Sermons

The Story of Christmas 3 | From Bethlehem to Jerusalem

by Ben Zornes · Dec 15, 2025

Introduction

The Kingdom of Satan was at its mightiest. The Roman Empire was coming into the height of its power and glory. However, while Caesar fancied that he could move the whole world by his decree, unbeknownst to him, he had caused the prophesied branch, which would spring from the ruined stump of the tree of Jesse, to be born in the city of bread. The Dragon nested at ease upon his wicked global empire, but a baby born in the Little Town of Bethlehem was about to slay the Dragon and take the entire world away from him.

The Text

And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called JESUS, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb. And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord; (As it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord;) And to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.
Luke 2:21-24

Born in Bethlehem

After the splendid events of the night of Christ’s birth, Joseph and Mary, by faith, obeyed all the words of the Lord. As we saw last week, the vain imaginations of Caesar Augustus brought about the circumstances which took Joseph (the heir of David) to return David’s hometown of Bethlehem. Remember what Mary said when Gabriel announced to her that she would bear the Christ-child: “The Lord hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree (Lk. 1:51-52).” Caesar sent forth his word, and by his own decree he signs the death certificate of the Empire of Satan. Truly the Lord exalted these two lowly saints, Joseph and Mary, to be the principle vanguard of His great attack upon Satan’s kingdom.

Circumcised on the Eighth Day

As the prophet Micah foretold (Mic. 5:2), the Christ was born in Bethlehem. Joseph likely circumcised his firstborn boy on the eighth day as required, and gave him the name which the Angel had instructed that He receive: Jesus (Jeshua: God is Salvation). This was no insignificant part of the story of Christ’s advent.

The poison of the adder had infected the entire man. Man was not born in innocency, he inherited the original sin of Adam. The sin of submission to the serpent’s lies, and therefore serving the serpent in every act. To defeat the dragon, the tumor of the flesh, which had spread through the entire being of man, would need to be cut out.

Jesus’ circumcision was the first step of his active obedience to the will of the Father in the perfect fulfillment of the Law. Which is a profound thing to consider. Jesus, who needed no sinful flesh cut away, yet received the sign of the cutting away of the flesh that would find its final fulfillment in His crucifixion. From His infancy to His Ascension He undertook it all in order to redeem you entirely.

But notice something else, it was the covenantal obedience of Joseph and Mary which bound Christ, as a slave, to fulfill the Law of God. Christ’s submission to the will of the Father in the decree of redemption included that He, in His humanity, submit to the faith of His earthly parents as they obeyed in righteousness to have their son circumcised. In infancy, Jesus was joined to the covenant blessings promised to the Seed of the Woman, the Seed of Abraham, the Seed of David. The Christmas story compels us to see that Christ redeemed every aspect of our humanity. This forces upon us the realization that while infants were bound to the original sin in Adam, the sign of circumcision was a visible promise that God would free His people from sin’s curse by the righteousness of the Messiah. Now, in Christ our infants are bound to the covenant promises of God by baptism. Matthew Henry argues that: “That he might justify, and put an honour upon, the dedication of the infant seed of the church to God, by that ordinance which is the instituted seal of the covenant, and of the righteousness which is by faith, as circumcision was (Rom. 4:11), and baptism is. And certainly his being circumcised at eight days old doth make much more for the dedicating of the seed of the faithful by baptism in their infancy than his being baptized at thirty years old doth for the deferring of it till they are grown up. The change of the ceremony alters not the substance.”

Up to Jerusalem

Roughly a month later, Joseph and Mary brought Jesus into Jerusalem. There were two distinct reasons for the trip from Bethlehem up to Jerusalem. The first was to bring Jesus, as their firstborn, to be presented to the Lord. This presentation is the redemption ceremony as required by the Law of Moses (Cf. Lev. 12). The Redeemer submitted to the shadow of redemption of which He was the archetype.

The second reason was for Mary. After her 40-days of purification from ritual uncleanness, she was to offer the required purifying sacrifices. The usual offering was a lamb, but if the worshipper could not afford or could not procure a lamb, two turtle-doves or young pigeons were permissible. This latter offering is what they made. Which informs us of two things for our timeline. The Magi could not have come yet, because this would have funded the purchase of a lamb. Also, it indicates that Joseph and Mary did not have the means to buy a lamb; but this might not mean they were a poor family. Just that they had been forced to relocate and the budget was probably tighter than usual.

The City of our God

Thus we find Jesus, the Eternal Son of God, the Word of the Father, come into the City which God had caused His covenant name to dwell in. This momentous occasion did not go unnoticed. We find two aged saints heralding on earth in Jerusalem, as the angels had heralded in the heavens above Bethlehem, that the long-awaited Seed had come. Simeon gathers up Jesus in his arms and declares, “I’ve seen enough, let thy servant depart in peace, for my eyes have seen salvation.” The coming of Jesus was not the discontinuation of all the ancient promises. His arrival is the fruition of them. It was not the termination of the covenant with Abraham, but the blossoming of it. It was not the disposing of Moses’ Law, but the beginning of it’s perfect execution. It was not the demise of David’s Kingdom, it was the restoration of it. It was not the death of Israel, it was the birth of true Israel.

Grace through Faith

God had destined the weapon whereby His Kingdom would overthrow Satan’s kingdom. That weapon was “by grace through faith”. This is the great thread of Scripture’s story. Heed the serpent, believe the dragon’s lies, and be bound in depraved service to your carnal desires. But the grace of God in Christ came to upend man’s empires. This grace went unnoticed by Caesar, and Herod, and the Chief Priests. Because they were servants of the serpent. Jesus was cut with the sacramental knife; that cut joined Him to the promise of Abraham. Jesus was presented in the temple in the City of God; that ceremony joined Him to Moses’ Law. By this gracious act He was now set on the path of the hero. He was now required to either obey perfectly and thus retrieve the Kingdom from the Balrog, or else disobey and leave us in the clutches of everlasting damnation and misery.

See the pattern: free grace, faith, then obedience. The Grace of God’s Word of promise had repeatedly been announced throughout the winding tale of the OT. This grace was undeserved, but God revealed more and more how He would deliver His people through Christ Jesus. Now, in the early pages of the NT we find God’s gracious Word coming, not by the will of man, but by God’s free grace. The Word comes, and the Word is grace. By grace these godly saints receive it by faith, and by grace their faith brings about mighty exploits which lay siege to the gates of hell. These saints heard God’s gracious Word, they believed, and by their faith the Father sets His Son upon the path of His active obedience. Make no mistake, it is by His righteousness alone, by which we are saved. But that righteousness did not happen off in the spiritual realm. Christ’s righteousness is united, and is in fact the culmination, to the whole story of the Old Testament.

All the faith of the OT saints, the heroes of old, though imperfect, were by God’s sovereign providence made the means whereby the Word made flesh could be the perfect and final hero of the story. Their works, though tainted, were received by God because they were offered in faith in the promised Seed. God was not thwarted in His purpose to redeem mankind by the wicked schemes of Satan or his human minions. Nor was Yahweh aided by the obedience of faithful saints. Their righteousness, the same as ours, came about by His gracious Word being revealed unto them, and giving them the eyes of faith to see the glory He promised. Joseph and Mary, by faith, brought their Son to be redeemed, who would Himself redeem them. Jesus didn’t circumcise Himself, nor did He drive the nails through His own hands. But this is not to say He was passive. This was all done in accordance with the divine will; by Jesus’ humiliation He submitted Himself to His Father’s Will that He would be our lone Savior.

