Christ Church Washington D.C.

Well, this is going to be our final sermon in the Cultural Trusts series. As I’ve sought to begin my pulpit ministry here by hitting on a few distinctives, a few values, a few structural components of our church life, as it were. First, we looked at the gospel itself, the good news, the astonishingly good news that Jesus Christ saves sinners, which is the foundation for everything. We then considered the importance of thinking covenantally.

Then, on why we have such a cheerful, optimistic eschatology, we ponder the potency and the preeminence of Lord’s Day worship. That was last week, and today we’ll land the plane on this series. That’s not to say, obviously, that we could not add on many more. There are many more we could say, but these are load-bearing ones, and frankly, I’m really eager to get into a book of the Bible, and we’ll do that next week as we push out into the book of James.

But our final cultural trust is this, and it’s the very first thing you’ll see if you go to our website. And so it seems like that’s one we should probably unpack. Namely, that we have an all of Christ for all of life, for all of DC mindset.

We are a people that have an all of Christ for all of life for all of DC mindset. That is, we believe Christ has placed us here, has placed you here to have an impact for him as a Christian at whatever specific post that he’s placed you in. And with us being in DC, for many of you,

That’s even going to be in a government or military post. The stat I was given is that roughly 70% of our congregation is connected or works for the government or the military. And we want all of you, every one of you in all the church, to labor wherever Christ has placed you, including positions of civil influence, with great hope.

and great expectation, and great courage in the name of Christ. Or to say it another way, your Christianity is not like a lapel pin that you put on and take off depending on what day it is or what room you’re in. Rather, Jesus is the king of every room, and we are his ambassadors in every room that we show up in.

And this is an especially important conviction for the church to recover because for the past several decades, the church has allowed a play to be run on us where we were told that we were never to get religious in the public sphere.

Don’t mind the fact that if you turn over your $20 bill, it says, in God we trust, over the White House, right? You’re never to get religious. You can do what you want in private, in church, but Christians must never be Christians out loud in civil society, especially not in the political realm. The gospel is a private affair. Meanwhile, the public square never got any less religious. Nature abhors a vacuum. Something will be worshiped.

If the worship of the living God wanes, then a thousand idols will scurry in to set up shop in his place. And that’s what’s happened in our nation. The idols of secularism.

The idols of the LGBTQ cult, the idols of Hinduism and Islam have rushed in to fill the void while the Christians compliantly walked off the field into the high parts of the bleachers. But by God’s grace, he has not abandoned us. And there’s been a fresh groundswell.

Just like there was at our founding, there’s been a groundswell of Christian witness and Christian courage in recent days. And we intend to get in on that. We intend to get in on what Christ is up to in all the world and specifically in the greater DC area, because that’s where we live.

And with the first chapter of our church plant being tagged Mission to Babylon, if you go to our podcasts, that’s what it says, it seemed fitting to go to the book of Daniel today to tighten down the bolts of this trust biblically. Because at the beginning of this book, we find Daniel and his friends showing up in an idolatrous city, but they show up as the Lord’s men.

They show up not dissuaded, not discouraged. They show up as the Lord’s men under his providential decree on purpose. They aren’t hostile, but they certainly aren’t compromising either. And because of that…

Against impossible odds on paper, Daniel ends up having an astounding influence for the living God on the leaders and by extension on the entire trajectory of that kingdom. One quick word on the overall flow of the sermon. By beginning with my foundational text in the book of Daniel, I

I’m making an argument throughout the sermon. I’m making an argument from the lesser to the greater. That is to say, if you remember your logic chops, if we see this type of godly influence in Babylon before Christ, before his ascension in a pagan land, how much more should we as Christians expect the Lord to use us in this era of history, in this city with the gospel?

30,000 foot view. So to the text now. We’ll do an overview and then draw out some applications. The book of Daniel begins after Babylon’s initial attack on Jerusalem circa 600-ish BC. King Nebuchadnezzar

He starts bringing over the spoil of victory from Jerusalem into Babylon. He does so in the form of the temple treasures, in the form of human captives. He starts bringing them over to build up his kingdom. He’ll do this in successive waves over several decades, culminating, ultimately, in the destruction, finally, of the temple.

But in the first wave, which is what we get at the beginning of Daniel, he tells his chief unit to bring in a whole company of the top-tier Israelites from the royal family. Nebuchadnezzar wants the brightest, he wants the best, the most skilled, the most clever, the most competent. And for a full three years, they were to be instructed, they were to be catechized, they were to be enculturated in all things Babylon.

You will be catechized by something. Nebuchadnezzar knew this. Christians all forget it. So that’s where he begins, catechize them. They were to learn Babylon’s wisdom, learn her ways, learn her language. They were to be fed by the choicest meats and the finest wines that Babylon has to offer so that even their palates would crave the delicacies of Babylon.

And at the end of the three years, after the thorough immersion was complete, they were to be presented to their new king for an oral examination on how they had fared. Are they Babylonian yet? That’s verses three through five. However, there quickly emerged four young men who are standouts, namely Daniel and his three notable friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. You might say,

Those names aren’t all that familiar to me. Well, that’s because Babylon tried to scrub their true names by giving them the Babylonian names of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, which even in the church we know better than their original names. And that renaming is, of course, very significant. We’ll circle back around on that in a little bit.

Then as the text unfolds, we see Daniel on behalf of he and his friends. He asks his eunuch handler if they can just opt out of the king’s delicacies. They don’t want his menu. They don’t want the king’s food. And verse 8 gives the reason why. They didn’t want to be defiled by Babylonian delicacies. They did not want to be defiled by the king’s food. How would it defile them?

This is a layered meaning, of course, several ways. One, the king’s menu obviously would have zero regard for the Levitical system and the rules of cleanliness and uncleanliness. They did not want to become ceremonially unclean, even if they were in Babylon, men of integrity. Second, it was one way that Daniel and company could resist. They could resist the Babylonian enculturation.

He did not want his palate to be put on a leash, to have a craving for pagan wine, to have a craving for meat offered to idols, no matter how delicious it was.

And when you remember the circumstances actually get inside of their flesh a little bit, of what they have just been through, to forego that shows a remarkable resolve. They’ve been led in bonds from their homeland, uncomfortable in a foreign place, now offered better food and wine than they have ever known in their life, and how we crave creature comforts, especially when we’re far from home in uncomfortable places.

But Daniel and his guys value their spiritual purity, their cleanliness of heart before their God, than their physical cravings. Well, the eunuch’s main concern is pragmatics. If they opt out of the meet…

they’ll end up scrawny compared to the rest, which will get him in trouble. The whole point is to prepare them to stand before the king with gravitas. But Daniel allays that fear. And after a 10-day test run to see how they fare, the eunuch allows them to opt out. And the text is explicit. We didn’t read it, but in verse 9 it says, the Lord had compassion and he softened the eunuch’s heart to let them opt out. So his sovereign care is attending to all of this, of course.

Then in verses 17 through 20, we get the report about them. After the three years are up, they are called to stand before King Nebuchadnezzar. And far from them being the runts of the litter, these four men stand out easily as the cream of all of the crop and the land.

They had a certain presence. They had a gravitas that no one else could touch. And when they stand before the king for their confirmation hearing, as it were, to see how they would do on their feet, they possess a composure, but not just a composure, a wisdom, a wisdom that stuns the king and stuns all of his courts. Verse 20, And in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired them,

He found them 10 times better than all the magicians, than all the enchanters that were in his kingdom. And we know why. We don’t have to guess. We’re Christians. We know why. It wasn’t because of their IQs or their study habits. I’m sure they were great. These are men, high functioning, great integrity. But it was because the Lord’s favor was upon them.

We see that back in verse 17. As for those four youths, God gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom. And then we see that Daniel has even an extra measure. He stands out even above the cream. He had understanding in all visions and in all the dreams. The reason is by faith, they rejected Babylon’s fare.

And they received the Lord’s favor. Their faith was in the Lord, not in Babylon’s fair. And the Lord blessed them with wisdom and gravitas and godly influence throughout that pagan land. Indeed, so much so, and this is truly astonishing,

The Lord would use Daniel’s prophetic influence in the court, in the council, to bring King Nebuchadnezzar himself to his knees and to confess the power of the living God. Daniel 2, the next chapter, 46 and 47. Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face, prostrate before Daniel. And the king answered and said, truly, your God is the God of gods.

And Daniel’s godly influence only increased during the decades that followed. His steady integrity, his faithful Christian witness and Christian courage, as it were, was used by God in ways that he could have never imagined and certainly not planned for when he first arrived. Another example, when he had that slumber party with hungry lions because he kept praying after Congress told him that he had to stop. When the king saw Daniel

that the Lord had shut the mouths of lions, he came to check on them. Listen to how he responded. This is King Darius now. 6, 25 through 26. Then King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations, languages. He wrote that all of those that dwell on earth, peace be multiplied to you. I make a decree that in all my royal dominion, people are to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, for he is the living God.

That’s amazing. He’s like, Christian nationalism? No, Christian globalism. He just hops right over it. It’s amazing. The Lord used Daniel to bring incredible godly influence, even at the highest levels, because of his courage and his uncompromising faith.

And when he was told by the politicians that he needed to check his Christianity at the palace door, he refused. He opened the blinds and kept praying. Wherever he went, there he was as God’s man on purpose. And he was a lever in God’s hand that moved even the heart of Babylon. So, okay, that’s overview. So remember, I’m making an argument in this sermon from the lesser to the greater.

