Word

Word Centered Worship

by Ben Zornes · Sep 5, 2024

The Word of God is central to the Christian life. We do not worship according to vibes. We do not center ourselves through wordless trances. Our worship services are noisy and wordy. That’s a feature, not a bug.

God is a God who reveals Himself. He is not hiding. A common way to describe His revelation is that of the world and the word. Nature reveals the invisible God, leaving mankind without excuse. But the Word, when accompanied by the Spirit’s blessing, is a life-giving seed.

The Word begets life in us, granting us saving faith. The Word dwells in us richly, and this is the content for our songs of praise. The Word washes us as it is applied in our baptism. The Word nourishes us in the Lord’s Supper. Even in the relatively quiet moments of our service, when we kneel in silent confession, it is the light of the Word which shines into our hearts. In this light we meditate on how our lives are out of conformity to its truth. And then confess our sin in words of repentance.

However, a common mistake in Reformed circles is to think that making the Word central means making our brains central in our worship. Your body isn’t merely a vehicle to carry your enormous brain to church. Our God is free to do as He pleases. The Word will do what He always does: make light out of darkness; make life out of death; make enemies into friends. The Word gives content to muse upon, but He also gives us orders to do with these bodies which the bleeding Word has redeemed for His service.

Hearing the Word and not doing it is a great folly. Here we are gathered before the Word, by Word. So open your ears, prepare your hearts, and let the Word have free reign in you.

God’s Mighty Words

by Ben Zornes · Sep 26, 2023

God’s power is such that the words He speaks & the things signified by those word are quite tightly bound together. Our usual experience is that our words and the things they describe are a bit more standoffish. But when God commands light, the light springs into being. When Jesus commands Lazarus to come forth, the dead man is made alive. When He says “It is finished”, the temple veil is torn. In Ezekiel’s parable we learn that when God saw Israel cast off, orphaned, bloody, and dying He said to her “live” and she lived. He blessed five loaves & two fish and that blessing made the meal abundant for the multitude. His words are truly omnipotent words.

This world is a world made by divinely spoken words. It is held in place by the omnipotent Word of Yahweh. This is a world that’s sensible; a world with wisdom up in the constellations, and down in the ocean trenches. Knowledge is tucked away in tree rings & DNA strands. Contra Darwin, humans weren’t once chimps who developed more complex patterns to our “ooh-oohs & aah-aahs”. Rather, Adam’s first day was cataloging a zoological encyclopedia & composing a love poem. The Word has always been with God’s people, because this is a World made and redeemed by the Word.

This reality should comfort your heart and embolden your faith. Jesus says that this bread is His body, this wine is His blood. Before us is the glorious Word of God’s power. Word that you can eat and drink. Word which you can hold in your hands & pass to your fellow saint. Because God declares you righteous in Christ, it is so. Because He promises eternal life to you, it is yes & amen, in Him. God’s majesty & glory is found in this potent uniting of Word & what’s meant by the Word. Here is true sense. True wisdom. True Word.

So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ…

The Word We Eat

by Ben Zornes · Mar 15, 2023

The Word of God is a sword. It slays lies with the truth. It lops off the heads of draconian vanities. It flays the sacrifice, that it might be rightly offered up. It cuts down the hypocrite who trusts in his own power to save himself.

The Word of God is a seed. It is scattered into the hearts of mankind, and where it finds fertile soil it bears much fruit. It germinates more faith, and perpetuates a greater and greater harvest of faith, 30, 60, 100-fold. It even causes the wilderness to bloom forth into an oasis of life (Is. 35).

The Word of God is a scepter. It is the confirmation as to who the lawful authority is. It is the measure for righteousness. It is the bar of true justice. It is extended in favor to the meek, but it is raised in condemnation towards the rebellious who would wrest it from Jehovah’s hand.

The Word of God is a hammer. It breaks. It builds. It chisels. It fits things together. It is the Lord’s tool of choice. It both removes that which doesn’t belong, and it arranges the stones in perfect order, fixes the beams into immovable joints, and erects a glorious sanctuary.

The Word of God is water. It cleanses away filth. It fits us for service in God’s courts. It refreshes us, alleviates our thirst, and causes the fruits of grace to ripen in our lives.

The Word of God is food. It nourishes our faith. It feeds us with heavenly manna. Bread that won’t grow stale. Wine that won’t go sour. It is more than our daily bread, for this food gives strength to both body & soul.

All of this is laid before you here. You take & eat the Word. The Word which cuts you & breaks you; builds you, and makes you.

So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ…

Divine Frankness

by Ben Zornes · Oct 18, 2022

We live in a time when the words of men are cheap. Our politicians say one thing, while we can all tell they mean another. The News Media carry water for the secularist agenda. We’re told lie after lie, and the Babylon Bee ends up being closer to the truth than the NY Times.

The words of men are full of deceit and nuance. Man’s word is easily broken. We are swift to equivocate, explain away, redefine, and twist words. The promises of men are feeble. There is no final assurance in the words spoken by men.

But this Word, this word in the sign of bread & wine, is a certain word. God doesn’t stutter here. There is no wordplay here. Here is blunt truth. Here is divine frankness. The sure word which is spoken to us here is the eternal Word. In the midst of all the lies we tell and hear daily, this Word stuns us with its holy directness.

This Word is the Living Word which begets new life. This Word is the Gospel Word, it says, “You’re a great sinner, but He is such a Savior. You have an eternal debt incurring the blazing heat of God’s just wrath, but all that wrath has been satiated in the death of the Son of God. You are free. You are forgiven. You are righteous. Not because of your doing, but by His.”

In the reverberations of this Word, you need not linger on the fringes, because this Word invites you to the table. You need not be a wallflower at this banquet. Those who have trusted in Christ alone, as He is offered in the Gospel, are not unwelcome guests at this table. This Word is not shifty, sarcastic, satirical, or carrying secret message. This Word declares God’s love to you, and He means it.

So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ…

Word & Sacrament

by Ben Zornes · Oct 5, 2022

Churches can get lopsided and sidetracked quite quickly if there isn’t frequent instruction. Some churches get drawn into the mystery & symbolism of the sacraments. These begin to crowd out the Word as they become barnacled with more ornate traditions, customs, and requirements. The sacraments become more & more elaborate, and soon the thing they signify is hidden from view due to all the frivolous fanfare.

Other churches desire the appearance of sturdiness that comes with wooden hermeneutics, rigid doctrines, with so much precision that it can only be measured by intricate lab instruments. These churches preach verse by verse expository sermons; but often the Lord’s Supper is only observed quarterly, and to make sure nobody gets any Roman Catholic notions they preach another sermon before the supper just to drill it into everyone’s head that this is just to remind us of Jesus, but beyond that it doesn’t do anything.

But the Word and Sacraments must go together. Like skeleton & flesh. Like light & warmth. Like framing & furniture. Like covenant vows & covenant consummation. Our relationship with Christ isn’t like a contract stored in some heavenly filing cabinet. It’s personal, and the sacraments bring this reality to us. Bread you can touch and taste. Wine with potent sweetness. Water that spills down your head. But neither is our relationship with Christ a ritual which puts us in touch with a “higher power” to align our chakras. Our fellowship with Christ is objective, grounded in eternal truth, and this is what the Word preached brings to us.

God has revealed His promises to us in His Word, and then He substantiates His promises in signs of water, bread, & wine. So where Christ’s Word & Sacrament dwell together, there is Christ’s Church. Where His Word of promise is both proclaimed and tasted. The Word provides the firm ground, upon which our faith might partake of these gracious blessings.

So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ…

The Word is Joy

by Ben Zornes · Jun 21, 2022

Is your joy full? A simple question. And yet, we make it far more complex than needed. Notice that that question doesn’t inquire whether your emotional state is one of happiness. It isn’t a question about your circumstances. It doesn’t investigate your current physical, emotional, or financial state. So, to repeat, is your joy full?

As Jesus’ earthly ministry came to a close, He discloses to them that the things which He’d spoken to them, and to us by extension, held a two-fold purpose. The first being that He’d spoken these things in order that His joy might remain in us; and secondly, what follows logically, that our joy might be full (Jn. 15:11).

Jesus gives His joy to you by speaking His Word to you. What does He Word say? That no foe or fiend can snatch you from the Father’s hand. No guilt or shame can remain when you come to be washed by His Word of forgiveness. No trial or storm can sweep you away from the Triune Joy. His Word tells us that the joy He gives isn’t the joy the world gives. He gives the joy which springs from God’s delight in His own eternally blessed state. His joy is free from taint of sin’s shame. His joy isn’t bound by death’s terror. He fears no foe, for He ripped Hell’s gates off their hinges.

Here is that Word. This Word is joy. This Word is firm ground when all around gives way. This Word is a song for darkest midnights. This Word isn’t a fleeting feeling of serotonin. This Word is the Eternal Word. Jesus speaks His Word to you, and so puts His joy in you. Your joy is full, then, because Your joy was put there by Jesus Himself, and it was His joy He put there.

So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ…

Bread & Wine, Sword & Scalpal

by Ben Zornes · Apr 26, 2022

Too often, the Sword of the Word is used as if it were a topical ointment. Many cannot endure sound doctrine, and so they insist that the Sword of the Word be blunted through compromise with worldliness, dulled by fear of man, and dinted through hypocritical living. Anything but a sharp blade. Soothing words of false peace are preferred to the sharp words of true conviction. Whether it be in the operating room or on the battle field the blade must be sharp. Removing a tumor can’t be done by dull scalpels. Defeating a foe on the field can’t be done with a plastic sword.

It must not be forgotten that the Lord’s Supper is a Word which we eat. This Word is sharp. Christ doesn’t wield this Word haphazardly. The Corinthians, mind you, were warned that eating this meal unworthily carried damnation with it. After all, to eat this meal is to be cut by the sword of truth, it is to pass under the knife of conviction.

Are you an enemy of Christ? This meal will be to you as the flaming sword of Eden, barring you from the tree of life. Are you riddled with sin? This meal will be to you the surgeon’s scalpel removing the terminal cancer. When you partake this Supper by faith, you don’t meet the sword of the destroyer, but the sword of deliverance. Meet here not the knife of the robber, but the Great Physician’s healing blade. Meet here not the sword of ruination, but the pruning shears of the Master Gardener.

Nevertheless, one thing this Word cannot be is dull. This Word made the world. This Word severed Goliath’s head. This Word cuts between soul & spirit, bone & marrow. This Word thundered on Sinai, and died on Calvary. This Word is bread & wine, and it is sword & scalpel.

So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ…