Introduction to Luke 9
This morning, I want you to turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter 9. Luke chapter 9, where we're going to return to the passage that I started last week, where Jesus is predicting his own death in the midst of identifying himself.
And I said last week that Jesus told his disciples where he was going to send them, how he was going to send them, and who was sending them.
And in the transfiguration that begins in verse number 28, we see Jesus clearly revealed in all of his deity as the Son of God.
And this is a comfort to the disciples, and it will be a guiding light to them as they reflect on this later, after Jesus has been crucified and raised again from the dead.
The Transfiguration Account
But before we get to all of that, let's read beginning of verse 28 through verse 36.
So Luke chapter 9, verse 28: About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John, and James with him, and he went up onto a mountain to pray. As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became bright as a flash of lightning. Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem.
Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men that were standing with him. As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, "Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." He did not know what he was saying.
While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and covered them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. A voice came from the cloud saying, "This is my son, whom I have chosen. Listen to him." When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. The disciples kept this to themselves and did not tell anyone at that time what they had seen.
Identifying the Sender
Here we have Jesus in all of his glory revealed to the disciples so that they would know exactly who was sending them. They were not being sent by a mere man, but they were being sent by the Son of God revealed in his majesty. So far, Luke in this chapter has been equipping the disciples for the ministry that was before them. Jesus was telling them in advance what they were called to do, how they would do it, where they would go, and who was directing them in all of their work.
And yet, the disciples still had questions and they still had misunderstandings. They recognized that Jesus was an incredible teacher. It says earlier in Luke's gospel that he taught as one who had authority. He was different than the human rabbis because his teaching cut to the heart. They also saw that Jesus was one who would perform miracles. He was able to heal the sick, to raise people from the dead, and to restore their physical abilities when they were unable to do things. All of these pointed to the fact that Jesus was unique, but they still didn't fully understand that he was God.
Rumors were going about Palestine and Galilee as Jesus was traveling that perhaps Elijah or Moses or even John the Baptist had returned from the dead. So Jesus pointedly asked these men, "But what about you? Who do you say that I am?" And Peter had quickly answered in verse number 20, "That you are the Christ." You are God's chosen one, the anointed Messiah of Israel. And while that was true, it was a simplistic summary of who Jesus was, because Peter assumed that Jesus, being Messiah, had come as a political savior. But Jesus had come for more than politics. He had come to set prisoners free from the captivity of their sin.
And here we have Jesus clarifying his identity as it's revealed through the Transfiguration. A few years ago, one of our church members took a job with an organization that does disaster relief. And in the midst of his job, he's been able to travel all over the United States doing different projects, helping people that have faced tragedy. Many times it's tornado or floods that rip through an area, and he and his team are sent to help the people that are affected by those natural disasters.
Well, once when this young man came back from one of his disaster relief projects, I was having lunch with him and he was talking to me about the most recent thing that they had done. He had been in Kentucky where there had been terrible floods a few years ago and they were rebuilding people's houses. And as Josh shared the story of what was going on in Kentucky, he talked about a guy who came and helped them on one of their projects. The guy's name was Frank, and Frank was very engaging. He was fun. He was willing to lend a hand anywhere that they needed him. And other people seemed to pay special attention to Frank. Josh wasn't quite sure what to make of him, but he was a fun guy. He was easy to talk to. He was a hard worker. And Josh really enjoyed him.
And then at the end of Josh telling me this story, he pulled out his phone and he showed me a picture of their team with Frank. Well, it turns out Frank was Franklin Graham, the director of Operation Christmas Child and Samaritan's Purse. Frank had joined their team with no fanfare, no attention that, "Hey, the director and leader of the whole organization is going to work on this one little team." But here was Frank serving alongside Josh and making an impact in Kentucky. Josh's perspective changed when he understood exactly who Frank was. And it wasn't that he suddenly thought he walks on holy ground and he's somehow other than the rest of us. But he admired his humility. He admired his willingness to do the work that he was calling so many other people around the country to do. And in a way, Frank's identity transformed in front of our friend Josh.
