The prophet Ezekiel saw a vision. He was considering a commission and a call. He was contemplating assuming the auspicious and difficult of leading God’s people. And as he lay there by the banks of the Chç - bar, assuming the position of total submission to God, God shared with him a vision. The purpose of the vision was to convince the prophet of the holiness and the exaltedness of God’s God’s-self. The vision was given to the prophet so that the prophet would never forget that the God he served was a god of HIGH, EXALTED, and LIFTED stature…HOLY, HOLY, HOLY is the Lord God Almighty!
The vision was also to convince sinners that this is a God to be reckoned with. That you can’t live a life of sin when there is a God this AWESOME! And thirdly, the vision was to speak comfort to a people who felt abandoned by God. To a people who felt that God had turned His back on them and that they were just in exile from their homes and their loved ones. And I looked.
And as I looked, I saw a creature. The creature had the likeness of man. Every one of the creatures had four faces and four wings. Their feet were straight and the soles of their feet were like calves feet. They had hands like men; wings were joined together; and when they flew, they turned not where they went and everywhere they went they went straight. The Bible says, “they went where the Spirit went.”
Now that sounds very theological and very scriptural but could you break that down for me preacher. Well, as I was studying and preparing this word I noticed that the first thing that this creature was a mere likeness. This creature wasn’t the actual creature but it was the likeness. In other words, you see when you look at angelic-beings, when you look at God-sent people, all you see is the mere likeness of who they really are. See we are unable to really get a handle on when we look at the outside something, when you look at the physical manifestation, all we see is the likeness. So when you looking at that Tommy Hilfiger shirt, when you’re peeping those Nikey shoes, when you’re sweatin that BMW or that Lexus, all you are looking at is what is on the outside. But angels are spirits and God is a spirit and the essential essence of us as God’s people is spirit. In other words, all we see with the physical eye is the likeness. Which means that as I look at you I just can’t look at your physical traits…I know she’s fine but will she build you up or tear you down young man? Ladies, I know he’s got it going on but will he treat you like the queen you are? You see I can’t look at whether you’re a man or a woman. I can’t look at whether you’re short or tall. I can’t look at whether you’re black or white. I have to look at the spiritual dimension and understand that what I see is a mere likeness. Ah! But there is something on the inside!
Another thing I noticed is that these creatures of likeness came out of the mist of the fire. And anytime we see anything in the Bible associated with fire we must automatically assume and realize that God’s presence is there. And so not only is it just a likeness but it is also a likeness in the mist and presence of God. This is a divine creature.
And so we have first of all the likeness, which is spiritual; the presence of God, which is divine; and thirdly the creature was in the likeness of humanity. In other words we have to recognize that we, as people, are connected to both the Spirit and the Divine. That is why the hymnologist says that, “I’m an heir of Salvation, purchase of God, I am born of His Spirit, I’ve been washed in His blood.” Oh, but we often look at ourselves as nothing. Look at ourselves as low-life. Look at ourselves as incidental and non-significant but God is saying that this creature is in the likeness of humanity and humanity is an exalted divine state. Don’t you know that you and I were made just a little lower than the angels? Don’t you know that you and I are members of a Royal Priesthood? God is saying to us “that people are special in my sight.” Which says that when someone has His spirit and has been lifted up out of their despair then that’s someone special.
It means that we can no longer look for God in the vertical plane but the horizontal. See we get so caught up into saying, “God where are you?” and we’re looking up but God says, “No, you better look out and you better look around and notice that the folks that you are walking with that they may be angels in human form. Notice that the folk God has sent you, that these folk are special, if they have been touched by His spirit and if they have been walking with Him in a divine way. So we can’t mistreat our friends. We can’t mistreat our neighbors. We can’t mistreat anybody because EVERYBODY is special in God’s sight. I can’t misuse my bothers and sisters because they are special in God’s sight. I’ve got to walk right.
Now I was doing the exegetical analysis of this passage of scripture several things about these faces became very clear to me. And I want use those faces to lift up several points to you this morning. The first I noticed is the first face is the face of humanity. And that symbolizes that the creature has intelligence, that the creature has understanding, that the creature has tenderness, that the creature has the ability to show love and compassion. Which means that the creature has feelings, it has the ability to reach out and say. “I love you,” “I care for you,” “You are kind.” The creature has the what the Greeks called ‘imago die’ - the image of God. The creature has the Spirit of God placed inside, which gives it life.
But the problem is that often all we have is the face of humanity and that’s the piece that divides us from really knowing God and others in a meaningful way. You see we just wanna be us! We just want to live in our own little world and do our own thing. But we need to recognize that there is a connection to nature. There is a connection to all life, to all of God’s creatures. And only when we find that connective ness, only when we connect with all that is around us, only we when see that there is a world beyond us can we truly begin to understand what God is saying.
Because the second face is the face of a lion. Now, man is head of all but the lion is the head of the wild animals. And so God is connecting the head of all with the head of what is wild. In other words, there’s some boldness we need to have. There is some strength and character that we need to have. We need to be able to stand-up for ourselves and God. Too often we’re just caught up in being human and we forget sometimes that we need to be lions. Sometimes we need to be able to say, “You’re wrong and I know you’re wrong and you need to straighten up!” See, there’s some boldness there, there’s some strength and some character there. And you’ve got to connect to your human-side your bold-side. Connect with that human part of you that lion part of you that has to ROAR sometimes…”No, I’m the parent!” “I may work for you but you can’t treat me any kind of way.” “Excuse me but I don’t need you in order to give my life meaning.” Too often too many of us sit down and take a bunch of mess, rather than letting somebody know that there is a lion here and if you keep taking it there you will get bit!
