69 Acts 19:8-10 A Time to Reason and a Time to Leave

February 09, 2025

Christopher C. Freeman

Title: A Time to Reason and A Time to Leave Text: Acts 19:8-10 FCF: We all struggle doing what God has commanded to grow His church. Prop: Because God will gather and grow His church, we must make disciples of those who are willing to hear. Scripture Intro: [Slide 1] Turn in your bible to Acts chapter 19. In a moment we’ll read from the Legacy Standard Bible starting in verse 8. You can follow along in the pew bible or whatever version you prefer. Last week Paul arrived in Ephesus to find Jews whose profession was somewhat questionable. Paul searched for evidence of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling presence, and discovered that the 12 men before him were not yet believers in Jesus as their Messiah. After sharing the gospel with these men, they believed and submitted to baptism in His name. The Spirit descended upon them afterward confirming that even Baptistic Jews could become part of the assembly of Christ. Today we will have the first two years of the third missionary journey summarized for us in only a couple scenes. Luke is not recording the book of Acts as an exact history but rather evidence that the faith Theophilus received was genuine and trustworthy. Luke then is describing more how the gospel spread throughout the Roman Empire rather than giving all the details of its expansion. So please stand with me to give honor to and focus on the reading of the Word of God. Invocation: Sovereign Lord, we approach You today to meet You again in Your word. We ask that You will be with us, and that You will send Your Spirit among us to grow our faith through the means of grace found in Your word preached. We ask that You will show us Your providential control of Your church and our place in its gathering and growth. Help us Lord to play our parts well, not for our glory and not even for the sake of those to whom we minister, but for Your glory and Yours alone. We ask this in the name of Your dear Son… Amen. Transition: [Slide 2] In the game of pool, you use a cue ball to strike other billiard balls into pockets along the table. If after you pocketed a ball, I asked you what knocked the ball in, you could reply in a number of different ways. To some degree you could say that the cue ball knocked in the ball. This is somewhat true, but in reality, we all know that cue balls don’t spontaneously begin moving. As Newton observed, objects at rest tend to stay at rest unless an outside force acts upon them. So, you wouldn’t be wrong that the cue ball pocketed the other ball – but you wouldn’t really be right either. It would be the same if you said the cue stick pocketed the ball. Surely the cue stick and the cue ball played their part, but ultimately, we’d all have to agree at some point that the player… you… knocked it in. We have observed many times in the book of Acts that the Lord is at work to expand and guide His church. We’ve seen this over and over again, and news flash, we’ll see it again today. But alongside that truth we have also seen that God often uses human agents to accomplish His purposes. God is gathering and growing His children and preparing them for the kingdom that is coming. He does this often by using His own people. It may be the player that knocks in the ball, but the cue ball doesn’t let that get in the way of doing its job to the best of its ability. Ok, bad example, the cue ball doesn’t make choices on its own. But if you understand the analogy – why would we want to be anything else other than God’s cue ball… Let’s look at verse 8. I.) God is still gathering and growing His church, so we must share the gospel cogently and compellingly. (8) a. [Slide 3] 8 - And after he entered the synagogue, he continued speaking out boldly for three months, i. Luke continues to record the key events that took place as the third missionary journey began. ii. Paul arrives in Ephesus and after seeing 12 men come to Christ from Baptistic Judaism, he immediately goes to the Jew first with the gospel of their own Messiah. iii. He enters the synagogue and continues to speak boldly for three months. iv. There are a number of details we should notice here. 1. First, Ephesus is the capital city of the Roman province of Asia. It is the center for trade in the eastern part of the empire. It boasted around 250,000 citizens, which does not include slaves. Not to mention the number of people who used this city for travel throughout the empire. This was a massive city. At any given time, it would not be a stretch to think there could have been a million people roaming the streets. 2. Paul is said to go to a synagogue, singular. But with a city this large, and if Josephus is to be believed, with such a large Jewish population, it is more than likely that there were several synagogues in the city. 3. Why then would Paul only go to one of them? 4. It is possible that Luke uses the word synagogue to speak of the system itself and not one particular building. 5. It is also possible that Paul only went to the synagogue closest to him. Synagogues tended to divide along certain perspectives on the Jewish faith. It may be that this particular synagogue would have been the one closest to the teachings of Christ and most likely to receive Him in true faith. 