Well, as Jesus is ministering to the disciples, he's walking among them in much the same way. I don't want to reduce Jesus or the Transfiguration to Franklin Graham on a work crew for Samaritan's Purse. But the idea is that as Jesus was walking and living with the disciples, they didn't fully understand who he was and what the significance of his calling and mission were. And as he began to unpack and reveal to them why he had come, that he had come, in fact, to die, to give his life as a sacrifice, the disciples couldn't quite see it yet. They didn't have the picture of their team standing with Jesus fully formed in their minds.
At this point, they were, like others, enamored with Jesus. They were enthralled by him. They were captivated by all the things that he was doing. They recognized that the prophets and the law had foretold of a Messiah, but they didn't fully understand that it was this Messiah, Jesus who is from Nazareth, had come and he was the Christ who would deliver Israel from their sins.
Revealing His Deity
So in the Transfiguration, we have Jesus preparing his disciples for their mission in advance. And he does this along three lines.
The first thing I want you to notice in the Transfiguration is that Jesus reveals his deity on the mountain. Luke reports that after about eight days, Jesus took Peter, James, and John with him, and they went on a mountain to pray. Now, some scholars pick at this and say, "But the other gospels say there were six days. Luke says there's eight. Which is it?" Well, they could be accounted in different ways. The point is, a week later, whether you count the Sabbath and the day of the Transfiguration as Luke does, or whether you just count the regular days of the week, Jesus drew these disciples aside and took them to pray.
As he took them to pray, he was going to confirm again his identity, but in this case, revealing his deity. Although many people had already speculated that Jesus may have been Moses or Elijah or John the Baptist, the disciples would come to witness a meeting between Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. God the Father was going to use this supernatural encounter to confirm Jesus' identity as the Son of God. Jesus was not simply a carpenter's son from Nazareth, but he was the eternal Son of God from heaven.
On this mountain, it says Jesus prayed. As on other occasions, Jesus withdrew from the crowds, taking his disciples with him in order to commune with his heavenly Father. This time, however, it says in verse 29, as he was praying, the appearance of his face changed and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. Jesus' appearance here became blindingly bright like Moses' appearance when he had first received the law of God on Sinai.
The transfiguration is revealing Jesus' full deity. His physical appearance was changing from an ordinary carpenter and a traveling preacher. Now he appeared as the eternal Son of God in his full deity. His face glowed with the radiance of God's glory. His clothes now shined with the purity of God's holiness. And after his transfiguration, Jesus' human appearance revealed his divine nature.
This is not to say, like some old pieces of art, that Jesus received a halo that went above his head, that he traveled around like a ghost with bright light surrounding him. But it is to say that when people encountered Jesus from this time forward, they encountered the living God and they recognized that there was something other about him. There was something transcendent about him.
Well, in the midst of this incredible transformation, there were two men who suddenly appeared. And these men were, in fact, Luke says, Moses and Elijah. They also appeared in glorious splendor and they were talking with Jesus, verse 30. Many people had mistaken Jesus for these two men, but now they were alongside Jesus and clearly distinct from him.
Moses and Elijah appeared on the mountain in the presence of Peter, James, and John, and they represented God's covenant faithfulness to Israel. We have Israel's lawgiver, Moses, and one of their best prophets, Elijah. Moses represented the law of God while Elijah personified all of God's messengers. The law is what revealed the perfect holiness and righteousness of God. And this law required obedience and faithfulness of his people. The prophets, for their part, spoke God's words, and they called God's people to repentance from their disobedience and to persevere in the law that God had given through Moses. Both the law and the prophets would ultimately point God's people to Christ. They foretold and predicted a coming Messiah that would supplant them.
You see, God graciously used Moses and Elijah to preserve God's people. He chose Moses to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt and to give the Ten Commandments which became or were known as the Mosaic law or code. Then God used Elijah to boldly confront false worship and corrupt leaders to call God's people back to the law of God. And both of these men had trembled in the presence of God. God had graciously revealed himself to them and they were changed by his presence.
