day no. 17,221: welcoming strangers without succumbing to strange ways

"We sit by and watch the barbarian. We tolerate him in the long stretches of peace, we are not afraid. We are tickled by his irreverence; his comic inversion of our old certitudes and our fixed creed refreshes us; we laugh. But as we laugh we are watched by large and awful faces from beyond, and on these faces there are no smiles.” — Hilaire Belloc

You get what you tolerate. What you tolerate eventually gains enough traction to become something you must accept. If you, in an effort to be hospitable, allow for differences of opinion at your table, you may convince some guests of the superiority of your position. But if you, in an effort to be open-minded, require differences of opinion at your table, you will lose the ability to invite anyone over because the lunatics will run the asylum. In similar fashion, if you take in refugees looking to leave their oppressive homelands behind, you may win them to the value of your land that was able to offer solace, but if you take in refugees looking to make conquest of your homeland, you will find out that can no offer asylum to any because your land is run by lunatics.

"We are indignant at the thought that our fathers, long since gone from the scene, could possibly have any kind of authority over us. We want to think that the placement of individuals in history is nothing more than a random number sequence, with no authority given to those who came before. But the Lord of all history placed them there, with the command that they leave an inheritance to us. Our duty is to receive that inheritance, build upon it, and become in turn a blessing to our covenantal grandchildren." — Douglas Wilson, Angels in the Architecture: A Protestant Vision for Middle Earth

We dishonor our fathers by allowing their names and ways to be disregarded by other people's children. We do no justice to our ancestors by giving other people's descendants the right to disregard them in our own backyards.

"No one should ever be allowed to tear down any fence unless they could explain why it had been erected in the first place." — G.K. Chesterton

Immigration is only wise when assimilation is a stated goal. If it is not, it is simply a matter of how much salt can be added to the sugar bowl until it is no longer a sugar bowl.

“Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about.” — G.K. Chesterton

Before we begin trying to give undocumented aliens the ability to vote in our elections, we should give our documented ancestors the ability to vote in our elections. The world they built for us should count for something. In order to preserve what they provided to us, we must remember how they built it. Why are some so eager to allow guests to vote on the menu? If we are having people over, we can give thought to the preferences and allergies of our guests, of course, but it would not be reasonable to think that we had to change the menu after the guests have left or even worse, because the guests would not go home or stay by conforming to the menu of the home in which they sought comfort.

"People who take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will never achieve 

anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote descendants." — T.B. Macaulay

Those who ignore the past are not only doomed to repeat it, they are doomed to be despised by their descendants.  

"People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors." — Edmund Burke

Those who make a habit out of rejecting their grandfathers will be rejected by their grandchildren.

"Tradition is not the worship of ashes but the preservation of fire." — Gustav Mahler

If we want to preserve the West, and we should, we will have to keep the fire of our fathers going. This means welcoming strangers without succumbing to strange ways.

day no. 17,220: ophelia is four

Ophelia is FOUR! She is O-four-lia. Nope. Nevermind. Sorry.

Oey, you are so much fun. You are full of energy, attitude, and personality. You like to tell jokes and you love being funny. The other day you were at the table singing, "The stu word, the stu word!" You are at that fun age where you say silly things, most of the time unintentionally, but every once in a while on purpose. Another time I overhead you singing, "I like marshmallows. They are good for my teeth." 

You like to say, "I'm scared" before bed so that I will respond by saying, "I will keep you safe" You like to say. "bum bum" at the end of singing Amazing Grace and you do not like it when anyone else joins in to say, "bum bum."

You like doing things for yourself except for when you don't and then you demand that other people do them for you. Typical threenager stuff, nothing new under the sun.

You like to talk about Dreesuz. You've heard enough churchianity and Christianese in your young life to say some really profound things... when you're not accidentally promoting outright heresy. You like to pray and you like to talk about God. You are a little Christian lady. You are the first Van Voorst to be raised entirely within the world of Presbyterianism. This is the air you breathe. You will never know a time where we didn't sing psalms.

You love your sisters and like playing with them, until you don't. And then you like playing by yourself in the back room, especially if trains are involved. If you have your trains, you can easily be on your own in there for hours without needing anything. You also disappear to play with Knox and Eulalie at times. You love your siblings.

You like building things with Duplos and just like trains, you can get lost in them and spend a morning making and playing in a world made out of colored blocks. 

You like Ninjago, especially Cole. He's the rock ninja.

You like being outside, especially without shoes. Speaking of shoes, where are your shoes? Why am I asking you? You don't know. :)

If you say, "Pwease" like three times, you expect to get what you asked for. 

