day no. 17,445: resurrection does not do fractions

"A corpse is not partly resurrected, and dead faith is not most of the way there.” — Douglas Wilson, Concise and to the Point

Being resurrected is like being pregnant: you either are or you aren't, but there is no such thing as kind of resurrected just like there is no such thing as kind of pregnant. Dead faith is not faith and dead works do not work. 

We are not drowning and in need of a lifeguard, we are dead at the bottom of the pool and in need of a miracle. Resurrection does not do fractions. Faith is not incremental. You can have more faith than someone else, but you cannot have less.  That is to say, everyone who has faith has a completed faith even though some of more of it and no one has an incomplete faith. Dead faith is just another way of saying, "no faith."

day no. 17,444: did Adam bring about death or did death bring about Adam?

“There is also a deep theological problem with the view that death antedated mankind. The Bible teaches that Adam produced death. The opposing view has to say that in some manner death produced Adam.” — Douglas Wilson, Concise and to the Point

Darwinian evolution assumes that death is not an enemy, but a friend, who helped God produce people, but that also presupposes that death came before the Fall. We are told that the Fall of Adam led to the introduction of death for all men and the world around him. Even the ground and that which grew out of it was changed as a result of Adam's sin. As Pastor Wilson points out, either Adam's sin lead to death as the Bible says or many deaths led up to Adam as Darwinian evolution says. Death is either an enemy to be defeated or it is a savior to be praised. Death either delivers man into the presence of God or it delivers man out of nonexistence. It either takes him out of this world or it brought him into it. That is the chasm between the Biblical creation account of the world and what followed versus the atheistic, Darwinian account of existence and what follows.

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. 17,212: 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…

day no. 17,167: corpses cannot quicken themselves

"Coming to Christ is nothing less than a resurrection from the dead, and the only thing you are allowed to contribute is the corpse." — Douglas Wilson, An Open Letter to President Trump About Heaven

The only thing you contribute to your salvation is the sin that made it necessary. 

Ezekiel 37:3

And he said unto me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" And I answered, "O Lord God, thou knowest."

A bag of bones cannot speak for itself, but neither can it hear anyone else. 

It cannot respond. 

It cannot do anything.

Ephesians 2:1

And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;

We are dead in sin until we are raised again in Christ. 

Corpses cannot quicken themselves.

day no. 17,041: body counts

Buddha’s body is buried in his grave in Pingliang.
Confucius’ body is buried in his grave in Qufu.
Muhammad’s body is buried in his grave in Medina.
Marx’s body is buried in his grave in London.
Nietzsche’s body is buried in his grave in Lutzen.
Darwin’s body is buried in his grave in London.

Jesus’ body is sitting at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty; and from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.

"The graveyards are full of indispensable men." — Charles De Gaulle

Many men have claimed to have cornered the market only to go out of stock. Some said we could not go on without them, but we are their great grandchildren and we barely remember them.

God, however, has no grave marker. He isn't buried under history, He reigns over it. His body of work is not dead and has not decayed. He did borrow a tomb once for three days, but He checked out at the crack of dawn and never looked back.

Hebrews 13:8

Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.

The future is Christian.

day no. 17,040: the end of Christianity

Nero: this is the end of Christianity,

Diocletian: this is the end of Christianity,

Muhammed: this is the end of Christianity,

Voltaire: this is the end of Christianity,

Nietzsche: this is the end of Christianity,

Darwin: this is the end of Christianity,

Marx: this is the end of Christianity,

Freud: this is the end of Christianity,

Liberalism: this is the end of Christianity,

Feminism: this is the end of Christianity.

Communism: this is the end of Christianity,

Secularism: this is the end of Christianity,

“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

Christianity cannot end because the Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Because He is, Christianity ever will be. The gates of Hell will not prevail in keeping back the Kingdom's advance. They cant. He is alive. The future is Christian.

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

Christianity will never end and there will never be anything after Christianity. Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father patiently destroying all of His enemies save death. Once every last enemy has been rallied under His feet, He shall stand again and come to judge the quick and the dead and put an end to that last enemy when death itself is thrown into the lake of fire.

