Peace for a Factious Flock

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors. Select a time to jump to that point in the recording.

0:01It's mid-December, in case you didn't know. I won't mention how many shopping days are left until Christmas. I don't even want to know. Mid-December, I think by now probably you all are longing for some peace.

0:19That's appropriate for the season that we're in. But let me ask you, what's your vision of peace? What do you have in mind when you think of peace, when you hear about peace? It may just be fewer plans on your calendar. Your shopping list finished, the gifts all wrapped. Maybe it's time to yourself, with a hot cup of coffee, watching the snow fall. That sounds like peace to me.

0:55I think we would take whatever peace we could get at this point, right? I think the more, well, for me, the more I stop and think about that word peace, and what kind of peace I would want, the more things come to mind. Probably the same thing for you now, if you stop and think about it. The more things come to mind for you, of what you want for peace. Your vision would expand. Maybe it's reconciliation with a loved one. Maybe it's a change of heart in someone.

1:30Maybe someone that you might even consider an enemy, a foe. Maybe your vision of peace would expand as you start thinking about different tribes and factions and groups listening to each other, talking to each other.

1:50Maybe you would start thinking about justice and an end to violence. But I think what happens is, right when our vision of peace is beginning to expand, we get pessimistic. And so we settle for the cup of coffee in our hand and the snow falling outside, and we think, well, I'll just settle for this. Those other things, you know, maybe they'll never happen. So I'll just sip my coffee. This will be the peace that I will be content with. We're all hoping for a fresh experience of peace in our lives.

2:26I'm hoping that for each of you. But here's the truth. Whatever your vision of peace, God's is bigger. God's vision of peace is bigger than yours. It's bigger than mine. He can do it. His promise is wider than we expect. It's deeper than we imagine. It's big, it's real, and it's true. It's for you. It's for me. It's way deeper than we can think or imagine. Our hopes are not too small. They're not too big. They're too small, if anything. We settle for a smaller version of peace.

3:08That's what today's passage in Ezekiel is all about. We're being presented with a really beautiful vision of peace on the earth. And it's passages like this that are a challenge for us. I really, I think this is true. There's something in us that reads passages like today's from Ezekiel 34. And we think, it can't be. It can't be. It can't possibly mean that. That's too good to be true. It's got to be for somebody else, if it's true at all. But like I said last week, these promises, these prophecies from Ezekiel, they are truths.

3:50They are promises that we can rely on if we rely on the one who gives them to us. If you rely on God, then you can rely on the words of this scripture to be your future. The title of this little series in Ezekiel, this Advent, is God Said He Will. God Said He Will. So, church, get ready to raise your expectations. Take that risk to raise your expectations. God will not disappoint you.

4:31Let's adopt his vision of peace. Let's set our hopes for what he has in mind. Let's turn to Ezekiel 34 today. Let's finish the chapter and see and read about what he intends to give us.

4:45This is the word of the Lord. It's in your bulletin. It's on the screen behind me. Let's attend to it with joy, with hope, with faithfulness, knowing that he who gave this scripture to us is faithful. He will not fail. I'm going to start in verse 17 and go through the end of the chapter. Hear now the word of the Lord. As for you, my flock, thus says the Lord God. Behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and male goats. Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture that you must tread down with your feet the rest of your pasture?

5:33And to drink of clear water, that you must muddy the rest of the water with your feet. And must my sheep eat what you have trodden with your feet and drink what you have muddied with your feet? Therefore, thus says the Lord God to them, Behold, I, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. Because you push with side and shoulder and thrust at all the weak with your horns till you have scattered them abroad. I will rescue my flock.

6:06They shall no longer be a prey. And I will judge between sheep and sheep. And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David. And he shall feed them. He shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the Lord, will be their God. And my servant David shall be prince among them. I am the Lord. I have spoken. I will make with them a covenant of peace. And banish wild beasts from the land. So that they may dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods.

