Acts 1:9-11 Christ Departs

The main ideas from this information are: - Psalm 125 talks about how Yahweh surrounds and protects his people. - The book of Acts is the second letter written by Luke, focusing on Jesus' ministry through the Holy Spirit. - Jesus ascended into heaven after his resurrection, and the apostles witnessed this. - The ascension of Jesus marked the end of his physical presence with the apostles. - Jesus was lifted up to his rightful place at the right hand of the Father. - The ascension is a symbol of both exaltation and fulfillment of prophecy. - The apostles were filled with joy and worshiped God after witnessing the ascension. Psalm 125 Yahweh surrounds his people, those who trust in Yahweh are as Mount Zion which will not be shaken but will abide forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem so Yahweh surrounds his people from now until forever. For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest upon the land of the righteous so that the righteous would not send forth their hands in unrighteousness. Do good oh Yahweh to those who are good and to those who are upright in their hearts but as for those who turn aside to their crooked ways Yahweh will lead them away with the workers of iniquity. Peace be upon Israel. Oh Lord our God we pray that we will be those people written of in the psalm, help us to be strong and not be shaken in our times of trials, help us to honor you even when we are beat down and downtrodden. Father we thank you for this opportunity to be here this evening and pray that you will just lead us in your teaching this evening, help us to understand and to apply your word. Thank you for each family that is represented here this evening and pray your blessings upon them. We thank you for all that you do for us Lord, thank you for your God of provision, your God of protection, you alone Lord, your God of salvation. We love you and Lord we pray this in Jesus name and all guilty children said amen. So we don't have music tonight unless Brandy would you like to come up and. So I'm just going to go right on into the message here if it's so suitable for everyone. A little bit of a review first. The last time we were here on a Wednesday night we began to take a look at the book of Acts and we covered verses 1 through 8 in chapter 1 and in study and the teaching we found that the book of Acts is the second letter or book that Luke wrote. The first one being the gospel by his name of course and that both of these letters was written to a man of prominence named Theophilus. Luke's letters are written to assure the reader that and we talked about we may know that you may know but it's written so that the reader may know many different things. Primarily the first book is to show what Jesus did and what Jesus taught and the book of Luke is a book about the life and the ministry of Jesus so that's very fitting. Here in the book of Acts it's a teaching more of Jesus' ministry, yes, but his ministry through the Holy Spirit in the apostles. So as we think back through that review, the second letter is focused on Christ's ministry to spread the gospel and the church is established here, the bride of Christ comes into existence. The book of Acts picks up almost exactly where the book of Luke left off. You can almost lay the pages over and I would have found it interesting if they had put Luke and then Acts in the way they compiled the canon of scripture and you could have read one right into the other and almost never missed a beat. Christ has presented himself alive for 40 days in these verses and this is after his resurrection and is now preparing to go to the Father and he'll be seated at the right hand of the Father. We had a pretty interesting conversation about that, Jackie, earlier, what the things that he does and we'll get into that, what's he doing while he's at the right hand of God. But tonight we're going to cover verses 9 through 11 in the book of Acts and it's going to talk about his ascension. So the last time we were together we spent some time discussing numbers of people who witnessed him post the resurrection. We discussed God's authority in the kingdom of God to a lighter degree and then we discussed how Christ was reminding them one more time of the coming of the Father's promise in the Holy Spirit. And we're going to see that more clearly coming up in chapter 2 when we get there at the day of Pentecost, but I won't, I'm not going to bridge into that too much right now. The apostles wanted to know about the restoration of Israel and Christ redirected them back to their mission at hand. He repeated much of the Great Commission before departing into heaven and now here we are at the ascension of Christ. And I realized that there was a particular day that existed here called Ascension Day that some branches of the Protestant belief, some churches, and it's kind of variant, you're going to hear me use this word various a couple of times here, but there's a Christian holiday called Ascension Day, much like we have Easter that we call Resurrection Day. But in this, this Ascension Day, it always falls 40 days after the Resurrection Day. And that's in reverence or remembrance of the 40 days that Christ was with his people after he was resurrected. That day always falls on a Thursday and it's observed in various degrees and different churches, various countries. It's not a, all of the Baptists do this all. It's kind of mixed from what I can tell and different churches