You like to play games. In fact, sometimes, you just start playing them and expect other people to realize that they are now part of whatever game you are playing. Sometimes we discover we've been playing a game with you and we didn't even know it.

You know how to stay dry in your diaper, you just don't care enough to consistently stay dry in it. Sometimes you do, sometimes you do do.

You have a lot of chutzpah to harness and by the grace of God, when it is someday, you're going to wreak havoc on the heathen. You were born to be a handful. May your enemies' hands always be incapable of handling you and may their minds never know what to do with you.

All things considered, you are a delight, Oey. You are cute, smart, funny, and fiesty. I love being your dad and I'm glad I get to spend my days getting to know you.

So, here's to Oey!

Happy Birthday!

Love,

Dad

day no. 17,219: suburbarianism

“The Barbarian hopes — and that is the mark of him, that he can have his cake and eat it too. He will consume what civilization has slowly produced after generations of selection and effort, but he will not be at pains to replace such goods, nor indeed has he a comprehension of the virtue that has brought them into being. Discipline seems to him irrational, on which account he is ever marvelling that civilization, should have offended him with priests and soldiers.... In a word, the Barbarian is discoverable everywhere in this, that he cannot make: that he can befog and destroy but that he cannot sustain; and of every Barbarian in the decline or peril of every civilization exactly that has been true." — Hilaire Belloc

The locust can eat the produce of others, but cannot plant a crop. He has not interest in building anything, but only in consuming something. He does not plant where he is, he goes where others have sowed. He does not add value to anything, he subtracts value from everything. He has no stake in the future of where is, only in the table of the present. He does not own the means of production and he has no interest in developing any. His only interest is in the the means of productions of others and those he consumes and eventually destroys. His self-interest feeds on the selflessness of others. His hunger feeds on the hard work of others. If he gets his way, no one gets anything. He gluttonously devours more than he needs and everyone starves. 

Unless... the barbarian is opposed, confronted, and defeated; even when it shows up in the suburbs. Let's call it suburbarianism.

“If you are not prepared to use force to defend civilization, then be prepared to accept barbarism.” — Thomas Sowell

Christian civilization will conquer heathen paganism. The Lord has promised that the gates of Hell will not prevail against the kingdom of Christ. The increase of His kingdom will have no end. The question is not "Will Christendom survive?" the question is "Will we defend Christendom?"

"It is common enough to blame Rome for not making peace. But it was a true popular instinct that there could be no peace with that sort of people. It is common enough to blame the Roman for his Delenda est Carthago; Carthage must be destroyed...  but Carthage fell because she was faithful to her own philosophy and had followed out to its logical conclusion her own vision of the universe. Moloch had eaten his children. " — G.K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man

Barbarianism will consume itself. Moloch will run out of sons and daughters to devour. It is inevitable. Anything that cannot go on forever... won't. Sin is not a long term strategy. It may "work" for a minute, but it cannot last.

"Alfred has come down to us in the best way (that is, by national legends) solely for the same reason as Arthur and Roland and the other giants of that darkness, because he fought for the Christian civilization against the heathen nihilism." — G.K. Chesterton, The Ballad of the White Horse

May we join the ranks of Alfred by fighting the disciples of darkness. The sun is already risen. There is no stopping the day from breaking. Day breaks. Night falls... never to recover.

"Do not, I beseech you, be troubled about the increase of forces already in dissolution. You have mistaken the hour of the night; it is already morning." — Hilaire Belloc

So, don't worry about the dissipating darkness coming back, it is down for the count. The night is knocked out.

“The sun has risen. Christ has come. He is the king. The light covers the world. A return to heathen midnight is an impossibility. Those who walk in darkness now are doing so in a world suffused with light. This is hard to do — you have to remain blind, or hide in root cellars. There are ways to stay out of the sunlight, but they are difficult to accomplish. Not only so, but as the day passes, they will get increasingly difficult.” — Douglas Wilson, God Rest Ye Merry

Midnight is over and the morning is forever.

day no. 17,218: drunk on abstention

"Abstainer, n. A weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure. A total abstainer is one who abstains from everything but abstention, and especially from inactivity in the affairs of others." — Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary 

There is often just as much danger in swearing something off as there is in being obsessed with it. Alcohol is one of those things. Those who drink too much are in the same boat with those who refuse to drink a sip. They are both out of their right minds.

