Acts 15:12-31

Open your Bibles to Acts chapter 15. Beginning in verse 12, and our text will be from 12 to verse 31, the end of the chapter. Let us pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the gospel. Thank you that it is the power of God, the salvation for everyone who believes. Father, we thank you that you've given us grace to believe, grace to trust you, and to buy your grace you have made us your children and called us by your name. And send us forth to do your work for the glory of your name and for your kingdom's sake. Father, would you honor your word today and would you buy your Holy Spirit, transform us and conform us to the image of Christ that your word would mold and shape us and renew us that we would be a people, salt and light, in this earth to give witness, glorious witness to your glorious name. We ask this in the name above all names, in Jesus' name, amen. Acts chapter 15, beginning in verse 12, hear the word of the Lord. Then all the multitude kept silent and listened to Barnabas and Paul declaring how many miracles and wonders God had worked through them among the Gentiles. And after they had become silent, James answered, saying, men and brethren, listen to me. Simon has declared how God, at the first, visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name. And with this, the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written, after this, I will return and will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down. I will rebuild its ruins and I will set it up so that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord who does all these things. Come to God from eternity or all his works. Therefore, I judge that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God. But that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled and from blood. For Moses has had throughout many generations those who preach him in every city being read in the synagogues every Sabbath. Then it pleased the apostles and elders in the whole church to sin, chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely Judas, who also was named Bar Sabbaths and Silas, leading men among the brethren. And they wrote this letter by them, the apostles, the elders, and the brethren to the brethren who are of the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria and Selissia, greetings. Since we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words unsettling your souls saying you must be circumcised and keep the law to whom we gave no such commandment. It seemed good to us being assembled with one accord to sin, chosen men to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for their names, for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who will also report the same things by word of mouth, for it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things. That you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well, farewell. And so when they sent them off, when they came to Antioch, and when they had gathered the multitude together, they delivered the letter, and when they had read it, they rejoiced over its encouragement. This is the word of the Lord. All right. That brings us to the end of the work of the Jerusalem Council. And so in this first part of Acts chapter 15, we see how the Council came to be. We see that there was this dispute that began in Antioch when Jews from Jerusalem went to Antioch and tried to get the Gentile believers to come under the bondage of the law, say, you must be circumcised and you must keep the law in order to be saved. And so there was much dispute in the Council gathered after that dispute. Peter rose up and gave his testimony of how God chose that he should first preach the gospel to the Gentiles and how the Gentiles believed as a result of his preaching. Then Bartaba and Paul rise up to tell of all that God did among the Gentiles and their first missionary journey to Galatia and that region of what is today's southern Turkey. And they told of the signs and the miracles that followed them as they preached the gospel to the Gentiles across that part of Galatia. Then James stands up to speak and James reaffirms Peter's testimony of Gentile inclusion. In addition to Peter's first hand experience, James then reminds the Council that not only the words of Peter and the witness of Peter, but the words of the prophets agree. And James then quotes from the prophet Amos, from Amos 9, 11 and 12. James then declares that God has known from eternity all of his works, all of his plan, all of his purpose. In other words, this has always been the plan of God, not just because Peter or Paul or Barnabas have testified to it, but the prophets have long testified to it. And based on how God chose to work among the Gentiles, James recommended no further trouble should be placed upon them. He does recommend that four things be strictly observed, that they abstain from food, sacrifice to idols, that they abstain from sexual immorality, that they abstain from meat, from strangled animals, and that they abstain from blood. For any Gentiles who wish to hear Moses preached or become more versed in the law and the life of Jew would live, there, James says there are opportunities in every city because Moses is preached in every city. So if those Gentiles choose to live that lifestyle, they're free to do that and there's opportunity for them to do it. Once that was settled, the council sent leading men to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They pinned a letter, conveyed this information, and they addressed it to the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Solisia. In