How was Satan’s empire to fall? The gracious revelation of the Word made flesh. By grace your eyes are opened to see in faith, like Joseph and Mary, the Salvation of God. God’s Word of Grace still resounds. The Lord Jesus, born in Bethlehem, would go on to be publicly tried and put to death in the same City of Jerusalem. And He did so for the forgiveness of Your sins. This Word of grace says to you that Jesus humbled Himself to death in order to exalt you into everlasting life. These events trumpeted to the empire of Satan that His doom had arrived, for Yahweh had come in the flesh to destroy the flesh, and by faith in this Savior we too overcome the Dragon. As the Apostle John declared: For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith (1Jo 5:4).

Charge and Benediction

Trying to tell the Christmas story without the Gospel is like trying to drive a car without an engine. The whole point of the Christmas story is that God has revealed to you His gracious Word in the incarnation of the Word. You either receive it like the gift it is, that’s faith, or you refuse this divine gift, that’s unbelief.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord; and the blessings of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be upon, and remain with you always. Amen.

OTHER SERMONS IN THIS SERIES

The Story of Christmas 2 | From Nazareth to Bethlehem

by Ben Zornes · Dec 8, 2025

Introduction

After Eden there was a continual war between the seed of the Serpent and the Seed of the woman. This manifested itself in the beastliness of the ungodly, and the godliness of the righteous. You become like what you worship. Who do you serve? That is what you will become.

The Text

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.
Luke 2:1-5

Caesar Augustus

After centuries as a republic, Rome was fracturing. Julius Caesar employed all his cleverness and charisma and cunning to wrangled the splintering Rome. Eventually, he declared himself Dictator perpetuo in February 44BC. A month later, Brutus & Cassius assassinated him, on the Ides of March. This flung the Roman Empire into a flurry of drama. Emerging from that instability was Gaius Octavius. Julius Caesar had named him as his adopted son and heir, and thus Gaius Octavius claimed that the laurel crown should grace his brow. His ascension, in 27BC, marked the end of the republic and the beginning of the Roman Empire. He took the title Caesar Augustus. A pretentious title indeed. He called himself the “son of the divine Julius.” Coins were minted, at his command, with the inscription AUGUSTUS DIVI FILIUS: Augustus, the son of god.

All the world, and all the people in it, seemed to him, were under his command and sway. Luke tells us that by Augustus’ command, during the time when Cyrenius was governor of Syria(Julius Africanus, 160-240AD, in a letter to Aristides, claims to have seen the records mentioned here), everyone in his empire must return to their hometown. The purpose was so that he could have a roster of all his citizens, and along with this census was an accompanying toll to be paid. He likely did this in order to minimize tribal conflicts and threats. But almost certainly, his vanity yearned to display the splendor of his power by sending forth his word to move all the people according to his will. But though his word moved the whole world, God was actually the One moving the great Emperor according to His will. For by his empirical word he was in the words of one commentator: “Augustus intends simply to promote the glory of his reign. But he only advances prophecies, and the birth of a King, unknown.”

Taxes

Luke is deliberate in his language here. The Caesar claims that “all the world” should be taxed. A tax is a claim. The Roman Eagle thought that the whole world was firm within its talons. Caesar’s actions here is the fruit that arises from believing Satan’s original lie: you can be as God. Here is a flagrant claim that the whole world owed tribute, not unto the God of Heaven and Earth, but to this earthly emperor. This is the pinnacle of human pride. The despotic emperor in you heart believes that the whole world owes you something. We determine to exert our will in order to make the whole world move according to our own wicked whims. But this is the result of serving the serpent in his rebellion against Yahweh.

From Nazareth

Now, a bit about Nazareth. It was a small village, a few miles west of the Sea of Galilee. Herod the Great was in the beginning stages of building his glorious city of Sephhoris. Thus, Joseph (and later Jesus) was likely employed in that construction project. The town of Nazareth seems to have arisen in roughly 100BC; given the presence of Joseph and Mary, descendants of David, it seems that the name likely arose from the Hebrew word nēṣer, for branch/shoot.

Which is quite interesting. These Davidic heirs seem to have deliberately drawn this name for their village from the messianic prophecy of Isaiah. In Isaiah 11 the prophet says that though the mighty tree of Jesse would been hacked down by the orc-like armies of Babylon. From this stump would emerge a branch/shoot (nēṣer). This branch would put all things right.

The imagery which Isaiah presents us with is that this Messiah, sprouting from David’s lineage, would come as a little child taming all the terrifying beasts. He would cause the wolf to lay down with the lamb. He would make the leopard lay down with a kid. The bear and lion would graze alongside the cattle. The weaned child would play on the serpent’s den with no fear of danger. Now consider the legend of Rome’s founding, Romulus & Remus suckled by a she-wolf. Rome was founded April 21, 753BC. Remember too that Romulus struck down his younger brother (much like Cain, Ishmael, Esau, Joseph’s brothers, Saul, etc.). By the nurture of a wolf, Rome was born.

Now, Isaiah likely gave this prophecy after the northern kingdom of Israel was exiled in 722BC. He foresees that the Messiah, arising like a branch from the stump of Jesse would cause the wolf (Rome) to lie down with the lamb (Israel, Cf. Ex. 12:5). Daniel uses these same animals to depict the empires of Persia (bear), leopard/kid (Greece/Alexander), winged lion (Rome). The beastly kingdoms, even the most serpentine of them, would submit their will to this Holy Child. The head of the Serpent would be crushed. But first…this Child must be born in the prophesied hometown of David (Mic. 5:2).

To Bethlehem

As the crow flies it’s about 70 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem. However, Mary and Joseph weren’t crows and were likely forced to take a bit longer of a route to Bethlehem. Scripture doesn’t tell us what route they took. There are two basic options. The shorter was a supply route that went through Samaria. The Jews tended to avoid this route due to the animosity between them and the Samaritans. Thus, the holy couple in all likelihood took the longer, 90 mile, route.

Consider that the unborn Christ child, in the womb of the virgin woman, traversed the valley of Jezreel then the Jordan river basin, locations famous for many OT events. Deborah inspired Barak to fight against the armies of Sisera in Jezreel (Jdg. 4–5); in that battle, God sent the heavenly host, the stars in their courses, to cascade down by the rainy floodwaters upon Sisera’s armies (Jdg. 5:20). Because of this valley’s strategic geography, and it was also the place where Gideon and his small band of 300 Israelites put the 135,000 Midianites to flight (Jdg. 6–8). Mount Gilboa, which overlooked this valley, is where King Saul fell in despair upon his own sword (1 Sam. 31:1–6; 1 Chr. 10:1–7), thus making way for David to ascend to the throne of Israel.

Mary and Joseph would have passed by the place (near Jezreel city) where Jezebel, that catty sorceress-queen of Israel who plotted against Elijah, was cast down from the wall of Jezreel to be devoured by the dogs (2 Kgs. 9:30–37). They would pass by the covenant mountains of Ebal and Gerizim (Deut. 11:29; 27:11–13; Josh. 8:30–35). The Jezreel valley was where Judah’s last good king, Josiah, was pierced by the bowmen of Pharaoh Necho (2 Chr. 35:20–24, Zech. 12:10). As they ventured further south, down the Jordan river valley, they eventually would cross it in the same general region that Joshua led Israel over on dry ground (Josh. 3–4), and would have passed through Jericho, that first of the Canaanite strongholds to fall (Josh. 6).

At last they would have come to Bethlehem. Into the city of David, the heir of David had returned. The house of bread had no room for the heir of the King who had once fed all Israel with bread and wine from his generous storehouse (2 Sam. 6:19).