Namely, if God used Daniel and Babylon to such remarkable effect in an all of Christ for all of life type of way, how much more should we labor with great expectation, great hope, great joy in the greater DC area in 2026? How much more on at least two accounts? One, as we’ve already noted, and as the sermon two weeks ago focused on, unlike Daniel and

We live on the other side of the resurrection, on the other side of the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the Lord, not just behind the clouds in some ethereal way. But remember what he said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. With that authority, go and disciple the nation. Christ holds the deed to this world. He has crown rights over every square inch of it.

including inside the beltway. So that’s one. Second, because unlike Babylon, America was birthed in the cradle of Christianity.

America was birthed in the cradle of Christianity. Do not buy the leftist propaganda that seeks to scrub and rewrite our history. It’s a simple, undeniable fact of history. Indeed, the Treaty of Paris, the document that officially, formally, legally ended the war with England, established us as a sovereign nation, it began with this sentence, in the name of the most holy and undivided Trinity.

Some will say, well, that was just common parlance back then, to which we say, that’s our point. That’s the point. Let’s say, well, they didn’t mean it. Well, they should have. That’s the point. This is how the document started. John Witherspoon, a founder and signer of the Declaration, charged our nation to this end, saying, he is the best friend to American liberty, who is most sincere and active in promoting true and undefiled religion.

Because there is no true liberty apart from the favor of the living God.

That’s just true. That’s just as true as gravity. So we should expect far greater influence for Christ that even Daniel had, which was remarkable in its own right. And at Christ Church, we want to be here as faithful Christians and faithful citizens and faithful workers to bring all of Christ to all of life, wherever he’s placed us in the greater DC area.

But beloved, this is something you must do on purpose. You will not drift in this direction, especially with the hostility these days and the secularization of our nation in recent times. And to that end, I want to give you two broad charges based on the example of Daniel and his friends from our text. Two broad charges, if you would help bring all of Christ to all of life and all of DC. First,

You must begin every morning by remembering your true name. You must begin every morning, start every morning by remembering your true name. Or to say it negatively, you must doggedly refuse to let Babylon re-baptize you.

You must doggedly refuse to let Babylon re-baptize you. And this goes back to the strategic renaming of Daniel and his friends. This was an attempt to alter their primary loyalties. This was an attempt to alter their primary loyalties from Yahweh, the living God, to the cult idols of Babylon.

That’s what’s going on here. It’s not because it was hard for Nebuchadnezzar to pronounce their names. He’s trying to alter their primary loyalties at the identity level. For instance, Daniel means God is my judge. El God din judge. Renamed Belteshazzar, which means Marduk is my protector. Think that’s significant?

called that constantly? Hananiah means Yahweh is gracious, from Yah, Yahweh, and Hannah, gracious. That’s what his name means. Renamed Shadrach, which means I’m commanded by Aku, the moon god of Babylon.

And it’s the exact same for the other two as well. All their names reference the living God changed to a cult idol of Babylon. Well, the same thing still happens, especially in a place like DC. Babylon will try to re-baptize you. It will try to make something other than Christ the chief thing you identify with.

So try to make something other than Christ the chief thing you identify with, your supreme loyalty to which all lesser things, including your convictions to Christ, must submit to. Whether that’s a politician, an agenda, a think tank, a news outlet, or the conservative cause, generally speaking.

Conservatism without Christ can still become and often is a worthless idol because conservatism without Christ still always leads to chaos. It’s just an hour behind the radical left. And that’s because conservatism, generally speaking, without Christ doesn’t actually end up conserving anything worth conserving.

This is how you can end up having transgender folks being billed as conservative commentators, which of course is a contradiction in terms. And it shows how bankrupt that philosophy is apart from a transcendent truth, apart from the Lord Jesus Christ.

And that’s why we must remember our true name each morning, the name that we received when we were baptized. In your baptism, the triune name was placed on you, declared over you by the living God, and you were subsequently commissioned to go forth and bear that name everywhere you go.

We see the weightiness of this even in the third commandment. In the third commandment, we’re told we must not take, we must not literally carry God’s name in vain. Now, we typically think that means don’t use God’s name as a swear, which that’s good. Don’t do that either. But it’s far more profound than that. It means do not see bearing the name of God upon you as a light thing.

as you go out in the world. Don’t carry the name of God upon you as if it were a light, trivial thing when it is, in fact, a weighty, glorious thing.

We must not think we are Christians on the Lord’s Day and then mere conservatives or anything else, primarily the other six days of the week. No, we are Christians at worship on the Lord’s Day, then we are Christians in our labors the rest of the week. Jesus is Lord over all seven days of the week. One clarification before I move on here.

