Tag: Ezekiel

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A New Heart – Ezekiel 36:26-27

“Once an eater, always an eater.” The world around us is very cynical when it comes to the ability of people to change. It’s not unreasonable, when you look at all the high profile failures and broken trust across the landscape. At the core of this cynicism is a focus on the externals, what other people see, rather than thinking about ourselves and others from the inside out. But that is the core of the work of the Holy Spirit – and that is the kind of work that only the Holy Spirit can do.

We believe in the power of transformation and renewal, but all around us we see decay and oppression and dishonesty and often-justified cynicism.

Calluses are built up to protect our skin, hands and especially feet. We build up calluses emotionally as well, and to some degree that is healthy. We need to be able to “gird ourselves up” and persevere through difficulties. If we felt everything, we would not be able to function.

But the life and words of Christ call us to something higher. We see this perhaps most clearly on the cross, where in the midst of pain, torture and death He has the grace and presence to extend forgiveness to his tormentors.

When we think about being like Christ, though, we tend to think of striving and powering through. But that itself is the opposite of the softness and empathy that we are called to be renewed into.

And that renewal in some ways feels more necessary than ever, with the pandemic accelerating trends in declining church participation and upending our understanding of how and what and who church should be.

We need our heart of stone transformed into a heart of flesh, a soft heart. All the “woke” beliefs and activism will accomplish nothing if they do not spring from a soft heart. We have developed calluses from how we have been hurt, and we need to take the time to mourn that hurt and loss and betrayal. We need God to breath new life into our dry bones.

What are those places of death in our hearts that keep us from experiencing a renewed experience of God? Let us ask God for that gift of renewal, for that heart of flesh.

– Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, July 24, 2022

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Sanctification – Ezekiel 37:23-28

This passage may seem familiar – it’s a reiteration of themes first brought up earlier in the book, but with further developments.

He begins with the assertion that the people of Israel will no longer be defiled by idols – not only representations of pagan deities, but anything that our hearts are likely to put ahead of God, even good things. God promises to, in the fullness of time, remove these temptations from the people of Israel. Likewise, they will be rescued from the backsliding that was the hallmark of their relationship with God since Sinai.

Ezekiel is telling us that the sanctification of God goes beyond the elimination of sin but rather retools things all the way into our minds and hearts.

God makes a covenant promise to bring about this sanctification, as well as to unify the people of Israel and to drive the land to increase its abundance.

But we have hints here that this means more than material blessings – a promise of an everlasting covenant, God’s sanctuary among His people forever. On this side of Christ we see how this covenant is fulfilled in His life, death and resurrection, as well as His body, the Church. We are given all these promises and filled up with all manner of good things. Not all of that itself is fully realized, but one day it will be.

The discussion of the sanctuary among His people is a new addition the Ezekiel’s discussion here, a call back to Moses and the creation of the tabernacle, as well as to the temple of Solomon. These buildings were pictures of God’s presence with His people, but also discrete connection points for His presence and the center of His worship. With the coming of the Holy Spirit, each believer becomes that connection point and that center of worship. And that worship goes far beyond singing, but to all that we do that express the worth of God. His sanctuary is in the midst of us and in the midst of our day to day reality, and He is deserving of all that reality bending towards Him.

This sanctuary picture is the polar opposite of the idolatry from earlier in the passage. Those things we put ahead of God are the things we are called to lay down at the feet of Jesus. A heart of worship, yielding everything in our lives to Him – that is our response to these promises and to their fulfillment in Christ.

But even that response is the work of God, because as Ezekiel states here, He is “the Lord who sanctifies Israel.” Peter puts it this way – “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

– Sermon Notes, Jeff Sickles, Snohomish Evangelical Free Church, Snohomish, WA, December 26, 2021

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The Divine Gift – Ezekiel 34:23-31

Every year, there is an annual conference of a summit of Nobel peace prize laureates. They discuss things that can be done to create a more peaceful world. It’s fascinating that this is not reported on more. They give out an award every year to an entertainer who has made an effort towards peace. It’s strange we don’t hear more about this, but the better news is that we know someone even more qualified to speak on the topic of peace.