just observe it of their own accord. But one thing that they all have in common is the congregation and most of these people who observe Ascension Day, they have a congregational confession that Jesus Christ sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty, as it is written in the Apostle Creed. That's a pretty big commonality amongst all of them who do this. So that's the review. We're going to turn over to Acts chapter one, verses nine through 11. And if you're able and will, we'll stand for the reading of the living God's word. Acts chapter one, verses nine through 11. And after he had said these things, he was lifted up while they were looking on and a cloud received him out of their sight. And as they were gazing intently into the sky while he was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them. And they also said, men of Galilee, why do you stand looking toward heaven? Because Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched him go into heaven. Holy Father, we need you. We need your care. We need your guidance. We need your security, Lord. And we can do nothing good without you. Tonight, we intend to hear your word concerning the ascension of your son. And we ask that you guide us in the text. We ask that you allow us to hear your word. Please give us the understanding you would have us to have, the knowledge that we need. Help us, Father, to find application for your word. Help us to increase in our faith through your teaching. And Lord, just keep us out of your way in your message. Father, our church has many, many needs, has many concerns within the congregation. We just ask that you tend to those and you comfort those who need comfort and heal those who need healing. Father, we love you. And once again, I thank you for the opportunity to be here. And we pray this in Jesus' name, and all God's children said, Amen. So when we think about the ascension, everyone thinks of Christ going up into heaven. And it's an interesting teaching. But verse 9 says, And after he had said these things, he was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received him out of their sight. After he had said these things, and I have to ask myself what things, what things are we talking about? And we can go back into verses 7 and 8, and we'll see things like the Great Commission, Kingdom of God, the Holy Spirit. And while we hold these teachings absolutely true, we see Luke elaborated even a little further on this in his gospel. There is an overlap here. And as I go through this tonight, I think we want to look at the book of Luke, at just a few verses in chapter 24, 50 to 53, because he does share just a little different perspective. And it reads, And he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. And it happened that while he was blessing them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they, the apostles, after worshiping him, returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple blessing God. So we read 9 through 11 in Acts, and we've read this account, both written by the same person, both accounts with just a little different angle of perspective. In the book of Luke, we have a description of what effect did this have on Jesus and his ascension have on the apostles. And in the book of Acts, it's a little more of the effect that it has on the apostles, but from a different angle. One positive, one a little more, how were they taken by this? The apostles are seeing the physical Christ for the last time. This is the last time they will see him physically. The next time they see Christ, it will be in visions, or like in Paul's conversion, he appeared as light and spoke from that, but this is the last time the apostles will see him physically. His post-resurrection visits and appearances will no longer occur in the physical sense. His voice will be heard, but he won't be seen. But we will get to see him one day in the physical sense, in his glorified body. He was lifted up, and this phrase is in what we would call a passive tense. He was lifted up. When you say that, that implies that someone else is doing the lifting. He was lifted up by something. We are not told he's doing the lifting, but I think it's safe for us all to assume that God the Father, the Holy Spirit, they're all making this work happen. He was lifted up in his resurrection, his glorified body, to his rightful place, to the right hand of the Father, and that's covered in John 17. It's interesting that he was lifted up on the cross as well. The teaching of the cross, cursed is a man who hangs on a cross, is a scriptural, that's not a quote, but it's like the lowest form of execution. This ascension into the heaven is like the highest form of exaltation. Both lifted up. We get into this, and we start reading about he was taken up in a cloud here in verse 9, and I'm very much a person who, I attempt to visualize things when I read them. I think that's why I enjoy, if I'm reading for recreation, I'll read fantasy. or Robert Jordan, or somebody where you have a wizard in good versus evil, and I can try to visualize what a dragon looks like. But I attempt to do that when I read, and when I read this verse 9, it helps me understand what things may have been like, and I remember a time when Jackie and I were riding a motorcycle across the, excuse me, the Smoky Mountains, and I think it was Mount Pisgah we were going across, it's one of the highest peaks on the Blue Ridge Parkway, and we came around this curve, and it