Ben Zornes

Living and Dying to Show the Preciousness of Christ

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Hunger for Righteousness

Hunger for Righteousness

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Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness (Mt. 5:6). In this bread and wine You are offered a blessing. The blessing is of a refreshment––a satisfaction––which cannot be derived from mere bread or mere wine. The refreshment and blessing which you crave is only found in righteousness. It is found in right standing with God.

But check your pockets. All you’ll find there are the grimy leaves of self-righteousness. Audit your moral books. You’ll only find a ledger covered in red ink: ethical debts you can’t repay, good work checks that have bounced, well-intentioned I.O.U.’s which remain unfulfilled.

The blessing which accompanies this meal is that those who are fed up with their own righteousness will be fed with Christ’s righteousness. This meal gives rest from works righteousness. 

You hunger and thirst to be accepted by God, and here is the token that those that have put on Christ by faith are reckoned as righteous by God the Father. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are blessed, because they will be satisfied. You can be satisfied because in Christ, God the Father is satisfied with you. As Paul states in 2 Corinthians 5:21 – “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”

So come in faith, and welcome to Jesus…

A New King

A New King

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When Lewis and Clark were commissioned to explore the Louisiana Purchase, their primary purpose was to map the territory. However, one of their other assignments was to announce to the various tribes that they had a new chief: President Jefferson. We see in Lewis and Clark’s task a parable of the Christian’s calling.

Christ purchased the world by His death, resurrection and ascension. Every person, tribe, and nation of this earth is to be informed that what they used to view as their territory, their kingdom, their nation is now under new management. The Christian’s task is to go into all the world to proclaim that there is now a new King over all, and every other chief, king, president, mayor, father, and parent is now subservient to this King.

Jesus is the crowned king of the earth. This meal we eat proclaims Christ’s death until He comes. When you eat this meal, you are proclaiming that your life is no longer your own, Jesus is King of your heart. But this also has import for every social order of mankind. When we eat this we proclaim that Christ is King of Your family. He is King of Idaho. He is King of North America. He is King of communist China, squalid Haiti, and affluent Luxembourg. He’s King  of it all.

His death, proclaimed by this meal, was the purchase price for this world. The nations of this world must now reckon with the irrefutable fact that as tenants of Christ’s world they must either submit to His reign of peace, joy, and blessing, or else face the hot displeasure of His wrath for refusing to acknowledge His rightful reign over them. The range of His kingdom is from shore to shore, and every nation, tribe, and tongue must one day confess, and every knee must bow, and acknowledge that He indeed is the rightful King. 

So come in faith, and welcome to Jesus…

Do Not Forget

Do Not Forget

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In the Psalmist’s account of Israel’s exodus we’re told that, they believed [God’s] words; and they sang his praise. But the Psalmist goes on to underscore that: “They soon forgat his works; they waited not for his counsel (Psa 106:12-13).”

Scripture repeatedly commands us to forget not: “Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God (Deu. 8:11).” “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits (Psa. 103:2).” “My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments (Pro. 3:1).” “But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased (Heb. 13:16 NKJV).” 

Right now you are breathing the crisp, clear air of Mount Zion; but as you descend from the height of worshipping in the shadow of the Most High, the air thickens. Our brains are muddled by the cares of life, the temptations of sin, the slog of routine. As one hymnodist put it, “prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.” 

This is why we’re reminded over and over again to remember––to not forget––the covenantal union which joins us to Christ, and Christ to us. Our weekly service culminates in the Lord’s Supper precisely for this reason. It’s a renewal and a reminder of the covenant which we are in. Christ commanded us to eat this meal in remembrance of Him, and Covenant Renewal ensures that in the ebb & flow of our week, there’s a liturgical reminder of Whose we are, and what we’re called to. We belong to Christ. We are called “accepted in the beloved (Eph. 1:6).” We are a holy people, called to sing the praise of Him who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Pt. 2:9).

So come in faith, and welcome to Jesus…

The Two Parts of Repentance

The Two Parts of Repentance

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Repentance is a two part act of faith. First, it turns from sin, and second, it pursues after God. First, it mortifies, second, it vivifies. First, it sees how vile, wicked, and deadly sin is, second, it flees to God, to enjoy the light of His glory.  First, it reviles the sin, second, it hungers and thirsts for righteousness.

Repentance is incomplete if it only sees sin as bad, turns from it, and sits there. Many times, we want to turn our back to sin, but not budge an inch away from it…after all, sin gives the best back rubs. But true, evangelical repentance, after seeing how bad sin is, turns away from it in godly fear, and seeks after God. It turns from vice, to seek after virtue.

Halfway repentance sees that the table of sin is spread with moldy jams, rotten roasts, bread made from sawdust, with maggots and cockroaches crawling over all of it. Halfway repentance will turn away from this putrid “feast,” but it sticks around for the company. Full repentance is revolted by sin’s feast, turns away from it, and runs––full-tilt––to this table.

You must not only feel bad for your sin, you must savor Christ. You must not only flee from the death which your sin deserves, but you must cling to the life which is found in Jesus. You must forsake your sin, and feed your faith upon the Lamb of God. Have you despised your sin? Have you grieved over how it  offends a holy God? Well and good. Repentance must not stop there. True repentance will always make its way to this meal; to the body and blood of our Lord Jesus.

