Pastor Ralph Douglas West - The River of Life | Ezekiel 47:1-9

0:00 This is the day the Lord has made. We rejoice and we are glad in it. While you're standing, take God's word this morning and open it to Ezekiel chapter 47. and Jewel has already read the context. Allow me to read one line this morning as we focus on the river of life.

0:29 Something happens when the river flows. In verse 9 of Ezekiel chapter 47, it's the last line of verse 9. So where the river flows, everything will live. This is the word of God.

0:59 You may be seated. Capitals are built on rivers. You remember that from your geography classes when the teachers were saying, well one of the ways that you remember where the state capitals are is trace the river. Where the river flows, typically that's where you can locate the capital.

1:36 Washington on the Potomac, or Egypt on Cairo, London on the Thames, or Paris on the Seine, or Texas on the Colorado. But this is about a river, but it's not about a capital. The temple is located on this particular river.

2:01 Ezekiel, the priest turned prophet, has had multiple visions about God since he's been carried away into exile. 25 years have passed now that Ezekiel has been in Babylon. And on this particular day, he has fresh memories of where he had been taken from. he could remember so freshly that day the flames burning in his heart passionately reminding him of the day when Nebuchadnezzar's army had come in and had devastated the city and had selected and carted off the choices Hebrews and he was one of them and he remembered looking over his shoulder the last image of seeing the temple as he round the bend before he was carried across the desert over to Babylon. Those flames of homeland was burning bright in his mind and his thinking and his heart of how things used to be back home. How he longed for home.

3:23 and now 25 years have passed and he's been in Babylon and he is looking now across the desert and something happens as you read a series of visions that Ezekiel is about to have beginning in chapter 40 to the end of the chapter of the book of Ezekiel and that is he's caught up in a vision. This vision that he's caught up in is a vision of the temple and this brings delight to him because Ezekiel started his ministry as a priest and he remembered working at the altar in the temple. But he also remembered the ruins now of the temple, the devastations of the temple, how the temple life had been scattered and displaced and there was no life there. But now in this vision, he sees something. It's clearer than the day that he remembered Jerusalem and Judah before he was taken away. The desert is no longer dry, it has come alive.

4:37 the plant life that has been scorched by the earth is now blossoming the vegetation is alive the veneric colors are bursting bright before him life is the word that stands before him and he is coming alive and more than that he sees that the fish are living and out of that he sees a river and he notices that wherever the river flows there is life you read these first verses of this dream and vision that he can have and there's a line that slips in in verse 10 if you're not careful you'll read it so fast and pay no attention to it it defines what the river does in the very next line it speaks of wherever the river flows there's life and then it points out one or two areas where the river does not flow and there is no life and that could be the whole message this morning that God gives to us that if the river is not flowing over your life there is no life that could be the whole message this morning what does Ezekiel teach us this morning as we look at life in the spirit and you notice that nowhere does he mention holy spirit on this Pentecost day 50 days after the resurrection of the Lord, which by the way should be more exciting than even resurrection morning.

6:37 As God in Jesus Christ comes to us anew and bring us new life. He doesn't mention the Holy Spirit, but it is very clear that he's speaking of the dynamic life of God that has been given to us in Jesus Christ and only he can empower us in ways that we can accomplish things that we could never do in and of ourselves. Preach Pastor West. What are the truths that we can take away from Ezekiel 47?

7:11 Just one or two salient points that I want to point to, and I'll be through, and that is the river flows. But notice the origin of the river. It flows strangely from above. in the rugged heights of Zion is the origin of the river. And those of you that know anything about physiogeography, you already says this makes no sense. And that's exactly what the reverend commentators would point to and say, this is fantasy. There is no way that this could be. And while they're debating it, Ezekiel is living it. he's not interested about geography here he's just pointing to the origin of the vision and it comes from above to remind us that if this world is to experience any new beginnings a remaking a makeover it all will begin from above that God will be the one that brings new life into our desert wilderness world.

8:20 I'm one who, like you, lives at the intersection of life and appreciate all of the contributions that people make to help us improve the world. I think in many ways we don't need less of, we need more of. We need more education, right kind of education, and the right kind of knowledge. We need more social improvements and better housing and living conditions. And certainly today we could say, and don't forget on the top of the list, we need safety and security and protection. We need that. but if you're not careful you'll fall into the trap of the human ideals and that is to believe that life is lived on a flat line that we stand in the middle and we look behind us and we say that is my past and then before us we see an ever-flowing future until it reaches its human utopia.

9:30 That is the way we've been taught to think linearly, to think on a flat line, that I stand here, behind me is my past, in front of me is my future. But if that's all life is made up of is one dimension living, life gets, as the Bible continually reminds us, it always reminds us that life is more than a flat line, more than one dimensional.

10:01 Maybe this morning on this Pentecost day one of the things that we could ask God for is Lord change my vision away from being one dimensional. Give me the height of life and the width of life and the depth of life. It seems to me by your response that you've been living on one dimension.