6:43And I will make them and all the places around my hill a blessing. And I will send down the showers in their season. There shall be showers of blessing. And the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. And the earth shall yield its increase. And they shall be secure in their land. And they shall know that I am the Lord when I break the bars of their yoke and deliver them from the hand of those who enslave them. They shall no more be a prey to the nations, nor shall the beasts of the land devour them.

7:21They shall dwell securely and none shall make them afraid. And I will provide for them renowned plantations so that they shall no more be consumed with hunger in the land and no longer suffer the reproach of the nations. And they shall know that I, the Lord, their God, that I am the Lord, their God with them. And that they, the house of Israel, are my people, declares the Lord God. And you are my sheep, human sheep of my pasture. And I am your God, declares the Lord God.

7:58Pray with me. Father, you have given us this word to raise our hopes and to clear our eyes for the vision of the future where you will redeem and reconcile all things and make all things new. I pray, Lord, that you would help us to believe your word, to trust you, to follow you. Lord, this is what we want if we are honest enough to admit it. Lord, give us the courage and the heart and the strength and the will to go after you, God, and to take and receive from you this promise and to live in it today.

8:49In Jesus' name we pray. God said he will. Last week it was rescue for scattered sheep. This week, peace for a factious flock. Through Christ, God resolves conflict and brings us into complete flourishing. So, last week's passage, the first half of Ezekiel 34, it was God's response to harm done to us by bad shepherds, by bad leaders. God stepped in. He dismissed the bad shepherds. He tended to his sheep. But now that they're gone, he turns to the sheep.

9:38He turns to the flock and he says, we need to talk, guys. Has anyone ever said that to you? We need to talk. Usually that's not a good conversation, right? So, last week we were a little bit in the safe spot, right? God was looking at leaders, right? He was protecting us, looking at leaders, calling them out. We've got to take a turn in the hot seat now because God's turning to the flock. He says, we need to talk. I don't like what I'm seeing among you.

10:11There's problems here that needed to be sorted out. He's dealt with the bad shepherds, but now he addresses the bad sheep. From what I read, sheep are normally docile, but under stress they change. When they're among the flock, they change. Sound familiar? We all can convince ourselves we're pretty good people when we're by ourselves and we're not under stress. Put us under stress and with other people and maybe our opinions about ourselves change.

10:51Now, the behaviors that God is calling out here is stuff we all recognize. You see it if you are at a kid's birthday party and the cake is served. You see it on Black Friday when the stores are about to open. People are lined up outside and then the doors are unlocked.

11:12Some sheep are so concerned with getting to the good pasture, the best pasture, that they walk over all the rest. They trample on all the other grass. They make it inedible. I don't care where I step. I want that. I want that. And I'm going to have it. Others go for the clear water and they're so excited they just charge right in. Mud all over them. They don't stop at the bank and dip their heads in and drink, keep it clean for everybody else. They just rush in, muddy up the water.

11:49It's all clouded and spoiled. This is, God's not really talking about wasting resources here. What he's concerned about is that each one of these sheep is acting as an individual. They're just thinking about themselves. They're not thinking about the fact that they are members of a flock. They're just thinking about their own hunger, their own thirst. When they do pay attention to the other sheep around them, it's not any better. Verse 21 says, As you push with side and shoulder, you thrust at all the weak with your horns.

12:27The bigger, stronger sheep, they're like bullies. They're pushing others around to get what they want. They're like Scott Farkas in A Christmas Story, using their size to benefit themselves.

12:43So, here's the common thread for everything that God calls out here. The sheep are acting in pure self-interest. They're purely motivated by their own needs, their own self-interest. They're selfish. They're living as if no one matters but themselves. They're looking out for number one. And God sees this and He says, I will judge. I'll judge the selfishness. He judges between rams and male goats, He says. Between the fat sheep and the lean sheep.

13:18Among all the people, there's different characteristics, different levels of influence, power, resources. Some are using those for their own gain. But we don't need to really spend time trying to parse out who's the ram, who's the male goat, who's the fat and the lean sheep. Because God also says twice in this passage that He's going to judge between sheep and sheep. Okay, so the selfish behavior, it's happening among all the people to some extent.

