Ezekiel 2:1-5 *
In the name of
Christ Jesus, dear friends:
How many of you use
a cell phone? Now how many of you are
100% satisfied with your cell phone? I
can see that quite a few hands went down.
Even with the added convenience, even though the technology has been
around for a few years now, there are still a few problems that need to be
worked out.
Some people complain
about the cost. Other critics claim that
cell phones are dangerous. Maybe you saw
the news story this week about a pastor who was hit and killed in a funeral
procession by a driver who was allegedly talking on her cell phone.
Price and safety are
legitimate concerns, but the number one complaint about cell phones is that
often times the signal is not clear.
This problem has even led one company to air a series of
commercials.
Maybe you saw the
one where the football coach was screaming at the general manager of the team
because he wanted “a replacement for Oneil,” not “the
Captain and Teneil.”
Or maybe you saw the one where the rancher was surrounded by little
dogs. He was upset because he had
ordered a hundred “oxen,” not a hundred “dachshunds.”
In our text for this
morning, Ezekiel was on the receiving end of a call. The Lord called Ezekiel to be his prophet at
the darkest time in
Ezekiel had no doubt
that this call was from the Lord because God came to him in a spectacular
vision. This vision consisted of four
cherubim, each with four faces and four wings.
Above the four angels rested a throne of sapphire, and high above the
throne stood what Ezekiel described as the likeness of the glory of the Lord (see
Ezekiel 1 for the full account).
God may not
communicate through visions anymore. God
may not send prophets of gloom and doom into our midst anymore either. But God still recruits people into his
service. And this Old Testament account
reinforces a timeless truth for us, God’s New Testament people…
THE CALL OF THE LORD IS CLEAR
I. The Lord calls us to serve
II. The Lord shows us how to serve
God came to Ezekiel
and said: “Son of man, stand up on your
feet and I will speak to you” (1). Why
did God have to tell Ezekiel to get up? Because he was lying flat on the ground.
When Ezekiel saw the
glory of the Lord, he fell facedown. To
say that he was intimidated is an understatement. He was probably scared to death.
Of all people, he
had been singled out to witness this heavenly vision. We can only imagine what he was
thinking. “Why me? Why did God choose me to represent him? I’m not special. I’m not especially gifted. I can think of at least a dozen people who
are more qualified than I am.”
God was well aware
of Ezekiel’s limitations. That’s why he
addressed Ezekiel as the “son of man.”
In fact, this is what God calls him throughout the book. Perhaps God used this title to keep Ezekiel
in his place, to keep him from puffing up with pride, to constantly remind him
that he was nothing more than a man, a sinful man.
God was the
important part of this equation. God
came to Ezekiel. God called
Ezekiel. The Spirit raised him up to his
feet, and his message was loud and clear.
“Ezekiel, you are my servant. And
I will help you, even lift you up when you need it,
because I have important work for you to do.”
I had the
opportunity to attend Call Day at the Seminary this past May. If you have never attended a Call Day
service, it’s hard to explain. There is
a buzz in the air, an excitement, an electricity, with
dozens of men and their families anxiously waiting to hear where they will be
moving in a few short months.
On that day God
called forty-six graduates into the full-time public ministry. Some were called to serve in world mission
fields, others in high schools, some in well-established congregations, others in places where there was no congregation at
all. I have to admit that I had a few
goose bumps remembering when I was in that same position four years ago.
Did you ever wonder
how I got here? How did I become a
pastor? And what gives me the right to
be your pastor? Is it because I have a
degree in theology? Is it because I
passed all the required courses? Is it
because someone thought I would be a good fit with this congregation?
All of these things
are good and useful and will hopefully help me carry out my work here, but I stand in this pulpit today for one reason. God has called me to serve here. God has called me to serve you. God works through his church and with his
church to call workers into his harvest field.
But it would be
foolish for me to think that I can do everything by myself. And God doesn’t want me to do everything by
myself. When Jesus told his disciples: “Go and make disciples of all nations,” those
words weren’t directed at pastors, or pastors and teachers, or pastors and
teachers and staff ministers.
The Holy Spirit has
called every one of us to faith, and he calls every one of us serve. What an awesome privilege! What an awesome responsibility! Does the weight of that responsibility make
you want to get down on the ground with Ezekiel? Do you feel unprepared, unqualified, maybe
even unworthy to do the Lord’s work?
