Would You Have Believed?

Thank you very much. It's good to be here with you. I bring greetings from everyone at Cincinnati and most of the rest of the world, for that matter. The question I'd like to ask you this morning for the sermon is, would you have believed? If you'd have been there at the time of the disciples and saw the things that the Messiah did, would you have believed? It's interesting. Everyone at the time was looking for the Messiah.

The Jews have always been looking for Messiah. They built their temple, and they were so upset when it was destroyed because the Messiah was going to come to the temple, and we had to have a temple. They were looking for Him constantly. He would heal the sick, His blind would see, the lame would walk, and all the animals would become tame. They had read Isaiah. Most of all, this king of kings was going to exalt his chosen people. And they, of course, were His chosen people. You. You were the chosen people. You would rise above your enemies. You would know that He was going to take down the Romans at the time.

He would deliver you from subjugation. He would put down the rule of the tyrants around you. And all the chosen people wanted it, and He would be magnificent. He would be overpowering. He'd be your hero. And that's what they were looking for, and that's what they expected. Why? Because each of us is the center of our own universe. We want that. We want something. Is that how we see our Messiah sometimes? I think in the church we do. Sometimes it's from a selfish point of view.

When I was a little boy, I mean, I was 12 years old and I stayed in the Bible every day. I had the assistance of the faculty at college teaching us. And all my neighbors' kids knew that Germany was going to rise again, the beast, the false prophet. I mean, the whole works. They knew it all. I was 12 years old, and I could challenge them on everything. And they all knew that. And I was going to show them.

They had all found out that I was right. That was my Messiah. He was going to prove I was right. It's kind of like people see things from that way. They want it their way. And they see it from a perspective that isn't the way it is.

Kind of like the thief that broke into the home. And he hears his voice and says, Jesus is going to get you. And he stops. He hears his voice again and says, Jesus is going to get you. And he pulls out his flashlight and looks right at his parrot there saying this. And he doesn't think anything about it. But then he shines the light down. There's a big Doberman picture with his fangs out. And the parrot says, sick him, Jesus.

Is that the Messiah you want? It's going to sick him? For centuries, they'd kept the Passover. They had killed the Lamb. They had brought it to their house on the tenth day and the fourteenth day they killed it and they ate it. And they knew that part of it was about. They knew that they fled Egypt on that day that God delivered them from their enemy, from the tyrant, the Egyptians, from the slavery.

They knew that he'd killed the firstborn of all the Egyptians. Those stories were a part of them and that they put the blood on the doorposts and they were spared, the chosen people. And they wanted a Messiah that was going to do that again. It would be a memorial that they'd keep. And they kept that memorial over and over. And his disciples kept it with Christ for three and a half years. And they heard the stories firsthand from someone who actually witnessed it. And then God gave them those memories so he knew and he could tell them.

But they didn't really understand what it was about. But certainly you would have to think that they would know, but they didn't. It was interesting. They knew about the Messiah. When he was supposed to come, they knew approximately from the prophets that he was supposed to come about that time. So they were so concerned when Herod was going to build the temple.

He was going to tear down the old temple and build a new one. They thought he was going to be lying to them, which he didn't because he was in his best interest to build a temple. But they knew the lamb was going to be slaughtered every year. But they saw the Messiah, kind of the feast. I always love the feast of tabernacles. Tomah was really a challenge. Unleavened bread was fine. You can kind of get by with that, but you didn't get all the toys and things without feasts.

But the Messiah is going to come. He's going to rule. And that's what you wanted. And that's what they wanted then. Acts 5. We see when they're talking to Gamaliel. It's interesting, and you know the story. You don't have to actually turn there. But Gamaliel is telling them, hey, don't hurt these men because verse 36 of Acts 5 says, on those days rose up, Theudas boasting himself to be someone.

And he gathered a number of men, 400 joined them, and they were all slain because he was going to deliver them from the Romans. And then he talks about Judas of Galilee. In the days of taxing, drew people after him. He died because they were all trying to be the Messiah that conquered everything. That's what they expected. And you see, Jesus was not the Messiah they wanted.