10:34 If you have, this is why the Bible calls you blind. There's nothing in scripture if you've been reading any of it all your life if you've been holding this book and reading it there's nothing in it that says to you that your life is one-dimensional life is more than what you eat and drink and more than what you wear there is another dimension to life and if you don't have that dimension life is empty and banal and weak and lost and dark and incomplete the river didn't flow from the side its origin came from above and that aboveness reminds us that if the world is to be made a better place the world you me then we better have a new vision of life that's more than one-dimensional I'm always interested to hear how people handle crisis And I will move on beyond this Something about how people handle crisis How they emerge from it That says something about what dimension they live in Just like in the killings in Sandy Hook, the killings at Mother Emanuel Church, I heard the same speech in Uvalde.

12:14 These people continue to embarrass me. Embarrass my faith, my belief. When I heard a mother and a father barely being able to speak use this word I forgive that that made me so angry I wanted to say don't forgive get back and she and that parent kept on talking embarrassing my faith and you judge me but some of you are just like me you would find it hard to forgive too. And then they said, I have to forgive. Because God has, I couldn't believe this, forgiven me?

13:09 I said, but you have not taken up an assault weapon and gone into an elementary school and you have not gunned down children. And these people continued to embarrass my belief. I'm a preacher. I'm the resident theologian. I suppose to know better. But they reminded me that if you live in another dimension where God is above, God can give you the power to make a difference, to make life brand new. I don't blame you. I wouldn't clap either because you don't believe it. And yet I really believe that the power from God above is the power that can make the world brand new. I'm looking at young people looking at me in disbelief this morning and I know what you're saying.

14:03 I said the same thing. But it's only when the river flows and God can lift you out of a one-dimensional way of living. You see, one dimension says payback, revenge. another dimension says that God is able to make ugly things in life beautiful in his own time I don't know how and don't ask me and it's not fantasy to us this is not fantasy and let me say something else this is not Pollyanna optimism either and let me say something else this is not intellectual weakness This is giving my heart and my mind And my soul and my life To a dimension that is greater than myself Only then can the river flow And it's when that river flows That I see where life can be made new But that's not all Ezekiel said about the river and its origin he spoke of the source of the river that it flowed from the altar.

15:17 And I see you, that's why I like preaching to you. Don't judge me this morning. I sit in your seat. It doesn't make sense. If you just look at the geography and the physiogography of the river, you're right. Rivers ain't supposed to flow from the altar. But it's Ezekiel's vision and he says, stop trying to tamper with my vision. This is what God gave me. And in it he says Its origin is from above Its source is from below Beneath the altar And that is where God would do his work in the world Through the church It is on the plane of which God will do his work It doesn't look like it anymore, does it?

16:14 Come on Don't do me like that Stop acting like you don't think you're not scoring any points with me or God this morning acting like this doesn't cross your mind because the way it looks the church is lost the church on Pentecost day her birthday a day where the church should be vibrant and alive has succumbed to the pressure of the culture People pass by the church today and they laugh. They said, these are the people when everything was right and the sun was shining. They had a great praise and celebration. And they talked about what God could and could not do.

17:09 And as soon as their faith was on trial, look at them. They made the decision that they're going to take the sentence that the world has given to it. And yet God says the river flows from the altar and the symbol is that from the church I will still do my work in the world. Let me tell you something. God is still at work even if you don't believe that he is. God is at work. And he will not lose. God will win. Oh, I said that right. God has already won. We just have to catch up with what God has done. Since the Bible don't work, maybe Batman will. Let's see.

18:12 You ever seen Batman have to fight Bane? Bane is the one, one adversary he has that can put him in his place. And in one scene where Bane and Batman are in a contest to the end, Bane tells Batman, victory has defeated you. You ask me, where do I still get up with the same passion and joy when everything has been turned upside down? Don't you know by now that victory has defeated the very enemy that comes up against us?

19:10 I'm not fighting for the cross. I'm fighting from the cross. Don't you want to be around while the river flows from beneath the altar when everybody gives up on God and the Lord begins to touch areas in the world where you say, I sure am glad the Lord let me hang around long enough to see how he will bring life back into dead places. One more thing. Did you notice something else that happened at the river Not just from beneath the altar But did you notice that The river got deeper The further it grows Did you read it? Look at it quick while you're witnessing So you don't think I'm making it up The river got deeper And it was a reminder For us in that symbol that a faith that does not grow is not a faith at all.

20:21 A faith that does not get deeper than when you first got started is not very much of a faith. Some of us have been in the river. As Ezekiel saw, he said, I saw a man with a measuring rod. And he measured out one third of a mile and the river was ankle deep. and then he walked a third of a mile and now it measured knee deep and he turned and measured a third of a mile and it was waist deep and then he turned and measured a third of a mile but this time it was so deep until he couldn't walk in it any longer he had to swim in it and it was a symbol to remind us that we ought to, the further we go the deeper it ought to grow.

21:19 That there ought to be more of God as we move toward him in the future. Some of us are still at ankle deep faith in God. Listen, I'm not in any ways trying to demean you, but it's just the truth. That there are some of you, and not even to mention the people that are looking and listening, that your faith, you thought you were so, you pointed your finger and you talked about people that didn't have your kind of faith. You actually maligned people and pointed your finger and demeaned them and look at them, they don't do this, A, B, C, and D. And you found out that your faith wasn't but ankle deep also because in everybody's life, you'll be tested to know what depth your relationship with God is.