Outline
I. Unmask the Religious Elite’s Blind Spot
The day after Pharisees grill John the Baptist about his identity, Jesus steps into view, forcing a collision between human religious authority and heaven’s true witness.
II. Shout the Lamb Who Slaughters Global Sin
John alone beholds Jesus approaching and thunders the provocative title—“the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”—a cry rooted in daily temple lambs, Passover blood, Isaiah’s slaughtered servant, and Abraham’s God-provided substitute.
III. Watch God Supply the Sacrifice Rebels Could Never Buy
Human efforts and temple rituals fall short; only the Lamb God Himself freely provides can cover every past, present, and future sin with a once-for-all offering that spares the guilty from wrath they fully deserve.
IV. Bow Before the Greater One Who Actually Transforms
John repeatedly confesses his own inferiority, admitting Jesus existed before him and baptizes not with symbolic water but with the Holy Spirit that genuinely washes, renews, and resurrects dead hearts.
V. Fix Your Eyes on the Spirit’s Undeniable Descent
God’s own sign—the dove-like Spirit descending and remaining—reveals Jesus as the sinless Son who humbly submits to a baptism of repentance He never needed, identifying fully with sinners to fulfill all righteousness.
VI. Seize the Eyewitness Verdict That Ignites Life
John declares with double force, “I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God,” pressing every listener to believe and receive the life-giving power of the Gospel.
Bottom line: Believing Jesus is the Lamb of God and the Son of God who takes away the sin of the world is the only move that turns death into everlasting life.
Scripture Reading
Here is the reformatted sermon transcript for improved digital and print readability:
Scripture Reading
Take heed now to the reading of God’s Holy Word.
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is He of whom I said, After me comes a man who was preferred before me, for he was before me. I did not know him, but that he should be revealed to Israel. Therefore I came baptizing with water. And John bore witness, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, Upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.
Opening Prayer
Let’s seek the Lord’s blessing on this, His holy word.
O gracious God and heavenly Father, we again rejoice and give thanks for the opportunity that you give to us to gather together here for this time of worship. And we thank you especially for your word We know it is our only infallible rule for faith and life, and so as we come to this particular passage, we would ask, Father, that you would send forth your spirit to give us understanding and insight to see the truth that is here and how it might apply to each and every one of our hearts. It would draw us all closer to yourself. And so we pray for your blessing upon your word, and that as your word goes forth in the power of the Holy Spirit, we pray that it would truly find within each and every one of our hearts here that rich, fertile soil that will bring about a great and abundant fruit for your glory. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.
The Power of Eyewitness Testimony
Well, so far in our study of John’s Gospel, we’ve talked quite a bit about the importance of witness and testimony as the Apostle John is seeking to make truth claims about who Jesus is and what he has accomplished.
And as he’s done this, he’s been very diligent to back up these claims. He’s not just pulling them out of thin air, but he’s backing up these claims with eyewitness testimony.
And this, of course, we know is the very same pattern that we see really in all the gospel accounts, that the gospels are reliable records of eyewitness testimony to the life and to the ministry of Jesus Christ.
Well, as we’ve seen, the Apostle John does this with the purpose not only to set forth a true accounting of events, which certainly is very helpful, but as he openly declares his purpose for writing at the end of his gospel, in chapter 20, verse 31, he says,
these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.
Friends, the truth of the Gospel, the truth of who Jesus is and what He came to accomplish isn’t only life-changing, it is life-giving. And because of this, these witnesses who were there witnessing these things, are critical.
John the Baptist’s Testimony
And in our passage this morning, we see that the Apostle, again, focuses on the witness and testimony of John the Baptist.
We know, though, that John died well before Jesus’ death on the cross. And yet his testimony carries much weight because, really, of the impact of John’s own ministry on the people at the time. Indeed, John was widely received, and it was even hard for the scribes and Pharisees to deny that John was a prophet. And we’ll see this, why they would think so, even in this passage before us.