You may remember, we read it in this passage when Rick read from Exodus that Moses was affected by being in the presence of God. It says he entered into a cloud, but it appeared to everyone else looking at the mountain that it was a flame of fire. And when Moses came down from that mountain, his face glowed with the glory of God. Both Elijah and Moses, as they neared the end of their earthly lives, had a unique encounter with God. God took Moses up to the mountain to see the promised land that he would not be able to walk on. And it says Moses died and God buried him and no one was able to find his body. Elijah was walking with God when he was swept up in a whirlwind with a chariot of fire to heaven. Both men had been laid to rest by God in the sense that God had handled the end of their earthly ministry. As they went into the eternal presence of God, Moses, it says, died, but God buried him.
Elijah, it says, did not die, but he continued walking with God. An incredible encounter. Now here on this mountain in first-century Palestine, Jesus was meeting with these two men, Moses and Elijah. And he was showing through this meeting that he had come to fulfill the law and the prophets. While many had mistaken Jesus' identity, Moses and Elijah were meeting with Jesus to reveal his deity. They were appearing alongside Israel's promised Messiah to demonstrate their own submission to Christ. The law and the prophets pointed people to God through Christ. They did not overtake him.
Luke will say this later in chapter 24, verse 44, when he records Jesus saying this to his disciples: "This is what I told you while I was still with you. Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms." Jesus was telling his disciples after the resurrection that all of scripture points to him. Here at the Transfiguration, prior to his death and resurrection, Moses and Elijah are doing the same thing. They're pointing the disciples to Christ.
When we come before the Son of God, his presence changes us. We become more and more like our Savior. We start to think like our Savior. We start to talk like our Savior. We start to love like our Savior. We worship like our Savior. We obey like our Savior. And ultimately, we give our lives away like our Savior. The Spirit of God transforms us into God's image with ever-increasing glory. This is what Moses and Elijah did with their lives. They gave their lives to God. They became more and more like God and they pointed others to God.
The apostle Paul summarizes the same idea like this in 2 Corinthians 3:18: "And we all who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit." Paul is saying as we walk with Jesus, we become like Jesus. We show his glory in our changed lives.
Have you ever noticed how families look alike and act alike? Husbands and wives who come from different parents with different family dynamics grow closer together in appearance and mannerisms. Have you ever observed the sweet older couple that they just look like perhaps their brother and sister when in fact they're married? Their mannerisms have blended together. The things that they laugh at, the jokes they find funny, the decisions they make, even where they have differences, they've learned to work through those, but they have blended together. They reflect each other. Then if a couple like this has children, their sons and their daughters bear their parents' image and they behave like other people in their family.
When Crystal, Miles, and Madeline and I lived in Scotland, we lived a long way away from our family. And Miles and Madeline were able, through the blessings of technology, to speak to their grandparents on phone and over FaceTime every week. Yet both Miles and Madeline, even though they weren't in the presence of their grandparents, were demonstrating incredible characteristics that were a lot like them. Miles, for his part, acted like Crystal's dad in uncanny ways. Madeline mirrored my mom. And none of this was scripted. We didn't say, "This is how your pawpaw acts and this is how your grandma acts." They just had it in their DNA.
The point is this: if our families influence our behavior, then our relationship with God ought to affect the way we live. Moses and Elijah obeyed God. They gave their lives to him. And now they were in his presence on the mountain conversing about what was coming next. Even when other people disobeyed, they remained faithful. It's not to say that these brothers did not sin. They certainly did. Moses' sin cost him the ability to go into the promised land. And yet, both of these men, even in their sin, demonstrated lives of repentance. And other people noticed the presence of God on their countenances. They did not have halos on their heads either. And they did not look like heavenly angels, but their attitudes and their actions reflected their savior.
Now here they are in the presence of Christ, confirming his deity, showing Peter, James, and John that Jesus is who he says he is. He's not simply a political messiah, but he is the savior of the world. So while they are on this mountain and Jesus is revealing his deity.
Anticipating His Death
The second thing that this passage shows us is that Jesus also anticipates his death. Jesus anticipates his death. As the Son of God, he came to die as a sacrifice. He didn't simply come to gather influence and power, to gather prestige and to crush the Romans. No, Jesus came to give his life as an offering.
Moses and Elijah appearing on the mountain are conversing with Jesus. And it says they were speaking about his departure which he was about to bring fulfillment at Jerusalem, verse 31. Jesus was talking to these two men about his pending exodus. The word translated departure there can also be understood as an exodus. That is similar to God liberating his people from Egyptian captivity and taking them on the exodus to the promised land. Jesus was talking with Moses and Elijah about his plan to liberate sinners from their sin, to bring people who were enslaved in their selfishness to the freedom that comes through forgiveness.
And as he's musing about this and talking about it with these men, notice that his disciples were half asleep. With all this going around, seeing men from Old Testament days, Peter, James, and John are tired. It says in verse number 33 that they were very sleepy. Ironically, earlier in this section of Luke's gospel, it was Jesus who was asleep on the back of the boat. But he was asleep during a deadly storm when the disciples came and woke him and said, "Master, save us." And Jesus got up and spoke, and the winds and the waves obeyed his voice.
Now it's the disciples who are asleep. But there's nothing incredibly life-threatening going on in the sense of a boat about to capsize or sink. Instead, they are nearly asleep during one of the most important meetings of their lives so far. But they did become awakened. And it says in verse 33 that when they were fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men that were standing with him.
The disciples were alert from their slumber, they recognized Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. How they recognized Moses and Elijah, we don't know exactly. It's not like they had photographs or a video that they could refer to. But how these men presented and carried themselves reflect the glory of God and their unique identities. They recognized them. And Peter offered immediately, it says, to erect three shelters, one for each of them. Perhaps Peter had in mind the festival of shelters that celebrated Israel's exodus all those years ago. I don't think that's the case because Luke says in verse number 33, parenthetically, "but Peter did not know what he was saying."
Perhaps Peter merely wanted Jesus, Moses, and Elijah to stay with the disciples longer and for the three of them to rule over Israel and to crush Rome. But that was not Jesus' mission. And as previously noted in verse number 20, Peter had misunderstood Jesus' mission. Like many Jews in his day, he was expecting a Messiah to deliver the nation from Rome's political oppression. And when Peter saw Moses and Elijah alongside Jesus, he probably thought, "They're here. It's happening. Now is when Jesus is going to take control."
But Peter did not understand the violent death that Jesus was preparing to suffer on a Roman cross. This is why Jesus had already warned them and prepared them that whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. Verse number 24. The idea is that Jesus had come to give his life, not to preserve it. And the need for shelters was non-existent because Jesus would leave this mountain to carry out his exodus, to carry out his death and resurrection.
Moses had led Israel out of the bondage, out of bondage from Egypt and into freedom. Elijah had delivered them from the bondage to false gods. And Jesus would soon die to set sinners free from their bondage to sin and death. Peter and the other disciples recognized Jesus' deity, but they wanted him to display his authority without suffering, and they certainly didn't want Jesus to go through with death. They would be distraught and confused, as we'll see later in Luke's gospel.
Old Testament witnesses such as Moses and Elijah stand out in the history of Israel. It's significant that they appear here with Christ. These great men of old serve as knowledgeable and experienced guides who pointed the way to Jesus. They foretold, Moses spoke of one who was greater than him that would come. And Elijah also pointed the way to Christ. But these men were only witnesses. And what they represent is only partial.
The law reveals our disobedience. It shows us where we violate God's righteousness. And the law requires a perfect law keeper that is ultimately none other than Christ. The prophets, for their part, expose our idolatry. They show where we, like Israel, are prone to wander from God and his faithfulness, prone to follow our own ambition, our own desires, and our own solutions. And the prophets, in contrast to our idolatry, exalt God's covenant faithfulness. Both Moses and Elijah point us to our need for something greater, not only than them, but greater than us, greater than our ability to save ourselves.
We need none other than Jesus. In our postmodern culture, we are constantly looking for spiritual heroes. Perhaps to overcome or compensate for our own sins and shortcomings, we want to be associated with the spiritual success of other people. We latch on to influencers, even Christian influencers, and we elevate them to celebrity status.