He was about serving others, and we know kings are supposed to be served.

He didn't fight the Romans. He didn't do the job of the conquering king, as they saw it from their point of view. Yet for those who were with him and believe they saw signs, they saw different things. He did heal the sick. He did miracles. The blind did see. Those prophecies were true, but they didn't see the Messiah kingly roll as they saw it.

And then he died, and it was over. Yeah, he was fulfilling the blind, the lamb, and that, but he didn't conquer the Romans. So we must have been wrong. He was a good person, but he must have been another wannabe because he didn't deliver us. That's what they expected. The oppressors they saw were the Romans, and that's what they wanted overthrown. How many times have people left the church because God didn't do things the way they wanted it, the way they expected it to be, or when they wanted it? I've seen people abandon principles that they taught to get it their way when they saw things that they thought should be a different way, and God tests us that way. But certainly the disciples should have known it, but really did they? They were with them three and a half years, and they were told by Jesus himself. Peter said, oh, you're the Messiah. But yet when he died, their expectations were not fulfilled. I'd like to turn to Luke 24 and read to see where their position was and ask yourself, where would you be? Had you been there? And how do you see your Messiah?

Luke 24 verse 1, three days after he died, it says, now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, and we know before sunset in John 20, they came. So Mary Magdalene came early with her. It was yet dark under the sepulchre, and they saw the stone taken away. Why did they come to it? They came with spices to prepare the body. Why? Because they thought the body would be there. They didn't really believe he was gone. Verse 2, and they found the stone rolled away. And they entered therein, and did not find the body of the Lord, which means they expected to find it. It came to pass. They were very perplexed. Behold, two men stood by and shined in garments, and they were afraid and bowed down their face of the earth. And they, the angel said to them, Why do you seek the living among the dead? They came for a dead body. They didn't come for a resurrected Christ. The angel said, He's not here. He's risen. Remember how He spoke to you? When He was yet in Galilee, these angels reminded Him. What did He say? And He said, you know, we go back to Luke 24 there, verse 7, saying, The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and the third day rise again. They quoted Matthew 12.39 to Him, basically. No sign will be given except to be in the grave. Three days and three nights, like Jonah.

That was the way it was. And we know when He was crucified, Matthew 28 talks about the earthquake that happened. The dead, the graves opened up, and they're rising up, and all these people have been buried. All these miracles, these special things that happened, and they saw all those things. That's what happened. But what did they think? Come back to Luke 24, verse 8. And then they remembered His words. Oh yeah, He did say that, didn't He? I forgot about that.

And they returned from the sepulchre and told these things to the 11 and to all the rest. It was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women that were with them, which told these things to the apostles. And they said, Great! That's right! That's exactly what He said! No. Verse 11, their words seemed as idle tales, and they believed them not. How quickly do we give up? A lot of people expected Mr. Armstrong to live till the end. He thought that up until the last few months. He realized God's time is not the same as our time, he said. It's not the way I thought it would be, but I had to think it was that way to work this hard. So do we sometimes. It's like the Apostle John, when they thought John would be there till they returned, because of Peter's question, what about him? Now, what matters? If he's here till I come, what's it up to you? And it went around Jerusalem that John would be here till he came. It wasn't true. That's not what he said. But they thought the same thing. They didn't know. Verse 12, Luke 24, Peter arose, ran to the sepulchre, stood down, behold the linen clothes, lay by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass. Can this be true? Is this what happened? Peter, the one who said, you're the Christ. And a little later, verse 13, you see what happened now. Behold, two of them went that same day to a village, Kautamais, which was from Jerusalem, about three score four longs, about eight to nine miles or so. And they talked together of those things which had happened. Of course, this was the talk of the town. I mean, you know, people don't rise out of the graves every day in earthquakes, and the sun goes dark, and the temples rent from the top to bottom. I mean, that's not an everyday occurrence.