"Rum, n. A substance that causes madness in total abstainers." — Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary 

Tyranny is often fueled by those who want to indulge or by those who want to abstain. Those who want to drink as much as they can pass laws to ensure the tap stays on and those who don't want to drink at all pass laws to keep others from drinking as well. So, whether it be the gluttony one of the scrutiny of the other, both end with everyone else being whipped by the laws of the consciences (or lackthereof) of others.

The godless get drunk on drink or on power. Prohibition was the product of those drunk on abstention.

"This madness goes both ways: if you drink it, it makes you mad, and if you don’t drink it, it makes you mad."  — Douglas Wilson, The Seven Deadlies

Too much alcohol will cause you to lose your head, but so will too little.

Colossians 2:20-23

If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. 

Those who go without seem to have a handle on things, but it only seems that way. They can say, "No" to certain things, but they cannot say, "No" to themselves wanting to say, "No" to those same things. And many times a feigned allergy to certain things is merely the mask someone wears to keep you from discovering how obsessed they are with it. They spend all day thinking about drinking, for example, which is more hours in the day the drunkard does.

On the other hand, those who indulge in gluttonous behavior aren't exactly thrilled by the presence of those who partake responsibly.

1 Peter 4:3-6

For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you; but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.

So, eat the fat and drink the sweet and demonstrated self-controlled gratitude in what you enjoy.

Ecclesiastes 9:7

Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works.

day no. 17,217: when the legalism is applied liberally

“While there is real legalism out there, we want to make sure that we don’t define a legalist as someone who loves Jesus more than we do.” — Douglas Wilson, Mere Christendom

Legalism exists, but not in the form of loving your neighbor lawfully from the heart. That is not te kind of thing that conspired to crucify Christ. Legalism is either inventing new rules for the sake of seeming neat and tidy or inventing new ways to apply old rules in order to keep your thumb on the scale. All that said, legalism is not merely someone who loves Jesus more than you do.

"Legalism is a word that is thrown around liberally." — K.P. Yohannan, Head Coverings

People who like to live liberally also like to apply the word "legalism" liberally. Because every Bible-believing, Bible-reading Christian wants to keep God's laws in earnest, but also wants to avoid becoming a Pharisee, it is easy for the licentiousness to make them feel anxious by accusing them of legalism.

“Application is not legalism. Obedience is not legalism. Legalism is inventing your own standard. But doing what God said to do the way that God said to do it is not legalism at all: ‘hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee.’” — Douglas Wilson, Keep Your Kids

Doing what God says is not being legalistic. That is being faithful.

Deuteronomy 4:2

Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.

Doing more than what God says is not necessarily wrong, but it is wrong to try to make others do more than what God has said or make them feel unfaithful for not doing the extras your conscience has compelled you to do.

"Legalism is not when someone loves God more than I do." — Douglas Wilson, Blog and Mablog

If you love God, obey Him and cheer for those who are further along than you. Learn from them and honor them. They are not legalists merely because they know and follow His laws better than you do. Loving the standard is not legalism. That is simple faith and obedience.

day no. 17,216: catholicity, Trinity, infallibility, ecclesiology

Ephesians 2:17-22

And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

This short passage from Ephesians 2 is pregnant with doctrinal import.

:17 — Catholicity

And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.

Jesus was sent to the Jews first and then the Gentiles. He went to His own people and then to those He was inviting to become His people. In the end, He made one new man out of the two. When He ascended into Heaven there was no longer us and them in the ethnicities of men. That is not to say that the nations went away, but it is to say that the nations were now able to unite. The world could be one without surrendering their distinctions. The same way that the gift of marriage makes men and women one without erasing their distinctions, the Gospel has made the world one without erasing the nations.

:18 — Trinity

For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. 

Through Jesus we all have access by the one Holy Spirit to God the Father Almighty. The entire Trinity is present in this one short verse. Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and no one comes to the Father except through Him. (Jn. 14:6) The Spirit of God regenerates those He is calling to repent and believe the Good News of Jesus Christ. The Spirit of Christ confesses that, "Jesus is Lord." This is the only way to be received by the Father. He who knew no sin, the Son of God, because sin for us as the Son of Man, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. Salvation is a Trinitarian work. We need the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost in order to be saved. We cannot confess that "Christ is King" except by the Spirit. A Spirit of adoption does not make us part of God's family without the Son's sacrifice. And the Father remains unapproachable and unreachable outside of the ladder of Christ and the strength of the Spirit.

:20 — Infallibility

And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone.