Yet Jesus does not give anyone a booth alongside him. He stands alone as our Lord and Savior. He doesn't say, "Submit to Moses and Elijah first and then me." He calls people to follow him because Moses and Elijah are pointing us to him. They're not saying, "Come to me and do it my way." They're saying, "Follow Christ as I'm showing you Christ."
Rather than seek spiritual heroes, we need to find our identity in our Savior. We need to recognize that Jesus' deity gives us hope for our humanity, and Jesus' death gives us eternal life in heaven. Therefore, we must be anchored to Christ and follow him.
He is indeed, as Peter says in verse number 33, our master. That is, he is our Lord, the one who commands authority over us, as well as the one commanding authority over Moses and Elijah. Well, Jesus is revealing his deity and anticipating his death.
Receiving Father's Affirmation
And then, number three in this passage, the transfiguration shows us that Jesus receives his father's affirmation. Jesus didn't need Peter's boasts in order to feel successful or in order to achieve his purposes. But Jesus received his father's affirmation to prove his deity and to validate the reason for his death.
So now in the presence of Jesus, Moses, and Elijah, Peter continues speaking. And we don't know exactly what he said because Luke doesn't record it. But it says in verse number 34 that a cloud suddenly appeared and covered them. God the Father was descending on this mountain in a cloud of glory. The cloud was surrounding them, all six of them: Jesus, Moses, Elijah, Peter, James, and John.
And now the disciples, it says, were afraid as they entered into this cloud. These men who were half asleep, who have now woken up to recognize they're in a supernatural meeting, are suddenly astonished and worried as they go into the cloud. When God the Father makes his presence known, the disciples feared his mighty power. They recalled that God had led Israel out of Egypt with a cloud and a pillar of fire. They remembered that God passed before Moses and Elijah in a cloud, not revealing his face to them. And they realized that God descended on the tabernacle in the form of a cloud.
Now the disciples were in the glorious presence of God, and they were with God the Father and God the Son. God the Father was coming to affirm his Son, Jesus Christ. And the voice of the Father said, "This is my Son whom I have chosen. Listen to him." The Father called Jesus my Son. Our statement of faith says this: "The eternal triune God reveals himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being."
Here we have God the Father recognizing his Son, and Jesus Christ is in fact the eternal Son of God. Jesus is of the same nature as God. The author of Hebrews makes this clear. He says in Hebrews 1, the Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being. Jesus is God's Son in the sense that he is God incarnate in human form. He is God's Son who was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the Virgin Mary, as Luke reported in chapter 1.
God chose Christ to redeem fallen human beings before the foundation of the world. Paul says it like this in Colossians chapter 1: "For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in Christ and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross." The Father sent Jesus to do his will, and that will involved going to the cross to die as an atonement for our sin. And as Jesus did this, it was a part of God's eternal plan. That is why he says that he chose Christ to do this.
Given Jesus' unique identity as the eternal Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, God now told his disciples, "Listen to him," verse number 35. God speaks to his people through his son. And his sheep, John tells us, "Hear Jesus' voice," John chapter 10. The people of God are called to listen intently to Jesus' words and to faithfully obey all of his commands.
After the voice of God affirmed Jesus' identity as the Son of God, Peter, James, and John found that Jesus was alone. And there they stood beholding their savior in all of his glory, intent now to hear every word that he spoke. Moses and Elijah had departed from the mountain. Just as they mysteriously appeared, they have now mysteriously disappeared. It's because what they represented in the law and the prophets had effectively pointed people to Christ. They had revealed Jesus and here he was. They were not equal to Christ and their purpose was now complete. Jesus came to fulfill the righteous demands of the law and to complete the predictions of the prophets.
After their meeting with Jesus, it says the disciples kept this to themselves and did not tell anyone at that time what they had seen. Later, after Jesus' death and resurrection, would they understand what had happened, that they had been in the presence of the majesty and glory of the eternal Son of God? It's not to say they didn't have a sense of it here. They were beginning to understand that Jesus was far more than just a family friend or relative, that he was more than an incredibly powerful teacher and miracle worker. They saw that he was God. And the transfiguration was revealing the full deity and majesty of Christ. And his resurrection would later prove his divine power and authority over life, death, and sin. Our culture values feelings more than thoughts.
The Discipline of Scripture
It emphasizes being authentic rather than being disciplined. Walking with God, however, requires us to listen to God's word. The word of God must inform the Christian life and guide our behavior. When we submit ourselves to the scriptures, God transforms us into the image and likeness of God.
Regular Bible reading is an important spiritual discipline. So many times we neglect to read the Bible because we just don't make time for it. We don't discipline ourselves to listen to what God has said. If you're struggling with Bible reading and saying, "I don't know what translation to use," or "I can't make sense when I read it," I would love to talk to you about that, or any of our elders or deacons would love to talk to you. Perhaps your discipleship hour teacher would be happy to talk to you about that.
Or maybe you say, "I just get a start and then I get stuck. I don't know how to keep myself going." Again, we would love to help you find a plan that will give you a pace to read God's word so that you'll stick with it. I've challenged my own kids over the years and most recently with different Bible reading assignments, so to speak. They're not assignments in a school sense where I make them write papers and take tests, but I ask them, "Are you reading? What are you reading? How's it going?" And one of the assignments that I have given them is to simply read the book of Proverbs and to read a proverb a day throughout the month and to work your way through slowly and steadily.
In our current climate, we have more than just the printed words, which I think are the best, but we can also listen to audio versions of the scripture. We can, in our car or in our earphones as we're jogging or whatever we may be doing, we can hear the word of God as it is read to us. In all of these ways, we should be allowing the word of God to permeate our hearts and minds and let it start to change us from the inside out as the word of God starts to make us more and more like our Savior.
I don't know about you, but I have noticed over the years that believers who are faithful to read the scripture are changed by the scripture. It's not just that they have an encyclopedia-like knowledge of the Bible or that they can do the quickest Bible drills and find all of the hard references. But it's that they have imbibed what the Word of God says. The Puritans, for their part, were masters of meditating on the scripture. I would commend Puritan works to you because you'll see in Puritan writings that they can write pages and pages about a single line from a verse because they've meditated on it. They've let it capture their heart and their mind.
We need more of that in our time. Too many of us are distracted by our devices. We only take the Bible in snippets. Rather than our daily bread, one of my friends said we have a daily crouton or a daily crumb. We need instead to let the word of Christ dwell richly in us, as Paul wrote to the Colossians. It's no wonder that churches are powerless because they don't depend on the power of God's word. Churches trying to do it in their own strength can accomplish some things. They can be social entrepreneurs. They can have social enterprise, but they will not have the power of God.
For our church to experience the power of God, to move forward in evangelism, and to bring God more glory, we must listen to God. As we hear him, he will direct our steps. He will guide us to go. And Jesus has already prepared us in advance to do his mission. Just as he called the disciples and prepared them, sending them out two by two back in verse three and four of this chapter, God has sent us to our families, to our friends and our acquaintances to carry the good news of the gospel. As we embrace this mission, we do so as those who have heard from God, those who are being transformed to look more like God, and those who will give our lives away doing it, just as Christ gave his life for us.
Let's pray. Father, as we approach you now, we are marveling at what happened in this passage. We marvel because we think, "If I could just be in the presence of Jesus, Moses, and Elijah, if I could just receive direct revelation, if they would call me or send me an email or drop me a text or message me on socials." And yet, God, you have spoken to us. You have given us your authoritative word, the scriptures, and all of them point to you as Jesus told the disciples after his resurrection. So God, help us to be faithful to invest in reading the scripture, in studying the scripture, in learning the scripture, and in living the scripture. And God, would we be a church that when people come to visit, they say, "There's something different here."
There's something about the countenances of the people here. There's something about the spirit and the way that they worship and the way that they talk of Christ.
And God, help that to come naturally from our relationship with you. We cannot manufacture that, or wish that, or somehow fake it. But instead, you do that naturally as we submit to you.
So just as your disciples followed you, we pray that we would be faithful to follow you as well. And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.