was like we drove into a fog bank. There was an edge to it. I mean, it was just, it didn't start a little bit foggy, and then you end up not being able to see. It's just like you went from nothing into this fog bank. And we had to slow down, and it was a little bit sketchy, and we got wet. It was so thick, we were just as, not like it was raining, but we were wet. And we drove out of it the same way that we drove into it. And when we drove out of it, we were able to look down off the Blue Ridge Parkway and see that we had been in a cloud, not a fog bank. And it was really visually, it was like you could take one step and step into the fog and not be able to see the person, and you could take one step back and be completely out of it is how blunt that was. So as we look at the latter part of this verse, bear an experience similar to that in mind, and we see that a cloud received Christ out of their sight. And clouds are used repeatedly throughout the Bible to display God's glory in many ways, and these occurrences of clouds, the clouds appear to be controlled, and I'm sure they're controlled by God. They're obedient to the will of God even. I'm going to turn over to Mark chapter 9, you don't have to go with me unless you want to, and I'm going to read verses 1 through 8, but this is the transfiguration story, 1 through 8 in chapter 9. When Jesus was saying to them, truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God having come in power. And six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John and brought them up on a high mountain alone by themselves, and he was transfigured before them. His garments were shining intensely white as no launderer on earth can whiten them. And Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus. Peter answered and said to Jesus, Rabbi, is it good for us to be here? Let us make three boons, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah, for he did not know what to answer, and they became terrified. And then a cloud formed, overshadowing them, and a voice came out of the cloud, this is my beloved son, listen to him. It's pretty reminiscent of the baptism of John the Baptist, right? Identical, similar. And all at once, when they looked around, they saw no one with them anymore except Jesus alone. The cloud used here, in Exodus chapter 33, we find Moses entering into the tent. Pillar of the cloud would descend beside the entrance, the cloud would stand at the entrance of the tent, and Yahweh would speak to Moses through the cloud. The people would enter the tent only after Moses entered, but each one of them would stop and worship at the cloud before they went in. The cloud is used many times in holy endeavors, in events. Later that same cloud would be used to determine whether the Israelites would move the tabernacle or whether they were going to stay where they were at. And these are but a few of the occasions where clouds are used. People standing there, listening to Christ, Luke tells us that he lifts his hands and he blesses them, and then he's going away. I can't imagine the awe that the apostles felt at that moment. I do not know how one would react in that environment. There must have been a level of shock to see Christ go in this miraculous fashion, if you will, this manner. And verse 10 starts to give us a little bit of explanation about this, and it reads, And as they were gazing intently into the sky while he was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them. Apostles are witnessing one of the more miraculous events during their time with Christ. They've seen miracles before, but none quite like this one. They've seen people healed, they've seen the dead raised, they've seen various miracles happen, blind people can see. The fact that they are witnessing such an event likely spurs many thoughts in their minds. Thoughts of words that Christ has spoken to them in days gone by. Thoughts of regret that they didn't understand what Christ was speaking in those days, and they now do understand. And just the further assurance of who Christ is. We walked with God, in essence. The words gazing intently shows a level of awe that they were experiencing, and like I said, I cannot imagine how that must have felt. Emotions running high, and what a sight that must have been. And if we skipped on forward a little bit, we would know that in verse 12 it tells us this happened on Mount Olivet, and this is an undeveloped semi-remote location outside of Jerusalem, and then all of a sudden we have two men in white clothing standing there. There's no recording that these two men climbed the mountain to get to them. There's no recording that these two men went up there with them. It's kind of like they just appeared with them. Much like Jesus appeared in the upper room when it was locked, and then his apostles and disciples, they were hiding basically. They were in fear of the Jews, and we don't see any recording of Jesus knocking on the door. We don't see any recording of them letting him in. He just appeared, and I take the same thing away from this. These two men dressed in white, they're an interesting thing to consider. Most commentators believe that these two men in white are the same ones who appeared to the women at the empty tomb. Mary Magdalene was a part of that, and you'll see these appearances of the two men in Luke 24, 4 and John 20, verses 12 and 13. You look at this verbiage in Acts 1, 10 and the verbiage in Luke 24, 4, accounting for the women at the empty