Beyond Rebuilding.

Following are comprehensive notes i had from the sermon i preached at Walnut Hill Community Church on 2/21/10. The Sermon title is: Beyond Rebuiulding. If it's not complete as far as sentence structure and thoguht process please forgive me, this is a copy and paste job.

The end of the Sermon live was structured differently than in my notes - you can call this the prompting of the Holy Spirit, a change of heart, putting aside my human arrogance...whatever it is you can find the live sermon at http://walnuthillcc.org/index.php?id=85&f=f001. Just look for my name.

The reason i am posting this is not to prove i can preach, or to take any attention from the Lord and put it on myself. I think there is a nugget of truth for all of us in the words of Ezekiel, also i hope this will prompt my desire to start blogging again.

Pray before you read and enjoy.


A couple comments about Prophets
1. Prophets speak on behalf of God
God raised them up from among the people so God could deliver his word to them.
2. What the prophets speak is unoriginal
By this I mean the prophets are, as one scholar calls them, Covenant Enforcement Mediators.
God’s law to Israel contained stipulations as well as sanctions – contractual agreements as well as conditions for punishment and reward.
Everything the prophets spoke to Israel was already said by God in the covenant He made with Israel at Sinai. The prophets may use different wording and vocabulary when addressing these issues, but the message has already been spoken by God in the Covenant at Sinai.

That being said, sometimes the prophets went to great lengths to get their message across. In fact, some of them were fairly strange.

-Hosea married a prostitute and named his kids “Not pitied” and “not my people” as a warning that Israel must repent from their idolatrous ways or God would continue to have no pity on them and cut them off.

-Isaiah walked naked and barefoot for 3 years around Jerusalem – if I did that people would run away…I’d probably get beat-up a lot. Isaiah did this to show that if Israel allied itself with Ethiopia and Egypt they would end up naked and in slavery.

-Jeremiah walked around with clothes on, but with a wooden yoke around his neck to symbolize the yoke of Babylonian rule.

-And then our friend Ezekiel. One time he ate a scroll to symbolize the appropriation of his message. Scrolls were pretty big…and either made of papyrus or goat skin. Another time Ezekiel carved a model of Jerusalem out of a brick and lied down next to it on his left side for 390 days…then he switched sides and lied down for 40 days on his right. So, for 430 days he laid next to a brick…all the while eating nasty bread cooked over cow dung. Originally it was supposed to be human dung, but even God agreed that was a little extreme.

The prophets were brilliant communicators. They turned their lives into protest pieces and proved that to communicate truth sometimes you cannot be afraid to take a turn from polite society and be a little absurd.

So, the section of scripture we just read comes from Ezekiel 47. Let me quickly give some of the context of Ezekiel for us.
In 586 BC the Babylonian’s leveled all of Jerusalem, including the temple which was the center of their whole religion, worldview, and identity as a people. God lived in this temple. 11 years prior to Jerusalem’s destruction, Ezekiel, along with other important figures in Judah, were taken to Babylon as captives in Exile. Ezekiel writes his prophecy during his time in exile.

Chapters 1-24 are set before the fall of Jerusalem and are mostly prophecies of doom against Jerusalem and all of Judah.
Chapters 25-32 are prophecies of doom against foreign nations, which form a bridge to Ezekiel’s ultimate message contained in
Chapters 33-48 which speak of a rebuilt city, a rebuilt temple, and the presence of God returning to his people and bringing life and hope back to the Israelites.

Chapter 47 is a beautiful picture of what the results of a rebuilt Jerusalem and a rebuilt temple will look like. It reads like this: Read Ezekiel 47:1-12

So Ezekiel is brought to the entrance of the temple by his guide and he sees a strange thing…there is water flowing out from the temple. A couple things need to be noted about this water. Where it came from, where it was going, and what it did along the way.

So, where is it coming from? (Click)

V. 1 – The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar.

The river flows from the southside of the temple, which probably is not significant unless you know about the temples architecture and orientation. What is important to note is that the river is flowing from the presence of God.

Now we have to ask, where is the river going?
The river is heading east out of the temple and out of Jerusalem.

If you were to head east out of Jerusalem you would walk through the wilderness of Judah toward the Dead Sea. The wilderness of Judah looks vaguely like this.

The Judean wilderness has largely been uninhabitable throughout all of history because of its lack of water. It is a dry, barren, unforgiving landscape full of hills and rocks and not much else.