In verse 15, it came to pass while they communed together in reason Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were held back that they shouldn't know who he was. And he said to them, what communications are these that you have one to another? And why are you walking? Why are you so sad? One of them said, whose name was Cleopas, Antriman said to him, are you the only stranger in Jerusalem and have not known the things which are come to pass in these days? It's kind of like the trade centers went down, so I said, what was this all about? Hey, didn't you see it on the news? How could you miss this? That was basically it. And he said to them, verse 19, what things?

And they said, concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet, mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered them to be condemned to death, and they crucified him. It's interesting. What did happen is death. Those special miracles, all those things, and yet they crucified him. It's over. Verse 21, but we trusted that it would have been He which should have been redeemed Israel. We thought He was the Messiah. He did those things, but He died. He didn't do what we wanted. And besides all this, today is the third day since these things have happened. They didn't see it. And yes, certain women of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre, and they found not His body. They came saying they had seen a vision of the angels, which said He was alive. Of course, that was probably just PTSD, a little trauma, and they're seeing these things, and everybody's kind of spooked when a crucifixion happens. I mean, that's the way they thought. And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre and found that they'd said. They didn't see Him. Verse 25, then He says to them, O fools, you slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have written and spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and entered into His glory? Don't you get it? Haven't you kept the Passover for hundreds of years and you don't get it? The Lamb doesn't do anything. It was my blood.

They didn't see it. They thought He was the one who redeemed Israel.

In verse 27, and beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded to them and all the scriptures the things concerning Himself. Things they had read, but they didn't apply it to the King, the Messiah they wanted, the same way. He began to make believers out of them by the scriptures. Not by tradition, not by Ishtar and Lent and all these Palm Sundays and all these things that other religions have, but by scripture, God's Word. Starting in Genesis, I imagine, where Moses wrote in Genesis. What did he say? The serpent's going to come and the enmity between you and the woman, His seed and yours, and He'll bruise your heel, and He'll bruise His head.

First prophecy about Christ. I'm sure He told them that. He's probably saying, if you just read the intro to the book here, just read the intro. That's where it starts. Third chapter tells of these things that are coming. And that's what this was about. Did you not expect me to die? I was prophesied to be bruised. A temporary death. I was prophesied. All the prophets. But you read the scriptures you wanted to read. You wanted the conquering King. You wanted the person who made you great.

They expected Him to be the prophet. Deuteronomy 18. We go there.

Deuteronomy 18, He's talking to them when they're... people are asking Him, don't you tell us, tell Moses. We don't want to hear this loud voice and all the fire and everything. It scares us. Deuteronomy 18.18 says, What did Jesus say? I speak the will of my Father. I say what He said.

And He did do those things. But it wasn't time for the next verse. Verse 19.

They expected the rest of that. They wanted all those things to happen. They wanted Isaiah 45. It's what they wanted. They expected to hear Christ's words then or pay a price. They didn't expect the people to reject Him. Isaiah 45. Verse 22.

Verse 23.

Exalt us. That's what they expected. But Jesus would have explained to those men, starting from Moses through the prophets, that that would be His second coming, not His first coming. They saw glory in the physical sense. They wanted that prophet who would overthrow the nations now. They thought Jesus was that prophet. I'll hold your place in Luke, but look at John 6.13. After the Loaves in the fishes' episode, and they saw this tiny basket of fish and loaves and fed thousands of people, after this miracle, it shows, verse 13 of John 6.

And then those men, verse 14.

How many no more humans would have done that? How many say, Oh yeah, yeah, make me the king. I just did this miracle. All right. He leaves. He departs. This isn't His time. This isn't the Messiah's role at this time to be king. How many people reject power? I've seen a lot of people leave when power is taken from them. One of the tests that God does for leadership is He'll give you authority and take it away. And if you get angry and start complaining, it's not fair, and it's all wrong, I've seen that happen. Nine out of ten times people fail that test, sadly, as opposed to trying to learn the lesson God's teaching you.

I was thankful that I became Mr. Armstrong's aide and was able to watch people wield power rightly and wrongly during my career. You learn a lot from watching how people do things. But this time wasn't time for Jesus to be that all-powerful king, to make every knee bow, to fulfill those part of the prophecies. Christ was there to explain them now the first coming prophecies and what He went through to fulfill those prophecies.