O Come to Us, Abide with Us

Thus it was that due to the vanity and pride of Rome’s Emperor, the Holy Child, from the stock of David the son of Jesse, was born in Bethlehem. He came to subdue the asp and the cobra and the lion and the leopard and the lamb and the ox. All the beasts’ kingdom would, in fact, answer to His call and command. Unto Him, as Isaiah foretold, would the Gentiles gather round as unto a New Adam, in a New Eden.

In your sin you behave as a ravening wolf. In your rebellion, you are like a prowling leopard. In your carnal lusts, you are like a rabid lion. Every man thinks himself a Caesar, able to be sovereign over all things, emperor over all others. But the child born in Bethlehem was the promised Seed of the Woman; He was the heir to David’s throne; He was the branch which would become the tree of life. Christ came to subdue all your beastliness. He came to you, that you might come to him. The question we opened with was, “Who do you worship?”

The dragon lied to our first parents, and by this your will is bent to the serpent’s beastly will. But to come to Christ in faith, is to have your will melt into the Heavenly Father’s will. This is the only way to be godly. Christ came in order that by the glad tidings of His coming, your will might be tamed to do the will of the God who made you. Tamed to worship and serve the one true God. This is what faith in God is. It is turning your will away from your own pretensions at being emperor of the world, and submitting yourself entirely to the will of God. It is most fitting, then, for us to sing that lovely Christmas carol:

O Holy Child of Bethlehem, decend to us, we pray.
Cast out our sin, and enter in, be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels, the great glad tidings tell.
Oh come to us, abide with us, Our Lord Emmanuel!

Charge and Benediction

Attempting to be Caesar of the world is like drinking peanut butter through a straw. But that is what our sin is. Sin is thinking that the whole world should revolve around you and bend to your will. But this is the pinnacle of folly. The Story of Christmas compels us to submit our will in all things to the Incarnate Word, the King of kings born in Bethlehem.

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.
Numbers 6:24-26

OTHER SERMONS IN THIS SERIES

The Story of Christmas 1 | From Eden to Roman Empire

by Ben Zornes · Dec 1, 2025

Introduction

The best stories make for the best daydreams. This is why we enjoy talking about our favorite stories, and theories about sequels or prequels or spinoffs. We love to understand the lore. This is because stories, at least the good ones, enchant us with the longing for the true story. The darkness defeated. The hero triumphant. The characters brimming with hard-won joy. But the lore matters. The OT provides us with all the hints, tropes, tension, and terror that make the arrival of the hero blaze with brilliant glory.

The Text

And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Genesis 3:14-15

The Serpent and the Seed

Adam and Eve, in the midst of the Garden Temple of God, surrounded by manifold trees well-laden with fruit for their joy and refreshment, determined to embrace a lie, to feast upon a shadow, to drink in emptiness. The paradise of Eden was ravaged by a fork-tongued dragon. The God of all goodness came down to them, to judge their folly and sin. But the bitter cup of His judgement was sweetened by a merciful promise. That promise is contained in the Scripture we just read. The serpent became accursed, and though Satan amused himself with the notion that he had gained perpetual rule over mankind, God promised a perpetual rivalry between the serpent’s seed and the woman’s seed. And while this enmity would be fierce, it would be Eve’s offspring who would, though wounded, crush the dragon’s head.

Sadly, Adam and Eve were banished to the east of Eden. Cut off from the life-giving tree which God had intended for them to enjoy for everlasting days of bliss. Yet though the light of God’s glory was stripped from them, leaving them ashamed of their nakedness, God did not send them out clothed in their makeshift garments of fig-leaves. Instead, they went forth with finely crafted leather tunics, fashioned by the loving hand of God. But these tunics were bought with the blood of a lamb which was slain in order for them to be made.

The world had been formless and void before God filled it with the glory of sky and firmament, land and sea, sun and moon and stars, birds and fish, beasts and man. But now by Adam’s sin, the sorrow must have made the world seem formless and void once more. Yet God had promised a seed, so imagine their great hope when within Eve’s womb a seed sprung to life. When the son is born, she cries out, “The Lord has granted me a man.” The Hebrew language indicates to us that she believed that this man would be the mighty hero who would defeat the dragon and restore them to Eden.

Cain and Abel

Thus, she named the firstborn Cain, which means “gotten”. “Here,” she seemed to exclaim, “Is the one who will renew and restore mankind! I’ve gotten the deliverer!” Yet, as is likely, she gave birth to twins. When the second son was born, she names him Abel, meaning “breath”; the implication is that of fleeting breath. What could this mean?

This firstborn son of Earth, the first prince, applied himself to his father’s trade of gardening, while the younger son set himself to raising beasts. But like his father, the coils of the serpent began to wrap themselves around Cain. And he who would have been a savior to mankind is shown to be a seed of the serpent, and during a worship service to God, seething envy rises up in Cain’s heart against his brother. He who ought to have been a champion for mankind bludgeons his brother with a stone. The dust from which man had been formed and brought to life was weaponized to bring the first brother down into the dust of death. His blood cried out to God for vengeance against such devilish tyranny.

Corrupt Man and Righteous Noah

And so long ages went by, and the population of Earth grew. Likely into the billions. Lifespans were long. All the legends of Númenor and Atlantis are memories of that ancient world. Music, technology, industry, and economy flourished. But deep within mankind was the poison of the snake’s bite. His heart was coiled up with lust, wrath, envy, and lies, ready to strike out at every opportunity. Instead of the world being full of images of God, it was full of men who imitated the serpent. Lying, deceiving, rebelling against God and all that was good.

All men were like this, with the exception of the tenth-generation grandson of Adam, a man who was named Rest. Noah. God came to Noah and instructed him how to build a boat to save the world. God brought a deluge upon all the corruption of mankind, and in a floating new Eden, full of beasts, Noah and his wife and his three sons and their wives were delivered.

When they emerged from the boat after nearly a year, a new creation lay before them. Could it be that the world had been delivered from the talons of the dragon?

Babel and Abram

Adding sorrow upon sorrow, as we go through our sad history, it soon became clear that the adder’s poison still infected mankind. The youngest son of Noah, in some grotesque and twisted perversion, resurrected the shameful corruption of the ancient world. It was spiritual necromancy. What God had judged and destroyed, Ham conjured up and reanimated. No sooner had mankind spread out from Mt. Ararat, then one of them, named Nimrod, began a slave trade. This slave trade served the attempt at one world government in the plains of Mesopotamia. These descendants of Noah, instead of walking by faith in God, defied God’s judgement through the flood and sought to build a tower. These ancient dragon worshippers thought that if God was determined to flood corruption then they would build a tower that the waters of God’s wrath could not overwhelm. Their hubris was such that they thought they could avoid God’s judgement by building a great tower for the purpose of the indulgence of their vain-glory and lusts. The ziggurat slowly rose higher and higher, but it was fueled by the blood of human sacrifice, ever the calling card of devil worship. These mighty men convinced themselves they did not need to acknowledge the God who made them. They exalted themselves to heaven apart from God’s blessing, apart from His presence, apart from His promise to deliver them from the serpent’s deadly venom. They thought they could build a tower which would escape any future floods, so God flooded them with a confusion of language. Thus mankind was scattered across the world.

The serpent inspired this building project as a vain attempt to escape from God’s justice, but God had a building project of His own. God hadn’t forsaken His purpose to fill the world with men and women who would bear His image of perfect goodness and righteousness. So, He called out to the tenth grandson of Noah. A man named “Father” (Abram); but he was a father without a son. God invited Abram to come out of the midst of those who had given themselves over to the worship of demons under the guise of the moon and stars. The Maker of those stars called Abram to trust a promise that He would give to Abram as many descendants as there were stars. He was a sonless father, called out of the midst of pagan stargazers, to trust a God who promised him more sons than there were stars. And so…Abram believed.

