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Thomas, the Skeptic

Ben Zornes on July 16, 2017

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Sermon Text: John 20:27-29

Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.”And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”  Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

 

Introduction:
How does rappelling serve as a test of faith? What is a free hand? What purpose does a belayer play?

How can the person rappelling get the most out of their rappel?

 

Texts:
What are similar about the two texts containing interaction with Thomas? John 11 and 20

Why might John have taken so much of his gospel ‘space’ to include Thomas’ comments?  How is this connected to the resurrection?

What does Jesus mean when He talks about there only being 12 hours in the day?  What connection does He have to the light of day?

What kind of ‘evidence’ did Thomas have which he rejected as inadequate?  How does it compare to the evidence that we have?

What did the Jewish leaders do with the same evidence?

How did Jesus show mercy to Thomas despite his cynicism?

What is it that Thomas missed that Jesus doesn’t what us to miss?

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Wisdom For A Harvest of Righteousness

Ben Zornes on July 9, 2017

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Text: James 3:1-18

Introduction
How do you live as a Christian? It takes wisdom says James and the kind of wisdom that comes from above. Wisdom is working faith does faithful work. James has already spoken about faithful work in your trials and temptations, being quick to listen, slow to speak, caring for the poor and defenseless, loving your neighbor as yourself. James will now have a thing or two to say about how we use our words. Do you get the sense that it’s all important––every part of your life matters. Christ has given you life so Christ should be in all your life. That takes God-given wisdom, the wisdom from above. The result of wisdom––a working faith that does faithful work–– is a harvest of righteousness.

 

Stumbling Teachers and Tongues (vs. 1-2)
James opens with a general warning to his readers that not many of them should become teachers (vs 1). The reason for this is that teachers will be judged with greater strictness. Teachers have great influence with their position, especially in their use of words, so they should take extra care.

The health of your tongue is an accurate indicator for the health of your body (vs 2). Just imagine that you are now sitting on the doctor’s examination chair with the crinkly paper, and Dr. James wheels up to you and he says, “Stick out your tongue. I want to see the state of your soul.” The words of your mouth reveal the condition of your heart.This prognosis is confirmed by the Great Physician Jesus, “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks” (Lk. 6:45). Words are eternally important and powerful. And so James wants us to understand what we’re dealing with.

Little, But Powerful (vs. 3-5)
James observes that little tongues do great things. Three metaphors make his point: little bits control strong horses (vs 3), little rudders turn mighty ships (vs 4), little sparks ignite vast fires (vs 5).

Deadly and Untamed (vs. 6-9)
The tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness (vs 6). For James, The world is the structure of life set up in contradiction to God’s life and God’s righteousness. James asks in chapter 4, “Don’t you know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?” James says that pure and undefiled religion before God is to keep yourself unstained from the world (1:27). And yet, we have a world of unrighteousness contained between our teeth that stains the whole body. If the tongue is unchecked, if the fire is not quenched, then your whole life will be consumed and eventually crackle in the fires of hell. The tongue is deadly and is capable of death. And it can’t be tamed. There’s a Crocodile Dundee for every crocodile and a snake charmer for every snake and sea world trainer to every killer whale, but no human can tame the tongue (vs 7-8). Beyond that, the tongue is schizophrenic, blessing God and cursing the image of God (v. 9).

 

The Source (vs. 10-12)
James asks some common sense questions to get to the source of the problem. “Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.” Look to the source of the spring, look to the trunk, look to the vine, look to the heart. Good words come from a good heart. Evil worlds from an evil heart. Righteous words from a righteous heart. World-stained words from a world-stained heart.

This should cause both deep fear and great hope. What chance do you have to scrub the stain of sin from your own heart? The problem is not the chunk of muscle and taste buds in your head, but the desires of your heart. This can only be addressed by wisdom from above.

 

Wisdom from Below, Wisdom from Above (13-18)
“Who is wise and understanding among you?” Wisdom is a working faith doing faithful work (vs 13). What if bitter jealousy and selfish ambition seep from your heart? You don’t have real wisdom even if you claim you do. “This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic” (vs. 15).