“Christianity has died many times and risen again; for it had a God who knew the way out of the grave.” — G.K. Chesterton

Resurrection rules the world. He is seated, but His seeds keep growing. As they die to themselves, falling like grains of wheat to the ground in faith, they are by grace regenerated. The Lord is landscaping and the leaven continues to conquers the lump. 

“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

Christendom can die, but it cannot stay dead. If it dies for its faith, it rises against because of it. You cannot kill the resurrection. You cannot end Christianity. It is the defeat of defeat and the death of death. It is the end of the end.

“The blood of martyrs is the seed of the church." — Tertullian

Faithful death is like fertilizer. The Church is antifragile. If you kill it, you multiply it. If you strike it down like the reaper, you only serve to sow it like a farmer.

day no. 16,938: living to not fight another day is death

"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

Faith fights the good fight because it is good. It does fight to win, but it doesn't refuse to fight if victory seems impossible. Because it fights upon principle, it makes its last stand on the Rock rather than compromise to live to not fight another day.

"Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die.” — G.K. Chesterton

Faith does not desire to die, but it is willing to die in order to live by faith. The rule of courage is that loss is possible, but unfaithfulness is not permissible. That is to say, come what may in Christ, but go not on without Him.

"Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means, at the point of highest reality." — C.S. Lewis

The testing is the point at which it costs something. Faith is willing to fight what looks like a losing battle in order to further the cause of that which should have won. In its sacrifice, life is honored. 

There are few things more Christ-like than laying your life down in order to pick it up again.

Christianity is the story of dying in order to destroy the power of death and going faithfully into that good night in order to usher in the never ending day.

day no. 16,937: the eleventh hour

“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

Death cannot kill Christianity. Because He rose, His people cannot stay down. They can be beaten and buried, but only the way a seed is. If you break their shells and stuff them in the ground, they spring up all the more plentiful. If you set them on fire, you only serve to remove their outer resin, like a serotinous cone, so that they can sprout.

“The blood of martyrs is the seed of the church." — Tertullian

Resurrection rules the world. You cannot keep it down. By definition, it rises every time.

Philippians 3:10

That I may know Him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death.

If you die a death like Christ's, you will rise from the dead like He did. If you are in Him, you will rise and rule with Him. You cannot be made into a footstool even by those who would stamp you into the dirt. They only plant you and give you access to deeper roots for Act II.

Romans 8:35-39

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

In Christ, we are more than conquerors, but not less. We are not merely conquerors of the worldly sort, but conquistadors of Christendom. The difference being that a conqueror can be defeated, but a Christian will be resurrected. The Christian conquers even if he is killed.

"Either Jesus Christ is a deceiver and Paul is deluded, or some extraordinary thing happens to a man who holds on to the love of God when the odds are all against God’s character. Logic is silenced in the face of every one of these things. Only one thing can account for it — the love of God in Christ Jesus. 'Out of the wreck I rise' every time." — Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

So, get to work. 

In Christ, your labors are not lame. They can get their legs knocked out from underneath them, but they cannot stay down if they are grounded in God. Love like that sprouts up from the dirt every time.

Micah 7:8

Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me.

The righteous are not rugs, they are the feet of Christ.

Romans 16:20

And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly.

The enemies of God end up underfoot, but not His friends.

1 Corinthians 15:25

For He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet.

So, if you are beaten down, bear up.

Your Redeemer lives and He lives to crush the fiends of Hell.

You will rise again and raze the wicked.

Proverbs 24:16

For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again:

but the wicked shall fall into mischief.

A good man does not fall for the lie that says that good men cannot fall. 

You may fail more than once, but you will not fail to rise.

He who promised is faithful and He will do it.

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

Get to work for He who works within you is mighty to save and faithful to deliver.

1 Corinthians 15:58

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

Nothing done by grace through faith in Christ alone is a waste of time or effort. 