Ishmael and Isaac, Esau and Israel

But the years dragged on. The promised son never came. Abram’s wife, Sarai, invited him to try to raise up a son through her handmaid Hagar. Indeed, a son was brought forth from this conniving, but he was to be a wild ass of a man, Ishmael by name. But this was not the seed which would defang the devil. Instead, God had promised a son would be born by Sarai. This was so marvelous that Sarai laughed, and so God, when He had at last fulfilled His word, and a son was born unto them, they named him Laughter. This was all too good to be true.

But Ishmael, the firstborn, once again persecuted the second-born. The long strife between Satanists and Saints continued. So Abram sent Ishmael away, so that Isaac might too receive the promised blessing from God. In due time, Isaac himself was married. Yet his wife’s womb was empty. Over and over again, the God who hovered over the formless world to form it into a glory hovered over the wombs of barren women to grant them mighty sons. Once more, twins were born: Esau and Jacob. Even from the womb, they battled fiercely with each other. While Esau craved the blood of beasts, Jacob longed to grasp the blessing of God. In fact, he strove many years to obtain it, and in due course, He wrestled with God Himself and was assured that this blessing, the blessing of the promised dragon slayer, would come through this God-wrestler’s offspring.

Potiphar’s Wife and Joseph

The God-wrestler, Israel, had twelve sons, and the first 10 despised the eleventh son: Joseph. So although they were the descendants of righteous men, they were more like Nimrod, selling their brother into slavery to Egypt. There, Joseph brought blessing with him, and this caught the tarantulic eyes of the wife of Joseph’s master. She plotted by cunning to ensnare Joseph in her web of lust. Would the righteous seed be devoured by the spider? By faith, Joseph fled her seductive venom, and, in time, God raised Joseph up to sit at the right hand of the world’s most powerful king. The seed seemed to have triumphed.

Pharaoh and Moses

But as the decades turned to centuries, the Egyptians forgot the Hebrew who had saved them from the famine. A Pharaoh arose who thought himself a deity. He fancied himself the incarnate version of Horus, the falcon-headed god, and he represented the other nine gods. You know, the ones with the heads of baboons, hippos, frogs, crocs, and lionesses. He was the king sent by the beast gods. But these were all servants of the serpent, and because of this, they inspired Pharaoh, like a bird of prey, to swoop down and attempt to devour the children of the God-wrestler, Israel, in the waves of the Nile.

Yet, God saved a Hebrew boy from this ravenous beast through a makeshift ark. This boy was drawn out of the river that would have been his death. By God’s providential hand, this boy became a prince, then a shepherd in exile, and at last sent to tell the Pharaoh that he must relinquish his grip upon the promised seed. The godling hardened his satanic heart, and so God brought 10 battles down upon the land of Egypt, mocking all the demon gods and their funny beastly idol. Thus, Moses led God’s people out triumphant over the seed.

Giants and Joshua

At long last, the children of the promised seed had become a mighty host. As God brought them by Moses’ leadership to the land He had promised to Abram they seemed unstoppable. Until, they heard rumors of mighty giants. The Anakim dwelt there. Offering human sacrifice to their monstrous gods. This was the plan? To drive out men who were more like ogres, cave-trolls, and cyclops? The people would have despaired had not a man whose name meant Salvation (Joshua) led them in and scattered the giants.

Philistines and Samson

Would this be the time that the promised seed came forth to take His throne? Once more, our hopes are disappointed, as the people desert the covenant promises of their God, and give way to idols and fear of the other peoples’ idols. Most prominently, the Philistines, whose god was depicted as half man and half scaly, sea-monster. The Israelites suffered under the might of these Philistines, until once again, God raised up a mighty man of faith, Samson, to subdue these enemies. Samson’s last act was to destroy the temple of this fish god, along with thousands of these worshippers of Leviathan.

Saul and David

But this deliverance from the coils of the serpent led Israel not to seek their God for salvation. Rather, they selected a man from amongst them to be their king. This king’s heart was coiled up like a cobra, although he stood head and shoulders above them all. Saul trembled before the giant Goliath, who wore armor like the fish scales of the god he served. Saul hunted in shades of Sheol’s death for the words of life. Israel’s first real king sought for the dead amongst the living. The serpent schemed to poison the nation who had been so recently delivered from the Egyptians, Canaanites, and Philistines. The rot was within Israel.

But to stymie the serpents schemes, the Lord elected a teenage shepherd boy, to arise and rout the sanity of Saul, the Giants of Philistia, and the apathy of Israel. With a sling, and a harp, and a heart turned to the Living God, this man named Beloved, David along with his son Solomon, raised Israel to her greatest height. A glorious kingdom was won. A splendorous temple was built. God assures David that his throne would one day be the throne of an everlasting King. A king who would rule in justice and peace.

A Kingdom Split in Two

At this point it might seem like the dragon had been overthrown, thwarted, sent packing. But, as before, the tendrils of his kingdom creep back it. Cracking the kingdom of Israel into two. The older brother once more persecuted the younger. The Northern Kingdom, Israel, gave itself over to worshipping beasts in the form of golden calves. While the Southern Kingdom, Judah, fared only slightly better. Both kingdoms opened the door to the idols of the nations, and closed their ears to the razor sharp words of the Prophets.

The rivalry spoken of in the Garden only seemed to grow in scale. Now entire empires pitted themselves against the threat of a holy seed who would crush the beastliness of man’s sin. The Assyrians and Babylonians carried off the decimated people of God. The prophet Daniel put it in vivid picture for us. These pagan empires, with all their might, and treasure, and power, and glory, and cunning were like ravenous monsters rising from the sea. The Babylonian empire was like a Winged Lion; but after its century of devastation itself was devastated by another beast. Like a bear emerging from hibernation, ready to feast, the Persian empire arose. But it too was soon overthrown by the four-headed, winged leopard of Alexander’s Greek empire. But the great Alexander soon was swept away by the Eagle of the Roman Empire.

Throughout all this, the people of God diminished in glory and significance. The promises seemed obscured by the ravening power of these animalistic kingdoms. All the stories are in fact one singular story. The seed of the serpent continually fought agains the seed of the woman. No matter how good, mighty, glorious, or upright the people of the woman’s seed seemed to be, their heel, like Achilles, continually was struck with the venom of the beast. The boa constricted itself around the people of the promised seed.

See the thread. Hear the theme. Adam and Eve hearkened to the serpentine beast, and over and over mankind gave themselves over to such beastliness. Cain mauled his brother like an ox. Nimrod hunted his fellow man like a tiger. Ishmael kicked like a wild donkey. Esau prowled around like a bear. Potiphar’s wife spun her webs. Pharaoh acted like a falcon clutching its prey. The Canaanites worshipped their sea-monsters and minotaurs. God’s own people gave themselves over to worshipping the demons in whatever shape tickled their fancy, whether it the celestial bodies of sun, moon, and stars, or terrestrial in the bodies of lions, oxen, trees, or eagles. All of this because the serpent had enchanted mankind. From Eden until the Roman Empire the race of man, on the whole, showed himself to be dragon servants.

What it all points to

When you step back and consider all this, you see that the Christmas story is the story of mankind being captive to the monsters and ghouls and beasts. Man was under bondage to Satan’s tyranny at every turn. Yet God was not bound by this tyranny. His promised seed would soon be planted, and grow into a new Eden. The Lord raised up godly men at every turn to strive against the serpent, laboring to strike a death blow. Too often these heroes of the faith had their heels struck by the serpent, and some downfall befell them. The gloomy clouds of night really did surround mankind. But with the coming of Christ, death’s dark shadows were about to be put to flight. This is what the Christmas story invites us to see and believe. The darkness will be brought to an end. The dragon’s empire will be overthrown. The reign of beasts will end, that a new Adam, descended from Noah, and Abram, and David might exercise an eternal dominion. The poison of the serpent’s bite will be drawn from the wound by the healing hands of a child king born in Bethlehem.

Charge and Benediction

There are two ways of being human. The first is to heed the serpent’s lies and thus become a servant of the beast; this is how you become un-manned, you become like the beast you worship. The other is to trust entirely in God’s promise, specifically the promise we’ve traced today, that God sent a Seed, Jesus Christ, to become the fountainhead of a new humanity. By faith in Christ you become a true human, a true image of the Triune God. One way leads to everlasting death, the other to everlasting life. Christmas challenges us to orient our whole life around that reality.

Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Hebrews 13:20-21

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Wise Master Builder #7 | The Law & Jazz Bands

by Ben Zornes · Nov 24, 2025

Introduction

There’s a joke amongst musicians that if you hit the wrong note just play it nine more times and you’ll turn the song into an impressive jazz improvisation. A skilled musician is impressive because the music is internalized. So to, we’re reminded by the Psalmist that God’s word, His covenant Law and Gospel, is to be hidden in our heart that we might refrain from sinning against our God.

The Text

Now after these things, in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Ezra the son of Seraiah, the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah, The son of Shallum, the son of Zadok, the son of Ahitub, The son of Amariah, the son of Azariah, the son of Meraioth, The son of Zerahiah, the son of Uzzi, the son of Bukki, The son of Abishua, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the chief priest: This Ezra went up from Babylon; and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the LORD God of Israel had given: and the king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the LORD his God upon him. […]
Ezra 7:1ff

Summary of the Text

The next four chapters will detail the moral reforms undertaken by the greatest scribe of OT history, Ezra. He is a descendant of Aaron, as traced by the genealogy which opens this chapter (vv1-5). He was one of the Babylonian exiles, and is described as a ready (i.e. diligent/skillful) scribe (v6a); he likely played a part in the correspondence with Darius over the temple construction dispute. By his request, and the providential hand of God, the King supplied him with everything he requested for leading a group of exiles to return to Jerusalem (v6b). In the seventh year of the reign of Darius/Artaxerxes, Ezra led a group on a five month journey back to Jerusalem, and God’s hand protected them (vv7-9). Ezra breaks into the narrative to disclosed his motivation in returning: his heart was ordered to search out God’s word in order to do it, and then to teach it to Israel (v10).

We have a letter from the King Artaxerxes deputizing Ezra to return (vv11-26), along with any other Jews who would go up to Jerusalem of their own freewill; the King furnishes Ezra with a generous allotment in order that sacrifices might be bought and offered, as well as an invitation to request more if necessary. This was all to be done as the law of God stipulated, and Artaxerxes desired it to be done speedily (v21). Additionally, the priests and other temple ministers were not under the obligation to pay the customary taxes (v24). Ezra was authorized to appoint magistrates and judges, as well as the freedom to instruct them in both the law and wisdom of God (v25). Any who did not obey the law of God should face the appropriate consequences (v26).

Remember, we’re working on the assumption that this all took place around the same time as Esther became the new queen. As this Jewish girl was raised up into the King’s favor, there is a simultaneous raising up of the corporate people of God into His favor. Ezra once more breaks into the narrative to bless God for putting it into Artaxerxes heart to beautify the Lord’s house and to show favor to Ezra (vv27-28). Thus was Ezra strengthened for his task of gathering and leading this second wave of exiles back to beautify the work which Zerubbabel and Jeshua had recently completed.

Diligence

Too many folks give up on developing some skill because the learning curve is too steep. But if you persevere, there is that wonderful moment where the lights come on. It clicks. You go, “Aha!” The skill goes from a frustrating hardship to a joyful activity you could do in your sleep. Ezra shows us the potency of what happens when you apply yourself to first search out God’s Word, and then gladly do all you find there.

Ezra’s project was aimed to mine the depths of God’s revealed will in His Word, and then like the wise master builder he was, construct all of life around that Word. Think of it like what happened when you got engaged. All your plans for the future began to revolve around that promise. By Ezra’s ministry, God reveals to us that the physical house of the Lord was a stand-in for a more glorious temple. God’s true temple was to be a people, set apart for His glory, with His law inscribed on their hearts (Jer. 31:33).

A heart which is ordered to seek the Lord will labor to order everything externally according to God’s precepts. Faith is turning your heart to trust in God entirely, and this means trusting the wisdom of His Word, the trustworthiness of His Gospel promises, and the certainty of His warnings against sin. If you get this backwards, however, you create a hopeless maze of legalism. You can have the general outline for what a Christian nation should look like, but shame upon you if your personal life is one of laziness and lust and lies.

Solomon taught in Proverbs: “Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men (Pro 22:29).” But for many young men, they want the greatness that comes from diligence without the diligence. They want all the outcomes with none of the work. They want the blessing without the faith. They want a Christian life, family, and nation without the faithful devotion to God’s Word which it requires. They want to overthrow cultural idols without mortifying their own sins. God is a rewarder of faithful diligence, but a He’s a brick wall to the pride of the slothful man who spends his time arguing on Facebook (Heb. 11:6). In like manner, ladies, pinning a bunch of pretty photos of a tidy house to your Pinterest boards is not being a diligent home-maker. In this online age, it is easy to mistake online interaction for diligent business, when all too often it is really just a distraction from most of your principle duties of piety, charity, and necessity.

Law & Wisdom

The Law is often misunderstood. As Paul taught, it was training wheels until man came to maturity in Christ. In the new creation work which Christ brings about, our eyes are open to see the wisdom of the law, and to be able to apply the law to all of life wisely. Ezra discerned that circumstances in his own day differed dramatically from the days of Moses, but God’s Law had not somehow become erroneous or outdated. So Ezra devoted himself with diligence to understand, obey, and apply the Law in this new context.

This has great bearing on child-rearing. Your goal is not to just conform your children to the social expectations of a group of committed Christians. Your objective isn’t merely potty training, or getting them to stop throwing tantrums, or to quit throwing the sippy cup on the floor. Your aim is to raise your children to delight in God’s Law and Gospel. Your goal is a child who becomes an adult that loves God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength.

For instance, as technology rapidly develops our children will be faced with all sorts of moral challenges. What do we do when someone brings their AI-robot to church with them? If the ghouls in lab-coats get their way and create a child using only their skin cells and bring it to the pastor requesting baptism…well, then what?! The Law of God teaches us the nature of God, and by turning our hearts in faith to the Word, we are enabled to apply God’s word to all of life, even very challenging moral quandaries.

For All of Life

The vision statement for our churches is: All of Christ for All of Life. That really is the motivating principle. Here is God’s Word. Is your heart turned to it, to search it out, so as to apply it in every sphere of your life? Eventually the Scribes and Pharisees inverted this. They put all the rules out there, and then left their hearts at home. The Westminster Confession won’t stop a church from sliding into apathy and unfaithfulness. Strictly observing traditions will not prevent moral compromise. Singing Psalms while cherishing sin is like jumping off a high dive with concrete boots on. Turn your heart to God in full trust, full faith, and then apply His word everywhere and to everything. But for the sake of your soul, do not get that order backwards.

