The Hub DFW

Resurrection Sunday is not sentimental to me. It is covenantal, judicial, prophetic, and cosmic in scope.

On April 3, our Lord Jesus Christ laid down His life as the Lamb of God. He did not die as a tragic victim of history. He died as the spotless offering, the righteous substitute, the obedient Son, and the final sacrifice that answered every shadow, demand, and witness that had gone before Him. At the cross, sin was judged, wrath was satisfied, the powers were disarmed, and the basis for man’s reconciliation to God was fully secured.

Then on April 5, He rose.

Not merely revived. Not symbolically remembered. Not spiritually continued in the hearts of men.

He rose bodily, victoriously, and irreversibly.

And in rising on Firstfruits, He did not rise for Himself alone. He rose as the firstfruits of a coming harvest, the forerunner of a new creation, the firstborn from among the dead, and the public declaration that death had been broken from the inside out. His resurrection was the Father’s vindication of the Son, Heaven’s proclamation that the sacrifice was accepted, and history’s turning point from shadow into fulfillment.

This is why Resurrection Sunday stands at the center of everything.

The cross was not the end.
The tomb was not the end.
Death was not the end.
Hell was not the end.
Rome was not the end.
Men were not the end.

Christ is alive.

Because He lives, sin does not get the final word.
Because He lives, death does not get the final word.
Because He lives, darkness does not get the final word.
Because He lives, history itself is no longer closed under the curse of Adam.

The resurrection of Jesus is not merely a doctrine to affirm. It is the triumph upon which all true hope stands. It is the announcement that the age to come has broken into this present age in the Person of the risen Christ. It is the guarantee that everything He purchased in His death will be fully realized in His reign.

Today, I am freshly grateful that the crucified Christ is the risen Christ.
The Lamb is alive.
The Son is enthroned.
The grave is empty.
The promise stands.
And the Kingdom of God has been decisively inaugurated in power.

He is risen indeed.

The Blessings and the Limits of the Reformation

Today we honor the courage and conviction that ignited the Reformation. It restored the authority of Scripture, recovered salvation by grace through faith, and reawakened the priesthood of all believers and so much more. These were monumental recoveries that shook the religious and political structures of the world and opened the door for people to encounter God through His Word once again.

It awakened believers to a different encounter with God and a reformation of church structures all around the world. It blessed us and gave us much of what we love about our modern “church” life and experiences. But the Reformation did not go back far enough. It stopped short of returning to the full pattern of the New Testament Church revealed in the book of Acts and Ephesians 4. The early believers were not built around personalities, pulpits, or institutions. They were built around presence, partnership, and purpose. The apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers worked together as a living body to equip every believer for ministry and maturity in Christ.

The next reformation will not simply reform doctrine. It will reform function. It will restore the relational, Spirit-empowered, fivefold order that reveals the fullness of Christ through His body on earth. The true Ekklesia does not only believe correctly; it lives connected, commissioned, and empowered.

“And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.”
(Ephesians 4:11–12 NKJV)

The first Reformation gave us the Bible in our hands. The next reformation will give us His body in its fullness.