6. In any case, Paul goes to this synagogue in the city of Ephesus and speaks for 3 months. 7. This detail in and of itself is an anomaly to all the book of Acts. 8. Paul has never been able to continue long in preaching in the synagogues before he was run out and rejected. 9. 3 months is easily the longest he’s been able to continue to speak. 10. And Luke points out to us that it isn’t because he was being slow to reveal the truth or softspoken about it either. Instead, he spoke boldly about the truth of the gospel… b. [Slide 4] reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. i. Paul boldly engaged them with the gospel from a logical and persuasive level. ii. Paul, although the first to admit that it is the Spirit’s power that regenerates and enables men to receive faith in Christ, does not take that to mean that he can be flippant or unpolished in his presentation of the gospel message. iii. Paul uses logic to assert that the gospel is a valid and reasonable conclusion based on the Old Testament Scriptures. iv. Paul uses sound arguments to prove that this Jesus is the Messiah prophesied of old. v. From an epistemological standpoint, Paul attacks the strongholds of false belief and false thinking while defending the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. vi. Paul is an example to all of us, that though the triune God leads to the conversion of a man’s soul – the human agent must be faithful to present a cogent and compelling argument for the gospel. c. [Slide 5] Summary of the Point: If anyone ever had a reason to utterly give up on a people group, it would have been Paul. How many times has he been run out of synagogues? How many times have his own people rejected the gospel? How many times have the Jews chased Paul out of town? Yet here he is, once again, sharing the gospel with the Jews. But the Lord blessed him in Ephesus. Many were persuaded. Many believed what Paul taught about the kingdom of God. Paul didn’t give up. Why? Because he knew that God is still gathering and growing His church from all the nations of the earth. To the Jew first and also to the Greek. Because he knew this, Paul did all he could to reason and persuade his countrymen of the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He gave a message that was cogent and compelling. Not because that is what wins people to faith in Christ… but because that is what pleases our Lord Jesus. To speak well of the hope we have in us. And guess what CBC? God is still gathering and growing His church today. In Columbus, in Michigan, in the USA, and in all the world, the Lord is still gathering and growing His church. We are part of that grand plan. What is our part to play? Well certainly some of our part is to share the gospel cogently and compellingly. We must present a well-reasoned, logical, powerful, and persuasive gospel of Jesus… because that is what the gospel of Jesus Christ is. The gospel itself is well reasoned, logical, powerful, and persuasive. Transition: [Slide 6 (blank)] But this is not the whole responsibility placed on us as God continues His plan to gather and grow His church. We have more to do than simply to present the gospel in a logical and persuasive manner. Let’s look at what happens when Paul encounters resistance. II.) God is still gathering and growing His church, we must use our time and energy efficiently for the growth of Kingdom citizens. (9-10) a. [Slide 7] 9 - But when some were becoming hardened and were not believing, speaking evil of the Way before the multitude, i. After three months of reasoning and persuading many about the kingdom of God with Jesus as the head of this Kingdom, eventually Paul met familiar resistance. ii. Something is happening here in the text that we need to see in order to really understand what these Jews are doing. iii. In quick succession Luke uses an imperfect passive verb, followed by an imperfect active verb, followed by a present active participle. iv. Perhaps you think I just spoke in tongues 😊 v. [Slide 8] I’m telling you folks – you need to understand grammar. Even if it is just English grammar. Why? Because if you know what you are looking for, without even looking at the Greek, you would be able to spot the imperfect active and passive verbs in this sentence. vi. Participles are a little trickier because we translate those into English in interesting ways sometimes. vii. So let me give you a minor grammar lesson. It is necessary if you are to understand what Luke is saying happened here. 1. [Slide 9] First of all, what is the imperfect tense? a. The imperfect tense describes an action or state of being that is occurring or is in progress in the past. b. The imperfect tense makes no assessment on whether or not that action has been completed or if it continues to the present. c. It simply conveys an in-progress action that occurred sometime in the past. d. It is like when we watch a home movie of a birthday party. We watch the party unfold. It is happening in progress before our eyes, but we know that it occurred in the past because it is a video tape. When we stop the video, we make a logical assumption that the people in the video are not still at the party, but the video alone didn’t tell us that. They could still be there for all we know. This is what the imperfect tense does. 2. [Slide 10] So, what are active and passive