Theological term
Christocracy
4 sermons · All terms
Joshua 22
Joshua 22 narrates the potential fracture and ultimate preservation of unity among the tribes of Israel over a misunderstood altar erected by the Transjordanian tribes near the Jordan. The chapter turns on the regulative principle of worship — Israel's requirement to sacrifice only at the central sanctuary — and the Western tribes' willingness to investigate before making war reveals both the gravity of corporate apostasy and the wisdom of disciplined diplomacy. The Eastern tribes' explanation exposes a legitimate pastoral concern: preserving covenant identity and the fear of the Lord across generations. The resolution, where Phinehas perceives the Lord's presence through the obedience and unity of his people, carries a direct word for the New Covenant church.
Prayer for Gospel Missions
Psalm 67 is a prayer for gospel missions structured around six petitions — three for the church and three for the world — and a two-fold promise of temporal and spiritual blessing. The church's mission to the nations flows necessarily from her own reception of divine mercy, blessing, and the manifest presence of God; a church that has not received these cannot rightly propagate them. The sermon argues that worship is the ultimate end of missions and evangelism, which are themselves the means by which God populates eternity with worshippers from every nation. Believers are exhorted to pray with this psalm regularly, interceding for the missionary enterprise and for the extension of Christ's kingdom to the uttermost parts of the earth.
The Battle Hymn of His Christocracy
Revelation 19:11–16 presents Christ not as the meek figure of popular sentimentality but as the sovereign warrior king who rides in righteousness to judge and conquer his enemies. This sermon traces four aspects of the vision: the grace and general theme of the opening, the five disclosed attributes of the champion (divine omniscience, conquering prowess, exclusive ownership of the messianic office, wholesome severity, and impeccable execution as the Word of God), the identity of his battle company as the saints clothed in Christ's righteousness, and the fourfold greatness of his conquest — the sword of his word, the rod of iron, the treading of the winepress, and the supreme title King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The application presses two questions: whether the church proclaims this full-orbed Christ or a diminished caricature, and whose side the hearer will stand on when that rider comes.
The Wisdom of the Small
Proverbs 30:24–28 presents four small creatures — the ant, the rock badger (coney), the locust, and the spider — each of which compensates for its weakness through a distinct virtue: preparation, caution, cooperation, and ambition. The sermon draws out the spiritual import of each creature's instinct, pressing the hearer to prepare for the coming day of judgment by faith in Christ alone, to guard against spiritual danger through prayerful dependence on God's Word, to pursue unity in family and church, and to press forward with holy ambition through every trial. Applications are directed with particular warmth toward children and young people, calling them to receive the gospel while youth remains their 'summer.'