God doesn’t need
us. He’s God. He is in control. His will is always done, with or without our
help. God doesn’t need us, but he wants
to use us. He makes that clear to us in
his Word. The Lord has called us to
serve him, but he doesn’t stop there. He
also shows us how to serve.
God told Ezekiel
exactly what he wanted him to do: “I am
sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation
that has rebelled against me” (3). God
didn’t exactly allow Ezekiel to ease into his work. His first job was to tell his own people, his
friends and relatives and neighbors, that their homeland was about to be
destroyed, and then he had to tell them that it was all their
fault.
Let’s pause here for
a brief Bible history lesson. About a
thousand years before Ezekiel appeared on the scene, God made a covenant with
Moses and the Israelites at
How long did it take
before the people broke their promise?
Even before they got their hands on the law, while Moses was still
getting it from God on
Unfortunately, this
was not a one-time incident. In the
generations that followed, a pattern developed.
And so God called
Ezekiel to preach the Law. If you think
that’s an easy thing to do, try it. Try
to tell someone that they are wrong. Try
to tell someone that they are in grave spiritual danger. Try to tell someone that unless something
changes in their lives they are on the fast and easy road to hell.
God sent Ezekiel to
do a very difficult job, but he also gave him everything he needed to carry out
his ministry. When Ezekiel preached, God
told him to say, “This is what the Lord
says.” Ezekiel’s message was not
about his own thoughts or opinions or ideas.
It was God’s Word. And
ultimately, it was God’s judgment.
Even though it’s
hard to find any hope in a text like this, even though a person might read
these words and come away with the idea that God is
nothing more than a cold and cruel taskmaster, God was motivated by love. God sent Ezekiel to warn his people because
he loved them, even in exile, even after a thousand years of rebellion and rejection,
and he wanted to spare them from his wrath.
The same love
motivated God to send his only Son to be our substitute. The same love motivated God to redirect his
wrath from our sins to Jesus’ cross. The
same love motivated Jesus to sacrifice his life for the sins of the world. The same love motivates us to serve Him.
So when Ezekiel hit
the road, empowered by God’s call and equipped with God’s message, do you think
he was a little scared? Only if he was human.
Do you think that Ezekiel wondered if his preaching would really do any
good? Maybe. God even forewarned him: “And
if they listen or fail to listen -- for they are a rebellious house” (5).
There are times when
it looks like God’s Word has no effect at all, like you might get better results talking to a brick wall. Jesus knew about that. After three years of preaching and teaching
and miracles, he had gathered a group of about 120 people. In the gospel lesson for today, Jesus was
rejected, not by the ungodly Romans, not by the hard-hearted Pharisees, but by
the people from his hometown.
The lesson for God’s
servants is this: If you expect
immediate results, you might be in for a surprise. If you are looking for visible success, you
might be disappointed. That isn’t the
way God works. God told Ezekiel what to
say, and he told Ezekiel what to expect: “Even if no one repents, at least they
will know that a prophet of God was among them.”
At the same time,
God doesn’t want to give the impression that his Word is ineffective. The Word works. It is the power of God for the salvation of
everyone who believes. It’s like a
double-edged sword, exposing sin and offering forgiveness. It’s like the rain that comes down from
heaven, causing faith to bud and flourish and grow. It’s like the seed that is sown on good soil
and produces thirty, sixty, even one hundred times what was sown.
When you think about
it, there isn’t a job in the world quite like working in God’s harvest
field. When God’s workers go out, God
himself goes with them. When God’s
workers go out, they are equipped with the very words of God. When God’s workers go out, they have God’s
promise that he will take care of the results.
Talk about a dream job, but it’s not a dream job. It’s our job.
Even though we are
sinful, even though God could come up with a thousand reasons why he shouldn’t entrust such important things to such sinful people,
he still does. The call of the Lord is
clear. He calls us to serve, and he
shows us how to serve.
So when you sing the
next hymn, when you hear the Master’s voice calling out to you, don’t be afraid. Don’t be
afraid to answer the call. Don’t be
afraid to say: “Here am I. Send
me.” Amen.