Ben Zornes

Living and Dying to Show the Preciousness of Christ

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Ending Bloodthirst

Ending Bloodthirst

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In Moses’ Law, God restricted Israel from eating blood. A few things are readily obvious in this. First, this ought not to tangle you up with guilt if you prefer your steaks done rare. Rather, this guarded Israel from participating in the occultism of the demon worshipping nations around them. The literal blood-thirst of paganism imagined that drinking a slain beast’s blood would impart the vitality of that beast to you. Even more darkly, the heathen practice of drinking the blood of other humans was a twisted hope for grasping after eternal life.

The Altar of the Lord alone was the lawful place to offer up sacrificial blood. To partake of ritual blood for yourself would be to make a covenant claim that you can assuage your own guilt. If your sin demands death, offering another’s blood to yourself is a claim to sovereignty, setting yourself up as your own judge & pretentiously becoming your own mediator. This is just part of why God forbid this practice. The blood belonged on His Altar, reminding the worshipper that guilt deserved death, but God received the creature’s blood as the worshipper’s substitute. But this arrangement only worked because God covenanted with His people, establishing these terms according to His sovereign will.

When Christ came as the fulfillment of all these laws & ordinances, He surprises us with a command to drink wine as a covenant sign of His blood. While Moses outlawed the partaking of ritual blood, Jesus invites us to drink this covenant blood, every last drop.

Life is in the blood. Until Christ, the blood of guiltless beasts was required. But now, an eternal sacrifice has been made. You drink this covenant sign of the blood of another, and it’s not some dark & twisted way to wrest eternal life from God’s Hand. Because this blood was shed by the Son of God’s own hand.

So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ…

Space Debris

Space Debris

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You find yourself living in what might seem like a field of space debris. For the last few generations, mankind has sought to find a locus for meaning outside of the Triune God. Darwin, Freud, and Marx have ushered in a fractured world. It is full of unelected bureaucrats ruling in tyranny and unrighteousness. The blood of the unborn cry out to the Lord from hospital dumpsters. We’re surrounded by a frenzy of sexual confusion & mutilation.

We have found what every godless culture from Babel to the Hitler’s Germany inevitable finds. The center will not hold if the center is not Christ.

As the bread is broken, and the wine is poured, God confronts you with the center of the universe. Here, on this simple table covered with a white tablecloth, in these baskets and tray, is the focal point of existence, the hope of eternity, the meaning of the material world, the answer to the questions, the rhyme & the reason. Christ died for you. Christ shed His blood for you. Christ plunged down into the swamp of death & depravity in order to resurrect mankind in Himself.

If you try to orbit any other focal point you will find, sooner or later, that you are flying off into the coldness of deepest space. But here is the Sun. Here is the warmth of God reconciled to man through Christ, and sealed to us by the Spirit. Here is an eternal weight of glory, with more than enough gravitational pull to hold all things in their place. And you, by grace, are invited to draw near to the center of it all.

The philosophies of men, the schemes of the wicked, the plots of the arrogant will only result in aimless drifting. But in Christ, all things find their proper orbit.

So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ…

Riches of Gold & Riches of Grace

Riches of Gold & Riches of Grace

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This may be a bit of an odd topic for a communion meditation, but hang with me here, let’s talk about money. Wealth is a good thing. However, the glitter of gold often reveals the state of someone’s heart. The overly pious pretend as if it’s intrinsically evil to grow wealth. Meanwhile, godless men are eaten alive by insatiable greed. Posturing yourself as above the need for wealth is often an instance of pride; you deceive yourself with the illusion that you’ve transcended the material world. Often, this feigned contentment, is really hidden resentment for those wealthier than you. And certainly, Wall St. tycoons, Meme-stock geeks, and $1 Billion lotto winners are frequently guilty of putting faith in uncertain riches.

But when you see by faith the wealth upon this table, you also come to see material wealth rightly. You can only build your wealth under the blessing of the Lord through faithful diligence & generosity, if you first understand how incomparable it is to the wealth of God’s kindness to you through Christ. Scripture doesn’t speak of gold derisively. However, the desirability of gold is to be dwarfed by your desire for God’s Word.

“I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches. … Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever: for they are the rejoicing of my heart. … Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold. … I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great spoil. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. (Ps. 119:14, 111, 127, 162; 19:10, Cf. Pro. 16:16).”

In Jesus Christ you partake of all the riches of God’s grace. That great treasure horde of Christ enables you to freely & rightly enjoy all the blessings of earthly wealth; because you know that gold shall perish, but the Word of the Lord shall endure forever.

So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ…

Most Blessed Forever

Most Blessed Forever

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In the conquerors hymn of Psalm 21, David describes the glory which the Lord had given to him in his various victories. But these descriptions find their fullest meaning when applied to David’s Son, our Lord Jesus, for David says: “Thou hast made him most blessed for ever: thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance (Psa 21:6).”

God sets glory upon glory upon His Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ. The Father’s countenance beams upon His Son, and in this text we see that this is reciprocated by the Son with exceeding gladness. The Father beams upon His Son, the Son basks with joy in His Father’s delight.

This superlative description is, if anything, understated. Jesus is most blessed forever. And He is not a miser. He does not hoard this blessing for Himself. He is to be praised for from Him all blessings flow. He is the sun which fills the world with light. He is like the air in the atmosphere, like the water in the oceans. Wherever He goes, He leaves a wake of blessings without bounds.