tomb, the two men described here in both verses are more than similar. It's not identical, but it's quite a comparison. Being dressed all in white is routinely a symbol used in various places in the Bible to denote purity, holy, someone of that stature. If you think about the general setting of Israel, and we're going to wander around Jerusalem, there's dirt everywhere, sand. If you're going to go somewhere, you've got to ride a donkey or a camel. White probably isn't the clothing color of choice. It's going to get dirty very quickly. It's going to become tan or brown really fast. So white is used to denote purity. Luke 9, 29 contains verbiage around the clothing of Christ, and this is another account of the transfiguration. We heard a little bit of it a few minutes ago in Mark, but Luke says, and it happened that while he was praying, the appearance of his face became different, and his clothing became white and gleaming. Most of the pictures that we see partaking of angels, they're all in white. It's because of this general consensus in the Bible that when gleaming white is used, it denotes holiness. You take all these accounts into consideration, it becomes quite obvious to me these two men are angels, and you could easily argue with me that it doesn't say they're angels. It says they're men, and we'll go around and around about that if you want to, but the Bible is pretty clear that angels do appear in the form of people. Hebrews 13, 2 states, do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it. So sometimes angels will appear as people. Easy to understand why we call these two men. But nonetheless, these two men are the purpose for what we're going to see in verse 11. In verse 11, these men also said, they also said, men of Galilee, why do you stand looking toward heaven? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come in just the same way as you have watched him go. Men of Galilee, why did they call them the men of Galilee? It's totally beyond me until I studied this, that every one of these apostles were from Galilee. We don't have clear teaching on every one of them that that's the case, but it's pretty obvious that when one leaves Jesus and says, hey, I'm going to go get so-and-so, and they're back in a few minutes, they're in Galilee. The one exception here is Judas Iscariot. Judas Iscariot was an outsider. He was from Judea. But at this point in time, Judas had already, he was already dead, and he was not there with them. So to say men of Galilee was a correct statement. All of them that were there were from Galilee. And they go on to say, why do you stand looking toward heaven? And I think to myself, well, what else do you want me to do at this point? How can I not stand here and stare into heaven? Did you not see what just happened? He was here, a cloud came around, and now he's gone. But these two men are simply stating the obvious here, and I don't feel like there is a rebuke in this. They're just simply saying, don't you guys have something else you need to be doing right now? Didn't he just tell you where you needed to go and what you needed to do? This simple question should not be read as a rebuke, I don't believe. It's a suggestion of revealing all that Christ had taught them and how he had brought it all into fruition. And now you need to do the things that he has instructed you. The verse goes on to say, this Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come in just the same way as you've watched him go into heaven. It's not uncommon for angels to be present during miraculous events. Often they're there as a manner to provide comfort. Sometimes they're there to be interpreters of what was just seen, and I think that fits here. Here they're reminding them of Jesus' return to come. In Luke 21, 27, Christ told the apostles that the son of man will be seen coming in a cloud of power and great glory. Even though Jesus has ascended, the apostles are assured that Jesus is returning in the same manner that he departed. There's a notion of equilibrium here. As he ascended, so he will return. The apostles quickly realize that Jesus will direct and guide them in their mission from the right hand of God the Father through the Holy Spirit. Jesus has promised them already at this point that he would be with them until the end in Matthew 28, 20. Jesus Christ has the utmost interest in the ministry of the apostles. This involves the spreading of the good news, the gospel, the increasing of his bride, the church, and one topic that we talked about a little bit on the way here, what else is he doing there? He's preparing a place for us. Jesus Christ is preparing a place for his redeemed people. God the Father spoke the world into existence in seven days, and Josh and his family are in Arizona, and they're supposed to spend some time at the Grand Canyon, and I've never been there and plan to go someday, but I can only imagine just through pictures that I've seen and the TV how magnificent that must be. We live in an area right here, and we take it for granted this is one of the most beautiful places in the world where we live with their mountains, the colors we have in the fall, even the view of the mountains in the wintertime, as drab as it may look in some ways, it's an excellent place here. I fully believe that. It's all good. I went to Sturgis, and I got to see the Badlands, and the Badlands are a really interesting place. You're driving on this road through this grassy plain, and the grass