GOD’S WORD POWERS HIS MINISTRY
EZEKIEL 2:1-5 - August 7, 2005 - Pentecost 12
Dearest Fellow-Redeemed and Saints in the Lord:
Today we will talk about power. We know that in our society power is something people spend a lot of time and effort trying to obtain. The one who has the power rules. Our nation is the last of the powerful nations in this world. Other nations are jealous of that. We look at the Christian church made up of believers, and where do we find that power? As we learn in our text, we find the power in God’s word. Simple as that is the power of the holy Christian church--not in the word of man, not in our feelings or emotions, but simply in God’s word.
The Apostle Paul spent much of his early life persecuting those who were followers of the Way, because he thought that was what God had called him to do. We know that the Lord called him out of the darkness by the power of His word. From that time on the life of the Apos-tle Paul was changed, changed so much that he realized there was no greater power than knowing Christ Jesus and him crucified. In the book of Romans he writes: "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile" (Romans 1:16). That is the power of God that you and I have in our hearts. That is the power of God that Christ has planted in us by faith in the word of God.
GOD’S WORD POWERS HIS MINISTRY:
I. For faithful prophets
II. For rebellious people
I. FOR FAITHFUL PROPHETS
It would be interesting today, when you have the opportunity, to read the first chapter of the book of the prophet Ezekiel. We find the Lord comes to Ezekiel in a very miraculous way. The Lord God gives Ezekiel a very miraculous vision. A windstorm comes up and Ezekiel hears the voice of the Lord. In that windstorm there are four creatures that are almost too hard for him to describe. Each one has a different face, a different description, and they come with a wheel. In that wind and in the midst of that vision Ezekiel realizes this is the glory of the Lord. So what does he do? At the end of chapter one, Ezekiel says, "This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. When I saw it, I fell facedown, and I heard the voice of one speak-ing"(1:28b). So we see Ezekiel lying face down on the ground. Ezekiel is there to worship God. Than, our verses begin in chapter 2: "The Lord said to me, ’Son of man, stand up on your feet and I will speak to you.’" The Lord did not come to scare Ezekiel. The Lord came to speak to Ezekiel and give him a message, not a message just for his ears, but a message for his people.
Ezekiel continues: "As he spoke, the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet, and I heard him speaking to me." Imagine that! Ezekiel hears the Lord speaking to him. Ezekiel is greatly encouraged. He stands up and he listens to that message that the Lord has to say to him. It is going to be that word from the Lord that is going to give Ezekiel power to go to this na-tion that has rebelled against God. This going to be Ezekiel’s calling. "He said: ’Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me.’" When Ezekiel goes there, he is going to tell them what the Sovereign Lord says. Actually Ezekiel was already there, because in the history of the children of Israel they are in the fifth year of the Babylonian captivity. They had rebelled, and God sent the enemies of Israel to take them out of the Promise Land. Now Ezekiel was there with them, and he was to speak with them to remind them of their rebellious ways, their wickedness and sin.
This work would take a faithful prophet. God’s word will empower Ezekiel. It is that very word of the Lord that empowers prophets of today and pastors and teachers. It is that word which we heard in our first lesson (1 KINGS 19:9-18) about Isaiah when he wanted to hear the voice of the Lord. Is it in the whirlwind? Is it in the fire? Is it in the earthquake? No! It is in the still, small voice when Elijah said, "This is the Lord." The Lord still finds us and says, "This is the Lord." He guides us into all truth, and the truth is what we find in God’s word. The Lord reminds us not to add to it, not to subtract from it; but instead we have the word of the Lord which is God’s divine power, the power to change men’s hearts, the power to change our lives, the power to change lives of any rebellious person; so that he may be called out of darkness into light, and then thankfully be called into service of the Lord. Listen to this from John: "But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come" (John 16:13). Jesus spoke to his disciples as speaks to us today.
Where are we going to find the truth and the source of power? It is in the word of God where the Lord reveals to us his Holy Spirit. We as believers in God’s kingdom are blessed be-yond all comparison. We don’t walk in the darkness of the sins of this world anymore, but we walk in the glorious light of the knowledge of salvation. We are thankful and can rejoice. We are in the midst of summer, July and August, when many congregations receive their new pas-tors. We rejoice and are blessed that we have men who are willing to spend years in school, to gather around the word of the Lord and to study the original languages of Greek and Hebrew, that they might understand more fully the wisdom and counsel of God. We are blessed and re-joice in knowing that whenever we attend one of our churches, we have the same prophets, really, men trained the same way to proclaim this same message, this message of power. It is only the word that gives any power for any of us. The Lord says how we are prepared: "Preach the Word, be prepared in season and out of season, correct, rebuke and encourage--with great patience and careful instruction" (2 Timothy 4:2). We are thankful for called workers that leave their families and their homes and go to the places where the Lord sends them that they might joyfully proclaim God’s powerful Word. That is the message. That is the simple message given great power from God’s word.
Every once in awhile, especially on Sundays evenings when there is nothing to do, when you flip through the channels and you may see those televangelists on TV. It is very easy to look through their message as they all too often begin talking about themselves. It is very easy to see through their message when they talk about their experiences or their anecdotes. Once in awhile I even get stuck on watching one of the self-proclaimed prophets of TV evangelism. Instead of preaching and holding up the Bible, this preacher was holding up one of his own books with his picture on it. That is strange. The next week he was standing in front of a big poster of himself with the name of his book. You simply begin wonder what has happened to the message of salvation, the message of Christ. You just wonder sometimes what the people of this are really looking for. We need to look through the messenger and look behind him and see the cross of Christ that brings us salvation. That is the power, pure and simple. It is not in self-help books. The only good self-help book is the Bible. Faithful messengers want to be like the Apostle Paul as wrote in Corinthians: "We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God" (2 Corinthians 5:20). Paul writes this not only about himself, but also for all believers. We are Christ’s ambassadors as though God were making his appeal to us. "We appeal to you," he says, "For we implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God."