other words, all the places that Paul and Barnabas had gone to the city of Antioch where they had been already working for some time, they send this letter. And the body of this, the body of this letter is contained in your Bible here in Acts chapter 15, in verses 24 through 29. And in the letter, they assured the churches that the men who came from Jerusalem trying to put them under bondage to the law were not sent by the church in Jerusalem, and they had no authority to speak on their behalf. The letter was safely delivered and ran to the church in Antioch, and Luke writes that it was received with great rejoicing and encouragement. The apostles gave testimony of God's witness to the church. In verse 12, we have the testimony of Barnabas and Paul. Luke mentions the multitude here. From this record, we know that it was not just the apostles and elders, but a multitude of those of the church gathered to hear the testimony of these apostles in brethren. So the church in Jerusalem gathered together. The issue impacted the whole church, and so the whole church was rightly included to witness the work of the council. In other words, this was not a secret council, but it was a public council with public implications for all. And the multitude kept silent and listened to Barnabas and Paul declaring how many miracles and how many wonders were worked through them among the Gentiles. This was no doubt powerful testimony of all that God had done among the Gentiles. The testimony that God had moved so mildly by his spirit was proof that God by his grace, not by the works of the law, not by the deeds of the flesh, but God by his grace was indeed bringing the Gentiles into the fold of God's people. That meant all of God's people, both Jew and Gentile, were part of the same church, part of the same body, and they were to love one another and get along with one another, even with all their differences. So this council was not only about how the Gentiles were saved, but how both Gentiles and Jews will live in worship together and function together as one new man in the one body of Christ. This is a lesson that we must continue to strive to learn as we are called to function together as one in the body. And in any assembly of people in the body of Christ, there are people we may agree with, holy, there are people we may disagree with substantially. And are they our brother? Are they our sister? And even with our differences, we are to strive to learn how to live together, work together, worship together, function together. And I'm not even talking about essential differences in the doctrines of the church or in the doctrines of grace and salvation. Sometimes we just have trouble getting along with people because perhaps they've offended us, perhaps what they've done has offended us, perhaps what they said has offended us. Well the Bible commands us because we offend God all the time. And yet God forgives us. God loves us, not because we deserve His love, not because we've earned His love. He loves us because He is graceful. And He chooses to give to us His forgiveness. Therefore He commands us. He chooses to forgive us, but He commands us to forgive others as we ourselves have been forgiven by Him. So if you're holding unforgiveness or bitterness towards someone, the Bible commands you to forgive, to reconcile. And you can forgive and reconcile even with your differences. There were differences, real differences here between Gentiles and Jews. But the point of this letter, the point of the council was we're all part of one body. We may have our disagreements and our differences, but we are not two separate people. We are one people united together under one head, under one Lord. And so these Jews and these Gentiles were to learn how to live together and function together as one new man in the body of Christ. In verse 13 we have the testimony of James. After they became silent, James answered saying, men and brethren, listen to me. Now this is James, the brother of our Lord. There are three men in the New Testament named James. James, the brother of John, the sons of Zebedee, James and John. That James was already dead. Herod had killed him, martyred him before this council came together. There was James, the son of Alphius or James, the little James, who was one of the apostles of Jesus Christ. This is James, the just, the brother of the Lord Jesus. And he is presiding over the council and he spoke last. He waited to hear the testimony from all the others before he would render his decision concerning all that had been presented. It was James who rendered his ultimate judgment on the matter. And in verse 14 and 15 James reaffirms Peter's eyewitness testimony that God visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name. He backs up that testimony pointing out not only the words of Peter, but the words of the prophets also agree. He then quotes the prophet Amos in verses 16 and 17 saying, after this, I will return and will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down. I will rebuild its ruins and I will set it up so that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who does all these things. In verse 17 of Acts 15, James quotes Amos 9 verse 12 and he quotes it not from the Hebrew scriptures, but from the Septuagint. He quotes it from the Greek translation of the Hebrew scripture. And in the Hebrew Old Testament in Amos 9, 12, it is referenced there, the remnant of Adam, but in the Septuagint, in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, it is translated the remnant of all mankind. From Amos 9, 11 