voice? a. Active voice conveys the idea that the subject of the sentence is performing the verbal action or state of being. So, some examples of an imperfect active would be… i. I was preaching. ii. You were running. iii. They were not swimming. b. [Slide 11] Passive voice conveys the idea that the subject of the sentence is the receiver of the verbal action. The subject is being acted upon. So, some examples of an imperfect passive would be… i. The sermon was being preached. ii. The race was being run. iii. The pool was not being swam in. c. If you notice in our examples, we actually don’t know who is performing the action of the sentence. In the first sentence, Sermon is the subject but the sermon is not doing the preaching, it is being preached. The action is being done to the subject. d. Indeed, the only thing we do know in the passive voice is that the subject is not doing the action they are merely receiving it. 3. [Slide 12] Putting all this together, the Jews here in this synagogue are the performer of one action and the receiver of another. Both of the actions, the one they perform and the one they receive are actions that Luke records as in progress in the past with no assessment as to if they continued or not. 4. Now let’s look at the actions. a. [Slide 13] The first action recorded is passive. Some were becoming hardened. i. They did not harden their own hearts. ii. Their hearts were being hardened over time by some unknown actor that is not identified in the sentence. iii. In fact, the only thing we know with certainty is that they, the Jews, did not harden their own hearts. It isn’t grammatically possible. iv. Many times, in scripture when the verbal actor is not identified and the passive voice is used, it is referred to as the “divine passive.” v. Biblical writers under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, do not wish to assign God as the verbal actor, even though He is the one doing the action. vi. I believe that this is the case in this context. God is the one who was hardening the hearts of these Jews over a period of time. vii. But let’s go on to the second action. b. [Slide 14] The second action is active. They were not believing. i. The Jews were in the process of performing the action of unbelief over the last 3 months. ii. Now before you jump ahead of me, let me just caution both pendulums against a sure conclusion. iii. We have no real way of knowing which, if either of these came first in this context. iv. The fact that Luke mentions both with a conjunction “and” and that they are both in the imperfect tense seems to indicate that there is a connection between them – but we are not certain what that might be. v. To try to infer causation of one or the other is futile. 5. So, the Lord was hardening the hearts of those who were continuing in unbelief. Whether that was occurring so they would continue in unbelief or whether that was occurring as a result of their continued unbelief is uncertain. 6. But what we do know is that they were continuing in unbelief and their hearts were being hardened. 7. [Slide 15] Now let’s talk about the participle. What is a participle? A participle is a word that is verbal… it looks like a verb… but it functions as though it were an adjective, adverb, a verb or in some cases, called a gerund, a noun. 8. [Slide 16] The participle in this sentence is the word in the Greek “to speak evil of” a. In this particular case it seems as though this word communicates how the actions of not believing and being hardened are manifesting themselves in historical narrative’s present. b. Certainly, unbelief and being hardened are not things that are necessarily visible to those around them. c. But Luke explains how they know that such actions were occurring in them some time in the past. d. It is because they are, after those three months, speaking evil of the Way in a public fashion. 9. No one can speak blasphemy against the gospel, Christ, or His teachings without having a heart that has been hardened and enduring in unbelief. viii. All this considered we see the inner workings of the heart of people. ix. The outward expression is the evil speaking hatred of the way of Christ and the inner part is their continued unbelief and the fact that they were being hardened to the truth. x. These Jews were lost and actively opposed the truth. xi. So, what will Paul do? Will he stand and fight? Will he call Apollos to engage in apologetic ministry with them? b. [Slide 17] he left them and took away the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus. i. Paul walked away. He did not engage with those so resolutely opposed to the gospel. ii. Jesus said not to cast your pearls before swine, to shake the dust from your feet when someone does not receive you. iii. Paul does not waste his breath on these Jews. iv. Instead, he leads a sizable contingent of them out of the synagogue and forms the church in Ephesus meeting in the school of Tyrannus. v. The School of Tyrannus was a public meeting place designed for education of students. vi. Philosophers and teachers would need a place for their students to gather. They would do so typically from sunrise to around 11am. At that point people broke for an afternoon rest. Typically, classes would resume in the late afternoon until sunset. vii. Tyrannus was probably the teacher