God has left us His perfect Word to guide us. This Word is built on the foundation of the prophets and the apostles. The Old and New Testaments are the work of the Spirit inspiring men to bear witness to the Word of God. The Bible is the only infallible guide to God. Jesus is the Word who was in the beginning, the Word who was with God, and the Word who was God. He was the first Word and He will be the final Word. He is the cornerstone of the entire project. Every promise of God ever uttered by any of the apostles or prophets is "Yes" and "Amen" in Him alone. 

:21-22 — Ecclesiology

In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord. In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

The Church is the building erected on God's Word. God's Word being oriented entirely around its cornerstone, Christ, and rounded out by the writings of the prophets and apostles. This is the foundation. On it the Church is being built brick by brick, soul by soul. This is where the Spirit of God calls home. He goes out to gather more in, but He resides in a special way in the people of the Lord gathered together on the Lord's Day in worship. 

So, in summary, God is building His Church and the gates of Hell will not be able to prevail in keeping it from advancing. The Trinity is involved from beginning to end in every aspect of this. From the saving of individual souls, to the joining of the souls in a body catholic, to the writing and preserving of the sacred texts needed to confirm their faith, and to the establishment of church as part of His everlasting kingdom. The Church is not the kingdom, but it is its centerpiece. It is the center of the own and its bells will ring for all to hear.

day no. 17,215: outliving your murderer

“The Church is a perpetually defeated thing that always outlives her conquerers.” ― Hilaire Belloc

Those who seek to bury the Church always fail to understand the power of the resurrection. The Church is a seed. If you bury it, it grows and produces more fruit with more seeds. You can bury the seed, but your cannot bury the orchard. You can cut down the tree, but you cannot keep the ground from producing more trees. The gates of Hell will not prevail. The Church is built by Christ and it will never stay down even if it appears to have gone down. 

"The one perfectly divine thing, the one glimpse of God's paradise given on earth, is to fight a losing battle - and not lose it." — G.K. Chesterton

The Church always appears to be on the defensive. It always seems to have been reduced to a ghetto somewhere, but it only seems that way. It is, like leaven through a lump, growing and spreading. The gates of Hell are not offensive. They are defensive. Gates don't go anywhere. They stay still and try to keep other things out. The Church is the battering ram of God. It will never stop banging on that door and for those who bang, the door will be broken. Hell will be pillaged of all its good and many souls will be rescued and saved.

"The Christian faith lives in the light of eternity, and can afford to be patient." — Christopher Dawson

This will not happen overnight. The Bride of Christ is anxious to get to the end of the aisle so that the wedding can be completed, but she has too much dignity and decorum to rush down the aisle. Slow and steady with dignified grace he walks down the aisle. This is the history of the world: a patient, poised, persevering bridal processional.

“Men have spoken too soon in claiming that the world has now entered a post-Christian era and we have been fools to believe them.” — Iain Murray, The Puritan Hope

The coroners of the world are always too quick to pronounce the body of Christ to be dead. They want a shot gun funeral where the Church is buried alive. But Christ is risen. We live in a world where a man has risen from the dead. There is no going back. Nothing will ever be post-Christ because He is not only the beginning of all things, but their end.

“Strictly speaking, there will never be a post-Christian era, because there will never be an era post-Christ.“ — Toby Sumpter

If Jesus were just the Alpha, the world could try to find a different Omega, but He is both the first and the last, the beginning and the end, the First Word and the Last Word.

“Christendom has had a series of revolutions and in each one of them Christianity has died. Christianity has died many times and risen again; for it had a God who knew the way out of the grave.” — G.K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man

As Johnny Cash proclaimed, "There ain't no grave can hold my body down." The world imagines that it is a better executioner than it really is. It boasts of kills it cannot keep down. Christ is risen and out of its reach at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. His Church will not trip on her way down the aisle. She may have to step over the bodies of endless egalitarians isms like feminism, socialism, and secularism, but she will keep marching and the bride will reach the altar and fulfill her vows to her Husband there.

The Church will always outlive her murderers.

day no. 17,214: it is a snake eat snake world

Exodus 7:8-13

Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Prove yourselves by working a miracle,’ then you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and cast it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent.’” So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the LORD commanded. Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they, the magicians of Egypt, also did the same by their secret arts. For each man cast down his staff, and they became serpents. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs. Still Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the LORD had said.

Even when the world can mimic the power of God, their facsimiles can't hold up. Forgeries always give themselves away. Some sooner than others, but all eventually. The snakes of Pharaoh's magicians were all Designed knock-offs and the real thing ate them for breakfast.