and 12 and other prophetic voices, we see that the Jews, even in ancient times, foresaw by the word of the Lord that the Gentiles would be brought into the fold by the hand of God. It has always been God's plan. Long before Abraham was called out of fur of the call-dees, God created the first man and the first woman. And from that first man and first woman would come all of humanity. And the promise was made to that first man and that first woman. And also to the serpent recorded in Genesis 3.15 that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. There would be enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, but he would, the seed of the woman who is Christ. He is the promised seed. He was the promised seed in Genesis 3.15. He was and is the promised seed to all the promises of seed made to Abraham by God. We know this because Paul gives us the commentary and Galatians. Not seed as implural but seed as insingular who seed is Christ. Christ was the prophesied and promised seed who would crush the head of the serpent. And here in Amos, when the Messiah returns, the Messiah who is that promised seed, he would raise again the ruins of the tabernacle of David and restore it. And so this is what James is quoting here to the counsel. He is quote to Amos as a prophecy that God would one day bring the Gentiles into the assembly of his people and that would happen after the Messiah returns. James indicates that the words of the prophets are being fulfilled in that very hour. And then James gives the testimony of the tabernacle of David. In Acts 15, 16, in Amos 9, 11, and in Isaiah 16, 5, these are three places in Scripture that contain the Bible's main references to the tabernacle of David. In Isaiah 16, verse 5, the prophet writes, in mercy the throne will be established and one will sit on it in truth. In the tabernacle of David, judging and seeking justice and hastening righteousness, the reference concerning the restoration of the tabernacle of David is a reference to the restoration of the house of David and his kingdom, the kingdom of Israel, which God had fallen into ruin. It was this state of ruin with the intense desire to see the kingdom of Israel once again restored that caused the Jews to look for a military man, not a sacrificial lamb when it came to their Messiah. This is why the Jews rejected Jesus. That's why the leaders rejected Jesus. They were looking for a great military deliverer to come and overthrow the Romans with God's help. Jesus was not a military man and that sense, he was in a much greater sense, but the Jews could not see it. He came as the sacrificial lamb to a tone for the sins of the world, thereby saving the world and establishing the kingdom that would have no end. With the very kingdom we are charged now to pray for, to pray that God would bring to this earth so that his will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. Though in ruin God's promise of restoration was sure, and though missed by many in Israel, that restoration was fulfilled with the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Jesus is a descendant of David and the fulfillment of all the prophetic promises concerning his restored kingdom. Christ is the son of David, which is a messianic title, and he now sits on his throne as king of kings. He has conquered all of his enemies and now awaits the Word of his father as his bride. That's us makes herself ready, and then he will return to put it last to put at last the final enemy which is death under foot. The restoration of the Tabernacle of David was a significant sign of the Messiah's return. The Tabernacle of David, or Mount Zion, was not a place of blood sacrifice. They didn't sacrifice animals in the Tabernacle of David. They did edit inauguration, but the Tabernacle of David was a place where the sacrifice of praise was offered to God. Before David was a king, he was a musician. In David's Tabernacle, there was continuous music and worship offered where the Ark of God's presence dwelt. The restoration of the Tabernacle of David is significant for us today as we are the church, the body of Christ. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We are also called a royal priesthood, continually offering spiritual sacrifices to God, and the sacrifice we now offer to God as his Tabernacle is the sacrifice of praise. This is why we assemble together regularly and make music and singing a major part of our worship. The sacrifice of praise from the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to God is particularly significant as we offer up ourselves as living sacrifices on each Lord's day. In our assemblies, the singing of songs and hymns and spiritual songs on the Lord's day is vitally and spiritually significant. There is no true worship without it. It is that vital and that significant because we are the Tabernacle in which the Ark of his presence now dwells. He thus commands our worship. That promised restoration of David's Tabernacle also included God bringing in the nations to be part of his house and his kingdom. Christ would do this by breaking down the middle wall of separation and making both Jew and Gentile into one new man in Christ. It is the redemptive work of Christ through the cross that accomplishes this work of making the two one. And it is by the gospel we command the nations to come in and to join in as part of David's restored Tabernacle. There was also the testimony of God's sovereign providence in verse 18 no longer quoting the prophet Amos in some of your translations what is recorded in verse 18 when James says known to God from