God’s message comes to us through the faithful prophets who proclaim the truth of the Scriptures. The power of God’s word comes to the faithful prophets who were also part of that rebellious nation. It is in that Word of God, which gives power, now also comes to us as a rebel-lious people. GOD’S WORD POWERS HIS MINISTRY --
II. FOR REBELLIOUS PEOPLE
We have already heard a little bit of what the mission was for Ezekiel. "Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me; they and their fathers have been in revolt against me to this very day." The Lord had delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt and brought them to the Promise Land. God gave them a land flowing with milk and honey just as he promised to their fathers – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. There were now no cares or concerns. What happened? At one time God ruled the Israelites, under the gov-ernment known as a theocracy. They didn’t like that. They wanted something else, and they asked for kings. The Lord God said they could have kings. The Lord God also warned them: "Kings aren’t going to rule you as justly and fairly as I do. Kings are going to demand taxes. Kings are going to demand your young men for battle, and kings will get you into battles and wars." That is exactly what happened.
In 1 and 2 Kings you can read about all the kings that are listed. Sadly, the Lord God’s words of warning were fulfilled. Those kings had led the people astray, not just off to war to bat-tle the enemies; but those kings had led the people into idol worship and false worship and far away from God. We have already heard about the depravity of Israel in our lesson from 1 Kings (19:9-18). Elijah is thinking he is the only believer left. Can imagine what you might feel like if you were the only believer left in what was supposed to be a believing nation?
Now God speaks to Ezekiel and reassures him. He says: "They and their fathers have been in revolt against me to this very day." These Israelites that had gone into the Babylonian captivity did not all survive or come back. They were scattered because of their revolt. The Lord says, "The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and stubborn. Say to them, ’This is what the Sovereign LORD says.’" Ezekiel’s message was not going to be easy. God says, say to them, ’This is what the Sovereign LORD says.’" They had heard from the prophet Isaiah; they had heard from Jeremiah and other prophets. Once again they had to hear the words that were not the prophets’ words. The children of Israel, God’s very own chosen people and nation, were obstinate and stubborn.
We know the rest of the story. The tribes of Israel were scattered. Now, today, where are the twelve tribes of Israel? History cannot track them down to say this is the tribe of Simeon, or the tribe of Joseph, etc. They were scattered because they were obstinate and rebellious. "And whether they listen or fail to listen--for they are a rebellious house—they will know that a prophet has been among them." Maybe they didn’t realize it at the time but later on they would remem-ber and say, "Wish we had a prophet like Ezekiel or the prophet Elijah or Elisha." I am sure that others who remembered wished they had Moses back to lead them.
God’s word is where the power was. Not in Elisha, Elijah, Ezekiel, or Moses, but in the word God gave them to speak. That is the word that we get to hear each Sunday. It is the word that hopefully and prayerfully each one of us here takes time out in our day-to-day living and read for ourselves and be blessed. There are enough things in this world to make us dissatis-fied and down in the dumps. Daily we need encouragement and strengthening. We are going to find that in the word of God. Oh sure, it is going to remind us that we are like the children of Is-rael, a rebellious nation, a rebellious people; because sin is with us. The word of God points that out. In the book of Hebrews the writer writes: "For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12). God’s word can do that because it is alive and active.
God’s word can see the sin that we think we are hiding. It can see our evil thoughts, and the law of the word of God does condemn us. But we also celebrate because of the fact that God’s word is a gospel message that gives us comfort and salvation. Paul writes in Ephesians: "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding" (Ephesians 1:7,8). God sent his Son to die on the cross to pour out his blood for you, every sinner and me. As forgiven sinners believers now have eternal life. Now we have eternal life not because we deserve it, eternal life not because we have earned it or can buy it or for any other reason ex-cept for the love of God. This is the power of God’s word.
The power of God’s Word has set us free from sin. Sin is no longer our master because Christ is the Master of our souls. Our God is like no other. The prophet Micah says, "Who is a god like you. You delight to show mercy, forgive. You don’t like to stay angry forever." Then he says why: "You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea" (Micah 7:19). That is power, power to take away our sins and throw them into the depths of the sea so that they are lost, forgotten and not seen ever again. That is the power of God’s love that we discover in God’s word. That is the power that is in the church. That is the power that believers possess by God’s grace.
It is true that we don’t always feel so powerful or strong. The Lord says we are strong be-cause his word is in us. The Lord God almighty has changed us by his powerful word. We don’t grope around in this world, lost in darkness; but we live in the light of the love of God. God’s word powers his ministry. It provides us with faithful prophets. It provides us with comfort as a rebellious people and reminds each of us that our sins are forgiven. Paul writes in Corinthians: "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" (l Corinthians 1:18). There are many who are perishing. Many of the children of Israel perished, because they thought the message of the prophets at the time was foolishness. In the same way the message of the cross at times is foolishness to those who are perishing. But for you and I and believers everywhere God’s power is in the message of the cross. God’s power is in his word that comes to us by his grace through the working of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Pastor Timm O. Meyer
Sunday radio broadcast @ 9:05am on KQNK 106.7FM or 1530AM + www.kqnk.com
Readings, Pentecost 12(ILCW-A): 1 KINGS 19:9-18; ROMANS 9:1-5; MATTHEW 14:22-33