Wisdom from above comes first as “pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere” (vs 17). This kind of life produces a harvest of righteousness. What happens to this harvest of righteousness? It is given for the life of others. Life is given when wisdom is sown, and then life is given again when wisdom is reaped.

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The Lord of Glory Not Partiality

Ben Zornes on June 18, 2017

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Text: James 2:1-13

Introduction
James addresses a problem he saw in the early church and one that still rots relationships today––the sin of partiality. Partiality is a sneaky sin that James exposes with the Gospel. Because Jesus is the Lord of glory who gives glory, then don’t show or seek the false glory from partiality.

The Lord of Glory (1-4)
The command is this: don’t show partiality (vs. 1). Partiality is your treatment or attitude toward someone based on the wrong value you place on them. By wrong value, I mean the value assigned by the world’s judgment and not by God’s judgment. James gives an example in verses 2-3. Suppose two men come into the church meeting, one is a swanky guy with nice threads and blinged out with jewelry and the other is poor man in stained clothes. If the greeting team shows special treatment to the rich guy while ignoring or insulting the poor man, they’ve shown partiality.

James says this is inconsistent with the faith you hold in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory (vs. 1). Your playing favorites and your faith in Jesus are not compatible. This is because they are competing sources of glory––glory from the Lord and glory from man. As a Christian, Jesus is your glory—all the glory you need.

What’s so bad about partiality then? Partiality attempts to replace or supplement God’s standard of judgment with another standard that man creates. God’s standard says sinners are accepted because of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Partiality looks to add something for that guy to be accepted by you. You look to the clothing, the hair style, the personal hygiene, the car, the different church, or any external criteria, and then, based on that additional standard, make a judgement on the value of that person and so make “distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts” (vs. 4).

 

The Poor Made Rich (5-7)
James lists a couple reasons why partiality is contrary to the Gospel. God has chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom (vs. 5). Jesus wasn’t a spiritual snob so you can’t be one. If Jesus valued the poor enough to die for them, then you need to value them enough to talk to, eat with, encourage, love. “But you have dishonored the poor man…and don’t you realize what these rich guys do you?” (vs. 6-7) Those with wealth and power and position are the ones who harass Christians. They oppress you, drag you to court, and blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called. And you want to buddy up to these guys?

The Lord and His Royal Law (8-11)

James reinforces his charge by appealing to the royal law. “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” is quoted from Leviticus 19:18. The royal law is based on the character of the Lord. God says, “I am the Lord, therefore love your neighbor as your yourself.” In the first verses, James says to not show favoritism among Christians, and now he expands this beyond the bounds of brothers. You are to love your neighbor. We need to think in the categories God uses instead of the labels we slap on people. This is because your judgments often justify your actions. If you label the people down your street as “the druggies,” then you justify staying safely behind the curtains judging away. But if they are “your neighbors,” then what should you do? You love them, which fulfills the royal law.

You can’t pick and choose the laws you want to keep (or break). The law is like a large plate of glass. If there’s a single hole or crack anywhere in the glass, then the whole plate is broken (vs. 11).

Judgment of Mercy (12-13)

James concludes, “So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty” (vs. 12). Remember what law this is? This is the law of liberty, the perfect law of James 1:25. You will still be judged, but you will be judged in mercy. You will be judged as one already assured of the verdict that you are free. So live in the liberty of this law which says “Do not show partiality.” Those who make distinctions, acting as judges, ought to remember that they themselves will also be judged. The standard you have applied to others will be applied to you. Has your judgement of others been harsh? Then you will be judged harshly. Have you been merciful? Then look for mercy. The final statement is good news. For those who hold their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory, mercy triumphs over judgment.

 

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Apostles Creed 1: I Believe

Ben Zornes on June 11, 2017

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What we now know as the Apostles Creed descended from an earlier form of the creed, known as the Old Roman Symbol. The beginning of the creed dates from as early as the second century. We do not have any direct evidence that it was penned by any of the apostles, but it is an admirable summary of the apostolic teaching.