eternity are all his works. Some translations link that with the quote from Amos not because it is from Amos but it is just connected there. But James is not quoting Amos there. James is making a statement affirming the providence and the sovereignty of God from eternity. That statement of James is refuting any notion that God is somehow coming behind man and reacting to the work of men. God does not react to man's work. Known to God from eternity are all his works. God is working upstream always. It is man who is reacting and acting in accordance with God's work. God foresaw and God forenew and foreordained all his works from eternity. Now that is especially true of the crucifixion of Christ. In Acts 427 and 28 the disciples declared to God for truly against your holy servant Jesus whom you anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together to do whatever your hand and your purpose determined before to be done. The cross was not a plan B. The cross was always God's plan. And the cross was foreordained, fore-purposed by God. This is why Jesus is called the Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world. It was always the plan and the purpose of God. This is the sovereign providence of God that still works in each of our lives today. Because God's works are known to Him from eternity because of the testimony of the Holy Spirit and His work among the Gentiles and because the prophets foretold and prophesied that God would bring in the nations, James judged that the Gentiles should be further, should be troubled no longer, no further. Because of the testimony and the witness of God's sovereign providence at work among the Gentiles, James rightly judged that those Gentiles turning to God should not be troubled about circumcision or about keeping the law. His determination concerning the Gentiles is laid out in verse 20. And in verse 20, he gives the four prohibitions leading to hopeful harmony. These four prohibitions that are laid out here are not for the salvation of the Gentiles. They're saved by grace through faith. These four prohibitions are for the hopeful harmony of the church. It's for the church to be able to live in harmony together. New and Gentile alike. In verse 20, James determined the church right to the Gentiles laying out four things they were to abstain from as followers of Jesus Christ. They were to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled and from blood. Later we're going to see in the language of the letter actually delivered that these four prohibitions are called necessary things. In other words, this is not a suggestion but a command and to knowingly disobey this command would be sinful and harmful to the body. Here James gives four points of instructions that the Gentiles are commanded to obey. These four things they are to abstain from are already prohibited in the law of Moses. One of the Jews were already doing this. It was the Gentiles that were not. They understood, look, the solution is not for the Gentiles to become Jews. The solution is for us to all live in harmony together. We can agree that not doing these four things is a good thing. These are good prohibitions. These prohibitions were given so that Jews and Gentiles can have unhindered table fellowship and harmony as they worship and function together as believers in one body. These are found and expounded upon in the book of Leviticus and what is called the holiness code. Leviticus 17 through 26 includes the entire code but Leviticus 17 through 20 deals specifically what the four points contained in this letter sent to the Gentiles. Let's look at a brief description of these four points. Number one abstain from things polluted by idols. In other words, don't knowingly eat foods that have been sacrificed to idols. We'll see this later in Paul's epistles. The prohibition of this is sinned in not becoming a stumbling block to the weaker brother. It is not, here me church. It is not because there is anything inherently wrong with the meat itself. It is all about making or not making a brother stumble. And it would certainly make Jews and some Gentiles stumble to know if another believer was willfully eating polluted food that had been sacrificed to an idol. Number two abstain from sexual immorality. The Greek word translated sexual immorality is often translated fornication. It is the word pornea where we get our word pornography. Our English word fornication is often associated with sex outside marriage. And that is certainly sexual immorality yet the term sexual immorality covers much more and carries a much broader meaning. Sexual immorality was also related to pagan worship as many of the temples in the ancient world had both female and male prostitutes associated with them. So sexual immorality or pornea covers all forms of prohibited sexual activity in the law so that it is not just sex outside of marriage, it is any and all prohibited sexual activity engaged in by men or women. The claim that Jesus never condemned homosexuality is a false claim. And the reason it is false is because Jesus upheld the law and upholding and fulfilling all the law, including the sexual ethic of the holiness code, Jesus condemned all forms of sexual immorality as sin, including homosexuality. It matters not that certain practices today, whether it doesn't matter what it is. Certain practices today are deemed socially acceptable, living together before marriage is extremely socially acceptable today. But the Bible calls it sin, it is sexual immorality to men together, to women together is socially acceptable among many today, but the