Ezekiel here calls ahead to the peace brought by the Prince of Peace, the Christ. Ezekiel lays out three key principles regarding this peace.

First, God will appoint a shepherd. The image of shepherd was poignant and powerful to the people of Israel, with its roots in herding going back centuries. Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David – all worked as shepherds. Beyond that, God Himself is spoken of as the shepherd of Israel all across the law and prophets, most notably perhaps in psalm 23. The import of the imagery here is difficult for us to grasp in our environment and culture. It may help to consider the more recent image of a cowboy – romanticized, rough and rugged out in the wild, but rough-edged and not always pleasant to be around.

But Ezekiel lays out here that God will appoint a shepherd, a king in the mold of David – the perfect leader who will care for his people. Peter later calls Jesus the “chief shepherd”.

Who we follow is important. We can follow others, follow ourselves, or follow Christ. Who do we go to first, who is our instinct to rely upon?

But God does not stop at supplying a leader – he also supplies abundance and security. No fear of wild animals, abundant crops, plenty of provision and rescue from their enemies. Abundance of security, of prosperity, of freedom. Stephen Covey coined the concepts of the Scarcity Mindset versus the Abundance Mindset – seeing life as a series of investments rather than costs. That is extra-true for us who follow the God of the universe, who owns the cattle on a thousand hills. We have been given life – abundantly! It does not get smaller when we live some of it. When we do grace and righteousness and kindness they do not get smaller, but rather gets bigger.

If we don’t see that, it may be because we spend more time considering what we don’t have rather than what we do have. We should live in the abundance of grace and forgiveness and goodness we are given.

Finally, God restores His presence. “And they shall know that I am the LORD their God with them.” This is the source of all of the other blessings. What does this presence look like? It looks like Immanuel, God come as the person of Jesus Christ to reconcile His people to Himself. He has made peace so we might be at peace with God.

The people of Israel understood that there was a cost to reconciliation, because they performed sacrifices that clearly painted the picture of the great sacrifice was to come. That cost was the death of the Son, but the result was the presence of God directly with us.

We should pause regularly to appreciate the presence of God. God is with us! God brings the wholeness of shalom – not merely the absence of conflict, but the fullness and goodness and well being we were originally made for.

We can be at this kind of peace because we live every day in the presence of God.

This Christmas, how do we refresh that presence and receive that peace?

– Sermon Notes, Jeff Sickles, Snohomish Evangelical Free Church, Snohomish, WA, December 19, 2021

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Sin at Christmas – Ezekiel 16:59-63

A Lifeway survey in 2016 indicated that 67% of Americans believe that they are sinners, but 75% believe that little sins don’t condemn us. Among evangelicals, those numbers were 75% and 53%. Better, but far from ideal. Why are we talking about sins when discussing Christmas? Because to understand the immensity of Christmas we must understand the immensity of salvation, which means we must understand the immensity of what we are being saved from.

Ezekiel here is discussing that very thing here. God has judged the people of Israel for their sins and sent them into captivity. When we begin to make sin insignificant, we open the door to disaster. We can see that in American culture, where we are always seeking others to blame for the choices that we make.

“Whatever became of sin?” The psychiatrist, Karl Menninger – no friend to the church – asked this forty-two years in his book of the same name as he watched the shift of personal responsibility away from the individual. He wrote:

The word ‘sin,’ which seems to have disappeared, was a proud word. It was once a strong word, an ominous and serious word. It described a central point in every civilized human being’s life plan and life style. But the word went away. It has almost disappeared—the word, along with the notion. Why? Doesn’t anyone sin anymore? Doesn’t anyone believe in sin?

