This is an excerpt from Chapter 6 in Sinner Saint: A Surprising Primer to the Christian Life (1517 Publishing, 2025). Sinner Saint is available today from 1517 Publishing.
On its journey from Byzantium to Constantinople to Istanbul, this special place helps us understand the broader arc of Christian history, which goes on until Christ's return.
We needn’t fear statistics and studies as palm readings into a certain future. God is God, and his Spirit is alive through his Word.

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He has given us more than a surprise Gospel in our text. He has given us everything we need for life and salvation in Him.
All of Scripture, every last syllable of it, is meant to drive us to "consider Jesus," the One who comes to "make us right" by gifting us his righteousness.
He will safely birth us from this world, which is like a womb, into Heaven itself. On that day we will truly see the creation as it was made to be, restored and perfect in eternity forever.
As the writer to the Hebrews affirms, what makes the Christian gospel so much better is that we are no longer dealing with “types and shadows."
The Lord’s Gospel will attract all the nations to His holy mountain, and people from the ends of the earth will sojourn to the city to bear witness to God’s great work of salvation.
The question remains, how do we get connected to this Isaianic Servant? How do we get into a relationship with Him so our perspectives and lives might be changed? We want to see God rightly, so where do we look?
The whole Old Testament leans with this unanswered and open-ended question at the end: Is he here yet?
Christmas is a season of irony and song that helps us to know the sacred past and the truth of the Gospel of our salvation.
The lesson of Malachi reveals God’s love for his people. When the people ask for proof of God’s love, he reminds them of their election.
A sign was given to Ahaz to point him toward the greater sign given in a manger and that Bethlehem’s Messiah is the sign we look forward to seeing in the sky when Jesus, our Emmanuel, comes again.
We will not become hopeless because the Lord is with us.
Christ the King’s return will show us what we can only imagine. He will be a king and His a kingdom will be unlike any we have known.