Well, this also becomes very evident in the fact that though John the Baptist didn’t have all the finer details about salvation, about how that salvation was going to be accomplished, for example, he didn’t know that perhaps that Jesus was actually going to die on a cross, but he understood enough of the gospel to be able to testify that Jesus was both the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, And that He was also the glorious Son of God, who would become flesh, and He dwelt among them.
And so it’s John’s testimony of these two truths that we’re going to consider this morning.
The Timing and Context
We begin in verse 29, reading,
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
And the first thing I want us to note here is the time reference that the Apostle John gives here when he says, the next day.
Well, that means that there was a day before. And what happened on that day before? We looked at that a couple weeks ago. It was the very day before this that this group from the Pharisees had come to inquire of John. They were there to investigate, hearing about John and his ministry, this kind of wild man out in the wilderness baptizing people and calling people to repent. It stirred their interest. They came all the way from Jerusalem out to the wilderness to see what was going on. And they asked, John, who are you?
Remember the question, and how John responded to that question with a denial of who he was not before he got to the point of saying who he was. And so what’s recorded, and then so now in verse 29 we have Jesus now approaching John that very next day.
And what’s interesting here is that really when you read through chapter 1 verse 19 through chapter 2 verse 11, you’ll see these different time references and then all those events within those verses covers about the span of a week. So it’s a pretty incredible week.
And then, of course, not much long after that, we see that Jesus is headed off to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. And so, again, he’s becoming, making himself, beginning his own public ministry. And, of course, we know the references in John’s Gospel to the Passover. There’s three Passovers that we see celebrated, which helps us to measure the three years of the ministry of Jesus.
Identifying the Lamb
But with what we’re given next, in this passage before us about the testimony of John the Baptist. Well, you may wonder, well, John is able to identify Jesus as he approaches. Well, this must mean that the baptism of Jesus, which the apostle doesn’t explicitly record for us, has likely already happened sometime prior to what we’re reading here in verse 29. And that what John testifies later in connection with the baptism of Jesus is simply his recollection of it. Because he’s saying, look, this is the one whom I said was before me. Or yeah, who was before me. And so the baptism has already happened.
Now from the other gospel accounts, we know that after Jesus was baptized by John, he immediately went out into the wilderness for 40 days where he was tempted by Satan. And so as Jesus is now approaching John here in verse 29, it would then be logical to conclude that his baptism was a little over 40 days before this. And that Jesus has already been baptized and he’s already now been tempted by Satan in the wilderness. And so now it seems as he’s heading back to Galilee and he’s passing through this region of the wilderness where John has been baptizing. And as he approaches, John sees him from a distance.
He recognizes him and he calls out to those listening,
behold, The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Now it’s interesting that John the Baptist is the only one to identify Jesus in this way. And John the Apostle is the only one to record this testimony of the baptizer.
And so this gives us then a real glimpse into the understanding that the baptizer had of the gospel. that Jesus had come to be a sacrificial lamb who’d take away the sin of the world. And though again, John may not have fully understood how all this was going to take place. He may not have known all the explicit details as we know Jesus certainly did. But John testified that in some way, Jesus was going to be that sacrificial lamb.
Jesus is the lamb that will take away the sin that has cursed the world.
Old Testament Shadows of the Lamb
And since John the Baptist is the first to make this connection, though, we may wonder, well, how did John come to use this expression? Because it’s found nowhere else in the scriptures. It’s only on the lips of John the Baptist that we see Jesus being referred to as the Lamb of God. Now, throughout the Old Testament, though, we are given several hints that John may have been thinking of.
Daily Burnt Offerings
And the first is that he is perhaps thinking of the twice daily offering that was made to the Lord. In Numbers 28, we read this,
and you shall say to them, this is the offering made by fire, which you shall offer to the Lord, two male lambs in their first year without blemish, day by day, as a regular burnt offering. The one lamb you shall offer in the morning, the other lamb you shall offer in the evening.
And so every morning as the day began, and then again in the evening as the day was drawing to a close, a lamb was offered as a burnt offering to the Lord.
