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Over the years I have written several "book" or "booklets" and many, many, many newsletter and bulletin articles. Because the book market seeks writings to meet specific needs at specific times, my material has never been accepted. I have a tendency to write what is on my mind and so I am left with self publishing. So, with the encouragement from my wife and others, I am beginning this blog in order to put my "ramblings" "out there"! I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer

Please note that while my intentions are to use good grammar, because of the way in which some of the material presented here is presented (orally) the grammar and syntax might not always be the best English. Also note that good theology is not always presented in the best English so there may be times when the proper grammar rules are purposely broken.

Sunday, November 26, 2017

New Heaven and a New Earth - November 26, 2017 - Last Sunday in the Church Year (Proper 29) - Text: Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24

Today is the last Sunday of our present church year. Next week begins a new church year and as always it begins with the season of Advent, of preparation and getting ready to celebrate the birth of the Christ Child and the fulfillment of God’s first promise to send a Messiah. As we have been hearing for the last three Sundays, as we are in the final throws of this church year, so we are reminded of God’s promise of His second coming, the day He would come and gather all the saints and judge the world taking to heaven all believers in Jesus and sending to perdition all those who refuse and reject the gifts He has to give, so we hear even more of God’s Word of warning and encouragement to always be ready because no one knows the day nor the hour of His return.
 
Our text begins with God speaking through Ezekiel expressing the difference between God, the one true God of all and those that were in charge of Israel (v. l1-16), that is the leaders of Israel, both the government and spiritual leaders. The main difference was in the fact that the rulers of Israel did not really care about the people. They mistreated the people, often enslaved the people or simply neglected them altogether.
 
On the other hand, God cares for His people. He searches and rescues His people. As He expresses in verse eleven, “Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out.” Much like the Good Shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine to search for the one lost sheep so our Lord searches for us to find us and bring us back into His fold. It is not we who go searching for God, but always it is He who comes searching for us.
 
Of course, as we hear these words we are reminded of the ultimate fulfillment of God’s care for His sheep in that He will send a Messiah, a Savior, a Christened One, His own Son. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. Jesus came as the Good shepherd. Jesus came to lay down His life for His sheep. Jesus came as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
 
Indeed, unlike the leaders and rulers of Israel, God cares for His sheep, for His people. He will feed His people. He will watch over them. He will bring back the stray and bind the injured. He will strengthen the weak and the fat and the strong He will destroy. He will feed them in His justice.
 
Moving on in our text we get a prophetic look into heaven (v. 20-24). God says, “I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David.” This one shepherd, this servant David points us to the Messiah. The Messiah, first promised in the Garden of Eden, was promised to be born from the line of Judah, from the line of King David. As we hear God’s Word of prophecy we are constantly reminded that although there were many instances of earthly fulfillment to the promises of old, there was the constant pointing to the ultimate, heavenly fulfillment, that of a Savior who would save His people from their sins and who in the end would judge the living and the dead and give eternal life to all who believe.
 
Jesus is the ultimate son of David, Son of God who would unite all people in heaven. The promise first made in Eden to send a Savior had been fulfilled many times in one civil or political Savior through Israel’s history, in other words there were many times that God would send someone to rescue and save His people from one conquering nation or another. However, God’s promise of a Savior, of a spiritual Savior has only one spiritual fulfillment and this is its fulfillment in Jesus. It was Jesus’ perfect life, His perfect obedience, His perfect suffering and death that brought forgiveness of our sins. His life for our life. With His resurrection He defeated sin, death and the devil.
 
At His ascension Jesus promised that He would return. His return will be the day of judgement. His return will mean sending unbelievers to their eternal perdition and taking all those who believe in Him to heaven. In heaven He will rule for eternity.
 
What does this mean? Still today, we face many false teachers in our world. We face false teachers as in those who actually espouse other gods, that is other religions, such as the Muslim faith, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, atheism, agnosticism, and many other religious isms of faith. There are many who would easily misguide and misdirect those who are searching for some meaning to life in all the wrong places.
 
There are false teachers who misuse and misinterpret the Bible leading many astray through faith in false Messiahs and Christs such as the Jehovah’s Witness and the Mormons as well as many cults and sects as we have seen come and go over the years.
 
And even in the Christian church there are those who mislead through their misunderstanding, misinterpretation and misguided good intentions, who strive to lead other to believe that their good works might bring them righteousness and favor before God. Thanks be to God that we have His Word, that we can read His Word and that He gives us His Holy Spirit to rightly understand His Word.
 
God’s desire is to seek the lost. God’s desire is that all people are saved, that all people come to the knowledge of Jesus as the Savior. His desire is carried out through the means He has given to carry His message to others, His means of grace. Through the very Word of God He works to give, strengthen and keep us in faith. Through Holy Baptism He gives faith. Through confession and absolution He gives forgiveness of sins. Through His Holy Supper He gives forgiveness and strengthening of faith.
 
And we rejoice that through us, his broken and sinful people, working in our vocations, serving God by serving others, as we have the opportunity and as we are asked, so with all gentleness we share His Word with others. And as we share His Word, the Holy Spirit gives us the words to speak and He gives faith, when and where He pleases.
 
What is this message we are to share. First and foremost as we have been hearing for the third time in three weeks, that is that we need to get ready and be ready because the Lord has promised to return or He will take us to Himself, and either day is probably sooner than We know and sooner than we might imagine.
 
Thus, we proclaim that Jesus was born and He lived for us. God’s demand is our perfection and because we cannot be perfect, Jesus lived perfectly for us in our place. Jesus actively obeyed all God’s laws and commandments and passively allowed Himself to be crucified.
 
Jesus was obedient for us. We cannot be obedient. We are disobedient. We sin and often we sin boldly. We break all the commandments and even do so on a daily basis. Left to ourselves we would be eternally lost. But Jesus lived perfectly for us in our place.
 
After living in perfection, Jesus took our sins, all our sins, our sin of commission, doing the things we should not be doing and our sins of omission, failing to do what we should be doing. He took our sins and then suffered and died for us.
 
Yet, as we know, death and the grave had no power over Him. On the third day Jesus rose for the dead, for us. Because Jesus rose we know that we too will rise again.
 
So now back to the message, to the warning and to the encouragement to get ready. We know that it is not we who get ourselves ready but it is God who gets us ready. And He gets us ready through the same means He gives, strengthens and keeps us in faith, His means of grace.
 
God gets us ready as we remember our baptism. We need only to be baptized once yet as we daily remember our baptism we are reminded that we were buried with in His baptism, even drowned, so that we also rise with Him in His resurrection.
 
God gets us ready through our confession and absolution. As we confess our sins, that is we are sorry for our sins meaning that our desire is not to return to our sin, but go in the opposite direction, we hear God’s most precious and beautiful words, often spoken by the one who stands in the stead and by the command of Jesus, our pastor, as he declares our sins forgiven in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
 
God gets us ready through His Word. Through our own personal and family devotions, through our attendance at Divine Service and Bible Study, through our reading and hearing His Word through these means the Holy Spirit works through that Word to get us ready, to give, strengthen and keep us in faith until Christ comes again.
 
And God gets us ready through Lord’s Supper. The Lord‘s Supper is His Supper. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He won and paid for our forgiveness on Calvary and now at His table where He is the Host and the Meal He distributes His forgiveness to us. Just as the sinner ate the lamb that was sacrificed so to we eat of the Lamb of God so that He becomes a part of us, so that His perfect life becomes our perfect life. His perfect suffering and death become our perfect suffering and death. And His perfect resurrection become our perfect resurrection.
Today we end our present church year calendar. We are reminded as we well should be constantly reminded that our life on this earth is short, a mere blip on the screen of eternity so that rather than spending, even actually wasting our time focused on this earth we would do well to spend our time getting ready for our more and most important eternity in heaven, where we will eat eternal manna and drink of the river of pleasure forever more. Where there will be no more sorrow or tears. no more hunger or thirst and where Jesus will rule in perfect splendor and majesty. Where we will rejoice and say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

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