Bible calls it sin, it is sexual immorality. Jesus affirmed it, upheld it. So it doesn't matter that certain practices were then or are now socially acceptable. Jesus not calls them sinful and commands that we abstain from all forms of sexual immorality. Three abstain from things strangled. And then the basic reason for prohibiting eating meat that was strangled is that it would not have the blood drained from the animal. And when you strangle an animal and it dies, the heart cannot pump out the blood. So the blood remains in the animal, stagnated, coagulated. The animal, in other words, must be killed properly so that the blood is allowed to leave the body. Based on Deuteronomy 1421, a Jew could get such an animal to an alien or to a Gentile. But he couldn't eat it himself. He was prohibited of using the animal himself. Gentiles were to now abstain from eating such food for the sakes of their Jewish brethren or even Gentiles who had that conviction because they would become stumbling blocks. And the fourth is abstain from blood. Again, this is rooted in worship as all of these are. The consumption of blood was related to worship in certain rituals or enchantments associated with idols and false gods. The Jews were strictly forbidden to participate in such pagan rituals. So the eating of blood was prohibited. A brief aside here, it is interesting that each week we eat Christ's body and drink his blood. As he has commanded us, in fact, he said in John 6, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no part of me. You can now understand why John writes that after Jesus said those things, many cease to follow after Jesus. For these were hard words for the Jews to accept. Yet we are commanded in our worship of the true and living God to eat the body of the Son of God and drink his blood. His body is our meat and his blood is our life and our cleansing. And the cup of the New Covenant. We eat and drink in proclamation of who he is and what he has done in securing our salvation. The four prohibitions have to do with harmony between Jew and Gentile. Three of these specifically deal with table fellowship, sitting down to a meal together. Even though Jew and Gentile are now made one spiritually speaking, they have different cultures, different practices. In both now, must learn to accept and have grace toward one another just as we are to accept and have grace toward one another that we have differences with. Just as we must still do today. These four prohibitions were necessary things so as to create unity and grace in the body of Christ. In verse 21, James demonstrates wisdom in his course of action and his follow-up statement that seems to anticipate questions and pushback that he may receive. In verse 21, James says this, for Moses had throughout many generations those who preach him in every city being read in the synagogue every Sabbath. That statement can kind of seem out of place, but it's not at all. And I believe this statement acknowledges that there would be some Gentiles who would desire to submit to certain cultural and ritualistic realities of living as a Jew. It would be an appealing lifestyle to some. And if desired, they were free to do this. This is what James is saying. In every city, Moses is preached, they can go learn how to live that lifestyle if they want to do that. They're free to do that. But they would in no way be required to do so. This would in no way give approval to sacrifice animals and to trust in the blood of bulls and goats for the atonement of sin. That was not part of the lifestyle some of these Gentiles may have entered into. Jesus is the fulfillment. He is the final sacrifice. So don't misunderstand what James is saying here. Living culturally as a Jew is one thing. You can do that and trust in Jesus. Lots of Jews do. Lots of ethnic Jews do. But this would in no way give approval to sacrifice and trust in the blood of an animal to atonement for sin. Christ alone fulfills that now and eternally. The result of this council was the whole church was pleased and chosen. And they sent chosen men with letters to Antioch and to all the regions that Paul had preached in and established churches in. So in verse 22 we see it please the apostles and elders and the whole church to send chosen men leading men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. To say the council was a success would be an understatement. This was significant in so many ways. And one way that stands out is the fact that the whole church was pleased. Remember this started as a very heated dispute among brothers. Whatever happened over the course of this council we know the result of it. We're not told all the details throughout the workings of it but we're given the main points. Whatever happened over the course of this council the result was that it pleased the whole church. This was not a compromise. This was a triumph of truth. There's a difference. James and Paul and Barnabas and Peter did not compromise and say okay guys we'll give in on these four points. No that is not what happened. This was not a compromise. This was a triumph of truth. What was true prevailed over what was not true. What was true is we're saved by grace. What was not true is you have to keep the law to be saved. The men who initially went without being sent by the apostles and elders may have had the best intentions but those intentions were not rooted in truth. And I think as we see Paul riding his load to the Galatians he calls some of these brothers who kept trying to put Gentiles under law. He called them false brethren. And they were false because