This is also what happened on Mars Hill. Paul preached the Word of the Lord and the prophets of philosophy brought their words. It looked like they were doing the same things or might even be evenly matched. Words against words and arguments against arguments. But the Word of God devoured the philosophies of men.

Acts 17:22-28

So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us.

Idol worship went to war with worship of the one, true God and the idols were thrown down and revealed for the deaf, dumb blocks of stone that they were. This is always what happens when the power of God meets the power of men.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

The weapons of righteousness are not like the weapons of the world. The main difference is the sword of the Lord actually works. It does what it sets out to do. It destroys demonic strongholds and it takes every thought captive.

Isaiah 54:15-17

No weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed, and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD and their vindication from me, declares the LORD.”

No weapons the world can make can overthrow its Maker. No argument the world can produce can defeat the Word of God. This is the inheritance of the saints. The meek shall inherit the earth and their testimonies shall stand forever in the presence of the prostrate enemies of God.

Psalm 23:5

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:

Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

This is the pattern of God's people in dealing with worldly weapons. They are put down and beaten into plowshares for the purposes of planting the Word throughout the entire world. 

day no. 17,213: you can't blow sunshine at concrete

"The law of God is like math. It doesn’t care about anybody’s hurt feelings. It is straight, and hard, and cold, and altogether righteous. But at the same time, when this cold, very cold law is resurrected in the body of Christ back from the darkness of the tomb, it comes to us as burning love. And this is why the message must be cold law and hot gospel.” — Douglas Wilson, Mere Christendom

Cold, unbending concrete is not a bad thing. Especially when you're trying to build a house. A firm foundation is essential.

Matthew 7:24-27

Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

Better to have a cold, hard rock than wet, warm sand beneath your feet if you're trying to build something. There is a time for sand between your toes, but that is called a vacation, not a livelihood.

“Math will hurt their feelings, because math reminds everybody of the Last Judgment. The answer is right or wrong, and you can’t blow sunshine at it.” — Douglas Wilson, Keep Your Kids

Axiomatic, inexorable propositions do not care about your feelings. They are what they are whether you like them or not. They would be true whether you were ever born or not. They provide the foundation for everything else because they cannot be bent after the fact by how we feel about them. 

"Think what a totally different morality would mean. Think of a country where people were admired for running away in battle, or where a man felt proud of double-crossing all the people who had been kindest to him. You might just as well try to imagine a country where two and two made five." — C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

You cannot imagine a world where the math is as fickle as your heart. Fixed givens are needed. Up and down, top to bottom, and left to right all depend on the reliable opposition. What would left be if right sometimes wasn't?

Facts do not care about your feelings. However you may feel about that, it is what gives you the ability to feel something about the facts themselves instead of all your feelings being focused on the seasickness of being constantly tossed by the waves of post-modernism.

day no. 17,212: WSC 23-24: Christ the Prophet (sermon outline)

Christ Church Leavenworth

WSC 23-24: Christ the Prophet

December 7, 2025

…

OT READING: Deuteronomy 18:15-22

NT READING: Acts 3:17-26

Christ the Prophet

READING OF THE TEXT

Our text this morning is Hebrews 1:1-3 these are the words of God:

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of His power. After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the Word of our God stands forever.

PRAYER

Our Father and our God, we come before You this morning through Jesus Christ, our Lord, and in the Holy Spirit. All of Your promises are Yes and Amen in Jesus Christ alone. Give us eyes to see Him as Your final Word. In His Name I pray, Amen.

INTRODUCTION

This morning we are continuing our Advent series based on WSC questions 22-26 which focus on the incarnation of the Son of God and His fulfillment of the three Biblical offices of prophet, priest, and king, respectively. Last week we looked at Q22 which focused on the miracle of the incarnation and the reminder that the sin is not in the stuff. The Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us. Let the stuff rejoice. This week, we move on to Q23-24 which expand on Q22 by focusing on some of the work that Jesus, in the days of His flesh, accomplished. Jesus was not a tourist and He was not here on vacation; He was on a mission. His Father deployed Him with particular orders and some of those involved fulfilling the mediatorial offices of the OT.

Q23 of the WSC clarifies what these are. It asks, “What offices doth Christ execute as our Redeemer? The answer provided is, “Christ, as our Redeemer, executeth the offices of a prophet, of a priest, and of a king, both in His estate of humiliation and exaltation.” So, for the next three weeks at CCL, we will walk through questions 24-26 of the WSC which respectively address each of these offices beginning today with Q24 which asks, “How doth Christ execute the office of a prophet?” The answer to which is: “Christ executeth the office of a prophet, in revealing to us, by His Word and Spirit, the will of God for our salvation.”