People twist scriptures. The Jews wanted it the way they wanted it. That was how it was. And Christ, His apostles saw it that way. They wanted to, you know, can I call fire down from heaven to stop these people who won't accept this? Christ said, I came to save people, not destroy them. They wanted that power. And they had read, I'm sure Christ told them, Psalm 16. Psalm 16 in verse 8, I have set the Lord always before me. He is at my right hand. I shall not be moved. Again, Christ knew that the angels were right there with Him. My heart is glad, my glory rejoices, my flesh, physical, shall rest in hope. Verse 10, for you will not leave my body in hell, the grave. Neither will you suffer your holy one to see corruption. So Peter quoted in Acts 2 later on to show the Messiah. Those scriptures showed I was going to die. And I'm sure he told that to those men as he walked and tried to explain these things to Him. Psalm 110, another one, says the same thing. The Jews wanted something different.

They wanted a Messiah that would come and tell them all the things that they wanted to hear.

And those things will happen. He will come and do the things they had read. But that wasn't what He came to do then. And I'm sure He went to Isaiah 53. And we read a lot of that last week at Passover. And explaining that to them, where He says, Who has believed our report? Isaiah 53.1. To whom is the armor the Lord has revealed? The men from Emmaus, the disciples, didn't believe it first. But later He revealed it to them. And they said, Oh yeah, I remember.

For He shall grow up as a tender plant, as the root of a dry ground. He has no former commonness, and when we shall see Him, no beauty that we should desire Him. He could walk through the crowds and get lost, which He did on many occasions.

He has despised and rejected a man, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him. He was despised, we esteemed Him not. His own disciples ran off. Peter denied Him. And they all said they wouldn't leave Him. And they all did.

Surely, as born our grief, carried our sorrow, we esteemed Him stricken, spitting of God, and afflicted. And I'm sure as Christ quoted this to the men from Emmaus, Oh yeah, that's exactly what happened. That is what happened. He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him. By His stripes were healed. Peter quotes that in 1 Peter 2.24. And we, like sheep, have gone astray, and have turned everyone to His own way. And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed. He was afflicted. Yet He opened not His mouth. He brought us a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep, before the shearers as dumb, He opened not His mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment. Who shall declare this generation? He was cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgressions of my people, He was stricken. He made His grave with the wicked, with the rich in His death, because He had done no violence. Neither was deceit found in His mouth. And they knew, yeah, He was killed with two thieves, one on each side. And He was buried in a garden. In a rich tomb. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him and put Him to grief.

I'm sure Christ read all these things and said, this is what I came to do.

It's not what you wanted, but what had to be done.

And this is why I did it for you.

Verse 12, therefore I will divide with Him a portion with the grave. He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He has poured out His soul to death. He was numbered with the transgressors. He bear the sins of many and made intercession for the sinners. Why He did it? The apostle used these scriptures later and quoted them to show the church that is who the Messiah was. That's what He came to do. He will fill up in Acts 8 with the Ethiopian eunuch. Explain to Him. That's what the Messiah was.

The conquering King is later. Go back to Luke 24, if you would.

Luke 24 verse 28. They do nigh to the village where they went, and He made as though He would have gone further. But they constrained Him, saying, Stay with us this evening and far spent. Stay with us. Verse 30. He came to pass, and He sat at meat with them. He took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them. And verse 31. Their eyes were opened, and they knew Him, and He vanished. Poof! That's a good trick. I mean, a lot of illusionists can do that, but nobody can do it for real, except Christ. I'm sure that spooked them a little bit. Oh, and they wondered why didn't we see it? Why didn't we know it? And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us by the way? And He opened the Scriptures to us, and He read those things that fit exactly what happened to Him.

And they said, The Lord indeed is risen, and has appeared to Simon.

