Of Watchmen, Shepherds and Sheep

Series: Ezekiel #8 Texts: Ezek. 33:1-7; 34:1-6, 17-24 Valley Community Baptist Church May 29, 30; 2010 Avon, CT Pastor Jay Abramson Of Watchmen, Shepherds and Sheep For the past eleven years an anti-lawsuit group in Michigan has held the Wacky Warning Label Contest to show the effects of lawsuits on warning labels. In 2007 the third place prize went to a label on a baby stroller that featured a small storage pouch with the warning, Do not put child in bag. The second place prize went to an iron-on T- shirt transfer with the label, Do not iron while wearing shirt. And the first place prize went to a small tractor that carried what we might call the Ultimate warning Label, Danger: avoid death. 1 In Ezekiel 33 and 34 we find three groups of people being addressed by God. First is Ezekiel, the watchman, who was responsible to warn the people of danger. Next were the shepherds who were responsible to lead and care for the people through thick and thin. And finally, were the people themselves who were responsible to heed the warnings of the watchmen, follow the leading of the shepherds, treat one another with compassion and be content. Now, let s unpack each of these teachings. First I. The Watchman s Role was to Warn. In Ezekiel s day, and for the next 2,000 years, the only really safe place to live was inside a walled city. Any other situation meant you were vulnerable, especially at night, to being robbed, beaten or worse. So, people built walls around their cities and at night posted watchmen on top of the walls. The watchmen stayed at their post for one watch of about four hours. The watchmen s job was to blow the trumpet if they saw anything suspicious, like another army sneaking up on their city. It wasn t their responsibility to go check it out, to ask for ID or to try to stop the threat. Their job was to sound the alarm. If they didn t do their job, they were tried for treason. God told Ezekiel back in chapter 3 that he was a spiritual watchman. He repeats it again here in chapter 33. He makes it very clear that it is NOT his responsibility to save the people. It is simply his responsibility to warn them, to tell them the truth concerning the future as God has revealed it to him. He s not to add to what God revealed and he s not to subtract from it. He s simply to give the people God s truth. God s specific words to Ezekiel were: Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel When I say to the wicked, O wicked man, you will surely die, and you do not speak out to dissuade him from his ways, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. But if you do warn the wicked man to turn from his ways and he does not do so, he will die for his sin, but you will have saved yourself. (Ezekiel 33: 7-9) Jesus spent more than half His teaching time issuing warnings. We like to focus on His positive teachings but let s face it, Jesus spent a lot of His time warning us. The Sermon on the Mount starts out with the very positive Beatitudes but the majority of it is warnings: You have heard that it was said Do not murder But I tell you that anyone who is angry (Matt. 5:21, 22) 1

That s a warning! He goes on in that sermon to say: when you pray, do NOT be like the hypocrites When you fast, do NOT look somber as the hypocrites do Do NOT store up for yourselves treasures on earth do NOT worry about your life, what you will eat or drink Do NOT judge watch out for false prophets Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven Jesus spent a lot of His time on earth warning us. First of all, if you re a follower of Jesus Christ, you are also a watchman. Have you taken this responsibility seriously? Have you shared Jesus warnings with people you know or have you only told them about Jesus nicer teachings? Jesus said, Teach them to obey ALL that I have commanded you. We are the watchmen in our generation. But secondly, have you paid attention to His warnings? Jesus made a lot of positive statements about how much God loves us but He also gave some stern warnings. Like when He said: But unless you repent, you too will all perish. (Luke 13:3) The first word of Jesus first sermon was the word repent. From then on, it is the heart of every one of His teachings. In all situations, to all kinds of people- the rich, the poor, the men, the women, the healthy, the sick - no matter what their circumstances in life, Jesus tells them that the secret of abundant life is to repent. Do you understand what it means to repent? It s not like a game show, Say the magic word, win a hundred dollars. Repenting isn t about saying the right prayer. The Greek word is metanoia. It means to change your mind. It means to have true remorse. It means that you admit to your errors. It literally means to turn away from your past life. This isn t having an attitude that says, My life has been okay but I just feel like I need something more, so I m going to add Jesus to my already pretty good life. No, no, that s not repenting! Repentance is seeing the truth about ourselves. The truth is that we ve offended God (every one of us!) by ignoring Him, by disrespecting Him, by openly disobeying Him. The Bible calls this sin. But friends, that fact that our problem is sin isn t bad news. No, no, it s good news, because with sin there s a way out! If my problem was confusion or poor judgment or psychological flaws inflicted by my parents hey, I m stuck with all that. But you can repent of sin! You can tell God that you were responsible for all that disrespect and disobedience and you can ask Him to forgive you. And if you will do it right now, God says He will forgive you right now. And this doesn t just make you a better person; it makes you a new person. Without His forgiveness, our problem isn t that we re bad people. No, our problem is that we are dead people, spiritually dead people. Eph. 2: 1, 3: As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature But when we repent of those sins and confess them to God, He raised us from spiritual death to spiritual life: because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions it is by grace you 2