With that in mind, let’s review our sermon text today from Hebrews 1:1-3

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

:1 “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,” A long time ago in a Galilee far, far away, a prophet grew in wisdom, stature, and favor in the house His mother, Mary, and her husband, Joseph. Before that time, many prophets over the course of many years had been sent into the world. Each of them came saying, “Thus saith the Lord,” and each of them was believed by some and rejected by others. All of them eventually passed away, but many of them were martyred. When God called the man, He bid him to come and die. Each of these, in his own way, pointed ahead to the prophet who would one day come from Nazareth. But because men are often impatient or insolent or both, they had a bad habit of rejecting the message by murdering its messengers. In His kindness, however, God always raised up another. That was the pattern.

:2 “but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He created the world.” The people of God had come to expect a prophet here and there, but one day God broke the pattern. Instead of sending another prophet to point ahead, He sent the point of it all – not just A prophet, but THE prophet. This Prophet was not just a man of God, He was the Son of God. He did not just have the words of God in His mouth, He was the very Word of God. He did not just enlighten His audiences, He was the light of the entire world. He was not just a man trying to preserve the world and values of His fathers, He was the Son of God setting His eyes upon the world that He, in the beginning, had created and that He, in the end, was to inherit. This was not business as usual. This was not just another prophet like all the ones who came before Him. He was not just another character being written into the story, He was the Author of the story entering into the plot.

:3 “He is the radiance of the glory of God” Jesus was not a prophet like Moses whose face shone with a fading glory after He stood in the presence of God. No, He was “the light of the world” who possessed an unfading glory because He was Himself, God. He was not solar-powered like the other prophets, He was the sun. When He was transfigured before Peter, James, and John, “His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became white as light,” according to Matthew 17:2. The other prophets were like the moon, reflecting the source of light, but Jesus is like the light of the sun. He is the source and He sheds light on everything else. 

As C.S. Lewis once noted, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” The sun is too bright to see and the glory of God too glorious to behold, but we can see the light that comes from the sun and we can see the Son of God who came from His Father. As John 1:18 puts it, “No one has ever seen God; but God the only Son, who is at the Father's side, He has made Him known.” The One who is currently seated at the right hand of God the Father is the same One who walked among us, was crucified, died, and was buried before being resurrected on the third day and ascending into Heaven forty days later. He has made the Father known. He has revealed the Father to us. As Jesus told Philip in John 14:9, “Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father.’” In short, to see the Son is to see the Father.

But what about us? Philip may have seen Jesus in person, but we haven’t. Thomas may have felt the texture of His scars, but we haven’t. So, what about us? Well, let’s begin with what Jesus said to him. Remember Thomas said he would not believe that Jesus had risen from the dead unless he got to see the marks of the nails in His hands. Eight days later he did and he believed. And what did Jesus say to him? John 20:29 “Have you believed because you have seen Me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Peter was there as well and what does he say to those who weren’t? 1 Peter 1:8-9 “Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

So, no one has ever seen God the Father, but a few saw the Son of God so that they could testify to what they had seen and heard. John was one of those witnesses. Listen to what he said in 1 John 1:1-3 “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.” So, even though we were not there, we are one with those who were. We are invited into fellowship with them so that we all might have fellowship with the Father through His Son, Jesus Christ. The apostles did not sit on their privilege or hoard it up for themselves. No, they sought to share it with others and to invite as many into it as would believe their message. And so, we believe the testimony of the eye witnesses God handpicked to take the stand on His behalf. They are our fathers in the faith and they our brothers in Christ. 

The man they knew and loved was God in the flesh and no one comes to the Father except through Him. He was, as :3 goes on to say, “the exact imprint of God’s nature.” Jesus is not a knock-off. We all know what happens to copies – they get worse and worse and less like the original the more you copy them. Christ is not a copy. He is not a screen shot of God, He is the exact imprint of the nature of His Father. The word translated “nature” is the Greek word, “hupostasis” which means “substance.” The Son of God, then, is the exact same substance as His Father. “Hupostasis” is also the word from which we get the term “hypostatic union.” This is used to describe the union of the nature of man and the nature of God in Christ which we will later confess together in the Definition of Chalcedon.