The Wilderness backs up to the Dead Sea, which looks vaguely like this…
Those white lumps, they aren’t ice and they aren’t foam. They are salt deposits. The Dead Sea is one of the saltiest bodies of water on the planet with 33.7% salinity. It is also the lowest point on the planet NOT underwater at 1,385 feet below sea level. All this is to say that nothing lives there. No plant life grows, no fishes swim. Craig one time told me that he dove in to the Dead Sea with his eyes open…and regretted it thoroughly.

That is where this river is headed, a dead, barren wasteland…hmm…interesting.

The last question I have is, “what is the river doing?”

The river flows from the temple, through a dry, barren land and produces abundant life – trees, animals, fish, fruit-bearing plants. The Dead Sea becomes the sea of life. Fish fill the water and Fisherman will stand on the shore and fill their nets. This is a place of beauty, life, and abundance where formerly there wasn’t much going on.

The river is bringing life where there is nothing. Ezekiel begins to speak of the rebuilding of the temple in chapter 40. Chapter 43 speaks of God’s presence returning to the temple. Chapter 47 speaks of the results of this process. Jerusalem is rebuilt, God has returned, and as a result, life will come back to a land that has been annihilated by Babylon.

There is a classic metaphor for the temple and the river which flows from it...made by who else? JESUS! John 7:38-39a

The Spirit of God dwells in the heart of every believer as God’s spirit dwelt in temple. We, in essence, become mini-temples…not separate and silent, apart from the world, but temples through which a life-giving river flows out from and brings life to the world around us.

Keep this in mind, but I think there are more implications to what Ezekiel is communicating.

First I think Ezekiel is saying that Jerusalem had to be destroyed.

In his retirement, Thomas Jefferson founded the University of Virginia. Because Jefferson trusted that students would take their studies seriously, the code of discipline was lax. Unfortunately, his trust proved misplaced when the misbehavior of students led to a riot in which professors who tried to restore order were attacked. The following day a meeting was held between the university's board, of which Jefferson was a member, and defiant students. Jefferson began by saying, "This is one of the most painful events of my life," was overcome by emotion, and burst into tears. Another board member asked the rioters to come forward and give their names. Nearly every one did. Later, one of them said, "It was not Mr. Jefferson's words, but his tears."

Remember, Ezekiel is writing while Jerusalem and the temple are destroyed and the people of Judah are in exile in Babylon. Why are they in exile? Why was the temple destroyed? Why would God allow this bad stuff to happen? Because the people of Israel and of Judah broke the covenant they made with God. They lost their love of God and their love of Torah. They worshipped idols and their ways became evil and wicked, as Ezekiel says in chapter three. You could say they rioted against God.

The purpose of the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile was to serve as a wake-up call to the people of Judah. I don’t think it was so much God’s wrath and anger against them. God loved Israel, he chose them for a reason, and we know that he planned to return and send his Messiah through that nation. The destruction of Jerusalem and the temple was not God’s anger, but God’s tears. I am a firm believer that God suffers with those who suffer, and he would have been suffering then.
If God had not allowed the city to be destroyed then Israel would have gone on living the way they had. They would have continued in their wickedness, oblivious to the fact that they were causing God to suffer. Jerusalem had to be destroyed, as a wake up call, to the people God loved.

How are we, as individuals, causing God to suffer? I feel like I wake up every day making promises to God…things like today I won’t be cynical and tear anyone down. It rarely works. Today I am going to spend 20 minutes in prayer. Today I am going to tell my alcoholic friend that enough is enough. Whatever your struggles are, and I don’t mean to be too forward, if you love God he is going to expose them and issue a wake-up call because if he doesn’t, just like Israel was, you will probably go on without ever knowing how much God is suffering.

My second point is that Jerusalem was rebuilt.

God wasn’t going to abandon his people. Jerusalem was destroyed in 586 BC and by 538 BC, less than 50 years later, the Israelites returned to their homes, or what was left of their homes.

The land of Israel was one of the most important things to the Israelites, and it is still true for the Jews today. The covenant they made with God, much of it was centered around the promised land. Returning to their land would have been a bitter-sweet occasion. Yes they were back where they belonged, but their homes and more importantly the temple were completely leveled.

Ezekiel’s vision is one of hope that would eventually come to fruition. He paints a picture of a rebuilt city and a rebuilt temple with the presence of God returning to his people and bringing more life than before.