and/or owner of the building. viii. His name means tyrant which could have been an affectionate nickname given to him by his students. ix. Paul no doubt rented or borrowed the hall during the off hours and used it to continue teaching and preaching the gospel as well as continuing to teach the way of Christ to the disciples. x. If he rented it, it is possible that a wealthy Ephesian bankrolled him, or perhaps Tyrannus or whoever was the owner of the building converted to Christ. xi. So, after 3 months, Paul transitions to preaching the gospel and teaching those who came to Christ from this school house. xii. He did this daily… for how long? c. [Slide 18] 10 - This took place for two years, so that all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. i. Luke gives us a quick summary of the beginning of the third missionary journey. ii. For two years and three months Paul taught the gospel and the church in Ephesus the ways of the Lord Jesus. iii. Because it was such a well-traveled city, and indeed the heart of the province of Asia, it was not an overexaggeration by Luke to record that the Word of the Lord spread to all of Asia to the Jews and the Greeks because of the work done in these two years. iv. Certainly, Luke does not mean that every single person heard the word of the Lord. But in his hyperbole, we see Luke expressing how the region was well-evangelized. v. The church in Colosse and Laodicea were probably formed by co-workers of Paul being sent from Ephesus to take the gospel further east. vi. It is even possible that all seven churches mentioned in Revelation were founded in this two-year period. vii. And so even though Paul is not going himself to set up these churches, those who are disciples of Christ taught by Paul are being sent to do this throughout all of Asia. d. [Slide 19] Summary of the Point: So, despite the fierce opposition to the gospel by the Jews, God continued to gather and grow His church. Not just in Ephesus but even to the point that all of the province of Asia heard the gospel and many churches were established in various cities. With the understanding that God is continuing to do this work, Paul does not continue to pour futile efforts into the evangelization of the Jews in the synagogue. Instead, he abandons the synagogue, taking many with him, and establishes a place for the gospel to go forward but also for those who were now converted to learn more of Christ and His ways. Paul does not waste his time debating and defending the gospel before those so adamantly opposed to it. Instead, he uses his resources, his time, his money, his energy, to teach those who desire to hear. We too must be careful to use our resources efficiently to grow the citizens of the Kingdom of God. Much time, energy, and money can be wasted on futile efforts to evangelize those who hate the gospel. We should continue to pray for these folks, but devote ourselves to those who actually want to hear and grow. Conclusion: So, CBC, what have we learned today and how then shall we live? Doctrinal Takeaway: [Slide 20] If the primary point of this sermon wasn’t so beautiful, we might be getting tired of hearing it by now. Over and over again we’ve seen, repackaged in various ways, this one truth. That God continues to gather and grow His church. He is, in every way, superintending its growth and development. This is evidenced for us in two capacities this morning. First, in the surprising reception of the gospel by the Jews in Ephesus and second in the somewhat unsurprising expansion of the gospel to the whole Roman province of Asia. Both of these truths communicate how God is actively doing this great work and not mere men. But God doing the work does not mean that the human agents in His church can live foolishly. Paul gave a logical and clear gospel presentation, endeavoring to persuade those whom he had observed, were the hardest to persuade. His own people. Even though this is his third missionary journey and even though he had seen the Jews reject the message of the gospel many, many times before this… he still put all his effort into pleading with them to repent and believe the gospel. But when they harshly opposed it, he did not continue to spend his efforts to convince them. Instead, he turned to those who would hear and who wanted to know more. Those who wanted to grow. And he sent those who wanted to tell others to various parts of Asia. Though God is gathering and growing His church, He uses His church to do this. We too must learn from the early church. If we wish to be used of God, we must persuade like Paul and we must use our resources efficiently and train up those who want to hear, like Paul. But let me apply this to our lives more specifically this morning. 