just stops, and the Badlands start, and the first time that I ever saw them, I took one of these little Kodak disposable cameras that you wind up, and before I didn't realize it, you're going to get to drive through them, and I'd used up every picture that I had before I got within two miles of them, but you get to drive through that place, and it's just ... It's not that it's that beautiful. It's not that it's that wonderful. It's just breathtaking to be there. I mean, it's just incredible. There's nothing but these white, sandy cliffs where the wind is eroding the dirt away, and then I left there and went to the Needles Highway, and was so much more impressed with that, even these huge brown spires, pointed mounds of dirt that go up for 100 feet, and they look like they could fall at any time, and they've been there for hundreds and thousands of years. The magnificence of what God has done in creation in seven days. All the animals. I don't know what a platypus is. Amazing. A mammal with a beak, right? Webbed feet. That's a good one. Fish in the bottom of the ocean. They've got this thing off their head with a lot. Amazing animals. They created all that in seven days. And Jesus Christ ascended to prepare a place for us. He's been doing this for 2,000 years. How amazing will heaven be? Will there be animals there? Sure. The Bible talks about lambs and lions laying down with the lamb, and I wonder if there will be animals there that weren't here. We can't comprehend. I cannot see. The mind cannot grasp what heaven is going to be like. It explains it in Streets of Gold and Gates of Pearl, and I don't know if we take that literally or not, but the description there is to tell us how worthless those things are going to be in the sight of God in the heavenly places. A little story that the rich man took his gold to the gates of heaven, and St. Peter said, what you got there? And he said, well, this is all the gold I was able to accumulate while I was alive. And he said, well, what are you going to do with all that asphalt? I mean, I know some of you have had to hear that, but it's just that worthless. There's so much more things in heaven precious that are more precious than gold. Jesus Christ himself, God the Father. We're going to get to see our families, our loved ones that have passed on. We will know and be known. You're going to walk down the street and say, that's Abraham, and he's going to look over at you and say, how did you get up here? I'm going to say that with a sense of humor. It's going to be a great day. And I have to wonder, you know, if God did all this in seven days, and we've been trying for thousands and thousands of years to destroy it in a lot of ways, what is that going to look like after 2,000 years of preparation? So it's just a little side note. If you look back at Luke in chapter 24, the recording here says that Jesus lifted his hands and blessed the apostles. And I have to wonder, what does a blessing from Jesus Christ sound like? And I think we can safely go back to verse 8 in the book of Acts and say, but you will receive power from the Holy Spirit and go back through the Great Commission. And that's a bit of a blessing. But I wonder if there wasn't more there that didn't get recorded. And I'd love to hear that blessing from Christ. These are the people that are going to take the word to all the nations. We talked about that last week. A blessing from Christ is needed here. It's at this point that the apostles begin to worship him, and then they return to Jerusalem with great joy, according to the book of Luke. And the two men's words had apparently worked. You put these two together. They said, OK, why are you looking here? You need to go. And they worshiped, and they went back rejoicing. And I find it very interesting that these same fallible men, the same men who lack courage, patience, knowledge, they lock themselves in the upper room for fear the Jews are now rejoicing through the streets of Jerusalem because of what they just saw. They're in the temple continuously praising God. The change that we talked about that needed to happen last week is beginning to take place here. The things that they needed to take the mission forward are starting to appear. I asked myself, I wonder why we didn't have identical recordings in Acts and Luke, and I really think it's a perspective thing, and I talked about that a little bit. But I think we need to remember that one here does not cancel out the other. They just add to the other. It's clarification, two perspectives. So it's at this point I think there's a discussion needed here on we know why the crucifixion is important to us. That's where our sins were paid for. We know why the resurrection was important to us because that's the promise that we have of being resurrected as the redeemed people. The incarnation, another milestone in the life of Christ, the virgin birth, the importance of it, we hear that every year at Christmastime. But the ascension is something that we just don't talk about that much. So why is it important to us? What advantages does it bring? What does it affirm? These milestones bring about many advantages to the believer. But here's some things to think about on the ascension. And I do not take credit for coming up with all these. A few of them are mine and a few of them I stole out of commentary, so I'll just admit that up front. But the ascension validates the resurrection. He could not ascend unless he was resurrected. His