They went back to Jerusalem. Verse 33 we do. Verse 35. They told the things that were done in the way, and how He was known of them, and breaking of bread. And as they spoke about this, verse 36, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, Peace be to you. Here He is again. Is this a vision? They accuse the women of seeing visions. They're seeing things. Here He is, in the room. And what did they say? Verse 37. They were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen the Spirit. They're still not quite there yet. And He said to them, Why are you troubled? Why do your thoughts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands. Look at my feet. Handle me. Touch me. The Spirit doesn't have flesh and bones, as you see. And when He had thus spoken, He showed them His hands and His feet. And they yet believed not for joy, but wondered and sang, Have you any meat? And He gave them a piece of broiled fish and a honeycomb, and He took it and ate with them. And He said to them, These are the words that I spoke to you while I was yet with you, that all these things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, in the prophets, and in the Psalms concerning me.

That's why I told you those things. And you did believe I was that when I was doing the healing and things, but you didn't realize I had to die. I wasn't going to save you from the Romans then. And He opened their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures.

And He said to them, Thus it is written, and thus it be who Christ has suffered, and He arrives from the dead the third day. And that repentance and the remission of sin should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things. And behold, I send my promise to my Father upon you, but stay in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with that power from on high, the Holy Spirit. Again, a proof of keeping the feast. He should have very easily said, Hey, those holy days are done away. You need the Spirit. I'm giving it to you now. He said, No, wait till Pentecost. Which is our next feast coming. He endorsed Pentecost. How do you say He did away with things? He's there talking to them, telling them, explaining the Scriptures. And He says, Wait till Pentecost. Pretty obvious. It wasn't a vision. The women were not seeing things. It was real. The Messiah had risen, after fulfilling all the prophecies concerning His first coming. Ask the suffering servant.

We took the Passover last week, and this should be as vivid and real to us. What happened that day, the Lord was crucified, as it became for them when they saw those things happening, and to those men on the road to Emmaus. Because we can look back and see those prophecies fulfilled.

They saw them fulfilled, but they were looking for the next... They were looking for trumpets in the Feast of Tabernacles and Millennium. They wanted it their way. It was interesting.

That's how they saw it. The Messiah did fulfill those, and Jerusalem was abuzz.

Verse 50, Luke 24, And He led them out as far as to Bethany, and lifted up His hands, and blessed them, and it came to pass. While He blessed them, He parted from them, and was carried up into the heavens. And they worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. It finally sunk in. This was what was supposed to happen. Christ's message to John the Baptist that they had heard when John's disciples came to Him, and, Are you the one that we expect? Jesus said, Tell them what you see. The blind see. The lame walk. People are healed. Because they knew Isaiah. They knew the Messiah was going to do those things.

And Christ did it. Therefore, He was the Messiah, but then He died.

Wait a minute. He's supposed to deliver us.

How? Not the way they expected it. They did see that. They understood Christ's compassion on mankind. The multitudes, when He fed the loaves and the fishes, He'd always have mercy and compassion on them. But it was interesting. They didn't see it. The way all the feast pictured it. They only understood in part.

They remembered now how Jesus came to Jerusalem. Zechariah 9, verse 9.

Because all the pieces now were coming together. Now that they believe, they understood. Zechariah 9, 9. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your King comes to you. He is just, having salvation, lowly, riding upon an ass, and upon the ass, the coal of a foal of an ass. That's where John 12. When they came, they remember this now. John 12, 12. The next day, many people came to the feast. They heard Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. And they took branches of palm trees, went to medium, and cried, Hosanna, bless the King of the Israel, that comes in the name of the Lord. And Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat there on ass, it is written, Fear not, daughter of Zion. Behold, your King comes, sitting on an ass, as coal. These things understood not his disciples at first. Verse 16. They didn't understand it. But when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered these things that were written of him, and that they had done all these things to him.

They saw that happen. They didn't put it together. God doesn't always work the way we want. And we can thank God for that, because the plan wouldn't work anyway but His. Without the way He came the first time, we would all be approaching death without any salvation.

We needed His first coming to save us. John 20, 24. We read of Thomas, who wasn't there with him.

And when he had Mary, they didn't believe her. You had the twelve.