Charge and Benediction

As we will be celebrating Thanksgiving this week, I want to encourage you to try a very simple and practical application of this message. Type “give thanks” into your preferred online Bible. There’s about 40 instances of that phrase. Print off all those instances and as a family, take turns reading all the things that Scripture commands us to give thanks for, or the examples of what the saints gave thanks for. Then discuss and list out all this things. And then…practice giving thanks for those things. In other words, be like Ezra, search out God’s word in order to do it.

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Ephesians 3:20-21

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Wise Master Builder #6 | Leave the Church Alone

by Ben Zornes · Nov 17, 2025

Introduction

Throughout history the trope of an aggrieved husband has been a potent one. The wrath of a man who’s wife has been kidnapped, molested, or harmed is a fierce and glorious picture of holy jealousy. That is the sort of heat that emanates from this chapter.

The Text

Then Darius the king made a decree, and search was made in the house of the rolls, where the treasures were laid up in Babylon. And there was found at Achmetha, in the palace that is in the province of the Medes, a roll, and therein was a record thus written: In the first year of Cyrus the king the same Cyrus the king made a decree concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, Let the house be builded […] Ezra 6:1ff

Summary of the Text

We saw in chapter 4 that due to threats, the people grew discouraged and neglected the work of building the house of God. In chapter 5, God spurred His people to action, not by a monarch’s ruling, buy by the prophetic word of God through Haggai and Zechariah. In this passage we find the blessing the followed the faith-filled response of the previous chapter. Having written an appeal to Darius to reconsider his initial prohibition of the continuation of the temple work (5:11-17), Darius proceeds to command that search be made in Babylon for Cyrus’ decree (v1). It was found in a royal palace in Achmetha (v2), and the roll contained a bureaucratic version of the decree found in 1:1-4. It confirmed Cyrus’ will to let the house of God not only be built, but supplied from his royal treasury (vv3-5). In light of this, Darius instructs Tatnai to leave the work alone and allow Zerubbabel and Jeshua to continue it (vv6-7). Moreover, Darius not only prohibits interference, but he commands that additional resources be supplied for this work, as well as provision for sacrifices to be made, that prayers might be offered up for him and his sons (vv8-10).

As if that wasn’t enough, Darius goes even further. Anyone who would hinder the work by “altering this word” would have his own house destroyed, he would be hung on its ruins, turning it all into a dunghill (v11). Lastly, he adds a final supernatural threat that the God who has caused His name to dwell in the temple would bring complete vengeance upon anyone, small or great, who tampered with or attempted the destruction of the Lord’s house (v12).

Tatnai and his cronies scurry back with Darius’ command for speed stinging their ears (v13); the Jewish elders continued to build and were spurred along by the prophets (v14). They completed it, first and foremost, according to the commandment of God, and then secondarily according to the commandment of Cyrus & Darius, about a month and half before Passover (vv14-15). The completion was fittingly followed by a dedication ceremony of great joy, thank-offerings, sin-offerings, and the “re-organization” of the priests and Levites into their proper divisions for the maintenance of the service of God (vv16-18).

In verse 19 there’s a “linguistic exodus” from the Aramaic (which started in 4:8) back into Hebrew (v19). This Passover celebration (v20) notes that Israel had come out of captivity again, this is a new Exodus (v21); all who partook of it were clean, having separated themselves from the “filthiness of the heathen”. Passover was followed by the seven day feast of unleavened bread, which they kept with joy (v22).

Darius

This is an appropriate point to take a closer look at Darius. Darius came to power in 522BC; Josephus claims that Darius is the nephew of Cyrus the Great. His name means “Upholder of Good Deeds”, and we certainly see that theme drawn out by Ezra in this chapter with all the imperatives from Darius to “do the work”. There is good reason to believe that the Artaxerxes (King of Justice) we meet with in Ezra7-Nehemiah (and in Esther) is Darius, under his throne name. This makes thematic sense. The OT often uses different names for the same person in order to draw out a theological point. Ezra (who also composed I-II Chronicles) makes Cyrus (the Shepherd) out to be a new David who makes preparations for the temple, while Darius/Artaxerxes is a new Solomon who completes the work.

Working on this assumption, we have interesting pieces that fit together. Darius, upon coming to power hearkened to those who wanted the Jews’ work stopped; Ezra 4:24 tells us that it doesn’t resume until the second year of Darius reign (520BC). Haggai tells us it was that year when he began to stir up God’s people (Hag. 1:1). Darius threw a new years’ feast in the third year of his reign (Est. 1:3, 519BC), which is when Vashti was removed as Queen (Est. 1:5). The temple was completed in the sixth year of Darius’ reign (516BC); that same year Esther is brought into the year long “Become the New Queen” contest (Est. 2:12). Esther is favored by the king and raised up to be the new Queen in the seventh year of his reign (Est. 2:16).

Another indication that this is all the case is that there seems to be strong Jewish influence on the drafting of Darius’ edict here. Particularly notice the sound theology (in Ezra 6:12) that God dwells in this temple by His name (i.e. by the covenant revelation of His Word), not as in pagan temples in the shape of an idol. This could very well be explained by the presence of Mordecai as one of Darius’ courtiers.

Passover

This chapter brings the Zerubbabel/Jeshua portion of this book to a close, and it does so with a passover celebration. The themes of Exodus are all over the place. The Jews suffered captivity by the Assyrians. They endured whips of afflicting words. The prophets’ words have instructed them to build a Tabernacle for the Lord. But take close note of how they kept the Passover.

First, they’d been made clean. Idolatry had caused the exile, but now they had separated themselves from idolatry. This cleansing sprang from the fountain of God’s tendermercies. They had built the altar, then grew discouraged and neglected the completion of the temple, turning their focus on their own wealth, comfort, and stability. Their own houses were built with care, while God’s house was left unbuilt and neglected (Hag. 1:4). Sports, hobbies, amusements, and striving after wealth often take people away from the faithful worship of God.

So, Haggai compared the Jews in this state to someone who had touched a corpse and by touching other things was defiling everything. God will not be pleased by half-hearted, half-cooked, split-attention worship. Zechariah described that Satan stood accusing Jeshua (who was clothed in filthy garments), and the Lord rebuked Satan by removing the filthy garments and clothing him in new robes, and this is explicitly described as God taking away Jeshua’s iniquity (Zech. 3). This potent ministry of the Word cleansed God’s people in order that they might worship God whole-heartedly.

Second, they celebrated with joy. This joy had two principle sources. First, the Lord had made them joyful; secondly, the Lord had turned the heart of the King of Assyria unto them, thus strengthening them in the work of building the house of the Lord. That order matters. The joy of the Lord enables you to receive all the turns of the Lord’s providence with joyful faith.

Don’t Touch the Church

A few takeaways from all this. First, Faith must act in obedience regardless of whether the conditions are fair or foul. The Jews got back to work as an act of faith, and lo and behold the blessing of Darius’ favor followed. Too often we want God to grant some blessing first, before we act by faith. But this is how the life of the saint must always be: faith first, blessings second.

Secondly, the house of the Lord is protected by the Lord of the house. His name rests upon it, and therefore He will jealously defend His honor and glory. Through the threats of Darius we hear the heat of God’s jealousy for the church against any who attempt to alter or destroy the house. Through the Prophet Zechariah we learn of God’s attitude towards this house: “I was jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I was jealous for her with great fury (Zech. 8:2).”

Lastly, there is a remarkable Christological vision here. Our bodies are temples. Man, in his rebellion, altered and destroyed the righteousness and glory of God which we are to bear as creatures made in God’s image. But Christ came, the house of His body was torn down, he was crucified, the Lord heaped upon Him the sinful dung of us all. It is by this alone that we can rightly hold the new Passover feast of bread and wine with joy. The old temple of Adam has been torn down, and now you, as the body of Christ, are made the everlasting temple of Christ.