ability to ascend, the resurrection, had to be true. Jesus predicted that his ascension would happen. In the upper room, he told the apostles that he was going to the Father. And I don't know if they thought he was going to call an Uber and ride down the street to go to Dad's house. I don't think so, but I can only think that they had to wonder. Now, if his Father is God the Father, how's he going to get there? Jesus even informed the Sanhedrin that he would ascend. And the Sanhedrin did not believe in a physical resurrection. So they certainly were not going to believe in some kind of physical ascension after that resurrection. In my opinion, it's one thing to predict your death, and it's even another thing to predict your resurrection. Both of which were true and fulfilled by Christ. Both of those were prophetic from the Old Testament. But to predict your ascension, this is only something that God could do. There's no other way. The ascension launched the global mission or ministry. And we talked last week about this is a ministry that is going to spread throughout the whole world to every nation forever. It's going to last forever. And you've got these fallible men that are going to go do that. But the ascension launches that. What do we get from that? The church we're sitting in today. The church down the street. It's an integral part of the gospel to be spread to all the nations. The beginning of Christ's Bride to Church begins with the ascension, because it's only after the ascension that the Holy Spirit can enter. Christ is going to God the Father and having him send his promise, the Holy Spirit. What does that do for us? It's easy to say. It just assures our belief in the Trinitarian God even more. The ascension assures us that Jesus is worthy of worship. The apostles demonstrated this at Jesus' ascension. Even during the many conflicts that were going on in Israel at that time. Persecution of Romans, persecution of Jews. The recording in Luke explains that they worshipped him at the ascension. It led the apostles to stay in the temple, continuously worshipping God. That's a change. We talked about that. His ascension verifies that Jesus is who he said he was. And not only does it tell us that Jesus is who he said he was, it tells us that Jesus is who the Father said he was. It even tells us that Jesus is who the demons said he was. The ascension assured the church would receive gifts that it needed to spread the gospel and to grow to the ends of the earth. The Holy Spirit brought multiple gifts that would be needed and used. It brought about a different work of the Holy Spirit when you look at his activity before and after the ascension. He was there and he was at work throughout the Old Testament. And he's here at work after the ascension. Now we are able to pray, preach, walk, serve in the Spirit. Now we must be concerned about lying to the Spirit, quenching the Spirit, grieving the Spirit. The ascension affirms that Jesus is our intercessor, is at the right hand of God. If Satan still has access to the throne and accuses the saints daily as is taught by some, we have an intercessor in Jesus Christ there to say, This one is mine. Get him out of here. This one is mine. I died for him. Get him out of here. Hebrews 9.24 on behalf of our sins and our iniquities. That's what the death on the cross did. The Holy Spirit intercedes for us in our prayer life. We talked about that last week. The ascension affirms many things. It assures our hope of his imminent return. He cannot return if he doesn't ascend first. And after his ascension, Jesus Christ is no longer just a servant. He's the Prince of Glory now. The ascension affirms many things for us. He was the first entrance of glorified humanity into the heavenly realm. We can argue about Moses and Elijah and Enoch a little later. The fully glorified Christ entered into heaven. The anxiety of the apostles caused by Jesus' departure is relieved by the promise that he will return. Further in his return, he will come as our Redeemer and shall gather us up with him into blessed immortality, a glorified body. And that's about as close to eschatology as you're going to get me to go from here. I say that with humor. I'm going to leave that one for Josh. Jesus went to the Father via death on the cross. And like I told you, this is the lowest of humiliations preceding the highest exaltation. The divine justice is satisfied and men and women are redeemed. And I ask you, if you're here tonight, you do not have that assurance that one day you will ascend to heaven to eternally be with God, please turn to the cross. I look around this room and I have little doubt in anyone in here. But we never know what we are harboring in our hearts. And if you ever have that need, I want you to feel free to call me. Come talk to me. Call Jason. Find one of the deacons. And let's get that assurance settled. I thank you for your attention tonight. That's what I have. So let's pray. Holy Heavenly Father, we thank you for your presence through your spirit this evening. And we thank you for your eternal word. We ask you to help us grow more and more into the image of Christ. Help us to do this daily, Lord. Thank you for all the families that are here tonight. I ask you to bless them, Lord. I pray that everyone here will have a safe passage home and deliver us back at the next appointed time. And I pray this in the precious name of Jesus Christ and all God's children said, Amen. And you are dismissed. Amen.