Ben Zornes

Living and Dying to Show the Preciousness of Christ

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Meditations

Elbows on the Table

Elbows on the Table

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God is and always has been jealous for His sacramental signs. In ancient Israel He rebuked them for misusing the sacrifices and offerings. His jealousy flared when His people treated such ordinances as ways to buy God off. The vain heart thinks that offering a pure lamb upon the temple altar would put God at arm’s length. God is angry with sin. Quick! Let’s make some sacrifices in order to chase off our God, whom we’ve angered.

These sacrifices, when misread, became a greater damnation upon God’s people. He tells them by the prophets that He never desired rivers of blood. The burnt offerings were meant to be the means of assuring Israel that God had drawn close to them, not the way to get Him off their case. The pagans viewed sacrifices as ways to appease vindictive gods. They didn’t want the gods to come down from their celestial mountains, for then only mischief and heartache would be left in their capricious wake. 

But Israel’s God gave these sacrifices for quite an opposite purpose. He gave them as a covenant feast to be enjoyed between a benevolent and merciful King and His beloved and loyal people.

We must not fall into a similar trap. This is a meal. A feast. A supper inaugurated by Christ in the warmth of an upper room with His inner circle. This isn’t a way to keep God happy with You. For if you are in Christ, God rejoices over you. God spreads His banner of love over His elect people.

This is why you must come with certain faith. Draw near. Pull up a seat. Put your elbows on the table. This isn’t fast food. This isn’t a visit to the principle’s office. This is a feast where God speaks to You the steadfast Word. And that Word is Christ, given for You.

So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ…

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Loving Calculus

Loving Calculus

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We often say around here that parents need to not only teach their children to know the standard of God’s word, they also must be taught how to love the standard. That is an essential bit of pastoral wisdom.

I want to give some practical pointers on how to actually do this. If I were to tell a group of advanced mathematics teachers that they need to not only teach their students the finer parts of calculus but they need to teach their students to love calculus they very reasonably might inquire, “How do we do that?!” 

The fact of the matter is that if you delight in something, it isn’t hard to confer that delight. If you delight in something you love pointing out all the subtle joys to be found in that thing. Chefs delight in the various seasonings and how they can be mingled gloriously. A baseball enthusiast will tell you all about the glories of Nolan Ryan’s fastball. Again, true delight must be present in order to spread that delight to others. So then, you must be exuberant in your delight in God’s Word, in God’s people, and above all in God Himself.

This ought to show up in how you sing both here at church and in your home; how you run your family Bible studies; how you address sin and disobedience and reconciliation. Is God’s Word the joy and rejoicing of your heart? 

Personal delight is one thing, but then should come consistency. Your joy in the things of the Lord will draw your children into that delight. But only if you are consistent in your joy. A river without banks is a damaging flood. So let your joy in God flow in the channels of obedient leadership of your children. This will bring them to love the standard, which is Christ.

The Real Christ

The Real Christ

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The Lord Jesus is not an abstraction. He is the God of all creation who took on flesh, dwelt among us, died in your place and mine, and then was resurrected with a real and glorified human body. He now sits enthroned, and all principalities and powers must adjust accordingly. Pagan unbelief wants a god in the abstract, a god that politely stays in its place, a god that never actually shows up. But the problem for all unbelief is that Jesus lives and reigns. 

To assure us of that, He left us two signs. A sign of water and a sign of a feast. Water to wash us of our filth, and a feast for all who are made clean. He is not an abstraction nor are His covenant mercies abstractions. The doctrines of grace are not nice metaphysical categories. No, they are more real and solid than iron or diamonds.

Because Jesus is resurrected with a real human body, we should not be at all surprised that He gave us real bread and wine to be the tokens of His resurrected body. You want to be certain that You share in the everlasting life He won for the church? Well He left you bread and wine. You want to be confident that when your body is laid in the grave it will one day be resurrected and glorified to be an immortal body? Well, He gave you this Supper. Lord’s day after Lord’s day, for 21 centuries, God’s people have had a celebratory feast of real bread and real wine consecrated by our ever-living Savior: Jesus Christ the Son and Lord of King David.

All other worldviews are fundamentally escapist. The Real God gave us real food to be real signs of His everlasting covenant love to us.

So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ…

Wobbly World

Wobbly World

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You live in unstable times. But as God’s people you must not flinch. Men of God, you are called to men of grit, fleet-footed to good works, generous with your resources, and unwavering in your faith. Women of God, you are called to laugh at the days to come. You cannot sway the machines of bureaucracy, but you can diligently make your home a world of peace, playfulness, and piety. 

You can either waver in the face of all the upheaval, or you can rest in the words of the Psalmist, “Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day (Ps. 91:5).” You may bemoan that these evil days are yours, or you can rejoice as a warrior in the day of battle and find another gear.

