November 20/21, 2011

November 20/21, 2011, Christ the King, sermon by Pastor Paul Eckert

Sermon text - Ezekiel 34:1-2, 10-26, 30-31

1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 "Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock?" 10 "This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them." 11 "For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. 12 As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. 13 I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land. 14 I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15 I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign LORD. 16 I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice." 17 "As for you, my flock, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will judge between one sheep and another, and between rams and goats. 18 Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of your pasture with your feet? Is it not enough for you to drink clear water? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet? 19 Must my flock feed on what you have trampled and drink what you have muddied with your feet?" 20 "Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says to them: See, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep." 21 "Because you shove with flank and shoulder, butting all the weak sheep with your horns until you have driven them away, 22 I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered. I will judge between one sheep and another." 23 "I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. 24 I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them. I the LORD have spoken." 25 "I will make a covenant of peace with them and rid the land of wild beasts so that they may live in the desert and sleep in the forests in safety. 26 I will bless them and the places surrounding my hill. I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing." 30 "Then they will know that I, the LORD their God, am with them and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, declares the Sovereign LORD. 31 You my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, are people, and I am your God, declares the Sovereign LORD."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Picture this. You are living in your comfortable home. Bad guys come, yank you out of your home, march you to a location a long distance away. After being there for a while, a report comes to you that the bad guys went back to your home area, leveled to the ground St. Jacobi church, the church you used to go to, burned down and completely destroyed the house where you had lived and had all your memories. But then you also hear that in the future your area and home would be rebuilt, and that you would end up with what would be better than anything you ever had or could dream of.

Yes, picture that. If that were you, do you think you would have reason to be thankful for that end result, and thankful not only one day, like a one day Thanksgiving Day this week? I think that I sure would be thankful. With that in mind let’s turn to our text and to our theme.

GIVE THANKS FOR OUR SHEPHERD KING

I THE NEED (1-2,10,17-22)

1. There were bad shepherds. (1-2)

The word of the LORD came to me: "Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock?"

a) Picture Israel like a flock of sheep. Israel had shepherds, or leaders, that included judges and kings. Reading their history you have to conclude that most of their shepherding kings were bad guys.

b) The flock also had spiritual leaders. You know the good guys, like Isaiah and Jeremiah. But there also were bad spiritual shepherds who went along with the paganism that was all around them.

2. There was a problem also with bad sheep. (17-19)

"As for you, my flock, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will judge between one sheep and another, and between rams and goats. Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of your pasture with your feet? Is it not enough for you to drink clear water? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet? Must my flock feed on what you have trampled and drink what you have muddied with your feet?"

a) Definitely yes, there were good sheep, true followers of the true God. The clear water of the truth was there.

b) But that clear water of truth was muddied up, mixed with false teaching. Some sheep liked that more than they liked God’s truth.

3. God would not overlook this. (20, 10a)

"Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says to them: See, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep."

a) God would judge between the true and the false sheep.

b) And He would also judge the false shepherds who were more interested in serving themselves than in serving the sheep.

"This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves."

4. And God would not forget His true flock. (21-22,10b)

"Because you shove with flank and shoulder, butting all the weak sheep with your horns until you have driven them away, I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered. I will judge between one sheep and another."

a) There weren’t only human sheep and shepherds. There also was the over-Shepherd, God, who saw everything that was happening.

b) He knew His flock then as He knows His true believers today.

"I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them."

c) Yes, the good Shepherd would take care of His flock in its difficulties. That was His promise then as it is His Promise today.

II THE PROMISE (11-16)

1. God had made a promise about the land of Israel.

a) All of history started with Adam and Eve. That was in the area where the Prophet Ezekiel now was, Babylon, or present day Iraq.

b) But the Prophet Micah pin-pointed a spot way east of there, near Jerusalem, where something of importance for the whole world would happen. He prophesied: "But you, Bethlehem Ephratha, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times."

2. At Ezekiel’s time that promise seemed to have failed.

a) The church he had gone to, the temple in Jerusalem, had been destroyed. His house he would never see again.

b) You see, Ezekiel had been carried away into exile by the bad guys, and the nation of Israel no longer had any authority or power.

3. But God reminded him that God was still in charge. (11-16a)

"For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land. I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign LORD. I will search for the lost and bring back the strays."

a) Do you know what? This happened! God brought Israel back from the Babylonian exile to the land where Bethlehem was. b) But why? Could this picture have anything to do with God’s promise of a birth in Bethlehem, of an earthly descendant of the great King David, of a ruler who would be Immanuel?

4. Could God be pointing to the Shepherd King? (16b)

"I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice."

a) There were so many bad kings and shepherds in the past.

b) Would there really be a good Shepherd King for God’s flock?

c) That question God answered with fulfillment.

III THE FULFILLMENT (23-26, 30-31)

1. Was David the fulfillment? (23-24)

"I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them. I the LORD have spoken."

a) David was a shepherd king. But that was way back, many years ago. David had been dead about 400 years already.

b) Then who is pictured here by David? Listen to what the Apostle Peter once said, "I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ ---." (Acts 2:29-31)

2. Yes, God’s Son, Jesus, is the promised Shepherd King.

a) David stayed dead and buried; Jesus, his descendant, did not.

b) Scripture records David’s family line that headed straight to Bethlehem, to the one who would be acknowledged as the Son of David, the one who was to sit on a throne that would be eternal, as an angel had announced to Mary about Jesus, saying, "He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."

3. From this Shepherd King come showers of blessing. (25-26)

"I will make a covenant of peace with them and rid the land of wild beasts so that they may live in the desert and sleep in the forests in safety. I will bless them and the places surrounding my hill. I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing."

a) Think of how the blessing of the forgiveness of our sins was showered on us with the waters of Baptism. Think of how, when we so easily fall into sin, our Good Shepherd comes to His penitent people and showers on us in His Word and in the Lord’s Supper His forgiving peace that transcends all understanding. Think of how at our last hour He will assure us that we can depart in peace, showered with His forgiveness and grace, knowing heaven is our home.

b) That is what Ezekiel pictures for us when in our text he speaks of showers of blessings in a perfect land, even as John also did in the last book of the Bible when he pictured Jerusalem the Golden as the fulfillment of God’s promise when showers of blessings will be eternal.

4. All of this is because of our Shepherd King. (30-31)

"Then they will know that I, the LORD their God, am with them and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, declares the Sovereign LORD. You my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, are people, and I am your God, declares the Sovereign LORD."

a) Israel would experience that God would do what He promised.

b) Jesus, Immanuel, the Son of God and Son of David, our Shepherd King, would carry out His mission. He said, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep." Jesus did that. He died for us. He arose for us. He lives for us. He showers His blessings of grace and forgiveness on us every day.

c) And one day He will take us from the exile of our earthly existence and shower blessings eternal on us in the real promised land of glory with Him.

Picture this? Yes! Enjoy the picture. It will be a reality. On Thanksgiving Day, and every day, don’t forget to GIVE THANKS FOR OUR SHEPHERD KING. Because of Him we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever!