally broken through. All of this talk about the Messiah, all this talk about Jesus, all of the promises about Jesus, and finally, as if out of nowhere, Jesus appears in the wilderness with John the Baptist, just like the prophet predicted. Jesus shows up on the scene, and he’s ready to do work. He comes to do business. He comes to do his father’s business. Jesus was on a mission, and his mission was his public ministry. Up to this point, Jesus was fairly low-key and unknown. He had not been very public about who he was or what he came to do, but all of that

was about to drastically change. Jesus has entered the story, and his public ministry begins. Jesus in his ministry will do amazing, controversial, and miraculous things. And as a result, the Roman world and the Jewish world will collide. The religious world and the irreligious world will collide. The world will be flipped upside down because of Jesus. But through Jesus’s radical and powerful ministry of recreation, he will begin to flip the world right side up again. And what we’ll see in the text this morning is that this here is the inauguration of Jesus’s public ministry. It’s the starting point of his work of redemption and recreation. Everything else we talked about was simply an introduction. It just served as the background and the context for this here. This is where the real story begins. But before Jesus can begin his mission, which is his ministry, he must be prepared for the

Association with Sinners

task of his mission and his ministry, which brings us here to scene three, the preparation. John, the Baptist, prepared the way for the coming of Jesus, but here, John exits stage left, and the Lord takes over the story with his preparation. So in these next three verses, we see this preparation play itself out in three ways, association, delegation, and affirmation. And so this morning, let’s begin with association in verse nine. In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. Now, right out of the gate, it’s very important that we don’t miss this seemingly small and seemingly insignificant detail in this verse. Most people’s attention in this verse is fixed on the fact that Jesus is baptized, and so their minds immediately tend to skip over one of the most fundamental parts of this verse, the part that says, in those days, Jesus came.

John the Baptist continued to make reference to the one who was coming. The prophets in the Old Testament continued to prophesy that there would be one who was coming, and right here, oftentimes overlooked, we see the fulfillment and the fruit of John the Baptist’s ministry. We see the fulfillment of these prophets’ ministry. But more than that, we see God fulfilling his promise to us. Jesus came. He has arrived exactly as promised, exactly as prophesied. He comes to the River Jordan to be baptized. If you remember, John the Baptist had been calling these Jewish people to repentance. He had been baptizing people with this baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. He was calling sinners to repentance. Baptism was the method that John employed to authenticate their genuine repentance of sin. Out of nowhere, Jesus appears before John the Baptist and is baptized. Jesus is baptized.

But if Jesus is the Son of God, if Jesus was sinless, then why was he baptized? If John’s baptism was for the repentance of sinners, then why in the world would Jesus, who is sinless, need to be baptized? The truth is, Jesus didn’t need a baptism of repentance because Jesus had no sin to repent of. In Matthew’s gospel account of this baptism, John protests that he shouldn’t baptize Jesus. He says, this should be the other way around. But Jesus answers him and says, let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. This baptism was the Father’s will to fulfill all righteousness. Jesus was being obedient. By Jesus willfully submitting himself to this baptism, he was associating himself with guilty people. Not because he himself was guilty of anything, but that he would come and take away his people’s

guilt. In this baptism, he associated himself with sinners who were facing the wrath of God, not because Jesus deserved the wrath of God, but because he would soon absorb God’s wrath in their place. Now listen closely. In one sense, Jesus was without sin. But in another sense, Jesus was with our sin. He associated himself with sinners because he would later carry all of our sin. All of our sin and all of the punishment for our sin, he would take upon himself and he would die because of it. The ministry of his crucifixion had everything to do with his association with sinners. Isaiah 53 11 says,

out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied. By his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant will make many to be accounted righteous and he shall bear their iniquities

— Isaiah 53

(ESV)

. Jesus’s baptism had everything to do with him associating with sinners.

Brothers and sisters, this is the God that we serve. The God who is sinless, but is not ashamed to associate himself with sinners and more than just associate with sinners, but come and lay down his life for sinners. Now, even though this baptism that John references here is different than what we know as believers baptism, I can’t help but wonder, have you trusted in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins but have never been baptized? Maybe you’ve pushed it off because you’ve not felt the need or significance or the importance of it. Maybe you’re just too embarrassed to be baptized because it’s been so long since you’ve professed faith in Jesus. But dear Christian, if that is you, then let this text help shape your thinking concerning baptism. Our sinless savior associated himself with you and your sin so that he might save you and present you blameless before the father.

Spirit-Empowered Ministry

Why are you not willing to associate yourself with Jesus? Why are you not willing to walk in obedience to Jesus? If you are a Christian and you’ve not been baptized, you need to do it. Don’t put it off anymore. You need to come and talk with us and we will help you to get baptized. We will walk with you and help you to be obedient. So Jesus’s preparation begins with association. But then secondly, we see in verse 10 that part of his preparation was delegation. Verse 10, and when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the spirit descending on him like a dove. Immediately following Jesus’s baptism, the heavens are ripped open. The father pierces the earthly sky and opens a small window into the heavenly realm and the Holy Spirit, like a dove, descends from the heavens upon Jesus.

Now just pause for a second and take in the vivid imagery of this scene. This vivid imagery is a gift to us from God. It is a small peek into his otherworldly and other dimensional realm where the father peels back the material parts that reveal that he sits outside of this time and space. We sit here on earth thinking and acting like little gods, but we are so far from it. We are created beings confined by the time and space that God has placed us in. This picture of the God who pulls back dimensions showcases his otherworldliness, and so this should cause us to be humbled. This should cause us to worship him. This imagery demonstrates the incomprehensible otherness of God. He is not like us. He’s not. He is other than us. And what we see in this beautiful scene is the most vital piece to Jesus’s public ministry.

The necessary spirit-empowered help. The essential resource for effective ministry. Before Jesus fights his temptation in the wilderness, before he calls his disciples, before he casts out demons, before he heals the sick, gives sight to the blind, restores the hearing of the deaf, before he forgives sins, before he speaks to winds and waters to calm the storm, before he feeds 5,000, before he walks on water, before he raises dead people to life, before he himself gives his life, he must have the supernatural help of the Holy Spirit. It is the most effective resource to ministry. This is an echo of Isaiah 61. One,

the spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound

— Isaiah 61

(ESV)

.

What was necessary for Jesus to experience effective ministry was the empowering of the Holy Spirit. And this is not just the case for Jesus. This is the case for us. We can do nothing of any spiritual significance if we are operating in our own strength. The very reason Jesus receives the Holy Spirit to help and comfort him in his ministry is the same reason we receive the Holy Spirit to help and to comfort in our ministry. See, Jesus’s power in his public ministry was a delegation of power, and that empowering for effective ministry was through the Holy Spirit. And third, we see this means of preparation in the affirmation. In the affirmation, verse 11, a voice came from heaven, you are my beloved son. With you, I am well pleased. And here again, as Mark’s style, we see this kind of hybrid, this fusion of verses from

Psalm 2, verse 7, and Isaiah 42, verse 1, and I’ll read them together.

I will tell of the decree. The Lord said to me, you are my son, today I have begotten you. Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the nations

— Psalm 2

, Isaiah 42

(ESV)

. It’s here where we see the Father’s loving and confident endorsement of Jesus’s life, his position, and his ministry. His affirmation was also a sort of commissioning that the work Jesus will begin to do is fully endorsed by the Father. The Father is pleased with this beginning work of redemption. The Father affirms him and commissions him to his ministry. Now, brothers and sisters, we should not just simply gloss over this text as if it’s some abstract theological truth that is somehow disconnected from us and it’s only about Jesus.

Yes, it is about Jesus, but this text is also about you. This string of words is the most powerful string of words that the world longs to hear. You are my son, you are my daughter, I love you, and I delight in you. Listen, brothers and sisters, so much pain, so much struggle, so much hardness and insecurity, so much heartache and longing is a direct result of sons and daughters never hearing these most important words from our earthly fathers. I know how this affects many of you. I know how these feelings affect me, but listen to these most beautiful words. Because of Jesus, we who have come to trust in him have been made sons and daughters. Not merely metaphorical sons and daughters, literal sons and daughters adopted into God’s family, and because of that, we who believe in Christ are hidden in Christ. This means that when the father sees Jesus, he is pleased.

And because we are hidden in Christ, he sees Jesus and sees us. He says to us, you are my son, you are my daughter, I love you, and I delight in you. You are mine, and I’m proud of you. He loves you, he delights in you, and he affirms you, not because you performed for it, not because you were righteous enough or good enough, but because of Jesus. There is comfort and help from the trauma of fatherlessness, and it’s found in this verse, the affirmation of Jesus from the heavenly father, because the affirmation Jesus receives from the father, we also, by virtue of Jesus, receive from the father. The father is not without words concerning his love and affection for you. You need to file this truth deep down in your heart and let it have its way with you. So all of this preparation of Jesus’ public ministry, the association, the delegation,

the affirmation, it’s all what Jesus has to go through to prepare for his public ministry. And I wonder, did you catch all of the trinity all throughout this scene, all of the aspects of the trinity in this scene? Father and the spirit both bear witness to the son. That’s the trinity’s work. The son obediently pursues the father’s mission. The spirit descends and empowers the son for the mission. The father gives his affirmation and commission to the son for his mission. Look at all of this movement, and it’s crazy. You see this kind of same trinity motif in Genesis 1. God the father speaks creation into existence with the word Jesus, while the spirit, the Holy Spirit, hovers over the face of the deep waters. In Genesis 1, in this account of creation, you see the trinity. So it only makes sense that in Mark 1’s account of God’s recreation, you would see the trinity.

Pressure in the Wilderness

It’s fascinating. God is a master of design. So Jesus is prepared for his public ministry, and immediately following this preparation, Jesus is pushed into the wilderness. The same spirit that descended upon Jesus, listen, the same spirit that descended upon Jesus is the one who pushes Jesus into the wilderness. That brings us to scene four, the pressure. In verses 12 and 13, the spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness for 40 days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him. It’s here in our story where Jesus is thrusted into this cosmic conflict. Jesus is led by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. Now in Mark’s gospel, it’s more direct than descriptive concerning this conflict. So we don’t get all the details that Matthew’s gospel gives us, but what we do get in Mark’s

gospel is this creative storytelling. Mark gives us another echo of Eden. Let’s look at the juxtaposition between Genesis 1 and Mark 1. In Genesis 1, Adam starts in the garden, given dominion over all the animals, where he is tempted by Satan. He fails, and because of his sin, he is pushed out of the garden into the wilderness, and God sends angels to block the gates of the garden. Now look at Mark 1. Jesus, the last Adam, starts in the wilderness, where the wild animals have dominion. Jesus is tempted by Satan, but prevails. He is sinless, and because of that, he begins his ministry of bringing us out of the wilderness back into the garden. God sends angels not to block the doors of the garden, but to minister to Jesus. This is the brilliance of our God. Again, we see God’s masterful design in his storytelling.

He is completely reversing creation’s curse. Jesus is literally undoing all the wrongs of Adam in real time. It’s brilliant, but I don’t want you to just get caught up in this creative genius or the beauty of the storytelling. I also want you to feel the weight of Jesus’s pressure. Jesus, in his incarnation, felt the full brevity of his humanity. Yes, Jesus was fully God, but he was also fully human, so he felt fear. He felt pain. He felt hunger, and he felt loneliness, and for 40 days, 40 days, he was pressured by Satan. He literally felt the pressure of temptation in a way that we will never know, because he never gave in to temptation. Jesus was subject to all the dangers of the wild. He was lonely. He was likely afraid. His temptations were very real and not easily dismissed. This is why he needed the help of the Holy Spirit to begin his ministry, to engage this

type of conflict, to receive the necessary help and comfort to endure the pressure of temptation and to prevail over it. Matthew’s gospel gives us more insight of the specific temptations, as well as the precise method Jesus employs to overcome the temptation. We don’t have time to unpack that this morning, but what we would see is that method was the Holy Spirit and the Word. Jesus in the wilderness triumphs over Satan, not by relying on his own strength, but on the Spirit of God and the Word of God. Do you understand what Jesus’s humanness means for us, brothers and sisters? It means that Jesus, in every way, can empathize with us. Hebrews 4, 15 and 16 says, For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Not only can he empathize with our weakness, he will also help in our time of need. When we are lonely, when we’re afraid, when we’re anxious or depressed, when we’re suffering, when we’re confused, when we’re tempted, if we’re deeply entangled in sin, he will help when we draw near to the throne of grace. Jesus fought the pressure in the wilderness and prevailed through the help of the Spirit and the Word, and this should be our template, brothers and sisters. You want to fight the pressure of the wilderness. You want to overcome the temptation of our dark city. You fight with the help of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. Now just briefly, I do want to explain the difference between tempting and testing because

The Gospel Proclamation

this can be confusing for a lot of Christians, and I’ve tried to simplify this. Tempting is what the devil uses to destroy godly character. Testing is what God uses to build godly character, and I mention this difference to you so that when you look at your life circumstances or your challenges or your conflict or your pressure, you can discern whether it’s temptation or whether it’s testing on the basis of its outcome, what it produces in you. Did it destroy godly character or did it build godly character? The outcome determines its difference, and that should be a good gauge for you. Shortly after Jesus prevails over the pressure, we are moved to the final scene, the proclamation. We see this scene in verse 14 and 15. Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God, saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.

Repent and believe in the gospel. It’s here in this final scene after John is arrested where we begin to see Jesus’ preaching ministry take flight. It’s interesting to note that John the Baptist, who was the forerunner, was arrested. He was arrested ultimately because of what he preached and who he preached to. In his case, it was King Herod. So it should be no surprise that Jesus too would eventually be arrested for what he preached and who he preached to. This is, of course, how it goes when you preach the gospel, when you talk to people about the gospel. To some people, it is the aroma of life. To others, it is the aroma of death. To some people, they embrace it and they find freedom and the forgiveness of sins. For others, when they hear it, they simply reject it. They revel in their sin and do everything in their power to suppress the truth in unrighteousness.

It’s a double-edged sword, but this also should be an encouragement to you. It is God who opens up the ears of those who embrace the gospel. You preach it. God determines who receives it and who rejects it. The effectiveness of the gospel is not dependent on your brilliant communication skills or your lack thereof. Its effectiveness is completely dependent upon God. So you preach the gospel and you let God sort out the details. And here, Jesus, starting his public ministry, enters Galilee and begins to preach. And what we see in these two verses is that what Jesus preaches is the proclamation of God. It’s the good news of God. The announcement of God. And the focus of this announcement centers on two declarations and two demands. The first declaration is, the time has come. Now when we hear this statement, the time has come, we think of an appointed time and

date that has officially arrived. It’s kind of data. It’s like a mark on a calendar. But this is so much more than just data or a date. This declaration doesn’t quite translate the intensity of the time. It’s more like the moment when a pregnant wife says to her husband, babe, my water just broke. It’s time. That’s the intensity that’s happening here. The time has come in this verse has a sense of urgency, urgency, and expectation. It carries all the weightiness and all of the expectation of something that you’ve been waiting for. We’ve been waiting for this moment to happen and it’s here. It’s now. Jesus is preaching that the time is here, that the new beginning has begun. We’ve been waiting for this. As broken people in a broken world, the time has come. The old has passed away and the new is beginning. God has started the reversal of the creation curse.

Essentially, Jesus here preaches the gospel in miniature. The time has come for Jesus to begin undoing all the wrongs of this world through his life, through his death, and through his resurrection. The time has come for Jesus to make all things new. This is the gospel in miniature. The second declaration is that the kingdom of God is near, but what is the kingdom of God that Jesus preached was finally within reach. The kingdom that Jesus preached here is the kingdom where God’s ultimate authority rules and reigns over his people. This kingdom is in contrast to worldly powers and the authorities of this kingdom. This is something that first century Jews would have been anticipating for a long time. They had been longing for the day when God’s kingdom would come. But what would this look like for a first century Jew? How would they interpret this coming kingdom?

The truth is, these first century Jews had a very narrow view concerning the kingdom of God. They viewed it primarily at a national or a military level. A kingdom that they expected would be a kingdom where they were no longer oppressed under the authority or the tyranny of Rome. They were looking for a kingdom that would destroy their oppressors and provide freedom to finally practice their religion in a way that wasn’t threatened by an irreligious or pagan culture. But see these first century Jews, their problem was bigger than Rome, just like our problem is bigger than America. Their problem was bigger than earthly oppression or their religious rights. Their problem and our problem is sin and its eternal consequences. See these first century Jews wanted a religious utopian world, a world of religious constitutional freedom, freedom to worship, freedom to pray in school, freedom to read their Bible, but

they completely missed the point. Because God’s kingdom was not so much a place of religious peace built through conquest as much as it was a person who would bring peace through crucifixion. Jesus was preaching that the kingdom of God was near because Jesus himself was here. The kingdom of God is the dawn of salvation in Jesus Christ. The kingdom of God is Jesus Christ. Galatians 4.4, Paul says, when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son born of a woman born under the law. The time has come. Jesus’s redemptive work on the cross that paid for our sins and the father’s work in raising him from the dead ushered in the new kingdom. It began this new creation. This is the gospel in miniature. And the proclamation that we hear from Jesus is so powerful and so profound and so relevant that it demands a response from you.