Menninger warned that should the concept of sin disappear, so too would the concept of a moral society. We see some of that in the passage here, but we also have the concept here of a covenant.

God was in covenant with the people of Israel – as He is with us today through the work of Christ. He enters into this because of His great love for us. Not because of our own capacity or lovable nature, but because of His person and love.

Ezekiel calls forward to this atonement here, in verse 63 —God Himself will reach into the world and bring His children into the Eternal covenant by covering over their sin.

But if we minimize that sin, we minimize the atonement and we minimize the wonder of God’s grace in that atonement. If we understand the weight of our sin, we understand the incredible grace that we have been given.

Jonathan Edwards is most known for his sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”. But most of his sermons were about grace – why did that Sermon loom so large? Because that clear statement of the horrors of sin and judgement provide the context for the mighty, overwhelming grace that Edwards was so passionate about.

In Dynamics of Spiritual Life, historian Richard Lovelace presents a history of spiritual renewals in light of biblical models. His conclusion is that the unifying thread of revivals across time is a clear understanding of the depth of sin.

Christmas is not small and sentimental, Christmas is robust and strong because Christmas is the inbreaking of God’s love into the darkness of our sin. The wonder of Christmas is the wonder at our salvation from that darkness.

– Sermon Notes, Jeff Sickles, Snohomish Evangelical Free Church, Snohomish, WA, December 5, 2021

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Hope When the World is Shattered – Ezekiel 17:22-24

597 BC was a bad year. That was the year the temple of God in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Neo-Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar, and the kingship overthrown. As individualistic Americans it may be difficult to understand the immensity of what this would mean to the Jewish people. Their communal identity was entirely enmeshed with those two institutions, themselves more closely linked than we can truly grasp. Losing both of them in one day would have left the people utterly broken. What hope is there when your world is shattered?

That is the context into which Ezekiel is speaking here, telling the parable of cedar trees – the kings is Judah – and eagles – the kingdoms of Egypt and Babylon. The kings switch their allegiances and are destroyed, a picture of the fickleness of the people themselves, changing their allegiance from the God of their fathers to the idols of the world.

But then Ezekiel speaks to something greater here in verse 22, reminding the people that they are not alone. It’s something greater that calls forward to the coming of the Holy Spirit, the indwelling of the God of Abraham who is with us in all that we do and everywhere we go. We are never alone.

But God is not only present, but He is active. He is the active force in these verses, hammered home at the end – “I the LORD have spoken, and I will do it.” All this, in the midst of the destruction of everything that made up the identity of His people, He promises to act, to fulfill the promise that he made to David.

Note that this is God acting and no one else. Often we feel or behave like any change or success is on our shoulders. But even when He is gracious enough to pull us into the work He is doing, the work and responsibility and success is still God’s. He may work quietly and slowly at times, but He is always working and when He brings it to fulfillment, it is amazing. “He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it.”

This passage also promises more about the nature of the Christ who would come – “Birds of every kind will nest in it.” More birds than only those of Abrahamic descent, but all kinds, from every land. The kingdom to come will be a global kingdom, fast beyond the boundaries of David and Solomon, fulfilling the promise made to Abraham to bless all nations through his line.

Imagine yourself as a bird in the shade of Jesus Christ. We have been made free through Him, made children of God through Him. Looking back, we have the same hope that Ezekiel had when looking ahead.

How do we practice this hope actively? By seeking joy in the midst of suffering. By persisting in prayer. By seeking the peace of God and resting in him. By patiently enduring trials. Through humility on victory. Hope it’s not merely an attitude or emotion, but it is a discipline, and it is a promise.

As Jeremiah wrote around the time of Ezekiel, “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for wholeness and not harm, plans to give you a hope and future.'” That hope came in the form of Jesus Christ and is offered to us if we come and shelter ourselves beneath his branches.

– Sermon Notes, Jeff Sickles, Snohomish Evangelical Free Church, Snohomish, WA, November 28, 2021