Charge and Benediction

The Jealousy of God is either a profound comfort to you, or a profound terror. And it all depends on whether you are joined with Christ or not. If you have looked in faith to Christ, then you know that He is the jealous defender of His people; if you have not, then you also know, He is a jealous defender of His people.

Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, Comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work. Amen.
2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

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Wise Master Builder #5 | Under His Eye

by Ben Zornes · Oct 13, 2025

Introduction

We saw last week that the threats of the Jews’ enemies resulted in discouragement and capitulation. This chapter presents us with the means that God has chosen in order to jump start His people to faithful action.

The Text

Then the prophets, Haggai the prophet, and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied unto the Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, even unto them. Then rose up Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and began to build the house of God which is at Jerusalem: and with them were the prophets of God helping them. […] Ezra 5:1ff

Summary of the Text

Through the schemes of the Jews’ enemies the work ground to a halt (4:24), but God has a way to jump start the project again. The prophetic ministries of Haggai and Zechariah are used by God to motivate the people to resume the building of God’s house, despite the danger (vv1-2). Having resumed the work, the Persian governor, Tatnai, found it necessary to investigate why they had defied orders (v3); he requested the names of everyone involved in this impermissible building project (v4). Clearly, the preaching of the prophets has strengthened the courage of these saints, and they do not cease from the work despite it being called into question; these Persion officers were often called “the kings eyes”, but God’s people take courage in the knowledge that Yahweh’s eyes are upon them (v5, Zech. 3:9, 4:10). They continue the work, even while awaiting Darius’ decision in this matter (v5b).

Tatnai’s letter presents to Darius what he discovered upon inspecting the work of the Jews (vv6-17). His report includes reference to great stones, timber (which was used to strengthen the walls of the great buildings of antiquity), and that the work was going quickly and prosperously (v8). Tatnai also includes the explanation of the Jews as to why they are undertaking this work despite Darius’ earlier command to cease from it (4:21). The Jews argue that as servants of the God of heaven and earth, and are building his house like Solomon of old had done (v11); they anticipate an objection as to why this great God’s house had fallen into destruction, and we see that the preaching of the prophets has taken root in their hearts. They answer that it was by the sins of their fathers that this judgement had befallen them (v12). Nevertheless, they appeal to Cyrus’ decree (v13, Cf. 1:1-2), as well as to the record of his actions to restore the temple instruments, and appoint Zerubbabel (Sheshbazzar) as governor of Jerusalem (v14-15) to show that they are not at all acting lawlessly. They honestly admit that while they’ve been building it, they aren’t finished (v16). They request that Darius consider Cyrus’ policy and reverse his order commanding the cessation of their work (v17).

Building their Own Houses

This is one of the more unique textual moments in the OT. We have the narrative of the events, but we also have the sermon texts of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah. We saw the people discouraged by the harassment of their enemies, and how they gave up the work out of this fear. But we also have the sermons rebuking and exhorting the people.

First, this indicates that faithful preaching is more than just motivational speeches, or intellectual lectures, or poetic recitations. Preaching is the pointed application of God’s Word to God’s people. It is not merely repeating the text, it is aiming the text at sin, at complacency, at negligence. A faithful pastor will take aim at the sins of his flock. He will apply God’s Word to particular moments. He must proclaim it in defiance of earthly opposition and threats.

This is what we see in the ministry of these two prophets. Despite Darius’ decree to cease the work, these men of God compel the people with a few pointed messages.

Giving way to fears.
1. Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the Lord. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts, according to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not. Hag. 2:4–5
2. And as you have been a byword of cursing among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you, and you shall be a blessing. Fear not, but let your hands be strong. Zech. 8:13
Putting the worship of God on the back burner to their own comfort and safety. Zech. 1:3–4)
1. Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. … You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. Hag. 1:4–9
2. Therefore say to them, Thus declares the Lord of hosts: Return to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets cried out, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, Return from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.’ But they did not hear or pay attention to me, declares the Lord.
Falling into unbelief, thinking that God wasn’t attentive to their needs.
1. Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord’s message, ‘I am with you, declares the Lord.’ Hag. 1:13
2. Zech. 10:1–2, 3:9, 4:10
Mistaking this world as being unshakable, instead of looking to the unshakable Kingdom of God which the Messiah would usher in.
1. For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts. The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts. Hag. 2:6–9

The Shepherd Priest-King

Regarding that last point, more should be said. Zechariah’s principle message to God’s people was that they ought to make themselves and Jerusalem ready for the Messiah. He calls them to look in faith for His coming. Satan opposed the work of Zerrubbabel (the kingly figure) and Jeshua (the priestly figure) (Zech. 3:1-2). So all of these events were a part of the cosmic battle between the dragon’s kingdom and Messiah’s Kingdom. The pagan empires, at their zenith, might have seemed unshakeable. But each in turn would be shaken, removed, and replaced, until the unshakeable Kingdom of Christ arrived. This unshakeable kingdom was what Haggai and Zechariah were summoning God’s people to labor towards, understanding that they did so under the loving eye of their heavenly Father.

God promised these exiles that He would anoint a Shepherd as both their King & Priest (Zech. 6:11), and this King would be given universal reign of the world (Zech. 14:9). This Messiah would come riding into the city they were neglecting to build, on the foal of an ass (Zech. 9:9). Before conquering all the heathen nations, their Messiah would be pierced before the very eyes of His own people, the descendants of these saints (Zech. 12:10). But the result of all this would be the universal reign of Messiah’s peace: “he shall speak peace unto the heathen: and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth (Zech. 9:10).” Thus, all their efforts were not pointless. That brick they were laying, that timber they were sawing, the wall they were constructing, were all preparatory to the coming reign of Messiah.

The Power of Preaching

The rebukes and admonitions of these prophets were helpful. God’s means of supporting you in your faith, and thus continuing His work in and through you, is the clear and visionary teaching of His Word. Preaching does this as it is applied to you, as God’s people, as you are exhorted unto action. The preaching of God’s Word is a help to you. As Matthew Henry put it, “The ministers of the gospel are the master-builders.”

Faithful preaching, then, keeps you in mind of two things. First, God sees everything. His eyes are on the righteous, His ears attentive to their call. All things are before Him. You cannot hide your sin from Him. But your enemies cannot hide you from His sight. When God’s Word is preached in truth and boldness, the result is that your faith is built up. We see here that the preaching of the prophets made the people certain of God’s attentiveness to their plight, and it made them conscientious of their sin. God’s eyes being upon us is both a comfort and a guard.

The second thing which faithful preaching accomplishes, which naturally follows from the first, is this: you are freed from the fear of the gaze of wicked men. How often have you been immobilized in doing what is true, good, and righteous because of how you think others might perceive you? How often have you capitulated to the emotional immaturity of others, failing to do what is right yourself in order to avoid their emotional outbursts? How often have you kept silent about the clear teaching of God’s Word because you think it might hurt your reputation, career, or opportunities? Faith in Christ frees you from all such fears. When the Gospel of Christ crucified, risen, and ascended is preached and believed you are made free. Free from the fear of God’s wrath, free from your shame, free from your guilty conscience, and free from the fear of man’s mockery.

Charge and Benediction

Faithful preaching is basically pointing. It first points to your sin, and then points to Christ. Some point at sin without pointing to the cross, and some preachers point to the cross as if it is a symbol of God’s love without consideration for the sin that necessitated the cross. Some point at sin and then point to self and think that self-righteousness can solve sin. This text points at discouragement and fear, and then it points to your God who watches over you with tender care.

