I, MYSELF, WILL!
Ezekiel 34:11-16. 20-24

†  I.H.S.  †

May the grace and mercy of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ convince you that God is always concerned about you, tending to your needs!

Intro: Listen to the Crowned one…

The picture of the coronation of Jesus is mind-blowing, as it is pieced together from Isaiah, Jeremiah, Philippians 2, and the Book of the Revelation of Jesus, among others! It is something to look forward to, even though the greatest imagination of the greatest song and hymn writers cannot describe the scene, nor can the greatest artists capture all its glory.

Yet it is His voice we hear recorded by the prophet Ezekiel. He is the Sovereign Lord, or the LORD I AM… the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Alpha and Omega, the Author and Perfector of our Faith, our Master, our Savior, and so much more….

He is the one who commits Himself to those who have truly messed up their lives!

Thirteen times in this passage He promise that care, stating, “I myself will,””I will,” or “I, the the LORD (YHWH), will”

It will be beneficial for you to keep this bulletin – and look at the promises on a regular basis! That way you will know what God promises to those you care about who… well, have messed up their lives.

1. A Flock in Trouble

How Do I know that there are people that have messed up their lives?

Look at how these sheep are described:

• They’re lost – and need to have someone search to find them! The word for find includes the idea of discerning how healthy they are, and what needs to be done to bring them to full health
• They are scattered – all the relationships they have, have been damaged – so much so they are alone…
• They are hungry – both physically and spiritually. They need peace and rest.
• They need care, they need someone to tend to their needs
• They need to come home. They need to know they will be welcome at home.

Sounds pretty broken to me!

These are the kind of people that Jesus based the story of the prodigal son on. While we know he’s talking about all of Israel, back in the days where they were taken captive and dragged away from their homes. It wasn’t just an individual – it was all of them – all dispersed—all over the world.

This happened because they sinned, and they loved their sin. Everything you can imagine- worshipping gods they sacrificed their children to, shattering every other commandment from murder to coveting and scheming to try and take other people’s stuff. The sins were horrid and disgusting—much like today.

2. But HE came!

Remember the promise God made to them.

¹¹ “For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search and find my sheep. ¹² I will be like a shepherd looking for his scattered flock. I will find my sheep and rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on that dark and cloudy day. ¹³ I will bring them back home!

God’s going after them – this is the entire reason Jesus came – to use His words – to seek and save the lost. To come for those who needed spiritual care and healing. For healthy people don’t need a doctor—the sick do.

HE came to find and restore broken, battered, lost sinner.

All of the old Israel that so broken by sin, they would purse the brokenness far from home. All those who dwelled in the place God had given them, and turned their back on it, for stuff they chased they thought would give them riches, or fame, or simply more pleasure.

Or those today that are so lost in sin… so devastated by it – that they know despair, that they keep trying to find the next thing…

I love the way Luther wrote about this passage,

“As the prophet Ezekiel says in his thirty-fourth chapter (Ezek. 34:16), He seeks the lost, brings back the strayed, binds up the crippled, strengthens the sick. And the young lambs that have just been born, says Isaiah (40:11), He will gather in His arms and carry them so that they may not grow tired, and will gently lead those that are with young. All of this, Christ, our dear Shepherd, effects through the office of preaching and the holy Sacraments”^[1]

Kind of simple really – the same lost people are saved today as God searches them out – through us, shares His promises and then pours out grace through Baptism, through the forgiveness of sins.

3. The Promises weren’t just theirs

I would be in error, if I didn’t point out that you once needed Jesus. Not my idea, I am stealing it from the Apostle Paul,

³  Once we, too, were foolish and disobedient. We were misled and became slaves to many lusts and pleasures. Our lives were full of evil and envy, and we hated each other. ⁴  But—“When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, ⁵  he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit.  Titus 3:3-5 (NLT2)

You and I were the ones that to have God commit to save us, as Christ would come, and die to remove the stain of sin, to heal the brokenness. That is how we know that everyone, from every people group are who Christ is coming to seek, find, rescue and bring home.

For He does that for us, daily… and reminds weekly, as we come to the altar, and He welcomes to His feast… and cares and heals us here.

Where He promised, He just didn’t say “I will”… He ended it with, “I HAVE SPOKEN”, guaranteeing we can all know His love… all of us, even those who don,t, yet.

Amen!

^[1] Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Vol. 12: Selected Psalms I, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann, vol. 12 (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999), 155.