Obviously, of course, there is nothing wrong with being fiercely loyal to your cause, to your boss, to your mission, your think tank, your branch. Whatever you do, nothing wrong with being fiercely loyal. In fact, you should be loyal. Loyalty is a virtue. But it’s not if you compromise your loyalty to Christ in service of that other loyalty. No. No.

That’s letting Babylon re-baptize you into another name, and you must reject that. Your baptism into Christ must be a weighty thing, more weighty than a lapel pin. And like Daniel, you must refuse to compromise, even in the seemingly smallest, trivial ways that are common in this cutthroat, politically charged land.

You must stand like the great church father, Polycarp, a disciple of the apostle John himself. Polycarp, who at 86 was martyred by the Roman procouncil at the demands of the crowds because he refused to offer a pinch of incense to a false god. A pinch!

What’s a pinch? It’s nothing. This is how Rome works. This is what everybody does. Jesus does not really care. Every conservative does it. It’s nothing. It’s how the game is played in Rome, polycarp. But this aged saint knew a tiny pinch of incense to an idol was no triviality. It was high treason against his king. It was the difference of having the favor of God upon him

or not. As simple as that. And he responded famously, for 86 years, I have served him, and he has done me no wrong. How can I then blaspheme my king and my savior? And they executed him.

But it was their legacy that crumbled, not his. His still lives on. So, beloved, remember your name. Do not offer even a pinch of incense to an idol. A pinch of incense through flirting with your assistant or your boss to move up the ladder.

A pinch of incense through publishing what you know is rank slander. A pinch of incense through laughing at those crude jokes at cocktail hour so that you seem cool and fit in and grease the social skids. A pinch of incense through refusing to back a righteous cause because of the fierce backlash you know that will come to you.

No, far better to be fiercely resisted by men for righteousness and still have the favor of God upon you. Okay, one more exhortation by way of conclusion from their example here, and it’s this. Seek to honor Christ through your excellence.

Seek to honor Christ through your excellence, or you could say, seek to honor Christ both through your words and through the quality of your work. Listen again to what verse 20 says. Because they chose faithfulness to God rather than to eat Babylon’s fare, the text says, “…in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired of them, he found these men ten times better.”

than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all of his kingdom. And then verse 17 explicitly says that it was the Lord, as we saw, who gave them their wisdom, who gave them their excellence, who gave them their understanding. And so it is wonderfully humbling, beloved, to remember whatever skill you have,

whatever wisdom you have, whatever is your superpower, as it were, that is from God. He gave it to you. He wrote it into your story and he expects you to use it to good purpose. So one of the ways we honor Christ in the greater DC area is

is by being known for our excellence and our understanding in whatever we put our hand to. Or people can say, I hate their politics or whatever I think they believe, but man, those Christchurch people are always the best at what they’re doing.

They’re always the most gritty, the most eager. I can trust them if I put anything into their hands. Whether you’re a woodworker or a lawyer or a realtor or a policy writer or an appointee or a student or anything else,

Recognize you are representing Christ there, both in the quality of your words and the quality of your work. The reason Daniel became trusted by the king and influential in the kingdom is because he was a man of excellence. He stood out in the crowd, but not, and this is huge, not in a self-promotional, vainglorious way.

rather through a gravitas that came from his godliness and his excellence. Proverbs 22, 29. Do you see a man skillful in his work? That man will stand before kings. He will not stand before obscure men.

So continuing education in your field is not outside of your sanctification or your spiritual life. You want to take the raw material the Lord has entrusted to you, make the edge of that tool as sharp as you can, and get after it for the glory of the Lord.

Ambition is not a bad word, not in itself. The question is, what’s the telos of your ambition? Is it self-glory, your name in headlines? Then yes, that’s idolatry. But if your ambition is the glory of Christ in everything you do, through leveraging your skills and your learning and your providential opportunities, well, that’s not only allowed, that is what Christ requires of us.

That’s the entire purpose of the parable of the talents. Gave to someone, some to five, some to 10, and then said, go forth, whatever you have, get a return on that investment.

So, beloved, whatever you do in the greater D.C. area, strive for excellence. Understand that this is a Christian virtue. And through that, we gain trust and influence that honors the Lord and impacts the greater D.C. area for the kingdom in ways we cannot even begin to comprehend. Psalm 16.3, As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.

May that be said of Christ’s church as we bear witness to all of Christ in all of our life, all throughout DC, wherever we may providentially have been placed. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Our Lord and our God, we thank you for Christ, who is our life.

We thank you for your compassion towards us. And Father, I do pray as a people, you would fill us with a holy favor and gravitas wherever we go. Guard us from selfish ambition. That is always right there. That ditch is so close. Put a guardrail there, Lord. May all of our ambition be Christward, driven by love for our neighbor. And now we would pray the way our Lord taught us to pray.

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