MORE SERMONS FROM THIS SERIES

Wise Master Builder #4 | You Thought it Would Be Easy?

by Ben Zornes · Oct 6, 2025

Introduction

Muscle doesn’t develop without the resistance of heavy weight. Learning to play guitar requires building up calluses. Acquiring a new language demands the disorientation and confusion of a foreign grammar and vocabulary. But in all those instances, the resistance and difficulty is not a sign to stop. It isn’t a sign to give up. It is a sign to persevere.

The Text

Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity builded the temple unto the LORD God of Israel; Then they came to Zerubbabel, and to the chief of the fathers, and said unto them, Let us build with you: for we seek your God, as ye do; and we do sacrifice unto him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assur, which brought us up hither. But Zerubbabel, and Jeshua, and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel, said unto them, Ye have nothing to do with us to build an house unto our God; but we ourselves together will build unto the LORD God of Israel, as king Cyrus the king of Persia hath commanded us. […]

Ezra 4:1ff

Summary of the Text

After the joyful events of the previous chapter (536 BC), we find that the enemies hinted at in 3:3 spring into action (v1). They feign to Zerubbabel that they come as fellow-worshippers of God, offering both support, camaraderie, appealing to historic ties (v2). Zerubbabel and Jeshua return with a tart response not only refusing their help, but refuting their claims (v3). The enemies let their mask drop and begin a harassment campaign that weakened the hands of the Jews (vv4-5).

This harassment will continue through the entire project of rebuilding the temple and the city, beginning in Cyrus’ reign, and continuing through Darius’ (v5). Ezra includes an example how the opponents of the Jews successfully thwarted progress (vv6-23). These enemies took to writing complaint letters to the king. This is the same Darius that we meet in Daniel, although in verses 6-7 Ezra refers to him by his two throne names––Artaxerxes and Ahasuerus. The example letter has an impressive list of co-signers, likely meant to add weight and intimidate (vv8-11).

The substance of the letter accused the Jews of rebuilding the rebellious and bad city of Jerusalem, while also exaggerating their progress (v12). According to them, if Jerusalem is rebuilt, it will be both a political and financial headache for Darius (v13). At the beginning of Darius’ reign (522 BC) he faced, as many new kings do, various revolts across his empire. In the letter they cajole the king to search the archives and in so doing he will see how rebellious Jerusalem had been; it’s reputation for not playing well with others is why it had been destroyed (vv14-15). They warn the king that if he ignores this he will lose a significant realm of his empire (v16).

The king’s reply reveals that the schemes of the Jews’ enemies worked (vv17-22). He alludes to the reigns of David and Solomon revealing that Judah was considered a genuine threat to the Persian empire (v20). So, he decreed that the work must stop, even insisting that these belligerents of the Jews should see to it that the work grinds to a halt (vv21-22). Eager at having obtained their objective the enemies scurry to Jerusalem and by force and power stop the work (v23). All the good progress was halted, and doesn’t resume until Darius is able to make a further investigation, which is described in the next two chapters (v24).

How the Work is Opposed

You should never assume that the work of reformation and rebuilding can be undertaken without opposition. The Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of Man cannot be in a symbiotic relationship. There is no treaty between these enemy kingdoms. These saints were confronted with this reality as they got to work, and we can profitably learn from the opposition they faced. Throughout Ezra/Nehemiah are numerous strategies used against God’s people and their labors. This chapter presents us with three types of opposition: water down the work; hamstring the work; and discourage the work.

First, we see that the enemies endeavor to join them in the work, not out of sincerity, but in hopes of undermining and subverting it. This is an attempt to water down the work. The enemies want to hijack the good work of worshipping the Triune God and the cultivation of covenant community in order to make it palatable to their own ideology. This sort of compromise is all too familiar to us: Christian leaders who are coaxed to softening the edges of Gospel in order to appease donors. Parents who use Netflix to be their babysitter. Jesus had a term for this: unsalty salt. On this front we must recognize that while there are co-belligerents in our political battles, we must not, for any reason, water down the clear teaching of Scripture regarding the evils of sin and the goodness of the Gospel, roles for men and women, the blessing of a Christian education for faithful covenant children, and so on.

Second, they oppose the work by bureaucratic sabotage. It gets tied up in the courts. It gets questioned on technicalities. After all, we need to research the definition of “walls”. Let’s refer it to committee. Check the book of procedures. This form of opposition can be seen quite vividly in much of the law-fare which has been wielded against Christians. Think of the baker who wouldn’t bake a cake for gay mirages; or the Christian woman in the UK who was arrested for silently praying within the “safe zone” which surrounds abortion clinics; or our sister congregation in Troy who are tangled up with the city. These are all examples of real abuses of the rule of law, using laws and regulations to inhibit freedom, instead of law being a guardian of the right worship of the Triune God.

Lastly, in giving way to the threats of their enemies, God’s people oppose the work themselves by giving in to discouragement. This really is the most insidious, because it arises from within God’s people. The Hebrew idiom is quite apt, the efforts of the enemies “weakened the hands” of God’s people. External circumstances become a justification to these saints to simply stop what God had clearly paved the way for them to do. Notice that this discouragement was infectious. Instead of being strong and of good courage, like Joshua of old, they grew weak and discouraged. The sins of fear, anxiety, sloth, and apathy led to anemic worship and indifference to the righteous work before them.

The Danger of Discouragement

Discouragement comes in many forms. Externally you might see the various impediments which the enemies of Christ have erected. Whether it is the corruption and blackmail in our political system, or whether it is the pollution of our entertainment industry, or the compromise of our evangelical leaders and institutions. This can discourage you, and convince you to shuffle back to your little hovel and wait it out. Twiddle your thumbs til death takes you.

Discouragement can also arise internally from your own sin. You’ve perhaps been working hard to overcome some sin, and you’d been doing well for a while but you stumbled again. You might be tempted to give up the fight. You might be tempted to settle for life in the rubble. Your hand weakens in the fight. But this is to betray how small a view of your God you have. God stirred up a pagan king to pave the way for His church to be rebuilt. God ensnared Satan to crucify Christ, in order that Christ might destroy all of Satan’s kingdom. Christ reigns over all powers of earth and hell now. Christ offers forgiveness for all your sins, and has sent His omnipotent Spirit to enable you to war with your own flesh to overcome it for His glory.

Don’t Stop

So then, as we begin our own portion of this good work of building the Kingdom of Heaven, this is my charge to you. Do not relent. Do not grow discouraged. Do not set down the sword. Do not black-pill. Do not stop. We have children to nurture in the fear and admonition of the Lord. We have unbelievers who must hear the Gospel. We have sins to confess and overcome. We have a nation in desperate need of discipleship. We have nations who must be compelled to kiss the Son lest He be angry. We have the Living God to worship.

And we can do all this because the Lord Jesus is the King of kings, and He has commissioned us to undertake all this by His Spirit, for His glory, and with His mighty power at work in us. This is what it means to live by faith. Our King has tasked us to subdue our own wily hearts by the unrivaled glory of His Gospel, and to subdue the nations with the stunning Good News that through Christ we have been invited to dwell forever in the house of God that shall never be turned to rubble.

Charge and Benediction

Before the missionary, Jim Elliot, and his companions headed out to reach the unreached tribe which would eventually kill them, they gathered with their families and sang a fitting hymn. Here is the first stanza of that hymn:

We rest on thee, our Shield and our Defender!
We go not forth alone against the foe;
strong in thy strength, safe in thy keeping tender,
we rest on thee, and in thy name we go.

Ephesians 3:20-21