Are you weary and anxious? Are you fearful and timid? Are you stingy and resentful? Cast aside all such luggage. You must offload all such encumbrances. This is the hour for faith, virtue, diligence, and unflinching joy. Now, the question you may be asking is how to get from cowering in the corner to courageous on the front lines.

Three things. First, do not forsake the worship of the living God. You serve the God who is immortal, invisible, and the only wise God. Render to Him all He is due both here in the courts of heaven and out in the city streets. Second, thank God that, in His wisdom, He picked this moment of history for you. Third, with certain faith in Christ, get busy with good works of grace. It is hard to be frightened or anxious if your hands are holding the fruit of faithfulness.

In short, the world may be wobbly; so believe and obey the steadfast Word of the Lord.

The Mountaintop & City Streets

The Mountaintop & City Streets

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Culture flows down from the high hill of worship. Whatever services, rituals, and rites the worshippers perform in the mountain temple are mimicked down in their everyday activities. If human sacrifices are performed atop the jungle ziggurat, heartlessness will be found down in the huts & hovels. If the worshippers shout for hours on end, cutting themselves to attract Baal’s attention, murdering a rival to steal his vineyard shouldn’t be surprising. 

Culture cannot escape the orbit of the god it worships. Weak gods make for a timid populace. Angsty gods make for an insecure people. Malicious gods result in vindictive citizens. But all false gods are deaf, dumb, and blind; they need a furniture dolly to move them here or there. Our culture is given over to gods of perversion, corruption, and deceit, and so it is marked by moral blindness and is deaf to truth. It has bound itself to the altar of gods that can’t move themselves, and as such it’s easily moved.

Our worship of the true and Triune God will inevitably shape our culture. When our culture doesn’t reflect the God of the Bible, we ought to search for the false worship which is the cause. Notice how fountain of our worship cascades into the rest of our week. Here we bless the God who blesses us, which leads us to live so as to bless our spouse, children, and neighbor. On the Lord’s Day we hear the living Word of Truth, so that our words in Tuesday meetings, Thursday classes, and Saturday game-days become truth-filled. Lastly, we culminate our worship with this feast of Christ, broken for you. And this is revealed not just in our own joyful mealtimes, but in sacrificial selflessness to feed this world with Christ our King.

So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ…

Covenantal Intersection

Covenantal Intersection

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In a moment, these parents will make baptismal vows on behalf of their son. I want to take this meditation as an opportunity to explain the flow of traffic at this covenantal intersection. First, it is not man’s word or oath which binds this child to Christ. Rather, it is God who speaks this watery Word. As such, these parents’ vows and professions are a response to His oath to be our God and to make us His people to a thousand generations. 

But these parents’ vows aren’t mere ceremony. When done in faith, these vows are a genuine act of Spirit-born obedience. They are commanded to raise their children in the Lord, and this is just another way of saying they must raise baptized children. And what is this son’s duty? It is to grow up in his baptism. How is that done? Well, that too is done by faith. So then, God speaks, and by grace we believe. Me as the minister, these parents, this child, and you the congregation all say “Amen” by faith, to this watery Word of our Father.

So welcome our brother to Jesus Christ…

Comfort ye my people

Comfort ye my people

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Isaiah foretells that the coming of the Messiah would be comfort to God’s people. Throughout the Gospels those brought to Jesus for healing are told to, “Be of good comfort.” In Paul’s epistles, the Spirit is called the Spirit of comfort, and the Word of the Gospel is to be used by the saints as a means of comforting one another. 

In English the word comfort might simply conjure up the comforts of modern life: AC in the summer, extra legroom in our cars and planes, light at the flick of a switch, phones that can face-time almost anyone in the world at anytime. But this isn’t what the older meaning of what the word comfort would convey. The Latin root word there is fortis which means strength.

The comfort of Jesus, the comfort of His Spirit, the comfort of His Gospel Word imparts strength. It doesn’t pamper us in our sorrows, as if eternal sulks were what the Fount of every blessing ordained for us. He made us in His image, after all. And through Christ we are restored to that image. By His Spirit we are strengthened more and more to resemble Christ our Savior. By comforting one another with these words we press one another onward in Christ-likeness.

This meal, then, is a true comfort. But only if you receive it by faith. Christ gives to us, through this meal, the covenant assurance that we share in His Resurrection Life. Your mortal body is wasting away; it will soon be planted like a seed. But because of Jesus, your mortal body will be raised into immortal strength. So, then, lift up your chin. Know that your tears will soon be dried by the everlasting life which is the inheritance our Lord Jesus procured for us. This is true comfort.

So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ…

Ben Zornes