Now this would certainly make sense if we understand that we sin throughout the day. And thus we are then in continual need of God’s forgiveness and the covering of our sin. And truly, the sacrifice that Jesus offered Himself covers all of our sin, and all the sins of those for whom He died. Yet a key difference here is that the sacrifice of Jesus was a once-for-all sacrifice, and it’s not to be repeated at all. It just happened once.
Besides, this particular twice daily sacrifice wasn’t necessarily restricted as just an offering for sin, though we know that all sacrifices certainly had that component. It was all the sacrifices were intended to be some type of making atonement or covering for sin. But this particular sacrifice, the twice daily sacrifice, was part of the daily thank offering. that the people would be offering up to the Lord, that it was just an expression of their gratitude as well. And so John may have been thinking of this twice daily sacrifice of this lamb, of these lambs.
The Passover Lamb
But John may have also had in mind here the Passover lamb.
We mentioned earlier that the Passover was very likely only just a short time away. And it was very likely that the Passover was already on people’s hearts and minds because They needed to make preparation for the Passover. Many needed to make the long trip, the journey, to Jerusalem in order to celebrate the great feast. Remember, the Passover was instituted at the time of the exodus from Egypt.
And that through Moses, God had commanded the Israelites to kill a lamb and then sprinkle its blood on the doorposts as a covering for their household. So that when the angel of the Lord came to bring that last plague of death upon Egypt, the death of the firstborn, that the angel of the Lord would see that blood of the lamb on those doorposts and that he would pass over that house marked by the blood, preserving then the lives of the firstborn of those who were inside.
Well, in the same way, the shed blood of Jesus Christ, we know, marks and sets apart those whose hope and faith is in Christ, sparing them from the just judgment that we truly deserve. And so, in a sense, the blood of Christ causes the Spirit of God, the judgment of God, to pass over us because we’ve been covered by the blood of Jesus. This connection is strengthened by the fact that Jesus was crucified during, we know, the celebration of the Passover.
And of course, the significance of this isn’t lost on the New Testament writers. Though Paul doesn’t refer to Jesus as a lamb, he does say in 1 Corinthians 5,
for indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.
And then Peter adds that we were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. And Jesus was the perfect Passover lamb.
The Suffering Servant
Now another possibility that John may be thinking of here is that this lamb was the lamb that would be led to the slaughter. from Isaiah 53, verses 6 and 7, we read this,
and the Lord had laid on him, that is this lamb, or on this suffering servant, the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth, he was led as a lamb to the slaughter.
And so here, again, the suffering servant of the Lord is likened to a lamb being led away as one that was going to be offered as a sacrifice, with the added emphasis that this lamb bore on its back the iniquity and the sin of the people.
Indeed, we understand that this speaks most clearly of the Lord Jesus Christ, who, though He knew no sin, became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. And so it’s possible that John is thinking of this passage in Isaiah 53, as we already know from before, that he was already thinking of the prophet Isaiah, and Isaiah regarding the voice of the one crying in the wilderness, preparing the way of the Lord. So Isaiah is certainly on the mind of John the Baptist.
The Lamb God Provides
But there’s one other possibility. that John has in mind here, especially given that he refers to Jesus not just as a Lamb, but specifically, it’s the Lamb of God. That is, it’s the Lamb belonging to God, or we might even say, the Lamb which God Himself has provided.
And so this takes us all the way back to Genesis 22, where we remember at the Lord’s command, Abraham had taken his son Isaac. And remember, Isaac was the son of promise, the son of the covenant, the son through whom the Lord assured that the promises that he made to Abraham would come about. And yet the Lord told Abraham, take your son, your only son, and take him and offer him as a burnt offering on the mount that I tell you to go to. And Abraham obeys. And he takes his beloved son to offer him as a sacrifice to the Lord.
Now Isaac knew nothing of the plan other than he was going with his father to offer a sacrifice on God’s holy mountain. And so on the way there, Isaac curiously asks, look, father, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the offering? Isaac knew something was missing. We need a lamb if we’re going to offer a sacrifice. And then here, Abraham’s response, my son, God will provide for Himself the Lamb for a burnt offering.