have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:4-6) Are you alive today spiritually? Your heart is screaming the answer to that question right now. Listen to your heart. Would you like to be alive? Jesus will perform the greatest miracle you will ever want to see, right now if you will listen to His warning, accept His invitation and right where you are sitting, just repent. Do it, and come alive right now! If you ve done it right now, you need to tell somebody. Why not tell me? Take a connect card, write your name and phone number and check the box that says, Today, I decided to become a Christ-Follower. There s nothing that could happen today more important than this. Today you listened and responded to God s Watchman. But there s another lesson in our text today. Secondarily it teaches that II. The Shepherds Role is to Lead and Care. In chapter 34, God calls out the spiritual Shepherds of Israel. This wasn t just the prophets and priests but also the political leaders. God makes a strong charge against them: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd (Ezek. 34: 2, 4, 5) For anyone who is a leader in the church or in the public service sector, this is a powerful message, isn t it? God goes on to say that because the human shepherds were not doing their job, He would shepherd the people Himself. Here s what He says He will do: I will tend them in a good pasture I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice. (Ezek. 34: 14, 15, 16) Do you know what the word pastor means? It means, shepherd. This is a job description, at least partially, for a pastor. Now, are paid clergy the only ones who qualify as pastors? Not at all! Twice in the New Testament, elders are called shepherds of God s flock. There are analogies to children as being the flock of parents so parents are shepherds. Almost any spiritual leader can be considered a shepherd. So, what s the positive instruction here for spiritual shepherds? I see a five-part job description: 1. Feed 2. Protect 3. Rescue 4. Heal 5. Discipline Let s briefly discuss this from the perspective of a family. Feeding is speaking of the green pastures of God s Word. Mom and Dad, the church can help with this but it s primarily YOUR responsibility to feed your kids God s Word. Second is protection. This isn t just physical safety, but spiritual safety. Are you checking out the websites your kids are visiting and the music they re listening to? According to God, children living in your 3