This should come home with sweet potency to each one of us. The One who God ordained to be most blessed forever, is the One placed before you now in these signs of bread & wine. You partake of Christ, the Father’s joy & anointed. You partake of Christ who receives the Father’s love with exceeding gladness. You partake of Christ, who was once humbled unto death, but is now raised to rule & reign as the conqueror of heaven & earth, resplendent with endless joy, crowned with a crown of pure gold, full of the Father’s pleasure.

You do not feed upon leftover crumbs. You feast here upon the divine & triune joy which flows back and forth from Father, Son, & Spirit.

So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ…

The Fire-Light

The Fire-Light

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Some shroud this meal in mystery and dark clouds of unknowable mists. It is thought that the sacraments should be vague, shadowy, and too high for the common man to contemplate. But this is contrary to the entire warp & woof of Scripture’s revelation. 

In the wonderful works of God, His Spirit always brings the light of glory. When God made the world, the Trinity in Unity was at work. The Father presiding & speaking, the Word upholding, and the Spirit bringing light & life in the darkness and formlessness of the world.

Once more, when God cut a covenant with Abram, the glory of the Spirit appeared as a smoking furnace & burning pot passing through the divided animals, bringing covenantal light and assurance to Abram. To a thousand generations, God’s blessing was promised to this man who had come out from Ur of the Chaldees. 

When Moses set up the the tabernacle, and all was in accordance with God’s revealed will on Sinai, fire-light fell. Showcasing that God’s presence would indeed dwell in the midst of His people. And once again at Solomon’s temple, the fire-light of the Spirit consumed the sacrifice and filled the temple with glory.

All of this was foreshadowing the glory-fire that came to dwell within us by Christ sending forth his Spirit on the glorious day of Pentecost. In the coming of the Spirit, the fire-light of God’s glory had come. Christ’s earthly work & ministry, in obedience to the Father, was ratified by the tongues of fire on Pentecost. True comfort had come, for the Comforter had come to dwell in all of God’s people. 

In this meal, the glory-light of the Spirit descends to shine once more. As we behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, the Spirit shines in us, as we taste the bread of assurance, and drink the wine of Gospel comfort.

So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ.

Good Enough to Be True

Good Enough to Be True

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Christ is Lord. This is the essential Christian confession. He is Lord of heaven & earth, because by Him all things live and move and have their being. And by Him redemption is held out to mankind. This statement, though incontrovertible, has always been controversial. Evil men have long sought to stamp out those who confess that Christ is Lord, because it means that they aren’t Lord. If you aren’t Lord, that means you have to stop sinning against the true Sovereign.

Nevertheless, we know that when we look at this table, we look at the spoils of the long war between the seed of serpent and the seed of the woman. Here is the blood bought grace and favor of God. God looks on Christ and pardons you. Not only does He pardon You, He says, “There is no spot in thee (Sg. 4:7).” Christ has received all things from His Father, and He is reigning there, at the Father’s right hand, and this means that all is yours (1 Cor. 3:12).

But we often stutter and stammer and qualify such staggering statements. Could this really be? Is it even possible that wretch though I am I can partake of all the riches of the favor and delight which God has in His Son? This bread & wine is your assurance. God gives you everything, because He has given you Christ.

Forgiveness? Yours. Unashamed faces? Yours. Boldness in prayer? Yours. Strength to resist sin? Yours. Power to overcome this world? Yours. Life in this world & the next? Yours.

This is why wicked men rail against the Gospel. They want to hold your sin over your head. They want you to join in their sin to assuage their own guilty conscience. They want to be able to manipulate, cajole, and compromise others. But since Christ is Lord, you’ve been freed from all that.

So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ…

To You & Your Children

To You & Your Children

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As you raise your children in a congregation that communes baptized children from their early days, you ought to be aware of a few things. Your kids are growing up in a setting where this is normal. This position is, admittedly, a bit in the minority when it comes to broader scope of the Christian landscape.

This being the case, we ought to make sure we understand, from Scripture, why we believe our baptized children should come along to this table. Simultaneously, we ought not give our opponents ammo for discrediting our position by falling into the very pitfalls which they warn us of. It does no good to tout how important it is to view our children as members of the covenant and then have them grow into damnable fools, heretics, and scallawags. 

Scripture tells us that Israel’s feasts were familial & didactic. At Passover, a child of the family was tasked with asking the question “What do you mean by this service (Ex. 12:26)?” The early church is described as breaking the bread together in households (Acts 2:46, 20:7). To exclude children would be to break with Scriptural precedent. Scripture doesn’t withhold the Supper from any except for the lazy man who won’t provide for his family or the excommunicated.

The simple theological argument is this. If you place the sign of covenant inclusion upon them, why withhold the sign of covenant partaking from them? All who belong to Christ, should receive Christ.

Now for the warning. This meal is a blessing. But blessings received in unbelief turn into curses. Bread received without evangelical faith becomes stone. Wine received without true trust in God’s promises becomes cyanide. The Almighty Christ offers Himself to you here. So young & old, parents & children, saints one & all: trust that all You need is all that Christ is.

So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ…

Ben Zornes