13:52Now listen, we can all admit this, right? We're all prone to act solely in our own self-interest. We care about others, but when it gets competing with what we want, guess who wins? That's our natural bent. Because we're born with a sinful nature.

14:18We don't naturally and normally love our neighbors as ourselves. We don't. Any more than we naturally and normally love God with all of our hearts. So that's true. Many of you probably know this, that at the root of it is the sinful nature that we're born with. But let's go a little bit further. Because just like there are conditions that make sheep frantic and self-interested, there are triggers for sinful people like us to act selfishly. Those triggers are insecurity and scarcity.

14:57Insecurity and scarcity, that's what makes sinful people act selfish. We heard it earlier from James 4. What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? You desire and do not have. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. Just like those kangaroos up there.

15:24Insecurity, scarcity. What causes quarrels and fights among you? When we're vulnerable, we protect ourselves. Even at the expense of others. When we're needy, we feel like there might not be enough food or money or love. We scramble to get all we can and a little bit more. Even if it leaves somebody else lacking.

15:56Church, we're all bad sheep. We're all bad sheep. Me, you, that's the truth. But here's something else that's true. The same God that judges also saves. The same God that sees this problem among His sheep saves. He intervenes. The second half of this passage, it might seem like a detour, but it's very connected with the first half. It tells us that God is not just going to address the symptoms of the conflict, but He's going to go deeper to the cause of the conflict.

16:41He goes all the way down. That's why I've tried to unpack for us and brought out James 4. The insecurity, the scarcity. God is going to address those things. So let's talk about the great peace.

17:00The bad sheep hear a promise of the great peace. When I was in school, if two kids weren't getting along and I was sometimes one of them, the solution was to separate them. Kids, you know this, right? Sit on opposite ends of the classroom. You over here, you over here. Problem solved.

17:23If they fight, you break it up, make them right on the, well, I don't know if they still make kids right on the blackboard, but anyway, you punish them somehow, you just keep on moving. When I was fighting with my brother in the back seat of the car, my dad would say, imagine that there's a line right down the middle of the back seat and don't you cross that line. If you cross that line, you're going to be in bigger trouble than you are now.

17:53Nikki and I, our girls would fight. Surprise, surprise. Not so much now. But men, when they were younger, when they were little, boy, they would fight. So, we, we had our own way of approaching fights. We came up with these rules and we made them write, we made them write it down. Go ahead and put this up here. So, this is, I, we sat them down, we came up with these rules and then I, I think this is Bree's handwriting up here. Let me, let me, let me, let me read them.

18:29Rules to avoid fights. Number one, I will listen and respond to my sister. So, sometimes they just wouldn't even listen to each other. That's what would cause the fight. Number two, if I get mad, I know it's hard to read. If I get mad, I will walk away and pray to calm down.

18:49Number three, if I need more help, I will get mom and dad. These were our rules, rules to avoid fights. We, we tape this up in the kitchen or in their rooms.

19:10Listen, I put this up here to contrast with how God addresses the conflict within the sheep. Because God doesn't, God doesn't separate people so that the fight, the fighting will stop. And he doesn't give them a bunch of rules for how the fighting is going to stop. He resolves it by making a covenant with them. Now, you might not understand how different, how big of a difference that is, but it's huge. This was, that, that piece of paper was the best that Nikki and I could do, right?

19:44That was our strategy. It was something we were trying, right? God does something more. I will make with them a covenant of peace. That is way better, infinitely better, than rules to avoid fights. A covenant is an agreement, something that brings two parties together into a relationship. Considering all the bullying and the discord and the conflict in the flock, a covenant of peace, it probably sounds really good to the sheep, but it's even better than they expect.

20:24It's even better than you expect. This covenant is going to transform them and their world. It's going to address everything, their sin, the insecurity, the scarcity. But listen, I want you to pay attention to this, to the back half of Ezekiel, well, this passage today, around verse 21 and beyond. Pay attention to it. If you have entrusted yourself to God, then this is for you. This promise is for you. If you haven't entrusted yourself to God, this is an invitation.

21:00You were made for this future. You were made for it. And it is yours when you submit yourself to the God who makes that covenant. It's yours. In verses 25 through 29, God says someday He's going to bring about peace in three relationships. With the animals, with the land, and with the people. So those verses cycle through those three relationships twice each. Animals, land, people, and then animals land, people again. What He's conveying is this.

21:40I don't want you to get lost in the details here. What He's conveying is this. He will set all things right. Every place all around where we are experiencing conflict, scarcity, danger, insecurity, vulnerability, He's going to do away with all of that. He's going to set all of it right. Everything, everything that makes us vulnerable, that threatens us, that makes us afraid, will be reformed and changed.

22:11This is good. This is good news. Okay, let's get into it. First, He says, He will banish wild beasts from the land. Now listen, God doesn't hate animals. He's not trying to establish an animal-free future. This is about protecting people from harm. Verse 28 says, Nor shall the beasts of the land devour them. No matter how much a person loves animals, only the most delusional person dismisses the danger that many animals pose.

22:45Only a foolish person keeps a tiger as a pet. That thing is wild, and eventually, when you're not looking, it will eat you, as much as it looks cuddly. When our family went to national parks out west, there were so many warnings about wild animals. They wanted us to carry bear spray. I don't think we actually did, did we? You could rent bear spray. It's like mace for bears.

23:16They strongly encouraged people to carry bear spray with them because being attacked by an animal is a very real threat. Nature is red in tooth and claw. It's violent, it's dangerous, it's kill or be killed. But listen, death and violence and killing, it was not the original way. It was not originally part of God's very good creation.

23:45Romans 5.12 tells us this, sin came into the world through one man, that's Adam, and death through sin. The urge to kill, violence even from the animals, that's the result of creation itself being fallen in sin. Sin entering the world through one man and then death through sin. But death and sin don't get the final word. That's what God is saying here. God's redemption plan is to once and for all remove sin from creation. It's like taking a splinter out of your finger so it can finally heal.

24:28He's coming to take it out and when he does this, death and the desire to kill will be gone. Under the covenant of peace, predators are no longer predatory. You can have that tiger as a pet. You don't believe me? Let's read Isaiah 11, 6. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together and a little child shall lead them.

25:01Kids, you ever wanted to have a lion as a pet? That's a future that's coming for you in Jesus Christ, our Savior, where you don't have to be afraid of lying. God's eating you anymore. It's going to be gone. They won't want to harm you because that will be removed from the created order. It was never meant to be there in the first place.

25:32And so Ezekiel says they may dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. This is not just good news for people who like to camp. That's not what he's talking about. He's not saying, hey, good news campers, you can leave your food out and bears won't come attack you and take your food. It's not his point. His point is saying you can live without fear. You will live without fear. The danger and the insecurity will be gone.

26:05Next, we have a relationship with the land. God gave plants to be our food and at first the land was abundantly fruitful, pleasant to look at and nourishing. Adam and Eve had to do next to nothing to get a plant to grow and to bear lots of good fruit. But when Adam sinned, the ground was cursed.

26:30Thorns and thistles came up. Now it took pain and toil to get things to grow. The ground doesn't yield what it could, what it used to. Natural disasters, drought, stones, lack of nutrients, all of these things make the land less fruitful. And yet, weeds still seem to grow just fine.

26:57Plants wilt when they see me coming, except for the weeds. But even someone who has a green thumb still has to work to get things to grow. It didn't used to be like this. And under the covenant of peace, the curse will be lifted, will be taken off of creation. The trees of the field shall yield their fruit and the earth shall yield its increase. everywhere people look, it will be a renewed, a renowned place for planting. Every hill they walk over, they're going to be like, could it be possible?

27:34This looks even more fertile than where we came from. Everywhere they look. And here is what God is really after. He's not an arborist. They shall no more be consumed with hunger in the land. That's what God is after. No more scarcity because of the curse that's on the ground. No more lack. No more hunger. No more people going to bed at night hungry because they just couldn't pull together the money. They just couldn't make that thing grow. Or they made it grow but then a natural disaster came and wiped out all the crops.

28:16That will be no more. Instead of scarcity, there will be abundance. Now here's the last relationship, the new relationship with people. Even without dangerous animals and without hunger, there can be no peace if there is slavery, if there is oppression, if there is injustice of any kind, small or large. True peace must have a social dimension with each other. And this passage says that God will break the bars of the yoke, deliver his people from the hand of those who enslaved them.

28:57One of my favorite Christmas songs is O Holy Night. The music is majestic, the lyrics are beautiful. The third verse is not one that people often sing, but it might be my favorite. It talks about the social dimensions of this peace. It goes like this, chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother. And in his name, all oppression shall cease.

29:30The covenant of peace is the answer. Not rules to avoid fights. The covenant of peace. He's going to do away with violence, manipulation, selfishness. Why? Because the very desire to do those things to other people will be gone from us. Removed from us. We will be made new. We will be people of peace. People who pursue peace and go after peace and make peace and delight in peace. No more will we delight in war.

30:12When you put all this together, a restored relationship with creatures, with the earth, with other people, what you have is the Old Testament concept of shalom. Wholeness. Shalom is not just the absence of suffering, but the presence of joy. It's not just the absence of hunger, but the presence of abundance. Not just the absence of danger, it's the presence of safety and security. It's what you were made for. It's what you long for. It's what you want.

30:52It's what you need. Under the covenant of peace, things just work. But like any covenant, someone must enact it. someone must ratify it. Someone worthy. Someone righteous. Someone who is willing and able to satisfy the terms of the covenant. And right in the middle of this passage, we are told who. This great peace comes to us from the Good Shepherd.

31:30This person is described here in Ezekiel, surely in a way that left Ezekiel and his listeners confused. This person is not elected. He's not self-appointed. God will set up over them this shepherd. God calls him my servant David, but David has been dead for hundreds of years, Ezekiel says. But it can't be, we think maybe it's a succession of kings from David's line, but it can't be that. God says it's one shepherd, singular. This one shepherd takes care of their needs.

32:07He shall feed them. He attends to them. He serves. Even though he's an authority figure, he shall be prince. But he's not handing down orders from a palace. He is prince among them. Right there among the sheep. For hundreds of years, people read this prophecy and heard it read in worship and they wondered, who could this be? Related to David, but sent by God and authority and yet a servant with the people working on their behalf. The mystery stood for hundreds and hundreds of years and then along comes Jesus of Nazareth.

32:55Who says, I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me. He comes as the mediator of the covenant of peace, the one who enacts the covenant of peace. He's perfectly righteous in our place and offering himself to pay the penalty of our sins. The good shepherd, he says, lays down his life for the sheep.

33:23He is prince among us, church, the prince of peace, because he makes peace by the blood of his cross. If your faith is in him, then you have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ, dimensions of the covenant of peace are already unfolding in your life.

33:46And when he returns, we will experience the fullness of the peace promised in this passage. Peace greater than we ask or imagine. All will be set right. Perfect harmony between us and creation and each other. Why? Because we will be in total communion with him and they shall know that I am the Lord, their God with them. That's at the center of it.

34:19May the peace we hope for be as high and deep and wide as what we've been promised. Don't settle for small peace. Set your hopes on the peace that God intends to give you. But go there through the covenant of peace, through the mediator of that covenant. And may we be people that seek that peace with one another now. He has made the peace. Let's live in that peace. Let's cast off every selfish ambition and treat others ahead of ourselves. Because we belong to the one who will make all things new.

35:01You are my sheep, he says. Human sheep of my pasture. And I am your God. You are my sheep by anh.