1.) [Slide 21] Mind Transformation: “What truth must we believe from this text?” or “What might we not naturally believe that we must believe because of what this text has said?” We must believe that though God is gathering and growing His church, we are often His agents in this work. a. I hope and trust that if you have been hesitant to accept this teaching as true, that by now in the book of Acts you have gotten past your hang ups. b. Luke has held out this teaching on repeat for Theophilus to the extent that we can scarcely arrive at any other conclusion. c. And I believe we can broaden this point even further for ourselves to see that as the Baptist catechism confesses, God’s work of providence is essentially this truth on a grander scale. d. God works to accomplish all that He has purposed and He does so often by the use of human agents. e. At times God accomplishes His purposes through nature or even by sheer divine will through miracles. f. But most often God works through human agency to accomplish His decrees made in eternity past. g. Understanding this truth allows us to see why we have the teachings in the scriptures of God’s absolute control over all His creation but still maintain the appearance of human free will and human agency. When we act, we see results from those actions. h. We often wonder, if we had acted differently perhaps something different would have occurred. i. This may be true, but one thing we can observe about both the past and the future – is that to us they exist only in concept and not in actuality. j. Even if we logically conclude that had we chose B instead of A we would have a different outcome, the truth of it is that God has used our choices, our agency, to accomplish His purposes. k. Does God care about what shirt I wear today? l. Such a question is asked in a scoffing way but the scriptures tell us that he knows how many hairs are on our head and that He feeds the sparrows and adorns the flowers of the field. m. Even though the question is asked as if it is ridiculous to think that God would care what shirt we wear… perhaps… He actually does. n. Narrowing this thought down to the church, it is absolutely essential that He would have a plan and purpose for the church’s existence in the world. o. We are told bluntly that we are salt and light in the world. That seems like purpose to me. p. But how do we shine? How do we remain salty? How do we grow in the maturity of Christ? How do we even hear the gospel? q. All this, very often comes by human agency. r. Now can God convert someone without human agency? Yes. s. How do I know that? t. See Acts 9 and read about Saul. A man on his way to kill Christians and becomes one. u. Who preached to him on the road? In one sense it was a human. THE human actually. Jesus Christ. But it was not a mere human who did so. God the Son came and won Saul. v. God can and does gather and grow His church without any help. Why? Because He doesn’t need it. w. But he often uses us. Why? x. Like a good father who desires his children to do what he can do himself, so our Father delegates to give us the joy of success and to learn from the anguish of defeat. y. So, if God is using us in His great plan, even though He doesn’t need us, what does that mean for us? z. This diverges into 3 separate applications for us this morning. 2.) [Slide 22] Exhortation: “What actions should we take?” or “What is this passage specifically commanding us to do that we don’t naturally do or aren’t currently doing?” We must deliver the gospel cogently and compellingly. a. Yes the Lord calls and draws His people to Himself. b. Yes the sheep hear the master’s call. c. Yes Jesus will lose not one whom the Father has given Him. d. Yes the word of the Lord will accomplish the purpose for which it is sent. e. Yes the Holy Spirit regenerates and prepares the new heart to receive the truth of the gospel and repent and believe. f. Yes Yes Yes Salvation is a work of God from start to finish. g. But we do not present the gospel cogently and compellingly in order to win people to Christ. h. We present it cogently and compellingly because the gospel is cogent and compelling. It is logical, well reasoned, powerful and persuasive. i. To be a member of our church, you must meet with the Elders. Our job is to test to see if there is evidence of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling in the life of the person sitting with us that day. j. In my opinion one of the best questions we ask is… In two minutes or less, what is the gospel? k. What are we asking there? l. We are looking to see if you have acquired personal and intimate knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ. m. To do so in 2 minutes or less would require a familiarity with the gospel to the point that you are able to briefly describe the most significant and necessary elements of the gospel message. n. Sometimes I enjoy asking that question as a role-playing scenario. Imagine we are on a bus, and you are sitting next to me. You have about 2 minutes before your stop, and in the process of talking I ask you – what is the gospel? o. I like asking it this way because it not only assesses your knowledge of the gospel, but also your ability to speak of it passionately and persuasively. p. We must all aim for this standard. Not because the eternal soul of the person in front of us depends on it… but because the gospel is cogent and compelling. The gospel is well reasoned and powerful. q. The gospel of Jesus has won us. At some point we awoke to the truth that the gospel is well-reasoned, logical, powerful and persuasive. So let us be ready to give a defense for the hope we have. r. But there is a point that we must stop offering the beauty of the gospel to someone who will only trample it under their feet. 3.) [Slide 23] De-Exhortation: “What actions should we stop doing” or “What behaviors do we naturally practice that this passage tells us to stop