Thomas didn't believe them. You had the two from Emmaus, didn't believe them. Here's Thomas. He wasn't there. Verse 25. The other disciples told him, We've seen the Lord. But he says to them, Except I see His hands, and see the print of the nails, and put my finger in the print of the nails, and thrust my hand in His side, I will not believe. You people are nuts. I saw Him up on the cross. He died. And after eight days, again His disciples were there, and Thomas with them. Then came Jesus. The doors being shut, stood in the midst, said, Peace to you. Thomas, hey, come here. Put your finger in here. See my hands? See my side? Put it in here, Thomas. Imagine how big he felt at that time.

He knew Christ was listening to him when he said it eight days ago.

And it was embarrassing, I imagine. How many times we felt stupid. Yeah, it happens.

Here he was right there, and Thomas Antrimus said, My Lord and my God, I get it. There are those moments we all have, and we get it. And Jesus said, Thomas, because you've seen me, you believe. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed.

Many other signs that Jesus do in the presence of His disciples not written in the book. Why? But they're written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life through His name. Would you have believed? If His disciples were there and saw it and didn't understand it, I dare say you wouldn't have either. They still wanted their selfish Messiah. That's why they said, Can we call down fire from heaven? That's why Peter took his sword and cut off the air. Hey, we'll save you and you can conquer these Romans. They were thinking the fall feast, not the spring feast. They were in the wrong season. He wanted them to exalt them. They were looking at the millennium. And all those scriptures, not the ones of the suffering servant.

Those other scriptures happen. But what gets us to the end for our spiritual road is the first coming, the suffering servant. It would have been a vision and an enigma to you too, at the time, just as it was to those men. But by their testimony, because of their words and God's Holy Spirit opening your mind, we see it. We need to make every Passover, every feast, every day of our lives just as real, being filled with humility to be part of that story.

The story that the Jews and the apostles wanted that day. They wanted a conquering king.

Don't lose out because things don't happen the way you want them to. Jesus was sent by God to be that suffering servant, to allow the road to salvation. And all those expectations of the Jews, the chosen people, are going to happen. But not because they're great and they want to be exalted and put people down. When I told all my friends that the beast and the false prophet and all that stuff, then God's going to come and they're going to know that I was right. I still want them to know, but not because I was right, because it's what they need. It's what they have to have to be our brothers and sisters in the future. It's the attitude of Christ that is first coming. It's the attitude of care and concern and love and humility that gets us there. It's not about the power. If we only think about the power, if we're only thinking about the millennium and the feast and the power that comes with being a spirit being, we also qualify because we have to as well be a suffering servant. We don't have to be crucified. We can't pay for anybody's sins, but we have to have the attitude and mind of Christ and His first coming. We should want to have that concern for all of mankind. My concern now for my neighbors I talked about is for their well-being and their benefits so they can understand these promises. It's not about the power and about proving your right. It's about wanting what's good for mankind, what God does. I think it's always interesting when I do the foot washing and I think about Christ. You know, I've seen many men in the church over the years who wash feet really, really hard and serve really, really hard to get to a position where they didn't have to serve anymore. And I see Christ who is about to die and He knows in a few days He's going to be a spirit-being God with His Father, all the power of the universe, and the last thing He does is wash feet.

I'm always sad when people lose that foot washing attitude. They don't understand it's not about rising in position. It's about being the servant, wanting other people to understand, to help them.

Most of us want to go out as a blast, as a hero and stuff, and hear Christ is crucified with these and the most ignominious death you can have. And yet that's what it's about.

The interesting thing is the fact that even though they were wrong, they were right. Because Jesus did defeat the enemy, because the enemy was death, and He did defeat the enemy at His first coming. He'll defeat the other enemies at His second coming. We have to do our part in humility and in kindness and in love. I love all the feasts. I love these feasts in particular because of what they do for us and for mankind. And yes, I love the fall feasts, too. And as children, they'll always love that feast better than the other ones, out of school and all the gifts and fun and things. But it's the suffering servant, our Messiah, and the way He lived that we have to live, that get us through these days and bring us into the kingdom of God.