God loves an eleventh hour rescue. Denouements are divine. He loves the tension of an impossible situation and the resolution of a miraculous deliverance. He has written this story again and again in microcosm and it is the overall trajectory of the metamarrative. God loves narrows escapes and defeating the wicked in the midst of their end zone dancing. He likes letting the world strut before He sits them 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

If the Head is above water, the body can breath. As long as Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father, the body of Christ will survive. As long as He breathes, we live. We are free to risk it all for Him because He is a safe bet.

day no. 16,819: recreative acts

Exodus 12:1-2

The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you."

The Exodus of Israel was a recreative act. It remade the world. Time itself was reorganized as a result. The history of the world was now going to be set to Exodus Standard Time with the Passover being the new linchpin of all history. Anything before was now measured by how long it occurred prior to the Exodus and how it advanced the narrative to that point. Everything that came after was now referred to by how long afterwards it took place and how it was influenced by it. The world was now B.E. and A.E. (before Exodus and After Egypt).

The import of the Passover required a new calendar. Time bent and bowed to the gravity of this event so that history pointed ahead to it and the future referenced back to it. The Exodus constituted a new orientation and consummation of all time, establishing a new arche and reference point. In modern parlance, the Passover was "A Great Reset."

This event then set precedence and established the example of God in defining His world by punctuated points of divine interference. Only a new world could justify a new calendar and the Exodus redefined the world. This recreation was its new reference point.

That is until Christ entered the chat.

The Resurrection is the ultimate reset. It not only began a new month or year, but a new creation all together, so much so, that the Lord’s Day is now the Sabbath. To put it in perspective, Easter morning is so potent it eclipsed the Exodus. It surpassed it in glory and fulfilled it in substance of which it was only a shadow. And that is saying something considering how earth shattering and time altering the Exodus was. The resurrection of Christ does not diminish the import of the Exodus; the import of the Exodus highlights the reach of the Resurrection. A new world and new times require a new reference point.

Easter is the end of the world.

The Resurrection supersedes the Passover as the event upon which all times before are by  it consumed and all times going ahead are defined by it. It is the standard by which everything is measured and the reference point from which all progress is established. Easter brought the former things to an end and in its Resurrection established the end to which all things now advance.

Isaiah 9:7

Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

When Christ came out of the grave, He pulled a new world through with Him. B.C. and A.D. are the final statement on all time and history. Every event before and since is in reference to the Resurrection and the entire future is being determined by it.

Habakkuk 2:14

For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.

day no. 16,775: faithful martyrdom is better than unfaithful survival

“Being Christian across the board means that there has to be a willingness to die, a willingness to lose. That classical Christian school you started? Better to have it fold than to go woke, for example. Reluctance to die is the foothold that every form of worldliness has in us. Shrinking from death is the way that dominion is undone. It is the way that dominion becomes a grasping for something else. Shrinking from death is how we evade the fruitfulness that God promises us. The key to dominion and fruitfulness is to be found here. You don’t always have to die, but you always have to be willing to. Look around. Why is the landscape littered with so many institutions that used to be Christian and now are solidly in the enemy’s camp? The reason is that there was always a fatal board meeting somewhere when they decided that unfaithful survival was better than faithful martyrdom.” — Douglas Wilson, Power, Escape, Dominion 

Faithful martyrdom is better than unfaithful survival.

It is better to fail at an attempt at righteousness than to be successful in a compromise with unrighteousness. 

Revelation 12:11

And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.

It is better to fall short of the glory of God than to get a grasp on anything else.

“Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die.” — G.K. Chesterton

It is better to lose a good fight than to win a bad endorsement.

"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

It is better to fall short of God's glory by aiming at it than it is to hit a different target.