house have no privacy rights. You have a responsibility to keep them spiritually safe. Third is rescue. Whose job is it to know where your teenager is 24/7? It s your responsibility. This includes knowing where they are spiritually. You can t always keep them from wandering, but once they do wander, God expects you to go after them. Fourth is healing. Technically, God says that the good shepherd will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak. Good-shepherd parents need to be talking with other goodshepherd parents to know what treatment works best for each injury. And fifth is discipline. Obviously, we could do a whole sermon on this topic alone, but isn t it interesting the harsh language that God uses to describe His own disciplining protocol: the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice. (Ezek. 34: 16) God expects His shepherds to keep an orderly house! The inmates are not to be running the asylum! Verse 10: This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. (Ezek. 34:10) Spiritual shepherds are given responsibility and the authority to feed, protect, rescue, heal and discipline His sheep. The shepherds are not to misuse that authority but they are not to ignore their responsibility either. Most of us in this room are the spiritual shepherd of someone. Have you heard this instruction? Lastly, God teaches that III. The Sheep s Role is to be Content. God never views us as victims. Even if the spiritual watchmen fail to warn us, even if our spiritual shepherds were selfish and abusive, God still says each individual is responsible for their own behavior. Listen: As for you, my flock, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will judge between one sheep and another, and between rams and goats. Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of your pasture with your feet? Is it not enough for you to drink clear water? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet? (Ezek. 34: 17, 18) Isn t that a remarkable word picture? The sheep in the pasture aren t satisfied to have lush, green grass. It s not enough until they have MORE grass than the other sheep. It s all about envy, isn t it? It s all about comparing what you have with what they have. Two cows are grazing in a pasture when a milk truck passes by. On the side of the truck were the words, Pasteurized, homogenized, standardized, vitamin A added. One cow turned to the other and said, Makes you feel sort of inadequate, doesn t it? 2 We all fight this battle, don t we? We see what other people have, what other people are and we want it. It isn t just materialism, we want a marriage like theirs, kids like theirs, looks like theirs, contentment like theirs! We actually can be envious of someone else s contentment!! Why is this? Joe Stowell, in his book Jesus Nation, calls it the Eve Factor. He writes: We were born with it, and it s deeply embedded in our spiritual DNA. Just one more proof of our sinfulness, in case we had forgotten. What was it that drew Eve s heart away from God in Genesis 3: What was it that seduced her into the material world, into Satan s clutches? She wanted more. What she had, although awesome and satisfying, wasn t enough. 4

In fact, for her, God wasn t enough. She was willing to do anything for more, even if it meant turning her back on God. At its core, greed is a lack of contentment with God and with what he has provided for us. 3 What has God provided for you and why is it not enough? We need to ask, Why am I not content with this house? Why am I not content with this marriage, with this body? Why am I not content with my future? What is it that I m grasping for that always seems to be just out of my reach? Jesus had a goal. What was it? His goal was to do the will of His Father in heaven. How did that work out for Him? Well, quite frankly, some people would say, Not too well. After all, He was never married, never had kids, never owned a home. He had a lousy reputation with the political and religious elites of his day and He died at an early age. He couldn t possibly have had a contented life. Well, what did HE say? With regard to His goal, a week before He died He said to His Father: (John 17: 4) I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. Will you be able to say that the day you see God? But how did He feel about it? He said: I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. (John 15:11) Jesus was the happiest, most contented man who ever lived. And you can be just as contented. Jesus said in that same last week before He died: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. (John 14:27) Jesus was days away from experiencing the most painful death known to man and He said, my peace I give you. How could He have peace at a time like that? In verse one of this same chapter in John, He tells us: (John 14:1) Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. This is how you can find contentment in your troubled marriage, your battle with disease, your struggle with your kids, your difficult life. Trust God! Talk to Jesus about your troubles but be sure you tell Him that you are trusting Him to see you through, that you trust Him to shepherd you. Which is the fulfillment of what Ezekiel said would happen, 2,500 years ago: I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, (This means Jesus, the Son of David ) and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them. I the LORD have spoken. (Ezek. 34:22-24) If you put your trust in Jesus and be married the way He says you should be married, and parent the way He says you should parent and live your life the way He says you should, He will lead you to contentment. He will. I guarantee it. Are you a watchmen? Stay on the wall! Any shepherds here? Shepherd like God. And for all of us sheep; let s be content by daily putting our trust in God. Let s pray 1 Avoid Death is wacky warning winner, USA Today (12-13-07) 2 John Maxwell, The Winning Attitude (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, Publisher, 1993) 3 Joe Stowell, Jesus Nation (Wheaton: Tyndale, 2009), p. 131-132 5