And indeed, friends, this is precisely what the Lord has done. It wasn’t a man. It wasn’t a Levite or one of the ministers in the temple. It wasn’t even the priest that provided the Lamb, which would take away the sin of the world. But it was God Himself who provided the lamb, freely given out of the abundance of God’s grace and mercy to undeserving sinners.
And not only was the lamb freely given and provided by the Lord, but this precious, perfect lamb took the place not only of Isaac, But it took my place and your place and the place of all who put their trust in Christ so that he endured what only we deserved. And that by this sacrifice, the Lord himself provided all the covenant promises God had made to Abraham have now come to their fullest and most complete fulfillment.
And so these are the options to which John was referring. Or which one was John referring? There are many to choose from. Most likely, it’s all of the above. We know as a true prophet of God, John very well may have been pulling from all these references, showing how they’re all pointing toward and fulfilled in this One who is now approaching Him.
All these lambs offered up as a sacrifice in the Old Testament are all pointing to the One perfect Lamb of God that He Himself would provide. He is the One. And he’s now approaching John. Jesus is the Lamb of God.
He is the one the Lord Himself has provided who will bear the sin of those from every tribe, nation, and tongue. And He will provide a covering from the just judgment of God upon that sin so that those for whom He dies will be spared God’s just wrath and curse. And His sacrifice, friends, His sacrifice covers all of our sins. The sins that we’ve committed in the past, the sins that we may have committed even this morning, the sins that we’ll commit later today and this afternoon and tomorrow and in the future. The sufficient, so sufficient is the precious blood of Jesus. that he seals and secures complete and everlasting forgiveness of our sins.
Friends, this is the glorious truth that John the Baptist is testifying of.
Jesus Is Greater Than John
But John’s testimony isn’t done. He’s testified that Jesus is the Lamb of God. But then in verses 30 to 33, we see that John once again bears witness to the fact that Jesus is much greater than him.
And part of this testimony is that John understands his place and his role in the whole thing. Earlier in verse 5, the apostle informed us that John was sent from God to bear witness to the light, that is, the Word which would become flesh. And John now confirms this sending here in verse 33. He says that he who sent me, someone sent him to baptize with water. John was sent from God to prepare the way for the Lord’s anointed servant, the Messiah.
Now this in itself is a pretty big deal. John was extremely important to God’s plan of redemption. In fact, Jesus affirms the important role John served when he says in Luke 7,
for I say to you, among those born of women, there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist.
John is the greatest of the prophets. But even with this high privilege in this office, John embraced this important role with great humility.
Earlier, when John was questioned by the delegation of Pharisees, he affirmed that he wasn’t the Messiah, nor was he Elijah, nor was he the prophet like Moses. He was merely just a voice of one crying out in the wilderness. One who came in the spirit of Elijah, but not in the flesh of Elijah, but in the spirit of Elijah, to call people to repentance. that they might turn away from their sin and be ready for the coming of the Messiah, who John said was coming soon. John humbled himself. And when the appointed time by God came, he not only humbled himself, but he exalted Jesus far above himself.
We see John acknowledging this again for the third time in verse 30, that after me comes a man who is preferred before me, for he was before me. And this echoes what he had declared just the day before to the Pharisees. In verse 27, he said, it is he who coming after me is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. And then earlier before that, in verse 15, the apostle had repeated these words of John as an example of how John was bearing witness to the Christ. So that now, as Jesus is approaching him in verse 30, it’s as if John is saying, hey guys, look, this is the guy.
This is the guy that I was talking about yesterday. He is the one who is greater than me. Even though I showed up first, he is to be referred before me. Because He was eternally before me as the pre-existent Son of God. That this Son of God, this Word of God became flesh to dwell among us. This is that guy.
Greater in Ministry: Water vs. Spirit
But not only is the Lamb of God greater than John in His person and being, But his ministry is also greater in that John baptizes with water. Now, this is a symbolic washing and cleansing from sin after someone repents. But this one who comes after him, this Lamb of God, is going to baptize with the Holy Spirit. And the difference between John’s baptism and this baptism that Jesus will usher in is very significant.