Now I realize that some of us have no problem keeping in touch with the lion side. You cruse like a sailor. You’re ready for a fight at the drop of a dime. “Shooooot, I wish she would, I’ll go off on her.” But thanks be unto God there is a third face and that is the face of the ox. And the ox is different from the lion. He’s not head of all. But he’s chief of the tamed animals. You see there is a part of that needs to be tamed.
We can’t always be wild and we can’t always be intelligent but every now and then we need to have the diligence of the ox. You need to be able to preserver; to stick and hang in there when there is work to be done. But some folk don’t have any ox in them. And they start doing a little work for the Lord and it gets a little hard, it starts cutting into their time and they get sleepy or they get tired and they get the ‘itches’ and the ‘runs’ and say, “I can’t deal with this. I need to move on.” But the ox says, “that even though things don’t go my way; even though there’s a yoke around my neck and I’m hitched to this plow, I’m going to keep pulling until God says STOP!”
So thank God for the ox. But the fourth face of the beast is that of the eagle. Now, man is head of all. The lion is head of the wild. And the ox is head of the tamed. But the eagle is the head of all birds, all fowl, that’s what the eagle controls. And the eagle shows us that I can soar to high heights; that I have piercing eyesight. You see some of us get blind sometimes. We get so low walking down here on earth and we forget that every now and again we need to rise up over our problems, rise up over our difficulties, rise up over or despair and with the eyes of the eagle start looking for that bright-side over there.
“Has thou not known, has thou not heard…”
Has He done it for you? Has He given you the wisdom that you need? Has He given you the boldness you need? Has He given you the diligence that you need? Has He lifted you up…
And I looked. And as I looked I realized that in church history, in church tradition, that Matthew is considered the lion. Did you know that? And Mark is considered the ox. And also in church history, Luke is considered the man. And Brother John is considered the eagle. And if any of you are Biblical scholars you know that you can’t read one Gospel and get the whole story. But you have to combine all four Gospels to get a feel of what is going on with Jesus. And God is saying that we, as children of God, need to combine our faces.
So what shall we say to these things? Why does God want us work together with the Spirit? Well several things happen when our faces our joined together. The first thing that happens is that we become STEADFAST. When our faces are joined together the text says that we get calves feet. You may not understand it but calves feet means that I can climb high places. Calves feet say that in my despair I can keep climbing. Steadfast, unmovable always abounding in the word of the Lord. You may not think about it but human legs, they bend. But when are faces are joined together our legs are straight. There’s no bending. There’s no being wishy-washy. But you begin to walk up right! You begin to glide! You begin to say that I can float on the wings of the Spirit.
But that’s not all. The second thing that happens when our faces are joined together is the we are SINGLE-MINDED. When our faces are joined together we don’t turn to the left or to the right. We don’t look back and get distracted. We just fly straight. We are single-minded and single-directed with one vision and heading the way God wants us to head…When our faces are joined together!
Not only are we made STEADFAST. Not only are we SINGLE-MINDED. But the final thing is that when our faces are joined together we are SECURED. You can’t get there on your own. But thanks be unto God we are secured - freed from danger and fear. We can’t do it on our own because there is too much division. “We wrestle not against flesh and blood” but there are some principalities trying to divide our faces. There’s some evil lurking around dark corners trying to divide our faces. But when we do what the text says, which says, that everywhere the Spirit goes that’s where I’m gonna go. Everywhere the Spirit leads me that is where I’m gonna go. I may not agree with it but if the Lord says go then the beast has got to go. If you want peace in your life, go with the Spirit. If you joy, go with the Spirit. If you are looking for an answer to the questions of your life, go with the Spirit. If you want to be lifted out of your sin or situation then go with the Spirit. Man is nothing - GOD IS EVERYTHING!
We need the church because: Our children are being consumed by the scourge of drugs. Our families are being destroyed by the devastation of divorce. Our city is being attacked by the monster of moral decay. Our schools are being victimized by the venom of violence. The Church still holds the keys to the kingdom of God. The church is still the place where jagged lives can be made smooth. The Church is still the place where those sick with sin can come and be healed. The Church is still the place where captives can still be set free. The church is still the place where those who are broken can be put back together. The church is still the place where those who are lost can still be found. The church is still the place where those who are bound can still be loosed. The church is still the place where those who are hungry for the living bread can find the Bread of Life. The church is still the place where those who are thirsty can find living water. The church is still the place where the greatest story that has ever been told can still be heard. We still need the church to tell the story of the cross. The songwriter thought of the good news of the cross of Jesus when he wrote: “What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the Blood Of Jesus...”“What can make me whole again? Nothing but the Blood of Jesus...”“How precious is the flow, that makes me white as snow. No other help I know, Nothing but the Blood of Jesus....
We’re gonna open up the doors of the church. I wonder this morning if you’ll just open up your heart and let the King of Glory come in. If being in the church is right then being out of the safety, assurance, guidance of the church is definitely wrong.