And so, Jesus was a prophet, but He was also much more than any of the prophets who had come before Him. The prophets of old were often given signs. These ranged anywhere from striking the ground with arrows to being in the belly of a big fish. Prophets were a lot like a box of chocolates, you never knew what you were going to get. The prophet’s job was to interpret the sign for the people. He would tell them what it meant. In that sense, the prophets of old were like translators. They helped one party understand what the other party was saying. As we are often reminded, however, some things are often lost in translation. That is where Christ the Prophet was different. In Him, the Word of God was translated into our language without losing anything in translation. The Word became flesh. He was the medium, the message, and the messenger without confusion, compromise, or miscommunication. He was the very Word of God, not a facsimile; and He was a real man, not a hologram.

Unlike the prophets before Him, :3 goes on to say that, “He upholds the universe by the word of His power.” The prophets of old held the words of God in their hearts and opened their mouths to declare them to others. Christ the Prophet holds the world in its place by the power of His Word. Everything that exists is sustained by His say-so. The only thing necessary for the world to fall apart is for Him to stop speaking. The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein. His Word holds it all together. And just as He once made everything out of nothing, He now makes disciples out of no ones. 

Consider 2 Corinthians 4:6, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” Understand what Paul is saying here. The same way that God said, “Let there be light” in the very beginning, He now says, “Let there be light” in us. Out of nothing He made everything and out of nobodies He makes saints. The same way that light shone into the darkness in Genesis 1, the light of the knowledge of God now shines into the darkness of our hearts. The Word of God created the world in the first place and the way for it to be redeemed in the end.

As :3 ends by noting, “After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. How did Jesus make purification for sins? By taking our sins onto Himself as He hung on a tree. For our sake, He who knew no sin, became sin, so that in Him, we might become the righteousness of God. The Word of God was punched in the mouth and then shut up in a grave. But three days later, the Word of God got the last word. The Father raised His voice and the Word of God rose again before He rose into Heaven where He now sits at the right hand of God. Unlike the prophets that came before Him, He could not be silenced. They tried to bury the lead, but God made it the headline. The grave could not contain the Word of God and no gag order could keep Him from speaking.

Christ the prophet did not merely proclaim salvation, He was salvation. He did not simply publish peace, He was peace. He did not merely point to a future deliverance, He was the Deliverer. Jesus did not just proclaim Good News, He is the Good News and the fulfillment of all the prophecies of old. He was and is the “Yes” and “Amen” of every promise of God. (2 Cor 1:20) He did not just give us another sign, He was the fulfillment of all the foreshadowing.

NOT JUST ANOTHER PROPHET

Remember that according to A:24 of WSC a prophet is a man who reveals the will of God by speaking the words of God through the Spirit of God for the sake of saving those who hear and believe his message. And so the prophet begins and ends his speeches by saying, “thus saith the Lord.” But he is limited to what God tells him to say. He cannot generate the Word of the Lord whenever he feels like it. He is not a prophecy factory. He is not deputized by God to say whatever he wants with the authority of Heaven behind it. So, when people have follow up questions, as they often do, the prophet can only address those, like the rest of us, by appealing to what God has already said in the past and the words of the prophets who came before him. The prophet is not a walking Word of God. He is not infallible in his speech. He could write out a to-do list or a grocery list without it becoming part of our Biblical canon. He wasn’t always writing Scripture whenever he wrote or speaking on God’s behalf whenever he spoke.

Jesus, on the other hand, was always a prophet. He was never off duty. He never said anything that was not the Word of God. He never did anything that was against the Word of God. He never failed to do everything the Word of God commands. He had no sins of commission or omission. Everything He said or did was authorized by God because there never was a single moment where He was not acting perfectly in line with the will of His Father.

In addition to being limited in knowledge, the prophets of old were also limited in their terms of service. Prophets, like all men, must die. So, they cannot go on speaking on God’s behalf forever. Jesus, on the other hand, lives forever to intercede on our behalf. He is always acting as a perfect mediator between us and the Father. If a stranger walks through my front door uninvited, he will be met with strong words, inhospitality, and the familiar click click of my shotgun. If that same stranger, however, walks through my door with my son and is introduced to me as his friend, that man is met with a handshake, a warm welcome, and a “come on in”. It is the same with Jesus. If you try to break into Heaven on your own, you will be met with violence, but if you walk into Heaven with Jesus, you will be met with a warm welcome and treated like family.

The prophets of old were not replaceable. When the priest died, you could put his vestments on his son’s shoulders, anoint him, and have a new priest. When the king died, you could put his crown on his son’s head, have a coronation, and have a new king. But when the prophet died, you were left in the lurch. A prophet is not a guarantee. There is no way to pass along or produce a new one. Seminaries cannot do it, especially when they are run by Pharisees or Sadducees. You cannot get a degree in prophecy. But Jesus does not need to be replaced. Since He lives forever, He can serve as our prophet both now and forever, world without end, and amen.