You see, John’s baptism was preparatory. It was intended to help prepare people for the coming of the Messiah. Even as we considered before that just as a herald calls out in the streets that the King is coming and that everyone should be ready themselves and be ready to receive the King and to give Him due honor as He passes through on the streets. So John called people to ready their hearts for the coming salvation the Lord would bring in and through Jesus.
John’s baptism was with water, and it symbolically represented washing and cleansing from sin. But it didn’t literally wash and cleanse people from their sin. But you see, the baptism that Jesus would bring, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, would actually bring the effect of the washing and renewal of regeneration in one’s heart. That is, it really and truly does. Baptism of the Holy Spirit that Jesus brings really and truly does wash and cleanse from sin as the Spirit applies the blood of Christ to the heart of the sinner and revives their cold, dead heart, bringing it to new life.
John’s baptism, though again, you know, symbolic of spiritual truth, John’s baptism just got people wet. But the Holy Spirit, when it comes upon a person, actually transforms people’s lives from the inside out. John’s baptism pointed to the need for forgiveness and salvation, but the baptism of the Holy Spirit, that is the work of the Spirit in a person’s heart, is actually that salvation applied. And John makes clear So there’s no confusion that Jesus, the Lamb of God, is greater than him in both his person and with the baptism with which he will baptize.
In fact, we’ll see evidence of this played out much later when the Apostle Paul meets several disciples of John in the city of Ephesus. And when he meets them there, they only know the baptism of John. They’re faithfully teaching as much as they know, but they only know the baptism of John. And so Paul explains things to them more fully regarding Jesus, that he was truly the Christ and all that he accomplished. And then they received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. They may have missed the memo from John the Baptist, but we see here in John chapter 1 that this was John’s clear testimony all along.
The Son of God Revealed
Finally, we note that John testifies to the great truth that Jesus isn’t only the Lamb of God who is greater than him. But He is in the flesh, the very Son of God.
This we see here, John knew and understood by revelation from God. Again, God had sent John to baptize with water to prepare the way for the Messiah. And like the prophets of old, the Lord spoke directly to John and gave him this commission. But the Lord had also revealed to John the very way that he would know precisely who the Messiah is. That is, John would be able to know, the Lord would let John know how he could identify this Lamb of God amidst all the multitudes of people that John would see as he carried out his ministry. The Lord had revealed to John, verse 33,
But he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, Upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.
And so the sign that the Lord gave to John to look for was the Spirit descending and remaining on someone.
Now this certainly would have been a most fantastic sight, and John likely eagerly anticipated seeing it, and probably was very alert every time he’s baptizing, looking for this sign. Because he knew it was coming. The Lord had told him. But it may have surprised John that he would see this sight, Again, while he was baptizing someone. That is, he would see the Spirit descending and remaining on someone that he was going to be baptizing.
Now we know that John was a little surprised, or at least caught off guard by this, because of his response to Jesus, when Jesus first came to him to be baptized. Matthew records in chapter 3 verse 14, John tried to prevent him, saying, I need to be baptized by you, and are you coming to me? But Jesus answered and said to him, Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. So John knew and understood the person and character of the Messiah.
And here, though, He’s baptizing with a baptism of repentance with water. And the Messiah, the Just One, this Lamb of God, who’s going to baptize with the Holy Spirit, is going to come to Him to receive His baptism. Now, we know Jesus had no need for repentance. He had no sin.
But in this, we see an important truth. We see even at this early point, we see Jesus submitting himself to the baptism of John. We see that he’s already humbling himself to identify with us in our low estate of sin and misery, and that he might perfectly fulfill the righteous requirements of the law. And of course, we ultimately know that this will be magnified a hundredfold when Jesus dies on the cross for our sins. But His humiliation begins even here when He submits Himself to this baptism of repentance.