they would not acknowledge the truth of God's grace. After the work of the council the truth prevailed. Men that men are not saved by keeping the law but we are saved by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus. Now Jew and Gentile may come together as one in one body to worship and commune and table fellowship with God and with one another. The message of the letter and the messengers carrying it would convey all of these truths to all the churches and their leadership. Setting the trajectory of the church as the gospel of God's grace would be taken to the ends of the earth for many generations to come even our own. In the verse 23 the letters greeting includes the apostles, the elders and the brethren. Again we see the whole church acknowledged in this letter. The letter is addressed to all the churches in the regions, Paul and Bonnebus work, Antioch, Syrians, Solisia. And I believe it was incredibly encouraging knowing that all the brethren in Jerusalem were in agreement. The whole church was in agreement with the findings of the letter and that the letter is addressed to the Gentiles in all the churches. And this letter and its truth in other words were for all. Then in verse 24 it is made clear that those who went out from Jerusalem to trouble the Gentiles were not sent with any approval or authority from the leadership in Jerusalem. This letter and the accompanying delegation would make that clear and so relieve any fear. Today the Word of God must guide our decisions and our interactions with others and with one another, especially those who are of the household of faith. This council was also thoughtful about who they sent to convey this information. So the whole result of this council was very thoughtful and it resulted in great rejoicing and in great encouragement. They sent a letter and they sent word that would be verbally communicated all in order to make sure there is no confusion and that the communication of such important truth is not missed or misunderstood in any way. We should do the same today. When we're conveying truth to people we need to make sure that we are not miscommunicating so that truth is missed or misunderstood by those that we are communicating with. Verses 23 through 29 have the full content of the letter sent to the church and Antioch and eventually across the rest of the evangelized parts of Asia. In this letter sent from the Jerusalem council we see these words in verse 28 and 29 where the apostles and the elders wrote for it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you know greater burden. There in the body of the letter is mention of the Holy Spirit again working and also inspiring the very words of this letter that has become part of God's eternal word. Then in verses 30 and 31 the final two verses of our text we see the send off from Jerusalem and the arrival and the reception and Antioch. And as they did in Jerusalem at the start of the council they did an Antioch in hearing the result of the council. They gathered together the multitude of the church so the whole church was there at the beginning of the council and the whole church was there at the end of the council. They delivered the letter and when they had read it they rejoiced over its encouragement. Praise God the letter filled with truth brought great rejoicing and great encouragement and that is what truth does it sets us free and is reason for great encouragement and great rejoicing. May we go forth in truth both in word and indeed and may we deliver that truth through our life and so see men come to a knowledge of the truth and be set free in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit. Let us prepare to come to the Lord's table. Here is your church church. Major reason we do not have a Jewish church and a Gentile church today is the Jerusalem council and the letter we still have contained in our Bibles. There is only one church in one body of Christ. It is not Jewish. It is not Gentile. It is one church made up of one new man in Jesus Christ. You are a Christian. Any other identifying marker be it ethnicity, cultural norms or anomalies or any other human trait that differentiate you from others is not the basis of your identity. Christ is your identity. It is your Christian culture guided by the Word of God and the Holy Spirit above all other considerations that identify you and set you apart from the world but also unite you with all who are in this one body. The resurrected Christ ascended to glory and there he received the kingdom from the father along with the inheritance of nations and that inheritance of nations includes you. He now reigns as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He has commanded his church meaning he has commanded you to go and to make disciples of all the nations so the nations will flow to his restored tabernacle and his throne. Thus bringing all peoples under his glorious and eternal rule. Now in Christ you are his people. You are the temple of the Holy Spirit and you are the place of his abiding presence. Christ in you the hope of glory or you could say it like this. You and I are the tabernacle of his presence. Therefore by him may you continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of your lips giving thanks to his name. This is both your privilege and your joyful duty. Amen. Let us sing our thanks to God. Praise God from all blessings, love. Praise him of creatures here below. Praise him above the heavenly home. Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. The Lord be with you.

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