If Thomas Jefferson had never shed his tears the students of the University of Virginia would have never come forward to take responsibility for their lack of discipline and for their rioting.

God had tried to warn his people countless times that they had to change. As I said earlier, the prophets were Covenant Enforcement Mediators. They reinforced the words God had already spoken through Moses at Mount Sinai. But they didn’t get it.

If Jerusalem would have never been destroyed then it could never have been rebuilt in the hope that Ezekiel gives in chapter 47.
I have a lot of friends who have suffered broken bones from snowboarding, skateboarding, or running in to doors. A lot of times, for some reason, when a bone breaks it will heal incorrectly so you’ll have to go back in so the doctor can re-break the bone so it will heal correctly.

Are you tracking with me? A few years ago I think I broke my left ring finger playing a game of football, but I never went to have it examined or fixed because I was lazy and figured I can live with it. Well know there’s a permanent bump on my top knuckle because I don’t see the need to have it fixed.

I hope that’s not my attitude with my relationship with God. So often I have to try to make sure it isn’t. But the fact is some things need to be broken completely before they can be fixed.

My final point is that we have got to let go of our expectations.

The people could not have returned from exile, rebuilt their city, rebuilt the temple, and said, OK God, we’re ready for you now. Just because they built a structure doesn’t mean that God is there. Listen to what God says regarding his return to the temple in Ezekiel 43:9

Just because you build something, just because you expect God to fit in to the walls you’ve put up doesn’t mean he is going to.

God is saying to Ezekiel that the people had to change in order for him to live among them. They couldn’t just build the temple and expect God to be there. The life-giving river Ezekiel writes about is only going to come as a result of God’s presence being at the center of the community, not from any structure being built.

Our structures, our expectations cannot define how and when we experience God. Let me say that again…our expectations cannot define how and when we experience God.

What expectations do you have of God?


When I was in high school I was sure I was going to be a musician. I play guitar and bass and have been in several bands and I was gung-ho about playing music forever. That didn’t last. My first couple years of college I was sure I was going to be in the movie industry. I thought I would move to LA and work for a major studio doing cinematography. Again, this plan was not meant to be.

I expected that if I did these things I could make a living and in some way honor God. Of course I was totally wrong. My expectations meant nothing and here I am having finished college with a degree in Biblical studies pursuing a calling to work in full-time ministry. I expected God to work within my ideas for my life.

My expectations meant nothing because God is not going to be confined to the idea’s I have about how I live or how I experience him.

What expectations do we have of God? Coming from an academic community I expect God to be able to fit in to different systems of theology and to be able to interpret the Bible through methods such as historical and literary criticism. And sure I can experience and discover pieces of God through that, but there is also a life through which I can experience God day to day.

Are you like me, or are you the opposite of me? Do you come to church expecting God to hit you with a wave of emotion every time you hear the words to that new Chris Tomlin song? Do you set up parameters that say God is an experiential God and I don’t expect to encounter him while reading about systematic theology or about great thinkers such as Karl Barth?
Or are we getting too wrapped up in expecting God to be the ultimate buddy. Do we expect God to only be intimate and personal? Too often I hear phrases like, “My God is loving”, “My Jesus is powerful”, or my personal favorite, “that song just isn’t my worship style”. Yes my friends, we have made God subjective to our individual experiences.

The picture Ezekiel paints for us is not one of an empty city waiting to be filled. It is a picture of a city rebuilt and renewed in the love of God and it is only then that God promises to dwell with them.

Our expectations cannot define how and when we meet with God.

Jesus said whoever believes in him will have streams of living water flow from within.

The will of Jesus is not to be subjected to our own personal expectations.

The Character of Jesus is not for us to believe in him so we can be silent, separate, holy beings who sit within the walls of the church feeling something we didn’t feel before we walked in.

The will of Jesus is to change the world. It is for him to be the center of our lives as God was the center of the temple, so that without expectation, streams of life-giving water will flow from within us and bring life to a barren, desert land.

Jerusalem had to be destroyed before it could be rebuilt. God could not work with the structures and expectations the people of Israel had at the time. He had to strip them of their expectations and set new expectations in their hearts.

Make Jesus the center. Tear down the things that make God suffer so he can rebuild you, without expectations, without parameters or walls, to do his work and to share his love in this world.