But the baptism of Jesus by John served another purpose. It was intended to be the beginning of the revelation of God’s glorious plan of salvation through His own Son to Israel. As John testifies in verse 31, that He should be revealed to Israel. But of course we know, not just to Israel, but even to the whole world. To all those who would believe and call upon His name and faith.
And this revelation would be confirmed when at the very moment John baptized Jesus, The Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus like a dove and remained upon Him, just as the Lord had previously told John would happen. And this is what John now testifies of in verse 32. John bore witness, he’s testifying, saying,
I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and He remained upon Him.
You see what’s going on here. The Lord said it was going to happen. He told John, this is going to happen. John’s looking for it. And then it happened. John sees it happening with his own eyes. And now he’s testifying to it. And this testimony of John has life giving implications, as we noted before. Verse 34, he says,
and I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.
Note the double affirmation John asserts.
He has seen this, again, with his own eyes. It wasn’t a vision or a dream. He saw with his own physical eyes. He saw the Spirit descend upon Jesus. And it’s this truth of what he actually saw that he now testifies and concludes that surely, this is the one. This one upon whom the Spirit descended like a dove and remained, this is the one. This is not just the Lamb of God, but this is the Son of God.
Now it’s possible that John had some knowledge to make this connection between the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and the identity of this Lamb as the very Son of God. It’s possible that the Lord previously gave him this information when he commissioned John and told him to look for the one upon whom the Spirit descends. But it’s possible, but we’re not told that. But it really matters not whether John was told previously or not.
Because we know that the appearance of the Spirit like a dove wasn’t the only experience to behold with one’s senses when Jesus was baptized. For not only was there this glorious display to be seen, but there was also a voice from heaven to be heard. At the moment John baptized Jesus, the Spirit descended, and as Matthew records in Matthew 3, suddenly a voice came from heaven saying,
This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
the voice of God, the Father, declaring from heaven that this One upon whom the Spirit has descended and remained is His most beloved, only begotten Son.” It would seem from the other accounts that this heavenly voice was heard not just by John, but by others who are present.
But John is now testifying this truth to those who may not have been there several weeks before when Jesus was baptized. And so as Jesus approaches him, John boldly declares, this is that Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He is greater than me, and His baptism is greater than the water baptism I offer. And He alone truly is the Son of God.
Application and Closing
Now, beloved of God, we weren’t privileged to be there at the baptism of Jesus to see and hear these things with our own eyes and ears. Nor were we there to hear John’s testimonies of these things on this day after the Pharisees had come to question him. But it’s very likely, as we’ll consider next time, that John the Apostle was there Perhaps both at the baptism of Jesus and also at this time to hear John’s testimony that was given several weeks later. We know also that John the Apostle has collected these testimonies and he’s written them down for others. Even for us today. All for the purpose that each and every one of you here might believe. That you might believe that you may have life in His name.
Believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Believing that Jesus is the one true perfect lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And that this same Jesus is the only begotten son of God.
Friends, believing these truths brings life. It brings new life now to those who are dead in their sins. It brings new life, but it also brings that sure and certain hope of everlasting life in the age to come, all to the glory of God alone.
Closing Prayer
Gracious God and Heavenly Father, we do praise You and thank You for Your Word. We thank You for its truth. We thank You for these testimonies that have been collected and preserved for us and even written down and translated into our own language and our own tongue that we can read these things and understand them. But more importantly, through this Holy Spirit working in us, we can believe the truth being testified of. that your beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, came in the flesh to dwell among us, that He was that true, perfect Lamb of God, that He was sacrificed for us, and that by His precious blood shed for us, we can be washed and cleansed truly from all our sins. Father, what a glorious truth you remind us of this day. We rejoice and give thanks that you have revealed these things to us. And we especially pray that your Holy Spirit even now would be applying these truths to each and every heart here.
Confirming, affirming, convicting, drawing close, drawing us close to you, drawing us close in faith, all to the praise of your glorious name. Father, we pray for your blessing in these things, and we pray that your word going forth will truly not return void. but will accomplish the things you have purposed it, even here, even this day, all to the praise of your glorious name. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.