It would be better to die a saint than to live as an apostate.

day no. 16,760: what must be given up

"War is a terrible business in any case; and to some intellectual temperaments this is the most terrible part of it. That war takes the young; that war sunders the lovers; that all over Europe brides and bridegrooms are parting at the church door: all that is only a commonplace to commonplace people. To give up one's love for one's country is very great. But to give up one's hate for one's country, this may also have in it something of pride and something of purification." — G.K. Chesterton, The Appetite of Tyranny

To leave your beloved for the sake of your country was noble, but how many today struggle to leave their hatred for the sake of their country? We had seen men rise to the pitch of sacrifice for the sake of others. Will we see men descend to the place of forgiveness for the sake of others?

Many brave men before us were asked to give up something in order to gain something else for their country. In order to protect what they loved, they had to leave it temporarily leave it behind and risk being separated from it forever in order to make it possible for any of their countrymen to be reunited safely with their respective beloveds.

Today, men must give up something they hate for their country. Men used to have to sacrifice their love, but now men must sacrifice their hate and be separated from their bitterness in order to secure the possibility of any having something better.

It required a heroic spirit to risk your life for the sake of what you loved behind you. It will require a humble spirit to risk your reputation for the sake of what you hate in front of you. 

What men loved back home was part of their country and so they fought for that part in order to fight for the whole things that was left behind them. Today, men hate their country and fight against it at home.

Man will either sacrifice his hatred or he will lose his country. Brave men once laid down their lives so that their beloveds might live. Today, men need to lay down their hatred so that someone might be loved.

day no. 16,695: death is on death row

“If you knew what God knows about death you would clap your listless hands” — George Macdonald

If we knew what God knows, we would laugh a lot more. Not because death isn't as bad as it seems, but because resurrection is more than we can imagine. Death is an enemy, but it is the last one. The one who dies by grace through faith in Christ alone vanquishes his last foe. In dying, all his enemies are slain. There remains no Sabbath rest for death. It will end and never begin again.

Revelation 2:11

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death. 

The second death cannot overcome the resurrection. The one who overcomes in Christ cannot be stopped by a second death. For him, that enemy has already been defeated. He is invincible in Christ.

1 John 5:4

For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.

We overcome the world by believing in the resurrection of Christ. In Him, we are born again into the life of the indestructible God and like Him, we will not be destroyed.

1 Corinthians 15:25-26

For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

Because Christ reigns, death doesn't. Death is on death row awaiting execution. He will watch all his friends die. He will see his empire eradicated. And then, he will come to his end.

day no. 16,652: an eternal compass

“People want to make me a fixed star, but I'm not, I'm a wandering planet. No one should look to me for guidance.” -- Martin Luther

Stars are standards. They are fixed foundations. They can help you determine direction. In short, you can build something upon them and expect it to stand or depend on the guidance and expect to end up where you're wanting to go. People are like planets. They do not come with an anchor built in. People, like planets, may take predictable paths, but because of that, you can depend on them never to be in the same place for too long. You cannot build your life around your neighbor and have a life left. There are no inner compasses. Standards come from without. Compasses must be external to guide and eternal to do so reliably. The stars can guide us because they are outside of us. But even stars can fail. They may not wander, but they can wane. In order to have faithful, reliable guidance, we need something more reliable than stars.

Revelation 22:16

I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.

Christ is the better star. The star of Bethlehem may have led wise men to Him, but He leads all men to God. Follow that Star and you will find the Father of Light. But that Star did more than guide from afar. It came close. It forfeited no fixity by taking the form of flesh. Christ can save us because He came down. He was a fixed star in human flesh. Because He is fixed, we can hang our lives upon Him. Because He was flesh, He hung upon a cross. Because He is fixed, we can fix our eyes upon Him. Because He is flesh, we have faith that our flesh too shall see God.

Job 19:25-27

For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.

day no. 16,646: rest and rise again

Daniel 12:13

But you, go your way till the end; for you shall rest, and will arise to your inheritance at the end of the days.

Those who labor for the Lord will rest in Him and rise again. The laborer deserves his wages and his respite and God gives both in abundance. He is helping us build our inheritance and will raise us from the dead in order to keep it. Eternal life is from beginning to end, front to back, side to side, grace upon grace. He provides the going, the growing, the giving, and the keeping.

We go.

It grows.

He gives.

We keep.