So come in faith, and welcome to Jesus…

Not a Plastic Jesus

Not a Plastic Jesus

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Responsible parents put the power tools, strong drinks, firearms, and toxic cleaning supplies out the reach of our children. We kid-proof our homes as much as possible. Ironically, we buy them toy power tools, cap-guns, and pretend cleaning supplies. We don’t hand them a bottle of whiskey and say, “knock yourself out, junior.” But, give them some apple juice in a shot glass and they’ll pretend they are “oh so grown up.” 

It is striking, however, that while it is good and right to kid-proof our homes. God doesn’t kid-proof His home. This table isn’t us pretending to partake of Christ, we are really partaking of Him. We are God’s children. Our Father hands us something far more potent than any chop-saw, Lysol, Ak-47, or Jack Daniels you have at home, and tells us to partake. This isn’t plastic Jesus, pretend Jesus, or psudeo-Jesus. Our Father gives us the real thing. He doesn’t water it down or buy that cheap knock-off version. 

The reason we kid-proof our homes is so that our children are best taken care of. God cares for us by giving us undiluted Gospel. The best thing for a child of God is to feel the prick of conviction, the warning against sin, the comfort of the Gospel, the potent kick of Christ indwelling and enthroned. This bread and wine packs quite the punch, and our Father wants the full dosage for His children.

This is why you need to form the habit of of preaching the Gospel to yourself. Meditate upon it, think about it, apply it, believe it. If you don’t preach this whole Gospel to yourself, Satan will be happy to preach half the Gospel to you. Either he’ll rub your sin in your face telling you how filthy and vile you are, accusing you of all your guilt, convincing you that God would never accept you as you are. OR he preaches to you how good you are, how God must be so proud of you, you’ve got your act so together, God could never find any fault with you, unlike all these other shlubs. He loves to offer you a plastic Gospel, a fake Gospel, a half Gospel. The plastic Gospel of accusation, or the plastic Gospel of self-righteousness, are both poison on their own.

The fact is, you need to preach the full Gospel to yourself daily. You are a guilty sinner, but Christ has reconciled you. You are loved by God, but not for your own goodness. It’s grace alone by which you are saved. The Father wants you to down the whole, potent Gospel. With all its power, efficacy, and truth. Satan is content to let you settle for his watered down half-truth, version of the Gospel.

Horror and Joy

Horror and Joy

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C.S. Lewis once made this striking observation, “Every temple in the world, the elegant Parthenon at Athens and the holy temple at Jerusalem, was a sacred slaughterhouse. […] But […] if temples smelled of blood, they also smelled of roast meat; they struck a festive & homely note, as well as a sacred.”Reflections on the Psalms, Chapter 5 Lewis is quite right here. Ancient religions––even Judaism––were marked by the shedding of blood as a vital worship ritual. 

Some cultures and empires were less cruel than others in the sort of blood offered to the gods; the human sacrifices of the Aztecs make the day of Yom Kippur look quaint by comparison. But one thing shouldn’t escape our notice: the sacrificial system was a horror. Even amongst God’s people––restrained by His holy law––the blood-letting of countless animals, causing the temple stairs to turn into a river of blood would likely make even the most stout-hearted rancher here get a little queasy. 

But accompanying all the sacrificial blood was the festive aroma of meat over fire. Calvary was a horror. Our nativity scenes don’t always capture the nuance that the baby in the feeding-troff was a lamb to be slaughtered. The Lamb Who was offered up to become a pleasing aroma in the Lord’s nostrils. Justice would be satisfied. Joyful festivities might commence.

This table reminds us of both the horror of God the Son, bleeding out for the remission of sins, and the savory aroma of a victory feast. God, through the Son’s blood, has made His enemies His friends, and now invites us to share in this bountiful meal, celebrating His triumph. Both the horror and joy are on this table. The somber note of the grievousness of our sins and the great price paid to forgive them, turns into the trumpet blast of the celebration begun.

So come and welcome to Jesus…

Years in Preparation

Years in Preparation

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The bread on this table took months, if not years, to arrive here. A farmer bought seeds, planted them, nurtured them, harvested the wheat, sent it to the granary, it was milled into flour, which a baker then turned into bread, which a trucker delivered to the grocer, and then our faithful deacons purchased it and readied it for us all this morning. 

The wine is much the same. A vineyard nurtured its vines for years, harvested the grapes, pressed them into juice, and fermented it for perhaps decades. The point is…this meal took years to prepare.

And, what this meal represents also took years––millennia, in fact––to prepare. God’s goal in history is His own glory by redeeming for Himself a people through the atoning sacrifice of His Son. From the fall onward, God was preparing this meal. He promised a serpent-crusher to Eve. He promised a starry host to Abraham. He promised a passover lamb to Moses. He promised an eternal kingdom to David. He promised Immanuel to Isaiah. 

As Paul put it, “When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons (Gal 4:4-5).” In the fullness of time, God the Father set the table, the supper was ready. The meal upon it was His only begotten Son, come to redeem us, and make us His sons and daughters. All human history was guided by His sovereign hand to prepare this meal for you.

So come and welcome to Jesus…

Ben Zornes