No matter where you sit in your relationship with God, it demands a response from you. In fact, it demands two. The first is repentance, a conscious turning away from your sin, a drastic change in your thinking. This repentance here means turning from your religious indifference while simultaneously shaking off the sin that shackles you. But it’s not just repentance. It’s not just a change of mind. It’s a change in belief, which is the second demand that you believe. Jesus demands that you believe that he is who he says he is. Jesus demands that you believe that he has accomplished what he actually accomplished. He says to you, repent and believe. Now I know that the term belief in our culture can be nebulous and ethereal. But really what it means to believe is to trust, to trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. And listen, trust is not complicated.

We make it complicated when we introduce spiritual things to trust, but it’s not complicated. When you sat down in your seat this morning, was it complicated? No. You simply sat down. You trusted that when you sat down, that seat would support you and keep you from falling. You were so convinced that you didn’t even think about it not supporting you. You just trusted. It’s a no brainer. That’s the same trust and confidence Jesus calls you to, to trust intuitively, to have confidence in his ability to support you, to sustain you and to keep you from falling. He calls you to believe the proclamation of the gospel demands a response from you, repentance and belief. If you repent and you believe in Jesus, then you will have peace with God, the forgiveness of sins and the safety from perfect judgment. If you don’t repent and believe upon Jesus, then you are left with empty hope, with only

your religious efforts, your moral goodness. But none of those things will take away your sins. None of those things will give you peace or certainty. Your comparative morality, your self-made religion will not save you from the coming judgment of God. It won’t. What you need is a savior. What you need is Jesus. What you need to do is to repent and believe. And here’s the thing, you can repent and believe in the seat that you’re sitting at this morning. Right where you are, you can trust and believe upon Jesus. You can turn from your sins and embrace him by faith. Ask your God to forgive you. Ask him to help you turn from your sins. Ask him to turn you from your religious indifference. He will do it. Ask him to help you believe, and he will. Ask him to save you, and he will do it, because he is a merciful, loving, and forgiving God.

And brothers and sisters, what Jesus preached here is not just to the unbelieving, irreligious world. It is to them, but it is for you too. He declares this to his followers this morning. If you are his, these demands are upon you. See, the time has come. The kingdom of God is at hand, and this should be our greatest encouragement, because this gives us hope. See in one sense, the kingdom of God is here, but in another sense, the kingdom of God is near. It’s here, but it’s near. The kingdom of God was inaugurated when Jesus’ ministry began, but it will be fulfilled when Jesus comes again, finally and fully. So that means we as Christians are living in this already-but-not-yet kingdom. And so while we are in this already-but-not-yet space, in the in-between, there are so many parts of our world that are still broken.

There is so much about our sin that keeps us broken. We need to be reminded of our hope that what God started in Mark 1 with his recreation and his renovation of our world will be completely final and full on the day that he returns. And because sin still exists while we live in this in-between space, we still need to be confronted with the reality that we need to be repenting. We need to be believing, which is precisely why Jesus preaches that to us this morning. Repent and believe. We need to constantly be repenting of our sin. We must constantly be believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because in this already-but-not-yet, we still wrestle with sin. Because in this already-but-not-yet, we still wrestle with unbelief. This is why every Sunday we try to put this before your eyes so that you know it, so that

you remember it, so that you plant it deep in your heart. We will continue to fight sin and the brokenness of this world. We will continue to be remade until that day. But until then, let us with hope look towards the kingdom of God with a posture of repentance and with a posture of belief. Let’s pray. Our Father and our God, your word is such an encouragement to us. It reveals so much that we need to know about who you are, what you’ve done, and how we ought to respond. I pray, God, this morning for those here who do not know you, who have not yet come to trust and believe. I pray, O Lord and God, that your Holy Spirit would do the work of turning them, turning them away from their religious indifference and turning them towards Jesus, the true and living God, the only one who can save them from their sins.

And I also pray, O Lord and God, that you would help us to be kingdom-minded, that as we look at the world around us and we see its fractured pieces and we look at the sin in this world that seems to so dominate us and the world around us, that you would remind us that you have come to fix it one by one, individual by individual, heart by heart. You are restoring us and making us new. You are remaking a humanity. Father, I pray that we would take the truth of your recreation and spread it to this dying and broken world. And may we have the boldness to preach your gospel to this world who is in so desperate need of the forgiveness of sins and the life everlasting through Jesus Christ. We pray all of these things in Christ’s name, amen.

Thanks for joining us for this week’s sermon from Trinity Church in Portland, Oregon. If you’d like to learn more about us, you can visit our website at www.trinityportland.com.