doing?” We must stop giving the gospel to those who show signs of being hardened to it. a. In a real way, we won’t know quickly if someone’s heart is hardened to the gospel. b. Just because someone responds aggressively against us at first, does not mean that they are hardened to the gospel. c. But over time, we can begin to observe that someone is aggressive, blasphemous, and generally demeaning toward the gospel and its wonder. d. For Paul it took 3 months of sharing the gospel every Sabbath with these men before it became apparent that their hearts were hardened and they were not believing. That is when Paul stopped offering the pearls of the gospel to the unthinking pigs unable to appreciate its beauty. e. We must strike that balance between weathering opposition, casting down faulty arguments, generally doing apologetics… but then knowing when it is time to stop wasting our breath. f. For Paul it occurred when they began to speak evilly of the Way. When they began demonizing the gospel, this was a clear sign to Paul that they did not have ears to hear the gospel. g. We too must not quit too soon. We must share the gospel and reason through the arguments against it. h. But when someone is spewing hatred and venom at the message itself, that is probably the time we must move on. i. So, what should we move on to? 4.) [Slide 24] Exhortation: “What actions should we take?” or “What is this passage specifically commanding us to do that we don’t naturally do or aren’t currently doing?” We must use our resources effectively to teach God’s people more about Him. a. Evangelism is only one side of the greater mission of the disciples of Christ. b. We are to make disciples. c. We are to do so by baptizing them in the triune God and teaching them all that the Lord Jesus has taught. d. The church’s job is not merely to share the gospel but to grow one another in the knowledge of Christ so that we all can grow into mature, Christ-like people. e. People talk about evangelism and discipleship as if they are two separate jobs of the church. But in reality they are one. f. Evangelism must lead to discipleship so that discipleship can lead to evangelism. We see this very thing happening in these 3 verses this morning. Paul shared the gospel with the Jews so he could train them in the ways of Christ so they could go out and spread the gospel far and wide. g. As wonderful as it is to have you here worshipping with us this morning, if you are doing nothing to encourage growth of the kingdom of God, I wonder what on earth you are doing with your time? h. What could possibly be more important for you here? i. Don’t get me wrong, there are many ways to further the kingdom. It doesn’t have to be an official ministry of Columbus Baptist Church, nor does it need to be connected with our church. j. But we all have a role in the church to help others grow in Christlike maturity. k. What are you doing? 5.) [Slide 25] Comfort: “What comfort can we find here?” or “What peace does the Lord promise us in light of this passage of scripture?” God is always superintending the gathering and growing of His church. a. With or without you, God will continue to add more to His church and grow them in Christlikeness. b. This is a great comfort – but it is also revelatory for those who are doing little with their walk. c. God’s plan moves on unabated… without you. We are leaving you behind. d. It is time for you to hop in and be a part of what God is doing. e. Don’t keep putting it off or thinking it is the job of someone other than you. f. We are all called to make disciples. g. So… h. What are you doing to answer the call of making disciples? [Slide 26 (end)] Let me close with a prayer by the church father Clement of Alexandria. You are the bridle of untamed colts, Lord, the wing of unwandering birds. You are the sure guide of babes and the shepherd of royal lambs. Gather your simple children to praise you with holy praise, to sing your songs with innocent mouths. Christ, you are the guide of children. O King of saints, all-powerful Word of the most high Father, ruler of wisdom, support of sorrows and grief, you are Lord throughout the ages, Jesus, Savior of the human race. You are the shepherd and caretaker, the rudder to steer our course and the bridle to keep us from straying, the heavenly wing of your all-holy flock. You are the fisher of those whom you save and bring to life, pulling in the fish who seek you from the hateful wave in a sea of sin. You offer sweet life, instead. Guide us, shepherd of the sheep. Gift us with reason, guide us as children, unharmed. O holy King, footsteps of Christ, the heavenly way, Word without end. Age unending, eternal light, fount of mercy, send us your righteousness. Glorious and honorable is the life of those who sing praises to God. O Christ Jesus, nourish us with heavenly milk, given by your wisdom. We are babes with tender mouths. Let us together sing simple praises, true hymns to Christ our King, in grateful offering for the teaching of life. We sing in our simple way to you, the God of peace. Amen. Benediction: May the One who makes the crocus burst into bloom, Who makes the lame leap like a deer And the mute tongue shout for joy Grant you the power together with all of the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge. Until we meet again, go in peace.