Introduction:
Most of the sermons preached at Christ Church are expositional, and seek to unfold and apply the meaning of a text of Scripture. Sometimes the messages are topical, and various passages of Scripture are brought to bear on the selected theme. This is a bit different. It is an expositional message of an uninspired text, but the thing that makes it a sermon is that this uninspired text is going to be used as the basis for the selected themes we will then treat, gathering the teaching of Scripture from all over as we go. We are going to be working through the Apostles Creed, phrase by phrase.

The Text:
I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the Holy Ghost, and born of the virgin, Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into Hades. On the third day He rose again from the dead, ascended into Heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Summary of the Text:
The first two words of the Creed are individual and personal. I believe. The Creed began as the confession that men and women would make upon their baptism, and so it is, as baptism is individual, so also the confession is individual. I believe.

Sole Instrument:
The noun form of this word in the New Testament is pistis, and the verb form is pisteuo. In order to get the same connotations in English, we have to use words with different roots. The word faith presupposes genuine faith, but believe doesn’t quite have the same force. “Everyone should believe in something. I believe I’ll have another drink.” To get the force if the New Testament usage, we would say something like I trust.

In Scripture, the sole instrument for apprehending all God’s blessings is faith. This begins in the first instance with justification, but it extends throughout our lives. “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law” (Rom. 3:28).

But it is not the case that faith is some kind of a nanosecond thing at the beginning of the Christian life, disappearing immediately after. “Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” (Gal. 3:3). We walk as Christians the same way we became Christians, which is by trusting God.

The Spirit is the one who enables us to do anything worthwhile, and He accompanies us throughout our lives. And the power of the Spirit is available to us through faith, and only through faith. “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.” (Rom. 1:17).

There are two crucial things to note here. One is that the righteousness of God is revealed by faith, from first to last. There is no other way for it to be revealed. The second is that faith undergirds absolutely everything spiritual in our lives—the righteous will live by faith.

The Elements of Faith:
There are three elements to genuine faith, or to genuine believing. They are knowledge, assent, and trust (notitia, assensus, and fiducia). The first is awareness of the content of what is to be believed. The second is intellectual assent to it. The last is trusting in it. When you have all three together, and the object of faith is the truth of God, you are looking at a gift of God.

A Gift of God:
In our own fallen nature, we are incapable of trusting God. This is a moral inability, not a natural inability. We cannot trust God because we don’t want to trust Him. But our hearts are fully capable of trusting. They just aren’t capable of trusting anything good. If I could repent and believe with my old heart, then it is plain that I wouldn’t need a new heart.

This is why Scripture teaches that saving faith is a gift of God. We don’t gin it up ourselves. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Eph. 2:8–9). “For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake;” (Phil. 1:29). “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith” (Rom. 12:3).

The Object of Faith:
You have heard a number of times from me that there is no virtue or strength in a transitive verb. Everything depends on the nature of the direct object. What would you rather have? “I have bigfaith in puny object,” or “I have punyfaith in big object”? What is the difference between the early inventor with Batman wings jumping off a bridge, and a nervous and panicked little granny flying across the country in a 747? If we compared the size of their faith, the guy on the bridge has more.

Sara was able to conceive because “she judged him faithful who had promised.” (Heb. 11:11). And this is why Jesus taught us the mustard seed principle. “And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you” (Luke 17:6).

Is your faith alive? And is it resting in the appropriate object? And of course the only appropriate object of faith is Christ Himself.

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Christ Alone

Ben Zornes on May 28, 2017

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Psalm 62
1. Declaration of trust in God (vv.1-2; 5-7)
– God as my rock, salvation, strong tower, glory, and refuge.

 

2. Context of that trust in God: Opposition of the wicked (3-4)
– flattering lips and cursing hearts

 

3. Exhortation to trust in God and not man (8-10)
– trust at all times
– trust includes pouring out your hearts
– man as vapour

 

4. Mercy and Strength belong to God.

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