Sometimes you desired a prophet and could not find the one you had. They had a habit, after all, of being whisked away at a moment’s notice. So even when you had one around in your time, you didn’t always know where he was. Jesus is at the right hand of the Father and He will remain there until the end when He stands up to return to judge the quick and the dead.

Sometimes you had to wait a long time for someone to declare the word of God. In fact, between the final prophecies of the OT and the first prophecies of the NT, roughly four hundred years went by. During that time, no doubt many were tempted to wonder if the age of the prophets was over and if words from the Lord were now a thing of the past. But then, God broke the silence by calling John the Baptist to serve as the great forerunner of the final Prophet. He led the final parade that finished with the float that the people of God had been waiting for.

Recall what John 1:19-23 says about John the Baptist. “And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, ‘I am not the Christ.’ And they asked him, ‘What then? Are you Elijah?’ He said, ‘I am not.’ ‘Are you the Prophet?’ And he answered, ‘No.’ So they said to him, ‘Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?’ He said, ‘I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, “Make straight the way of the Lord,” as the prophet Isaiah said.’” When people saw John making noise in the street, they wondered if he might be the end of the parade, but he said, “No, I’m the grand marshall.” He confirmed that he was an answer to A prophecy, but not THE answer to THE prophecy. But notice what his questioners assumed? They were waiting both for the Christ promised by Isaiah and for the Prophet promised by Moses. So, they wondered if John might be one or the other.  So, they asked him. “Are you the Christ? Are you the Prophet?” We are familiar, thanks to Christmas, with the prophecies concerning the Christ, but less so, thanks to Biblical illiteracy, with those concerning the prophet. This is where our OT and NT readings help us out.

THE PROPHET

In our OT reading, Moses foretold of a prophet, even greater than himself, whom God would send to His people. Hear the Word of the Lord recorded by Moses from Deuteronomy 18:18 “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. And whoever will not listen to My words that He shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him.’” The Lord, through Moses, often regarded as the greatest of all the prophets, promised an even greater prophet. So, those who honor Moses can only do so by acknowledging that someone greater than Moses was coming… someone to whom even Moses would defer.

Our NT reading confirms that this someone is the Lord Jesus Christ. Hear the word of the Lord from Acts 3:18-26 “What God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, He thus fulfilled. Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets long ago. Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to Him in whatever He tells you. And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that Prophet shall be destroyed from the people.’ And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaimed these days. You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your Offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’ God, having raised up His servant, sent Him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.”

Through all of this, I trust that you are now, if you weren’t already before, fully convinced that Jesus Christ is THE prophet of God. Like a prophet, He came proclaiming the Word of the Lord. Like a prophet, He was believed by some and rejected by others. Like a prophet, His words were attended by signs and wonders that confirmed His message. And like a prophet, He was killed by those He came to save. But acknowledging Him as a prophet is not enough. Many in our day recognize Jesus as a good teacher or a great prophet, but they do not worship Him as their God or submit themselves to Him as their King. The same was true back in His day as well. In Luke 9:18-20 Jesus asked His disciples this question: “‘Who do the crowds say that I am?’ And they answered, ‘John the Baptist. But others say, Elijah, and others, that one of the prophets of old has risen.’ Then He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ And Peter answered, ‘The Christ of God.’” 

Jesus is not just another prophet. He is the Prophet of all prophets. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. As we have seen, He is like the prophets of old in many ways, but it is not enough to honor Him as just another one of them. As He Himself once pointed out, “No one is good but God alone.” (Mk 10:18) So either call Him God and start worshiping Him or stop calling Him good. We honor the prophets by preserving their tombs, but do not honor Jesus that way. His tomb is empty. We honor Him by celebrating His resurrection and by proclaiming salvation in His Name. So, while many have different takes on Jesus, the question remains: who do you say that He is? Is He just another prophet? Or is He your God? “Repent and turn to Him, that your sins may be blotted out, and that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.”

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit… Amen.

PRAYER

Heavenly Father, You sent Your one and only Son to be the Prophet of all prophets so that whoever would believe in Him might not perish, but have eternal life. Give us ears to hear Him as the final Word from above and the first Word concerning the world down here below. We ask these things in Jesus’ name and honor Him by offering up the words of the prayer He taught us to pray singing…