Seventh Sunday of Easter

Ezekiel 36:22-28

My brothers and sisters in Christ, we have just passed Ascension day in the Church year. It is an important festival in the church year, for it is when Christ ascends to the heavens above and is crowned in glory and honor as all of heaven rejoices that He has done it. He has accomplished our salvation. Now we prepare for the promised helper, encourager, and comforter, the Holy Spirit who will convict the world. In our Old Testament lesson from Ezekiel, we hear that the coming of the Holy Spirit was prophesied hundreds of years before the birth of Christ. Ezekiel is around 580 BC, so over 600 years before the ascension of Christ.

A Rebellious House

Judah profaned God’s name.

This may sound strange, for we know from the Small Catechism that God’s name is holy even without our prayers and remains holy for God’s glory does not depend upon us, but is due Him because of who He is, the Creator, the one who set the stars and planets in motion, who sets the limits and boundaries of the sea, and gives and takes life from every living creature. But what did the king in Jerusalem do?

They sought safety in men.

Their king instead of trusting in the Lord, sought safety by seeking out protection from the land of Egypt, thinking that he could gain protection from those that had once enslaved them, and save Israel from another nation, that had enslaved their people. As though that weren’t bad enough.

They were worshiping idols.

Now Israel had a history of setting up the idols on the hilltops, but in the days of Ezekiel they had no shame, they had setup the idols right inside the temple that Solomon had built to glorify God, they had sooth sayers, astrologers, and they were a very religious and spiritual people, but they had no love for God and His Word, and so they became like the things they worshiped.

They became lifeless.

Like the stone, wood, or metal that had been shaped into animals, or the like the stars which are just part of the creation, they gave up the creator, the living god and became dead, and that’s why the Scriptures say they have

Hearts of Stone

You don’t care about right or wrong.

What do those things matter in a world that is relative, or just opinions that people have about the their lives, and the lives of others, there is no objective good, which you would point or encourage them to pursue. This has been the pattern throughout history for mankind, and to this very day. It lands us in trouble, for instead of looking outward to our creator for His Wisdom and His word. You and I look inward and

You find wisdom in yourself.

That’s what happened to Adam and Eve, That was the condemnation of Israel at the end of Judges, every man did what was right in his own eyes. The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord and recognizing who your creator is, and what God has done for you. But we have all become fools by looking our own hearts, and trusting the wisdom of men rather than the word of God. But how can you sum up all these failings?

You do what feels good or right.

Not what is right, but rather are guided by your feelings, and usually it doesn’t start off horribly, but when you are doing it for how it makes you feel, eventually the feelings run dry, and you are left in a dark place, like Israel had entered, where they had rejected the living God and become dead, not just in faith, but in justice, in righteousness, and in everything good. This problem is the same problem you and I have. When God’s Word comes do you heed it? When it forbids you from sin, do you still indulge and think this one time won’t be bad, or I’ve addressed so many other sins, what is wrong if I just slip this one time. This is what leads many away from God chasing after Idols of good times and not what glorifies the Living God. That is why God makes it clear He isn’t saving them because of who they are, and doesn’t save you because of who you are. God points to His name.

God’s Holy Name

God acts for the sake of His name.

It isn’t because of who we are or what we have done that God acts, look at Israel, they were a mess, a horrible, awful mess. You and I, we’re in the same boat, we might not have statues we are worshiping, but what were there statues, but a way to depict what their stony hearts wanted? Money, love, pleasure, food, drink, etc. That is why it is comforting to hear that God is going to act, not based upon who we are, but rather based upon who He is.

This is what grace looks like.

Grace was shown to us while we were yet still sinners. God could have just said to Israel, I’m done with you, He could have said that to you and me. We confessed that we are sinners, and God has every right to punish us with temporal death and eternal damnation, but for the sake of His Holy Name, God saved us. Even though we as people have profaned His name. He showed us the Love that sits inside of His heart, because we couldn’t save ourselves.

This is why salvation is God’s work.

Not man’s, we are sinners, and having sinners clean up their lives to make them holy is like trying to clean a kitchen with a oily shop rag. Husbands who value their lives know to not do that, but for some reason we try to do that with our soul, and it doesn’t work. What does God do?

God Saves His People

God rescues them from foreign lands.

Their sins had brought them away from the promised land, and God promises to gather them. Just like Adam and Eve had been kicked out of the garden for their sins, but the Father promised to send Christ His Son to be their redeemer. What He speaks here of Israel, He means also for you. For God will gather all of His children into the New Creation. But how does God fix this?

God sprinkles them with water.

By our sins, we are unclean in God’s sight, and we cannot free ourselves from this Sinful condition, and so what does God do? He Sprinkles us with clean water and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and purged from our idols. Well, what does that sound like dear Christian? Holy Baptism. God isn’t done, and this is why Baptism is referred to as a washing of regeneration in Titus, because

God gives a new heart, and spirit.

We were dead in our trespasses and sin, caring only for ourselves. Why replace the heart? Well what comes out of the heart? Evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. But God is gives to us a heart of flesh that we might live. And our spirits were just as corrupt for sin isn’t just an action of the mind and body, but a corruption of the soul, and so to make us new, what does God say? I will put MY spirit within you. Now the word for Spirit and Breath are one and the same in Hebrw, ruakh, and in Greek, pneuma. As God breathed life into Adam, and Christ has promised the Spirit to us that we may no longer be lifeless lumps of clay, but that we might live. I have spent a lot of time so far talking about the work of God the Father, but we must understand how these things have been fulfilled by

Jesus our Redeemer

This is why Jesus became flesh.

Jesus descended from heave and was borne of the Virgin Mary to be your Savior. Yes I say, and mean You. Jesus came to save you. To that end He came to do what you and I could not. He fulfilled the Law, our works were never going to be good enough, and so that is why the Son of God descended from the heavens that the Holiness might be vindicated and that God might save you. That is why

Jesus is in the water.

Jesus was baptized to fulfill all righteousness, and by going down into that water made it a life giving font. Because Christ is in the Water and that Word who became flesh has been joined with the water, that it might not just cleanse from sin, but save and give place the Holy Name of God upon our heads and gives to us the Holy Spirit. On top of this,

Jesus has given us living hearts.

It is once again by the Word. Now when our hearts come to life at first you can see why it is tempting to remain in sin, to stay numb to the evils we have done for we feel at first the pain of the Law, like a limb that has fallen asleep, or being in the dark and having the curtains pulled back suddenly. It’s unpleasant at first as it reveals the wretched state we were in, but then we see the Cross. We find out about the great love that God has for us through Jesus Christ our Lord.

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, we rejoice in all that Christ has done for our sake, and what He has accomplished. For God did fulfill his promise to the people of Israel, and He did so through His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who came not only to save those of Ezekiel’s day, but came to save the children of Adam and to exalt God’s name that it may not be profaned among the nations, but be lifted up and exalted. So let us not chase after our own feelings, or put our trust in idols lest we become like them, rather let us fix our eyes on Jesus whom the Father sent to rescue you, and make you a member of His Kingdom. In Jesus name. Amen.